Willow
New Grand Festival Hall, Near Unterdachsberg (Austria), Earth
The sound was deafening. The heat sweltering. The excitement exultant. Her focus - complete. This is what she lived for. Not the cheering crowd, the commentators yelling words in a language she vaguely understood snippets of, or even the sheer energy and rush of joy flooding her. What Willow lived for was the moment of focus, of perfect clarity. The world was there, in its complete colorful glory, but it was only a pinprick. That pinprick was all she needed to see, to see everything.
The buzzer exploded over the speakers, the cheers reached a crescendo - then faded into the background of her focus. The sound lost its meaning, and therefore lost its ability to influence her. The sights outside of her bubble, outside of the area that she claimed as hers, faded as well. Like the sound, it was still there, but it was meaningless.
The area within her domain sharpened. She heard the stamp of the feet of the man in front of her as he burst forward. Jacques Carrillo was her opponent, Venezuela¡¯s champion and another contender for the first MMA Gold in the Olympic history. As he moved toward her with bursts of speed that left his feet positioned perfectly, his body¡¯s center of mass balanced, she let her mind drift. The moments before actions were as meaningless as the sound and the sights outside of her influence. These moments weren¡¯t hers. Hers were coming.
She remembered the last time she had felt herself fall this deeply into her focus. It had also been on the world¡¯s greatest competitive stage. Not in Austria of course, the last games had been held in Germany. Her trainers called her focus a flow state. She didn¡¯t know whether they were right. This felt deeper. She could get into a flow state with the best of them, she felt time thin and hours slip away in a rush of dopamine and productivity. This was almost the opposite. Time extended. Every moment was an eternity, she could see Jacques¡¯ left foot land just millimeters out of alignment with his body. Maybe just a mistake, maybe a weak calf muscle.
Willow repositioned minutely, accounting for her weak left shoulder. It still ached and of course it wasn¡¯t pretty to look at, the surgeries which had saved her use of her arm also left a grotesque ball-like shape to her shoulder. Unfortunately she wasn¡¯t allowed to wear the padded shirts she preferred that hid the disfigurement while competing. Standard jerseys and all that.
Jacques¡¯ right foot landed again, he was one step from having her in range. Unfortunately, the same couldn¡¯t be said for her. His reach was several centimeters longer than her own; a problem easily solved once he was close enough. In the meantime, she basked in her feelings of adrenaline and purpose. Fighting was an even greater source of enjoyment to Willow than Gymnastics had been.
¡°There¡¯s the silver lining¡±, paw-pa had said when she mentioned that to him after a particularly good sparring match.
She smiled as her opponent¡¯s left foot just about hit the mat. Her moments had arrived. She claimed the next small portion of time as she ran forward. She moved with a dancer¡¯s grace, an acrobat¡¯s agility, and a gymnast¡¯s explosive strength. Moment by moment, she watched Jacques¡¯ eyes begin to widen as she vaulted directly over his head with her two quick running steps and powerful leap; clearing his head by mere milometers as she twisted in the air.
She noticed the shadows changing from the corner of her eye as Jacques pivoted on his left foot and threw a perfect back kick. Though lightning fast, she felt as if she had all the time in the world to respond as she brought her left hand up while still twisting in the air, landing her palm against his foot and pushing off - moving herself through the air and leading the kick wide. Landing in a crouch with his leg still high in the air, she exploded forward, taking him to the ground. His reach was a problem while standing and frankly, she wasn¡¯t confident that she was a better striker. Her ground work though, that¡¯s where she could shine.
As with any fighter, Willow had studied her opponent¡¯s previous fights and knew he had a few weaknesses she would be able to exploit. The main one was his sloppy escape technique. Jacques was right on the edge of their weight class, and knew how to leverage his strength well, but he relied too much on brute force to escape certain holds.
As they struggled on the ground, Willow managed to twist the larger man into a back hold with a sharp scissoring motion of her legs and a twist from the right to left, avoiding using her left arm and shoulder muscle as much as she could. The moment was about to end. She felt the final grains of sand dropping to the bottom of the hour glass. The world would wrench the time from her if she refused to release it, but that was fine. She didn¡¯t need any more stretched moments to claim victory.
As the world around her suddenly sped up, Willow stiffened her entire body as she achieved a perfect Guillotine; both arms tightly engaged around her opponent¡¯s throat. She counted as he thrashed. She knew he wouldn¡¯t tap out, because she¡¯d never seen him tap out in any video. Even the fights he lost, he never tapped. She¡¯d have to take him to K/O. He suddenly slackened, but she kept her hold. She had seen him play possum only to turn the entire fight in one of the videos she had reviewed.
The ref¡¯s whistle broke her sphere of focus and the entire world burst back; demanding her attention. She released the man who was laying atop her and scrambled out and up. She grinned and whooped, holding her hands up as she made for her corner. The crowd screamed for her, ¡°PHOENIX RISE! PHOENIX RISE!¡± Her grin widened.
They called her the phoenix now. She¡¯d just been ¡°Willow Gagn¨¦¡± when she competed as a gymnast at sixteen. Not that she had a problem with that, Willow Gagn¨¦ was her name, after all, but it was a name easily forgotten. The phoenix, though? No one was ever going to forget her. When she got to her corner she leapt from standing atop the three foot fence which demarcated the arena, arms still raised, grin still on full display; or as on display as it could be with a mouth guard clenched tightly in her teeth. She spit it out and screamed back at the crowed, ¡°The ash burn to life!!!¡±
She felt hands gently but firmly pulling on her, she let herself fall and was caught by her coach and one of his aides. He scowled at her, ¡°Didn¡¯t we talk about showboating, Willow?¡± She widened her eyes, going for too-innocent-to-scold. It failed, like always. She¡¯d never had the doe eyes to pull that off. She had her dad¡¯s hard-eyed stare, a gift from the super-white Texas blood. If only she¡¯d inherited her mother¡¯s soulful eyes, no one would stand a chance.
¡°You¡¯re daydreaming again. Snap out of it Willow, round two, remember? The fight?¡± Coach Conahey¡¯s glare was well-meaning, probably. He was strict and yelled a lot, but he also knew his stuff. She grinned again, going for mischievous this time. This one she could nail. She knew she had, when coach rolled his eyes instead of yelling again.
¡°Good round. No notes except the showboating. You could have slipped by him easily enough, you don¡¯t need to do that jumpy shit.¡±
Willow winced, ¡°Cm¡¯on coach, he might have lunged and caught my arm or something. No way he was gonna expect that jump though!¡± A wicked grin spread across her face, ¡°I¡¯ve also setup the perfect trap for the next round.¡±
A deep sigh, ¡°Right. You¡¯re going to do something else unnecessary and insane. You do know you get no points in style for this event, right?¡±
¡°Maybe I should.¡±
¡°No.¡±
¡°Why not? It¡¯s a spectator sport!¡±
¡°MMA is a serious sport rooted in self defense and can be traced back to actual combat and warfare. It¡¯s like fencing. It should be approached with dignity.¡±
Rolling her eyes, Willow asked sweetly, ¡°Will you remind me of that when one of the contestant¡¯s mouth is dribbling blood from being smashed again and again by someone¡¯s elbow?¡±
¡°Sure.¡± Coach¡¯s voice was dry and clearly unwilling to indulge her.
She glanced at the massive timer hanging above the stadium. Seeing she had a few minutes to spare, she pulled her headgear off and sucked down some water from the bottle the aid, Tony maybe, had been holding for her. She took deep breaths, working to calm and center herself. She knew it¡¯d be easier to claim another moment, to reach her perfect focus, if she was calm before she got back in the fight.
She looked up at the monitors, looking up at herself - as she appeared to gaze directly back at the viewers. She saw the camera rig which was recording and waved at it. She stared into her own ice-cold blue eyes, set deep underneath thin black brows and shaded by long dark lashes. Her nose was a little crooked, haven been broken last year during a spar, but it was still cute in her estimation - not too big and not too small. Just a bit too crooked. The only vanity she allowed herself for this match was the red lipstick, which highlighted her full lips against dusky brown skin.
Although she bemoaned getting her dad¡¯s cold eyes, she knew her appearance was striking. She might have called herself pretty, before her shoulder had been turned into something approximating a World of Warcraft style ball pauldron. She made a funny face for the camera, then winced as she felt a pinch on her arm. Conahey was glaring at her again. She beamed in return.
¡°One minute¡±, he growled. ¡°I swear to God I¡¯m done coaching you after this. Such a belligerent whelp.¡±
¡°Love you too coach!¡± She donned her headgear and slipped her mouth guard back into place. Probably Tony checked her hands, making sure her gloves were still tightened properly, weren¡¯t slipping with sweat, and so on. She gave him a thumbs up once done and he flashed her a nervous grin.
The second round started. She didn¡¯t quite manage to capture a full-fledged focus like in the last round, most likely because she hardly felt she needed the edge. Having taken Jacques¡¯ measure, she knew now that she was the better fighter. The gold was hers.
When the buzzer sounded she rushed at him. She didn¡¯t shuffle forward or hold proper ¡°fighting form¡±. She leaned on her years of acrobatic and floor work training to keep her balance. She slipped past his quick jab-turned-grab and kneed him hard in the solar plexus. Showing his experience, her opponent flexed and released, managing to avoid losing his air. The knee had just been an attack of opportunity, though, she was now inside his guard and as he punched at her, she leapt horizontally.
Her legs wrapped around his waist as her right hand intercepted his jab. She caught it and forced him to overextend, even as the weight of her jump forced him to the ground. His left fist came out to strike at her kidney but she managed to roll away from it, contorting her body around his controlled right arm and flexing into a straight bar. She actually wanted to avoid joint holds with this Jacques since she was legitimately worried he wouldn¡¯t tap out before she broke his bone.
Fortunately, he had apparently grown wiser after the previous round and tapped the mat twice with his free left hand. She released him and rolled up, throwing her hands in the air and whooping, letting her mouth guard fall out and throwing jabs into the air toward the roaring audience, before making her way back to her corner.
¡°Showboating.¡±
¡°It¡¯s fun!¡±
¡°This isn¡¯t supposed to be fun.¡±
¡°But it can be!¡±
Willow stared at coach Conahey with as little expression as she could manage. For about three seconds, then she broke into a grin and they both laughed at the running joke. Conahey was under the impression that sport was like a job, something to master, but not necessarily something to enjoy. Willow believed if something wasn¡¯t fun, then it wasn¡¯t worth doing.
¡°Last round. Nervous?¡± Coach¡¯s gruff question caught her off guard.
¡°Nervous of?¡±
A pause, then a sigh, ¡°Most people would be nervous about having the victory torn away at the last turn?¡±
¡°Oh. Nope! I¡¯m a little nervous that ma¡¯ma¡¯s gonna insist we go get some local fare for dinner again though. The K?sekrainer last night left me¡ Well, I¡¯m just glad my match was late today.¡± She coughed slightly, ¡°Delicious though!¡±
They bantered for another few minutes while the timer ran down, then she stepped back in the ring. She called her focus to block out the unneeded noise and sound. When the buzzer came, she stayed still. So did her opponent. She nodded at him and started walking toward him slowly. He mirrored her action and started circling. She thought he¡¯d actually tried to circle last time, too, but she hadn¡¯t given him a chance. She¡¯d seen his body moving as if to circle before she jumped at him.
His eyes flicked between her shoulders, hands, hips, eyes, looking for a tell. Willow started bouncing, then took two quick steps and crouched - identical movements to the first match. He countered beautifully by taking a fast step left and twisting his body to intercept her leap. She hadn¡¯t jumped though, she instead took off like a sprinter and slammed into his middle as he twisted. He brought both elbows down on her back but she ignored the sharp pain and pushed through. A few moments of back and forth and for the first time, he managed to escape her. Jacques extracted himself and quickly found his feet. She followed, rolling backwards from her back to her feet in a smooth motion.
He said something that she didn¡¯t understand. She shrugged apologetically, ¡°Sorry, don¡¯t speak Castillian.¡± He nodded and continued circling. She brought him down three more times, and three more times he managed to get back up. She realized what his strategy was when she noticed her breath was sharper and faster than his. He was trying to wear her down.
Well, she couldn¡¯t have that. Time to take him down. She let out a shout and charged him. He braced himself, not even striking this time. He was expecting another nearly uncounterable take-down, she was sure. After all, that¡¯s what she¡¯d done the last four exchanges. Instead, she slid around him and spun into a sharp heel-kick into his ribs. He grunted and staggered back. Her eyes widened, she had felt something give.
¡°Uh, are you okay? It felt like something broke.¡± He either didn¡¯t understand or wasn¡¯t willing to acknowledge the injury. ¡°Ref?¡± She called a bit concerned, ¡°I think I might have broken a rib.¡±
The answer was expected, ¡°He hasn¡¯t called it. Round¡¯s still live.¡±
As they circled, she realized she might have misjudged. He may not have been trying to wear her down, he may have just been trying to come up with a plan. He was more hesitant than someone of his ability should be. He was going to win a silver Olympic medal, after all. Taking a deep breath, Willow leapt into action again. She¡¯d go for another take down, this time maybe she could catch one of his limbs in a hold and - an odd squealing sound broke through her bubble of focus. Popping it in the same way the buzzer or a ref¡¯s whistle would have.
Confused, she and Jacques both looked toward the source of the odd noise, up. The camera rigging she had waved to earlier was directly above her. With another agonized squeal of metal, half of the rig snapped and fell. Directly toward Willow. She backpedaled, leapt away, hoping only to be fast enough to avoid the worst of the¡
Willow floated in an odd darkness. She saw nothing at first but after an indeterminate amount of time, she saw the strokes of a brush leaving a red trail behind. The stokes slowly formed into words, ¡°You died.¡±
She stared, uncomprehending. When she was about ready to start screaming into the void, brilliant blue light did its best to blind her. She recoiled, or tried to, but no matter where she looked she saw the letters; and the new box. The box looked like a future cyber-punkesque pop-up. The kind of thing she wouldn¡¯t be surprised to see in some sci-fi anime or maybe a VR game made by an amateur developer or something. It was way too bright, way too saturated, and way too much in general.
Despite her complaints, as she blinked the spots from her eyes Willow witnessed more unnecessarily flashy effects as two lines literally ¡°popped¡± into place, with the sound someone might make with their tongue on the roof of their mouth and everything. The lines read, ¡°START¡± in all caps, colored in several shades of garish neon greens. The line below read, ¡°REPLAY TUTORIAL¡±, also in caps but shaded with offensive neon violet and purple. As she was still processing, a typing sound filled the emptiness and a final pair of words typed itself letter by letter, like an old-school hacking console, in hyper-link blue at the bottom right of the glowing blue box with a downward facing chevron to its side. The last words read, ¡°Run Stats.¡±
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Willow, the Phoenix, Gagn¨¦ stared in incomprehension for what felt like an eternity. ¡°I died?¡± She asked no one. She tried to look around, and it felt like she was moving, but the words and box followed her field of view. She couldn¡¯t see anything or anyone behind it all either.
Taking a deep breath, she held it for a full ten seconds, then released it. She repeated the process a dozen times until she felt moderately calm. Actually, she felt like she was standing at the edge of an absolute freak out! Holy fu¡ Her thoughts ground to a halt as she nearly swore, whoooo¡ That was close. Ma¡¯ma would take a belt to her, no matter her age and¡ Ma¡¯ma¡ She wouldn¡¯t ever see her again, or Paw-pa, or anyone.
No Vash and her dry wit, no Whitney with her stupid fashion tips and ¡°basic white-girl starter kits¡±, no more shy smiles and will-we-won¡¯t-we with James and no Fenny quietly supporting and keeping everyone together.
Willow thought she would cry. She should have, but tears simply wouldn¡¯t come. Maybe dead people couldn¡¯t cry. Instead, she stood and wallowed in sorrow for a while. How long, she didn¡¯t know. She tried to sit, but she wasn¡¯t sure if she actually had sat. It felt like she had, but it also felt like she was still standing. She was both sitting and standing at once. If she tried to stand, she stood. If she tried to sit, she sat. It didn¡¯t matter whether she had already sat down, she still felt herself do it again.
Using this discovery to distract herself, she tried double jumping. That seemed to work! It wasn¡¯t really as much fun as it should have been without the sensation of falling directly after. She distracted herself with weird sensations for a while, purposefully ignoring the only visual stimulus she had. She needed more time.
She needed to process this properly. Process that she was dead. She would never see anyone she knew ever again. Everything she¡¯d ever accomplished was behind her now, and probably didn¡¯t matter anymore. She thought ¡°probably¡± purely because of the box, but she ignored that. It wasn¡¯t relevant right now. It was about the same as if everyone she knew had died. The opposite was true of course, but as far as her feelings of loss and sorrow, it was the same.
She needed to cry! She needed a good cry and then she could move on. Okay, she probably couldn¡¯t¡ But she needed to cry either way. Another eternity, or maybe ten minutes, of silent contemplation later, and she finally felt ready to move forward. It was time.
Acknowledging the box in front of her once again, Willow tried to reach out to touch it. She felt her arms and hands moving, but didn¡¯t see anything and didn¡¯t touch anything. She tried to say, ¡°Run Stats.¡± No voice came from her, though she felt herself speak. She could feel the air coming in as she drew breath to vocalize, and felt the vibration in her throat, but nothing happened. Undeterred, she thought ¡°Run Stats.¡± at the box.
As soon as she pushed the thought at the box, it changed. The ¡°START¡± and ¡°REPLAY TUTORIAL¡± vanished, and the box expanded to the size of printer paper with a scroll-box which she quickly found she could navigate easily by just thinking up or down.
Run Stats
Run Time: 20 Years, 85 Days, 16 Hours, 22 Minutes, 44 Seconds
RUN RATING:S+
PREVIOUS RUN COUNT:6
PERSONAL BEST RUN:A
BEST POSSIBLE RUN:SSS+
Tutorial Achievements
Competitive: Compete in over 100 officially judged contests
Competitive Upgraded to >> Ultra Competitive
Ultra Competitive: Compete in over 500 officially judged contest
Elite Competitor: You¡¯ve competed with some of the best of your chosen competition and won!
Elite Competitor Upgraded to >> National Elite Competitor
National Elite Competitor: You¡¯ve competed with the best your nation has to offer and won!
National Elite Competitor Upgraded to >> Global Elite Competitor
Global Elite Competitor: You¡¯ve competed with the best the world has to offer and won!
Global Elite Competitor Upgraded to >> Victor
Victor: You stand at the pinnacle of your competition of choice.
Victor Upgraded to >> Serial Victor
Serial Victor: You stand at the pinnacle of multiple competitions, showing none should presume themselves your better.
Combat Veteran (Gloved): You are a veteran of combat, at least the sporting kind.
Family Ties: You have forged unbreakable ties with your family and hold them in high esteem.
True Friends: Make at least one true friend, forge an unbreakable bond with another person.
True Friends Upgraded to >> True Friend Group.
True Friend Group: Make at least three true friends,
Selfless: Give up something precious to you, for the sake of someone you love
Determined: Retrieve something precious to you that you¡¯ve lost
Broken Dream: Lose your dream, either by losing the ability to achieve it, or giving up on it.
Broken Dream replaced by >> Dream Again
Dream Again: Having lost your dream, you have picked up the pieces and made something new. A new passion, a new dream, a new goal.
Unbreakable: Adapt to an injury or birth defect which might have dominated and irreparably ruin a less determined person¡¯s life.
Cocky: Live most of your life feeling superior to the majority of those around you.
Cocky Upgraded to >> Self Obsessed.
Self Obsessed: Live most of your life knowing you¡¯re better than most other people.
Stubborn: Pit your will against what others tell you. Sometimes even when you know you¡¯re wrong!
Stubborn Upgraded to >> Pig Headed
Pig Headed: Pit your will against what others tell you, because you¡¯re right and they¡¯re wrong. Once you decide on something, you almost never change your mind.
Folk Story: You¡¯re something of a hero in the right circles, people know about you and think you¡¯re special.
Folk Story Upgraded to >> Local Legend
Local Legend: You¡¯ve transcended your own self! Your story will live on for a while after you¡¯re gone, at least in a small area for a handful of years.
Local Legend Upgraded to >> Star
Star: People know about you! A lot of people! Most of them even like you. You¡¯re well known, and your story will continue even after you¡¯ve checked out of it.
Star Upgraded to >> Super Star
Super Star: People around the world know about you! More people know about you than don¡¯t. A lot of them don¡¯t know why they know about you, what¡¯s special about you, or why they should care - but they¡¯ve probably heard about you.
Super Star Upgraded to >> Living Legend
Living Legend: Nearly everyone had heard about you, and every day your legend grows! You¡¯ve been given accolades and many people think they know you and connect with you. Your story inspires the masses.
Living Legend Upgraded to >> Legend.
Legend: Nearly everyone has heard about you, and after you¡¯re gone your story will only grow. A minor accomplishment will become a monumental victory. Your friends¡¯ achievements will be attributed to you. You are a shining example of human progress, ingenuity, determination, and victory. The gods of Olympus compete with your legend and fall short.
Willow stared at the list of accomplishment in stunned silence. If someone had asked her how her life had gone, she¡¯d say that she had no complaints. She had friends and family she loved, had goals and achieved them, and had overcome adversity. She wouldn¡¯t claim that she¡¯d overcome as much adversity as others. Her family and friends were a huge support to her, and she knew without them she wouldn¡¯t have managed even half of what she had done.
Not to mention being born with the privilege of money and education. Even so, she was proud of her life. Though, now that she looked at it all¡ I didn¡¯t really help anyone but myself and my own family and friends, did I? She felt a bit guilty realizing her entire life had revolved around herself.
Looking at the achievements, she was certain that Fenny would have achievements related to helping others. He spent half of his life, at least, volunteering and doing things for others. He could fix pretty much anything, and would fix anything he could, if asked. No reward required, or even considered. He was the kind of person who gave the shirt off his back without a second thought.
In fact, he had done that before. Several times. Louisiana had plenty of unfortunate souls, some of them with nothing left to their name. Though, they couldn¡¯t say they had nothing left after meeting Fenny. She sighed, feeling a twinge of regret. The regret wasn¡¯t even for the reason it should be. She didn¡¯t really regret not helping people¡ But she regretted not regretting it.
Well¡ I can¡¯t change it now I guess. She thought her acknowledgement at the box and the previous screen returned. ¡°START¡± and ¡°REPLAY TUTORIAL¡± both blinked slowly at her in garish neons. What does START even mean? She thought the question toward the box, hoping for something. She got something.
METADATA QUERY RESPONSE
START will begin your true life. You¡¯ve gone through the tutorial, which means you understand the basic mechanics of controlling a body, social interaction, physics interactions (even if you do not understand the mechanics), and have at least a basic level of capacity for learning and teaching yourself.
If you START, you will retain your memories from the tutorial run which you just completed.
That wasn¡¯t as helpful as she¡¯d have liked, but better than nothing at least. What does REPLAY TUTORIAL mean?
METADATA QUERY RESPONSE
REPLAY TUTORIAL will wipe your memory, reroll all randomly assigned aspects of the tutorial (Social status, economic status, race, family, parents, chronic illnesses, natural strengths, etc.)
All achievments are lost upon resetting the tutorial.
You will then re-run the tutorial as a new you. Your soul is preserved, but your mind and body will be made anew. Most scholars agree that replaying the tutorial is akin to a rare ¡°true death¡±.
That was both more helpful and less. On one hand, knowing all of her memories and accomplishments would be gone was good. On the other hand, what the heck did the box mean by ¡°true death¡±? Isn¡¯t every death a ¡®true death¡¯? Well, I guess not, given I¡¯m dead but also not dead.
She thought at the box, Is death in the tutorial not true death? No answer. Not entirely unexpected but still disappointing. She took some time, not feeling like she had to make any decision quickly. She thought through her life, remembered what she could, reviewed her achievements. Finally she asked the question she had been trying to find an answer to, Could I do any better?
After a lot of introspection she decided she probably couldn¡¯t. She had almost every advantage she could possibly have in this ¡°run¡±. She¡¯d had a strong support system, family and friends who loved her, she¡¯d had opportunity. She¡¯d had motivation. Were there things she¡¯d have changed, that might have made things even better? Of course.
Maybe she could have had some encounter that would pound into her stubborn head that she should care more about other people and help others without anything in it for herself. Maybe she could have been born drop dead gorgeous, with an army of servants¡ Okay, maybe not that. I¡¯d probably just be lazy and useless if I¡¯d had that¡ She thought with a bit of mirth.
So, if I can¡¯t do any better¡ I guess there¡¯s only one option to choose, right? I choose START.
As soon as the thought had been pushed to the box, she felt her like a mist gathered around her body, infusing it, then fell away from it. The ¡°You Died¡± message, and the blue box, vanished. Shapes began to take form in front of her. She looked around, finding herself in the midst of a huge crowd of people, presumably others who had also died and chosen to ¡°START¡± their life.
A massive man started lumbering toward her, gently pushing his way through the crowd of confused looking people. The man had a face so plain and uninteresting, that its perfect blandness somehow caught her attention. It was like someone had made a ¡°big human man¡±. That¡¯s the face he had. As she stared, she realized she was having trouble picking out specific features and committing them to memory.
What skin tone did he have? Couldn¡¯t say. What color eyes? No idea. Does he have wrinkles? Not sure. She could SEE all of those things, she was sure of it, but when she tried to think about them her thoughts kind of slid away from all of it. A headache was starting to build behind her eyes, either because she was trying to look so hard, or simply because of the weirdness of it.
Before she could spiral further into a state of confusion, the man spoke. His voice was like someone picking the notes of a bass-boosted bass guitar, plugged into a massive sub-woofer. Willow was pretty sure she could feel the bass in her soul, ¡°Hello. Please accept the terms of your new life and follow me.¡±
Another blue box popped up, this one with a massive scroll of text. She thought down as fast as she could and watched it scroll for a good thirty seconds. ¡°It¡¯s all standard stuff. If you want to read it all, I will bring you to a sitting area and you can read through it. I believe it takes about six hours to read through all of it.¡±
Yeah, no thanks. Not reading legalese for six hours. Also not accepting some random contract thrown at her by some random giant. She thought decline at the box and it vanished. She thought that the big man blinked, but again, couldn¡¯t really focus on his eyes enough to be sure.
She smiled up at him sweetly, or as sweetly as the ice blue eyes her daddy gave her allowed and said the magic words, ¡°I want to speak to a lawyer.¡±
Chapter 2 - Orientation 1
Willow
Recruitment Square, Farcem City, Motrendi
The big man¡¯s expression turned confused, ¡°Lawyer?¡±
¡°Yeah, lawyer.¡±
The silence quickly grew uncomfortable, so Willow pressed forward with an exaggerated frown, ¡°You know, attorney? Personal representation? Expert in all things law who works for the person they¡¯re advising? Someone who is specifically incentivized to NOT screw me over with a bad contract?¡±
Continued bafflement, ¡°I don¡¯t think we have that¡¡±
Uncertainty somehow seemed out of place when coming from such a deep voice. Willow almost felt bad for him. She shrugged, ¡°No problem, then I just won¡¯t be signing anything is all. Can you point me to someone who can explain things a bit?¡± She¡¯d ask him to explain things, but it looked like asking for a lawyer had short circuited something and was worried he might need some time to reboot.
While the big man, I should probably ask his name next, after he answers my last question, processed her query she looked around. As she had noticed upon materializing, there was a crowd here. A large one. She¡¯d guess in the range of thousands. Even so, only about half of the large open area was occupied.
It appeared she was in some kind of plaza, with an odd hodgepodge of buildings surrounding it. Actually, now that she really looked¡ Yeah, this is weird. All of the buildings appeared to be placed to face the plaza. Not that the plaza had been planned with the buildings in mind, no, it was like the buildings had been plopped in and then rotated to face the ¡°correct¡± direction.
For example, a squat building that she would guess was a house sat with its door facing inward toward the plaza. The problem with that was the door wasn¡¯t meant to be seen from the street. Had the house been positioned in a normal neighborhood, the door would have been inset into a little privacy hall, where the designer had placed a wall of stucko on the outside so the door wasn¡¯t visible from the street. A visitor would have to approach, pass the wall, then turn left, and enter a small corridor between the privacy wall and the house¡¯s exterior wall to get to the door.
The design had obviously meant to hide the doorway, maybe there was even some artwork painted on the street facing side of the stucko, she¡¯d seen stuff like that before. Here, though, the hallway was facing the street. The house was literally facing sideways. The oddity caused a very strange feeling, almost like deja-vu, but the opposite. That¡¯s a thing right? What¡¯s it called, like jamais vu or something? What she was looking at was so ridiculous it couldn¡¯t be real.
¡°Miss?¡± The deep voice broke through her spiraling thoughts.
¡°What was that? Sorry, got uh¡ Is that house¡ Nevermind, what was your name again?¡±
A moment¡¯s hesitation, then, ¡°Baav.¡±
¡°Nice to meet you Baav. Did you ask me something while I was spacing out?¡±
She thought Baav might have blinked, but it was more of an impression than a certainty. Seriously, what was up with this guy. Why couldn¡¯t she focus on any details? She squinted at his eyes. He cleared his throat and replied after a moment of being squinted at, ¡°Yes. In order to talk to our guide, you¡¯ll need to sign the contract first.¡±
The blue window full of text popped back into her vision. She declined it again.
¡°I see, thanks Baav, I¡¯ll go find someone who¡¯s able to help out without that then. Have a good¡¡± She looked around, realizing she wasn¡¯t sure what time it was. The level of light would indicate day, it was nice and bright. However, she didn¡¯t see the sun in the sky. Deciding to just roll with it for now she finished lamely, ¡°uh, day. Have a nice day.¡±
As she made to step past Baav toward the area of the plaza where people seemed to be heading after talking to other people that seemed oddly indistinct like Baav, she was halted in place by his huge hand falling toward her left shoulder. She instinctively winced, waiting for the sharp pain that always came when anything touched her left side. Instead, she was shocked to just feel the pressure of a huge hand. She turned her head and stared, completely bewildered.
Baav apparently read her expression to mean she was shocked he would touch her, as he quickly withdrew. ¡°Apologies. I forget sometimes that hu¡ Some people are sensitive to physical contact.¡±
Willow shook her head slightly. Not too much though, as part of her worried if she took her eyes off of her completely normal shoulder it would go back to how it had been before. She answered in a daze, ¡°It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s just that my shoulder¡ It was completely ruined before. It hurt just to move it, much less to have someone put their hand on it¡¡±
After another moment of silence she wrenched her eyes away and back toward Baav. Shaking her head, she made to move past him again. This time instead of using a hand, he took a side step to interpose himself in front of her.
Willow narrowed her eyes up at him, trying and failing to find his eyes so she could properly glare into them, ¡°Are you trying to detain me here? Against my will?¡± She made sure to inject a bit of threat into her tone. She wasn¡¯t sure it worked, she wasn¡¯t used to threatening people - despite being a fighter. Her style was more to smile sweetly and punch in an assailant¡¯s teeth while they weren¡¯t expecting it. That didn¡¯t seem like a great idea when she didn¡¯t know the rules of¡ Wherever she was.
He seemed frustrated and at a loss for how to handle her, ¡°No. You may leave once you have signed a contract. You do not need to accept mine.¡± He waved a big hand, ¡°Others, from other groups, factions, have their own offers.¡±
¡°Are they all going to be unreasonably long, and full of legal jargon?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°Right, then I need a lawyer before I¡¯m agreeing to anything. In the meantime, I need you to please step aside so I can go figure things out.¡± She did her best to channel her ma¡¯ma¡¯s ¡®please¡¯ - it was the kind of please that said, ¡°I¡¯m being polite, but this is an order.¡±
Either her version wasn¡¯t very good, or Baav was immune to the power of the not-really-please. It was probably the former. He just stared at her. Willow was nearly at her breaking point, she really wasn¡¯t good with people trying to force her into things.
Before she could start getting serious, Baav said, ¡°I don¡¯t know what a lawyer is, but you will have to read for yourself here.¡± He stared down at her, not blinking. Probably. He¡¯s probably not blinking, hard to be sure.
The absolute audacity. The flat way he said that left it up to her to interpret what he meant, and she was waffling between him insinuating she was lazy, incompetent, illiterate, or stupid. She was having a hard time finding a more charitable way of interpreting the statement.
¡°You want to try that again?¡± This time Willow¡¯s voice was bright. Very very bright. Way too cheerful. Anyone with a lick of sense would have caught on that it was too much, that something was wrong.
Apparently Baav had not even a single lick, as he nodded, ¡°Good, so you understand now.¡±
¡°Oh,¡± Willow spoke in her most disgustingly sweet tone, as she leaned toward him, ¡°I think I understand you perfectly now. But now, I think I need to help you understand me.¡± She put heavy emphasis on ¡®you¡¯ and ¡®me¡¯, her southern twang coming out in full force.
Before the big man could say another thing, she fell into her focus. The sounds and sights around faded, only what was relevant remaining. She claimed her moment.
Madrick
Recruitment Square, Farcem City, Motrendi
Madrick watched the recruitment from above. He stood in the air, feeling bored. He¡¯d agreed to babysit today, as every recruitment had to have a rank ten or higher oversee. The scheduled administrator had an emergency and Madrick owed him a favor. These things happened. Frankly, watching an Earth recruitment was almost nostalgic. He remembered his own fondly.
Unlike these sheep, he¡¯d arrived with the spirit of battle still upon him. He¡¯d attacked the first idiot who had tried to tell him to sign what, at that time, he saw as ¡®some weird scroll scrawls.¡¯ Sometimes he missed the simplicity of being a barbarian who knew nothing more than blood and war.
Before Madrick could fully begin indulging in nostalgia by mentally revisiting memories of glorious battles on earth, in his tutorial, something caught his attention. Given he was, ¡°keeping an eye¡± for potential issues, this shouldn¡¯t have been hard. In reality, he didn¡¯t care if some of these pathetic little recruiters had a bit of trouble swindling the pathetic little arrivals.
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The form of the interruption wasn¡¯t any of the ¡°normal¡± issues he had been told to look out for: recruiters from different factions targeting the same arrivals, displays of power by recruiters above what earthlings would expect, arrivals who became hysterical and might cause mass panic, and so on. No. It was something much more interesting. He felt part of his domain vanish.
Given his path of True Domination, his domain was akin to ownership. Anywhere Madrick went, he became the owner of everything within his area of influence. Although he didn¡¯t primarily specialize in conceptual powers, as a rank twelve his influence was considerable. The entire recruitment area, along with few dozen kilometers in every direction were his, just by dent of his presence.
Except, a very small chunk of that domain had been removed. Another domain might have contested his own if someone else rank ten or above approached, but that¡¯s not what had happened. The piece that had vanished from his awareness wasn¡¯t at the edge of his domain, where a contest might have taken place, it was near the middle. In the recruitment area below.
Sending mana to his Eyes of Conquest, Madrick watched as an arrival attacked a recruiter. The beast kin being attacked felt like maybe a rank four or five. Given the extra benefits recruiters got, it was likely he had one or more over ranked skills too. All of that did him no good.
The arrival had somehow accessed her mana. Not only that, she was applying her Will. Common wisdom dictated that an application of Will required an Insight. Gaining Insight was nearly impossible within the tutorial. Some highly talented individuals learned how to manipulate mana, he himself had been one such. It had been several thousand years since he left his own tutorial, and yet he¡¯d never heard of any new arrival with an Insight.
He watched with mounting interest as the girl moved. From her perspective it was likely fast, but at his level of power it was like watching a snail wake up.
Willow
Recruitment Square, Farcem City, Motrendi
Willow claimed her moment.
As time slowed nearly to a stop, thoughts quickly flashed through her mind. She didn¡¯t have to use her moment to attack. But, what else could she do? It wasn¡¯t so much that Willow wanted to attack some random person, it was more that she didn''t see any other option. She wasn¡¯t letting someone force her into signing anything. She wasn¡¯t sure what the legal system here was like, but surely it wasn¡¯t legal to physically restrain a stranger and tell them they had to sign some shady contract. Even the shady voodoo men in gram gram¡¯s stories wouldn¡¯t try something so crude!
Having completely justified her actions with absolutely no faults in her logic, Willow took a fast step forward. Her body felt incredible. Powerful. She felt like her normal focus had been boosted by a thousand. She thought Baav¡¯s eyes were still looking at where she had begun, even as she stepped forward. While she was fast, and her focus let her make the most of her speed, she wasn¡¯t faster than the human eye. That being said, Baav¡¯s weird blurry eyes might have been tracking her, but she felt like they weren¡¯t.
Another step and she was centimeters from Baav, she was a bit in front and to his right. She didn¡¯t even try to strike or kick. This guy was clearly too big for her to have any confidence in that having much of an impact. Instead, she continued forward, her right foot planted in front and between both of his feet as she threw an elbow hard at his back even as she pulled her planted foot forward without taking it off the ground. She felt like the ground itself was moving underneath her, aiding her stability. Good ground.
Baav fell hard. His face slammed into the ground, his arms not even coming up to catch himself. Willow just stared in shock for a moment, Why didn¡¯t he at least try to catch himself?. He still wasn¡¯t moving. What was going on? She looked around, and realized that while she could make out shapes moving outside of her area of focus, everything inside of it was completely frozen. This was like an extreme version of how she always visualized her zone of focus. She always pretended everything but her was frozen, but it had always just been pretend.
Before she could figure anything out, she felt her moment coming to an end. While the effects might have been amplified, the duration was clearly still limited. She released her moment, but maintained her focus. She heard the ¡°thump¡± that should have come when Baav hit the ground, along with a bestial sound somewhere between a growl and groan. She decided that he¡¯d learned his lesson, and that he¡¯d be fine. Not that I was worried he wouldn¡¯t be okay. That take down wasn¡¯t that bad¡ Other than landing directly on his face¡
While part of her wanted to stay and ask the flurry of questions bouncing around her head, Willow decided not to waste the opportunity to extricate herself. She quickly spun on her heel and started walking toward the booths situated within a huge awning covered area. Her eyes flicked between booths until she found one with two women who both looked fully real. Most importantly, one of the real looking women appeared to know what she was doing.
Willow caught up to the pair as the one who looked like she knew what was going on told the man sitting behind the desk, ¡°Hi Ray, Naomi here just signed on to work in the economics department. Think you can help explain things to her?¡± Willow stepped up beside them and did her best to act like she belonged there.
It didn¡¯t seem to work, as the woman who was speaking turned to her as soon as she had stopped and gave her a polite smile, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve met you yet. Can I help you? Are you also looking for employment like Ms. Naomi here?¡±
Wracking her brains, Willow tried to sound confident as she replied, ¡°Ah no, I actually already have a contract and all that. I was just directed over here to get the rundown on things.¡±
The woman stared at her blankly for a moment, before her attention seemed to sharpen in some way and she shook her head, ¡°I¡¯m sorry miss, your recruiter surely would have brought you over here, can you point them out? Maybe they got caught in the crowd, I can help get you reacquainted and¡¡±
¡°His name was Baav, he was a little intimidating so I kind of ran off once he pointed to where we were going.¡± Her words came out in a rush. It was the best she could think of on the spot. Miraculously, the lady seemed to buy it.
She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner, ¡°Of course it would have to be Baav.¡± She sighed in as if horribly put-upon, ¡°Well, let me finish up what he started then. My name is Sherry. You said you already signed the contract?¡±
Willow¡¯s bobbed her head in the affirmative, ¡°Yep, popped up with about a bajillion lines of text so I hit accept to get it to go away!¡± She dipped hard into her southern accent, leaning more toward her paw pa¡¯s drawl rather than her ma¡¯ma¡¯s sharp creole. People tended to assume folks with a drawl were slow and innocent.
Sherry nodded distractedly, ¡°Alright then, miss, in that case why don¡¯t you get setup for orientation with Naomi here?¡±
Willow nodded, distractedly noticing her that her hair was unbound for the first time as it bounced and brushed her ears and hit her shoulders, ¡°Sounds great!¡±
She stuck out her hand toward the woman introduced as Naomi, ¡°Willow, pleasure to meet yuh.¡±
Noami seemed to be in a state somewhere between shock and denial. She had that thousand-yard-stare as she mechanically accepted the hand shake. ¡°Naomi,¡± she muttered woodenly.
¡°Well good, that¡¯s settled then. I¡¯ll let Ray help you both out.¡± She nodded at the man behind the desk, who was also blessedly clearly defined. As she turned to leave, it seemed like her eyes went out of focus and her movements became slightly more mechanical as she continued on toward a door marked, ¡®Employees Only.¡¯
Turning to the man behind the counter, Ahhh, what was his name again? Randy? Yeah Randy sounds right¡ Willow gave her best smile, going for a good first impression, ¡°Hey Randy. If you don¡¯t mind me asking the first question¡ Why are so many of the people here¡ Fuzzy?¡±
Randy looked taken aback at the question, then a little nervous, ¡°Well¡¡± After a pause, he leaned forward and lowered his voice, ¡°It¡¯s because they aren¡¯t actually humans. They¡¯re using magic of one sort or another to look human but most of them aren¡¯t very good at it.¡±
Both Willow and Noami had leaned towards him to hear the answer, Noami doing so seemingly out of reflex while Willow was truly interested. Noami didn¡¯t react at all, her eyes remaining semi-glassy. Willow stared hard at Randy, wondering if he was pulling her leg, ¡°Magic?¡±
He nodded eagerly, ¡°Yep! I¡¯m pretty new, finished my tutorial what¡ Ten years ago? I didn¡¯t come from Earth like you two. I came from Calledeon. It¡¯s a tutorial world where magic is prevalent but very little technology. When I died they were just starting to build ¡®magitech¡¯ which automated some stuff like making paper. From what I understand you all have had that in the ¡®Earth¡¯ tutorial for a really long time but don¡¯t have much access to magic.¡±
After a second Willow decided he was probably telling the truth, he seemed earnest. Besides, she wanted to believe him! Who wouldn¡¯t want to have magic as part of their afterlife? Though there was one weird thing¡
¡°So you¡¯re saying magic is real¡¡± He nodded eagerly, ¡°Then why all the¡ Bureaucracy?¡±
¡°Ah¡ Well¡¡± He wilted a bit at the question, ¡°Unlike on my world there¡¯s quite a lot of¡ Order. The tutorial arrival area has been setup and streamlined to allow various factions to pick up new blood with enough regularity to avoid too much stagnation. The powers that be need us little guys to get the minutia done so they can shape reality, after all!¡±
¡°Randy¡¡±
¡°Ray.¡±
¡°Wait, really?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°Rayyyndy¡ That¡¯s such a crock of crap. Are you saying there are people out there who can literally shape reality with magic and you¡¯re stuck here working a day job?¡±
Ray continued his wilt, now looking like a daisy that hadn¡¯t been watered in a week, ¡°Well, yeah. It¡¯s just temporary, though. The universal law of debt release only allows terms up to seven thousand years. After that, no contract is enforceable and is automatically nulled.¡±
Willow looked at Naomi in shock, looking for an ally in her disbelief. It looked like this nonsense was finally enough to break through whatever funk she had been in, though not in a positive way. She started hyperventilating as she gasped, ¡°The¡ contract¡ I¡ Signed¡ Wasn¡¯t¡.¡±
Pity crossed Ray¡¯s face as he nodded slowly, ¡°Yeah, it looks like a full term. I don¡¯t know anyone named ¡®Sherry¡¯, so it was probably actually Luzzi. She¡¯s one of the ¡®better¡¯ recruiters¡ Good illusions, great at mimicking human emotions and mannerisms, and ruthless. She¡¯s the one who got me, too.¡±
He sighed deeply, then shot Willow a wan smile, ¡°You came from Baav though? He¡¯s a bit softer, probably not a full term, let me see¡¡±
He righted himself in his chair, sitting up straight and squinted at her, then cocked his head and seemed to try and look harder. After almost a full ten count Willow cleared her throat, ¡°Ya¡¯ll right there?¡±
Blinking, he nodded, ¡°Yeah it¡¯s just nothing¡¯s coming up. The you-see should let me view your contract as long as it¡¯s for our faction. Baav¡¯s one of ours so it definitely should be¡¡± He continued to stare at her, though with less intensity and more puzzlement.
¡°Ah, well¡ What¡¯d you say about a ¡®you see?¡¯ is that the name of the pop-ups?¡± Internally she scrambled, Crap, crap, crap. He should be able to see my contract. How do I get out of this thing?!
Answering her question, Ray seemed oblivious to her internal panic, ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s actually the U-I-C-I. It stands for ¡®Universal inner connection interface¡¯ Most of us just say UICI though. It¡¯s pretty much an extremely advanced piece of magitech which enables the multiverse to be run more or less smoothly. Without it we wouldn¡¯t be able to see our stats, achievements, energy attunements, insights, all that stuff.¡±
Noticing that Willow¡¯s eyes had gone blank, and Naomi was quickly muttering and sobbing, Ray seemed to realize things were spiraling out of control, ¡°Ah, how about I just give you guys the introductory spiel and give you the map to get to the full orientation?¡±
Willow nodded, Naomi continued to not be okay, Ray chuckled nervously.
Chapter 3 - Orientation 2
Willow
Frazzlen Orientation Hall ,Farcem City, Motrendi
Even in a magic world, companies existed and managed to make things suck. Willow sat in the crappy chair made of a plastic-like material which managed to be super hard and flimsy feeling. She shifted uncomfortably as she half-listened to the man on stage drone on and on about the ¡°Frazzlen faction.¡±
Upon Ray first mentioning factions, Willow had pictured medieval-style intrigue, war, assassinations and, most of all, excitement! She had secretly begun to feel excited, thinking this new life might be like one of the table top RPG games Vash ran for their group. Now, though, she was starting to feel a creeping dread. Is the afterlife all just corporate B.S.? Oh no¡ I picked the wrong religion. I died and now I¡¯m literally in hell. I thought hell was supposed to be full of fire, but this is definitely worse. Demons probably upgraded their infrastructure to simulate meetings and such when they saw it on earth, realizing screaming in pain is less soul-destroying.
¡°Hey, are you listening? This seems important!¡± A studious looking young man pulled Willow out of her wallowing. He was sitting to her right on another horrible torture device similar to her own.
¡°Nope! What¡¯s your name? Wanna cause a distraction so I can escape?¡± She leaned toward him a bit, eager.
In response, he leaned away, his hand coming up under his nose for a moment before dropping. Her paw-pa had the same habit for a bit after getting LASIK to correct his nearsightedness. ¡°Of course not. I got good terms on my contract. If I rate in the top 2k for two consecutive years I¡¯m guaranteed a promotion. The same deal goes for each successive level. I finally drew a good hand with this life and I¡¯m not going to waste it.¡± While he kept his voice quiet, it was full of passion and excitement.
Willow did her best not to scowl at the idea of being stuck for a minimum of two years being a good thing. Instead she nodded along and asked, ¡°And what¡¯s your total contract term?¡±
¡°My what?¡±
¡°You know, how long are you required to be their employee or whatever?¡±
He stared at her for a long minute, blinking slowly. She was about to explain, but Naomi leaned over from her left with a malicious fire burning in her eyes, ¡°Mine¡¯s seven thousand years.¡±
Panic entered the man¡¯s eyes and he frantically started looking around. The poor man¡¯s plight would have been funny if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that it was likely he¡¯d gotten just as raw a deal as Naomi. After a few moments he realized there was no way to ask without disrupting the speaker; who was still waxing unpoetic about how incredible and generous the Frazzlen leader was. His eyes returned to Willow and he asked desperately, ¡°What about you? Did you get better terms?¡±
Thinking it was best to not let these poor folks who had absolutely been scammed know that she wasn¡¯t in the same sinking boat, she did her best to make a pained face, ¡°Thousand years.¡±
He and Naomi both stared at her. Neither appeared to believe her. She wasn¡¯t sure if their disbelief stemmed from how atrocious she was at lying, or from the much lesser sentencing. ¡°How?¡± Naomi answered the question.
¡°Well the recruiter I got didn¡¯t look very trust worthy so I kind of tried to talk myself out of it entirely. He was like, two maybe two and a half, meters tall? And he was muscled like a bear! So anyway, I tried to decline but he got right in front of me and put his HUGE hand on my shoulder. I stayed stubborn though and¡ Well yeah, one thing lead to another and here I am!¡± She did her best not to let how smug she was at having told them a fully true version of events, without ruining her previous lie. Thank you me, for loving books about sneaky MCs who give good advice about how to lie well!
Her conversation partners both looked like they had bitten a lemon, Naomi looked like she was about to go back to muttering and rocking in her chair - which is pretty much what she¡¯d been doing since Ray left them here. The other guy was just frowning, lips twisted in obvious distaste, clearly deep in thought.
Their attention was collectively retrieved when a new voice boomed around them from the speakers, At least I think the sound¡¯s from speakers, I can¡¯t find any¡, ¡°Thank you Mr. Jones, for your excellent explanation of our Faction¡¯s founding and our great leader.¡±
The new speaker¡¯s voice was higher pitched, harsh as if restraining anger, and sounded a bit snide. Willow liked this person way more, immediately. At least whoever it was seemed not to be a hypnotized drone. She looked back to the stage to find the new source, in time to see them enter from the stairs on the stage¡¯s left side. The rest of the crowd caught sight about the same time, as muttering and shocked exclamations were raised. It walked upright, had two arms and two legs, but that was about where the similarities to a human ended.
Suddenly more interested, Willow examined the speaker as they continued to walk unhurriedly to the center of the stage. The walk made it clear they were expecting this reaction and giving everyone time to process.
As far as Willow could determine, the creature was a human-lizard hybrid. It looked a lot like the anthropomorphic lizard creatures from her TTRPGs, actually. The artist renditions of them was a bit more appealing, in her opinion. Grey scales, yellow slit eyes, flicking tongue, clawed four-fingered hands, massive tail about the same length as the rest of the body. She thought maybe the lizard-like person had a frill folded up around their neck too.
She looked to either side to check her seating companion¡¯s reactions. Naomi was staring with something approaching terror, the man looked excited. I should really get his name. Before she could ask either of them anything, the voice came again, ¡°I am called Varshuth. I am a beast-kin from the Scorched Plains Tutorial. You humans are horrible at identifying genders properly, so I will tell you I am a woman, and an exceptionally beautiful one at that.¡±
Although she couldn¡¯t be entirely sure, Willow was fairly certain that Varshuth¡¯s comment about being beautiful was a joke of sorts. Either a joke at them being unable to notice, or maybe it was more of a sarcastic thing. She absolutely couldn¡¯t say either way. What she could say is that human-sized lizards didn¡¯t register to her attractive to not-attractive meter at all. The scales were a bit off putting as they looked a little wet and the claws caught her attention as clearly dangerous. That was about the extent of what she was able to gather from examining her.
Having given the crowd a good ten-count to process and think, Varshuth continued, ¡°As you can see, I am not like you.¡± Her mouth opened in a crocodile-like smile, showing several rows of needle-small razor sharp teeth, ¡°I am not so squishy or ugly as you.¡±
Willow looked around self-consciously, having been the only one to snicker at what she perceived to be a joke. She was about to relax, no one looking her way, when she froze as her eyes returned to Varshuth - who was staring directly at her.
¡°Good, at least one of you has a sense of humor.¡± Her voice was the same as before, not seeming to hold any measure of humor, anger, or anything else. Willow tried a smile, found it weak, but soldiered on.
Varshuth quickly moved on, ¡°Now, Mr. Jones is an excellent speaker and has properly explained the overarching organization of our faction. I am here to help with specifics. I will be helping acclimate you to that which is imminently important. For example, you humans are not the only intelligent race in the universe.¡± After a pause to allow that statement to sink in, she continued.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
¡°Aside from getting you accustom to seeing, listening, and showing respect to non-humans, I will be covering several other topics of import. I will try to be brief and will take questions at the end. First, what will I be covering specifically?
¡°To begin, I will explain the tutorial you just left. We will proceed from that topic on to your recruitment. From there, we will talk about the multiverse, or simply ¡®the world¡¯ as most of us refer to it. Finally, we¡¯ll go over the UICI.¡±
She ignored the number of raised hands, and even continued on a bit louder to override a couple shouted questions as if they hadn¡¯t been asked, ¡°The Tutorial. The tutorial is where you all have just arrived from. It is unknown exactly how many tutorials there are, or whether tutorials which are very similar are the same tutorial with similar parameters.
¡°Most tutorials offer different ideas of what an ¡®after life¡¯ will look like. These ideas can come from religion, some through magical studies, mysticism, scientific evidence, and so on. However, the tutorial actively encourages the concept in order to provide some comfort and avoid everyone having a near-crippling fear of death. Why the tutorials do not simply allow us to know the truth of what they are from the start, no one is entirely sure.
¡°This brings us to the next point about the tutorials. They are not fabricated or controlled by anything or anyone that we are aware of. There are theories that there are beings of a higher classification than gods, which are beings who have managed to reach the hundredth rank and beyond and have the ability to shape reality to their whim, but we have no concrete evidence. We know that gods cannot create new souls, which is part of what the tutorial appears to do. Everyone in existence started within a tutorial. There are no exceptions. This suggests that there was a first soul, a first person to enter the world. Not to be side-tracked by this fascinating topic, though, the important aspect is that it¡¯s not something any faction or alliance controls. This is why you¡¯ve never heard of what comes next, we surely would contact those within tutorials to streamline the process otherwise.¡±
She took a pause, appearing to think for a moment. Willow shifted in her horrible seat again, wishing she had thought to die with a pillow clutched in her arms or something. Surely, if I had died with something precious held close I would have arrived with it, right? Not that my clothes, or even my body, is the same¡
Before she could get too enthralled in examining what all she¡¯d actually brought with her, Varshuth continued, ¡°This is about all you need to know about the tutorials for now. Moving on, you¡¯ve been recruited by the Frazzlen faction, congratulations! In particular, you have been accepted within our economics department. Here, you will be put to work on solving advanced problems of accounting, marketing, profit innovation, and more. In general, you have been identified at having potential to aid us in expanding our economic status within the world. You may request a transfer after a month, if you find the work does not suit you. Unlike some other factions, we do not view you as labor slaves with no say in your future. You are employees which we wish to keep comfortable and happy.¡±
The slight pause and small swish of Varsuth¡¯s tail were the only physical changes, but Willow thought that she was making fun with that last part. Clearly, signing a contract for seven thousand years was pretty much slavery. Unless there was a simple exit clause, maybe all of Naomi¡¯s worries were for nothing. If¡
¡°As for early release from your contract,¡± Varsuth continued, the odd voice combination of high and harsh recapturing Willow¡¯s attention effortlessly. ¡°An early release clause is not generally included in the contract. This is for two reasons. First, our leader Hazzabi is not a kind person and demands the base contract we offer be as beneficial to the faction as possible. The other reason is the world is also not kind. No one will give you anything for free. If someone offers something free, then they are planning to stab you in the back. We aim to educate everyone on this fact as quickly as possible.
¡°Despite what many of you are likely thinking is cruel and far too harsh, there are benefits as well. All employees are housed, fed, and provided with basic amenities and entertainment. If you are satisfied with this, then you are welcome to simply do your day-to-day job and enjoy an easy life. However, if you are not satisfied you can work harder. Those who go above and beyond are always rewarded. If you simply want more creature comforts, we are amenable to provide those assuming a high level of productivity. If you are looking to advance your own skills and rank, the path of advancement through promotion is quite clearly laid out for everyone. You will be able to access this path on our internal repository through the UICI.¡±
Continuing to ignore the ocean of raised hands, Varsuth was about to continue when the sound of shouted questions became too much even for her to speak over. Her tongue flicked out, her tail twitching in a manner similar to earlier, and she held up a hand. A feeling of pressure suddenly pressed down on Willow from above, then passed over her. The room was once again silent. Surprised, she leaned over to Naomi to say, ¡°I¡¯m surprised just that was enough to shut everyone up.¡±
The greater surprise was finding herself silent. She could feel herself speaking, yet not a single sound was made. Varsuth said, ¡°An extra lesson about the faction for you all, dissidence is not tolerated. Earth humans tend to get ideas of unions, work strikes, protests, and other such nonsense into their minds. Let me save you a bit of trouble.¡±
Varsuth¡¯s voice didn¡¯t change at all, yet each of her next words seemed to fall like hammer blows, ¡°It. Will. Not. Work.¡± She waved her hand again, this time all of the raised hands appeared to be physically pressed down.
¡°As I said before, the world is not kind. The only thing truly respected is power. Part of promotion is gaining access to the resources needed to gain more power. If you work hard, in a few millennia you may have enough power to be considered someone prominent. Assuming you do not truly displease someone stronger than yourself before then.¡±
Shaking her head in a very deliberate motion, Varsuth continued, ¡°To return to the planned topics, let us discuss the world. You have just been given an example of how different your tutorial was from reality. Most people will simply refer to all of reality outside of the tutorial as ¡®the world¡¯, similar to how the people within the tutorial might refer to the planet Earth, or the known universe, as ¡®the world¡¯. This is a required simplification to avoid pedantic descriptions and qualifications when it¡¯s not required within every day conversation.
¡°The world is truly a potentially endless multiverse. The current universe we are in is named ¡®The Origin¡¯, as all sentient life originates from here; so far as we know. There are a bit more than three thousand other origin points. An origin point, before you attempt, and fail, to raise your hands to ask, is where you all arrived. Sometimes they are also called ¡®arrival areas¡¯ or ¡®entrance zones¡¯. They are the place people are dropped from the tutorial into the world. There may be more origin points in other universes, but there are none that we are currently aware of.
¡°For now, consider The Origin as the entirety of your world, because it is for the foreseeable future. It is impossible to travel between universes until you have reached at least rank ten, which is currently far beyond you. This brings me the final topic I will be covering. No matter how vast the multiverse, ¡®the world¡¯ is, it is rendered manageable by the UICI.
¡°The UICI, or Universal Inner Connection Interface, is exactly what the name implies. It is an interface which assists in internally connecting a great many things. Since you¡¯re from Earth, this is easier to explain than to other tutorial arrivals, it¡¯s essentially the internet fully grown up. The UICI is intelligent, but it¡¯s also restricted. It was constructed by a coalition of gods several million years ago, so it¡¯s somewhat recent. Even so, it¡¯s a crucial part of our daily lives. The UICI cannot be used against any individual directly. As to what this means, you need not worry about someone ¡®hacking¡¯ your UICI to steal your information or watch any private recordings you have saved. I won¡¯t be boring anyone with details today, but be assured that the UICI is foolproof. Twenty gods, all of different goals, alignments, and moralities, worked together to create the UICI. None of them would be willing to leave holes open for others to manipulate it to their detriment.
¡°But enough of the what, let us move on to the ¡®how¡¯. How can you use your UICI? Simply think, ¡®UICI, initialize interface tutorial.¡¯ you will be prompted by the UICI itself and taught how to use it. This concludes my time speaking, you have an hour to become acquainted with the UICI before the next speaker arrives. Feel free to get up stretch your legs until then.¡±
Willow didn¡¯t notice Varsuth leaving to stage, having already begun the UICI tutorial.
UICI, initialize interface tutorial
Welcome to the U.I.C.I
This tutorial will walk you through the basic functions of the U.I.C.I.
Additional functionality is available, and you may develop your own modules assuming you have the magi-code knowledge and drive to do so!
What followed was like a mix of an online tutorial, a social media doom-scroll, and reading a technical text book. Crap, it really is hell. Corporate meetings and school.
Chapter 4 - Crash (the) Course
Willow
Frazzlen Orientation Hall, Farcem City, Motrendi
It was with a sour expression that Willow completed the UICI tutorial. She had stood up about five minutes after she¡¯d started the first training module so she had a decent view of the room. The room was too large and too packed for her to really see everyone, but the area she could observe was decent. She stretched and glanced around, noting that most everyone nearby was still either engrossed in their UICI or were staring into the void in despair. She couldn¡¯t blame anyone regardless of which it was.
A few others were standing, stretching, and some had even started discussing among themselves. Noami and the guy to her right were still clearly engrossed. That guy¡¯s name was¡ I think I¡¯ll call him Kent. He kind of has the super-man jaw, just missing a bit of muscle, and he¡¯s clearly used to wearing glasses and doesn¡¯t need them. Just like Clark Kent! It¡¯s the perfect name for him. Having refreshed herself with a bit of distraction after the forty minutes or so of information literally streaming directly into her brain, Willow turned her mind back to what she had learned.
The UICI was exactly like the futuristic AR system she had expected. The default boxes were styled with future-tech looking blue-glass holographic like aesthetic. The text looked like silver with a black outline and would be garishly painful to look at for any length of time. Though, according to the interface guide she wasn¡¯t actually seeing it at all. It was all projected directly into her mind. It felt a bit¡ Creepy. She knew there had been people getting computer chips implanted in their heads and stuff on Earth, but at least that had been an intentional choice. Here, no one had a choice. The UICI was simply a universal fact of life.
Dilemmas regarding how she felt about the whole thing aside, the interface tutorial had been pretty thorough. It taught her how to customize the entire user interface, form and function. The guide had a timer on it and hadn¡¯t let her keep playing with the theme beyond five minutes, but she planned to spend a solid few hours figuring out how to make the thing not look like it should blind her just by looking at it.
Other lessons had included interfacing with others via the UICI. It was possible to send messages, videos, voice messages, make calls, and even enter a virtual space. The accompanying textbook of commentary had suggested that there were a good number of people who spent nearly all of their time within virtual worlds. People escape from life with video games here too, not sure if that¡¯s a good sign or a bad one. Beside that, the UICI also acted as a document store, personal identification, payment management system, and everything else computers had been on earth and much more.
According to the guide, the UICI could interface with spells to facilitate universal language translation between thousands of different languages all at once. The commentary once again more interesting than she might have expected, it explained that to facilitate this in large groups the UICI would calculate the closest possible common linguistic root of all participants and relate that information to the spell formation. The formation would then convert all speech within it to the identified common root. The UICI monitored all of the incoming audio and converted it in real time to the user¡¯s mother tongue. On a more one on one setting, the UICI was perfectly capable of performing the same translation without specialized spell formations to help it.
In the past Willow had made fun of her friend James for being paranoid and prone to conspiracy theories. He¡¯d be telling me ¡®Told you so!¡¯ and ¡¯This is exactly the inevitable end-state of the internet, as I thought! He¡¯d be so excited about being right and also terrified. She felt a harsh pang in the pit of her stomach at the reminder that she¡¯d most likely never see him again. She was well aware he¡¯d had a crush on her, but she¡¯d never made any move to close the gap. Not because she didn¡¯t like him, she was just more focused on¡ Everything else. Now she wondered if she should have perused something with him. She knew he¡¯d always been there, so she hadn¡¯t felt all that urgent¡ Wow, I took him for granted. A lot¡
Swallowing back the sob that threatened to break her directly from the go-with-the-flow stoicism she¡¯d been maintaining into full on breakdown. She¡¯d process it later. When she wasn¡¯t surrounded by hundreds¡ thousands? of strangers. Taking a deep breath, she traced her line of thought back to the point the train had jumped its tracks. Right, so the UICI has a multi-dimensionally enabled GPS built-in, but ¡®don¡¯t worry, no one can track you with it without your consent¡¯ and ¡®A bunch of gods trying to one-up each-other made it, so it¡¯s definitely infallible.¡¯
She snorted, another burst of sorrow reminding her that her father would have scolded her for the un-ladylike noise - and her mother would have snorted in response. Although she missed her parents, that ache was more bitter-sweet rather than just regret. She clung to the warmth of their remembered presences for a moment before letting it go. The room¡¯s volume had steadily been rising.
¡°What do you think of this thing, Willow?¡± Naomi¡¯s voice was a bit calmer than before.
¡°It¡¯s a bit¡ Much. Pretty cool, being able to do anything I could at a computer just by thinking about it sounds pretty appealing. The fact there¡¯s no way to turn it off, disconnect, or otherwise escape it is kind of scary. I don¡¯t trust that any computer-like system is infallible. James¡¡± She pushed past bubbling sadness with a bit of a stutter, ¡°James used to say the only people who would ever tell you a computer is unhackable are either: The ones who don¡¯t know what they¡¯re talking about, or the ones who are going to hack you and don¡¯t want you to make it harder on them. That and¡ We can¡¯t use like ninety five percent of the stuff the training went through without buying some module or other.¡±
A chuckle came from her right as another voice entered the conversation, ¡°You¡¯re exaggerating a bit. Most of the basic stuff is available by default: calculator, texting a hundred words at a time with a five minute time limit between messages, a map which shows a dot where you are and a dot where your destination is with no features between them¡ What else could you possibly want?¡± The tone had started out dry and ended with a sneer.
Looking over and down at the still sitting Kent, Willow pointed and nodded, ¡°You know what, you¡¯re right. I was being silly.¡± She threw her arms up dramatically, ¡°I should have remembered I can create my very own virtual space!¡± Her arms fell back, hitting her sides with an audible ¡®thwap¡¯, ¡°And fill it full of one of the three couch models and six shrubs that come with the ¡®starter pack¡¯.¡±
Naomi joined in, ¡°True, whoever set this thing up were very benevolent. They gave us a ¡®journal¡¯ module which lets you write as much as you want!¡±
A bit surprised, Willow turned to her, ¡°Really? No catch?¡±
The slightly wrinkled nose gave Naomi¡¯s spite away before she answered, ¡°No catch at all! Assuming you don¡¯t mind that you can¡¯t scroll the screen back up in the free version of the module.¡±
Before they could continue their sarcasm-fueled product review, a droning nasal voice came around them, ¡°Please return to your seats, your next speaker will be here in five minutes.¡±
Willow failed to suppress her deep groan. She caught the amused expression on Kent¡¯s face, Laugh it up buddy, we¡¯ll see who¡¯s smirking at whom when I saunter out of here unemployed at the end of the day! Mwah-ha¡ Oh wait, is that a good thing? Huh¡
It had been three hours. Three hours since the UICI tutorial thing ended. This latest speaker had been droning on and on about something for three hours without a pause. He hadn¡¯t even taken questions, not that anyone had any, Willow was pretty sure no one was paying any more attention than she was.
She¡¯d started off ignoring the new speaker by playing with the UICI. She¡¯d already fixed the interface. Instead of the crazy futuristic look she had restyled it so each window looked like little medieval scrolls being unrolled. She¡¯d started out having a soft trumpet sound play too, but that¡¯d been way too annoying. She setup notifications to appear in a little scroll-shelf which was normally empty, but will fill up with each ¡®scroll¡¯ she received. The lettering was all block, since there were no free cursive fonts.
Speaking of free, the only thing she had found that seemed to be truly free was the base of the UICI. Even the clock was a ¡®limited¡¯ version. She could see the current time, but the date was obscured behind an obfuscating blur with like dollar symbols in front of it. Those dollars came from her preference for representing currency, she¡¯d found that setting an hour ago and messed with it too. She¡¯d made it look like the bitcoin symbol, like gold doubloons, and a bunch of other things. That particular interface let her use her imagination to configure it. A few other things had a similar ¡®imaging whatever you want¡¯ kind of interface. The boxes and notifications, for example, but any added functionality came in the form of modules.
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Modules that had to be purchased or, in most cases, subscribed to. She¡¯d also found a ¡°developer¡¯s kit¡± module which was free. It seemed to be the method by which people could develop and deploy those various modules to the UICI E-Store E for ¡®Extension¡¯, E for Evil, E for Eentolerable E for¡ Whatever. When is this guy going to be done?!
Finally deciding enough was enough, Willow stood up. She felt a lot of eyes suddenly on her. Unphased, she muttered excuse-mes as she started making her way toward the row. The speaker noticed her too and apparently took offence, ¡°Miss. May I ask where you¡¯re going? The orientation has¡¡± His eyes flicked up and to the right, before coming back to rest on her, ¡°¡ another hour remaining.¡±
She flashed him a quick smile, ¡°Sorry, I need to run to the wash room real quick. Where¡¯s that, by the way?¡±
¡°Please take your seat, miss. You do not need to freshen yourself.¡±
What in the world, does he think I¡¯m a kindergartner? Well, yeah, probably. Given the time scales these people have been talking on, I probably seem like one. Eh, whatever, they can think what they want. ¡°Uhh¡ Yes I do.¡± She had stopped when he called her out, but now she resumed making her way toward the isle. When she arrived she was surprised to find the speaker standing directly in front of her.
He was an extremely wiry looking man, maybe an elf or something given the almost painfully sharp and handsome features. The long sharply pointed ears and almond shaped, literally shining, eyes of gold were also good hints. He was standing with his hands clasped behind himself as he stared down his perfect nose at her. He was about a head taller than her. Probably 1.85 meters to her 1.6.
¡°Excuse me¡¡±, She made to step past her, but he stepped at the same time to block her. The heck is with these people getting in front of me?! She narrowed her eyes at him, waiting patiently for an explanation. She could punch him like she had Baav, but doing that in front of thousands of people who were watching probably wasn¡¯t a great idea.
He didn¡¯t disappoint, answering her unspoken demand, ¡°I know you don¡¯t need to go to the washroom, because you haven¡¯t had any food or water since you arrived. Your bodies are different from how they were before. One of those differences is their efficiency. You will not need to dispose of any waste until days after you¡¯ve eaten. You¡¯ll never need to urinate again, except to expel toxins if you¡¯re unfortunate enough to consume some.¡±
She stated, ¡°Oh.¡± Her eloquence perfectly reflected her state of surprise.
He continued, ¡°So, please, return to your seat and do listen closely. There is a lot of information to cover.¡±
About to turn around, he stopped when Willow replied, ¡°No thanks.¡±
He froze mid-turn, then slowly twisted back around to face her fully again, ¡°What was that?¡±
¡°This is a waste of time. I won¡¯t remember any of it, I doubt anyone will.¡± She waved her hand at the crowd, noticing several people cringing away from her as if worried the elf-guy, Wait, did he introduce himself? Probably. I should have caught that, would decide they were co-conspirators.
She continued before he could reply, ¡°Look, it really is nothing against you or anyone else, but we¡¯ve literally all just died and been reborn in an absolutely insane situation. I do appreciate the information provided by miss Varsuth, and the tutorial for the UICI. And I bet I¡¯d appreciate the stuff you¡¯re trying to teach us too, but my brain¡¯s plump tuckered and needs a rest. I can stay here and secretly resent and complain about your voice droning on and on endlessly in the background, OR¡± she held up a finger high over head to emphasis her point, ¡°Or I can leave now, think about everything I¡¯ve learned, and then go along with my life sans some wasted time.¡±
The elf¡¯s lips were pursed in a line fit to cut hairs, eyes narrowed to slits, and his nose was flared in clear anger. Still other than the subtle facial tells, his body language and voice remained calm, ¡°Should you not have finished that by promising you would return at a later date to hear the all-important wisdom the Frazzlen have seen fit to share with you, once you can¡¡± He paused for a moment, trying to remember her exact phrasing before returning with just a touch of scorn in his voice, ¡°¡process, it better?¡±
Willow was honestly impressed by this guy¡¯s composure. She¡¯d have expected much tenser shoulders, maybe for his hands to be tightly clenched and white behind his back, but he really didn¡¯t seem as angry as she thought most people would have got in a similar confrontation. She should know, she¡¯d been in similar positions more times than was probably good.
She flashed him a bright smile, ¡°Nope! The rest of these folks here aren¡¯t gonna learn any more than I did, not a lick. So what¡¯s the point in coming back? They¡¯re not gonna, and they¡¯ll all perform their tasks with exactly as much proficiency as you expect. So it¡¯s clear while some of what you¡¯re saying at us might be useful, none of it is necessary.¡±
Hissed whispers and frantic shushing could be heard from the surrounding crowd for a full ten seconds, Willow was counting, before the she finally got a reply. ¡°I see¡ Well, while I don¡¯t appreciate the crude manner with which you brought this point to my attention, it seems likely that you¡¯re correct.¡±
What? Huh?
The elf sighed, bringing his hands from behind his back and somehow making his voice resonate from each corner of the room and the ceiling again. There are definitely no speakers, and he¡¯s not wearing a mic. ¡°My apologies ladies and gentlemen. It appears myself and my superiors may have miscalculated how much stimulation and information new arrivals are capable of ingesting. In truth, this orientation is somewhat new and we¡¯re still working on chasing out the wivils. Let me skip to the end and release you a bit early then. Give me another five minutes, please.¡±
The last was clearly addressed to Willow, who was too confused and shocked to speak. She just nodded and turned to head back to her seat. Her mind was running as she shuffled back, excusing herself as she brushed knees. Did he actually listen? That¡¯s not how these things go. He should have started shouting and demanding - appealing to emotion in the form of fear. Then he¡¯d appeal to authority, telling me he¡¯d report me to whoever is supposed to do whatever it is I don¡¯t want them to do. Then when I still didn¡¯t comply he¡¯d either throw his hands up and let me leave, or he¡¯d try to escalate and get his teeth punched in. He listened?! She was still reeling as she sat.
Naomi gave her an impressed nod, while Kent gave her a bright smile and two thumbs up. Apparently even the studious Kent wasn¡¯t a fan of long-winded lectures.
True to his word the elf, who gave his name again as part of his closing remarks, Ki¡¯ai¡¯en, ended the lecture early. The last few minutes had mostly just been explaining to everyone where to go next, how to find their way to the important amenities such as the cafeteria and a temporary dormitory setup for all of the new arrivals. Apparently they¡¯d be assigned more permanent residence in the next few weeks.
As Willow, Naomi, and Kent followed the heavy foot traffic through the door to exit the auditorium, she heard the Ki¡¯ai¡¯en¡¯s voice again, ¡°Miss, would you be willing to spare a moment?¡±
She saw him ahead and a bit to the right, just outside of the room and changed course. She was jostled a bit, but had enough experience navigating rowdy crowds to extract herself without undue difficulty. Her face sported an awkward smile as she approached, ¡°Hey before you say anything, I just wanted to apologize. The way I handled that¡ Well it wasn¡¯t very good. You¡¯re clearly just trying to help so¡ Ah¡ Sorry about that.¡± She ended lamely, feeling the apology was inadequate.
To her surprise his lips raised in a small but genuine appearing smile, ¡°You are forgiven for your brashness. In return, please forgive me as well. Although I did plan this with the best of intentions, intentions are only a small portion of the requirements for a successful event. If you are amenable, I¡¯d like to join you and your companions for lunch. I want to hear more of your thoughts regarding ways to improve the on-boarding process.¡±
Willow glanced to her left and right to find Naomi and Kent still flanking her from a couple steps behind. Doubly surprised by the request and the apparent show of support, she just nodded, ¡°Uh, yeah, of course. Happy to help.¡± I didn¡¯t sign a contract, but at this rate they¡¯re still gonna wring a bunch of labor out of me! Though, if it helps others later¡
Ki¡¯ai¡¯en lead, actually, hold on¡, ¡°Can I call you Kai?¡±
The elf in question looked at her for a moment with an unreadable expression, then inclined his head, ¡°You may.¡±
¡°Thanks!¡±
Kai lead the way to the cafeteria which had supplied directions for not three minutes prior. The benefit of being with the teacher, so to speak, was they were able to scoop up one of the pre-prepared trays immediately and claimed a booth just big enough for the four of them.
Naomi scooted into one said and patted the seat meaningfully while looking at Willow, who took the hint and scooted in. Kent slid in across from Naomi, and Kai took the remaining spot. He began without preamble, ¡°First, you mentioned the initial information was appreciated. Was it truly useful, or were you just attempting diplomacy?¡±
That got a laugh out of her. Willow¡¯s laugh was unrestrained, a little higher in pitch than she liked and just on the right side of manic - but only barely. She shook her head, ¡°Nope, I¡¯ve never attempted diplomacy in my life, clearly. I was being honest. I¡¯m a simple gal, I call them as I see them.¡±
He nodded, eyes flicking briefly in a way that told her he was likely doing something in his UICI. Then his attention returned and he made a point to look at Naomi and Kent, ¡°Please, you two are also welcome to add your opinions as we go on. But first¡ Introductions.¡±
He held a hand out across the table, ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, I am Ki¡¯ai¡¯en but you are welcome to call me Kai if it¡¯s more comfortable.¡±
Willow took his hand, a bright toothy smile gracing her face, ¡°It¡¯s great to meet you, Kai! You seem like a real stand up guy. This is Naomi and Kent.¡± She pointed to each in turn.
Kent started, ¡°What? My name isn¡¯t Kent.¡±
¡°Oh, right¡ What is your name again?¡±
He stared at her in consternation, ¡°You didn¡¯t even ask. I thought this was finally my chance to introduce myself, and you just¡ Called me some random name?¡±
She held up her hands, ¡°Hey, hey, sorry! I¡¯m just bad at names and you seem like a Kent!¡±
He grumbled a moment before finally answering, ¡°My name is Jonah. Jonah Locke¡±.
¡°Jonaaah¡¡±, Willow tested it out, ¡°Jonah. Jonah? Jonah!¡±
Kai was watching the interplay with an impassive face, but for the ever-so-slight twitching of the right corner of his mouth. I should play poker, wait, focus. Jonah¡. Kent¡ Jonah¡
She sighed deeply and Jonah asked, ¡°What¡¯s that sigh about?¡±
¡°Are you sure you can¡¯t be Kent?¡±
Chapter 5 - Fight or Flight
Madrick
Shoftleaf Tea House, Farcem City, Motrendi
It had been a while since Madrick had truly relaxed, let himself think about something besides his upcoming conquests, and let his worries lie unattended. Today, he was doing just that. He took a sip of his tea, a bitter and spicy mix of some kind. The waitress had been insistent that this was the best blend they had, an assertion he wouldn¡¯t be challenging given his current enjoyment.
Of course, he hadn¡¯t planned to take the day off after finishing his recruitment-day babysitting duty. He had decided to see what became of the funny girl who put that bear beast kin on his face. He¡¯d intercepted the recruiter, Baav, and had a quick conversation while the girl had made herself scarce. Baav had been both capable of, and planning to, catch up to the arrival and teaching her the error of her ways. Madrick had ruined that plan.
Unfortunately, the huge bear man wasn¡¯t the sharpest dagger in the clutch and hadn¡¯t been able to provide much to Madrick in the way of observations or speculations. The oaf hadn¡¯t even gotten her name, though he¡¯d found that quickly enough when he interviewed the attendant who processed her and another girl together and sent them to orientation. He¡¯d told Madrick that she had introduced herself as Willow. He¡¯d also mentioned that something weird was going on with her UICI or something, as he hadn¡¯t been able to view her contract details.
When pressed, Ray hadn¡¯t been able to conclusively state that she even had a contract with the Frazzlen. He assumed so and trusted that she did, based on the fact she had come to his desk and said Baav had signed her. Further, he said a puppet to a seventh rank recruiter had been present and apparently knew of Baav. It assumed any mistakes made were on Baav¡¯s part. All in all, Ray believed that the girl probably had a faulty contract that needed to be reviewed. He¡¯d planned to report the oddness to his superiors after his shift ended, but Madrick requested he keep it to himself. Ray had been happy to oblige.
Now Madrick, quite likely the most powerful entity currently on Motrendi, was sipping tea and watching a new arrival through the Frazzlen surveillance network. It had been simple to request access to their surveillance servers. He¡¯d simply posted a curt demand with his signature through his UICI and ten minutes later he had access. The fact the message was somewhat threatening and ominous was just flavor, he knew they would have complied even if he asked ¡°please.¡±
The girl had more fight in her than was healthy for a new recruit, having confronted Ka¡¯ai¡¯en without a second thought. It was an amusing happenstance that said elf was the very administrator who had requested Madrick¡¯s assistance today. It appeared Ka¡¯ai¡¯en¡¯s ¡°emergency¡± had been a personal desire to make last minute changes to his faction¡¯s on-boarding process. Madrick would be giving him hell for that later. Actually¡ Maybe he¡¯d get on that now. It looked like his little ¡°feedback session¡± with miss Willow was about to come to a close.
Deciding it was time to move on from relaxation to recreation, Madrick finished off his tea and left. Time to meet the girl who came from her tutorial with an insight.
Willow
Frazzlen Cafeteria 22, Farcem City, Motrendi
As it turned out, Kai was a pretty nice guy. He was overly serious, certainly, and the closest to a smile any of them got out of him was the slightest tugging of his lips. Kent kept glowering at her throughout the entire conversation, but they moved past that to answer Kai¡¯s questions and get him the feedback he was interested in.
The story was, apparently, that Kai¡¯s boss about six levels in the faction above him had heard about a study done which indicated new arrivals should be able to integrate and begin contributing to their new faction within three months. Their own recruits rarely began to ¡°give back¡±, as they saw it, until well into five or even six months from arrival.
It was an interesting conversation and Willow felt she was slowly starting to get an idea about the landscape of this new world she found herself in. She also felt like she was missing a lot in regards to power, progression, acquiring magic, and all that.
When she mentioned that, Kai¡¯s forehead crinkled in the slightest of frowns before answering, ¡°That¡¯s mostly due to the fact that the factions don¡¯t expect you to progress in any meaningful way for at least ten years. That¡¯s usually around the time when a faction begins dolling out promotions and sending people out on delves to rifts they own. We have a standard briefing which everyone goes through before their first delve.¡±
Before she could ask follow-up questions about that revelation, Kai had quickly moved the conversation forward. He was difficult to read, so she wasn¡¯t sure if he didn¡¯t want to talk about those topics in particular or if he was just focused on the goal for this little impromptu meeting he¡¯d called. She let it go and continued the Q and A, appreciating the small insights and extra tidbits she was able to pick up through the conversation.
Willow
Frazzlen Cafeteria 22, Farcem City, Motrendi
Having all finished their meals, Kai stood and offered his thanks. He inclined his head in a slight bow and offered, ¡°If you have additional feedback about how the on-boarding process goes for you, please feel free to contact me.¡±
Having said that, a little scroll added itself to her semi-transparent notification shelf in the right side of her vision. Instructing it to open, she read the alert.
CONTACT REQUEST
Ki¡¯ai¡¯en Sovree has added you to his contact list.
Would you like to add him to yours as well?
She confirmed, adding him to her contacts, then quickly added Naomi and Kent as well. Contacts could be added in a few ways. If you were in the presence of another person, you could simply tell the UICI to add ¡®this person I¡¯m looking at¡¯, and it would do so. If she wanted to add someone who wasn¡¯t nearby, she could do that through the use of their UICI signature. The UICI signature was pretty much included in anything someone did through the interface. Make a post on a forum? Your signature is attached. Leave a review on a module? Signature.
Thankfully, she could have just as easily decided to block Kai when the notification that he¡¯d added her popped up. She wondered what the standard etiquette for adding someone as a contact was. She opened her mouth to ask Kai just that, when she felt all of the hairs on her body stand up.
Although Willow had trained for years to fight, and Gymnastics wasn¡¯t exactly safe, the danger from those contexts were expected. She had plenty of warning that she¡¯d be fighting someone. When performing a bars routine she knew it could go wrong but there was padding beneath her to avoid the worst of the consequences. Moreover, Willow would consider herself a pretty brave person.
All this to say, she was not used to feeling her fight or flight instinct kick in suddenly, and violently. Sometimes she felt the edge of that instinct while watching suspense or horror movies, this was on an entirely different level.
Her body moved on its own. She snapped into a guard stance, dropping her center of gravity and pulling her open hands up near her face. At the same time she turned, dragging her left foot lightly over the floor while using her right foot as her pivot point. It felt like an eternity under the roaring adrenaline before her turn completed and her eyes fell on the source of her terror.
The man she now faced wore a wide shit-eating grin, sorry Ma¡¯ma, it¡¯s the only way to describe it. She thought he was a human, though his pupils were slanted like a goat¡¯s. He was taller than her, but most men were. She thought he was probably a little under 2 meters, definitely on the taller side. He wore what she could only describe as a vampire chic tuxedo with an outrageous amount of frills, buttons, folds, and other nonsensical embellishments. The primary color was a deep black, with hard crimson highlights along the trim and the edges of most of the fringes of the various layers. The overcoat flared dramatically around his waist and covered the top of the trousers which appeared to be made of old cracked leather; though it was difficult to see the base material under the absolutely plethora of belts and straps.
Even with the slimming style of dress, she could tell the man was wide and solid. His wide shoulders couldn¡¯t be concealed by the sharp cut shoulders, his broad chest was possibly made even more striking by the fact she could see a full five layers of clothing without any of it appearing crowded. She¡¯d guess he was one large slab of muscle, too. The sharp jawline suggested he hardly had any fat to speak of.
If she¡¯d met someone else wearing this getup, she¡¯d probably have to stifle a laugh or at the very least avoid thinking unflattering thoughts. In this case, she was far too busy being terrified under his burning amused gaze. The horizontal slit pupils were surrounded by a deep green iris which called to mind swaths of marsh land filled with bright venomous snakes, poisonous insects, and toxic foliage. Those eyes were set deeply underneath thick silver eyebrows, trending dangerously toward a uni-brow. A short goatee ended in a dramatic flare, the same bright silver as his eyebrows. His not-so-recently buzzed head of hair was a departure from the silver, as it was clearly a dirty blonde color.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
While she took in the man¡¯s physical appearance, most of her attention was squarely fixated on the feeling of absolute primal danger she felt from him. She¡¯d never really felt afraid of any person before. She was afraid of concepts more than people, concepts and tight spaces. Those fears were pale before what she was feeling now. The instinctual desire to run and hide fought with the knowledge that turning her back on a predator would invite it to pounce.
It was almost shocking to hear a casual voice speak from what felt like miles away, though she knew it was from directly to her left. Kai¡¯s tone was dry, ¡°Please stop scaring miss Willow, Madrick. She¡¯s been quite helpful.¡±
The scratchy tone of Madrick as he replied played a rough counterpoint to Kai¡¯s smooth voice, ¡°Is that so? So she didn¡¯t infiltrate your faction without a contract, huh?¡±
Willow refused to take her eyes off of Madrick, although she felt Kai turning to look at her. After a moment he answered, ¡°Hm, well, I admit looking up her contract in our system failed. It could be an oversight. Though, if that¡¯s the case I¡¯m happy to personally extend a contract with excellent terms to her. Again, please stop frightening her.¡±
While she was frozen in her fighting stance, so clenched up and stiff she probably couldn¡¯t even throw a punch if she tried, Madrick leaned forward toward her threateningly, ¡°I¡¯ll stop if she can land a single hit on me.¡±
In a normal state of mind, Willow would have been skeptical if such a frightening person would keep their word. Especially about something as outrageous as what he¡¯d just said. Surely, a terrifying person like him would become enraged and cut her down if she managed to punch him. Right?
Willow was not in a normal state of mind. She punched him. That is, she tried to punch him. He slightly moved his head at the very last moment, her fist flashing past his cheek. She pulled her right hand back fast and threw a left hook. Then another jab, a hook, a knee, a snap kick. The movements were textbook, but he stepped around each attack as if she had sent him a written invitation and waited to receive his cordial confirmation before moving.
Fast. So fast.
Although she still felt the terror within her very bones, Willow was also in single combat. A place she was comfortable and felt some modicum of control. She forcefully entered her focus. She hadn¡¯t ever forced the sate before, and it was jarring to say the least. Instead of the extra information of the world falling away gradually and becoming easily ignored white noise, it was lick she flicked a switch. Everything irrelevant fall into absolute darkness.
Madrick¡¯s grin, which hadn¡¯t budged for even a moment, widened into a vicious smile, ¡°There it is. Show me what you can do.¡±
Left jab, right jab, step forward and piston punch, pull left knee up sharply, snap the leg into a kick when it misses. Continue forward, push through the opponent. Don¡¯t them take a breath. He¡¯s stronger, faster, more skilled. Like sparring with coach had been at first. Use everything, hold nothing back. She continued her assault but failed to touch him over and over.
She felt a hand coming in from her left, she stepped smoothly away from it and ignored it. She pushed her focus harder, she entered her moment. Just like she had never forced her state of focus before, she hadn¡¯t ever entered her moment. She had always chosen it, taken it when she was ready. This time it felt as though it had been waiting for her, potential ready and eager to be used.
Madrick¡¯s movements slowed. Not by much, but she could now see him move. For the last several seconds, she hadn¡¯t been able to see any of the movements he made. She couldn¡¯t tell how he was dodging her, she just knew she hadn¡¯t touched him. She pulled on the potential of her moment, an instinctual action born of her desperation. Madrick said he wouldn¡¯t kill me if I hit him, right? Her thoughts and memories were fuzzy. That was for the best, all that mattered with the Moment. The moment compressed as she saw Madrick start moving to her right to dodge her left foot¡¯s kick. Her left foot hit the ground and planted as her entire body coiled for a right cross with the strength of her entire body behind it. She forced all of the potential into the single motion as the released the punch.
Madrick was still moving to her right as the executed the strike. She saw his eyebrows raise slightly, his left arm came up and blocked the cross effortlessly. Before she could feel any despair, she realized he had counted it as a hit. The overwhelming sense of fear and dread were gone, popped like a bubble. Her moment and focus popped in the same way, followed immediately by her consciousness.
Jonah
Frazzlen Cafeteria 22, Farcem City, Motrendi
Jonah hadn¡¯t been able to do much back on Earth and was enjoying this strange day so far. It¡¯d been tiring, but exciting. Part of him was silently weeping and had been since Willow pointed out how long his contract with the Frazzlen was. As soon as he¡¯d arrived here, he¡¯d had visions of adventure and excitement. The pop-ups had told him this had to be a litRPG kind of world, after all. That means opportunity and numerically-based shenanigans! Then he¡¯d signed a stupid contract, barely thinking about it. Now he was obligated to work in an economics department for thousands of years. The cruel irony was almost too much too bear.
He had been doing his best to suppress that crying mess version of himself that waited to ruin the chances he still had. Instead, he had determined to make the best of the situation. People were talking so casually about working for thousands of years, maybe the scale of time here was different and it¡¯d fly by! For the hundredth time that day, Jonah pulled his mind away from the spiraling thoughts.
The lunch hadn¡¯t been bad, the orientation guy Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had been nice enough, Naomi seemed nice, and Willow was like a magnet. He was pretty sure he wasn¡¯t the only one who felt it, either. The moment he had seen her, he¡¯d been drawn to her. It was similar to the feeling he had when listening to a motivational speaker, watching someone perform an inspirational piece of dance or music, or watching the hero of a movie overcoming a particularly difficult obstacle.
He could only describe Willow as inspiring, and he¡¯d known her for less than a day. She was also exhausting. It was like every time she said or did anything it was with so much energy that it pulled that energy directly out of him. He¡¯d always been an introvert, and having been paraplegic and legally blind in life, he didn¡¯t have a lot of experience with energetic social gatherings. Most of his social interactions in an average day had been on his computer.
Jonah had been tired to the point of exhaustion before that guy showed up. A weirdo dressed like Hollywood¡¯s best teen-dream Dracula appeared in front of them just as they were about to leave the cafeteria. Kai and Willow had stood, but he and Naomi hadn¡¯t yet. In hindsight, he thought that was probably for the best.
The guy had showed up and Willow had absolutely lost her shit. She¡¯d seemed pretty cool and collected, if confrontational, so far. Yet as soon as the guy had appeared, quite literally not there one moment, then there the next, she had spun and dropped into a fighting stance. He wasn¡¯t really sure how she¡¯d even known he was there. He hadn¡¯t made any noise, the air hadn¡¯t been displaced or anything, and he was directly in her blind spot. None of that apparently mattered to her, as she¡¯d noticed big time.
Why she was ready to fight immediately, Jonah had no idea. Then Kai had asked the guy who was apparently called Madrick to chill, and he¡¯d said he would if Willow could hit him. She hadn¡¯t even hesitated for an instant to hit someone she just met. She attacked. He might have said she attacked like a rabid animal, her eyes looked almost crazed after all, except her motions were anything but wild. They were fast, controlled, and seemed planned.
He¡¯d been impressed to see her flurry of an assault, her limbs seeming almost to blur with their speed. Then she somehow got faster and he had a feeling her strikes would have been truly dangerous. That Madrick guy had said something around that time, but Jonah was too engrossed to catch exactly what it was, but he didn¡¯t seem mad. Maybe happy, if anything.
Both of them became a literal blur. Had it been before he was reformed here, his body in the best shape it had ever been in, without any of his previous handicaps, he would have assumed it was just his eyes failing him. He didn¡¯t have those issues anymore though, and his eyes were definitely working fine as he stared with wide eyes. He couldn¡¯t tell what either of them were doing anymore. He vaguely got the impression that Madrick was more of a blur than Willow, faster than her, but he might have been wrong.
Kai stepped into the fray, his form flickering as he stepped toward Willow. His hand moved in a motion like what someone would use when laying it on their friend¡¯s shoulder to calm them, but about a thousand times faster as far as he could tell. The gesture was wasted as Willow blurred away from it and he stepped back, shaking his head while keeping his eyes on them.
A few seconds after the blurring thing started, it suddenly felt as if all of the color was drained from the surrounding area. His focus still captured by the fight, if one person dodging and another trying to hit could be called that, but he noticed everything but the two of them appeared less real. Kai, standing with a deep frown off to one side within Jonah¡¯s peripheral vision had suddenly seemed more fuzzy around the edges, less saturated, just less.
Then it ended. It was shockingly sudden. There had been a whirlwind of motion which looked more like a localized tornado than two people moving, then they were still. Jonah saw Willow¡¯s fist planted firmly against Madrick¡¯s left forearm, then Willow collapsed like a doll with its strings cut.
He leapt up, moments before Naomi did the same. They moved quickly toward her, he thought he said something but it came out incomprehensible and he wasn¡¯t sure what he meant to say anyway. He briefly considered if he should be running away from the guy that just became a tornado to avoid the punches of his new, hopefully, friend. Instead he knelt beside her, quickly checking for her pulse.
Madrick spoke from above him as he did, ¡°She¡¯s fine. Just a bit of mana deprivation and Will strain.¡±
Finding she did indeed seem fine, with a strong heartbeat and even breaths, Jonah slowly looked up at him, ¡°Uh¡ Sir¡ Can I ask what that was about?¡±
Madrick ignored him and turned to Ki¡¯ai¡¯en, ¡°You see that? She hit me!¡±
He sounded excited.
Ki¡¯ai¡¯en was still frowning deeply. That was the first expression Jonah had seen him make, and he¡¯d been wearing it for a while now, ¡°Yes, I saw. That is¡ Impressive.¡±
¡°Yep. I¡¯m taking her.¡± So saying, Madrick¡¯s right hand reached down toward her prone form. Jonah wanted to jump in front of that descending hand, wanted to demand he stop, that he couldn¡¯t just take someone. He didn¡¯t move. He knew he couldn¡¯t stop that monster from doing whatever he wanted. More than just the display he¡¯d just seen, something deep within him was simply certain about that.
Ki¡¯ai¡¯en, thankfully, didn¡¯t have the same hesitation. He stepped forward quickly and grasped the larger man¡¯s hand. Ki¡¯ai¡¯en¡¯s fingers couldn¡¯t even close around half of Madrick¡¯s massive wrist. ¡°While she may not be contracted to the faction, I can hardly allow anyone to be abducted from our premises, and directly in front of me at that.¡±
Jonah was ready to drag Willow under the nearest table to give them both some cover, Naomi would probably join them too as she was on Willow¡¯s other side and was fussing over her and ignoring the other two¡¯s discussion.
It wasn¡¯t necessary as Madrick just sighed, ¡°Yeah, good point. We¡¯ll just wait for her to wake up I guess. How ¡¯bout we all go to my lounge while we wait? No need to worry the rest of these¡¡± He glanced around with clear contempt in his eyes, ¡°people.¡±
The impression Jonah got was that himself and Naomi were included in the descriptor ¡®people¡¯ which, coming from the man he was rapidly developing a fear of, was clearly derogatory.
Ki¡¯ai¡¯en nodded slowly, ¡°That is acceptable. I will carry her there, if you will lead the way.¡±
¡°Great!¡± Madrick rasped and spun on his heal, walking at a pace Jonah was entirely sure he couldn¡¯t keep up with even at a run. He wasn¡¯t sure how that was even physically possible. Madrick¡¯s steps seemed almost lazy, yet they cut through the distance like a razor blade through paper.
Hesitating for a moment, Ki¡¯ai¡¯en reached out and tapped both Jonah and Naomi with his pointer finger. Immediately, Madrick¡¯s steps seemed more reasonable. The elf nodded at them, ¡°Keep up. It would be best if she has friends around her. I have an inkling of what Madrick has decided for her fate. It¡¯s a path best not walked alone.¡±
With those ominous words, he scooped Willow up and followed in Madrick¡¯s wake. Naomi and Jonah exchanged looks, then followed. What other option did they have, sit back down and pretend they¡¯d never met the exuberant girl? Jonah hadn¡¯t been able to do much back on Earth, but it seemed that so long as he stuck near Willow, he¡¯d get an adventure here.
Chapter 6 - Disciple
Willow
Escr¨ºi Hospitality (Resort and Recreation)
Throbbing, aching, pounding pain. Did Whitney convince me to chug tequila again? Urgh, I hope not, last time it took like a week to piece together everything that happened.
With trepidation, Willow slowly cracked her eyes. To her shock, her head didn¡¯t protest at the light streaming gloriously into the room and directly onto her face. The skylight above her was interesting, shaped like a crescent moon, with a stylized bite taken out of the inner edge near the bottom.
¡°Ahhh, the fierce champion wakes at last!¡± A scratchy voice came from her right, prompting Willow to snap her head in the direction. She winced even as she moved, expecting the extreme motion to hurt. It didn¡¯t. This is the weirdest headache I¡¯ve ever had. When she saw Madrick and his fancy getup everything came back to her in an instant.
She rapidly sat up and shuffled awkwardly against the solid headboard behind her. What in God¡¯s good name is this weirdo doing in the room while I¡¯m sleeping in an unfamiliar bed?! Panicked, her eyes rapidly took in the room.
It was a simply, but beautifully, decorated space. Each piece of furniture appeared to be hand made. A desk and chair which somehow gave the impression of being one part of the same whole, thousands of delicate chisel grooves placed with perfect precision to turn the ¡®rough¡¯ appearance into a gorgeous work of art. A wardrobe which had what appeared be literal vines growing along its edges in a manner that appeared natural, but with such perfect symmetry it could only have been planned. The bed itself was similar, the comforter she was laying atop looked as if it was woven from long grass, the pattern reminding her of woven baskets she¡¯d seen on sale at certain festivals. Despite its appearance, her hands, which were still resting on the blanket¡¯s surface after shoving herself upright, told her every ¡®blade of grass¡¯ was luxuriously silky and soft.
Seeing she was laying atop the otherwise undisturbed blankets, and still entirely dressed, allowed her to calm marginally. Seeing Naomi rush in through the door behind Madrick with a worried expression helped more. After her initial reaction had been soothed, an odd detail demanded her attention and she looked down at herself, then back and Naomi, Have I been wearing this the whole time?
She wasn¡¯t sure how she hadn¡¯t noticed she was in a jumpsuit of an uninspired grey color. It was the same Naomi and Kent wore, and she¡¯d presumably had it on all day, so she wasn¡¯t sure why it was surprising. Or important, for that matter. Oh look, a distraction. Nice try, subconscious, you¡¯re gonna have to do better than that. As she did with most problems in her life, she opted to face it head on.
She turned her narrowed eyes on Madrick, who for some reason looked significantly less intimidating. She wasn¡¯t sure why she remembered his name when she usually had trouble with names. Maybe it had to do with the indescribable fear he¡¯d inspired. Either way, she had no trouble meeting his eyes now as she asked, ¡°What happened? Where¡¯d you bring me?¡±
Offhanded, she noticed Kai and Kent both file into the room. Kent was wearing a deep frown, seeming troubled and worried. Madrick answered with a grin that wrenched her attention back to him. It was that same awful smile he¡¯d been wearing when she first saw him. She braced herself for the unnatural fear, but it didn¡¯t come.
Instead, he answered, ¡°You exhausted yourself. You used all of your mana and exhausted your Will. You may have strained your mana channels, too, though I¡¯m not sure. I gave you a recovery draft, so you¡¯ll be back to normal in an hour or so. You¡¯ve been asleep for about three hours. An unfortunately long time, but I suppose you can¡¯t be entirely perfect.¡±
Uh ho¡ Let¡¯s count the red flags. Showed up out of nowhere, knowing my name? One. Creepily smiled while demanding I touch, well punch but same thing, him? Two. After causing me to pass out, directly or indirectly, he took my unconscious body to an unknown bedroom? Three. Having brought me to, presumably his, bedroom, he forced my sleeping self to drink something. Four. He just implied I was nearly perfect. Five. That¡¯s a lot of red flags.
She stared at him for a long few seconds, trying to decide how to reply. Finally, she decided letting him down easy would be best. He was clearly bigger and stronger than her, more powerful, fully in control of this situation. She didn¡¯t have much leverage, but she¡¯d heard that obsessive stalkers could sometimes be reasoned with if the subject of their attention presented their arguments right.
¡°Look,¡± She started nervously as she slowly got out of the bed on the left side, the furthest side from him. He¡¯d only have to take a couple steps to his right and the bed wouldn¡¯t be between them anymore. There was nothing on the nightstand now directly behind her that she could use in a confrontation. Not that it would matter. She instinctively knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to find her focus, not to mention her moment.
¡°You seem ah¡ Nice¡ You have that winning smile and uh¡ Just look at that goatte, I¡¯m sure it takes a lot of work to maintain and keep it so smooth and ah, nice, looking.¡± Yep, yep, you¡¯re doing great. Butter him up. Now make it seem like I¡¯m more trouble than I¡¯m worth. ¡°The thing is, I¡¯m reeeally new to this world. You¡¯re obviously really strong, so ah, being around me would probably slow you down. I couldn¡¯t even give you a challenge in our little spar earlier so ah¡ Well what I¡¯m saying is¡¡± Now make sure he can¡¯t misinterpret, ¡°I think maybe we should just be friends. Y¡¯know? You seem great but uhm, well, I don¡¯t want to hold you back or anything like that.¡± Her words sped up as she saw realization dawning on his face, ¡°Not that you aren¡¯t great! You¡¯re good. You¡¯re probably awesome! It¡¯s just me, I¡¯m not really in a good position to be a good partner to anyone right now, much less someone as clearly overqualified as you and -¡±
¡°BAH HA HA HAHAHA,¡± Madrick¡¯s laugh literally shook the room. Willow stumbled out of her semi-crouched position. She¡¯d been standing like he was an escaped zoo animal she was trying to sooth. Her right hand was even raised ever-so-slightly. The laugh continued for a good ten seconds. Seconds Willow mostly used by staring at him in slack jawed confusion. This certainly wasn¡¯t what she¡¯d expected. Her eyes flicked behind Madrick to Kai and Kent.
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Kent was looking at Madrick, and around at the shaking room, with concern. Kai¡¯s nostrils were slightly flared, eyes wide and both sides of his mouth turned upward in a smile. Having spent the last couple hours with Kai she could say with near certainty that the expression was Kai¡¯s version of the full-body laugh Madrick was calming down from.
The big man in front of her wiped an imagined tear from under his right eye, then he let out one laugh bark of laughter as he looked at her, ¡°HAH! You thought I was romantically interested in you?¡±
Not romantically, per se, more like creepy stalker interest but okay - this makes it seem like maybe I was wrong. Good. Great, actually! She carefully moved to confirm her hypothesis, ¡°Sooo¡ You¡¯re not? Interested in me, I mean?¡±
He shook his head, a purer version of his signature smile on his face still after his bout of laughter, ¡°Oh, I¡¯m quite interested in you.¡± Shoot. ¡°But not your body or emotions or anything like that.¡± Good? Maybe?
He stood there and just smiled at her, apparently waiting for her to reply. She probed a bit, ¡°Sooo¡¡± Her nerves caused her Texan heritage to come out to play, drawing her ¡°So¡± out into a long drawl. She pushed on, ignoring the uncontrolled accent for the moment, ¡°Yer interested in me in some other way? ¡®Nd yer not plannin¡¯ to do anythin¡¯¡. Weird?¡±
Oh shoot, the creepy smile is back. ¡°Depends on what you consider weird, I suppose. I¡¯m interested in you because you¡¯re positively dripping with potential. I¡¯m taking you as my disciple.¡± Having said that, her UICI unfurled a scroll dramatically in front of her. It was lined in gold and silver, gems apparently inset into the top and bottom hand-bar things.
DISCIPLESHIP INITIATED
Madrick Lark, the Dominator, has taken you as his prot¨¦g¨¦ and disciple.
No. No! No no no!
She pushed her denial at the prompt over and over, but nothing happened. It didn¡¯t tell her it was denied or canceled or anything else.
Either reading her mind, or her increasingly panicked expression, Madrick grinned, ¡°Sorry little tree, you can¡¯t decline this particular invite.¡±
Seeing her horror, he threw back his head and laughed again. Shaking the world.
Ki¡¯ai¡¯en
Escr¨ºi Hospitality (Resort and Recreation)
After waking, Willow¡¯s assumption that Madrick was planning to take her as some kind of slave-lover had been frankly amusing. Her expression upon learning she was Madrick¡¯s disciple, was both pitiable and hilarious.
He could understand her reaction. After all, their introduction had been nothing short of traumatizing. Yet, had she known more, had the chance to know more, she would likely have been excited. Then her excitement would have been tempered by what came next, but even so. Madrick had once been at the peak. He was one of the so-called ¡°fallen gods.¡± Having stood as a rank one hundred, and above, existence. Then he¡¯d been killed, lost all his power, and fallen back to mortality. After less than a decade since his fall, he was already back at rank twelve.
There were quite literally millions, possibly trillions, of people who had put formal requests in to become his apprentice. While Madrick did enjoy some benefits from his prior achievements, it also left him isolated unless he wanted to be surrounded by hangers-on. Ki¡¯ai¡¯en himself was probably one of the closest things to a friend the man had, and that was an exaggeration at best. Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had been working for a different faction, one which Madrick himself had destroyed, when Madrick had arrived from his tutorial.
They had become acquainted as Ki¡¯ai¡¯en showed him how things worked. Unlike most, Ki¡¯ai¡¯en felt very little desire to continue rising through the ranks of power. He derived pleasure and achievement from helping others reach their goals - he had little ambition to become a ranker, legend, god, or anything else himself. He did enjoy helping others find their own paths in life, though.
In this case, he couldn¡¯t help Willow. She somehow seemed to already have taken a step along her own path, and Madrick was interested enough in it to claim his right to take a personal disciple. Being his disciple did come with a large number of benefits. Many of which she would not see for a very long time, if he didn¡¯t miss his guess.
Knowing he didn¡¯t have much time, and that Madrick was unlikely to explain anything at all, Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had spent the majority of the time she¡¯d been unconscious splitting his focus. He¡¯d been spoken quietly with Naomi and Jonah, doing his best to prepare them for what would come next. He¡¯d used his authority as a faction administrator to release them both from their contracts, replacing it with a new one.
The new contract was much less predatory, though he would admit it still managed to provide more benefit to his faction than to them. This was an unfortunately necessity, as any ¡°unworthy¡± contract might bring scrutiny - which would lead to higher powers looking into them more directly. That would do them no favors. Even so, he¡¯d done his best for them. This ¡°behavior¡± was also why he was not permitted to act as a recruiter himself, and never had been, despite his willingness and his exemplary track record. That record also included notes about his, ¡°unfortunate character flaw¡± of wishing the best for those he was responsible for.
Madrick¡¯s final laugh finally stopped, which brought Ki¡¯ai¡¯en back to the present. He only had enough time to accelerate quickly to tap Jonah and, stepping quickly across the room, Naomi, investing them with come along. The same spell he had used to help them see Willow and Madrick¡¯s ¡°spar.¡± He gave Naomi a small push, she¡¯d been standing frozen on the right side of the bed since Willow and Madrick had started talking. She was absolutely terrified of Madrick, understandably, but she needed to move if she was to join Madrick¡¯s new disciple in her trials; which incidentally was a requirement of her new contract as well.
He made it just in time, as less than a second after Naomi started climbing over the bed to join Willow, the space underneath her let out a horrifying ¡°screeeeaaa¡± and a sharp snap, the maw of a jagged portal opening directly below her. Willow let out her own scream as she suddenly fell through it. Kent had already been moving toward her and dove head first after her. Naomi, despite her obvious fear, didn¡¯t hesitate to hop from the bed and down into the maw herself.
The portal closed with the snap of a thousand breaking chains.
Ki¡¯ai¡¯en turned to look at Madrick, ¡°You didn¡¯t explain anything. She won¡¯t know what to do.¡±
He shrugged, ¡°Eh, then she¡¯ll die a bit. I don¡¯t babysit.¡±
Sighing deeply Ki¡¯ai¡¯en calmed himself and asked, ¡°Then given you apparently have no other obligations, would you like to join myself and Mav for dinner?¡±
Chapter 7 - Dropped (nearly) Into the Soup
Willow
Dead Patch of Earth, Unknown, Savria
Falling wasn¡¯t a new experience for Willow. Suddenly falling without any kind of warning at all, was. The only warning she¡¯d had was her vision moving suddenly from looking up at Madrick¡¯s face, to a very fast look at Madrick¡¯s entire body: neck, coat covered chest, coat covered belly, bright silver belt buckle fastening two belts in an X, boots, and then the edge of the room¡¯s floor. Still, her innate ability and years of training kicked in and she landed gracefully. She let her body coil, rapidly dropping into a crouch and then moving into a backwards roll to absorb any remaining energy.
As she came back to her feet, the first thing she noticed was how hot it was. She¡¯d lived most of her life in south east Texas, which was hotter than she enjoyed most of the year. This was so much worse. Every breath was like sucking in a sauna¡¯s steam. She wondered if her sweat was evaporating, or if it was just so humid that it felt like it.
The second thing she noticed were the hunched little creatures which were huddled around a huge pot, turning to look at her. They were creepy little critters with eyes of dull grey, like tarnished silver. She didn¡¯t see any separation of sclera, iris, or pupil, it was all one uniform and off-putting color.
Before she could take in the alien monsters further, Kent fell head first in front of her, immediately followed by Naomi who landed rear-first on his back. Willow¡¯s eyes snapped upward and she barely caught the edges of what looked like a closing mouth in the air. Can¡¯t tell if this is a better end to the whole kidnapped while unconscious scenario than I had originally thought, or worse.
Gurgling and chittering sounds drew her attention back to the creatures and their pot. Now that she spent more than half a second, which had mostly been stuck on the creepy eyes, she could examine them properly.
They looked to be just a bit over a meter tall. Each creature¡¯s feet had four toe-like branches connected by a thin looking skin. Each toe was splayed dramatically far from its neighbors, with the far left and right toe on each foot being perpendicular to their knobby ankles. Their legs seemed to protrude more from the back side of their somewhat bulbous abdomens, vs. being centered like she might expect of a humanoid. Those backwards legs went back sharply before they bent dramatically forward at something she could only describe as a reverse knee joint. Once the leg was just a handful of centimeters in front of the body, another joint and small length of shin joined the leg to the foot.
As for their torso, it was something like a bloated summer-squash in shape if not color. They had an almost comically large waist and belly. She would have said fat, but as they began hop-stepping forward she noticed idly that they didn¡¯t really jiggle much. That large belly rapidly thinned as it joined their chest, which were less than half the size. They had a small neck joining to heads which were only uniform in their non-uniformity. Some of them looked squashed, others stretched, still others were perfect balls. The bottom half of their heads were split entirely from one side to the other by a wide mouth full of teeth. She could see at least two rows of teeth, a front row that reminded her of sharks teeth, with a back-row that looked like a million long needles. They had a hole in the middle of their faces which were presumably their noses. She was able to see the profile of a few as they started making their way around the pot and saw they had little slit-like features on the sides of their heads, several rows of them, which she would have thought were gills on a fish. Maybe those were ears for these little freaks?
Last, their arms were horrific. They each had three arms, one which protruded directly from their chest, and two on either side of their torso. If that hadn¡¯t been unsettling enough, their arms each had at least six joints as far as she could see, and she could see, because the arms didn¡¯t seem to have almost anything in the way of fat or muscle. They seemed like bone covered with weird knobbly skin. The same knobbly skin the rest of their bodies were covered with. Their skin color ranged from a washed-out red, to a desaturated purple. Each hand ended in three long multi-jointed fingers, which were positioned far apart from each-other to allow them to grip things.
This was all too much to take in and Willow realized she had been staring dumbly for several seconds. Meanwhile the creatures weird gurgles and chirps had become more frantic and excited. They were hop-stepping toward Naomi and Kent, who had started to get themselves sorted and were looking around in confusion. Naomi was fully on her feet and turned toward the noises, letting out a shockingly loud shriek and fleeing in toward Willow, tripping over Kent¡¯s leg as he was standing and sending them both back into a heap.
It was almost funny, really. The little creatures were definitely weird looking, but not really scary, per se. That was when Willow noticed that several of the little knobbly clawed hands had what looked like crude knives. More like sharpened rocks, but clearly weapons. She didn¡¯t have any basis to judge their body language from, but as they approached swinging the ¡°knives¡±, it seemed plenty threatening. They also seemed to be mostly intent on her clearly distracted companions.
She wasn¡¯t really sure why Madrick had sent Naomi and Kent here with her, he¡¯d seemed to imply he was only interested in her during their very brief and very weird interaction. Regardless of reasons, they were here and didn¡¯t look like they were in any condition to defend themselves. Willow quickly moved forward, stepping around and in front of the two as they worked to right themselves.
Dropping into a defensive stance she shouted at the creatures, hoping the UICI could translate if they were smart enough to understand, ¡°Stop there! We aren¡¯t here to cause trouble.¡± Out of the six of them, the two closest to them paused. For the bare moment that they hesitated, Willow thought maybe they weren¡¯t as monstrous as they looked and they could be reasoned with.
Then the nearest one screamed and leapt forward. The jump was absolutely incredible, eating the remaining three and half or so meters between them in a moment. Still on guard, Willow was surprised but not caught flat footed. She pivoted right and took a long strafing step in the same direction. The movement put her in the perfect position so that when the creature landed, seeming baffled to not see the strange caramel-skinned creature it was targeting in front of it, the full-force rabbit punch was received with no chance to defend or dodge.
Willow nearly vomited when her hand went into the creature¡¯s shockingly soft skull. Then she yelped and spun into a snap kick with her right heel, having felt a sharp pain in her arm. Her foot connected with the chest of another of the creatures, throwing it violently back. She glanced at her arm and saw a shallow, but long, slash across it. She winced, multiple opponents¡ Coach always said I was sh¡ bad¡ at fighting multiple opponents. If you can hear me, oh wise Jim Conahey, thank you for insisting on making me practice anyway.
The two she¡¯d struck so far had been in the lead and had apparently both done that leaping thing. The others hadn¡¯t arrived yet, and had actually paused when they saw two of their number fall so easily. For just a brief second Willow thought that maybe she¡¯d be able to scare them off. She took a threatening step forward and let out her best intimidating yell. It seemed to be working! Then the one she kicked sat up, shook it head, and screeched.
They all charged together. This time they came as a small swarm. Five opponents was a lot, or would be if they were human and skilled. These things though, they seemed both entirely untrained in any kind of fighting arts and so far they appeared stupid.
That being the case, she followed the advice of one of the instructors coach had introduced her to. Mr. Joseph was an ex-marine who taught a variant of Crav Maga. He had been one of her favorite instructors. The specific advice she was following now, ¡°When you¡¯re facing a lot of unskilled opponents, move through them. Don¡¯t worry about fighting any of them. Just put them down. Don¡¯t give them a chance to use their numbers. Put them off balance as a group.¡±
She charged. The creatures hesitated again and Willow took full advantage. She had a feeling she still couldn¡¯t use her focus or her moment, but she didn¡¯t need it here. As she passed the front line, she threw out an arm and clotheslined the smaller enemy which was so small she almost missed, but caught it in the throat with her fist. She didn¡¯t stop, she slowed only slightly as she entered the enemy line proper. She threw quick downward jabs and kicks, but nothing that would truly slow her down. Nothing that would have connected with a skilled opponent. In this case, every strike landed.
When she reached the end she leapt, bringing a hard axe kick on the round head of the last enemy in their ranks. It squelched disgustingly. Don¡¯t think about it. More enemies. Have knives. People to protect. Even if she wasn¡¯t using her focus, she was still focused. She spun and charged back at the still disoriented and reeling enemies. The next part of Mr. Joseph¡¯s advice now made sense, ¡°Once you¡¯ve gotten through your enemies, they¡¯ll either be off balance and ready for you to take them down - Or they¡¯ll be collecting themselves and you should run. If they can reorganize, it¡¯s unlikely the same tactic will work again, even with unskilled opponents. Remember, people learn. Desperate and endangered people learn faster.¡±
She charged back into the reeling and furiously chattering creatures.
Naomi
Dead Patch of Earth, Unknown, Savria
When Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had explained what he thought Madrick was going to do to her and Jonah, Naomi hadn¡¯t really truly believed it. Yes, she¡¯d died and come back to life¡ But a man opening portals? Sending people to other worlds that easily? There should be a big complicated ring surrounded by runes, chevrons even! A gateway! A ritual diagram on a floor with candles all around! Something more than some guy dressed like he only shopped at Halloween superstores and renaissance fares waving his hand for crying out loud!
Despite her misgivings, things had gone more or less as Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had thought they would. Willow woke up, started freaking out, rightfully so! And suddenly the guy just declared she was his disciple, then opened a freaking portal directly under her. Just like Ki¡¯ai¡¯en said. Jonah had leapt through the portal like he was doing a shallow dive, for some reason, and she¡¯d followed. That was also just like Ki¡¯ai¡¯en said. She was thankful the drop was just a half meter or so or Jonah may have actually been hurt with his rough fall and her immediately landing on top of him.
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Then just as she¡¯d managed to get off of Jonah, who she felt guilty about knocking the air out of, she saw a bunch of little demon things! They were the creepiest and most unsettling little shits she¡¯d ever seen! Her heart was pounding so fast as she tried to flee, just to trip over Jonah and fall over him again. She scrambled out quickly and got to her feet, helping him up without even looking as she desperately checked to see how close to eating her the little demons were.
That¡¯s when she saw Willow destroy them. She moved through them like they were nothing. She was like a tornado, running between them without a single one managing to touch her. More than that, she seemed to punch or kick every single one on her way to the back. Then she crushed the last one¡¯s skull, spun on her heel, and almost seemed to glide toward the now extremely disoriented group of nasty things. Then she killed them. Unlike her initial run, it wasn¡¯t beautiful. It was horrifying.
She pulled back a fist, punching into a skull. Then she quickly took it out, shaking it, moved to the next, punched again, her first still went in but not as deep. By the third one she seemed to have found the right amount of force to kill the imps without actually putting her fist through their heads. Then she just did that twice more and there were no more little demon things. There were just three humans and a pot.
Naomi was panting, her adrenaline racing. Jonah had finally regained his feet, and Willow was calmly looking around with a disgusted expression, holding her hand up like she¡¯d picked up something nasty and wanted somewhere to wash up.
Now that she looked around, Naomi could see there was nothing to wash up with. They were standing on what felt like hard packed clay. Looking around, they were in a large area of grey-colored cracked earth. There was no grass, no trees, no convenient stream or napkins or anything to clean off the gore. She saw what looked like trees in the distance, but they were much too far to be useful in the present. Willow apparently came to the same conclusion as she groaned, then proceeded to wipe it off on her jumper¡¯s trousers.
¡°Uh¡ Thanks for¡ Saving us,¡± Naomi finished lamely.
Willow looked up at her, flashing her a quick smile, ¡°No problem! Now, onto the most important matter at hand¡¡± Two sets of eyes stared at her, clearly more than willing to follow her lead, as it sounded like she already had a plan.
She pointed toward the corpses, ¡°What do we call those things? I¡¯m leaning toward ¡®spindle hoppers¡¯. Is that too on the nose? Maybe ¡®pop-hopper?¡¯ They remind me a lot of those little popper toys I used to play with as a kid¡¡± She trailed off with an intense thoughtful expression.
After several moments Jonah answered slowly, ¡°Uhh¡ Sure, pop-hopper is fine.¡±
Naomi stared at the bodies for several moments, not entirely sure why pop-hopper instead of something like ¡®arm-ey-imp¡¯, or maybe ¡®pear terror¡¯, given their somewhat pear-ish figure. She wasn¡¯t the ones that killed them all though, so she just gave a tentative, ¡°Sure.¡±
Willow smiled again, clearly pleased, ¡°Good! So with that critical decision made¡¡±
She stopped and looked between the two of them, clearly doing her best to maintain the smile, ¡°Ah¡ I don¡¯t really know what to do next.¡± She looked around, smile finally fading as her face went through a huge range of emotions which Naomi couldn¡¯t even begin to parse. Jonah walked over to the pot, eyes shooting looks at Willow which Naomi couldn¡¯t decide were worshipful or wary. Both?
He made a face and gagging sound, staggering away. Still gagging and clearly trying to keep his last meal down he waved both women away from the pot frantically, ¡°It¡¯s nasty. I don¡¯t know what they were doing, but I¡¯ve never smelled anything that bad.¡±
Once he¡¯d managed to get far enough away he couldn¡¯t smell or see the contents anymore he explained more, ¡°It looked like they had whole creatures in there. Some small hairy things. Maybe like rats or something? I¡¯m not sure. It was all in something that looked like swamp water.¡± He gagged again just at the memory and neither woman made to approach the clearly disturbing pot.
Giving Jonah space to recover from the experience, Naomi turned the conversation to more practical matters, ¡°What¡¯s next?¡±
Willow blinked at the question as if startled by it, ¡°Ah¡ I¡ I have no idea?¡± She looked around, wincing, ¡°I don¡¯t see any buildings or smoke in the distance that might indicate civilization or anything¡¡±
Willow suddenly looked worried. The generally extremely controlled and mostly still girl was running her thumb along her lips and staring down with an intense concentration as she did her best to puzzle out next steps.
After a few seconds of thought, she looked up toward Jonah as he rejoined them in a little triangle formation. He shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m not really sure either. I really don¡¯t know anything about the wilderness or surviving it.¡±
Naomi looked around again. The trees she could see seemed to start about the same distance away in any direction. They were in the center of a weird dead circle. She wasn¡¯t sure how or why, though the creatures they, well, Willow, had fought and their pot being in the middle were certainly hints. What they were hints of, she had no idea.
She started thinking out loud, ¡°Well we¡¯ll need shelter and water first. It¡¯s really hot, but it¡¯s also shaded right now.¡± Looking up, she saw this was due to what appeared to be a heavy mist or fog that hung in the air several hundred meters up. It was strange, as she¡¯d really only seen mist from above or the same level, not below. Shouldn¡¯t mist fall down since the moisture in the air is denser?
Putting the strange phenomena aside, she continued, ¡°We should assume the sun coming out will make the heat much harder to bare. Not to mention it¡¯ll more directly burn away our sweat and cause dehydration to set in faster.¡±
The others were both looking at her when she brought her gaze back down from the strange mist. It made her nervous, but neither looked like they were ready to argue or complain about what she was saying. She continued, ¡°So we should move toward the trees. It looks like it turns into a forest, which will at least give us some relief from the sun when it comes out. Trees also generally mean there will be sources of water somewhere nearby. Either that, or it rains here frequently enough for them to survive.¡± Or they¡¯re mutant trees that don¡¯t need water, or there¡¯s an underground spring or something and we¡¯ll die of dehydration before we can figure that out. She sternly pushed the negative thought aside and waited for both Willow and Jonah to nod.
Willow gave her a bright smile, ¡°Great! Then I nominate you leader, since you have an idea of what to do.¡±
Looking at Jonah, Naomi was a bit surprised when he just nodded, ¡°Sounds good. We¡¯ll follow your lead.¡±
Leading other people across a dead landscape toward an unknown and untamed forest was a very new, very strange experience. On one hand, it was quite literally a dream come true. On the other hand, she felt woefully unprepared. In all of her daydreams she¡¯d always had time to plan an expedition. Of course, she had never bothered to plan anything. If she could manage to get out of bed, she generally used the small burst of energy to do laundry and the dishes before she inevitably collapsed on the couch to watch TV, then she¡¯d realize it was time for bed and the cycle began again.
The days she felt good were the days she played games. She enjoyed the games she could feel useful in the best. Base building was good, some MMOs, though she wasn¡¯t able to play consistently enough and sometimes playing would send her spiraling badly when she realized how useless she really was.
The absolute best games were survival games. They weren¡¯t about min-maxing, they weren¡¯t about knowing everything ahead of time, and they weren¡¯t competitive. At least the ones she played. They were all about helping a smallish community of people survive and prosper, starting from nothing.
As she lead the others, Willow struck up a conversation with Jonah. It almost felt like she was playing one of those games now. It felt exactly like she¡¯d always dreamed it would. Being part of a party, for real.
Willow
Dead Patch of Earth, Unknown, Savria
The walk really wasn¡¯t horrible, other than the heat. It was way too hot. The strange thing was, she didn¡¯t feel nearly as thirsty as she thought she should. She was sweating so much that her jumpsuit was quite literally soaked through. Despite that, she did her best to stay positive.
The weird little monsters that she¡¯d fallen almost literally in the middle of hadn¡¯t killed and eaten her. She was clearly in a world of magic, which was just exciting all by itself. She even had companions! Companions who she didn¡¯t feel guilty about indirectly dragging into a dangerous and potentially deadly situation. Yep, I don¡¯t feel guilty because there¡¯s nothing to feel guilty about. It¡¯s not my fault. You hear that, guilt?! Go away! It¡¯s not my fault!
Failing to convince her unwanted emotional tag-along, she looked for something more productive. She needed to get to get to know her new buddies!
¡°Naomi, Kee-Jonah.¡± Kent narrowed his eyes at her, definitely not realizing she was still thinking of him as Kent. She continued smoothly, ¡°What were your lives like, back on earth I mean?¡±
Naomi glanced back at her, then returned her focus to leading them forward. Willow wasn¡¯t exactly sure what she was keeping an eye out for, given they could see literally everything on the burned earth. Every little stone and boulder was obvious for kilometers. Jonah just looked away from her.
She winced, ¡°Sorry, I guess dying is still a bit of a sore subject?¡±
¡°Not really.¡± Kent answered first, ¡°It¡¯s just my life wasn¡¯t really anything much worth talking about.¡±
¡°What? I don¡¯t think I understand. Why wouldn¡¯t it be?¡± She wished she could watch him and watch where she was going so she could read his expressions. I¡¯m supposed to look at people when they talk to me, darn it! Unfortunately, the dead ground was just uneven and pitted enough to require keeping at least some attention on walking, without truly being treacherous or interesting.
He sighed deeply, ¡°I just wasn¡¯t able to do a ton and wasn¡¯t particularly good at anything that I did do. I had really really bad sight. Without my glasses everything was essentially one big blob of indistinct colors, barely even shapes¡ With my glasses I could make out shapes, but not really much else. I was also born without the ability to use my legs, at all. Things were¡ Rough. So I don¡¯t really have anything super interesting to tell you about myself, y¡¯know?¡±
¡°Oh, well¡¡± Willow was quiet for a moment, trying to figure out how to say what she was thinking. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound particularly fun, I won¡¯t argue¡ But I¡¯m definitely interested to hear about how life was for you like that, you know? It¡¯s really different from the life I had. I¡¯m sure some of it is probably hard to talk about, and we probably shouldn¡¯t start with that since we literally met like¡ Today? Yesterday? Something like that.¡±
She glanced his way and saw he was looking at her, they locked eyes for a moment before they both turned to look forward and avoid stumbling needlessly. She continued, ¡°But I¡¯d definitely love to hear about what everyday was like at least? I¡¯m sure it seems uninteresting to you, since it was normal¡ But¡ To me it sounds pretty fascinating to learn how you overcame those challenges every day.¡±
Naomi chipped in quickly, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯d love to hear about it too!¡±
After walking a bit longer in silence Kent let out a soft chuckle, ¡°Alright, well¡ I worked as a day trader to support myself. Aside from that, I think I spent the most time listening to audio books. A normal day kind of went like this¡¡±
The walk had gone much faster once Willow had managed to get Kent talking. Naomi, on the other hand, was mostly quiet. She¡¯d spoken a bit, and answered a few questions, but seemed pretty reluctant to talk about herself. She was happy enough to engage in the conversation, just as long as the focus wasn¡¯t on her directly. She interjected to add thoughts, or ask questions, but avoided or redirected questions about herself.
Still, they walked in the blazing heat for five hours and it hadn¡¯t felt all that bad. Only when she thought about the heat. She knew it had been five hours, because the clock in the top right corner of her UICI let her keep track. Without that, she¡¯d have had no real clue. If there was a sun hidden behind that weird layer of gas in the air at all, she didn¡¯t know if it was moving. The day hadn¡¯t gotten any brighter, darker, or cooler, and thankfully not any warmer. Everything seemed stuck in a moment of time here. A bad, sweaty, hot moment.
Now, though, at last, they reached the trees! They had started passing by stationary trees a while ago, then small groups, and now they were entering what could only be considered a forest. Or is it a jungle? What¡¯s the difference, again? As soon as they stepped under the canopy of feather-like leaves of the oddly smooth-barked trees, it was like they¡¯d stepped indoors. The temperature dropped dramatically. She¡¯d guess it was at least a 20 degree celcius difference.
She threw her hands in the air and shouted in triumph, ¡°WE FOUND THE FOREST OF A/C! WE¡¯RE SAVED!!!¡±
Chapter 8 - Crafting & Survival
Willow
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The hours after reaching the site that the party, we should totally name our group, had chosen as a campsite, Willow found herself striking one rock against another. Naomi had pointed out a stone with a flat smooth plane on the edge and explained that it looked like flint, and showed them how to ¡°knap¡± it. Though Naomi hadn¡¯t been any more skilled in the process of smashing a harder rock into the relatively softer and more brittle flint, she¡¯d at least known why they should do so.
Once it was clear that Willow¡¯s manual dexterity and general control over her body¡¯s motions made her the best at the task by far, Naomi had assigned it to her. Assigned as in asked very politely and made clear if Willow wanted to do something else, or nothing at all, she wouldn¡¯t be complaining. She was a bit too polite, but Willow didn¡¯t mind and was happy to be useful in this whole ¡°stranded in the middle of nowhere¡± situation.
Naomi had taken the first ¡°knife blade¡± Willow had completed, along with one of those vines and a small bit of dead wood. The others had watched, enthralled, as she carefully used the sharp rock to cut the two centimeter thick vine carefully into thin half centimeter strips, then braided them together. Her braiding was pretty clumsy, and Willow thought she could probably have done better given her practice with braiding her friends¡¯ hair, but she just watched in interest.
Once the rough twine was ready, Naomi took the short piece of wood and the prospective knife blade, and used it to carefully bore a notch into the wood deep and wide enough to press the short and narrow part of the rock, opposite its tip into it. Once satisfied, she made two more on either side of the handle. Having made all the necessary cuts, she pressed the non-edge part of the blade into the hole she¡¯d bored for it then took the makeshift twine and wrapped it in a careful alternating pattern around the carved end of the handle and down to the other two ¡°holder¡± grooves she made.
The result was a rough knife that was impressively passable. Naomi had explained they could do the same thing to make other rough tools like Willow¡¯s current project, a hand-axe.
While she was working at trying to create bunch of ¡°blades¡± suitable for a list of tools Naomi had said they¡¯d want, Kent and Naomi were gathering materials for fire and shelter. Naomi had been excited to find some creeping vines wrapped around about half of the trees, along with the bounty of dead wood on the forest floor.
Kent dropped a pile of the oddly uniform and smooth wood off to the side of the roughly ten meter diameter clearing they had chosen to make their temporary base. Every fallen piece of the feather-branch wood, what they had decided to name the trees until they learned its official name, was nearly the same. It seemed that these trees had an extremely strict self-pruning pattern. As soon as a branch got to about three meters in length, it appeared to break in half and fall to the forest floor. They weren¡¯t exactly sure why they broke.
As far as any of them could see, most of the fallen branches were perfectly healthy. They had an ashy grey bark which was almost entirely smooth, as if sanded down to a perfect finish. It was still bark, rather than the tree¡¯s exposed trunk, which was made clear by the fallen branches. Each had a ring inside the bark which was a darker almost black color indicating the tree¡¯s actual lumber.
To make the odd uniformity even odder, the break point of each branch was almost identical with three main large jagged ¡°teeth¡± around the edge, with almost a saw pattern when looking directly at the break. Each branch was curved about ten degrees from one edge to the other, with very little variation. The ends of each branch were decked in the unique feather-like leaves they had named the trees for. They looked like huge eagle feathers from a distance. Up close, they were a tightly interlocked weave of leaves and stems. The entire weave was somewhat flexible when pushed or pulled. The older and dried out weaves also ended up being extremely flammable and made excellent tinder.
Despite the oddness, the branches would make good materials for building a primitive shelter, provide them with fuel to fight any chill, and keep away dangerous animals.
¡°Naomi, I¡¯m sorry you got dropped through a portal with me¡ But holy Jesus am I happy you¡¯re here. I don¡¯t think I wouldn¡¯t have even known what to do - much less how.¡± She stared at the other woman with as much gratitude on her face as she could manage. Naomi¡¯s face flushed a red deep enough to be noticeable even in the light cast by their small campfire.
¡°It¡¯s nothing really, it¡¯s just all stuff I learned from games and TV shows¡¡± She demurred, turning her eyes to the fire to avoid Willow¡¯s gaze.
Kent tossed another couple branches, which they¡¯d broken in half, into the fire to feed it and sat down on Naomi¡¯s other side, ¡°I agree with Willow. I¡¯m not going to say I¡¯d have died out here without you or anything, but the night certainly wouldn¡¯t be as comfortable as it¡¯s shaping up to be.¡±
Night had finally fallen, after a full twenty hours, and they were all exhausted. They¡¯d also accomplished a lot. They had a good section of the forest foliage and grasses cleared in their campsite with a ring of stones between the size of a fist and the size of head. They¡¯d dug the pit using a makeshift shovel, Kent had figured out how to make a reasonably useful shovel when Naomi had apologized for not knowing how. They also had a reasonable shelter in case of rain in the form of a lean-to. It would be extremely cramped with all three of them, but they¡¯d tested to make sure it was comfortable enough for an emergency downpour.
¡°Well.. I¡¯m glad I could be useful, at least¡¡± Naomi¡¯s voice was soft. If the three of them hadn¡¯t elected to bunch together near the fire it was likely her words would have been lost in the soft, near-constant wind. Willow turned her eyes to the fire to avoid embarrassing her further.
The lean-to had actually been pretty fun to make. Since all of the fallen branches were already a uniform size, it¡¯d really just been an exercise of notching and tying makeshift twine around the pieces to bind them together correctly. They worked together to figure out a pattern which allowed the natural mesh of the feathered foliage to fully cover them and theoretically keep off any rain from directly above or from the side where they¡¯d positioned the leaning structure. They weren¡¯t sure which cardinal direction it was facing, but had chosen based on observing which way the wind seemed to blow most consistently.
Stolen story; please report.
¡°So, tomorrow¡ What¡¯s our checklist?¡± Kent asked quietly. Willow looked back toward Naomi, finding Kent also looking at their elected leader.
The main issue they now faced was food and water. Willow had asked Naomi if they should go search for a stream or something after she was done knapping the flint into tools, but Naomi had argued that they should setup a base of operations first so they had a place to rest and take shelter. According to her, water was the next thing on the list but since they were all well fed and hydrated before arriving it shouldn¡¯t be their first priority. Willow wasn¡¯t entirely sure if that was right, but given Naomi hadn¡¯t steered them wrong so far she was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Naomi looked up, then between them, before taking a deep breath. She let it out slowly, clearly gathering her thoughts and nerves before speaking, ¡°First priority should be water, then once we find water - food. If we find food first, say a berry bush or something, we should mark it on our UICI map and come back for it later.¡±
Kent nodded along, but Willow frowned, ¡°Aren¡¯t marking and labeling things premium features?¡± She pulled up her map as she spoke and was shocked to find a much more detailed map than she expected outlining the entire area they had traveled and explored while looking for a good camping spot. She could see their somewhat zig-zagging path through the dead grey clearing, where they entered the forest, and then the snake-like pattern they¡¯d taken while following natural trails around the forest.
She looked up to find Kent and Naomi both looking at her with serious expressions. Uhhh¡ This seems ominous. ¡°What?¡±
Answering slowly, Kent¡¯s voice was a bit uncertain, ¡°While you were unconscious back in Madrick¡¯s room¡¡± He hurried on as he noticed Willow¡¯s eyes narrowing dangerously, ¡°Ki¡¯ai¡¯en warned us that something like this would probably happen. He said he thought Madrick¡¯s intention was probably to make you a student of his, and that his method of training is¡ What¡¯d he say exactly? ¡®Throw you into a marsh and see if you escape the snakes¡¯? Yeah, something like that. Sink or swim kind of training.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not training.¡± Willow¡¯s protest was flat and emotionless, clearly just stating the fact out of a compulsion more than feeling her audience didn¡¯t already know that.
¡°Ki¡¯ai¡¯en said he would purchase some important modules for Jonah and my accounts under our contracts as ¡®required for our duties¡¯.¡± Naomi picked up the story, ¡°He said if Madrick made you a student we could use a stipend he setup for us to unlock yours as well, but mentioned in the unlikely event that Madrick made you a full disciple the UICI would automatically charge him to unlock features using some kind of ¡®progression unlocks¡¯ subscription thing.¡±
Nodding along, Jonah interjected, ¡°He said it was part of the official disciple system built into the UICI. It gives a lot of benefits automatically, based on who your master is and what the level of their own rank and finances are at.¡±
Willow felt like she should have a thousand questions, and she should spend a portion of the night interrogating her comrades for every piece of information Kai had gifted them. She couldn¡¯t. She was so tired. She¡¯d been tired since she woke up in Madrick¡¯s room, then she¡¯d been exhausted after fighting the pop-hoppers, and now she was just running on fumes after the rest of the work she¡¯d put in today.
Now she was happy they had spent so much time and effort on their camp and shelter. She was excited to drop onto the relativity soft ¡°mattress¡± they¡¯d thrown together using the feather-tree fronds. She yawned deeply. Standing, she brushed the dirt off of herself to the best of her abilities and smiled to the other two, ¡°I¡¯m going to go to bed¡ We should talk more about this tomorrow.¡±
They just nodded and watched her make her way to bed.
Jonah
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Once Willow had stopped shuffling around, apparently having managed to get comfortable in the lean-to, Jonah turned to look at Naomi and spoke quietly, ¡°So ah¡ I guess you¡¯re also thinking we shouldn¡¯t tell her about the new contracts?¡±
Naomi sighed, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t want to get into a stupid misunderstanding about something we could have just mentioned¡ But I don¡¯t really know her well enough. What if she decides we¡¯re a liability because we¡¯re contracted to the Frazzlen and maybe she¡¯d be better off without us ¡®spying¡¯?¡±
Jonah stared at her for a bit, surprised at even the thought. He probably wouldn¡¯t have ever even considered a similar conspiracy. Primarily because, ¡°Why would the faction care about spying on her? And why would she care if they did want to?¡± He was genuinely baffled at the idea. As far as he could tell, they were all the smallest of fish in the largest ocean imaginable.
Naomi, though, looked at him like he was stupid, ¡°Because she¡¯s Madrick¡¯s disciple now? You heard how Ki¡¯ai¡¯en talked about him. That guy is a big deal. Don¡¯t you know anything about intrigue?¡±
¡°Uh¡ No?¡±
¡°I thought you read books!¡±
¡°Sure, but the books I liked had strong MCs that just kind of blast through all of their problems with magic and might!¡± He waved his hand and made a ¡°boom¡± movement with his hands as if to illustrate casting a fireball to explode the nearest problem.
Naomi sighed, ¡°Well, as much as that Varsuth lady and Madrick may have made it seem like super powers and magic and stuff are all-important, we didn¡¯t see anyone actually fighting. And if there¡¯s one thing we can be sure about, it¡¯s that the only thing that keeps people with a LOT more power from taking advantage of those without power is politics.¡±
For a moment they were quiet, until Jonah realized something important, ¡°But they are taking advantage of us.¡± He looked at the icon on his UICI which, when focused on, popped up with a tooltip:
Under Contract
> View Contract?
> Query Contract Detail?
Naomi sighed, ¡°Yeah, true¡ But we could have said no. Look at Willow, she clearly said no.¡±
¡°And she was still made into a disciple and dropped into a clearing with little monsters who wanted to eat her
A full five seconds of silence, ¡°True.¡±
As they sat there, contemplating just what the driving favors of this new world was, Jonah realized her was still somehow happier and more fulfilled than he had been for the last years of working his day job and drowning himself in media.
Chapter 9 - Magic!!!!
Willow
Near Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Willow slunk silently through the forest, crunch, snap, thump, yep, entirely silently. Her prey had no idea she was approaching. It was helpless in the face of her absolute quiet and - ¡°Hey Willow, is that you? Did you find any traces of animals?¡±
She slumped, I was sure I was being quiet enough to at least sneak up on Kent, ¡°Nooo¡ I did find a few more berry bushes though! Marked them on the shared map.¡±
Kent turned slightly to look at her from where he lounged on the riverbank, ¡°Nice! So still no animals other than fish?¡± he gestured at the four near-meter long fish swimming around in the little pool they¡¯d created to temporarily store their catches. Kent had been the only one with any luck catching anything in the last three days they¡¯d been here.
¡°Nope. Nothing. No scat, or footprints, of tufts of fur, or even birds.¡±
They¡¯d slowly been getting their bearings. They had found the river and their first berry tree on the second day, which had easily held them over until Naomi managed to make a decent fishing line and hook. All three of them had tried their hand at fishing multiple times, but only Kent seemed to be good at it. He claimed he didn¡¯t do anything, just sat there and moved the drifting line every so often. The haul of four fish in just three or so hours since he left camp this morning gave him away as a secret grand-master of fishing.
Willow flopped down beside him, sighing, ¡°Naomi thinks we¡¯re in some kind of middle point between whatever those pop-hopper¡¯s did to the area with their nasty pot. Her theory is that if we keep moving away from that area, we¡¯ll start seeing what forest is like normally.¡±
Kent winced, ¡°So you¡¯re still in favor of moving on?¡±
She nodded eagerly, ¡°Oh yeah, for sure! The lean-to is great and all, don¡¯t get me wrong - And I¡¯m sure you enjoy getting to cuddle with one of two gorgeous women when it¡¯s not your turn to take watch¡¡± She threw her hair and glared at him dramatically.
Her teasing clearly hit a chord as he flushed and refused to look at her, ¡°Come on, I offered to make my own lean-to¡¡±
Her attempt to restrain her amusement failed and a short giggle slipped out, darn it! betrayed by my own body! She saw Kent relax immediately as he realized she was just teasing him. Bah, that could have been a running joke if I could have just stifled that laugh! So THAT¡¯S what ¡®you laugh, you lose¡¯ means.
Deciding the joke was spent, she dropped it and moved on, ¡°Anyway, the lean-to is great and we¡¯ve been safe here. However!¡± She threw up a finger, channeling her best ¡®uhm, actually¡¯ energy, ¡°We¡¯re in a world of MAGIC now! We HAVE to figure out how to use it!¡± Her giddiness at the prospect had been slowly building the longer they wasted time on mundane things like ¡°surviving.¡± She wanted to throw fireballs and fly!
Chuckling, Kent pointed out, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure you can already do magic. Isn¡¯t that why Madrick wanted you as a disciple?¡±
That brought Willow¡¯s fantasies to a SCREECHING halt, ¡°Wait, what?¡±
¡°Yeah, when you hit Madrick, that was magic right? You moved way faster than anyone can possibly move within normal limits. You were also complaining about a headache for the first couple days. I think Madrick also said something about you passing out because of mana strain or something? Not 100% sure I remember that right, I was just coming into the room when he was saying something about that.¡±
¡°Did Kai not say anything about it?¡±
¡°Nah, he mostly spent our time trying to lecture the ¡®basics¡¯ of what the UICI can do for us in situations like this. The intro tutorial barely scratches the surface, after all.¡±
Rolling her eyes at the reminder, and wanting to avoid him trying to dump yet more UICI tips and tricks on her, she quickly pressed forward, ¡°So you think I used magic? And that using magic is what made me pass out?¡±
¡°Using too much probably, but yeah.¡±
They lapsed into silence for a while. Naomi was out picking berries and searching for any sign of animals too. They¡¯d all agreed to meet at the river around 17:00. The UICI clock was a bit weird, it didn¡¯t align with the Earth twenty four hour clock at all. Instead, the UICI clock had one hundred seconds to a minute, and thirty minutes to an hour. Each day was thirty hours long, with fifteen hours for each ¡°half¡± of the day.
To make matters worse, the day-night cycle of this planet was way off from the clock. They¡¯d woken at 12:00, as the sun they still hadn¡¯t seen had risen. The sun remained in the sky for a full twenty hours each day which meant over the last four days, if they included the first day, they¡¯d worked through darkness nearly as often as in light. Once they¡¯d been sure there weren¡¯t any dangerous predators waiting to strike at them, they¡¯d been willing to continue gathering wood and stones during the hours of darkness they didn¡¯t manage to sleep through.
Taking a deep breath, Willow returned her mind to the previous topic. Magic. Did I use magic? I definitely used my focus, and my moment. It felt different though. I didn¡¯t calm my mind and gradually sharpen my focus, I just entered it¡ That by itself was odd enough to be notable. My moment felt different too, though. It felt most like it was ready for me, expecting that I¡¯d need it. That¡¯s not exactly right either though. It didn¡¯t feel sentient or intelligent or anything. It just felt ready, like I¡¯d prepared it beforehand.
Another few minutes of consideration, then Willow came to the logical conclusion which she announced to Kent, ¡°I need to try it.¡±
She stood and backed away from the river, not wanting to possibly do something dumb and end up in the water. Once clear, she began working her way into her focus. Now that she was going through the familiar steps, rather than just acting on instinct, she could feel the difference. She could feel her mind pulling something from within her.
It was an a subtle and odd sensation, easily missed in the midst of combat but just as easy to notice now that she was looking for anything off. If she had to describe the sensation, she would say it felt like she was directing a viscus liquid of some kind.
It moved easily from what she was imagining as a kind of floating ball of the slimy material and kind of up through what felt like a peaceful void. Finally, the slime-stuff was pulled into what kind of felt like a funnel of sorts, the mass constricting and bunching up, being pulled in a more uniform line which sped through tunnels and pathways. There was now a thin tendril of goo connecting from the source to the funnel, and going through the entire maze.
She noticed the goo evaporating slowly as it cycled through the maze, following a looping pathway. Each time some of it evaporated, more was fed in from the connecting tendril. Refreshing the evaporated slime was way faster following that connected tendril than it had been to initially pull it to the funnel.
Having been concentrating almost entirely on the odd internal sensations, Willow pulled her attention outside and noted that she was definitely under the same uber-focused kind of state that she¡¯d noticed both when confronting Baav and trying to hit Madrick. Everything more than about four meters away was washed out and a bit blurred around the edges to her sight, while everything inside felt sharp and clear.
As she experimented by looking around, she noticed that as she brought her attention to rest on Kent, or a particular tree, or a fish in the pond, the rest of the things within her perception all grew less detailed, duller, desaturated. The object of her current attention, however, grew incredibly sharp and detailed. Every motion, every expression, every twitch and color were blindingly obvious.
She saw Kent¡¯s mouth moving and watched in fascination, the sound of his words arriving out-of-sync to what her mind expected. As she listened, she guessed that the world around her was moving about half as fast as usual. A dramatic difference, especially in a fight.
¡°Whoa, I thought Madrick was the one who made the colors disappear before. That was you? You¡¯re the only thing with any color in the area.¡± The sentences finally finished and Kent slowly moved his head around to take in the area.
¡°Everything I¡¯m not specifically paying attention to turns grey inside of this area and everything outside looks muted and blurred to me. What about you?¡±
Kent had, relatively, quickly snapped his head back to look at her. His expression turning to confused. His slow speech came through, ¡°That was too fast, I couldn¡¯t really catch the whole thing. Something about blurred, right? The area around us that¡¯s further than a handful of meters away looks blurry, if that¡¯s what you mean. I can¡¯t really tell what¡¯s going on out there.¡±
As they talked, Willow started to feel a slight strain. Her eyes unfocused as she turned her attention inward. She saw the ball of slimy liquid was slowly growing smaller. It had gone from softball to baseball sized. She still had another thing she had to at least try.
Willow mentally pushed herself, and claimed her moment. This time was a bit more like normal, where she had to actively create her moment, rather than feeling like she slipped into it. The internal reaction was interesting to watch. For the fist time she noticed a second ball of something, this one she somehow didn¡¯t really feel like she had a visual representation of so much as a feeling and a sound. She heard something like static and felt pressure.
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Instead of the relatively slow draw of substance she¡¯d watched from her first source, this one was almost instantaneous. The static sound dropped to about half of its previous volume, while the pressure became more like a touch. She felt her moment activate. She could feel the barest trace of a pathway between the second source and the same funnel as the slime energy had entered. They were mixed up in there. She examined the two substances as best she could. One of them feeling like a sound and sensation, while the other seemed purely visual, making it really difficult for her to truly understand how they were interacting. Her instinct told her that the sound and feeling energy was wrapped around the slimy energy.
Opening her eyes, Willow saw that the world around her had frozen in that single moment. Everything inside of her little bubble was entirely still. There were a few wispy remnants of feather-branch frond leaves simply sitting in the air, as if a camera had snapped an image.
While she had been still, the wrapped up energy seemed to be just shy of stable. It was depleting, but it felt very slow. She wasn¡¯t passing any new static energy into the funnel and wasn¡¯t planning on it, as she wanted to avoid another huge headache. Even so, the energy was being used extremely slowly. The slime energy¡¯s use had also slowed to nearly nothing, once she¡¯d activated her moment.
Keeping as much focus on her inside little, world? space? Willow took a step forward. A tenth of the energy was burned up in that single motion. She clenched her fist. Another tenth. Is it just any action? She blinked. Seven tenths left. So what all counts as an action? She leapt forward. The entire motion required compressing her body down a little bit, tensing, then exploding her legs upward. The entire thing apparently counted as a single action, as another tenth vanished.
She landed and stumbled a bit, distracted enough by trying to keep track of her internal system that she didn¡¯t notice and account for the large stone her right foot met upon landing. A full four tenths of the remaining energy disappeared. With only two ¡°actions¡± left, Willow decided to try something else. She ended her moment. The static energy unwound from within the funnel and flowed back into its source. Her focus was still active, so she released it as well and watched it retreat in the same manner.
Kent gasped, when she looked his way his eyes were wide, ¡°You teleported! like, a half meter! Do you have a blink spell? Holy shit, that¡¯d be so cool!¡± He leapt from where he had been fishing, forgetting about the line entirely in his rush over.
As he headed toward her, she noticed several new scrolls blinking softly in her little notification shelf. She acknowledged them and they stopped blinking. She¡¯d see what that was about in a bit.
Naomi
Near Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Shouting came from the direction of the river. The tone was excited, not afraid or angry though, so Naomi maintained her deliberate pace. She didn¡¯t really want to tell the others what she¡¯d discovered. It meant things would have to change. They¡¯d have to strike out further into the woods, like Willow had been wanting.
She had confirmed that the strange dead ring around the monsters Willow called pop-hoppers was spreading. They¡¯d only been in the forest for three days, but as far as she could tell, the deadness had spread about two meters into the forest-line. The trees which rested on the area it had encroached upon were already dying.
Although the last few days hadn¡¯t been easy they had been very fulfilling. Naomi couldn¡¯t remember another time in her life when she¡¯d genuinely felt both useful and needed. While she knew Willow and Jonah would have figured things at on their own, they had both thanked her for taking lead and had expressed their appreciation for her knowledge. It was a rare event to be appreciated, though she supposed that was at least partially because she rarely did anything. Much less anything to appreciate. Trudging her way steadily on, she finally reached the little fishing area they¡¯d setup.
Jonah and Willow were animatedly talking together a few feet from the river. It was good that they got along. Things would be way harder if any of them had problems with each other. Though, she imagined it was difficult not to get along with Jonah, given how laid back and relaxed he always seemed. Willow, she could see being more polarizing. She had a lot of personality and displayed her entire incredible range of emotions to the world without hesitation. She couldn¡¯t say Willow wore her heart on her sleeve, so much as she wore an entire outfit comprised of her heart and all of it was in neon.
She watched and listened for a bit, realizing that they were apparently discussing magic. In particular, that Willow had magic. Maybe she could wait for a little bit to tell them they¡¯d need to move. Just long enough to enjoy some of their enthusiastic and gleeful conversation. Maybe even join in.
Willow
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The rest of the day had been spent discussing and theorizing magic with Jonah and Naomi, the latter of which had popped up almost out of nowhere to join in their conversation. They¡¯d still been chatting as they brought the fish back to camp and prepared them for dinner. A skill they¡¯d mostly gained through trial and error on their second day here, given Naomi had only known barely more about the process than Willow herself.
After dinner and the excitement of Willow¡¯s discovery, Naomi had explained her findings. It wasn¡¯t entirely surprising to Willow that something like that was going on. It was clear Madrick had dropped them in the location for some sort of reason and she thought it unlikely it was to force her to kill some weak little monsters. The reason was more than likely tied to the dead land itself. Whether he expected her to somehow fix it, or was just using it as a way to push her into action and avoiding creating a more permanent base, she wasn¡¯t really sure. It ultimately didn¡¯t matter all that much anyway, she really wanted to keep exploring.
The trees here were so cool, the mist in the sky was a mystery, the berries and fish were even odd and interesting. The fish weren¡¯t any kind she¡¯d ever seen back home, though granted she¡¯d seen more fish after they were cooked than while they were swimming, but still! The berries tasted kind of reminiscent of a banana, but with the texture and mouth numbing properties of a guava. She wanted to see what else this wild alien planet had to offer and had been trying to convince Jonah and Naomi to go with her since the morning of the second day. Instead, they¡¯d convinced her to stick around and ¡°get her bearings¡± for a bit with them.
Now they had to leave and she couldn¡¯t be happier! Although they hadn¡¯t known each other long, Willow would already call both Kent and Naomi friends. New friends, which she didn¡¯t know super well yet, but still friends. She didn¡¯t want to leave them and go off to adventure on her own, she wanted to go off and adventure with them. Now, she could! Without having to beg, plead, or demand. AND I confirmed I have magic!!! Best. Day. Ever.
As she thought back to her little bout of testing earlier, Willow remembered the notification she had pending in the shelf. She quickly willed the UICI to show them to her in order.
FIRST INSIGHT CONFIRMED!
Congratulations!
You have developed your first insight!
. . . .
Insight not cataloged in UICI database.
Please name your insight by focusing on the particular insight and directing your intention to name it. Alternatively, focus on your insight and say, ¡°Name insight: [My insight name]¡± out-loud.
MANA ASPECT CONFIRMED!
Congratulations!
You have successfully used mana processed into a new aspect by your soul nexus!
. . . .
Aspect not cataloged in UICI database.
Please name your aspect by focusing on the particular mana aspect and directing your intention to name it. Alternatively, focus on your mana aspect and say, ¡°Name aspect: [My insight name]¡± out-loud.
MANA ASPECT CONFIRMED!
Congratulations!
You have successfully mana processed into a new aspect by your soul nexus!
. . . .
Aspect not cataloged in UICI database.
Please name your aspect by focusing on the particular mana aspect and directing your intention to name it. Alternatively, focus on your mana aspect and say, ¡°Name aspect: [My aspect name]¡± out-loud.
MANA ASPECT CONFIRMED!
Congratulations!
You have successfully used mana processed into a new aspect by your soul nexus!
. . . .
Aspect not cataloged in UICI database.
Please name your aspect by focusing on the particular mana aspect and directing your intention to name it. Alternatively, focus on your mana aspect and say, ¡°Name aspect: [My aspect name]¡± out-loud.
NEW ABILITY CONFIRMED!
Congratulations!
You have successfully used a new ability etched into your nexus shell!
. . . .
Ability not cataloged in UICI database.
Please name your ability by focusing on the particular ability and directing your intention to name it. Alternatively, focus on your ability and say, ¡°Name ability: [My ability name]¡± out-loud.
Ehhhhh¡ Whatnow?
Chapter 10 - Magic Terminology
Willow
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
After spending an embarrassingly long time just staring at the UICI in confusion, Willow had finally remembered some of the tutorial how-to. She put the entire thing aside for about forty minutes, spending the rest of the evening, impatiently, with Naomi and Kent. When they¡¯d started to look tired, she eagerly offered to take first watch. They had been taking watch ever since night one, if for no other reason than to have good habits. All of them understood that while the forest around them was currently calm and non-threatening, that didn¡¯t mean that status-quo would last.
The others having headed to sleep, she¡¯d spent the next thirty minutes, an hour I guess, according to the UICI, running through tool-tips and help prompts. She¡¯d learned a handful of extremely useful things, amidst a bunch of trivia-level facts.
First, she¡¯d learned that she¡¯d apparently unlocked a bunch of new modules the moment the UICI detected her ¡°use mana.¡± This hadn¡¯t happened previously, because she hadn¡¯t previously been a disciple. Apparently the tip Kai had given Naomi and Kent that her modules would unlock ¡°as needed¡± had been correct. She had even found the price and payment method in the interface.
PURCHASE HISTORY ITEM
Basic User Module Package
| Receipt ID |
WG-E9921-231899-01 |
| Module Version |
1192.02.01 |
| Module Publisher |
Windell¡¯s United(F) |
| Price |
299 R0-EB |
| Paid By |
Mentee Subscription - Rank 0-10 |
Cultivation Helper Module (CHM)
| Receipt ID |
WG-E9921-231899-02 |
| Module Version |
REV22.31 |
| Module Publisher |
Sentekko(F) |
| Price |
2,000,000 R1-EB |
| Paid By |
Mentee Subscription - Rank 0-10 |
This discovery lead her on another merry little trek through menus, sub menus, help guides, and videos which very much reminded her of earth style YouTube tutorials.
She¡¯d learned that currency was split up by rank, with the ¡°prefix¡± indicating which rank of currency was being used or requested, while the suffix indicated the currency type. There were actually different types of currency which were accepted throughout the world, which perhaps shouldn¡¯t have been as surprising as Willow how initially found it. Essentially all of the fantasy and scifi she could think of all seemed to assume a single universally accepted currency.
The ¡°EB¡± did appear to be the most common form of currency. It stood for ¡°Energy Backed¡± and was, as far as Willow could parse, essentially a magic version of a crypto currency.
Another point of interesting information was the little
(F) symbol. This was apparently a ¡°faction¡± indicator. It was shorthand for showing UICI users that an entity in question was a registered faction, rather than a guild, corporation, clan, individual, or something else. There had frankly been so many possible ¡°entities¡± that she hadn¡¯t even been tempted to fall into that particular rabbit-hole. Instead, she¡¯d focused back on her original topic of research.
In the end, she¡¯d learned a ton. The basics for the particular prompts she¡¯d gotten were somewhat complicated and she felt it¡¯d take a while to fully process and internalize. That being said, by the end of her link-following and information searching, she summarized the relevant points for herself. She¡¯d even used the UICI journal to note it down, after realizing she now had a module that wouldn¡¯t put her own past notes behind a paywall.
Insights Insights seem like they¡¯re some kind of internalized understanding of a concept? All of the examples and stuff I found seemed to indicate that, but they all wanted payment for additional details. I don¡¯t have any money of any kind as far as I know.
I¡¯m tentatively going to consider insights as ¡°a concept I understand and resonate with intimately¡±
Insights are required to generate mana with aspects, so I definitely have one. Even if I don¡¯t understand what it is fully.
Aspects Aspects are like elements in RPGs. Like fire, water, earth, air, etc. except way way more specific and personal. Air doesn¡¯t necessarily mean the same thing to everyone, so even if two people have an ¡®air¡¯ aspect, they won¡¯t be exactly the same. They¡¯ll be similar though. =========== Abilities Abilities are kind of like spells, except not like spells. The forums and stuff I found were pretty vague and again very pay-walled. The snippets I was able to find were enough to give hints and show me that the forum HAS people with the answers I want, but I¡¯d have to pay for a subscription to get access. Of course.
Anyway, an ability is essentially a kind of spell that¡¯s ingrained into my soul? I think? I have to send mana into the ability to activate it, and the aspect of mana I put into it will change how and what it does a bit.
This is why adding both of those energy sources, which were my mana, caused the effects to change a bit. It was still similar, as apparently an ability cannot be ENTIRELY changed by mana aspects¡ But it definitely didn¡¯t work the same way when both mana types were included.
Willow sat back with a smile, feeling satisfied at tracking down the answers she was looking for. She didn¡¯t know a ton about survival, but this, finding information online about a topic of interest? She could totally do that. She froze, looked around tentatively to make sure the others were asleep in the lean-to, then cursed softly under her breath. ¡°Burned Gumbo.¡± We could have looked up survival stuff using the UICI!
She quickly tried, then let out a deep sigh of mixed relief and disappointment realizing that they could do that, but they¡¯d run into the same issue she had with all the other stuff. Everything truly useful required payment. Unlike with the Insight, Aspect, and Abilities, getting some vague synopsis wasn¡¯t useful in the slightest. ¡°Vines may be used to create rope¡ <20 R0-SG unlock>¡± was essentially worthless. Since she had no ¡°R0-SG¡±, the techniques Naomi had shown them for using the vines were out of her reach in the UICI.
All in all, this was a familiar way to spend an evening after a day of hard work and was oddly comforting to Willow. She¡¯d often ¡°come up for air¡± after a research binge, midnight having come and gone long ago. The tendency to get hyper-focused on her research and also somehow entirely lose the original point of the research was essentially hard-coded into her DNA at this point.
Glancing at her UICI clock, Willow found she still had a couple hours on watch before she should wake Kent. She got up and started patrolling as she thought. The UICI had asked her to name her insight, two mana aspects, and ability. The ability, at least, was easy. She sent her answer to the UICI mentally, Name ability¡ she thought of the funnel and the structure behind it, Moment of Focus.
NEW ABILITY NAMED!
Congratulations!
You have successfully created and registered a new ability MOMENT OF FOCUS into the CHM!
To reward your efforts, and for meaningfully contributing to the CHM database, 100 R2-EB has been awarded!
As per UICI cultivation privacy provision 2219.A.33, the CHM is unable to provide third parties with access to information related to your private cultivation techniques without your consent. This includes your newly created ability.
Would you like to share your ability with Sentekko
(F)?
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Uh, no. Of course she wasn¡¯t going to give away a unique invention to some faction, how gullible did they think she was? The UICI immediately responded to her denial with another notification coming in. If this becomes a pop-up war¡ I¡¯m using those EBs to buy a blocker.
FANTASTIC OFFER!
Sentekko
(F) has offered you an EXCLUSIVE deal!
Would you like to accept Sentekko
(F)¡¯s offer?
See Offer
After a very cursory look at the offer, Willow declined. She then setup a rule to put Sentekko related notifications which included the terms, ¡°offer, deal, exclusive, special¡± into a separate shelf which she turned the opacity down to 1% on. She could have just blocked them, but maybe one day she¡¯d need to review something they sent her. Who knew.
Anyway, she wasn¡¯t interested in giving them the rights to sell her ability for a 1% return on the profit. She wasn¡¯t sure what her ability was worth, which was enough to not agree to any deal in the first place, not even mentioning the frankly insulting offer of 1% royalties. Aside from all that, she wasn¡¯t sure if anyone could look at her ability and figure out weaknesses to use against her or something. She¡¯d been told several times that this world, the real world, wasn¡¯t kind after all.
Putting the offers aside, she tried to work backwards from the ability to name her aspects. She had no idea what her ¡°insight¡± was but she thought that by working up from her ability she could maybe figure it all out. She¡¯d created the ¡°ability¡± while still on Earth, so she¡¯d probably need to dig deep to figure out what the insight was. She¡¯d visualized her focus and her moment respectively for a long time.
Alright, what would I call my first mana aspect. It¡¯s the one that¡¯s all viscus and slimy. It¡¯s definitely not a slime aspect¡ I don¡¯t think. She stopped her automatic walking around the camp, forcing herself to stop in one place for a while. She¡¯d be way to predictable of a guard if she had a constant walking pattern that didn¡¯t change.
If I think about what it does¡ That mana is what lets my focus activate. It slows everything down, makes me faster, removes colors from things I¡¯m not actively paying attention to, and blurs out the world outside of my area of control¡ Hm¡ Or does it¡ While she was ¡°lost¡± in thought, Willow¡¯s eyes moved, carefully scanning the area for anything unusual. The first time she¡¯d kept watch she felt kind of weird, but it was getting closer to a habit now.
That¡¯s how I perceive things. Kent said everything besides me lost color, but when we talked later he said the only thing with any color was myself. No matter what he focused on I was the only thing with color. He also couldn¡¯t tell what I was focusing on.
She suddenly turned on her heel and counted a hundred steps before stopping and turning her head, starting her passive ¡°search¡± for anything off again. So at least that part is external¡ He also said I moved faster and talked faster. He couldn¡¯t understand me when I spoke while in my focus.
Continuing her patrol, she poked and prodded as she thought through the entire thing. Finally, she decided to come back to that one. The second one actually seemed easier for her to qualify and label. The energy that she couldn¡¯t ¡°see¡± with her inner eye, but she could hear and feel. The static sounding pressure. She was almost certain that one was time. Except¡ Wouldn¡¯t other people have had a ¡®Time¡¯ aspected mana? Almost certainly. There¡¯s no way something that potentially powerful and that well known wouldn¡¯t already be discovered and named¡ Maybe the people who have it don¡¯t use the same CHM module?
The rest of her watch was pretty similar. She woke Kent when the timer she setup for herself reminded her that she wasn¡¯t supposed to stay up thinking all night. However, she wasn¡¯t ready to sleep. The problems were still nagging at her, so she spent some time talking to Kent about it. He¡¯d had some good ideas and insights, but in the end she hadn¡¯t decided to name anything else just yet. He had managed to help her find a way to put a stop to her running thoughts for the moment though.
As she carefully positioned herself beside Naomi, careful not to jostle and wake her, she kept replaying his words like a mantra, ¡°You can figure out all the the mechanics later. For now, you have a magical ability and know what it does.¡±
Jonah
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
After doing his best, and failing, to brainstorm with Willow what her aspects were, he helped her find a way to put the question aside for the time being. Jonah sat at the edge of the camp on a large stone and considered.
Willow had explained what she¡¯d learned about insights, aspects and abilities. He thought back to what Ki¡¯ai¡¯en mentioned, that factions usually didn¡¯t expect people to progress for at least ten years after arriving from the tutorial. Was that due to them needing to form an insight and then aspects in order to get access to mana?
Thinking for a long time, Jonah finally decided to use the money Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had given them. The stipend was just enough to buy the 300 R0-EB basics module that he and Naomi had been given. Since Willow didn¡¯t need it, he decided to use it for something else. After a couple hours of searching, he found what he thought was probably his best bet for useful information.
INFORMATION PACKET A3-64-32II
Introduction to Cultivation
| Packet Version |
1.0.0 |
| Module Publisher |
Sevi¨°n ¨ntegus(I) |
| Price |
200 R0-EB |
This information packet contains the bare-bones basics of cultivation. This includes definitions for the common terms: insight, aspect, mana, spell, ability, skill, technique. This guide also briefly explains how insights are formed.
This guide does not include information related to creating your soul nexus or aspecting mana.
Briefly considering whether he should talk to Naomi before making the purchase, Jonah shook his head and made the purchase. He¡¯d share it with her, if she didn¡¯t like it¡ Well he¡¯d been the one who Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had given the money to, since Willow didn¡¯t need it he would use it how he saw fit.
He sighed deeply, already regretting buying it without talking to her. She had as much right to the money as him. It was done now though, so he shouldn¡¯t let it go to waste. A brief thought toward keeping watch flashed through his mind, but he dismissed it. He¡¯d hear anything approaching anyway, as the forest was dead silent other than the rare snap and fall of a feather-branch.
He opened the packet and shifted on his rock, getting as comfortable as he could.
Madrick
Frazzlen Faction Dining Hall, Farcem City, Motrendi
Autopilot was more than sufficient for a dinner like this. The Frazzlen had requested he visit them for dinner, in particular to discuss compensation over two of their new recruits being ¡°purloined¡± by his disciple. Never mind that Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had literally commanded them to follow her. Never mind they had followed of their own free will. Factions. Disgusting vulture nests. He ate, spoke, gave empty compliments, denied responsibility of anything they suggested he owed, and avoided murdering them all. All while paying no attention to them and instead reviewing his new disciple¡¯s progress.
Although he had only been partially paying attention, Madrick still had a good time ¡°supervising¡± his disciple. Although she hadn¡¯t managed to get into nearly as much trouble as he¡¯d hoped yet, he could tell she was starting to get stir crazy. He¡¯d been pleasantly surprised to be alerted that his disciple had already hit the rank one milestone in the UICI ¡°disciple protocol.¡±
It didn¡¯t provide a lot of information regarding specifics, due to how strict the privacy restrictions were. Even the disciple protocol respected the majority of those, with the only major exception being a bird¡¯s eye live-feed he could tap into at any time and a recording of the same. The feed was supposed to be to allow a master to ensure their disciple¡¯s safety when separated. Most masters abused this to ensure their disciples obeyed their inane commands. Madrick would never abuse the system like that. He just used it as a source of entertainment.
His unquestionably spotless morality aside, Madrick was thrilled to see Willow had managed an insight, two mana aspects, and an ability. He had been right. She somehow already has a soul nexus. This was, as far as he and everyone he¡¯d covertly interrogated knew, impossible. The fact that the disciple protocol¡¯s timestamp for the milestones matched exactly with the disciple recording timestamps when she activated the same thing she¡¯d used in the recruitment center and then against himself, confirmed she¡¯d done the impossible. She came out of the tutorial with capabilities which put her squarely in the first rank.
Beyond that insanity by itself, her ability was unarguably powerful. He hadn¡¯t been going easy on her when she struck him. He¡¯d been legitimately doing his best to dodge everything she could possibly throw at him. Yet she had hit him. As a, now confirmed, tier one versus his tier twelve.
Her achievements must have been incredible to have been awarded that level of power immediately. He was downright excited to see what she did next. He continued to watch, and continued to not slay the fools asking to be destroyed.
Chapter 11 - Highway Robbery Is Bad
Willow
Forest, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
¡°It¡¯s thu, pupil of the feline, the excite of the bite. Playin¡¯ it cool, avoidin¡¯ our riiival. Hmmm hm hm¡¡± Willow belted out on-the-spot, legally distinct, parody lyrics as she followed Naomi. I guess now that I¡¯m not on Earth I could just sing the actual song and I won¡¯t have lawyers coming after me¡ Nah, this is more fun. Their leader turned to look at Willow with a raised eyebrow before turning to watch where she was going and avoid trees, ¡°Uh Willow¡ Why are you singing, exactly?¡±
¡°Eh? Just bored.¡±
¡°Right, but you might attract predators.¡±
¡°Good Lord Jesus, I hope so. I¡¯m so bored.¡±
Kent broke in from behind and a bit to Willow¡¯s right side, ¡°Weren¡¯t you the one that was super excited to ¡®go explore the forest¡¯?¡±
She turned and walked backwards so she could look at him as she answered, ¡°Yeah! But I figured after an hour or so of walking something would change, maybe we¡¯d roll a random encounter and BOOM - fight against pack of warewolves! You know?¡±
Willow stepped left to avoid running into the tree whose shadow she felt expanding around her. The terrain was so samey she felt like walking backwards in the forest was completely natural. Actually, it was a good way to distract herself!
¡°You¡¯re going to run into a tree.¡± Kent said, while looking somewhat amused.
¡°Nuh hu!¡±
¡°Careful Willow, you wouldn¡¯t want to hurt the innocent trees.¡± Naomi¡¯s voice came floating faintly from in front.
¡°She¡¯s sticking out her tongue at me. I think it¡¯s meant for you.¡± Kent ratted on Willow.
Before Willow could defend her honor and, more importantly, continue enjoying the impromptu bantering session, something finally happened. They¡¯d been walking for almost eight hours and nothing had changed at all. If the UICI mapping function didn¡¯t show a very certain straightish path, Willow would have sworn they were just walking in circles.
After hours of quiet walking with little scattered chats here and there, Willow spun eagerly upon hearing the unexpected CRACK from the party¡¯s right. She almost cheered as she saw another one of the little pop-hoppers. She threw up her arms and shouted excitedly, ¡°Pop-hopper! I call it!¡± Then she took off after it.
¡°Willow -¡±
¡°Wait don¡¯t just -¡±
She ignored both cries as she dashed off excitedly. She didn¡¯t even necessarily want to fight it. If the thing decided to talk she¡¯d be more than happy to oblige with some good old fashion conversation. The excitement came entirely from something finally happening.
The pop-hopper turned and leapt impressively. It somehow spun itself mid-air to position itself so that its feet struck into a tree¡¯s trunk at an angle and it pushed off hard, exploding away far faster than Willow could hope to match as it bounced from tree to tree. She wound down her run, disappointed. She sighed, wondering if she should keep chasing or just give it up, then froze. She heard another shout from behind that she was fairly sure must be Kent.
Spinning on her heel she sprinted back toward her friends, scolding herself for rushing off without them and leaving them vulnerable as she did. Just because I thought they would definitely be safe, I shouldn¡¯t have left them! What¡¯s wrong with me? Was I really that bored? If those stupid pop-hoppers actually managed to trick me¡ Wow I¡¯ll never live that down.
Sliding to a halt as she found Naomi and Kent back to back, surrounded by unfamiliar figures with only two arms each, she sighed in relief, ¡°Oh thank God, I didn¡¯t get played by a pop-hopper-plotter.¡±
Naomi
Forest, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
It wasn¡¯t entirely shocking when Willow rushed off as soon as she saw a little monster. She said it was a pop-hopper, though Naomi didn¡¯t get a very good look at it before it and the overly excited woman were both gone. She only gave a token shout of, ¡°Willow!¡± to try and remind her that they weren¡¯t exactly in a safe place. It was no surprise when Willow entirely ignored her and Jonah¡¯s shouts.
Honestly, it shouldn¡¯t have been an issue. Willow could definitely handle herself. She and Jonah had both armed themselves with some branches whittled roughly down to resemble short staves, so they weren¡¯t quite helpless either. The problem came moments after Willow rushed off, in the form of a veritable swarm of short monster bodies. These things weren¡¯t nearly as exotic as the pop-hoppers. These were almost staples of any given fantasy world.
Kobolds. They didn¡¯t look exactly like the artistic versions she was used to from her MMOs, but she was pretty certain they were the same creature. Short, but a bit taller than the pop-hoppers at around 1.6 meters, they were a kind of humanoid crocodile. The ones quickly surrounding her and Jonah all wielded rough weapons. Spears tipped with stone points, short swords made of rusted iron which were clearly too large, daggers, bread knives.
Naomi let out a scream on instinct and stumbled backwards, barely maintaining her hold onto her stave.
¡°Heeey¡ Friends¡¡± Jonah¡¯s voice came, much closer to her than he¡¯d been before and sounding slightly less scared than her scream had. Feeling a bit comforted by that fact, Naomi backed toward his voice, keeping her eyes on the little monsters. Were Kobolds monsters in this world, or sentient? Both? In her experience they were a coin-toss race.
¡°Friiiends. Yessss.¡± One of them answered. She flicked her eyes to her left to see which one was talking. A kobold with dappled grey and black scales had stepped forward. He held a large cleaver which looked almost like a claymore in his small hands. ¡°You friiendss, helpss us friiendsss.¡±
Naomi carefully shuffled around so that Jonah would be able to look at and talk to the dappled kobold, while she watched his back. She stood with her back nearly brushing his, brandishing her makeshift pole-arm with all the skill she could muster. She held it like a broom. A broom with a particularly dirty brush which made its wielder avoid letting it touch them or anything currently clean.
¡°Uhm, maybe¡ What did you want our help with?¡± Jonah¡¯s voice was understandably tense, it might have cracked just a bit, but Naomi was impressed it wasn¡¯t worse.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
She could almost hear the grin in its voice, ¡°Withsss youss thingss. Youss giives us.¡±
¡°You¡¯re¡ Robbing us?¡± Instead of scared, Jonah¡¯s voice now sounded somewhat confused.
¡°Yeeess!¡± The kobold¡¯s voice was excited, happy, almost child-like.
¡°But ah¡ We don¡¯t have anything really. Just our clothes and these sticks¡¡± his voice was marginally calmer now.
¡°Ohss¡¡± A moment of hesitation, ¡°Thensss we cansss killsss and eatss yous.¡±
¡°Whoa whoa WHOA! BACK OFF!¡± Naomi felt Jonah moving behind her and heard a SWISH as he yelled. She thought he was swinging his stave. She tried to firm her stance and hold the pole in her hand more like Willow had shown them. The kobolds in front of her looked at each other, then past her, then slowly took a couple tentative steps toward her.
She squeaked and stabbed forward with all her might. The blow somehow managed to connect directly with one of the kobold¡¯s snout. It yelped and hopped backwards, rubbing its nose and muttering, ¡°Ow. Gunass bruise.¡±
Then every eye turned toward the crashing noise and voice following it, ¡°Oh thank God, I didn¡¯t get played by a pop-hopper-plotter.¡±
Naomi wanted to shout and curse at the girl. Why was she talking nonsense when she and Jonah were clearly about to be murdered! Willow started walking forward, apparently unconcerned with the obviously tense scene. Naomi looked around and realized her attackers were warily backing away from Willow¡¯s approach, which was breaking their formation.
¡°So! You guys are kinda cool looking. Kobolds?¡± She casually approached a green one that looked a bit smaller than the others.
It stammered up at her, eyes wide, ¡°Y-Yesss. Koboldsss.¡±
¡°Cool! So why you guys got my friends all surrounded?¡± She continued to act like she was talking to a new acquaintance about the weather. Naomi wasn¡¯t sure if she should be impressed at her ability to play cool, or concerned that she wasn¡¯t taking the weapon bearing kobolds as real threats.
The black and grey one which had confronted Jonah answered with an angry tone, ¡°Yousss givess us stuffss, or we kills and eatss yous!¡±
Willow frowned, ¡°Well that¡¯s not very friendly of you. How would you like it if I did that to you?¡± She reached down and casually took the rusted blade the green Kobold she had inspected was holding. It seemed surprised to find itself disarmed.
¡°Doesn¡¯t feel too good, right?¡± Willow was looking down at the green scaled would-be attacker; who shook his head. ¡°Right. So do you still want to do that to me?¡± The green one shook his head again. The black one spat, ¡°Gressssh iss weaklingss! Wess iss stronggers thans hers!¡±
Nodding, Willow closed the distance between herself and the black Kobold in a couple steps and took his cleaver just as easily. She then proceeded to flick its snout, ¡°Bad Kobold. Highway robbery is bad.¡±
Jonah
Following Kobolts, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The situation had gone from surprising, to terrifying, to confusing, to bizarre. The attack was shocking, then Jonah had felt sure they were going to be swarmed by the little kobolds and murdered, then Willow had swept in to save the day. Jonah briefly wondered if he should try to make her a cape out of woven feather-branch fronds. Or maybe a dashing prince¡¯s tunic?
After quite literally berating the little monsters into submission, Willow had demanded that they be lead to ¡°their mothers.¡± Which had seen an odd procession of strangely cowed crocodile monsters leading three humans, heads mostly down except when they lifted them to shoot quick looks in Willow¡¯s direction.
Naomi and Jonah had both been quiet, but Willow had been chatting with the kobolds as they walked. For some reason she¡¯d taken to the little green one in particular and it seemed pleased. The black and grey scaled kobold, meanwhile, was looking sullen and angry. Like a child who had their favorite toy taken away by a ¡°big mean adult.¡±
After a while a suspicion began to grow within Jonah¡¯s mind, then the suspicion became all but a certainty and he wondered whether he should feel ashamed or rueful. These ¡°vicious¡± kobolds were just children. He wondered if an orc would have mistaken human children for actual threats in a similar situation, but quickly decided that nope, this was a uniquely them problem.
Willow didn¡¯t seem at all afraid of the large group of Kobolds. She also hadn¡¯t seemed interested in fighting, or more likely absolutely demolishing, them. It was more like she¡¯d run into a group of young cousins who were acting out. She was, figuratively, dragging them to their parents by their ears.
It didn¡¯t take long for the group to reach an odd tree. Unlike every other tree, this one wasn¡¯t one of the ones they¡¯d named ¡°feather-branch¡± trees. This one was squat and absolutely massive. The tree appeared to be somewhere between seven and eight meters in diameter. At its base stood two distant specks, which Jonah assumed by their movement and positioning were kobolds keeping watch.
As soon as the presumed guard kobolds saw the group approaching, one of them turned and ran toward the base of the tree and disappeared from view after a few steps. Apparently there was a slope at its base. They continued forward and a couple minutes later Jonah confirmed that the remaining speck resolved into a kobold holding a spear that looked well made. It had a blackened wooden haft, with a metal tip. The kobold also looked significantly more competent holding it than their ¡°attackers¡± had.
Once they were within a handful of meters, Willow came to a halt and called to the guard, ¡°Sorry for the intrusion, but I think you lost some children here.¡± She waved at the group she was surrounded by.
The guard looked uncertain, then called out, ¡°That is a youth hunting partys¡ What business do you have withs them?¡±
Jonah immediately noticed how much better the kobold¡¯s speech was. Then he remembered that the UICI was likely translating and wondered why it would be translating extraneous sounds and incorrect grammar. He cursed under his breath when the UICI provided a prompt answer to his unspoken query.
METADATA QUERY RESPONSE
The feature requested is available in another module. Would you like to purchase the ¡°Customized Linguistic Translation Pack¡± module for R1-EB 650?
Of course there were built in annoyances to ¡°encourage¡± people to buy better modules. Then did that mean the children were just generally much less well spoken than the adults? That seemed possible. The ¡°children¡± were also just about the same size as the guard, though, so he would have to assume that they weren¡¯t actual kids. More like teenagers, then.
While he had been pondering the particulars of the translation module, three kobolds had emerged from the base of the tree. Jonah could just see what looked like the start of a ramp downward from where he stood. He realized belatedly that he missed how Willow had replied to the guard about what business they had.
One of the approaching kobolds was the guard, who signaled to his fellow who joined the procession on the other side, the guards flanking the other two. The remaining kobolds were: a black and grey scaled kobold that greatly resembled the ¡°leader¡± of the children group, and a kobold with lilac colored scales and bright blue gem-like eyes.
The group stopped and Willow smiled, showing teeth. The black kobold¡¯s eyes narrowed, but the others all remained expressionless as far as Jonah could tell. She explained succinctly, ¡°Your brats tried to rob us, then attacked us and said they¡¯d eat us when we told them we didn¡¯t have anything to rob.¡±
All four eyes went to the carbon-copy black-grey kobold, who was busily studying his own feet.
¡°We thank yous for not slaying them in defense of yourselfs.¡± the lilac kobold spoke with a deep bow. She continued, ¡°I am Skeetha, this is our clan chief Halshath,¡± she indicated the older black and grey scaled kobold. Halshath had several scars across his snout that spoke either to a warrior¡¯s life or a clumsy personality. Jonah would put his money on the former.
The smile on Willow¡¯s face softened, not showing her teeth anymore. For some reason, the less radiant smile seemed to put the kobolds more at ease than the full one. Odd, he thought Willow¡¯s ¡°full charm¡± smile was quite spectacular.
She answered by pointing to herself, Naomi, and then him while giving their names. Except, of course, she almost called him ¡°Kent.¡± At this point, he was about ninety percent sure she actually did know his name, and just always started with ¡°Ke-¡± to mess with him. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her, maybe eighty percent.
¡°Would you be willing to talk for a bit?¡± Willow asked. ¡°We¡¯re new to this world and have SO many questions. Like, what¡¯s up with that crazy dead spot in the middle of the feather-branch forest?¡±
Skeetha and Halshath looked at each other in that way people did that said a thousand times more than words ever could, given the same amount of time. Halshath nodded firmly and gestured as he turned back toward the tree, ¡°Yes, we woulds like to talk. We woulds like to explain. Maybe yous will likes to help.¡±
As they headed toward the tree, a ramp which appeared to lead down under the tree¡¯s trunk was revealed. The kobolds headed down the ramp without hesitation. Willow followed and Jonah heard her excited mutter, ¡°Finally, our first quest!¡±
Chapter 12 - Ownership Disputes & Noctious Pots
Willow
Feathered Lands Tribe Home, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
As she followed Skeetha down into a tunnel, Willow looked around curiously. She wasn¡¯t an expert by any measure, but she thought it was a bit odd the tunnels were entirely unenforced by any bracing. She¡¯d seen some YouTube videos where people had made root cellars and other similar underground structures, and as far as she knew bracing was extremely important.
Distracted by such thoughts, she was looking at the wall beside her rather than watching where she was going. As such she was shocked when the descending tunnel quite suddenly leveled out and opened up. Looking past Skeetha and Halshath in front, she saw an absolutely massive cavern. She thought it was likely 200 or more meters to the far wall, and she couldn¡¯t see the edges to her left or right at all. Though it went at least as far, as she could see what looked like little mud hovels around that point to her right.
Just in front and to her left a bit was a bustling marketplace absolutely full of colorful kobolds sitting behind stalls, rushing between said stalls, shouting back and forth, and generally energetically interacting. Given all of the kobolds she¡¯d seen so far were dressed in what would most generously be described as dirty tunics, she was shocked to see colorful clothing of many distinct and beautiful patterns and cuts.
The kobolds leading her had stopped and stepped to the side to watch her and her companions¡¯ reactions and appeared not to be disappointed.
¡°Incredible.¡± Breathed Kent behind her. Although it was impressive she wouldn¡¯t call it incredible. She turned to ask what he was talking about, and found he was looking upward rather than toward the market. She followed his gaze and gasped, hearing a similar sound from Naomi to Kent¡¯s right a moment later. They were all staring at the light source for the cavern.
As they¡¯d walked down the tunnel Willow hadn¡¯t really thought about the fact that the ambient level of light had reached a certain level, then maintained a constant illumination. She could now see why. The ceiling of the cavern, which was probably thirty or so meters above them, was inset with hundreds of thousands of little gem-looking structures. Each of the gems gave off a small amount of light, which illuminated the entire area perfectly. More than that, the light didn¡¯t quite seem to follow normal laws of physics.
To confirm, Willow turned to look behind herself. Yep, I don¡¯t have a shadow either. The light coming from the gems seemed not to bounce and create shadows like normal light. Everything was lit almost uniformly, with the long tunnel they had just descended down being the best example. There hadn¡¯t been a single torch or glowing gem in the simple dirt tunnel, yet the light hadn¡¯t dropped below the gentle twighlight-esque level the gems created.
¡°Shiiit¡±
¡°Sweet Lord¡±
Naomi and Willow exclaimed in near unison. They threw each other a quick grin then both turned to look at their guides. Kent, who had already focused on the kobolds, asked, ¡°What are those? Why don¡¯t we have shadows in here? Do they ever go out?¡±
Although crocodile-like faces weren¡¯t exactly easy to read expressions from, Willow was more than able to detect the sheer smugness exuded by the two little creatures.
Halshath answered, his voice cracked and stilted, like a smoker who had something stuck in their throat, ¡°This is the suns-child dome. The suns-childs are ambitiouss and hopes to best the suns in lighting the darks. Their lights is not stopped so easily as the suns is.¡± He sounded smug, as if it was somehow his own accomplishment.
¡°That makes NO sense.¡± Kent argued, ¡°It¡¯s not the sun that ¡®decides¡¯ to ¡®let¡¯ its light be blocked. That¡¯s just how light works. It¡¯s a wave blocked by solid matter¡ And if it wasn¡¯t, then it¡¯d probably be dangerous for people¡¡± his face suddenly took on a worried expression, ¡°This weird light isn¡¯t going to like, give us cancer or something, right?¡±
Halshath and Skeetha looked at each other, Halshath shrugging. Skeetha answered with a comforting tone, ¡°I don¡¯t know of a ¡®cancer¡¯, the word perhaps translated incorrectly to our languages? Either ways, we have never seen the sun-child stones cause any harms.¡±
Kent relaxed a bit from the reassurance but was still clearly over thinking it. Willow stepped closer to him so she could nudge his shoulder with hers. When he looked at her questioningly she flashed a quick smile, ¡°Magic, remember?¡±
He nodded slowly and let the matter drop. Naomi spoke up after a few moments of silence, ¡°You mentioned you could explain what¡¯s going on with the dying land?¡±
¡°Yes, ifs you¡¯re ready please follows us.¡± Skeetha answered with a nod, then lead the group further into and to the right side of the cavern. A couple minutes of walking later found them in front of one of the non-descriptive hovels. It looked identical to all of the others.
It looked somewhat similar to an adobe building, with a generally rounded shape. The exterior appeared to be packed mud, which they¡¯d neglected to bake and simply just let dry. Given they were underground, and presumably underneath that massive tree they¡¯d seen outside despite a distinct lack of visible roots, they probably didn¡¯t need to bake the mud. It wasn¡¯t likely they¡¯d have rain wash anything away, after all. Instead, the hovels mostly seemed to be purely an area where kobold families could get a bit of privacy.
The group ducked into the structure one after the other, following Skeetha and Halshath. Willow found she could stand, but just barely. She could feel her hair brushing the ceiling. Kent and Naomi both had to crouch, though the later only barely. Willow grinned at both of them smugly, but managed to contain her jokes about the tables turning on the tall.
Instead, she followed Skeetha and Halshath past the entryway and into the main room of the hovel. It was a more spacious area where Naomi was able to fully stand, though Kent still couldn¡¯t. The center of the room was dominated by something between a pot and a pan. It was a cast-iron creation which stood on what she¡¯d consider a witches cauldron¡¯s legs. The circular pan itself wasn¡¯t a consistent depth, being maybe twenty centimeters deep in the middle, while a bare three centimeters on the edges, with a gradual increase in depth between the two. The structure itself was short, the legs holding it a half meter off the ground. Surrounding the odd pot-pan were scattered fluffly looking pillows. One each of which Skeetha and Halshath sat on.
Naomi and Kent followed suit quickly, with Willow following after a moment of looking around the rest of the room. It was cozy, with shelves built into all of the walls displaying various interesting things. On the far side of the room she saw a pair of sais. She¡¯d never seen any of the three pronged ninja-knives in person, assuming one discounted the plastic variant she¡¯d seen people in cosplay sporting during her one time attending comic-con.
In the end she resisted the urge to run around picking things up and looking at them like a little kid and sat. Being an adult is always so boring. Urgh. Skeetha smiled around at them. At least, Willow assumed that¡¯s what she was doing. Her face didn¡¯t change too much, so it was more her general vibe that Willow interpreted as ¡®smile¡¯.
¡°Lets us begin by thankings you for coming to listen to our stories.¡± Skeetha began.
Doing her best to appear serious and responsible, the kind of person someone would want to give an important quest to, Willow inclined her head. The act might have been somewhat ruined when she lifted her head and had to blow strands of her unruly brown hair away from her eyes.
Naomi
Skeetha & Halshath¡¯s Home, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
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Listening to Skeetha and Halshath explain the history of their tribe and their neighboring tribes was mildly interesting. Mildly interesting given that Naomi was able to somewhat pay attention. She¡¯d always found it hard to care about the specifics of historical figures and places on Earth and she was finding that extended to the current situation.
Jonah looked to be at rapt attention, soaking it all in. Willow was listening with a polite kind of expression and her usual self control, not twitching or fidgeting at all. Sometimes Willow¡¯s eyes would scan the room casually, then return to whichever kobold was currently carrying the story, but she didn¡¯t seem inattentive or bored.
Meanwhile, Naomi had caught herself tapping her leg, looking around, staring at her hands, thinking about the sun-child stone things, and just generally ignoring the conversation. She got the gist. Actually, she¡¯d gotten the gist about an hour ago, along with some other interesting facts.
For example, the things that Willow called pop-hoppers were locally known as jimble-grimbs. Given the ridiculous name Naomi didn¡¯t care in the least when Willow declared her name was better and therefore should clearly be the official name. The kobolds seemed amused by the statement rather than offended and Halshath told her, ¡°We¡¯ll be sure to let the various powers who all claim ownership of the planet know about the change.
The situation itself was relatively simple, though. The kobolds had settled on this planet something like fifteen thousand years ago, but had failed to ¡°conquer¡± it. This meant that, as far as most factions and other large groups were concerned, it was still unclaimed. The kobolds themselves had mostly all come from the same origin point, having been in the same tutorial and had wanted to maintain their simple lifestyles. They had no interest in the more modern technology or the hustle and bustle they experienced during their ¡°contracted period.¡±
Almost the entire clan had stayed in contact through the UICI while they fulfilled their various obligations. Once they completed them, they had worked together to pool resources and acquire passage to an unclaimed planet. There, they had begun rebuilding their tribe properly. They avoided using the UICI as much as possible and when strangers came to visit they did their best to avoid being found. This had worked well for the last fifteen thousand years. Unfortunately, one of the visitors which they had avoided had followed a native animal which made its lair underneath sunsquat trees, which was what the kobolds called the type of tree they themselves lived under.
The visitor had discovered the sun-child stones, which had begun an inevitable series of events. The kobolds assumed when he left, things would continue as usual. Instead, they had received a notice on their UICI that their claim to the planet was being contested by two different factions and a guild. The Luminous Home faction, Autronima faction, and the Insight Entreaty guild had all laid official claims of their own.
Following this one of the factions, the kobolds weren¡¯t sure which, had sent someone to ¡°harvest¡± the sunsquat tree they found. The kobold scouts had seen them arrive, a group of about a hundred walking through a portal. They didn¡¯t wear any particular faction identifiers and their UICI tags didn¡¯t include their faction. The tags thing had sent the conversation spiraling for a while as Willow asked questions about that, very interested in setting up her own tags and figuring out how to see others.
Finally, the kobolds had learned that the group was intending to remove the entire tree. The tribe had sent a group of representatives to negotiate, asking them not to destroy the natural order of things. The kobolds sent had all been killed out of hand. Naomi had frowned and made sympathetic noises with her friends, but the kobolds dismissed it almost casually and continued as if it was of no consequence. They¡¯d then explained that their scout had reported back that the group of people had surrounded the tree and used some kind of ritual to uproot the entire thing. They then summoned a portal, took the tree and left. They hadn¡¯t been back since then.
Once they¡¯d left, the kobolds had mourned the loss of the tree, but hadn¡¯t thought too much more of it. Until about a year later when the first jimble-grimbs had shown up. Apparently, they appeared to be born, or as the kobolds said ¡®spawned¡¯ within the area the sunsquat tree had previously occupied. They pop into existence, about one of them every day or so. Then the jimble-grimbs had begun to spread out and collect materials from the forest. They were ¡°normal monsters¡± so far as the kobolds could tell. They said they made good fodder to train their young.
This had brought up several questions from both Kent and Willow about the children. Naomi hadn¡¯t considered, but according to their orientation all intelligent creatures came from the tutorial. So children were unexpected. The Skeetha had mentioned that was a longer topic, which they should discuss later, and continued their story.
The jimble-grimbs had gone on to put together a little village for themselves surrounding a familiar-sounding pot. The kobolds had begun to use them, as they mentioned previously, to train their young in the ways of combat. They would periodically raid the monster camp, culling them then retreating back home. That had maintained a balance for a while, until the jimble-grimbs had managed to kill two of the children being trained. They had then taken the corpses and tossed them into their pot and immediately the area had begun to change.
As Halshath told this part of his story, he seemed to become truly angry. The deaths of the children, unlike the scouting parties demise, seemed to infuriate him. He recounted the training group returning in defeat, having lost lives for the first time during a training exercise and Naomi thought she¡¯d seem tears form at the corner of his large eyes.
The next day, the kobolds sent a squad to entirely eradicate the jimble-grimbs, locate their spawn point, and purify it. When they arrived, though, they found the land was dead. Previously, it had been obvious a grand tree had been removed but still had plenty of life and other trees in the surrounding area. They explained the surrounding wildlife had mostly been normal. Now, though, they found an area of dead grey for tens of meters. Only the pot itself remained. The jimble-grimbs were gone.
The kobolds had tried to retrieve the pot but had a reaction similar to Jonah¡¯s. They¡¯d been unable to approach without gagging and choking. The longer they remained within a couple meters, and the nearer they approached the cauldron, the worse the effects got. They had a couple kobolds try to charge the cauldron to knock it over before the sickness became debilitating, but failed. The pot was much heavier than it first appeared, with several of the warriors having stated it must be more than a hundred kilos.
Jonah nodded along emphatically about how horrible the rapidly increasing sickness was, looking vindicated at his own reaction. The kobolds hadn¡¯t given up there, having sent several parties to try various methods of removing or destroying the cauldron with all having obviously failed. They talked about using spells and abilities, trying to use wands and other weapons and equipment their tribe had from their days under contract. Nothing had been effective in removing the stubborn pot.
That was the gist and Naomi had phased out about that time. The last four hours or so had been details and tangents, which Naomi was increasingly failing to care about. She felt drained. It had been a long time since she¡¯d spoken with anyone for so long. Her chats with Jonah and Willow were nice, refreshing even. Neither of them seemed overly concerned about maintaining a conversation, which Naomi was now thanking whatever lucky stroke landed her with them instead of more talkative people.
Willow was upbeat and always seemed happy to talk, but also never pursued a conversation once it was complete. She also hadn¡¯t constantly felt the need to fill silence while they were walking or working on something together. Sometimes she¡¯d start a conversation, but ultimately she was much less of the ¡°ultra-extrovert¡± that Naomi had initially feared upon meeting her and experiencing her unique personality.
Jonah, on the other hand, was absolutely an introvert like herself, though maybe not quite as much. Both herself and Jonah had been reticent to really talk much except when needed and had difficulty talking about themselves. As they¡¯d gotten more comfortable around each other, though, Jonah had opened up a lot. He and Willow had spent more time chatting about random things as the days went on and seemed to have common interest in fantasy books and games. Naomi herself shared some of those interests, but had a hard time joining their conversations.
When she forced herself, they were always extremely enjoyable, but it was difficult. Even with Willow¡¯s ever-positive encouragement and Jonah¡¯s quiet support. She smiled slightly as she remembered gathering the nerve to apologize to Willow for always putting her off when she asked about her life. Naomi just didn¡¯t like talking about herself. She wasn¡¯t worth talking about.
She¡¯d expected Willow to agree to not ask about her anymore, like some of her rare friends on earth had done. She¡¯d even considered she might get annoyed and say she was being dramatic like some of her prospective friends had done. Instead, she¡¯d just grinned and told Naomi she¡¯d keep asking until Naomi was ready to talk about it. She offered to ¡°take a break for a bit¡± if she needed, but made it clear she had no intention of forgetting about learning more about her.
Naomi had done her best to be graceful and just thanked her for understanding it was hard, then made her escape. She¡¯d found herself sobbing softly behind some trees. She was sure Willow and maybe Jonah had known she was crying, they had agreed to keep track of each other while out here in case of danger after all, but neither had mentioned it. It had been a good kind of cry. It had been so long since anyone had cared enough to ask about her, much less insist that they would get her to talk about it eventually.
She returned her attention to the little hovel room as Willow stood, followed by Jonah. The meeting was apparently complete. Willow grinned down at Naomi with a knowing glint in her eyes, clearly knowing she hadn¡¯t been listening. She didn¡¯t call her on it, though. She just reached a hand out to help Naomi stand up. She took Willow¡¯s hand with a smile.
It felt good to have a real friend.
Chapter 13 - Tricked Down Memory Lane
Willow
Feathered Lands Tribe Home, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Lunging forward with absolutely absurd speed, which her opponent couldn''t possibly hope to defend against, Willow¡¯s fork caught the largest stuffed tuber for herself - Sweeping it from the grasp of a disappointed looking Kent. She flashed the quiet man a bright smile, ¡°Gotta be faster than that if you want the best grub!¡± She popped the scrumptious morsel into her mouth without further boasting.
Her triumphant statement earned her a glare from her victim and an amused look from Naomi. They had joined Skeetha and several of her friends for something like brunch. As it happened, the Kobolds observed two formal meals a day. They were enjoying the first, which consisted entirely of vegetables. Despite their sharp teeth kobolds were apparently omnivorous.
Plates piled high with food were passed around for each guest to pick what they wanted and Kent had been taking the best looking bits before they got to Willow every time. She¡¯d interpreted it as an act of war and responded accordingly. The treacherous villain was now eating his just deserts! Or maybe I¡¯m eating the deserts? These kobolds know how to cook!
The little tubers, one of which she had just liberated from Kent¡¯s grubby paws, were like miniature sweet potatoes with a delightfully crispy outer skin. After they were cooked, the kobolds cut the top off of them, scooped out the innards, and mixed the potato-like goop with some other stuff to make an absolutely incredible stuffing which they then put back into the hallowed out root.
The night before had been enlightening. They¡¯d learned a ton about the drama between the kobolds, some factions, and a guild. More importantly, Willow and Kent had been in mental sync and had both skillfully driven the conversation toward the most important topic imaginable. In the end, they had managed to extract a promise from Skeetha that she would teach them more about magic. She¡¯d been surprised to learn they were pretty much ¡°babies¡± as she put it, but then became thoughtful when Willow had explained them being there unprepared was all Madrick¡¯s fault.
In the end, Skeetha had told them she¡¯d explain the basics of ¡°the craft¡± and also the other various uses of mana she knew of. She claimed there were endless uses for mana, all of which Willow wanted to learn. There was something that particularly spoke to, and excited, her about magic in general. All that Willow and co. had to do was track down where the pop-hoppers had gone. Easy as eating ma¡¯ma¡¯s apple pie!
¡°She tricked us!¡± Willow declared as the sun slowly began to set that evening.
Kent snorted and rolled his eyes as he dropped his over-sized pack, ¡°I don¡¯t think it counts as tricking you when they told us it probably take a while to find them¡ Not to mention giving us tents and packs so we don¡¯t have to sleep on the bare ground under open sky.¡±
Naomi and Willow followed his example, letting the heavy packs fall to the ground. Willow immediately began stretching, feeling stiff after carrying it for so long. After a moment, the others joined her. She wasn¡¯t sure why they hesitated, stretching felt great after a long trek carrying a heavy bag! She let out a satisfied groan as she relaxed from her deep back-arch and looked around.
¡°Yep. Definitely tricked us. This stupid forest looks exactly like the rest of the stupid forest! We haven¡¯t even seen any more of those cool trees that use glowing rocks as roots!¡±
¡°That is a really weird way to simplify how they explained the sunsquat trees work.¡± Ken muttered as he made himself busy pulling poles from his bag to put up his tent. For some reason he seemed to be avoiding looking at Willow, his face slightly flushed.
She ignored the odd behavior and started pulling out her own tent materials.
¡°Willow, Skeetha literally said she didn¡¯t expect to see us back for a month or more.¡±
¡°I thought she was being dramatic! You know, for like, effect! Nothing takes that long!¡±
When she stood from retrieving her tent poles she found Naomi and Kent both staring at her.
Naomi ventured, ¡°You didn¡¯t ACTUALLY think that¡ Right?¡±
Sighing dramatically, Willow gave in, ¡°No, complaining is just more interesting than looking at the BILLIONTH feather-branch tree which looks EXACTLY like every other feather-branch tree. What in God¡¯s good name is this adventure?! Why would Madrick, a clear mad-man, decide to drop me in the middle of nowhere?! Shouldn¡¯t I have been sent to somewhere with droves of enemies? Or a clear objective? Or SOMETHING?! I want action! Adventure! Not tromping around a forest looking for stupid little weaklings who can¡¯t even give me a challenge!¡±
By the end of her rant, Willow was pacing and glaring at everything, hands balled at her sides in clear fury. Seeing both of her friends looking at her with concern, she forcibly calmed herself. Out of habit, she entered her focus. She was immediately reminded that despite the annoyance of the start-stop nature of her ¡®adventure¡¯ she had magic. That made it all worth it!
¡That makes it mostly worth it.
As she just stood there, letting the effects of her focus draw her emotions in to fuel itself, she suddenly realized another property of the new and improved magical version of her focus. Using her focus to calm herself down was a habit formed as a way to return to a state of calm if she lost control of her emotions, something that didn¡¯t happen too terribly much anymore but had once been a true problem.
Back when she¡¯d first started building her focus it had been step by step through careful meditation. She¡¯d pursued it as diligently as everything else in her life and it had eventually begun to pay off. After months of repetition and work, she¡¯d created a mental space where she could funnel her emotions when she got angry, or scared, or upset, or sad, or whatever. That had been the original purpose of her focus and it had only grown from there.
It seemed her focus had the same capability, but way stronger. As she pushed her emotions into her ability, she felt them drain away almost instantly. More than that, she could tell her use of mana had slowed significantly. As she dug deeper, allowing her focus to draw in more and more of her emotion she saw the cost drop to nothing. She felt a twinge of excitement, I can keep this up forever if I let it take my emotions! The excitement was gone before the thought ended.
Still, she could logically see how important the capability was. She could also acknowledge that when she let herself feel again, she would be excited. A burst of anticipation flowed directly into the active ability. She noticed that her active mana ball-thing was actually growing. Each new discovery prompted more excitement, which in turn was consumed to build her mana.
Currently, the ability was working at its ¡®base¡¯ level. Speeding her up by double - or slowing the world around her to half its normal speed. She still wasn¡¯t exactly sure which. Naomi and Kent were both still looking at her but didn¡¯t look worried that she was going to go off like a bomb. They seemed more concerned about her as a person.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
That was different. If she¡¯d started ranting and pacing like that on Earth anyone who knew her would have started edging away, fearing she¡¯d relapse to letting her anger control her. Despite that not having happened for years.
She pushed the distracting thoughts into her focus, another function she¡¯d used it for forever, and the extraneous thought vanished like a popped bubble. Curious, she tried to recall what the thought had been. It returned easily and was banished again just as simply. Suddenly, she felt like she¡¯d stumbled into understanding a bit of what this mana aspect she was using was. It¡¯s control. Control over myself¡ But if it¡¯s control over myself, why is color drained from my surroundings?
Naomi had started asking a question and was now looking around, so Willow fed all of her thoughts into her focus while she patiently waited to hear what she was saying. ¡°Are you okay? Your face went all blank.¡±
Willow told her lips and eyes to smile. She watched to see if it would fool them and felt a jolt as her mana increased quite suddenly due to the suppressed humor at the horrified expressions on their faces.
She dropped her focus, letting out a deep breath and explained, ¡°My focus was a meditation aid before I ever used it to help me in fights¡ Apparently the magical version lets me do all of the meditative stuff I could before, except amped way up.¡±
That peaked both Naomi and Ken¡¯s interest and they both started talking at once, before stopping, looking at each other, both trying to start again, then Kent waved for Naomi to go first and leaned back with a slight smile.
Taking the offer, Naomi asked, ¡°What¡¯s a meditation aid? How is it ¡®amped up¡¯? When you smiled at us it was like a CGI model. Super uncanny and creepy¡± She shuddered and Kent was nodding along.
¡°Weeell¡ A meditation aid is like an anchor to help you return to a meditative state more easily. Some people visualize entire scenes and they ¡®return¡¯ to the scene when they meditate. Some people picture a fire, or imagine a sound like the crashing of waves. It¡¯s probably even possible to use a smell as an anchor¡ Not sure. Anyway, over the years I started imagining my focus as something like a control center¡¡±
She trailed off with a ¡®ah-ha¡¯ look on her face, then shook her head and continued eagerly, ¡°It has inputs and outputs which I can adjust as I need to. When I ¡®enter¡¯ my focus it¡¯s like hooking that control center up. Every thought is analyzed before it¡¯s acted on, every image from my eyes is examined in detail, every sound is cataloged, and so on. That¡¯s how it helped me fight, it made me feel like the world had slowed down. Maybe it sped up my brain, or maybe I just felt like it did. Either way, it worked.¡±
Taking a breath, she realized the others had stopped setting up their campsite and that the sun was getting dangerously low. Or rather, the light was rapidly diminishing. The mist still blocked the sun, which was apparently normal according to Skeetha. Not important right now.
She quickly stepped over to begin working on her tent again before she continued, ¡°Before that, though, the main thing it helped me with was controlling my emotions. My pa-paw has a bunch of nicknames for me, ¡®fire cracker¡¯,¡®little hurricane¡¯,¡®firework¡¯¡¡±
She trailed off for a moment, then shook her head and continued, purposefully avoiding looking at Kent and Naomi, ¡°I was really bad at controlling my emotions as a kid. I got in fights a lot. I got suspended in my first week of middle school for attacking a boy who pulled my hair and said I looked weird.¡±
Sighing, she finished pulling the last pole through the tarp-like tent lining and started bending it to meet with its pair on the ground. Her voice became melancholy, ¡°It was tough. Most kids were scared of me. Adults always said I was a bad egg. My ma¡¯ma just told me ¡®You have the true fire, child¡¯ and my gram-gram told me ¡®If you were in the ol¡¯ country we¡¯d make one mean witch out of you!¡¯ though I think she was kidding. Probably.¡±
Clearing her throat as she finished connecting the last piece of the tent frame, she grabbed the stakes and started working to secure the tent to the ground as they¡¯d been shown. Getting back on topic she tried to lighten her tone, ¡°So I needed a way to control myself. I met coach, one of my dad¡¯s old friends from college, Jim Conahey. Coach had recently returned from active duty as a marine and had started a dojo to teach a bunch of martial arts and other things. When he saw me fly off the handle for no reason he walked right up to me, tapped me on the shoulder, and told me the ¡®sit down¡¯.¡±
The memory brought with it a bitter sweet smile and some tears, which Willow chose not to wipe away as she stood from driving the last stake. ¡°He was the scariest person I¡¯d ever met. I dropped right onto my little eight-year-old booty like God himself had given the command. He and pa-paw had a quick talk and from that day on coach was in my life. He told my parent, ¡®She just needs some discipline. Get her some and she can use that energy of hers to move mountains.¡¯ Then he¡¯d looked at me and smirked, that little scar on his mouth stretching in a way that scared me so much as a little girl.¡±
Flopping down in front of her tent, she watched the others finishing up as they worked slowly so they could still listen to her, ¡°He was so right. Every day after school I spent an hour at coach¡¯s dojo. The first thing he taught me was to meditate. He told me, ¡®¡¯Before I teach you how to conquer the world, I¡¯m going to teach you how to conquer yourself. Discipline starts in the mind. You control your emotions, then your thoughts, then your actions. Then your actions can be used to effect the world. Control your mind. Control your thoughts. Control your body. Then you can learn to control your environment, your opponent, the world.¡¯ by the end coach was grinning at me in a way that I later learned meant he was mostly joking. But coach never just joked. Even his jokes had some nugget of truth in them.¡±
Taking a deep breath and blowing it all out, she wrapped up her story, ¡°So long story short¡ Coach taught me to meditate. He walked me through meditating hundreds or thousands of times before I started being able to do it by myself. I was a young girl after all and sitting still and focusing on one thing is hard for anyone, much less a kid. But coach always wins. He did exactly what he told me he¡¯d do. He taught me how to control myself through meditation. At first I had to stop what I was doing when I started getting too emotional, go find somewhere to sit, and meditate.¡±
She laughed, the sound like a cracking whip striking a clear bell, ¡°If before kids were scared of me, now they thought I was weird. I stopped getting into fights though. Eventually I learned to ¡®turn on¡¯ my meditation. I thought about it like ¡®focus really hard and I¡¯ll meditate fast!¡¯ which¡ Well it¡¯s not really how meditation usually works, but I was a kid and I was really used to meditating so somehow my little squishy brain figured out a way to make it work!¡±
Kent and Naomi were both done now, both sitting in front of their own tents looking at her as they listened.
¡°So that was conquering my emotions. I learned to use my focus to control my emotions. To return myself to calm when I needed to. Then coach started working with me to tuning my mind and started teaching me stretches and exercises to ¡®start getting your mind and body in sync¡¯. At the same time he started walking me through new meditations which were meant to help me learn to filter out unnecessary thoughts when I wanted to. I eventually extended my focus to do that too. Then I just kept adding more and more into it as coach taught me more¡¡±
She trailed off, staring into space as she relived old memories.
After a few minutes of silence Kent cleared his throat, ¡°Thanks for telling us. It sounds like you had a really interesting childhood.¡±
Naomi nodded her agreement as Willow¡¯s eyes focused back on them, ¡°Yeah, and your coach sounds intense.¡±
¡°Bah! Coach is just a big softie! He just tries to look and act all scary. He¡¯s secretly a big teddy bear. Ah, I also kind of downplayed how much my parents helped with it all too¡ My ma-ma always encouraged me when I felt like I wasn¡¯t making any progress and my pa-paw forced me to practice when coach wasn¡¯t around. I was really blessed¡¡± She pulled her knees up to her chest, suddenly sad, ¡°I miss them.¡±
Silence reigned for a long while as they sat in a thoughtful silence. Willow hoped the others didn¡¯t feel uncomfortable. She knew some people didn¡¯t do well with sudden quiet, but it felt nice to her. Comfortable.
Eventually, her thoughts returned to her focus and her focus. She smiled and pushed a thought to her UICI.
NEW MAN ASPECT NAMED!
Congratulations!
You have successfully created and registered a unique, previously unregistered, mana aspect DISCIPLINE into the CHM!
To reward your efforts, and for meaningfully contributing to the CHM database, 500 R2-EB has been awarded!
Congratulations!
You have registered a meaningful description for your unique mana aspect DISCIPLINE
Description
Discipline, as taught to Willow Gagn¨¦ by Jim Conahey (AKA: Coach).
As per UICI cultivation privacy provision 2219.A.33, the CHM is unable to provide third parties with access to information related to your private cultivation techniques without your consent. This includes your newly created ability.
Would you like to share your ability with Sentekko
(F)?
Chapter 14 - Camp Hopper
Jonah
North of Feathered Lands Tribe, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Three days of walking in a generally northern direction, maybe tending eastward a little, had been exhausting. Despite the burn in his legs, the soreness of his back, and the general feeling of exhaustion, Jonah was thrilled. When he¡¯d realized he had essentially signed up for literally thousands of years of a desk job it had seemed as if the ¡°real¡± world had played a cruel trick. In the ¡°tutorial¡±, his previous life, he hadn¡¯t been able to do anything extremely physical.
Though, now that he was thinking about it from a more objective standpoint he realized that maybe he¡¯d only been unable because he didn¡¯t let himself believe he was. He thought back to his prior life as he watched Willow going through a set of blindingly fast stretches in her patch of grey colorless forest.
He hadn¡¯t been able to move his legs, or even feel them, since birth. To make matters worse his eyes were atrociously near-sighted. Even with glasses he had only been able to make things out within a few meters at most. Lastly, he had an acute weakness in the left side of his body which on bad ¡°flare¡± days made him unable to do so much as lift the limb. He¡¯d thought he had been making the best of it. He had found hobbies he could enjoy with audio books, video games, even a little bit of voice acting and singing.
Looking back through the illuminating lens of hindsight he realized some of his limitation had been entirely self imposed. Yes, some days his left arm could hardly be moved, but most days it was just a little weaker. He could have gotten into a sport if he really wanted to. At the very least, he could have gone out of the house more and met more people, done more things. It was just way easier not to. Did he regret his previous life? Not exactly. He enjoyed most of what he had done and it had been comfortable. There was nothing wrong with any of that, really. He just had to admit to himself that he¡¯d made excuses for why he didn¡¯t do more socializing or more physically. He¡¯d always thought he¡¯d love to be more physically active. If he had really thought that though, why had he let anything stop him?
¡°You know, you should stretch too. You¡¯re going to get really stiff again if you just sit there after walking for so long.¡± Naomi threw at him from where she was going through the stretching routine that Willow had shown them. It wasn¡¯t the same one she was going through right now though. He looked toward the colorful girl that almost seemed to be performing an alien dance in her own grey-scale world. She was contorting, twisting, leaping, flipping, and otherwise casually performing what Jonah would have said were entirely impossible movements.
She¡¯d practiced relentlessly since the end of their first day of walking. The area around them would go grey in bursts throughout the day as Willow practiced with her focus. Sometimes she¡¯d seem to teleport in front or beside him, though she assured him she wasn¡¯t teleportation at all. She was just stopping time. That was all, just a simple little time stop. She had just giggled at his attempt at a flat stare at that particular statement. She also literally ran laps around Naomi and himself as they walked. She said she¡¯d enjoyed the ¡°break¡± of their first few days on this planet, but that she was ready to ¡°get back to work.¡± He wasn¡¯t entirely sure what she meant, but he¡¯d let it drop. By that time he was having a bit of trouble catching his breath from walking for hours and was feeling a bit embarrassed how effortlessly Willow was going probably ten times the distance he was in the same amount of time.
Realizing he should be taking the near super-human girl¡¯s advice if he wanted to have any hope of closing the gap, he groaned as he stood. He began to go through his own stretches and smiled slightly at the burn as he felt the gentle pull and burn of his muscles. He should have believed himself that he would have enjoyed being more physically active. He would have been right. It was somehow satisfying to really feel his body in a way that he hadn¡¯t before.
As he bent to do his best to touch his toes, he froze, then quickly stood back up. ¡°Hey, girls?¡± He saw Naomi look at him from her position holding a stretch on the ground.
Willow answered almost immediately, ¡°What¡¯s up? Also, isn¡¯t ¡®Hey, girls¡¯ weird? Everyone just says ¡®guys¡¯, right?¡±
Ignoring Willow¡¯s side-tracking for the moment, he pointed to what he¡¯d spotted on the ground, ¡°Is it just me or does that look like a jimble-grimb¡¯s weird track?¡±
He hadn¡¯t even fully finished before Willow was next to him, squatting down to get a look. She grinned up at him with a fierce kind of excitement, ¡°It definitely looks like one. Finally!¡±
As she exclaimed, she hopped up and started carefully scouring the area around them for more tracks. Jonah quickly followed suit, stretches forgotten. Naomi grumbled something but then stood and joined them. The search came up with promising results. Naomi found a patch of tracks a little ways to the east of where they had decided to make camp. After a brief discussion, they agreed to stick with the plan of staying put for the night. They¡¯d follow the tracks tomorrow.
Willow
North of Feathered Lands Tribe, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
They¡¯d found a clue! Or rather they¡¯d found a clue which led them to a trail, which lead them to a camp. Willow peaked around the cluster of feather-tree trunks she was doing her best to hide behind. Naomi and Kent had both gone around to the left side of the campsite with the intention of catching the pop-hoppers in a pincer attack. Willow wasn¡¯t entirely sold on the idea as neither of her friends were very good with their handmade staves. Unfortunately if they wanted to complete their grand quest of, ¡°figure out where the Jimble-Grimbs all ran off to¡± given to them by the kobolds, they didn¡¯t have several months for Willow to whip them into fighting shape.
What she saw through the treeline was pretty much the same as the last time she checked. The camp was populated by twelve pop-hoppers who were milling around doing various things. The strange thing was they were acting much more intelligent than the ones she¡¯d ¡®fought¡¯ previously. They each had some form of weapon. While they were all rough, they were several steps above the ¡®knives¡¯ that the last group had been wielding. These ones had a mix of spears, throwing javelins, swords and even a few bows with quivers on their backs.
The weapons were all sized appropriately to the spindly meter tall creatures. That is to say, they weren¡¯t in any way impressive. She wondered if these were the multiverse¡¯s version of goblins? Goblins were always the first monster a level one party ran into. Small, stupid, weak, oblivious, the perfect first opponents.
Somehow, it seemed she had jinxed herself as one of the creatures suddenly screeched and pointed at her. A bit wary of the ranged weaponry, she didn¡¯t charge in immediately. That wasn¡¯t their plan anyway. The original plan had Kent and Naomi acting as bait, but Willow figured they could just swap roles a bit.
She waved and called out, ¡°Hey there! If any of you are intelligent and don¡¯t want your heads squished in, please speak now or forever hold your complaints.¡± She showed her teeth in a vicious grin. Hmm, is it bad I¡¯m excited to kill these things? Yeah that¡¯s probably not a good thing¡ Something to think about later.
One of them threw a javelin. It was thrown accurately, but with so little power that she just caught it. She looked at the stone-tipped stick a bit over a half meter, bemused. She looked back up just in time to see the arrow one of the two archers had fired. She entered her focus and stepped to the right, then wondered if she needed to bother as she watched the arrow hit the tree and fall.
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Just as she was about to rush forward and start her counter attack, something unexpected happened. One of the pop-hoppers near the middle of the group started an extremely high-pitched shriek and the whole group froze. When the little monsters nearest to her turned and rushed toward the shrieking one she thought maybe they gained a brain between them and were going to flee. Then she noticed that all of them were rushing toward the spindly still-shrieking hopper. It was holding all three of its arms straight out from its body.
It took maybe three seconds. All twelve of the monsters piled onto their center shrieking friend and started hooking together. Their limbs wrapped together, fingers locked with neighboring fingers, toes snapped onto arms and heads were wrapped by legs in a display of true insanity. If she had to describe the weird super-pop-hopper that was formed by the bodies of a dozen of them, she¡¯d probably say it looked kind of similar to a grotesque version of a bionicle.
Individually they were little freaks, all snapped together like this they were actually horrifying. Faces stared out from all angles, each side of the ¡®body¡¯ sprouted an arm in the middle and legs near the bottom. The arms had a two meter reach easily, while the legs were half a meter longer. The spindly thing rushed Willow.
She had expected it to be comically unwieldy. She was horribly wrong. She¡¯d let go of her focus after dodging the arrow so she was able to fully experience the amalgam¡¯s shocking speed. It covered the ten meters between them faster than the javelin had. It crouched down, leaned forward, and leapt directly at her.
Entering her focus, Willow just managed to slide around it. She considered using her moment, but wanted to learn more about what the monsters could do in this form. Previously, she¡¯d seen them as dumb little annoyances. Level zero fodder. Now, she was reevaluating. When the super-hopper landed, it didn¡¯t regain its feet, recover, and strike out. It didn¡¯t need to. The part of the ¡®body¡¯ that landed became the feet as the pop-hoppers redistributed themselves seamlessly. Willow¡¯s breath was forcefully expelled as one of the long arms slammed into her and sent her onto her back. Ignoring her burning lungs, she pushed herself into a backwards roll and regained her feet. She¡¯d switched places with the pop-hoppers, with them in the trees and her nearer their camp.
Turning, Willow sprinted into the clearing their camp was in. The denser trees where she¡¯d been previously had been an advantage before, now they would just get in her way. She would have thought they¡¯d get in the way of the larger pop-hopper-boss ¡er, but after seeing how it handled landing she wasn¡¯t sure they wouldn¡¯t just ¡®flow¡¯ around the tree in a creepy display of supernatural agility.
Hearing a ¡®thunk¡¯ which Willow assumed meant the boss monster had just done another powerful leap. She activated her focus and threw herself to her right, rolling and recovering instantly. As she recovered she spun back toward her previous position. The hopper landed even as she turned. As she stared at it, clenching her fists, she realized she was still holding the ¡®javelin¡¯ she¡¯d caught. Without hesitation, she reared back and threw it. And missed. Urgh, should have practiced throwing more.
Before the monsters could reorient and jump again she rushed in toward it. An arm swept toward her, she ducked under it and slammed a fist into it as it passed overhead. She winced as her first struck what felt like hardened wood. One of the legs lifted and swept toward her, trying to force her outside of its guard. She timed a small hop and stomped-kicked down with all of her weight and strength. She heard a satisfying snap and the limb was hastily yanked back. She staggered slightly as she landed on the ground, noting off-handed that she¡¯d managed to kill one of the pop-hoppers which made up the amalgamation.
Stop being an idiot, Willow. She scolded herself, They still have the same weakness as before. Don¡¯t get thrown off by weird body interlocking. She was close enough to the body now that the creature couldn¡¯t effectively swing its long arms. More importantly, she could see two of the creatures heads exposed and staring at her. She kicked one and punched the other. Both squelched disgustingly. Willow almost gagged. She¡¯d already forgotten how gross that was.
All of the pop-hopper shrieked this time. Willow staggered, the sound causing a jolt of pain that felt like she had an ice-pick driven into her brain. She claimed her moment. She just let herself recover as she remained still in her moment. The world around her was frozen, she had time. Counting to ten, her head cleared. She mentally took stock of her mana levels. Her unnamed mana had about four minutes, or six actions depending on how she chose to use it. Why does this mana take so much longer to generate? Urhg¡ Not the time, Willow.
She braced herself, released her moment and leapt forward. She did her best to ignore the renewed assault on her head. Having time to brace and expect the pain let her push through it. Before she could continue her assault on squishy pop-hopper heads, its legs bent and it leaped.
Confused, Willow spun and watched it land at the edge of the campsite clearing. It bent and leapt back toward her again. Gritting her teeth, Willow repositioned herself so that it would land close to her, but not on top like it clearly wanted. As it landed she kicked out, popping one of the squishy heads.
More shrieking and it leapt away. Interestingly, other than the pop-hopper Willow had literally broken in half with her stomp, all of the hoppers she had killed had remained part of the ultra-hopper. Nah, this is probably not their final form. Better stick to smaller terms.
When it didn¡¯t immediately jump back at her, Willow gave chase. What followed was a frustrating game of cat and mouse. Willow even deactivated her focus to avoid wasting the mana. The hoppers clearly weren¡¯t smart enough to try and take advantage to her slower reflexes without it. She¡¯d tried feeding her emotions and thoughts to her focus to keep it topped off, but for some reason it didn¡¯t recharge while she was moving. She had to be standing still for the extra mana generation to work. I need to figure out how to fix that¡
The next minute was incredibly stupid, in Willow¡¯s opinion. Finally, a new element was added to the cat and mouse chase. Kent and Naomi suddenly stepped out from the treeline after one of the hoppers jumps, both of them swung hard with their staves. From the sudden shriek, Willow thought it was reasonable to assume they¡¯d managed to kill at least one.
Now that they¡¯d entered the fight, there were three of them to coral the creatures-turned-creature. If it had gone on the offence against Naomi or Kent there was a good chance it could do some real damage to them. Fortunately, it seemed to think they would have the same capabilities as Willow and simply tried to stay away from them. She wasn¡¯t really sure what the point of running from them while staying within the campsite was. It should have just broken apart so all the smaller pop-hoppers could scatter in different directions.
Over the course of a good half hour they wore the boss-hopper down. Kent finally got the final strike on a head that was hidden in the middle of the ¡®body¡¯, making a lucky stab through the twisted joined limbs. As soon as he did, the entire thing fell apart. It literally popped. Pop-hopper bodies flew out in every direction.
Stalking over to one of them, Willow glared down at the now pitiful little thing. She entered her focus for a few moments, feeding her frustrated fury into it and letting it refill her mana a bit. Once she had drained the emotion, she deactivated her focus and looked up at Naomi and Kent.
She gave them a tired smile, ¡°Thanks for the assist! Not to be ungrateful but¡ What took so long? I know I¡¯m quick, but you guys were DEFINITELY in position long before you joined. Right?¡±
Naomi shot Kent a look and he looked a bit embarrassed as he answered, ¡°Ah well¡ I thought you¡¯d probably get annoyed if we made the fight too fast¡ You¡¯ve been really bored and all so¡ Well anyway once I realized it was just going to run away I finally agreed with Naomi that we should help.¡±
Mixed and conflicting feelings flit across Willows face. Finally, she settled on a weak smile, ¡°Thanks for thinking about what I would want! In the future I¡¯ll just call out if you¡¯re nearby and I want some help¡ It¡¯s on me for not communicating clearly.¡±
¡°That¡¯s nonsense.¡± Naomi joined in with uncharacteristic passion, ¡°We had a plan. We were supposed to help you! I¡ I should have gone in alone when Jonah said he wanted to let you ¡®have your fun¡¯¡ I knew I should have! But¡¡± She looked down at the ground, ¡°I was scared.¡± She muttered.
Willow put a hand on Naomi¡¯s shoulder, waiting for her to look up. When she did, she was met with a small smile on Willow¡¯s face, ¡°It¡¯s totally understandable to be scared. This was your first real fight. You did great.¡± She looked over to Kent and let her smile widen, ¡°You both did!¡±
She dropped her hand from Naomi¡¯s shoulder as she fidgeted a bit, ¡°We all made some mistakes we can work on later¡ Now that we know what we need to work on. For now though¡¡± she rubbed her hands together eagerly, ¡°We get to see what kind of loot they were guarding that made them decide to stay here instead of running!¡±
They spent the next hour or two looking through the absolutely destroyed campsite. The pop-hoppers didn¡¯t have much. The only thing of real interest to the group was a small gem that pulsed with an inner light and a crude map.
When Naomi brought the map, which was marked with a scattering of Xs Willow threw her head back and cackled in glee before her face went suddenly and worryingly blank.
She looked Naomi directly in the eyes and said, ¡°Arrr, our bootie be marrrked by therr ex arrrr.,¡±
Chapter 15 - Enter My Dojo (Me)
Willow
Overnight Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
After the harrowing game of chase-the-cowardly pop-hopper boss form, the party had made camp for the night. They had returned to the prior area they had planned to make camp, as it was only a ten minute walk to return. More pop-hoppers were definitely nearby. The map they¡¯d found had three rough Xs which they suspected to mark hopper campsites, due to one of the Xs being directly where they had found the hoppers they¡¯d fought. At least, they thought it was. It was pretty tough to be sure given how samey the feather-branch forest was. On the bright side, the map did have one major landmark which would be their next destination. They believed the huge circle near the center of the scribbled map indicated the sight of another sunsquat tree.
While Willow would have loved to just rush off to verify the landmark was a sunsquat, she didn¡¯t contest Kent and Naomi when they mentioned making camp. They were both clearly beat after the last days of walking and then the stress of the fight.
Honestly, she felt she should be exhausted too. She trained a lot back on Earth, but she didn¡¯t think constant training for shortish bursts of high activity and some running would translate to endless walking followed by an annoying fight which had devolved into something more like tag. Before Kent had found the tracks, she¡¯d actually been planning to ask if the others wanted to take a bit of a break the following day, maybe break camp half way through the day instead of first thing in the morning. Instead, they¡¯d gotten excited and followed the trail immediately.
She looked toward the tents, all three setup near each-other and began making her rounds as she let herself get partially lost in thought. How did she still have so much energy? She knew she would sleep as soon as she laid down and closed her eyes, but she didn¡¯t feel exhausted or even sleepy. The only reason she was sure she¡¯d sleep easily was the fact she¡¯d felt this same way for the last three days. She had a theory about what was going on. In fact it was a theory that she held a high level of confidence was entirely correct. She was pretty sure her mana was helping her. She¡¯d been spending a lot of time playing with it. There wasn¡¯t much else to do as they walked, after all.
One of the things that she¡¯d noticed was that if she focused and kind of ¡®watched¡¯ as her mana regenerated she could ¡®see¡¯ some of the mana seemed to be lost. At first she¡¯d just assumed whatever generation was happening wasn¡¯t perfect and there was some wasted energy, like how an engine wasted some energy on heat and such. Having observed more carefully and doing her best to look deeper, she was slowly gaining a sense of clarity as to what was going on in her new little inner dojo. The ¡®lost¡¯ mana was actually reinforcing said little inner room itself.
The reason she¡¯d decided to think of her new discovery as a dojo was pretty simple, that¡¯s how she wanted to picture it. At first she¡¯d been struggling with trying to ¡®see¡¯ the slimy, gooey discipline mana, her yet unnamed mana, and each of their ¡°cores.¡± She¡¯d originally been trying to visualize them similar to how she¡¯d thought a dantian, or ¡®qi center¡¯ might look. Coach hadn¡¯t ever truly believed in qi, chi, or other energies but some of the teachers he had brought in as guest instructors had. They had taught her and, while she hadn¡¯t ever fully believed any of it she also hadn¡¯t discounted it entirely. So that visualization had been her initial go-to. Until she realized it was a dead end. Trying to picture her energy as something as foreign and nebulous as energy structures flowing through her body had been both exhausting and just hadn¡¯t ¡®clicked¡¯.
Once she had realized she needed to change her approach, she¡¯d experimented a bit. She had tried picturing her internal mana in a bunch of different ways. As a computer, as a book, as a library, as a refrigerator, as a TV, and a bunch of other stuff. In the end the thing that had resonated with her had been picturing a little dojo room. She didn¡¯t picture coach¡¯s dojo, she built her own from scratch. It was currently just a fairly small room, maybe nine by nine meter but she couldn¡¯t force it to be any bigger. Despite originally thinking of it as an ¡®imagined¡¯ room, she was starting to change her mind. It was more like a representation and visualization of something real that didn¡¯t have its own visual or physical form. The size being ¡®set¡¯ seemed to be due to the amount of maximum mana available to her. She could change the shape of the room if she wanted to, but not the space available.
As soon as she had finished picturing the details: racks of training weapons, mats, paintings and photos, and other decoration, she¡¯d felt the entire thing ¡®click¡¯ in a way she had both been looking for and also didn¡¯t understand. While she had been building the mental image, it had felt restricted but had also seemed somewhat fuzzy. Most images in her head were fuzzy, after all, so she¡¯d hardly noticed. Actual visualization had never been Willow¡¯s strong suit, as even picturing her own hand after staring at it and trying to memorize it would result in an indistinct mental picture. That all changed as soon as she felt that ¡®click¡¯, though. She could now ¡®see¡¯ her little dojo room, and through that could monitor her mana as it was used or generated. The way she could tell how much mana she had was simple, but also not very empirical.
Her discipline mana manifested in how orderly the dojo was. When she used a lot of the mana, it became more and more dingy and messy. If she used a chunk of mana to activate her focus she could literally watch the picture frames hanging on the walls gather dust and tilt just slightly. If she kept going, she would notice cobwebs form in the ceiling corners. As mana was generated, her space became more and more orderly. When the room was entirely orderly some of the mana appeared to push at the previous status-quo as to what ¡®entirely orderly¡¯ really meant. That might mean the training dummies might become better aligned with each-other, or maybe one of the door colors changed slightly. However, she cold also tell that some of the mana was going directly into the structure of the dojo itself, causing the walls to become stronger. She could also see what appeared to be the hint of a painting of a doorway on one of the walls of the one-room dojo, that painting was slowly becoming more distinct the more mana flowed into the structure. She even felt that some of the mana was even going to something outside of the dojo itself, but still within her. She suspected it was strengthening her body, which is why, she suspected, she wasn¡¯t exhausted like she should be.
Naturally, her other yet unnamed mana aspect was represented differently. It manifested in an avatar of herself. If she wanted to, she could picture her dojo from the perspective of herself standing inside of it. She could ¡®see¡¯ through the eyes of a version of herself, though she could also just feel everything that was going on within the dojo as if a goddess looking down upon her domain. The little Willow avatar couldn¡¯t actually interact with anything, at least not yet. When Willow tried to pick up one of the wooden short sword on a rack containing various training weapons her hand just passed through it. She had noticed the sword shifted ever so slightly, as if struck by a strong breeze. Essentially, she visualized her second mana type as herself as a ghost!
Her second mana aspect also didn¡¯t entirely go into making her ghost more ¡°real¡± within the dojo. Some of it seemed to go into making the ghost more detailed as well. Her internal avatar was currently something like a sketch, a rough outline with some defining features but missing a lot of specific details and color. She thought that the amount of mana she had was represented through her ability to interact with the dojo, while the completeness of her self-image represented the same as her dojo structure. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure what that structure and self-image represented, but they seemed similar in nature.
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Once she¡¯d had her ¡®click¡¯ moment and explored her inner dojo thoroughly, she realized she had a much better instinctive understanding of how much energy she had available. She could roughly estimate what she could do with it all, too.
The most recent thing she¡¯d found was her ability. It had been more difficult to picture, for some reason, though she still felt this entire mental image was the best possible one despite the difficulty. She had tried to figure out a way to visualize the ability, but no matter what she did it refused to appear within the wood-paneled walls of the room. Eventually she had let the matter drop, planning to try again later.
It was later that same evening when she had caught a glimpse of her ability through one of the two windows set into a wall. It turned out, it had already been represented the whole time, just not inside the dojo. She had been staring out through the windows, which looked out onto a view of a picturesque yard with a pond and manicured garden. Once the view had become familiar, she had smooshed her face up against it and angled her head to see as far as she possibly could in each direction. That¡¯s how she managed to glimpse the edge of a graffiti mural. She couldn¡¯t tell exactly what it looked like, but she knew that was her ability. She wasn¡¯t sure how she knew, but she was entirely certain.
Pulling herself from her thoughts, she activated her focus and grinned. She hoped learning about and using her magic never got old.
Madrick
Adra Vadren¡¯s Command Tent, Adrasmiith Warcamp, Hesv¨¡ra
While Madrick would have enjoyed taking additional time off to watch over his one and only disciple, he unfortunately had more important things to do. He was staring at one of the people who demanded these important things get done now. Adra Vadren, commander within the Adrasmiith faction¡¯s ¡®royal army¡¯ - called such despite Adrasmiith being a faction rather than a kingdom for not-even-the-gods-knew-what reason - sat behind a large fancy desk and pretended not to notice Madrick.
Ahhh the political games. How I haven¡¯t missed you. Madrick tuned out the world, glancing briefly into his soul nexus. The endless skirmish within his soul continued unabated. The glory of the eternal battle had been diminished, but not extinguished, by his death. Thinking about the manner in which he had died unsettled his soul nexus, the soldiers all becoming enraged as the conflict escalated as if the war had just begun and passions were high and their blood still boiled. He watched for a moment before forcibly calming himself. Wasting mana by letting his emotions run rampant was counter productive.
Instead, he focused his anger into a needle of cold ice which he would use later. That ice set into his soul nexus, the soldiers began to grow lethargic and weakened. This would temper them, they would need to learn to overcome the elements. He relived the final moments of his godhood. He watched as his best friend and his most favored lover, walking on his right and left side respectively, suddenly struck. The action had been coordinated, decisive, and utterly without warning. Madrick still felt Cheru¡¯s karambit, the thin excessively curved blade she preferred, slide in through his back and directly into his heart. That itself wouldn¡¯t have been enough to slay him, of course. The poison, along with his treacherous former friend Ba¨¡leth¡¯s massive hand-axe cleaving his head from his neck the very next instant, had barley been sufficient.
Madrick felt the fire of rage descending into his soul nexus again and once again forced it to coalesce into an icy form of fury. The sound of a cleared throat brought Madrick¡¯s focus out of his introspection. He noticed, with amusement, that the battle fervor mana which had leaked from him in his anger had ignited Adra¡¯s ire. As one of the many humans who despised the Glavi on principal, Madrick was more than happy to inconvenience this one.
The voice of the small, weak, dry, grey-skinned creature almost seemed to contain a hint of emotion due to the influence of Madrick¡¯s mana, ¡°It appears you have come, as my superior promised.¡± Despite almost having emotion, the Glavi¡¯s voice was still the same monotone and lifeless one shared by all of its kind.
¡°It appears you¡¯re here as well. Just as your superiors promised.¡± Madrick was trying for dry, channeling as much of Ki¡¯ai¡¯en¡¯s understated wit as he could. It still came out more sarcastic and angry than anything. Ah well, he¡¯d tried. Dry wasn¡¯t really his style anyway.
Adra steepled its fingers together, resting its skin-and-bone elbows on the desk it sat behind and stared at Madrick with its pupilless, scleraless, void-like eyes. He stared back without moving, aside from his foot tapping and his right fingers slapping against his crossed forearm as he waited impatiently. He hated these kinds of stupid games. What¡¯s more, he didn¡¯t have to put up with them. He was only doing so now because the Adrasmiith had something he wanted. They¡¯d made a deal to give it to him, assuming he took care of their little problem.
After counting to thirty, the stupid Gravi still hadn¡¯t gotten to the point. Fuck it. Madrick turned around, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll find what I need elsewhere.¡±
¡°Please remain.¡±
He looked back over his shoulder, eyes narrowed, ¡°Tell me the problem I¡¯m here to solve. Quit playing your idiotic power games. We both know who has the power here.¡±
The narrow nose-slits of the Gravi flared ever so slightly. Likely it was feeling actual anger for one of the few times in its life. Madrick, and more importantly the mana he¡¯d inadvertently released into the air, tended to cause that.
¡°We have been given this planet to do with as we wish. We are unable to do as we wish. This is due to the haunted.¡±
With a snort, Madrick turned around and walked back over to look down at Adra as he waited to hear more.
¡°Spirits appear. They are between rank nine and rank thirteen. They are most prevalent within the battle sites. The battle sites are what the Adrasmiith is interested in. We need the spirits removed.¡±
Grinning, Madrick nodded, ¡°Certainly something I¡¯d be more than happy to help you with. First though, what the hell do you mean by spirits? Elemental? Reanimated corpses?¡±
¡°No.¡± The Adra answered in a now fully disimpassioned tone, ¡°Fully autonomous energetic beings. They are ghosts. They take the form of their former selves. They retain their spells. They retain their abilities.¡±
¡°Impossible. The soul and attached soul nexus return when a being is slain. When monsters are slain their energy is either absorbed by their slayers, or it¡¯s condensed into a core. There¡¯s no such thing as a ghost for either.¡±
¡°And yet. We have evidence. We have seen.¡±
¡°Bah, so this isn¡¯t going to be as simple a job as ¡®go kill that army¡¯, is it?¡±
¡°Unlikely. We have destroyed the spirits. Many times. They return.¡±
Groaning, Madrick turned and left the tent without further questions. He¡¯d go check these ¡°ghosts¡± out himself. Hopefully the Adrasmiith warriors were simply incompetent and had failed to fully kill whatever ¡°energetic beings¡± they had encountered. Madrick himself would hardly fail at his favorite task, he¡¯d just have to check the claim that they came back after being killed personally.
Having destroyed a few hundred ¡®spirits¡¯, Madrick sat atop a grassy mound which he was fairly certain had once been a massive pile of bodies which hadn¡¯t been buried or burned. Nature was always the victor in these battles, in the end. Unless Madrick had been present, then he was the victor. He chuckled, in a good mood after a decent fight.
The spirits had come in the form of hundreds of different races, all of them beings which had come from tutorials. His working theory was that one or more of the warriors which had participated in this battle had a path of shared, or maybe forced, vengeance. They might have had a technique which activated upon death to create these odd ghosts. True ghosts, he knew, were simply not possible. The spirit of the departed was a known quantity, they could not linger when they were immediately collected on death.
Deciding taking a break called for a quick check on his disciple, Madrick looked through Willow¡¯s activity feed. He was a bit surprised to see several alerts that she had altered her soul nexus. She had altered it many times. He saw a total of forty alterations. A smile slowly spread across Madrick¡¯s face. Generally, changing ones soul nexus was a horribly difficult process which required extreme concentration to an existing nexus and create a new one. Yet it appeared his disciple could change it tens of times in a single day. Interesting. He wondered if she even knew what she was doing. He would wager that she had no clue.
Continuing on, he saw an alert that she had entered battle. He replayed the recording and laughed so hard he fell off his hill.
Chapter 16 - Improved Planning and XP
Willow
Following Pop-Hopper Scrawling, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
¡°Look, all I¡¯m saying is that it has to be more of a part of who you are than, ¡®I¡¯ve always wanted to be able to!¡¯¡± Willow answered Kent with a bit of exasperation. As they roughly followed the ¡®map¡¯ they¡¯d found in the pop-hopper camp, they¡¯d been discussing the marvelously mystical multiverse¡¯s mystical secrets.
As the only one of their group who had magic, Willow naturally felt her input should carry some weight. Which was why she was beginning to feel ever-so-slightly miffed at Kent for insisting that because some ¡°data packet¡± explained the basics of ¡°cultivation¡± he thought he had a better idea how to get his own awesome magic powers going.
¡°The guide says you have to have a strong conceptual and personal understanding. I¡¯ve obsessed over all of the details. Mind magic is definitely going to work!¡± Kent¡¯s voice had risen a bit in volume, not that there was anyone around who cared enough to scold him.
Willow rolled her eyes, ¡°I¡¯ll bet you all of my R2-EBs that what the packet means by ¡®strong conceptual and personal understanding¡¯ is way more complicated than ¡®prominently features in your fantasies¡¯.¡±
Before Kent could argue back Naomi broke in from in front of the squabbling pair, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just test both?¡±
¡°I can¡¯t split my focus like that, or it¡¯ll definitely fail!¡± Kent answered, ¡°The manual says¨C¡±
¡°Yeah, I know, you read it to us, we know what it says too.¡± Naomi¡¯s voice sounded less annoyed than Willow thought she might, having listened to them argue for almost a full half hour by this point. Either she was good at tuning annoyances out, or she was a freaking saint. If two people had bickered going in circles for as long as she and Kent had, she¡¯d lose her ever loving mind. She suddenly felt a bit guilty, despite - or maybe because of - Naomi¡¯s apparent lack of annoyance.
Naomi continued after glancing back to make sure neither of them were going to interrupt her own interruption of Kent. Willow shot her two thumbs up to show her support for her cutting Kent¡¯s silly ¡®the manual says¡¯ off.
¡°There are two of us who need to unlock our own internal dojo or soul nexus, or whatever you want to call it. I want magic too, after all. You do it like you think the instruction packet says you should and Willow can tell me what to do.¡±
A few moments of silence passed before Kent answered lamely, ¡°Ah¡ Yeah¡ That works.¡±
Willow snickered a bit. Seeing Naomi was looking back again for their reactions, she shot the other girl a wink. She grinned as she thought she caught a slight blush on their leader¡¯s cheeks.
The second pop-hopper camp looked much like the first. It had taken less than half a day for the party to find it using the map. They had taken a day of ¡®down time¡¯ for everyone to rest up. Willow had fully meditated for the first time since dying and had found it extremely effective in speeding up her mana generation. Or rather, mana conversion as Kent¡¯s cultivation primer packet had called it. He had to read it to them because the UICI wouldn¡¯t let him share it directly in any way. It said they each had to buy the stupid packet.
Apparently, what she had been thinking of as her mana being generated was actually quite a bit more complicated than that. All mana was created by converting ambient energy which the packet called ¡®potentia¡¯ into a mana aspect. That was about as far as the packet went into the mechanics, but it was interesting to know.
The day they remained at camp had been pretty nice, actually. Besides a few hours of meditation, it had given Willow time to continue to think about her yet unnamed aspect and insight; not to mention giving more thought to her ability rather than just taking it for granted.
Maybe I needed more down time if I¡¯m still getting distracted so easily¡ Willow forced herself to concentrate on the camp again. Their plan was similar to last time, but with some distinct modifications.
First of all, she had a rough stave in her hand similar to the ones Naomi and Kent carried. Second of all, she wasn¡¯t going to be moving around and trying to see things better which had gotten her spotted last time. Third of all, she wouldn¡¯t be hesitating and letting them group up into their stupid build-a-hopper form. All in all, it was the same plan but better.
She heard her signal. Kent¡¯s only slightly shrill war cry. She grinned, pushed herself off the ground with an explosive push-up and rushed down, forgoing her own war cry to hopefully take the enemy off guard. As a bright fire of excitement over the upcoming violence blossomed within her, she realized something. Ah crawdaddies¡ I forgot to process why this feels so good and figure out how to not¡ Oh well, no time right now!
This encounter felt much more similar to her initial beat down of pop-hopper kind than the most recent one. She swept through them like a farmer through wheat. A farmer with a long blunt stick instead of a sickle. A farmer who popped her crops rather than carefully harvesting them. A farmer who had to dodge and weave to avoid his crops striking out in retaliation. A farmer who - Okay, comparing a slaughter to a harvest is maybe a bit dumber than I originally thought.
The entire assault took less than five minutes, with all of the pop-hoppers laying dead. Most of them with popped heads. Willow grinned at Naomi and Kent like a proud ma¡¯ma. She saw both managed to kill two each! There had been fifteen in total, but still, they¡¯d never fought before. It was good, they were growing!
For some reason, they both had a far-off look though, ¡°Uh¡ Guys, you okay?¡± She saved a hand in front of Naomi¡¯s face and she blinked, coming back to the world.
¡°Yeah, sorry, the feeling is just really¡ weird. Good, though. Really good.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a rush. Similar to how an opioid I had to take at one point made me feel¡¡± Kent joined their conversation though his eyes were still unfocused. He cleared his throat and shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t think killing stuff is supposed to feel like that.¡±
Now that they¡¯d pointed it out, Willow had felt weirdly heady after each fight. She had chalked it up to something similar to the adrenaline and dopamine from a good fight, but stronger due to the actual life and death nature of it. With barely a thought, Willow found herself looking in on her little dojo and was surprised to find a thick mist churning and flowing around the room. Focusing on it, she found that she could easily direct the energy.
Experimentally, she pushed a small bit of it into her little sketch-like avatar. She watched with interest as details began to rapidly fill out. The impulse to shove all of the energy directly into her avatar to improve her unnamed maybe-time aspect was powerful, but she managed to suppress it.
Instead, she relayed to her friends what she¡¯d found, switching her focus back to the waking world. It was odd, she could ¡®see¡¯ her inner world and the real world both at the same time, but focusing on both was¡ Difficult. It was something she¡¯d practice later.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
¡°So¡ You can make your aspects, what, stronger?¡± Kent clarified after she explained what she¡¯d done and its result.
¡°Hmm¡ Maybe just more rather than stronger? Like I expanded the amount of mana it can hold. The amount of detail on my avatar seems to correspond with my maximum amount of that aspect¡¯s mana I can hold at any given time. When it¡¯s full it very very slowly increases all by itself, but it looks like this free energy can be used to speed that up significantly.¡±
¡°So it¡¯s xp¡± Naomi threw in dryly.
Willow nodded emphatically, ¡°Ooo, yeah! Good analogy!¡±
¡°Well¡ If it¡¯s xp, then you should be able to ¡®level up¡¯ more than just your mana pool. Can you increase your physical attributes? Like your strength?¡± Kent was flicking his pointer and middle fingers against his thumb as he thought.
The thought reminded Willow of the very small amount of generated, converted, mana that seemed to flow out of her dojo. The dojo itself, according to Kent¡¯s information packet, was probably what they termed a ¡®soul nexus.¡¯ Though the packet was a bit light on details for them to be entirely sure. She was planning to look on the market for a better guide using her R2 currency later.
Doing her best to keep part of her focus on the external world, Willow directed another small stream of the floating energy out of the window. When it reached the window, it changed. The clear pane suddenly became a beautiful stained glass piece of artwork. It reminded her of some of her favorite artworks in a stained glass museum she¡¯d gone to with Vash and James back on Earth. This one depicted herself, or rather her body.
It was rather surreal, as although it was artistically styled, it was a shockingly detailed image of her entire naked body. More than just naked, multiple layers of colored glass depicted each and every layer and part of her body. She could see her skin, connecting tissues, muscle, tendons, veins and arteries, bones, marrow, and everything else. The longer she looked, the more she could see. While she wasn¡¯t sure whether it was due to this being her visualization, or something else, she was extremely grateful it wasn¡¯t depicted with 4k quad-A gaming resolution and realism. She would definitely have puked.
As it was, it was almost natural to direct the stream of xp energy into the glass and guide it to strengthen her muscles. Specifically, she focused on improving her twitch muscles for faster and sharper movements. She could feel the change. She didn¡¯t instantly feel stronger. In fact, she felt suddenly worse as a deep ache reminiscent of her first couple years training in earnest with coach as a teenager set in. She knew this burn all too well, it was the feeling which came the day after an extreme workout.
Shooting Kent betrayed puppy-dog eyes, she relayed the result of the experiment. She almost laughed at the Kent¡¯s innocence as he started blushing as soon as she mentioned the mural of her naked body. She¡¯d have to remember his reaction for later teasing. For now, she was more interested in figuring out everything this tentatively named ¡®xp¡¯ could do. Before she continued her own experimentation, though¡
¡°Hey, can you guys feel the energy inside of you? Maybe you can use it to improve your bodies, even if you don¡¯t have a soul nexus thing setup yet?¡±
That got Kent excited. For some reason, he dropped into an awful sukhasana cross-legged position. He sat like a kid doing ¡®criss-cross apple sauce¡¯. She almost scolded him on reflex for his horrible form but stopped herself before she could distract him. If it helped him focus, then she could just bring it up and show him how to do it properly later.
Naomi didn¡¯t follow his example, but did close her eyes and looked like she was concentrating hard. Since they were both suddenly occupied, Willow returned to her own introspection. She tried pressing the energy into the walls of her dojo, which caused the walls to become an ever-so-slightly cleaner. She honestly couldn¡¯t imagine a more neat and tidy space than her dojo, for which she felt an odd sense of pride.
Curious to see how her soul nexus could possibly become more clean, she put a little more of the energy into it. She noted she was down to about half of the mist and also reminded herself that she¡¯d never noticed such mist before, so it had to disperse after a certain amount of time. Either that, or she¡¯d somehow been subconsciously using it to improve aspects of herself, but she didn¡¯t think so.
As she put another 10% or so of the xp into her dojo¡¯s walls, she didn¡¯t notice any change in the cleanliness of her space. Satisfying once and for all that it was as perfectly clean as anything could possibly get. Instead, she saw the faint outline of a door which looked something like a mostly erased pencil outline suddenly become a bit thicker. A bit less faint. So it seemed the next part of this aspect¡¯s representation within her soul nexus would be to add another room, which absolutely made sense to her.
Again tempted to pour all of her xp into one thing, Willow resisted the trigger-happy demon sitting on her firing hand begging her to ¡®doooo-eeet¡¯. Instead she quickly ran through all of the additional tests she could think up.
She directed a bit of xp into her ability. She wasn¡¯t sure what it did, since it was one of the things she could neither see nor feel very well. However, the energy definitely entered the ability. She would simply assume that it did something worthwhile.
Next, she pressed a bit of the mist out of the window and into the outside of her dojo¡¯s wall. Her eyes widened as she felt something like vertigo wash over her for a moment, then it was gone. Curiously, though more cautiously, she formed another thin stream of mist and repeated the test. This time expecting the sensation, she realized it wasn¡¯t vertigo so much as motion. Like being inside of an opaque elevator which started to move unexpectedly. The discomfort immediately vanished, leaving only the slow sensation of odd movement as she fed a tiny but constant trickled through her window and into the wall. When she thought she¡¯d put about as much into the outer wall as she had into her dojo¡¯s internals, she stopped and considered her next experiments.
She only had somewhere around ten percent of the amount of xp she¡¯d started with when she increased her disciple aspect. That would probably only be enough for two more tests at the most. She could use less, but she didn¡¯t think she¡¯d be able to feel any changes that little managed to make.
Alright, what all do I still want to test? I want to see if I can speed up my mind by directing some xp to my brain. I want to see if I can improve my organs. Can I improve more abstract things about myself? Could I make myself more creative? How about better able to empathize with people? Could I improve my ability to sense mana that isn¡¯t mind? What about potentia, could I make myself able to sense that? What about specific parts of my dojo? Can I specifically improve one aspect rather than just pushing the energy into the entire building?
After a minute of thinking, she realized that she had lost a bit of xp. She¡¯d actually been watching it this time, so she saw it kind of¡ Vanish. She wasn¡¯t sure where it went, or why. The lost energy definitely wasn¡¯t doing anything to help her, though.
The knowledge that she was on a tight timer helped her make a split second decision. She sent half of the remaining xp into the window of her dojo specifically. To her delight, it worked. The window itself changed slightly. While the window had previously been almost entirely flush with the wall, with barely any sill underneath, it was now significantly inset. The sill beneath the window was now deep enough to use as a book shelf. Great, so one hypothesis confirmed! I can absolutely direct the xp. hyper-specific portions of my soul nexus.
The next thing she tried was to improve her brain, but specifically whatever part of her brain let her think faster. She directed the energy to the window, which changed into the Willow stained glass masterpiece¡ And was immediately stumped. The energy seemed confused. Energy can¡¯t be confused. That¡¯s stupid. Don¡¯t tell me this xp has some kind of mind? Or isn¡¯t allowed to be used for mental enhancement for some reason?
After trying to come in at different angles, Willow eventually got annoyed enough to entirely stop shoving it at the window. Instead, she just mentally SCREAMED at the xp, make me think faster! Which immediately worked. Instead of going to stained-glass window though, the xp shot ¡®upward¡¯. Or rather, she pictured it as upward, though the direction was somewhat less than she could describe accurately with only three spacial dimensions.
What the energy actually did was came straight at her. Not at any of her representations, but at her. She¡¯d have flinched, actually she did flinch, but everyone was too busy doing their own thing to notice. Despite the odd sensation of a mental representation literally breaking through the fourth wall of her imagination, she grinned. Because it had worked. She had immediately felt her mind speed up. Not to any extraordinary degree, but by enough to be noticeable. And in a fight? This tiny boost is already a game changer against someone with the same speed, strength, and skill as me.
Having spent all of her xp, Willow checked on her companions and then remembered where they were. She laughed awkwardly, ¡°Eh, guys, you think we should have moved away from all the dead bodies before doing this?¡± Kent was sitting in what looked like a highly uncomfortable crossed-leg pose literally less than a meter from the arm of a pop-hopper corpse, while Naomi and her were both standing near enough to easily kick dead limbs themselves.
Chapter 17 - Parts We Dont Like
Naomi
Several Kilometers from the Nearest Known Dead Body, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
It was unfortunate that neither Naomi nor Jonah managed to direct their xp anywhere. Not surprising, but a bit disappointing. She wondered if the xp could fix her¡ Willow had told them all of the tests she¡¯d done, and all of the tests she had yet to do, after they looted the jimble-grimb camp. The ideas she had about improving abstract parts of themselves was appealing, to say the least.
It was this thought that had driven her to immediately ask Willow to help her get started on her soul nexus as soon as they had camp setup. She hadn¡¯t even eaten any of the rations the kobolds sent with them before asking. Now she was sitting in a comfortable pose on a log, her back sitting against the trunk of a feather-branch tree.
It had taken a bit to find somewhere decently comfortable, which had struck her as wasted time, but Willow insisted. One of the things Naomi had come to learn about her new friend was that while Willow was generally absolutely willing to listen to others; when she knew that she was the most knowledgeable about something, she didn¡¯t bend even an inch. Knowing this, Naomi hadn¡¯t argued after her initial grumbling about wasted time.
Now she was glad Willow had insisted. She thought sitting here for however many hours she¡¯d been at it would be way worse otherwise and -
¡°When you feel your thoughts become unfocused, acknowledge them and let them drift away with your breath. Breathe in.¡±
Naomi realized her thoughts had wondered, again. She accepted the fact as Willow had instructed her each time she¡¯d been distracted. Then she took a deep breath. She let it out as Willow directed, then fell into her own rhythm and found her mind drifting comfortably. She knew she was drifting in an endless emptiness of near thoughtlessness. Yet that knowledge didn¡¯t disrupt the nothing in which she existed.
Breathe in.
She could go deeper, she was just on the outside of the depths this darkness promised.
Breathe out.
Every breath would let her fall into herself. She would find her core, she¡¯d find a beautiful inner world like Willow¡¯s dojo.
Breathe in.
It would be soft and gentle, warm and colorful and comforting. It¡¯d be exciting. She would unlock the passion others had which she wanted to envy.
Out.
Just like in the stories, where the ice queen¡¯s shell broke and she found her heart full of love and hope.
In.
She¡¯d find her inner self, beautiful and splendid and strong. Trapped by the pall which had held her for so long. Nearly as long as she could remember.
Breathe.
Fall deeper. Find deepest self.
From a great distance a soft, but comforting voice drifted. The voice was confident and firm, but kind and gentle. It was a voice she trusted. The words held no meaning, but she enjoyed the sound. It brought soft colors to her vacuum, her nothing. Comfort and warmth to the endless cold. The voice continued, calm and unworried. It continued for a very long time.
Breathe.
Find self.
Fall.
Deeper.
There was nothing.
She was nothing.
She didn¡¯t know how long she floated as nothing, but at some point she realized that she was a she. She realized she existed. And she¡¯d forgotten why she was here. There¡¯d been a purpose, hadn¡¯t there? Soft tone, directions. Pulses of gentle light through the endlessness.
Yes. She¡¯d been¡ Something. Someone? Warmth. Comfort. Directions. Colors.
Those feelings, those were something important. Right? Request. Directions. Emotion.
Feelings, feelings were bad. Dangerous. Yet¡ The sound was good, nice. Cajoling. Humming. Song.
She ¡®looks¡¯ toward the polite invader who brought with it foreign sensations. She hears the words then, ¡°Good, Naomi. Good. Just let yourself be. Acknowledge yourself, your inner self.¡±
¡°This is weird.¡± She hears a voice that was¡ Her? ¡°It feels like I¡¯m in two places.¡±
¡°Good, perfect. That¡¯s how I feel when I¡¯m looking at my soul nexus.¡± The emptiness writhed, the soul nexus. She wanted that. That was why she was here. No¡ She¡¯d always been here. Right?
Confusion briefly colored the darkness, before being consumed by it. She hears the voice that is her, ¡°Everything is so dark.¡±
¡°Is dark good? Comforting?¡±
¡°It¡¯s just dark.¡±
¡°Do you want it to be dark?¡±
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°¡No.¡±
¡°Then make it light.¡±
Blinding brightness. For an instant, then it¡¯s gone. Consumed. ¡°It¡¯s eaten. The darkness ate the light.¡±
¡°Why is it dark?¡±
¡°Because it¡¯s always been dark. Light never lasts.¡±
¡°The sun rises every day, maybe a sun can rise within the darkness.¡± The voice isn¡¯t demanding, or even questioning. It¡¯s just speaking calmly. The words send more rippling color through the empty tapestry.
A ball of light slowly rises in the distance, like the sun rising in the horizon. As soon as it¡¯s fully visible, the core turns black and the sun becomes nothing.
¡°The sun was eaten by the darkness.¡±
¡°What is the darkness?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know¡¡± Her voice isn¡¯t certain, because her voice is lying.
¡°What could it be?¡± The other voice is quieter, closer. It¡¯s safe to tell the voice.
Red lightning cracks, the darkness is not illuminated. The lightning strikes the surface of the void and ripples spread throughout. They hurt. A warning. Her voice must not tell the voice. It will leave. She will stop hearing it.
¡°I can¡¯t tell you.¡± Her voice is weak. Uncertain. Bad. Her voice must be strong. Certain. Her voice being weak causes other voices to leave. Then the emptiness goes back to having no color. No lightning.
¡°That¡¯s fine, Naomi. As long as you know, I don¡¯t need to know.¡± The voice doesn¡¯t leave. It doesn¡¯t sound angry.
¡°It¡¯s bad, though.¡±
A storm of red lightning strikes everything, cascading, breaking, booming. With each strike pain is. But the pain is for only a moment. Then pain is not.
¡°Is it part of you?¡± The voice is still here. The lightning calms, stops. Thunder rolls. Warning. Telling the voice to be silent.
¡°Maybe. I don¡¯t want it to be.¡±
The voice is silent. The red lightning returns. Fury. Storm. Rages. She is scared, but not. The lightning will pass. It will return again.
¡°Sometimes we don¡¯t like parts of ourselves¡ That¡¯s okay. Some things we can change. Some things we accept. Some things we accept so we can change.¡± The voice is as soft and gentle as it¡¯s ever been.
The lightning freezes. The voice has not left. The lightning is gone.
She realizes something. She is thinking. She hasn¡¯t thought before.
¡°If I accept it then it is really there¡¡± Her voice is quiet, sad, scared. Colors pulse. Colors do not remain.
¡°That¡¯s true. Is it?¡±
Colors. Not caused by the voice. Caused by her and by her voice. Colors caused by Naomi.
Willow
Several Kilometers from the Nearest Known Dead Body, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The guided meditation had gone pretty normally, at least until Naomi suddenly went limp. At first Willow had nearly panicked, but she managed to forcibly calm herself by channeling the emotion into her focus.
Instead of worrying she decided to treat Naomi like someone who had managed to fall deeply into their meditation. She¡¯d never managed to get that deep herself. Coach joked that one couldn¡¯t dive into a puddle, and someone as young as her could hardly be an ocean. Coach could be a jerk. Even if she herself hadn¡¯t fallen deeply into her meditation she had seen a few people do so during group sessions. She did her best to emulate what the meditation instructor had done both of those times and remained calm, reassured Naomi, and kept a constant stream of reassuring noise going.
After several minutes of this, Naomi¡¯s slack body seemed to stiffen ever so slightly and Willow probed softly, ¡°Naomi, can you hear me? Do you know where you are¡±
Naomi answered in a monotone, ¡°Yes. You¡¯re far away. I am alone. It is dark.¡±
Excited that Naomi wasn¡¯t comatose or something else horrible, Willow did her best to keep her voice calm, ¡°Good, Naomi. Good. Just let yourself be. Acknowledge yourself, your inner self.¡±
She proceeded through the rest of the conversation carefully. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure what was going on. She just had a bunch of non-expert speculation. What she did know is that Naomi was definitely in a vulnerable place. She almost seemed hypnotized, answering questions directly with little to no emotion in her voice.
Willow did her best to avoid pressing Naomi to tell her anything she wouldn¡¯t want to. Which, so far as Willow knew was pretty much anything. The woman had continued to avoid talking about herself and Willow had no intention of breaking her trust by extracting anything from her while she wasn¡¯t in full control. Instead she just did her best to guide Naomi through the meditation. The place she was seemed to be representative of something important to Naomi, important in a bad way as far as she could tell. Not knowing more, Willow just did her best to give general vague advice. Channeling her inner life-guru.
In the end, Naomi broke down crying. She broke from the meditation and threw herself into Willow¡¯s lap, weeping openly. It was honestly the most emotion Naomi had actually shown since they¡¯d met. Most of her emotions seemed subdued, slight smiles, small laughs, weak glares. The one time Willow had heard Naomi cry, it had been very soft sobs - like she¡¯d probably have at the very tail end of a good long hard bawl. A bawl that, apparently, Naomi needed as she soaked Willow¡¯s absolutely disgustingly filthy jumpsuit in tears.
The only thing she could make out of the broken words Naomi tried to get through her fit was that she was worried Willow was going to leave her or be angry at her. Although she thought both thoughts were pretty ridiculous, given their circumstances would hardly let her just leave even if she wanted to, and who got angry at someone for needing a cry?
She just gently stroked Naomi¡¯s hair and murmured gentle reassurances that she wasn¡¯t going anywhere and that she wasn¡¯t angry. Eventually, Naomi fell asleep with her head in Willow¡¯s lap. Kent had been kind enough to get a fire going, as the sun had slowly set as she walked Naomi through her first meditation session. He¡¯d noticed the entire scene, of course. He had shot her a questioning look and receiving a slight head shake from Willow in response. After that, he¡¯d stayed quiet and kept his distance except to get the fire going.
As the fire danced across Naomi¡¯s face, Willow studied her. There was something about the dancing shadows cast by a campfire that drew her attention. Naomi had a generally pale pallor, though it tended toward ruddy at times; splotchy redness coloring her cheeks and arms as they walked.
Now, peaceful under the firelight her skin looked like soft porcelain. When open, her eyes were a brown so dark they looked black, except when light hit them and they shone like amber. The tip of her the thin bridge of her nose turned ever so slightly upward at its wide tip, overhanging somewhat thin lips which bowed downward in naturally into something approaching a frown. Her jaw and chin were both wide, with some baby fat still evident in her cheeks.
Naomi¡¯s body was thin, almost to an unhealthy extent. From what the orientation had taught her, Willow knew that the body they arrived in was their ¡®theoretical absolute peak¡¯ from their time in the tutorial. What this meant was that the best possible health scenario for Naomi was just above skin and bone.
Despite that, Willow saw a lot of strength in her. She walked just as far as she and Kent did and never complained, she even led. She knew a lot, and although it had been painfully obvious when they first arrived she wasn¡¯t comfortable talking to strangers, she¡¯d forced herself to speak up and share. Willow got the impression that Naomi didn¡¯t think much of herself, especially given some of the things she¡¯d heard her muttering and mumbling as she drifted to sleep. It seemed that, like Kent, Naomi underestimated herself a lot.
She looked up where she saw Kent with his eyes closed across the fire. He was clearly working on his own meditation and working toward creating his own soul nexus. Kent thought he was uninteresting, and Naomi thought she was useless.
She smiled. What they both really were, was blind. That was fine though, Willow would figure out what needed to be done to get them each a pair of glasses.
Chapter 18 - Downtime
Jonah
Several Kilometers from the Nearest Known Dead Body, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
It appeared that taking a day off after tackling an enemy camp was becoming a bit of a habit. After defeating another group of¡ What had the kobolds called the things¡ jimble-grimbs? After defeating the jimble-grimbs at the second camp, the group had been less tired than following the first. He¡¯d honestly expected to push on to the next X on the map the following day. Then Willow had walked Naomi through some kind of meditation and it had resulted in the girls cuddled up in front of the fire. They¡¯d been there half the night with Naomi alternating between softly sobbing and sleeping. Jonah had taken it upon himself to keep watch as long as he could. At this point, there was an actual risk of being stumbled upon by something dangerous, after all.
Sighing and stretching, Jonah forced himself through the flap of his shockingly modern tent. He wasn¡¯t surprised to find Willow up and doing what appeared to be an absolutely grueling workout. She was sprinting an entire lap around the camp, which Jonah would estimate was probably about two hundred meters, then she¡¯d drop and do a push-up. She¡¯d leap out of each push-up, perform a jumping jack, followed by a set of high-knees, then a literal backflip which ended with her landing in a push-up position and restarting the process. She¡¯d go through the insane modified burpee routine ten times; then take off in a dead sprint around the camp again.
When Jonah realized he was frozen half way through his tent flap he picked his jaw off the ground and finished exiting. He picked up his pack, which was sitting just to the left of his tent¡¯s entrance. While he wasn¡¯t surprised, that didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t impressed. Stunned, really. Every time he watched Willow exercise, or fight, or do most anything for that matter, it was an experience. As he¡¯d fairly quickly learned, the the energetic woman never did anything half-heartedly. While he¡¯d probably classify Willow as somewhat distractible when relaxed, she was anything but when she¡¯d decided to do something.
He forced his eyes off of Willow¡¯s leaping form, wondering briefly if it hurt to jump like that without a bra. He immediately shoved that line of thought away. Why the jumpsuits they¡¯d arrived in had no underwear, he didn¡¯t know. But it was distracting in more ways than one. Shaking his head fiercely, Jonah firmly walked out of their little clearing into the forest proper to begin searching for more wood and maybe some berries or something. Since they were going to be staying around camp and not immediately heading off to the next jimble-grimb camp, it would be a good idea to supplement the supplies the kobolds had sent them off with. They¡¯d had enough rations to last the three of them eight days. It had been five days since they departed.
As he passed between the relatively thin trunks of the feather-branch trees, he kept his eyes out for anything edible in the foliage and thought through his plan for the day. While Naomi had Willow immediately help her meditate to try Willow¡¯s idea of forming a soul nexus the previous evening, Jonah would be working on creating his own today.
The information packet on cultivation he¡¯d read through, several times now, hadn¡¯t said anything about meditation being required. It explained that he needed to have a deep understanding to form an insight, he could then use that insight to form mana aspects. It had been light on the details of exactly how to go about any of that, so he¡¯d have to work it out himself.
How Willow had apparently done it already, from before even exiting the tutorial, he wasn¡¯t sure. The introduction to the packet had noted that people who had mystical backgrounds in their tutorials tended to have a range of slightly easier to greatly harder time than people without when forming their first insight. The reason, it claimed, was the bad habits and incorrect beliefs they would have formed. Apparently, people with mystic training sometimes were so set in their incorrect understanding of something that they¡¯d be entirely unable to form the insight they wanted. This was what, internally, Jonah was worried about. Though while arguing with Willow about it he¡¯d put up a strong front, Jonah was actually very concerned that he would be forever barred from forming an insight which would let him use mental magic.
He stopped his somewhat aimless wondering upon finding a tree with a vine climbing it, packed with berries. The kobolds had given them a list of berries that were safe to eat and these matched the description of one of them. It was shocking how much more variety this seemingly one-note forest actually had, when he actually paid attention. He pulled his pack off and rooted inside until he found a small collapsible basket that each of them had been given to help transport any forage they found. He put his pack back on, then began filling the basket and returned to his thoughts.
It wasn¡¯t that he wanted to read peoples¡¯ thoughts and force them to do anything. He didn¡¯t want to be able to dominate or control people¡ Well, not really. What he did want was the ability to control his own mind. He¡¯d been obsessed with the idea of directly changing how his mind worked for a long time. Pretty much as long as he could remember. He wanted to fix all of the failings of his all-too human mind.
If he had his way, he¡¯d have a perfect memory. He¡¯d have absolute recall of anything and everything he wanted. However, he¡¯d also have a way to control what he recalled at any given time. He wanted his long term memory to work something like a database. He would search for what he wanted and boom, just like that he¡¯d remember. Beyond just memory, he wanted to improve the analyses run in any given situation. He wanted to be able to explicitly define how his ¡®instincts¡¯ should react to different possible events. He wanted to think faster. The last one, at least, he now knew was possible no matter the mana aspects he ended up with - just by using the ¡®xp¡¯ from killing jimble-grimbs and possibly other things.
His desire for mental magic was even stronger now that he had the UICI. Since it was apparently integrated directly into his mind whether he wanted it not, he also wanted to directly connect to it. Removing the barrier between mind and magical machine. He had already imagined how incredibly useful it would be to be able to just interface with the UICI on-demand without the need to think commands at it. Who knew? Maybe the so-called gods who had designed it hadn¡¯t ever considered a type of mana directly interfacing with the UICI, therefore letting him entirely bypass some of their restrictions and systems. Maybe he¡¯d be the first successful UICI hacker. The idea was¡ Appealing.
Grinning as his imagination ran wild, Jonah took the last few berries. Having collected enough breakfast for himself and his companions, he turned and started heading back toward the camp. Briefly noting that having so many entirely untouched berries hanging from those vines was a bit odd. Shrugging the thought off, he continued on his way.
He found himself distracted for a moment by the simple action of walking. That was the other reason he was worried about his insight. The packet had mentioned needing to be focused completely on the insight he was trying to form. While he knew mind magic was for him. After all, he already knew exactly the path he could take with it¡ While he knew all of that, the fact that he could walk around, run around, swing a stick, whatever, it was incredible. He¡¯d thought maybe he¡¯d get used to it and the sheer joy would fade. That hadn¡¯t happened so far though, not at all, far from it! Every day he found himself distracted from whatever he¡¯d been intending to think about, distracted just by experiencing things most anyone else would just think of as normal.
Given how incredible having a whole and functional body was, he¡¯d even found himself considering trying to form an insight related to his newfound physical capabilities. He could maybe fly, or run even faster than Willow, or lift mountains. The possibilities were quite literally endless, so far as he knew. His thoughts kept circling though, because at the end of the day he knew the body was inherently limited - while the mind was potentially infinite.
Entering camp, Jonah smiled and waved toward Willow, ¡°Got us some breakfast!¡± he called as he entered the small clearing. It was odd, how common little circles like this were. They were pretty much perfect as a campsite and there were plenty of them. Most of them, like this one, were almost a perfect circle devoid of trees. He half suspected someone maintained the forest to make sure there were plenty of these little patches, though he had no idea why anyone would bother.
¡°Oooo!¡± Willow was suddenly right in front of him.
Jonah flinched, ¡°Did you just use your time-stop thing to get over here to check what I brought?¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± She answered as she started snatching handfuls of berries from the basket he was holding against his chest, ¡°I¡¯m starving!¡±
¡°You¡¯re not starving. You literally say that every time you see food.¡±
¡°Cuz I forget I¡¯m starving until I see food!¡± She pouted at him, looking up at him with those blue eyes like frozen diamonds through dark lashes. When she stepped away with her haul, she was smirking like a cat who¡¯d managed to both knock an expensive shade off a table and blame the dog for it. Way too smug. Yet his entire thought process had come to a sudden halt - if his thoughts had been playing across a monitor then the glass had been shattered and the backlights had fizzled off.
Finally starting to pull himself back together, Jonah scolded himself, They¡¯re just a pair of eyes, you bampot! It was too late, though, Willow had clearly ¡®won¡¯ in that exchange. If he tried to resume it he¡¯d look childish. Or socially incompetent. At least he thought it was socially incompetent to bring an argument back up after one party had used an underhanded tactic to entirely derail it.
Deciding whether he won or lost, it wasn¡¯t worth trying to reignite that particular topic, he instead just followed her over to sit near the still smoldering pit of coals. They always used a few of the plentiful fallen feather-branches to create a makeshift bench or two. He sat to Willow¡¯s left and watched a couple wisps of smoke rise from the center of the makeshift fire ring. Honestly, Jonah wasn¡¯t entirely sure why they made a fire every night considering it was generally hot throughout the day and warm at night. Naomi had helped them make one the first night and they¡¯ve kind of just kept making them.
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¡°Is Naomi okay?¡± He asked, thinking about her lessons on building a fire having reminded him of her state the night before.
Willow nodded, ¡°She¡¯ll be fine, I think.¡± She lowered her voice and leaned toward him a little. He leaned toward her in turn, heart beginning to speed up at the proximity. It was a confusing experience, given his immediate desire to pull away given the smell he caught off of her. They hadn¡¯t had a chance to bathe or clean their one pair of clothes since leaving the kobolds and the blood, sweat, and dirt weren¡¯t doing them any favors. Heart pounding and eyes watering, Jonah waited to hear what she¡¯d say.
¡°I think she¡¯s worried that if she opens up to us too much we¡¯re going to abandon her.¡±
He sat back at that, frowning, then replied just as quietly, ¡°Even if we wanted to do that, which I certainly don¡¯t and I don¡¯t think you do, we literally can¡¯t. What are we gonna do? Throw rocks and tell her not to follow us?¡± He was honestly baffled at the idea and a little offended that she¡¯d think so badly of him. They hadn¡¯t known each other long, but long enough that it was truly hurtful to hear how little Naomi thought of him.
Willow waved her hands in front between their faces, clearly trying to pull his attention back to her, ¡°It¡¯s not about you or me¡¡± She looked uncertain for a minute before continuing, ¡°I don¡¯t love talking about her behind her back but¡ Look just make sure you don¡¯t joke about leaving her behind if she¡¯s too slow or being a burden or anything, okay? I mean I know if you said anything like that it¡¯d just be poking fun, but that¡¯s definitely a sore spot for her and she will definitely think that it¡¯s at least partially not a joke. She didn¡¯t really tell me anything, so I don¡¯t know why but¡ Let¡¯s just be careful about that, kay?¡±
After a moment of thought, Jonah nodded. He still felt vaguely disappointed that he apparently wasn¡¯t worthy of being trusted not to literally abandon a companion in the wilderness. Looking back into those earnest, stunningly blue eyes though; he gave in. Maybe he was just being selfish and making something that had almost nothing to do with him, about him. He nodded firmly, agreeing to her request.
Smiling, she sat back up and popped a couple berries into her mouth, eyes widening in surprise before they closed in delight as she chewed slowly. How¡¯d Willow manage to make eating some wild berries a spectacle?
Willow
Several Kilometers from the Nearest Known Dead Body, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Willow ended up spending the rest day training; both physically and magically. Naomi had gotten up a few hours after Kent brought back berries for breakfast and she¡¯d thanked him quietly before going to sit down and eat by herself. Willow had tried to sit with her and talk a couple times throughout the day, but it was clear Naomi needed time to think things through herself.
Meanwhile, Kent had spent his time trying to focus on forming his insight. He spent the majority of it glaring into the dead fire. His ever-serious face even more tense than usual. While Willow wouldn¡¯t call Kent handsome, she wouldn¡¯t say he wasn¡¯t handsome either. He had an extremely strong jawline, a bit too square really, but his cheeks were a bit pudgy. His stubble was uneven and his reddish hair was a bit thin. He was in what she¡¯d call, ¡®normal¡¯, shape figure-wise. Not all that thin, not fat, not muscular, just normal. All that being said, he actually had a nice smile. His thin deeply bowed cupid¡¯s lips widening and stretching those baby-faced cheeks back, his green eyes sparkling. Mostly, it was just that when he smiled he looked so darned sincere. It reminded her a bit of her pa-paw¡¯s smile, actually. Though, Kent was missing the roughish glint her pa-paw¡¯s eyes were known for.
She¡¯d stopped staring at him when she noticed his eyes flicking in her direction nervously. It was fun to tease him a bit, but she didn¡¯t want him to get the idea that she was interested romantically or anything. While he was nice, he definitely wasn¡¯t her type. He was more like a brother. Tons of fun to bicker and mess with and maybe once they had some time to get to know each other he could be a close friend.
Once she¡¯d truly started training, she¡¯d entirely lost track of time. While doing every physical exercise she could think of, she¡¯d also trained her magic. She¡¯d worked on calling up her focus, on figuring out how to ¡®step into¡¯ her moment like she had when Madrick had first appeared and asked her to hit him. That time had been smoother, more correct, so she wanted to be able to reproduce it on demand. Besides that, she¡¯d also tried more directly controlling the mana aspects entering her ability. That had some interesting results as she found that different quantities of mana put through the ability at different speeds altered the result a bit.
Pressing a lot of her discipline mana into the ability quickly caused all of the effects to become much stronger. The area around her that lost color expanded, the amount her perception sped up increased, her awareness of her relevant surroundings became even sharper.
Pressing a lot of her discipline as well as her unnamed mana into her ability quickly did the same, just increased the strength of the effects. Where things got interesting was when she varied the speed and amount in relation to each other. She found that if she used a minuscule amount of her unnamed mana with the ¡®normal¡¯ amount of her discipline mana, she had much finer control over exactly what her focus did. She found she could entirely turn off the grey-out effect if she wanted to. She could also change the color from grey to something else, or she could directly highlight something by leaving color in a specific thing or area. She confirmed that Kent could see the color in the things she ¡®let¡¯ keep its color. She also learned a bunch of other small ways to use just a teensy bit of her unnamed mana in exchange for much more control over her ability¡¯s external effects. What it didn¡¯t help her control was anything internal. The effects her focus had on her wasn¡¯t something she was able to change by introducing her second mana type.
She was fairly certain that with more practice she¡¯d be able to control the internal effects directly using just her discipline mana, but she wasn¡¯t there yet. Overall, it was a fantastic day full of discovery, pushing herself, and generally just getting more comfortable with her new abilities. It was a fantastic day for Willow, that is. Given neither Naomi nor Kent seemed all that excited or happy with how the day went for them, she supposed it wasn¡¯t fair to call it an unmitigated success.
They¡¯d stopped their respective self-imposed tasks to eat some dinner a couple hours before night started to fall and it had taken quite a bit of effort to convince Kent to tell her how his progress toward an insight was going. It took a while to convince him she was actually interested and not trying to get an ¡®I told you so¡¯ on him. When she did, he admitted that he was having trouble focusing on a single concept. She asked if he¡¯d tried looking for the common pieces between both and following that. He¡¯d gotten a thoughtful look and said he¡¯d consider it. He wouldn¡¯t give her any details as he said he was worried about ¡°polluting his personal connection with the concepts by introducing too much of someone else¡¯s perspective¡±. She thought that was a bit weird but just told him she would be happy to brainstorm if he changed his mind.
Naomi had been slowly getting back to her normal self. That is to say, she stopped actively avoiding all forms of conversation and trying to isolate herself entirely. She was still clearly not ready to talk about the previous night though. Instead, Willow managed to get her talking about one of her favorite survival games. She listened to stories of burned-down bases, characters freezing to death, dying of poisonous berries, dehydration, and more. Naomi wasn¡¯t a very good story teller, tending to trail off in the middle of a thought before starting a new one, but it was fine. Chatting seemed to be helping her relax a bit, so maybe that¡¯s what she needed.
Willow agreed to take first watch, since she¡¯d taken the second half of watch last night after Kent had kept the first watch for her and Naomi. She did her normal ¡®keeping watch¡¯ routine of walking the perimeter of the camp, staying out of the little ring made by their tents, the logs in front of the little fire ring, the ring itself, and whatever else happened to be left out. She kept near the tree line with the intention of keeping her night vision sharp. Naomi had mentioned that the firelight would dull her ability to see very far, which Willow had taken to mean she should stay a bit outside of the small area the fire illuminated. It definitely seemed to help.
As she patrolled, she tried to think about her magic: which was still so cool. Or about the upcoming search for more pop-hopper camps. Or about what training she¡¯d do tomorrow. Really, anything, except the question her mind kept returning to. Finally, she gave up on redirecting herself. If she really wanted to, she could feed the thought to her focus, but she knew the question needed to be answered.
What¡¯s the end goal here¡ We¡¯re going to find the pop-hoppers for the kobolds and maybe help figure their whole ownership dispute thing out. Then what? The way everyone talks, we¡¯ll be around for thousands of years. It¡¯s somehow scarier to think about having that much time than it was to only have maybe a hundred. I knew what I wanted to accomplish within my lifetime on Earth. Now though¡ Does my lifetime even have an end if I don¡¯t get killed somehow?
She hoped a creature would leap from the darkness at her as she moved from one side of the camp around the edge to another random stop and stopped to scan. The thoughts had been at the back of her mind for quite a while now and she¡¯d just kept herself distracted every time they poked their intrusive little heads in.
Back on Earth¡ Part of what made living life so important and meaningful was the need to use the time I had. Now I apparently have endless time. I could just lounge around for eons now? How many people just let themselves die purely from the drudgery? She actively scanned her surroundings around and repositioned again. Well, I won¡¯t let myself go that route.
Willow let her fists clench as she bent her neck to look up at the stars, which were covered by a thick mist and thus not visible at all, and scowled.
Stupid misty planet ruining my dramatic moment. She scoffed.
Anyway, that doesn¡¯t change anything. I need a goal for myself. A five year, or may thousand-year, plan or whatever. In the orientation, that lizard lady, Var-shush or something like that, said The Origin wasn¡¯t the only universe and hinted that people leave The Origin when they¡¯re strong enough. She expected it to take a long time for us to get out of The Origin to a different universe. I think she said we¡¯d be here for ¡®foreseeable future¡¯ , right? That sounds like a challenge. Yeah¡ I¡¯ve always liked a challenge. So let¡¯s do it. Miss Var-shush, I¡¯m gonna make you eat your words. I¡¯m getting out of The Origin within a hundred years! I give myself one long-lived human life.
QUEST REGISTRATION ACCEPTED
Break the Mold
You¡¯ve committed yourself to leaving The Origin within 100 years. Doing so will break the previous record of 129,312 years by 129,212 years.
| Best Guess Reward |
UA related to soul nexus advancement speed |
Notice: The UICI questing module is simply a best-effort parsing of the ¡®Law of Universal Achievement¡¯ for the purpose of creating a more concrete link between unconscious awareness of an available achievement and conscious understanding
Willow glared at the scroll as it unfurled in front of her. Even the stupid UICI is part of the conspiracy to ruin my bad-A moment of determining by own path and future!
Chapter 19 - Ruined Tower to Streets of Chrome
Madrick
Outside a Broken Tower, Several Thousand km From Adrasmiith Warcamp, Hesv¨¡ra
Staring up at the tower which had clearly been constructed specifically to give off the impression of a ruin, Madrick found that he was feeling positively well-disposed toward whoever he found within. He¡¯d slain and re-slain hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of spirits on his search for the source of the ¡®spirits¡¯ on this planet. It was clear that whoever was throwing the soldiers at him was not familiar with his path of True Domination. Every time he defeated an opponent, it fueled his growth. At first, he¡¯d been curious whether he¡¯d have trouble converting the defeat potentia from wraiths which never truly died. He¡¯d have no such trouble. Although they might not have died, they were certainly defeated. That was the only factor of true import so far as he was concerned. Defeat through any means, be it: destruction, capture, surrender, or subversion. The end result was his domination.
He continued to stare up at the tower, waiting. The occupant of the tower surely knew he was here. The last twelve hours had been a constant advancing battle as he pressed through hoards of spirits. It appeared, however, that his opponent may have run out of fodder for him to battle. The most power spirits were rank fourteen, two higher than his own current rank. Unfortunately, they still hardly gave him a fight. Unlike him, they didn¡¯t have a few millennia at much much higher ranks to refer to. While he may have lost almost all of his power upon death, he¡¯d retained all of his experience and, of course, his UAs.
Reforming his first and strongest insight had taken less than an hour. Forming the proceeding fifty had taken a year in total. Combining the insights into their greater variants had been similarly easy, compared to the first time. The only reason was taking him as long as it was to advance back to his former power was, quite simply, soul nexuses and bodies had a limit to how quickly they could be improved. Press too hard for too long and he might permanently damage one or the other, requiring yet another death to try again. In the end, it wasn¡¯t worth it.
He began tapping his foot and crossed his arms over his chest. He knew the master of the tower was observing him. He didn¡¯t know because he could sense it, or had any magical artifact that warned him he was being spied on, he hadn¡¯t even spotted anyone looking out of one of the craggy windows. The powerful enchantments were, as far as Madrick knew, were cast directly into each brick of the ¡®crumbling¡¯ tower¡¯s construction. Those enchantments had resisted his domain¡¯s passive ability to claim ownership of an area and while he could have pressed against the enchantments and likely broken through them, it simply wasn¡¯t worth the effort. So, due to the interference of enchantments Madrick wasn¡¯t able to actually sense where his opponent was or what they were doing.
No, the knowledge that he was being watched came purely from the fact that he had to be under observation of some kind. He¡¯d been hounded by spirits the entire way here, why would they all just disappear? Unless¡ A slight frown creased his brow as he realized a possibility that had somehow not even crossed his mind until now. The tower¡¯s master might have abandoned it¡ Shit.
Deciding he¡¯d given enough time for any occupants to greet him, Madrick strode forward through the open door. His domain locked the entire tower down as soon as he entered.
Now that he was within, he could sense that no one else was within. There was a study at the very top of the tower which appeared to have been hastily ransacked. Desk drawers were ajar, the shelves were mostly cleared off with smudged dust suggesting objects which hadn¡¯t been disturbed in a long time had been hastily swiped off. He could even sense the remnants of some strange mana aspect he hadn¡¯t encountered before.
Irritated, Madrick made his way to the center of the staircase and leapt to the top, landing on the final platform with a soft ¡®thunk¡¯. While he could sense everything within his domain perfectly, it was still not a perfect substitute for his own direct senses. He was no scout archetype, able to watch a pair of gnats fornicate from a million kilometers away. Of course, had he wanted to walk such a path he certainly could have. Putting aside thoughts of annoying paths walked by old acquaintances, Madrick took in the room. It was exactly as he had sensed, except he¡¯d missed a small detail with his domain¡¯s sense. The floor had a formation carved into it, each line was less than a micrometer wide and maybe a milometer in depth. For anyone without tempered sight, it might as well not exist.
The enchanting profession wasn¡¯t something Madrick had ever been interested in. However, he¡¯d picked up plenty simply by living for as long as he had. The formation he was looking at was clearly for teleportation. It was actually quite similar to the trinket he¡¯d used to drop his disciple into trouble on a doomed planet. That particular party trick of his was courtesy of a ring with a decoration reminiscent of a beast¡¯s open jaws sitting on his left middle finger.
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Rolling his eyes, Madrick sent a mix of his mana aspects - A mix he thought of as his because I said so mana aspect. This particular mix of mana allowed him to activate pretty much any magical device, regardless of the device¡¯s mana aspect requirements or any security measures put in place to prevent unauthorized individuals from using them. The only downside was that it was expensive for him to use. Activating the portal took about half of most of the mana aspects he cultivated.
The only aspects which were untouched were rage and his newest, blood drenched permafrost. It wasn¡¯t that the because I said so aspect required the same amount of each of his mana aspects, so much as he happened to have ratios of each which roughly translated to requiring half of each.
The portal activated with a ¡®SNAP¡¯ as a bolt of lightning-like energy surged out of nowhere and struck him. The energy wrapped around Madrick in less than a millisecond and whisked him away. It was with great annoyance that he found himself standing within a public portal reception bay. A quick query to his UICI told him he¡¯d arrived on the Thomas¡¯ Planet. His lips twisted in scorn at the name of the planet, it was one of the worst named in the multiverse as far as he was concerned. Yet it was also a class one planet, barely behind Motrendi.
What was worse was the domain suppression he immediately felt. His domain was squeezed until it was pressed tightly against his skin. Unlike most of his recent destinations, Thomas¡¯ Planet was populated by ranks far above his own current rank. A few thousand gods called the disgusting metropolis home. Retracting his domain to avoid the discomfort of it being suppressed, Madrick turned in a quick circle; scanning for anyone who looked like they may have been cooped up in a crumbling tower for a decade or two. Unsurprisingly, he found nothing.
¡°Fuuuuck¡± he let out in a furious groan. This had just gone from a fun romp across a barren planet trying to kill him, into a tedious investigation. He was going to have to go talk to whoever owned this reception bay and convince them to let him review their security footage of this bay for the last day or so¡ What an incredible waste of his time.
Getting on with it, Madrick strode out of the bay into a hallway which was simultaneously packed and rapidly moving. He joined the press of bodies seamlessly, he was sure most didn¡¯t even notice someone had been added to the press of bodies. The transit tunnel the bay had lead into was a monstrosity of rusted chrome and LED lights flashing in neon colors. While he was mentally patting himself down every other second to ensure no one had been brazen enough to try and pickpocket him, Madrick did his best to ignore the annoying environment.
The sound, the lights, the motion, it was all awful. He hated planets like this. So called ¡®techno planets¡¯ were always bright, loud, smelly beehives just like this one. Each of his steps along the transit tunnel was matched to the speed of every other being¡¯s pace as the expansive magi-tech ensured a standardized movement speed to avoid traffic. As a result, he barely put any effort into moving. Each step was more or less a slight shuffle. The transit tunnel interpreted it as a step and therefore moved him forward the appropriate amount to maintain his speed within the crowd.
Doing his absolute best to ignore the gratuitous advertisement which flashed in front of his eyes with literally every ¡®step¡¯, he entered his destination into his UICI. He simply continued taking shuffling steps until his stop came out, at which point he turned on his heel and stepped out of the transit tunnel. Although he had walked directly into a group of people, the transit system ensured everything moved just so, so that he was able to step onto the exit platform without colliding with anyone. Even if he had tried, the most he could have done was reach out and touch someone. The only real way to cause any kind of traffic within the transit tunnels was to physically restrain someone, even then it would only stop himself and the restrained party. Everyone else would be entirely unaffected.
The platform he stopped at had several advertisements for foods he hadn¡¯t had in a long time, so he walked to one of the few vendors which was actually manned. A menu appeared within his UICI and placed his order. A creature with a disturbing number of tentacles prepared a dish which was reminiscent of a fusion between curry and beef n¡¯ oats. He took the disposable container and spoon and went on his way, continuing to follow his UICI guidance system.
Now that had entered a concourse, he was able to see some of the dizzying infrastructure and architecture. He briefly glanced through the windows at the endless lines of packed buildings connected by transit tunnels, concourses, and thoroughfares. Although he¡¯d never seen the planet from above, Madrick would hazard a guess that it looked something like a magi-tech circuit from above. Millions of lines, most of which connected a few huge junctions together, with any other connections appearing to be consequential rather than intentional.
It was to one of these huge junctions which Madrick headed. The first start of his this investigation would be to figure out who the portal reception bay he had arrived in was owned by and where they were based. He¡¯d probably have to make some threats and perform a little old fashioned strong arming to actually get that information, rather than references to UICI virtual spaces and mailboxes.
Entering the infamous ¡®plaza of insight¡¯, which was essentially a misnamed and overinflated warehouse filled with information brokers, Madrick let his shoulders slump. He was good at everything but that didn¡¯t mean he liked everything. Investigation was one of those things he didn¡¯t like.
Chapter 20 - Squatters of the Sunsquat
Willow
Following a Crude Map Toward a Presumed Sunsquat Tree, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
While the downtime had been nice, and certainly necessary for Naomi, Willow had been more than a little excited to get moving. Which is why she¡¯d woken Naomi and Kent just as the sun rose with a small bunch of tubers roasted with the final chunk of cooking fat, which were the last of their ¡°fresh¡± rations from the Kobolds. Everything remaining were rough and tumble foods that would certainly save for years if necessary. They had a stock of bars made from dried meat, cheeses, nuts, and berries. They tasted¡ Well they were food. Putting the thought of breakfast aside, Willow focused on keeping an eye on her surroundings as she walked.
Naomi and Jonah had argued that they should go check out the sunsquat tree, or at least what they suspected was a sunsquat tree, marked on the map. Their argument was that the fact each of the Xs were near the central landmark was suspicious and they wanted to know why. Willow was fairly sure they just didn¡¯t want to fight today. Which was a shame, considering she really wanted another fight. Not only did she crave the excitement of the battle and the rush of xp, she wanted to try some of the techniques she¡¯d come up with during her training in live combat.
The walk to the sunsquat was actually fairly short and uneventful. Naomi seemed to have a knack for figuring out how to maintain their heading despite the sameness of the forest. Maybe she just stared at her UICI map, or maybe she had a directional sixth-sense. It was an impossible mystery. Before they saw the huge tree, they had already been listening to absolute racket for a good five minutes as they approached. Given they were pre-warned, they moved more cautiously the nearer the noise grew. Along with the noise, a rancid scent had also begun to make itself known.
The massive tree came into view as they came upon the end of the forest and beginning of a clearing. The trees had been chopped down in a rough fifty meters circle with the sunsquat as its center point. Said center point was the epicenter of an incredible mass of pop-hoppers. The things were quite literally swarming over the tree. At least hundreds, if not thousands, of the creepy little buggers were running around and climbing the limbs. More surprisingly, they were actually building things on and around the tree.
The structures were extremely slip-shod, rough, and mostly appeared to be without any actual purpose. They seemed to be trying to build a kind of village but without any concept as to what the point of a village actually was. As they stood there, staring with expressions approaching dumbfounded, Willow did her best to work out what in the world they were doing.
There were no buildings that could be called complete, but there were dozens of ¡°started¡± buildings. Each structure was essentially a pile of sticks roughly bound together with an odd pinkish-grey substance. That ¡°binding¡± substance also seemed to be the source of the unnatural stench in the air, as she caught a stronger than normal whiff of the gag-inducing smell when one of the pop-hoppers with a handful of the stuff passed where they were crouched down in the trees observing. She¡¯d nearly lost her breakfast.
Kent, who was on Naomi¡¯s right who in turn was on Willow¡¯s right, leaned toward them and whispered, ¡°That stuff smells the same as the crap in that horrible pot. Just much weaker.¡±
Well, that¡¯s not ideal. The kobolds had mentioned they couldn¡¯t even knock the pot over due to the smell, were they trying to make an entire base which smelled as bad? That would be¡ Disgusting. After observing for a while longer, trying to get any sense of their purpose, the party retreated. They walked back in the direction they¡¯d come a few minutes prior and stopped to discuss.
¡°Did you see what they were doing?¡± Kent asked with a deep frown.
Shrugging, ¡°Yeah. They were playing at building stuff but had no idea what they were doing.¡± Willow answered the too-obvious question.
¡°I think Jonah was talking about the stuff they were taking from the sunsquat tree.¡±, Noami mentioned.
¡°Huh? I was kind of distracted by the smell and horrible construction.¡± Way to fail the perception roll, Willow.
Kent nodded toward Naomi and started pacing, ¡°They were taking those little ¡®sun-child¡¯ stones out to one of those ¡®buildings¡¯. I couldn¡¯t quite see past all of the jimble-grimbs to see what they were doing with them.¡±
¡°I thought we were sticking with pop-hopper?¡± Both of her friends turned to give Willow a flat stare. She held up her hands in defense, ¡°It¡¯s just a better name! Easier to remember, clearly describes them, it¡¯s masterful!¡±
¡°Let¡¯s not get off topic¡¡± Naomi answered with the slightest hint of a smile, ¡°It seems like too much of a coincidence. What are the chances that those little monsters and the factions which contested the kobold¡¯s claim on the planet were interested in the same stones? The kobolds also said they¡¯d never seen jimble-grimbs until then.¡±
¡°Right! So they gave them a bad name which has just as much legitimacy as our much better name.¡± Willow nodded, vindicated that Naomi would staunchly defend her with such seamless logic.
¡°¡Aaanyway,¡± Kent drawled while rolling his eyes. ¡°Do you think the jim¡¡± He sighed as he saw Willow¡¯s glare from the corner of his eyes, ¡°Do you think the pop-hoppers¡± were introduced to the planet by the people who took that first tree?¡±
While giving Kent a pleased smile and thumbs-up combo to reward his good behavior, she thought about the question. It could be that they left them here¡ By why would they? She continued her line of thought aloud, ¡°I don¡¯t think they would leave these little monsters here. If they went to the trouble of getting a bunch of people together to teleport the entire freaking tree, then why would they leave some monsters that might go harm another one?¡±
¡°What if they aren¡¯t harming it? Or maybe they are harvesting the sun-child stones so those people can come back and pick them up next time?¡± Naomi seemed like she was throwing out theories more than anything. She didn¡¯t seem particularly convinced the ideas had much merit.
¡°Taking the sun-child stones definitely harms the tree. Remember what Skeetha told us about them? The sun-child stones aren¡¯t actually stones, they¡¯re like root nodes.¡± As he answered in an almost distracted tone Kent was staring into the distance, flicking his fingers and thumb together, clearly lost in thought. ¡°They provide energy to the tree in place of roots. Apparently, they gather ambient energy, potentia I¡¯m pretty sure, and converts it internally. Now that I know a little more I think it¡¯s probably converting the potentia to its own mana aspect.¡±
¡°Huh¡ Think that¡¯s why those factions were interested in them, then? I wonder if it¡¯s uncommon for trees to make mana?¡±
They continued discussing for a while but by the end of the conversation the answer was quite simply: they didn¡¯t know. The task they¡¯d been given by the kobolds had been to find out what happened to the pop-hoppers, which they had most definitely done. In record time, too! Skeetha said it should take a month or more and we¡¯re only six days in. Of course, she probably didn¡¯t expect us to stumble on a literal map which¡ ¡°Hey guys¡ Isn¡¯t it weird that we found a map at that first camp site?¡±
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They both looked at her, faces taking on somewhat confused expressions. ¡°Now that you mention it¡¡± Kent began. ¡°Definitely.¡± Naomi finished.
A few more minutes of discussion, which lead nowhere productive, followed. They confirmed that none of them had seen any maps, or any sign of the paper-like material it was drawn on, at the second camp site they raided. So it was unlikely that each little campsite had a pop-hopper holding a map. Besides that, Kent had pointed out how odd it was that there were a bunch of small camps spread out several kilometers from the central camp build around the sunsquat.
While Willow was still trying to puzzle things out, Naomi spoke up, ¡°So let me summarize the questions we have.¡± She was flicking her eyes in a slightly un-focused manner as she read off of the notes she¡¯d been taking with her UICI. ¡°First, what¡¯s with the pot? Second, why would the jimble-grimbs try to build a village? They clearly don¡¯t have any purpose in doing so. Third, why are they harvesting sun-child stones and what are they doing with them? Fourth, why are there little secondary camps of jimble-grimbs scattered around?¡±
¡°Pop-hoppers, but other than that, yeah.¡± Willow agreed.
¡°Also how and why did the pop-hoppers even appear?¡± Kent put in.
Naomi nodded, ¡°Alright well, I have the questions written down. Maybe we can ask Skeetha if she had any ideas.¡±
¡°Sure, when we go back. But for now we¡¯ve got more work to do!¡± Willow grinned eagerly and the other two groaned, they¡¯d come to recognize that particular smile. She was about to try to talk them into something dangerous.
Jonah
Observing the Final Mapped Jimble-Grimb Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Willow had talked them into something dangerous. Again. This plan was actually, in his opinion, significantly more dangerous than the last ones. Instead of splitting into two groups to strike the camp from multiple directions, they had all split up and were observing it from each side. The logic Willow had used to win them over had been pretty straight forward, they needed to learn more about the pop-hoppers. They knew where to find a smaller group of the creatures, which they could observe with less risk than staking out the main camp would pose.
This was how Jonah found himself laying on his belly, partially covered by shrubs, fallen feather-branch fronds, and whatever other forest-floor stuff he could find. The previous night they had retreated from the larger pop-hopper base and found themselves a little clearing to setup their own camp. They then proceeded to practice camouflaging themselves. Naomi had some tips, but didn¡¯t have a much more of an idea than the others how it should be done. In the end they¡¯d done their best to figure out the most effective methods through trial and error.
Eventually, each of them had been able to consistently hide themselves convincingly enough that it took a concerted effort to find them. He¡¯d been proud to learn he was actually the best at hiding himself, followed by Naomi, with Willow coming dead last. He wasn¡¯t entirely sure if it was because Willow was subconsciously just way too showy to ever seriously hide herself, or if she just had a hard time figuring out which pieces of forestry would be more or less suspicious together. Generally when they found Willow it wasn¡¯t because she moved, which was how both himself and Naomi usually got caught by the others. No, they found Willow because they saw a patch of forest that just looked weird. Too many fallen fronds together, not enough foliage, disturbed dirt, those kinds of things. Once she¡¯d just completely forgotten to cover her hair at all and it had stood out against the moss she was laying next to. Despite Willow¡¯s less than optimal start, she¡¯d ended up just as hard - or harder - to find as himself and Naomi due to her ability to lay unnaturally still for long periods.
Jonah sighed softly as he very slowly adjusted his position to remove a stick from the awkward position it had managed to find itself in, between the earth and his leg. Watching the camp had been both weird and boring. Weird, because the pop-hoppers seemed to just mill about aimlessly. They would do their little shuffling walk around, pick up a branch or something, fiddle with it for a bit, drop it, and start the entire process over again. Boring for exactly the same reason. It was eerily like watching idle animations for mobs in a game. However, he knew they weren¡¯t mobs. Or if they were mobs they were real mobs which posed an actual threat to himself. At least if Willow isn¡¯t nearby to curb-stomp them. He pursed his lips at the thought. He didn¡¯t mind others helping him, but he was getting tired of needing to be saved. I need to figure out my insight.
Deciding working on his insight would likely be more valuable than keeping an eye on a bunch of monstrous little idiots, he let his mind wonder a bit. This was a new approach he¡¯d come up with. He still wasn¡¯t ready to ask Willow for help meditating, as he just didn¡¯t believe that was the only way to gain an insight. If it was, how would anyone ever figure anything out without someone to guide them? Okay, someone probably had to invent meditation in the first place¡ So I suppose it could be through that same process. Even so, his new strategy was to let his mind wonder slightly. He would do his best to keep himself loosely on the topic of his insight, but was doing his best not to force any particular direction.
Strangely, the current atmosphere seemed almost helpful. While he wasn¡¯t really comfortable, he thought the environment was somewhat inspiring. He could almost see himself from above, as if he was playing a classic MMO, or RTS, with their top-down cameras. If he was in an MMO, he¡¯d probably be able to pan over the field a little bit and watch the pop-hoppers milling about from above. A slight smile crossed his lips as he imagined seeing the creatures from above, each of their misshapen heads were weirdly unique. Their movements, animations, weren¡¯t though. They each moved in a nearly identical way. How immersion breaking, Jonah thought with an internal snicker.
He¡¯d always loved top-down games. He panned his view around more, looking for Willow or Noami. He didn¡¯t spot either of them, unsurprisingly. He was too far away. Hmm¡ Shouldn¡¯t there be a fog of war or something at this distance? Yeah¡ Like that. The edges of the pop-hopper camp were suddenly obscured. He imagined clicking one of the pop-hoppers and felt a strange jolt run through him as he saw a tag appear above its head. [LVL 2|Jimble-Grimb(Pop-Hopper)|Fodderling].
Yeah, that seems about right¡ He began clicking around on each of them, finding the same for all of them. The only difference was whether they were level one or level two. Jonah felt something strange. A feeling like standing on the edge of something, that feeling he¡¯d get when something was at the very tip of his tongue. He ignored it for now, strangely entranced by his daydream. He watched a pop-hopper appear from the edge of the fog of war furthest from himself. Checking it¡¯s tag he felt his eyebrows raise, though his conscious was too far away to fully note his own body¡¯s reaction. [LVL 4|Evolved Jimble-Grimb(Pop-Hopper)|Message Runner]
Well, that¡¯s interesting. If this was a game I¡¯d probably get a¡
Quest: What¡¯s the Message, doc?
Discover the contents of the message that the [Message Runner] is bearing
Reward: 2xp
Hah! I knew it. Even in the real world I guess you could break down everything into numbers. This is just the logical next step. The UICI should have been a hint, honestly.
His mind fell across that edge and he firmly bit into that something at the end of his tongue.
The world is just a game.
FIRST INSIGHT CONFIRMED!
Congratulations!
You have developed your first insight!
. . . .
Insight gained: GameLIT
Description: The GameLIT insight emphases the truth that, whether games are based on reality, or reality is based on a game - Reality itself is a game and you are a player.
Chapter 21 - Hopper Messengers and Empty Thoughts
Willow
Observing the Final Mapped Jimble-Grimb Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The thought that Kent would be the one to charge the pop-hopper camp first had never crossed Willow¡¯s mind. Which was why, when he did, she didn¡¯t immediately react. She watched in shock as he suddenly stood from cover and charged toward the camp with a determined expression on his face. The expression was imagined, of course, she was too far away to actually see his face that clearly. She could hardly imagine any other face he¡¯d charge toward enemy lines with, though. Kent was halfway to the pop-hopper closest to him when her brain finally kicked into gear and she shot herself from cover. She was just about to close on the pop-hopper closest to her, but wasn¡¯t really paying attention to her upcoming quarry. These little guys were hardly a challenge, after all. It was likely she would have missed what Kent shouted, had most of her focus not actually been on watching him curiously. As it was, she faintly heard, ¡°Catch that one!¡±
Following Kent¡¯s extended finger, she looked at the hopper that had just recently came waddling awkwardly into the camp. She could only assume there was a reason for the request. As if it realized it was being singled out, the new arrival leapt away. The speed was actually surprising, its movements significantly faster than any of the other stinky-pops she¡¯d seen so far. Although, to be fair other than the one lone scout in the forest they didn¡¯t tend to run away. This one was faster than the scout she had lost, let go, by quite a lot. She quickly channeled her focus as she ran. She concentrated, sending a swirl of her unnamed mana into the ability but maintained her hold over the energy. She twisted it in the way she¡¯d figured out let her alter the area of the grey-out and time freeze effect.
Her quarry landed and leapt again, already half way to the treeline. She knew if it managed to reach the trees, it¡¯d be able to ping-pong off of them far faster than she¡¯d be able to keep up with. Good thing I¡¯m ready! She internally cheered. Her ability activated, modified so that the ability¡¯s external effects were fully concentrated in a straight line from her. Just as the pop-hopper landed and crouched for the final jump required to make it to the treeline, the line of grey just managed to wash over it, ending meter centimeters past the creature. Just like everything else between it and Willow, the fleeing hopper froze as if in stasis. Grinning broadly at the successful field-test of her little ability modification, Willow didn¡¯t stop running. When she reached her now helpless prey, she grabbed it by its scrawny neck, spun on her heel and began racing back toward the campsite.
As she returned, she sharply reduced the amount of non-disciple mana so that she was feeding her ability to less than a third of what she¡¯d channeled to catch her enemy. The field of grey around her reduced to a bit less than half meter around herself instead. She watched in some amusement as one of the pop-hopper¡¯s limbs would fall outside of the field for a moment and begin attempting to flail, only to freeze again the next moment as it came back within her area of influence.
Ahead, she saw Naomi had rushed out to help Kent. They were doing well enough on their own and had killed three of the little brutes between the two of them. There were four left, fortunately these hoppers were way too stupid to use their numbers against their opponents. Kent had managed to grab the attention of three of them and was leading them in a kind of zig-zagging circle. He was staying near their campsite, but kiting them back and forth along the edge opposite of Naomi. Speaking of Naomi, she was swinging her stave at the hopper semi-wildly each time it leapt toward her.
Somehow, Kent was keeping track of what Naomi was doing while also leading his own little train of critters. He was calling out advice which she caught the tail end of, ¡°¡always the same, just step right when it leaps like that and swing hard to the left like you¡¯re swinging at a baseball.¡±
Following his advice, Naomi stopped her wild swings. Setting her face into a slight frown of concentration, she pulled her stave into a bater¡¯s position. The long branch was a bit awkward, but she made due. She waited for another quick hop which she side-stepped before swinging with all of her might, twisting her body to follow-through for a solid connection which surely would have resulted in a home-run had the pop-hopper head she struck actually been a baseball. Instead, the thing¡¯s head crunched and squished unpleasantly. Its body went limp underneath it and it flopped to the ground.
Willow had stopped a bit away, ready to intervene if needed but interested to see how the two did without her. It seemed like they had things in hand. She grinned and waved at Naomi when the other woman looked her way, noticing her observing. Willow gave a little ¡°shoo¡± motion with her left hand while holding her prisoner up in explanation for why she wasn¡¯t helping. Frowning, Naomi appeared to be planning to yell for her to help but she didn¡¯t get to before Kent¡¯s voice called her over, ¡°Naomi! Come grab another one, please! Willow can help us if we get overwhelmed, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s gonna happen. These things are way too predictable.¡±
Silently, Willow agreed with Kent¡¯s assessment as she saw him dodge one of the hoppers as it leapt at him from a blind spot. Had she not been painfully aware of how little combat experience, or even sporting experience for that matter, the man had, she might have been fooled into thinking he was dodging by instinct. What he was actually doing was no less impressive in her opinion. He seemed to have figured out the exact timing and attack path of all of his enemies and was simply responding accordingly. His motions were stiff and wooden, almost robotic, but also economical and prompt. If the boat floats, don¡¯t complain about the duct-tape. She could almost hear her dad¡¯s laughing words. He¡¯d always been a fan of silly looking things which were shockingly effective; and Jonah¡¯s lurching steps, halts and twists fit that criteria perfectly.
Arriving to ¡°grab¡± another pop-hopper, Naomi caught its attention through the simple expedient of trying to wallop it over the cranium with an unskilled overhead chop. She only missed because she mistimed the attack, clipping one of the extended legs mid-hop instead. It certainly got the pop-hopper¡¯s attention as it hissed and screeched from the ground where it writhed. Clearly, Naomi had managed to break the bony limb with the full-commitment strike. If she wasn¡¯t concerned it¡¯d distract her friends, Willow would be hooting and hollering at the excellent show!
Firming her grip on the stave, Naomi strode forward and mercilessly slammed it down on the crippled hopper. It took two more attempts before she managed to hit something important somewhere within its bulbous body and it stopped moving.
Meanwhile, Kent had gone on the offensive against his opponents. He used one of the extremely basic stave techniques which Willow had been drilling them in. At least one of them remembers what I showed them! I¡¯ll have to give Naomi a bit of a hard time about it later. Willow noted to herself. Some good-old-fashioned gentle ribbing would hopefully help Naomi remember she didn¡¯t have to use the weapon as a horribly balanced bat. Or maybe we should try to craft her a bat instead? Hmm¡ Fit the fighter to the weapon, or the weapon to the fighter?
Pushing aside plans for future training and equipping of her crew to later, Willow watched Kent step left while holding the stave near the center with both hands. He flicked the right side out in a quick, but somewhat light, slap. Despite being a fairly light hit, the popper clearly felt it as it screeched and tried to jump at its attacker again, all three arms extended and claws bared. Kent stepped back to his right, causing both of his opponents to collide in a masterful display of planning. He¡¯d very intentionally let the other hopper awkwardly shuffle around to his blind side, if Willow was any judge, which I am, of course.
Not letting the opportunity go to waste, Kent followed with another technique she¡¯d had him practice to rapidly slide his grip down the length of the stave shaft while bringing his hands up and to the left, then sharply down. The cross-strike was actually fairly flawless, technically. The finesse was certainly lacking and it somehow seemed almost like his body was following a series of instructions rather than performing a practiced motion. She knew for a fact that he hadn¡¯t ever pulled off something as ¡®fancy¡¯ as repositioning from a middle guard position into a forward stance followed by a sharp cross-strike. There was simply no way he should have been able to manage that, given he¡¯d barely been able to perform the cross-strike from an carefully formed forward stance in their last little practice session a few days ago.
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Regardless of supposed to or likelihood, Kent¡¯s strike crushed the head of the pop-hopper on top. His follow-up stab from low guard knocked the final hopper¡¯s noggin¡¯ hard enough to finish the fight.
Letting go of her focus and her self-control, Willow leapt in the air - thrusting her captive high above her head as she shouted, ¡°THAT¡¯S HOW YOU DO IT! MA¡¯MA COULDN¡¯T HAVE DONE IT BETTER HERSELF!!¡± She whooped and rushed toward them excitedly.
Kent was looking sick as she approached, but he was clearly getting himself under control. She could understand, killing those things was gross. Also killing is wrong, remember Willow? Ehhh¡ Unless you¡¯re killing gross little monsters who destroy ecosystems, maybe?
While making her way toward her friend, she noticed the hopper she was holding was scrabbling at her hand. She realized that she was definitely strangling it. She loosened her grip, then immediately firmed it back up as it tried to slash toward her face with its flailing limbs. It returned to trying to pry her fingers from its neck. When it tried to stab her fingers with its claws she deftly repositioned so it only managed to harm itself.
Arriving in front of Kent she let herself bounce in place excitedly, ¡°That was SO good! How¡¯d you suddenly go from novice staff technique to novice staff technique with a bit of control?! That was incredible! And NAOMI!¡± She spun and pointed toward the brown haired girl with her pop-hopper-prop as she made her way toward the other two at a trudging pace. She blinked a few times as she realized she was being praised. Naomi smiled wanly, ¡°It was only thanks to Jonah, really. I don¡¯t know how he could fight and also talk me through my own fights like that. But¡¡± She stared off into nothing again.
Having learned that Naomi sometimes just needed time to think, Willow turned back to Kent with a grin, ¡°You gonna leave us hangin¡¯ like the old tack in the back of the barn?! Come on! Spill! What changed?¡± She stopped bouncing as she noticed Kent¡¯s attention below her eyes. Said attention snapped back immediately as he flushed in embarrassment. Not caring, she just waggled her eyebrows at him, encouraging him to get on with the explanation.
¡°I¡ I got my insight.¡± He sounded somehow both pleased and disappointed all at once.
¡°That¡¯s fantastic! Was it what you wanted?¡± She leaned forward. Loosening her grip on her captive as she felt it go limp in her grasp. Whoops. It probably isn¡¯t dead. Can¡¯t be that fragile, right?
Kent shook his head, ¡°Not exactly. It¡¯s The world is just a game.¡± Willow was as startled as Kent looked when the words echoed coming out of his mouth.
¡°Oooooh cool effect! Is that part of the insight?¡±
¡°Uh¡ I don¡¯t¡ The world is just a game.¡± The echo came again. ¡°That¡¯s so weird. Why is that happening?¡±
They both stared at each-other for a moment, then both looked at Naomi, who shrugged and pointed at Willow¡¯s prop, ¡°So why¡¯d you ask her to catch that thing?¡±
Naomi
A few Kilometers from a Destroyed Jimble-Grimb Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Jonah had explained that he¡¯d been given a quest to ¡°discover the contents of the message¡± of the jimble-grimb which he¡¯d pointed out to Willow. That had lead to them carefully searching the monster in question, as well as the campsite. They did find a piece of paper, or maybe it was parchment or velum or something given how shoddy it was, but it was illegible. The thing looked like it had just been scribbled on by a child. Hoping the one Willow had caught could, and would, tell them what the message was, she brought it with them when they left the camp. They hadn¡¯t gone too far away this time, only walking maybe ten minutes before they found another of the little campsite clearings that seemed to be a staple of this forest.
Willow had dropped her burden, then pulled one of the ropes made of braided vine fibers she had stored in her pack. She tied the little monster up and then proceeded to start firing questions off at Jonah while they waited for it to wake up. He¡¯d explained that he¡¯d had a kind of too-real daydream which lead him to ¡®finding¡¯ his insight. Although he was clearly happy to have an insight, it was just as obvious he was a little put out that he hadn¡¯t gotten one along the lines of what he¡¯d been trying to get. Willow just shrugged and pointed out that the things people think they know aren¡¯t always what they actually know. That had started a round of lighthearted bickering and teasing, including Willow nudging Naomi and asking her if she forgot the long stave she was carrying wasn¡¯t meant as a sports implement.
The three of them had setup their now customary semi-circle of tents, with a fire circle a few meters in front of them, with the largest branches or stones they could find set up on the far side from the tents to act as seating. She seated herself to the far left, while Willow and Jonah had sat closer to the middle.
She¡¯d did her best to join into their good-natured banter throughout, but was finding it difficult to focus and participate. Eventually, she¡¯d given up and gone quiet as she let her nagging thoughts claim her attention. The fact that she¡¯d felt nothing both times she killed jimble-grimbs was concerning. It should probably be more than concerning, and Naomi guessed it was. She saw the joy Willow had when destroying the monsters. She wasn¡¯t sure if that was good, but it was something. She also saw the disgust and horror cross Jonah¡¯s fate at the end of the fight. The same horror she¡¯d seen on his face the first time they¡¯d killed a couple jimble-grimbs together during their previous raid. She hadn¡¯t felt one way or the other either time.
The more she acclimated to this new world, this new life, the more she seemed to revert to her former self. She could tell she was slowly becoming more reserved and withdrawn, despite her best efforts to put herself out there. Even now, she was trying to banter with her friends, but she just didn¡¯t feel it. More and more the numbness was returning. She was feeling less. After crying her soul out on Willow¡¯s lap, a memory which should have had her burning with shame, she¡¯d felt the emptiness set back in. After hearing Jonah¡¯s explanation of his insight, she realized she¡¯d known hers since that night. She just hadn¡¯t spoken it, she hadn¡¯t dared.
Now, she was torn¡ Or she thought she should be torn, but the longer things went on the more the ¡°tear¡± was academic. She logically knew she should be worried, but she didn¡¯t care. She knew she should want to change, but wanting something required feeling like she wanted something. There was a part of her which thought she should miss the rawness she¡¯d felt upon first arriving in the world from Earth. The world had been bright and vibrant. Especially Willow. She¡¯d felt upset at being tricked into a contract. She¡¯d felt excited and scared when she followed Willow through the portal. Those feelings were growing more distant. And she didn¡¯t care. Couldn¡¯t.
So she didn¡¯t want to change, but she thought she should. Did she want anything? Looking up from where she was staring at her toes, she saw Willow watching her. She didn¡¯t look worried, exactly, but curious and¡ there. Interested. Interested in her. Not in what she could do for her, but in getting to know Naomi herself. But she doesn¡¯t know you at all. She knows the emotions that came with your new life. The emotions that the emptiness ate. But¡ She considered, Do I want anything?
Still staring into Willow¡¯s eyes, unconsciously having locked herself in a kind of staring contest, she could answer that one easily. Yes. I want to have friends. I want to feel comforted like I did that night when I was upset. It felt horrible to be that sad, but also so good to have someone there with me. If I admit my insight, will I lose that chance?
Taking a deep breath, she decided to just ask, ¡°Willow, if I became really¡ Cold and distant, would you still be my friend?¡±
Although part of her hoped Willow would answer instantly, a part that surprised her, another equally surprising part was glad she thought about it. Her eyes narrowed slightly in thought, her thumb tracing her bottom lip. They continued to just sit there without breaking eye contact until Willow finally answered, ¡°If that¡¯s what you want to be, then I¡¯d still be your friend. I guess if you are that way and don¡¯t want to be, but don¡¯t work to change yourself¡ Well I¡¯ll still be your friend, but I¡¯ll be angry at you.¡±
The answer was¡ Not surprising. Naomi forced a smile onto her face, acknowledging the colors that spread across the darkness that she¡¯d been able to feel within her since that night. Then she opened her mouth to speak her insight, then paused, and changed it slightly, I am empty; but I don¡¯t want to be.
Willow¡¯s eye¡¯s widened slightly and Kent looked up sharply from where he was sitting, staring into the distance, probably looking at his UICI.
She felt the inner darkness pulse and awaken.
Chapter 22 - To Kill the Messenger or Not to Kill the Messenger
Madrick
Madame Vezeria¡¯s All-Knowing Shack,Witches¡¯ Hole,Thomas¡¯ Planet
Jaw clenched, foot tapping, left hand flexing, and right hand tightly gripping his sword¡¯s handle, Madrick fumed. He¡¯d run a merry chase all over this gods-damned planet without a scrap to show for it. Whoever had been occupying the tower on Hesv¨¡ra had covered their tracks shockingly well. The owner of the teleportation reception bay, a hell-forged orc named Vazgraz, hadn¡¯t known who was using it. As it turned out, the bay was a private bay and no one other than the owner was authorized to use it. When Madrick had brought the situation to said owner¡¯s attention, he¡¯d gone ballistic and begun trashing his own office. At any other time, Madrick might have taken some amusement from the dramatic reaction. As it was, he just shared his UICI recording of his transference from Hesv¨¡ra including coordinates to the tower¡¯s location so Vazgraz could check into how his security was so readily breached.
The fool orc hadn¡¯t even setup surveillance for the pad, because, ¡°Why would I need to record myself coming and going?¡± Idiot. The arrogance of lesser beings never ceased to amaze Madrick. Orcs in particular tended to be on the extreme end of lunacy in his experience. Arrogant without either the strength or the brains to justify it. What had come next could only be described as a snipe hunt. He¡¯d found and interviewed three people who owned facilities near the bay he¡¯d arrived at. Unsurprisingly, none of them had noticed a thing. Cesspool planets like this were the absolute worst in terms of gathering information, despite having the most active surveillance.
Speaking of surveillance, none of his interviewees knew who owned any of the monitoring artifacts he¡¯d seen dotting the entire section. According to them, they¡¯d been there since long before they¡¯d started renting out their own little private spaces. Obviously the next step for Madrick was to find and speak to the actual owner of the real estate. That was, he would have spoken to the owner if he hadn¡¯t found a chain of shell corporations, straw men, and gangs leading to a woman living on the streets who had no idea she had an entire block of buildings registered to her. Out of spite for whoever had set the trail of dead-ends up, Madrick found her and informed her. He even forwarded her the entire chain of evidence leading to her legal ownership of the properties and provided the contact information of a broker who¡¯d happily buy it off of her and use it for his own needs. She¡¯d likely be filthy rich going off of her previous self¡¯s standards by the week¡¯s end.
All of this lead him somewhere he never enjoyed finding himself. Waiting on a witch. Of course, had he gone by his tutorial¡¯s definition of a witch anyone above rank 0 would count. Out in the real world, though, witch was a generic label given to someone who followed a particular kind of a path. The primary defining feature of a witching path was connection. Witches had ways of connecting to others and generally scoffed at simple things like distance, wards, or other reasonable preventatives. The reason Madrick, specifically, disliked witches was due to the fact that nearly all of them required irritating forms of payment for their services. No witch Madrick had ever visited would just accept a couple thousand EB and call it even. That would be their starting fee.
Case and point, the sign that he was doing his best to glare a hole through while waiting for the owner of the business to answer his ringing of their doorbell. It read, ¡°R10-1kEB minimum for all consultations. Compensation for delivery of requested service subject to barter.¡±
Just as Madrick had decided he¡¯d find another practitioner, any one would likely do as well as any other after all, the door opened. A tall androgynous man clad in tight fitting silky whites and bedecked in more jewelry than one might find within a reasonable vault leaned casually against the frame as he took his visitor in. The witch¡¯s grey eyes appeared back lit by a sickly yellow light.
¡°You¡¯re madame Vezeria?¡± Madrick asked doubtfully.
The man smirked and crooked a finger, turning on his heel in a way that seemed designed to jangle every bangle he was wearing. Madrick followed the strutting man within, nose wrinkling at the pungent scent of some unknown mix of herbs and chemicals. Modernized witch, then, if he was using chemical components. Not that it mattered, their mana would work with what their path demanded. No two witches were forced to follow the same traditions as they were in his previous life. He still missed burning witches at the stake, part of him idly considered how difficult it would be to bring the practice to the real world once he returned to godhood. This one¡¯s performance might tip the balance and doom his entire ilk.
They arrived in a room furnished in extravagant colors: bright fabrics hung over every surface, crystals and precious stones were scattered in a seemingly haphazard manner everywhere, and the walls were painted garishly. The paint might have been intended to be artistic, but it seemed that his host had a habit of constantly painting over previous works if the obvious differences in paint age was anything to go off of.
¡°Madrick Lark. You have come seeking quarry as a hunter.¡± The man¡¯s somewhat effeminate voice was drawling and bored, ¡°Yet you are reluctant to pay the price. Before you rant, rave, and threaten, yes I already performed my readings. No, you won¡¯t find a way to swindle me out of my credits by leaving - by entering you already entered a contract to pay the consultation fee. In three possible futures you attack me and are sent back to your origin point. In four I manage to capture you and we have some¡ Fun¡ Before I send you back. In two you are reasonable enough and just pay me and go about on your way after the prey you seek.¡± Throughout the entire tirade, the witch¡¯s tone of voice managed to remain entirely unconcerned, unrushed, and modulated in a way that seemed to indicate he was intentionally not using a flat tone.
Before he could open his mouth to ask a question he continued, ¡°Yes, I follow a path of fate weaving. No, I can¡¯t see anything about you in the grand tapestry. Yes, I know about your past, of which I care about as much as I would about a cat¡¯s comings and goings. Oh good, you¡¯ve chosen to take your information and pay me.¡±
He hadn¡¯t, or rather¡ Damn it. Madrick glared and crossed his arms over his wide chest. He purposefully didn¡¯t try to ask any questions. It didn¡¯t seem to matter to Vezeria, if that¡¯s who this guy was, ¡°My fee in your case isn¡¯t too extreme. I want a specific future service. I want you to intervene against your disciple when she tries to kill my sister. You will almost certainly fail, but I want you to try to the best of your ability.¡±
The request both caught Madrick off guard and set his blood on fire. The possibility that Willow would be able to defeat him, even long enough to kill someone he wanted to defend, was truly exciting. Narrowing his eyes, Madrick used his Eyes of Conquest to peer more deeply into the witch he was parlaying with. He¡¯d guess the man was tier sixteen or seventeen. He could be higher ranked with less concentrated mana, perhaps having chosen to cultivate a greater variety of mana over strengthening a smaller number. His ability wasn¡¯t perfect for gauging ranks, it was more intended to give him a hint into the general strengths and weaknesses of his opponents.
Nodding, the white clad jewelry display continued, ¡°Great, since we¡¯re in agreement I¡¯ll just give you the planet where your target retreated. They went to Savria, they¡¯re currently hiding within some kind of volcano.¡±
Frowning, Madrick tried to remember why that planet sounded familiar. It certainly wasn¡¯t one he¡¯d spent any length of time on. Maybe he¡¯d gone there to feed his inner war at some point? It could be one of the war-torn planets like Hesv¨¡ra.
¡°Well as much as I¡¯d love to watch you stand there and brood, the longer I let you stay the higher the likely hood something stupid happens due to your presence. No, I won¡¯t tell you what it is because it¡¯s all but guaranteed if you know. No, telling you this much doesn¡¯t make you more likely to stay. Actually you¡¯re just about to leave because you¡¯ll get annoyed at my constant prattling and¡¡±
Madrick turned and left with all haste.
Willow
Yet Another Temporary Generic Campsite, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
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The stupid pop-hopper messenger hadn¡¯t woken up for a full twelve hours. Willow had her suspicions that the little jerk had intentionally stayed unconscious out of spite. Sore loser. It¡¯d only woken as the persistent mist that hung as a constant above them begun to glow with morning¡¯s light. Naomi had been on watch when it started thrashing and had just ignored it. When Willow woke it was due to the thing screaming obscenities, which had been annoying at first, then exciting! The excitement came purely from realizing the thing could talk and that the UICI and whatever translation magic it had built in translated it! Each sentence had essentially just been a ball of curses, unlikely promises, and furious nonsensical snarling, but it was still better than all previous attempts to communicate with the monsters.
When she¡¯d realized their prisoner was awake and ¡®talking¡¯, Willow had rushed out of her tent to get straight into the interrogation. An interrogation which had been frustrating. The little jerk seemed to know mostly how to throw insults, curses, and other vileness. It had taken them nearly a full three hours to get enough out of it to satisfy Kent¡¯s quest.
When he¡¯d told her about the quest he got, they compared notes and decided her quest and his were probably from different sources. He was pretty convinced his quest was directly generated by his own insight and gaming systems mana. Apparently, he had an entire mana type which was constantly in use and created an entire extra layer to reality for him. Why he¡¯d want to make life more like a video game, Willow wasn¡¯t sure. Games were fun, yeah, but they were so limited compared to real life.
Regardless of Kent¡¯s new perspective on life, it gave him clear direction on how to progress his abilities which was a pretty neat advantage. Willow was pretty happy to experiment and figure her own stuff out as she went, but she could certainly see the appeal of a straight forward ¡®do thing A to get thing B¡¯ kind of system of advancement. Kent wasn¡¯t the only one with a shiny new insight, though! Naomi had ¡®voiced¡¯ hers too. She¡¯d explained that she thought she had ¡®formed¡¯ the insight the other night when she¡¯d meditated, but it hadn¡¯t fully solidified until she actually spoke the words of the insight out loud. This, of course, made Willow curious as to how her own was working. If Naomi had to specifically say her insight out loud to activate it, how could Willow have mana aspects without even knowing what her insight was? A mystery she¡¯d certainly get to the bottom of. Later. Right now, they had to decide what to do with the information they¡¯d extracted from their unwilling, vitriol spewing, rope holder.
Once Kent¡¯s quest had been complete, they¡¯d stepped away from the screeching creature to give their ears a break. They found a spot to stand maybe a hundred meters from their campsite, among a random clump of feather-branch trees, to discuss what they¡¯d learned. Even at such a distance the sound of screamed threats and colorful language could be faintly heard. They pretended not to notice.
¡°To summarize¡¡± Kent said, ¡°The pop-hoppers are able to evolve by eating, or maybe absorbing, enough sun-child stones. Taking the stones kills the sunsquat trees, but it makes the pop-hoppers smarter and generally better in every way. The messenger we captured was bringing orders for the pop-hoppers at the camp to come and take their turn evolving since all of the ones in the main camp around the tree have already evolved once. Their ¡®chief¡¯ wants all of them smart enough to understand basic orders.¡±
¡°That¡¯s about 90% our speculation and 10% what the dumb creature actually managed to tell us.¡± Naomi pointed out. She was standing straight, no longer hunching in on herself. Her voice held more confidence, or not really. It held less of any emotion really, but it certainly held less doubt and uncertainty. So that was good, probably, hopefully.
Kent shot her a frown, ¡°Well we have to extrapolate a bit, right? It¡¯s not like ¡®boss say come back, boss say get stronger¡¯ at face value. We have other information from our own observations to tie in.¡±
Naomi shrugged, ¡°Yeah, that makes sense. Just saying, it¡¯d be a mistake to assume that whole summary is bullet proof.¡± Although he looked a bit miffed, Kent nodded in agreement to the point.
Clapping once, sharply, Willow gathered the others¡¯ attention. They saw her bright smile and both groaned. ¡°Willow please don¡¯t say you have a plan¡¡± ¡°That evil grin is never a good sign¡¡±
¡°I have absolutely no plan, so don¡¯t worry!¡± She began by addressing Kent¡¯s concern. She then pointed at Naomi and clutched her heart, ¡°And you, Judas, betrayer, your lack of faith cuts me to the quick!¡±
Willow noticed the slight twitch at the edge of Naomi¡¯s lips and counted it as a definitive point to herself. Since Naomi had embraced her insight, her emotions had been drastically deadened. She explained a little about it to herself and Kent the night before, but had asked for more time to sort things out before getting into it for real. They¡¯d naturally agreed. Willow, because she already told Naomi she wouldn¡¯t push on subjects that made her uncomfortable and Kent because he wasn¡¯t paying much attention anyway. She might need to talk to him about spacing out so much and¡ Ah¡ What are they saying?
¡°¡just that the last times you¡¯ve given us that look we¡¯ve ended up in fights shortly after.¡±
¡°Hey! Last time YOU started the fight Ke-n-Joooonah¡¡± She trailed off with a wince at her slip. She¡¯d been doing so well with using his ¡®real¡¯ name recently!
Groaning, Kent dropped his face into his hands, ¡°What is it about my name you don¡¯t like?¡±
¡°It just doesn¡¯t suit you!¡±
¡°Like jimble-grimbs don¡¯t suit pop-hoppers?¡±
¡°Exactly! Well no¡ Not exactly, but kinda?¡±
Naomi intervened before they could get into it too much. They¡¯d had similar ¡®arguments¡¯ at least every other day since they¡¯d met. ¡°So what¡¯s your not-a-plan, Willow?¡±
¡°Right! My scheme is like this. We¡¯ll go back to the pop-hopper village, I¡¯ll sneak into their camp using my moment, and steal all their sun-child rocks. We¡¯ll hide them somewhere we prepare ahead of time, then¡¡± She leaned toward Naomi, excited to share her master-stroke, ¡°we let our captive see that we have them, and ¡®accidentally¡¯ let it get free. It runs back to its people, tells them where their precious stones went, and lead them here.¡±
¡°Where we have an ambush ready.¡± Kent finished.
Grinning, Willow leaned back against the feather-branch trunk behind her, throwing her arms wide in celebration of their impending victory. Their prisoner let out a particularly loud shrieking curse in the background.
¡°Three of us are going to ambush¡ Hundreds or thousands of jimble-grimbs?¡± Naomi clarified.
Willow¡¯s arms dropped and she swished her lips back and forth in consideration, ¡°Ehhh I was thinking we¡¯d set things up so they¡¯re more isolated into smaller groups? Like we can maybe get some of them with pit traps, and maybe drop some branches and stuff on them with trip wires, you know - like that!¡±
Naomi nodded slowly, ¡°Sure, do you know how to setup those kinds of traps?¡±
¡°I¡ Kind of hoped you would¡± Willow admitted, breaking out her puppy-dog eyes. It worked super well on Kent last time, maybe¡
¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t know how.¡±
Drat.
¡°Willow¡ Your eyes are real pretty and all, but widening your eyes at me isn¡¯t going to grant me sudden insight into trap making.¡±
Double drat. Dropping the use of her secret weapon, Willow pivoted to her backup plan.
¡°Okay, in that case we¡¯ll just lure them out into the forest and slowly pick them off using gorilla tactics.¡±
¡°It¡¯s Guerrilla.¡± Kent pointed out, ¡°With a ¡®uh¡¯ sound, not ¡®o¡¯.¡±
¡°Wait, really?¡± She looked at him in shock.
¡°Uh¡ Yeah. You thought the term was referring to war with primates?¡± The teasing tone Kent used was insufferably knowing.
¡°Noooo¡ But ah¡ Let¡¯s just say someone asked me what exactly it is, if it¡¯s not saying to fight like gorillas,¡± she waved upward to indicate the canopy of feathery fronds above them, ¡± you know, in small packs from treetops, then what would I tell them?¡±
¡°First of all a group of gorillas is called a troop -¡±
¡°Not helping convince me that¡¯s not the correct word for ambush tactics with that.¡±
¡°- and secondly, gorillas don¡¯t really jump on anything from above generally. They could of course, but it¡¯s not something they¡¯re known for.¡± He shook his head and went to push up glasses that he no longer needed, a habit he had when indulging his know-it-all tendencies, ¡°Anyway guerrilla warfare was coined to describe soldiers operating outsider of military structure. The word itself is just the diminutive form of the Spanish word for ¡®war¡¯ so it¡¯s kind of like saying ¡®smaller warfare¡¯ or I guess ¡®little war, warfare¡¯.¡±
¡°Guys¡ Maybe we should get back to planning exactly what we¡¯re doing? Also, why are we planning to do anything instead of just taking the location of the Jimble-grimbs back to the kobolds? If nothing else, they¡¯d probably be more than happy to help us with your traps plan, Willow. They might even know how to set some up.¡± Trying to imitate Willow¡¯s relaxed pose against her tree, Naomi leaned back a bit, stumbled over an unexpected root, recovered, and ended up in an awkward position. She repositioned to a properly relaxed lean in mirror of her friend, who shot her a surreptitious thumbs up while Kent was looking Naomi¡¯s way with raised eyebrows.
¡°Well!¡± Willow started, ¡°I actually did think about doing that. The main thing is I don¡¯t think we can keep the crybaby that long. Or¡ I guess we could but I don¡¯t want to. Also, if their ¡®boss¡¯ is at all smart he¡ she¡ it? I¡¯m just gonna go with it, these things don¡¯t seem to have genders and don¡¯t seem intelligent enough to warrant ¡®they¡¯. It might be smart enough to realize something is wrong when neither the messenger nor the camp poppy-doppers come back.¡±
¡°Please don¡¯t give them more names.¡± Came Kent¡¯s defeated request, followed by a sigh. ¡°But I agree, your plan is less likely to work if we wait too long. The kobolds can¡¯t help with that specific plan but we could just kill the messenger and go get them to help us anyway. It¡¯d definitely be safer than trying to take that entire swarm on by ourselves.¡±
Looking between Kent and Naomi, who were both looking her way, Willow nearly decided not to tell them her real reason for wanting to do it herself. In the end, though, she didn¡¯t have an actual good argument so she was stuck with the truth. Trying to look ashamed, while not really feeling any shame at all, she explained.
¡°¡I just want all the xp for ourselves.¡±
Chapter 23 - Parties, Discipline, and Instruction
Willow
Outside Pop-Hopper ¡®Village¡¯, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
While Willow and the others might not know how to make traps, they¡¯d still agreed to harass the hoppers. In particular, they had decided to basically follow Willow¡¯s original plan but with some important changes. First, they wouldn¡¯t be trying to sneak into the camp and steal the sun-child stones as the first step. Instead, they just found some rocks that looked vaguely similar and made a big deal about stealing them in front of their prisoner. They weren¡¯t entirely sure it had worked as intended, and none of them were going to be winning any awards for their performances, but they¡¯d given it an honest attempt.
Once their bait was set, they had untied the pop-hopper after instructing it to ¡®be good¡¯. As soon as they¡¯d untied it, the thing had bolted. No one chased the ¡®clever¡¯ creature as it cackled and screamed insults regarding their collective intelligence. That done, they¡¯d promptly broken camp and went in search of a new base. This time they were a bit more careful, trying to find somewhere they¡¯d have solid visibility of any scouts that might stumble upon them and a clear escape plan. None of them were willing to assume their new camp wouldn¡¯t be discovered by the expected retaliatory force.
¡°Hey Jonah,¡± Naomi asked from where she was working on creating more rope. They had a bit of time to kill before they had to get back to their previous campsite to monitor for the enemy and they were using it to try and prepare in ways they thought might help with the upcoming phase two.
¡°Yeah?¡± He looked up from his own braiding at her. Willow followed his example while keeping her hands moving in the familiar pattern necessary to intertwine the smooth fibers in her fingers.
¡°You have a kind of augmented reality system that¡¯s outside the UICI. Can you use it to create a party and party voice chat?¡± His eyebrows shot up, then dropped into a frown of concentration as his eyes went out of focus as he began searching through the interface.
¡°That¡¯d be pretty awesome if you can!¡± Willow encouraged. They¡¯d wanted to use the UICI for that, of course. It was entirely possible. Assuming one had the funds to pay. When Willow had received rank 2 currency from her ¡®contribution¡¯ to that faction database, she¡¯d assumed that it¡¯d be extremely useful. She could convert it down to rank 1 or 0 currency and have plenty of money for lower tiered stuff, right? Wrong.
It wasn¡¯t possible to convert downward, only upward. Which, in her opinion, was one of the absolute stupidest things she¡¯d ever heard in her life. She had to use it as rank 2 currency. Which also explained why she¡¯d noticed some services which had different versions with ¡®Rank 1, Rank 2, Rank 3¡¯ tacked on. There was a rank 2 ¡®voice only virtual connection¡¯ module, of course, but it cost a full one thousand R2 EBs. The rank 0 version only cost two hundred. The whole system was clearly rigged.
¡°Looks like I can do that, yeah. It¡¯s going to cost one mana per minute and I have a total of forty mana. My other abilities also cost mana, so I¡¯d guess we¡¯ll have somewhere around fifteen minutes max before I¡¯ll be out.¡± While it wasn¡¯t long, it wasn¡¯t short either. Especially in a fight.
¡°Should we test it now?¡± Kent nodded as Naomi¡¯s suggestion and suddenly Willow saw a box flash in front of her, similar to the UICI default windows, but orange instead of blue.
PARTY INVITE
[Jonah Locke] has invited you to his party.
Accept/Decline
Like the UICI, it was intuitive enough to interface with and Willow accepted immediately.
¡°¡Two three four, testing.¡± She looked over at Kent, who was silently staring into space. She heard him continue but saw he wasn¡¯t moving his lips at all. ¡°This is a test of the party system, can you both hear me?¡±
¡°I can.¡± Naomi answered. Her voice sounded shockingly dull, almost robotic. Apparently the voices projected weren¡¯t exactly the same as the real thing. Though, Kent¡¯s sounds pretty much the same. Wonder what the difference is. Also, I wonder what I sound like.
¡°Yep!¡± She pushed toward her party. Then followed up, ¡°How do I sound?¡±
¡°You¡¯re clear.¡± Followed immediately by Kent¡¯s, ¡°Perfectly normal.¡±
Naomi glanced at Kent, apparently picking up the odd tone in his response, ¡°How about me?¡±
After a moment¡¯s hesitation Kent answered, ¡°You kind of sound¡ Flat? Almost robotic.¡±
¡°Oh.¡± There was a brief pause before she sent a somehow toneless sigh, ¡°I think you hear how I sound in my own head. I make sure to sound¡ Better¡ Out loud.¡±
¡°Huh, that¡¯s interesting. I thought everyone¡¯s internal voice sounded like how they heard themselves speak.¡± Kent said with clear curiosity. Willow shrugged when he looked her way, she had no idea. She thought in her own voice, but she also hadn¡¯t really thought one way or another about how other people might think. I¡¯m still not thinking about others very much, am I? I¡¯m trying! I mean, I¡¯m careful to talk to both of them all the time! But¡ I don¡¯t feel like I¡¯m thinking about them much other than that. Willow frowned down at her fingers, finishing a length rope and putting it to the side to start another.
¡°The world and my thoughts are kind of disconnected. It¡¯s kind of like being in control of a puppet. It¡¯s gotten a bit worse since I spoke my insight. My mind is very clinical. It¡¯s why I had my insight in the first place.¡± After a few moments of silence Naomi continued, her words slower and more hesitant, ¡°It makes it hard to connect with people, or empathize. Until I died, my emotional range was almost nothing¡ I¡¯d have days where I stayed in bed and just stared at the ceiling, because I felt nothing and couldn¡¯t think of a reason to get up. It¡¯s been slowly going back to how it was and I don¡¯t know why.¡±
Before Willow could say anything, Kent replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know what that¡¯s like, exactly¡ But I definitely get not knowing how to connect with people. I have trouble understanding emotions if they aren¡¯t directly spoken. My mam told me one time that when I was young she didn¡¯t realize that I didn¡¯t understand when she was angry. She thought I kept doing things that made her mad on purpose.¡± Willow glanced up at him, seeing a sad look in his eyes. He shook his head and continued, ¡°Anyway, I definitely feel things. I just have a hard time understanding what others are trying to express. Ah¡ Not that I¡¯m trying to make this about me or anything, I¡¯m just trying to say I understand how hard it can be to not ¡®click¡¯ with people easily.¡±
The trio worked in silence for a bit, before Naomi spoke back up, ¡°Thanks. I appreciate you not saying I¡¯m weird.¡±
Willow saw Kent¡¯s head snap toward Naomi in her peripheral vision and then heard his mind-voice, ¡°Why would I say that?¡±
¡°Most people do.¡±
¡°Oh. Well, I don¡¯t think you¡¯re weird. Just different than I am, but most people are different than I am. So¡ I don¡¯t know, does it matter?¡±
¡°Does not feeling much of anything matter?¡± Naomi clarified.
¡°Yeah, I mean, if that¡¯s how you are then it¡¯s just how you are.¡± He shrugged, ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯s a problem or anything¡ Or is it? You said you didn¡¯t get up some days, so maybe it is a problem?¡±
¡°I¡ Well it was a problem before¡ I haven¡¯t had any trouble getting up though. Having a reason to get up makes it simpler. I want to help you and Willow, so I get up to help.¡±
Although she felt a bit bad about cutting in with her friends actually talking without her encouraging them for once, Willow wanted to clarify something, ¡°You also have your own goal, Naomi. It¡¯s not just to help us.¡± She purposefully made it a statement rather than a question, almost a demand.
¡°I do?¡± The mental question was actually colored with the slightest bit of confusion.
¡°The last part of your insight is that you don¡¯t want to be empty anymore, so you¡¯re going to have to work if you want to change that.¡±
Willow turned to look at Naomi, their eyes locking for a moment before she answered, ¡°I don¡¯t want to be¡ But I don¡¯t know how to change it.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know exactly either, but step one is getting up and searching. It¡¯s not possible to change without trying to. We¡¯ll help you however we can, too! Right, Jonah?¡±
¡°Of course!¡± Jonah sounded almost eager and Naomi turned to look at him. ¡°It¡¯s like a puzzle, but way more important. I¡¯d be happy to help! For the emotions thing, it seems like we have a fairly good lead to start investigating and thinking about. You had stronger emotions immediately after arriving from Earth, so that probably tells us something. We just need to figure out what.¡±
Seeing the slight raising of Naomi¡¯s lips, Willow felt that Ke- Jonah had already started helping. If I¡¯m going to push Naomi to change the thing she doesn¡¯t like about herself, I need to change what I don¡¯t like too. Starting with thinking about people more¡ And it¡¯s probably not very nice of me to think about my friend using a random name they don¡¯t like.
She turned to look at Jonah, and groaned, He just looks like SUCH a Kent!
The scheme had worked! Willow grinned over at K- Jonah, and Naomi. Jonah nodded at her and she got his party request. Accepting, she immediately checked in, ¡°Pheonix, here!¡±
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Jonah¡¯s sigh came through the chat loud and clear. ¡°Why are we using call signs again?¡±
¡°Prism, here.¡± Naomi came online.
Another sigh, then, ¡°System, online.¡±
Willow quietly pumped her fist, ¡°Heck yeah! Party P.P.S. is officially online! What¡¯s the plan, boss?¡±
Naomi answered blandly, ¡°I¡¯m still not sure why I¡¯m supposed to be the party leader. Jonah has to coordinate everything, and you¡¯re always the one coming up with ideas.¡±
¡°Jonah gets lost in his interface too much and I get too hyper-focused. You¡¯re perfect for the job, don¡¯t worry!¡±
¡°I suppose. Well if I¡¯m lead, Jonah what are we looking at?¡±
Jonah¡¯s eyes went entirely blank, his pupils vanishing. It was the only physical indication that he¡¯d entered what he called his ¡®RTS view¡¯. It wasn¡¯t that Willow was jealous that he had so many different cool abilities, it was just that she wished she also had as much variety. Though, he¡¯d explained that he felt his gaming systems mana was as much a limiter as a helper. For example: while he had a lot of game-like system abilities by default, he said he thought he¡¯d only be able to improve aspects which were controlled by his gaming system with xp. At least for now.
¡°I see thirty pop-hoppers. Let me try¡ Yeah. Here.¡± As he stopped speaking, Willow received one of Jonah¡¯s game-interface prompts asking her if she¡¯d like to accept the mini-map he¡¯d shared. She agreed and immediately a small map appeared at the top left of her view with green and red dots marking themselves and their enemies. Oooo, neat!
¡°All of them are between levels one and six. Considering Willow is level fourteen, she could probably solo all of them.¡±
¡°Wait, I¡¯m level fourteen? Really? What level are you and Prism?¡± She forced herself not to look at Jonah, keeping her eyes on the clearing where she knew, thanks to the mini-map, the pop-hoppers would very soon be arriving.
¡°I¡¯m level two and Naomi is level one.¡±
¡°It¡¯s Prism! We¡¯re in the field!¡±
A deep sigh. Before they could continue, Naomi cut in, ¡°Time to go, Pheonix. Your job is to distract and kill as many as you can without getting bogged down. If you can pull enough of them away I¡¯ll kill them as I can. I don¡¯t think I can take more than one at a time. System, you keep up our coms and map. Can you ping the map if you need to?¡±
A pause, then Willow felt her direction pulled to the map and saw a bright yellow point which flashed for a moment, then faded.
¡°You can, perfect. You¡¯re in charge of keeping us informed of any changes to the battlefield. If you¡¯re discovered: move toward the clearing, assuming it¡¯s safe enough, and inform us. We will both start retreating toward your position. If I start to get overwhelmed, let Pheonix know so she can come bail me out. If things get really bad, come help me yourself. If Pheonix ends up in a bad situation she will try to retreat and we¡¯ll all run. If she can¡¯t retreat, System and I will rush toward her to create an opening so we can all get the hell out. We clear?¡±
Willow loved the cool military-like way Naomi, Prism, delivered the overview of their plan. They¡¯d spent hours coming up with it. She signed off, ¡°Pheonix clear.¡±
They¡¯d also spent hours talking about how they wanted to run ¡°operations.¡± They¡¯d agreed it was important to have an etiquette worked out ahead of time. While Jonah wanted to use more gamery lingo and manners, Naomi thought it was too casual and might let Jonah in particular disconnect from reality too much and take it too lightly. He¡¯d conceded the point. Willow had pushed for the spy-flick like setup with some military sounding stuff thrown in. Eventually they¡¯d all agreed, though Jonah still didn¡¯t like the call-sign idea for some reason.
Naomi had actually been the one to offer it originally, saying she¡¯d read that it was a good way to build a different state of mind which could be switched to when needed and distance any trauma a bit. Willow wasn¡¯t sure about any of that, but she loved nicknames. So she¡¯d brainstormed and come up with good names for them all. They hadn¡¯t had better ideas than hers, so they went with what she came up with. The group name¡ I can¡¯t be expected to come up with all bangers all the time. If we think of something better we¡¯ll change it.
The first pop-hoppers came waddling into the clearing. They weren¡¯t moving at their fast tree-ponging speed, which meant they were awkwardly step-hopping from foot to foot. It was slow and pretty hilarious looking. Fortunately, they¡¯d watched pop-hoppers enough that the visual comedy wasn¡¯t enough to distract any of them. Not that I¡¯d ever been distracted and snickering at how some stupid monsters walked when I should have been paying attention. Nope. I-
¡°Begin!¡± Naomi¡¯s voice broke Willow from her thoughts and she leapt up, sprinting toward their enemy with a wide smile. She felt Prism running behind her and poured on the speed. The first four pop-hoppers were just reacting, raising their almost-real spears and screeching in challenge, when Willow arrived. She tore through them like a gale-force wind. A wind which ripped spears from hands and left its victims stumbling and bumbling behind.
She managed to steal three of the four spears, with the last popper being too far away for her to reach it to deprive it. Instead, she graciously gave it another weapon by viciously throwing the final purloined spear, catching it hard in its left shoulder. It screamed and dropped its spear in pain, which was almost as good as having taken it. Then she was past the first line and could see the main force. Dozens of punching bags, er, enemies. She entered her focus and went to town.
In this fight engagement, Willow¡¯s personal goal - outside of the operation objectives - was to find an optimal level of her focus for low-level confrontations. She knew she could just go full force with her focus and tear the fodder to pieces, but she was equally sure these weaklings were far from representative of the normal skill level in the world. So while she couldn¡¯t hone her fighting skills, she could work on her efficiency and magical abilities.
She pulled the mana down to a bare trickle. She pushed the tiniest speck of her unnamed aspect into the mix to improve her control over the ability. Concentrating, she pulled the grey-out effect back entirely, flexing her will to make her ability only improve her capabilities and not impact the environment at all. With all of her discipline mana focused on just its internal effects, they were noticeably stronger than they would have been if the energy was split between external and internal. Her senses were sharper, instinctive reading of the flow of battle clearer, her mind processed more quickly, and her body responded perfectly and without delay.
Yep, magic is still the coolest thing ever. She slipped between two pop-hoppers as they leapt at her, lifting her arms at just the right time to snatch their spears. The two spears she already had in her left hand both impaled her attacker on that side - trading two spears for one. Continuing forward, she spun her two new weapons to face her enemies. She flicked the one in her right hand forward, pinning a hopper to the tree via his bulbous stomach. The left spear spun to bat away a sharpened stick thrown at her. Alright, this is pretty good. I can keep this up for a long time and it¡¯s plenty. Let¡¯s reduce a bit. Reducing the amount of mana flowing into her ability even further, Willow pressed on thrusting and swinging her stolen weapons. She lost and gained new weapons as she danced through the enemy ranks. The hopper¡¯s numbers quickly became more of an impediment to them than to her, as she perfectly took advantage of every gap small enough to slip through and punished each over-bunched group of enemies.
Each time Willow cut through another group of enemies, she reduced the amount of mana flowing into her ability. Finally, she realized she¡¯d stopped channeling mana at all and scowled in annoyance. These stupid things aren¡¯t even strong enough that I need to use my mana at all to beat even this many of them? I figured I¡¯d start taking hits or something at some point¡ She stepped to her left as she felt the spear coming at her from behind. Her right foot lashed out in a back-kick and she heard a crunch. Another spear came flying at her from the right and she caught it as she spun, position herself so she could press the hand of a lunging hopper forward, redirecting it directly into the eye of one of its fellows.
Alright, well then let¡¯s see how fast I can finish this. She gathered her discipline mana mixed with the barest hint of the other kind, just enough to let her remove the external effect. While preparing the energy, she¡¯d maintained her smooth dance through the weak, but large, group of monsters. She suddenly crouched, then pushed her mana through her ability in a burst. It was mostly instinct that lead her to leap directly into the air, not something she really planned out. She found herself flying, tens of meters above the ground. She laughed manically, the sheer joy of it nearly overwhelming, but she was still focused and didn¡¯t forget her situation. Taking inspiration from her understanding of what discipline meant, and therefore what she could use the mana which was its essence for, she fed more into her ability.
While the world wasn¡¯t slowed, she had plenty of time for thought with so much of the mana flooding her ability. Willow felt she had all the time in the world to decide what her next move would be, but also felt the need to decide quickly. I want to reposition myself, but I¡¯m in the air. My discipline mana doesn¡¯t really let me do anything that I couldn¡¯t do myself already, it just makes me way better at it. Kind of like super-charging a skill.
The other mana, though, did let her effect the world. It let her stop time for people, and mixing it with her focus mana let her remove the one external effect it did have, or alter it. Oh. Duh. Without further thought, she named her second mana.
NEW MANA ASPECT NAMED!
Congratulations!
You have successfully created and registered a unique, previously unregistered, mana aspect instruction into the CHM!
To reward your efforts, and for meaningfully contributing to the CHM database, 500 R2-EB has been awarded!
Congratulations!
You have registered a meaningful description for your unique mana aspect INSTRUCTION
Instruction
To impart discipline upon the world, one must instruct.
As per UICI cultivation privacy provision 2219.A.33, the CHM is unable to provide third parties with access to information related to your private cultivation techniques without your consent. This includes your newly created ability.
Would you like to share your ability with Sentekko
(F)?
Declining the final request out of hand, Willow channeled a bit of her newly named instruction mana and told the air to be solid. It ignored her. Shoot. Willow fell. She splaying herself out for half the descent, then flipping a couple times at the end to bleed as much energy off as possible. When she landed, it was directly on top of a hopper. She was somewhat disappointed that the earth didn¡¯t shudder and split in a huge radius around her while she stood unphased. Instead, she landed slightly harder than usual, breaking her landing pad badly.
Right, the ability itself is a limiting factor according to that rank two packet I got. I should finish reading that. Well the ability was developed based on my prior visualizations and use¡ But it can clearly be manipulated. What if¡
The pop-hoppers had mostly all stopped to stare up when she jumped and were still staring at her. Only the true battle geniuses among them were starting to raise their weapons to charge their terrifying enemy with skipping leaps while she appeared distracted. The next moment those ¡°smartest¡± hoppers found themselves badly regretting their proactive approach. Many of them screamed as the energy from their powerful legs completely failed to move their bodies, all of which were grey and frozen in time.
Grinning, Willow was about to continue the experiment of choosing individual parts and pieces to freeze, therefore throwing the battlefield into more chaos and causing the creatures to literally harm themselves, when she heard Jonah¡¯s - System¡¯s - voice, ¡°Fallback when able, another troop with roughly a hundred pop-hoppers is approaching. ETA three minutes.¡±
Too bad¡ Giving her playmates a sad look, she turned and rushed back toward where she knew Prism was kiting four pop-hoppers to relieve some pressure for her to retreat if needed. Before she arrived, though, Naomi managed to kill each of them. Less than forty seconds after Jonah¡¯s warning, they¡¯d managed to extricate themselves and ran in the opposite direction to where Jonah was hidden and keeping watch.
¡°You aren¡¯t being pursued, the few hoppers you two left alive are turning around to meet with the others.¡± System reported.
¡°Rendezvous at point A.¡± Prism ordered.
They carefully made their way through the forest toward a space they had pre-prepared with materials they intended to use to camouflage themselves from any pursuers.
Chapter 24 - Fury
Naomi
Outside Pop-Hopper Ambush Point, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
¡°Begin!¡± Naomi spoke, trying to color her voice with urgency and authority. Willow exploded out of her hiding spot on the far side of Jonah, faster than Naomi could have possibly kept up with. So far, so good. Willow being faster and flashier was part of their strategy, after all. Once Willow was halfway to the jimgle-grimbs, Naomi broke cover and followed.
¡°Enemy focus status?¡± she sent to System through the party chat.
He only took a moment to reply, ¡°Eight in the clearing facing you, three are turning to chase Willow. Only one of them still has a weapon.¡±
¡°Heard.¡± She saw the same thing System had reported, but she thought it was prudent to make sure. Not being faster than a train had its advantages. One of which was being able to actually gather information and plan accordingly. It took a handful of seconds before the first jimble-grimb realized there was another attacker coming at them. It screeched and the other three that were reeling from Willow¡¯s assault at the edge of the forward group snapped their attention around toward her.
It appeared Naomi would get to see the difference in fighting the smarter ¡®evolved¡¯ variant of jimble-grimbs. The difference was clear when all five spread into a semi-circle instead of all rushing her at once. Skidding to a halt a handful of feet away, she sent to System, ¡°Ready for buffs.¡±
She felt power rush through her body, her mind sharpening a bit and small red points showing up on each of her enemies. The brightest and most obvious were around the sides and tops of the creature¡¯s heads. System had cast the one spell he had on her. He¡¯d only been able to choose one spell at level one and had gone with a support spell after talking it through with her and Willow, given the rest of his capabilities. The spell was called Predator Vision, the description had said it would improve the target¡¯s combat focus and provide ¡®hints¡¯ regarding enemy weak points.
Naomi lunged forward, stabbing out with the tip of her long stave. She and Willow had spent another session going through basics again, this time with Naomi actually focusing rather than agonizing about her state of mind. She noted the enemies on the far right and left were stepping forward, clearly intending to pincer her between them. The point of her stave slammed hard into the center creature, folding it over as it made contact with its bulbous belly, but she¡¯d missed her red-painted target. She¡¯d been going for a spot of red where body began transitioning into neck.
As soon as they noticed she was off-balance from the strike connecting, her left and right opponents leapt forward with their sharp claws extended. The last two had both retreated slightly and were spreading around. She thought they were trying to get behind her. Yanking her stave back, Naomi managed to get it up into what Willow had called ¡®mid-guard¡¯ and shoved forward hard just as the two hopping monsters arrived. She intercepted them, catching one in an armpit and the other in one of the weird joints between wrist and forearm, though they managed to each cut one of her arms in retaliation. She twisted the stave with both hands counter-clockwise as hard as she could. The jimble-grimb she¡¯d caught in its front-arm armpit had just lifted its arm and waddled back. The other one, however, was caught off-guard and the stave pressed downward on its front-arm joint hard enough to cause a crack and screech.
She stepped backward and pulled the stave beside her on her left, then lunged forward toward the uninjured one. It leapt to its left, landing beside its companion with a broken arm. System¡¯s voice came suddenly, ¡°Jump back!¡±
Naomi didn¡¯t hesitate, throwing herself backwards. She stumbled as she landed, her foot slipping on a patch of lose stones and sticks. She saw both of the jimble-grimbs who had tried to circle her land where she¡¯d been moments before; six claw-tipped arms whipping down through empty air. She didn¡¯t hesitate, stepping back into the fray. She spun the stave into an upper-guard and swung down as hard as she could. The blow landed beautifully, cracking the skull of one of the two would-be ambushers. The second one lunged toward Naomi and managed to take hold of the stave with all three of its hands. It screamed at her, ¡°STUPID!¡±
Twisting her hands to roll the stave, just like Willow had shown them to break an opponent¡¯s grip, she yanked it toward herself. The sudden friction and force caused the creature to release the shaft with a hiss of pain and look down at its hands, which felt like they were burning. The stave came around and ended its distracted consternation with a crack as it connected with its temple.
The little jerks didn¡¯t give her any time to catch her breath. They both leapt at her. Performing the same block as before, it was only slightly less successful. She caught the one with a non-broken front arm in the weird joint this time and spun the stave in that direction, breaking it. The second one managed to dodge being caught entirely and wobbled toward her right, trying to slash at her with its non-maimed claw-tipped appendages. Fortunately, the creature was severely off-balance with the broken arm hanging uselessly in front of it. Naomi took advantage of the fact; stepping toward it at the end of spinning the stave down and bringing the now skyward facing length of wood down hard, cracking it hard on the head. Not enough to kill it. She noted as it fell but was still twitching.
¡°The other one¡¯s coming!¡± System informed her frantically. ¡°Heard.¡± Naomi replied gratefully, having been distracted for that moment. She stabbed out with the tip nearest the enemy. It fell backwards as it tried to change its forward hopping motion into a sideways dodge. Having only stabbed as a distraction, Naomi was able to reposition and stab down directly into the jimble-grimb¡¯s wide left eye.
Disgusting. She noted as she pulled the shaft out of the dead creature¡¯s skull while looking around to take stock of the situation. Only one enemy remained, the one she¡¯d hit in the belly at the very start. To her surprise, it seemed that although she¡¯d missed a ¡®weak¡¯ area, she had hit hard enough to cause some real damage. It was holding onto the spot with its left arm while staring at her. Naomi charged forward, sweeping her weapon around and cracking its skull when it was too slow to react. It had tried crouching for a leap, but was apparently in too much pain. The hesitation cost it its life.
¡°Three coming from in front, about to break the tree-line, another one coming from your left.¡± System told her, calmer in this warning than the last. Naomi began positioning herself so they¡¯d all be approaching from her front rather than from blind-spots.
As the creatures rushed her, she saw Willow above the trees a bit in front and to her left. She noted, but ignored, the phenomenon. She was certain her friend had just figured out how to do something else ridiculous like how to fly or something. Of the two of them, Naomi was certainly the one in more trouble. She focused on the oncoming enemy, studied them. She saw rage and fear on the creature¡¯s twisted faces. She didn¡¯t want to feel fear, it wasn¡¯t an emotion she ever enjoyed. Rage though¡ She¡¯d read about it giving strength, bravery, thrill¡ She wanted that for this fight.
The emptiness within her surged from the center of her being, then up through her gut and into her throat. Feeling like she would vomit, Naomi¡¯s mouth snapped open involuntarily and a tongue of pure darkness flashed out and wrapped around all of the jimble-grimbs. Their eyes went blank and they stopped in their tracks. In contrast, Naomi felt fury suddenly explode within her soul. She screamed and charged. The stick in her hand blurred as she swung without skill or intention, bludgeoning her enemy - crushing, breaking, destroying. This will teach you stupid little fuckers to scratch me! She continued striking, ignoring the nagging voice that kept trying to tell her to stop.
Suddenly, like a light flicked off, the anger was gone. Her stave, which had broken and was now closer to club-sized, landed one last time. She stared at the pile of bloody pulp in front of her, feeling baffled. Why¡ What?
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
¡°PRISM- NAOMI! Are you there?!¡± System¡¯s voice was panicked, worried.
¡°I¡¯m here.¡±
A sigh of relief came over the chat, ¡°Good. It¡¯s time to fallback. There¡¯s a hundred or so more coming. We can do another ambush later.¡±
¡°Understood. Falling back. Pheonix is falling back already?¡±
¡°Just told her, yes.¡±
Without another word, Naomi turned and ran toward their rendezvous point. She was almost surprised when none of the remaining jimble-grimbs followed her. At least she was until later, when Jonah explained that Willow had killed almost all of them before they had to fall back. She hadn¡¯t done too badly herself, either, having singlehandedly killed nine of them. Almost single-handed. Jonah¡¯s spell helped improve my reflexes and instinctive ability to go after weak points.
Jonah
Observing Pop-Hopper Ambush, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Jonah¡¯s shoulders slumped in relief after getting through to Naomi. He rolled his eyes as he could almost hear Willow¡¯s nagging, It¡¯s Prism while we¡¯re in an operation!
He carefully stood and began weaving through the forest. He maintained his RTS View, giving himself an easy way to navigate and avoid enemies. Not that there were really any left, other than the ones coming from the north. They were waddling slowly for some reason, although given his view didn¡¯t let him look all that far away he was certain they could hear the battle. He regretted that he couldn¡¯t ¡®zoom¡¯ down enough to actually see facial expressions. When he tried, the mental image distorted like the textures were too low resolution.
All things considered, the battle had gone spectacularly. He¡¯d maintained his buff on Naomi, watched the battlefield for possible dangers, and generally tried to maintain awareness. Although he didn¡¯t feel like he¡¯d done much, he¡¯d gotten a full 50xp from the fight. That was enough to push him to level two and get him halfway to level three! He was excited to see what he could choose when leveling.
Watching Willow fight from a top-down perspective had been amusing. The fights he¡¯d seen her in before had been fast and almost entirely unintelligible to him, but in his RTS View everything seemed just a bit slower and simpler. It¡¯d been like watching a hero take to battle against common mobs. As she passed, the enemies all seemed to be pushed back as if Willow was an oar and they were the water. Each time one got to close, the enemy counter at the top of his view dropped down by one. Then she¡¯d jumped. He had no idea why she did that, but it was certainly impressive. It had caught the attention of all of the nearly pop-hoppers, as well as the scouts for the approaching hundred-strong force. Then she¡¯d descended like a meteorite and when she landed it seemed some kind of effect was applied to the monsters as they started screaming, bodies apparently tearing themselves apart. He saw one of them mid-leap literally bisected as its torso continued up and on, while its legs simply froze mid-air. It was both gruesome and incredible.
Having arrived at the nearest rendezvous point, which also appeared to be the one Naomi and Willow were rushing to, Jonah stopped to wait for the rest of his team. He frowned as he thought through Naomi¡¯s actions near the end of the fight. She¡¯d been working through her enemies methodically, as she¡¯d done the last time. In his opinion, she¡¯d been doing extremely well. He¡¯d only seen her hp drop by four points. Out of her pool of a hundred and twenty, that was nothing. Then she¡¯d opened her mouth and a huge swath of absolute blackness reached out around the group approaching her and she¡¯d gone ballistic. It¡¯d been like watching a kid throw a temper tantrum.
Although she¡¯d defeated all of her enemies much faster, she¡¯d also entirely ignored him and her surroundings until she just as suddenly snapped out of it. They¡¯d need to discuss that. The reason she was supposed to be the leader was her clear head. If she couldn¡¯t maintain that, maybe they should reconsider. Although¡ Does it matter who the ¡®official¡¯ leader is? Willow will always be the one to decide what we do, it¡¯s just how she is. I¡¯ll definitely be the one coming up with specifics and communicating, and Naomi is our balancer. If nothing else, she keeps Willow and I on task. I guess she doesn¡¯t have to be calm mid-battle to be our leader if that¡¯s the point of the role.
Willow arrived first, which was no surprise considering she was just much faster. Naomi arrived right on her heels, though. Grinning, Willow pumped her fist, ¡°Good job, System, Prism! That was awesome!¡±
She looked between them, her eyes landing on the scratches on Naomi¡¯s arms but not commenting. She turned to Jonah, ¡°Did you get xp like we hypothesized?¡±
He nodded, ¡°Yep. Enough to get a level and a half.¡±
She begun rubbing her hands together just under her nose and murmured in a cartoonish voice, ¡°Guud, guuud, it is all going to our plan. Soon we shall be more powerful than anyone could possibly imagine!¡±
Naomi smiled slightly and then asked, ¡°Should we continue on to our camp? System, did any of them follow?¡±
¡°Nope, we¡¯re in the clear.¡± Naomi nodded and started walking in the direction of their base.
After a moment¡¯s hesitation, Jonah decided he should bring up what happened. Willow was on cloud nine and clearly hadn¡¯t seen what happened, or didn¡¯t care. She had that far off look that told him she was either looking at her UICI, or she was ¡®in her dojo¡¯. He would bet on the later, considering she had xp to allocate. He and Naomi would need to do the same soon, too. Though he wanted to experiment a bit to see if both of theirs also dissipated over time like Willow¡¯s. She was on auto-pilot walking behind them.
He walked beside Naomi and cleared his throat, ¡°Hey, Naomi¡ Er¡ Prism? Are we in an op right now?¡±
She considered then nodded, ¡°Until we¡¯re back at the camp and feel safe.¡±
¡°Okay, Prism, then. I noticed that something ah¡ Happened with those last four pop-hoppers you fought. Did you figure out how to use your mana? You mentioned before that you felt like your insight had settled into place, but you didn¡¯t feel anything like the mana Willow described and don¡¯t have an interface like mine to help.¡±
He waited for a bit, until he was starting to worry she wasn¡¯t going to answer. Sometimes she just stayed silent if she didn¡¯t want to talk about something. Usually when Willow brought something up, which was fine in those cases, because Willow always knew how to smooth over the awkwardness and avoid letting it linger. He had no idea how to do that, though. I should have just talked to Willow about it, then she could have talked to Naomi. But¡ Naomi¡¯s my friend too, I should be able to talk to her directly.
Before he could continue down the path of should-haves and should-be-able-tos, Naomi answered, ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly¡ I wanted the anger I saw in the jimble-grimb¡¯s eyes.¡± Her voice was soft, as if she was worried he¡¯d hear her. Which was ridiculous considering she was talking to him. He just moved a little closer as they walked to avoid missing anything she said.
¡°I know it¡¯s weird to want to feel anger. I remember how it could feel good to be angry though. Or at least satisfying when I did something about the anger I was feeling and¡ I was right. It felt so good.¡± Her voice was, for a moment, full of something. He couldn¡¯t really identify what, excitement maybe?
She sighed, ¡°Then it was gone.¡±
¡°The anger?¡±
¡°Yeah. I think I took it from the jimble-grimbs. They all stopped in their tracks and stared at me with entirely blank eyes. It was like they¡¯d been wrung out entirely of all emotion. I only felt the anger though. Rage. Fury.¡± Again, her tone was more complicated than Jonah was able to parse through. It seemed like she had enjoyed the feelings though.
He wasn¡¯t entirely sure one should enjoy feelings of anger, but it wasn¡¯t really something he felt equipped to judge. Instead, he pushed forward to the actual issue. ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you figured that out! It seems useful, and if you like it then¡ Good? Willow loves fighting and killing those monsters, so I can¡¯t really say liking the feeling of anger you got during the battle is that different? But ah¡ You kind of lost it a bit.¡±
Naomi¡¯s face twisted in a kind of wince and she nodded, ¡°Yeah. I should have remained more in control. I¡¯ve just never felt so much all at once. It was so raw and so strong. If that¡¯s how those jimble-grimbs were feeling, I don¡¯t know how they were managing to coordinate with each other at all.¡±
¡°Well¡¡± Jonah thought it through for a moment before continuing, ¡°You said you took the anger from all of them. That¡¯s four evil little creature¡¯s worth of anger. They¡¯re also probably entirely used to feeling angry, but if you don¡¯t really feel anger much then¡ Well it¡¯d be overwhelming for anyone in that situation.¡±
He watched from the corner of his eye, carefully not looking over at Naomi in case she felt like he was being judgmental or something. He¡¯d be accused of as much in the past when trying to help people work out emotions. To him, emotions were straight forward. Cause and effect. He knew what happened to cause his emotions, he knew what they drove him to do, and he knew what he actually did. He also knew others didn¡¯t quite view them in the same way.
To his relief, Naomi just thought about it for a bit before nodding, ¡°That makes sense. So I¡¯m going to have to find a way to practice, then.¡±
Letting out a breath he hadn¡¯t even realized he was holding, Jonah nodded, ¡°Yeah. Maybe if we can figure out a way to ¡®inject¡¯ those emotions, Willow can teach you how she controls her own? You remember how she mentioned she used to struggle with anger herself.¡±
Naomi just nodded. Not seeing anything else he could, or should, say, Jonah let the silence stretch. For once, it felt comfortable. He felt he might have successfully had an important conversation about emotions for once.
Chapter 25 - Counter Ambush
Madrick
Galactic Teleportation Waiting Room,Transit Place 2D44,Thomas¡¯ Planet
I¡¯m going to come back and destroy this planet once I¡¯ve reclaimed my godhood. Madrick¡¯s glare might have immolated the entire room and its occupants, had he the power. Currently, he did not have the power. It was locked away under several layers of insights which were tantalizingly out of reach until his soul nexus¡¯ foundations were fully stable and ready for more to be built.
Dull chrome walls partially reflected each neon ad flashing across what seemed to be thousands of unnecessary screens within the room. Madrick was currently standing against one such wall, glaring at everything within his view. The unnecessarily industrial seats, the piles of old magazines strewn about is if they had ever been relevant, and the steel poles connecting floor and ceiling with screens mounted in their middle, his furious eyes demanded they all melt to slag. The twenty or so other patrons waiting for their transit ticket number to be called did not escape the vengeance-promising gaze. They all did their best to ignore the palpably furious man. It wasn¡¯t the first time they¡¯d had an uncomfortable wait for a teleportation slot and it certainly wouldn¡¯t be the last.
Madrick, on the other hand, rarely had to wait for such mundane trivialities. Generally, he¡¯d simply make his way to the nearest teleportation platform and activate it himself. If necessary, he¡¯d threaten or kill anyone who stood in his way. On this planet, he couldn¡¯t. He wasn¡¯t the strongest being on the planet, or even in the area. As if to taunt him with the fact, he could feel the gaze of a legend upon him. He disliked the sensation. Especially given he was fairly certain he knew which legend it was.
If he was right, it was a fool who Madrick had surpassed so long ago that he hardly even remembered his face. Had he the inclination to revisit old friends, he still wouldn¡¯t seek this one out. He was worthless. A fact made clear given the fool was still only a legend. After, how many thousand years? At least two, if not more. I wonder¡ Could I still defeat the weakling as I am now? Fifty or so ranks below him? Hm¡
Before Madrick could act on the intriguing question to divert himself from boredom, his UICI flashed an alert to him. It was his turn. Pushing off the wall and ignoring the deep dent he left in the chrome, Madrick walked toward the only other door besides the entrance to this waiting area. The reinforced interlocking doors slid silently apart, an incredible display of magi-tech as a hundred tons of enchanted metal smoothly slipped to either side. Once he¡¯d entered the portal chamber, Madrick stated his destination to the empty room, ¡°Savria¡±.
The rings comprising the flooring of the room slowly began to spin. The display was impressive. Impressive and utterly ridiculous. Some god had certainly been involved in the process of setting up this whole thing, given he was on Thomas¡¯ planet. Which meant all this motion and waiting was entirely an intentional and insufferably insulting act of grandstanding. Madrick knew for certain whoever designed this array could have created the locale index interaction on the formation so that it was replaced instantly, powered instantly, and activated instantly. In fact, most planetary teleportation arrays worked this way. Only on planets like this shit hole could Madrick hope to find such an unnecessarily obnoxious design for something so simple. Had he the inclination and mana aspects, he could have made a much better formation in mere hours.
The rings stopped spinning, clinked ominously, and near-blinding light exploded all around. Another unnecessary and wasteful touch. Finally, he felt the legend¡¯s gaze was gone. As was the horrible magi-tech planet. Instead, Madrick was falling through the air toward the ground of the doomed planet of Savria. Unconcerned by the hundred meter fall, Madrick simply righted himself and landed calmly on his feet. The ground yielding to his strength, causing a minor impact explosion which threw cracked earth, stones, branches, and other debris away from him.
Suddenly, Madrick realized something potentially important. ¡°These are the same trees I saw on those recordings of that girl. Is this¡¡± He pulled up his disciple¡¯s location marker and brought his palm forcefully to his forehead upon seeing the entry.
DISCIPLE STATUS
Name: Willow Gagn¨¦
Status: Badly Injured
Disposition: Exhausted
Rank: 1st
Location: Savria, ¡®feather-branch¡¯ forest [Cordinates]
AVAILABLE ASSISTED ACTIONS
- Contact Apprentice (Voice/Virtual Space/Video)
- Manage UICI Store Subscription [Current: Prime Disciple]
- Emergency Transfer
- See More¡
He could have used the emergency transfer option to instantly teleport to Willow¡¯s current location and saved himself hours of boredom and annoyance. Now that he was here, he compared coordinates and found he was on the other side of the planet. No need to ruin her adventure. Last he¡¯d checked on her, she¡¯d been enjoying harrying a hoard of pests.
Yes¡ It was better that he¡¯d chosen to use the teleportation service. No need to disrupt his disciple¡¯s training.
Willow
Running, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Branches snapped, the ever-present mist in the sky swirled, and dirt flew behind pounding feet. Pheonix¡¯s grin was contrasted by the worried expression on System¡¯s face, and the emotionless mask on Prism¡¯s. They ran together, fleeing the group of dozens of amalgam pop-hoppers. If she was being honest, Pheonix had just about forgotten the things could even combine. Which was why she¡¯d been completely caught off guard when they tried to spring their fourth ambush.
Instead of rushing toward her, as their distraction tactic dictated the pop-hoppers should, one of them had begun a high-pitched screeching which tickled her memory. She¡¯d put on more speed as she tried to remember exactly why that sound was familiar. Then eleven of the other stupid things started rushing toward the one screeching and they began joining and clicking together into a familiar spindly form. It had leapt directly at Pheonix, but this time she wasn¡¯t shocked by the speed and power of its leap. Instead, she simply activated her moment of focus fully. The mob-turned-individual froze and Pheonix proceeded to destroy it. She hadn¡¯t felt like participating in a proper battle, given how annoying the last one of these had been. So to avoid a drawn out and annoying fight, she just dismantled it while it was frozen in time.
Then System¡¯s voice had popped into her head through the party chat, ¡°Pheonix, we¡¯ve been counter ambushed. There are¡ Twenty of those things coming from all directions. There are only two of them to the east, it¡¯s the best direction for us to break out. Meet Prism and I at the marker.¡±
¡°Got it!¡±
She¡¯d met up with the other two, briefly discussed their new steps, then got running. Pheonix destroyed both of the weird creatures made up of pop-hoppers in their path. The plan had been pretty straight-forward, they¡¯d break out of the surprise encirclement and hide for a bit, then resume their attacks but more carefully. This was the fourth of their ambushes, and the first one to not go perfectly.
They¡¯d been killing groups of pop-hoppers for the last four days, one group a day. It had been extremely worthwhile, with all of them being able to allocate xp now. Naomi¡¯s was weird, since she said allocating the xp into her ¡®nothingness¡¯ didn¡¯t seem to do anything that she could tell. She was able to direct the energy to her body though, which she said was represented in the center of her internal dark void. That¡¯s what she had decided to do for now, at least until they could figure out why sending it into what they assumed was her soul nexus appeared ineffective.
Jonah had split his xp out between his ¡°stats¡±. Apparently, his gaming systems mana didn¡¯t give him as much control as she and Naomi had. According to him, it was probably more efficient as a trade off. He was able to increase three stats per level, upgrade or choose one new skill, and every two levels he got a new spell. He said he¡¯d get a new ability at level ten, too. He already had one ability, which seemed to have been automatically created with his insight. It was the structure his gaming systems mana powered.
Due to how well everything had been going, how easily the grind had been going, the entire group had gotten a bit complacent. They¡¯d stopped scouting out a large area around their ambush site yesterday. When that hadn¡¯t caused any problems, they decided that today they would actually go for two ambushes instead of just one with the time saved. Their logic was that increasing their grinding efficiency would get them into a position where they could tackle the main base faster.
That was their current ¡°main objective¡±. Kent¡ Jonaaah, Willow. Geez why¡¯s this so hard for you, Jonah even said he got a quest for it. He¡¯d get a spell for completing it. At level four, he currently had two spells. Predator Vision and Trick. Another would be good, both of them were useful. Unfortunately, the original plan of drawing out pop-hoppers and slowly whittling them down wasn¡¯t going to work. Somehow, more seemed to be spawned than they could kill each day. There was always at least a thousand of the freaks at their weird little village thing.
The village itself was still mostly comprised of nonsensical looking structures, though for some reason they seemed to have become more frantic in its construction recently. When they checked back on the village the previous day, they¡¯d seen that it had at least tripled in size. They also saw that, unlike the first time they had scouted it, the activity seemed somewhat directed. Instead of looking like a disorganized swarm of pop-hoppers mostly doing whatever they felt like, it seemed like they had been assigned groups and given specific jobs. There were even several amalgams helping with heavier loads and tasks that required a longer reach. Even so, the ¡®buildings¡¯ they made were just as weirdly shaped and seemed to serve no function. It was almost like some pop-hoppers had gained enough intelligence to organize their fellows, but not enough to actually have any reason for doing so.
They hadn¡¯t managed to catch a glimpse of the supposed leader, or leaders, either. So it was mostly just speculation. They knew there was at least a ¡®chief¡¯ based on the information they¡¯d gotten out of that one messenger. With additional wild speculation, they¡¯d come to the conclusion that killing the chief was likely necessary to stop the seemingly endless spawning of pop-hoppers. At least, that¡¯s what Jonah said. It was at least a goal, so the others didn¡¯t argue much. Willow didn¡¯t quite agree with his logic, but she was happy enough to take the punches as they came.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Everything had pretty much settled into a status quo where P.P.S. We still need to come up with a better team name would spend half the day grinding pop-hopper groups and the rest either scouting the main village or hanging out at their own camp. Now that they had operations in the area, they left the camp in the same spot and just returned to it rather than packing up every day.
Pheonix stumbled over a root that clearly had it out for her, I definitely didn¡¯t fail to notice it because I was distracted rethinking my life choices for the last few days. She rolled gracefully and came back to her feet, glancing at the other two to see if they bought that the maneuver was intentional. Neither seemed to have noticed. They were both gasping and running with unfocused eyes, *Oh, that¡¯s probably not good.
They¡¯d been running for¡ Pheonix glanced at her UICI and winced, almost twenty minutes. She knew the current pace was also above what System and Prism found comfortable. Unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t really stop. She looked over her shoulder, tripped again, but recovered without a fancy roll this time. She could still see three amalgams, which meant there were more not far behind. If they could break line of sight, Pheonix knew they could hide fairly easily.
The amalgams, for being larger and somewhat smarter than the average pop-hopper, were still idiots. Pheonix still remembered how the first one had decided it should just hop around without fully retreating when it realized it couldn¡¯t land a hit on her. She still didn¡¯t understand why it had done that.
Several times, she had thought about just turning around and facing them. Unfortunately, there were just too many and they were too large. She¡¯d have to keep her moment of focus up to protect her friends, and she could only keep it fully up for ten or maybe fifteen minutes at most. She might be able to kill all tenish of them within ten minutes, but she wasn¡¯t sure she could do so while also staying close enough to Prism and System to keep them protected within her ability¡¯s area of effect. She also hadn¡¯t actually fought anything while maintaining her full ability for that long. The issue was just how many pop-hoppers had to die before the whole thing would.
Speaking of strained abilities, System had dropped the party chat a while ago. They needed a new plan, but the others were in no condition to help her brainstorm. Things were looking rough. If only she could break line of sight, or if she had more mana to fuel her ability, she could- Oh¡ Oh no¡ I¡¯ve done the thing where I don¡¯t immediately use my ability in a super obvious way to solve my problem.
Immediately rectifying the faux pas, Pheonix activated her moment of focus in a line between herself and the pursuing proverbial monsters-in-a-trench-coat. She froze the limbs currently acting as legs and listened to the pained screeches with a grim smile. She didn¡¯t look back, grabbing System and Prism by their wrists and pulling them sharply to their left. She maintained her ability, using her instruction mana to keep the area of effect stationary rather than allowing it to follow her as usual. It was a strain and she felt her mana draining at an alarming pace, but she kept it up.
Once they were a good two dozen meters away from their pursuers, Pheonix pulled Prism close to her, lifting her upward by her waist and hissed, ¡°Climb!¡±
The exhausted and worn woman did as she was told without question or complaint, God bless that saintess! Having ensured Prism was far enough up, Phoenix took a couple steps to the next feather-branch tree and squatted, proffering her hooked together hands to System. ¡°You¡¯re up, System. Step in!¡± She wiggled her joined hands to indicate what she wanted him to step into.
¡°What? Why are we¡¡± And for every saintess, there¡¯s a fool. ¡°Now, System! Questions later!¡± she hissed. She heard crashing sounds which indicated their lead was nearly gone.
Eyes widening at her unusually harsh tone, System rushed forward to do as Pheonix demanded. She basically threw him into the tree. She heard a soft ¡°yaep!¡± sound from above but ignored it and instead stood and readied herself. The sounds were too close. She knew there was no time for her to try and hide in a tree herself.
The very next instant, her assessment proved correct. The amalgams which had apparently gone around those she had frozen, burst into her line of sight. She released her hold on her ability as she realized it was just a waste of mana. She felt a snapping sensation like a rubber-band pulled too taught as she released it. Ouch, note to self: When freezing time at a distance release the ability slowly. Her head began to pound in pain.
Phoenix had half hoped the simple creatures would just continue on forward, not smart enough to follow the extremely clear trail of broken branches and such they left in their hurried wake. They were dumb, but apparently not that dumb. The first one jumped at her and she dodged easily. Even without her focus or moment active, avoiding their telegraphed leaps was child¡¯s play.
The first time she¡¯d fought one of these things, she¡¯d been hard pressed to dodge and had been shocked that there didn¡¯t seem to be any ¡°top¡± or ¡°bottom¡± to the creatures. They could operate from any position as easily as any other. She¡¯d improved her body and mind with xp since then, though. Not to mention she knew exactly what to expect. Now that her friends were out of sight and hopefully safe, Phoenix felt pretty confident she¡¯d be able to defeat however many of these things wanted to challenge her.
She easily side-stepped the swiping claws of the first creature as it landed and struck out with two lightning fast jabs, crushing two exposed hopper heads. Aw crawdaddy guts. I should have brought a stave today.
Willow gasped for breath as she leaned against one of the trees. She felt the sap slowly seeping from the numerous claw-marks begin sticking to the back of her jumper and pushed herself off before it managed to get into her hair. She groaned as she saw yet another pop-hopper amalgam enter the clearing, ¡°Thirty two.¡± She muttered softly as she wiped sweat and grime from her forehead, trying to ignore the rancid stench of pop-hopper gore and her own sweat.
System¡¯s party invite popped up and Willow accepted it almost before it formed in front of her. ¡°There are five left that I can see, Phoenix. They¡¯ve been pouring in for the last¡ Ten minutes or so without an end in sight. These appear to be the last wave, though. Out of mana again, sorry.¡± System¡¯s voice faded from her mind.
Willow took a deep breath and steadied herself. She was exhausted in a way she hadn¡¯t been since her ¡®fight¡¯ with Madrick. The world seemed to almost be spinning. Oh, no. I¡¯m just swaying a bit.
The amalgam leapt at her, she used the exact motion required to dodge, no more. Then she struck out six times without a delay between hits. Half of the pop-hoppers which comprised the creature died, but that didn¡¯t slow it. She ducked under the expected swipe mechanically. Kicked out to break one of the limbs currently acting as a leg. Slid forward and struck with her elbows, breaking two pop-hopper limbs protecting the few heads in the middle of the thing. Punch. Punch. Punch. Step right to avoid the incoming kick. Punch, kick. The amalgam fell dead.
The grey world around her was twisting and dancing oddly. Willow fell to a knee, groaning. Exhaustion tried to claim her. She pushed it away and stood. The next one appeared, followed by another two. Good. Don¡¯t¡ Have¡ To¡ Wait¡
Flaring her focus, Willow fed her exhaustion into it. Her mana ticked up slightly, but she¡¯d never been able to un-tired herself before. Was worth a shot. She was too drained to feel any emotions, so she couldn¡¯t recharge. She didn¡¯t feel desperate, just ready to drop.
Step right and back. Knee up, crack the incoming limb. Forward, redirect limb from second enemy to hit first one. Spin to the left, causing third enemy to hit first one. Step- Crack. Willow went flying. She didn¡¯t feel herself move, just the impact of a limb against her belly, then she was laying slouched against the base of one of the beat up trees. She¡¯d used many of them for cover, dancing around and forcing her attackers to swipe them. Many of the amalgams had broken their own limbs on the trees. She reached out a hand and patted the one behind her gently, I forgive you. Know you didn¡¯t mean it.
She leaned to the right, a clawed appendage slamming into the tree where her head had just been. Reaching up, Willow grasped the arm and let it pull her up as it yanked back. She stumbled forward into the creature and started striking it. One hit after another. She missed heads more often than she hit them, so she just hit more. She found herself suddenly on the other side of the battlefield again. This time she hadn¡¯t even felt anything. Probably not good. Her left shoulder hurt and she couldn¡¯t move that arm at all.
Standing, she staggered forward again. There were still two left. Or was that three? Didn¡¯t matter. Two or more to go.
Naomi
In a Tree, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The battle had been fierce. Prism wanted to help Phoenix, but she knew she¡¯d just get in the way. The whole reason Phoenix had made herself and System climb the trees was to get them safely out of the way. It wasn¡¯t an insult and Prism didn¡¯t take it as one. It was just reality. Phoenix was much stronger than herself or System.
At least System had been able to buff Willow, though. At the beginning of the battle he¡¯d maintained predator vision on her. He¡¯d even thrown in a trick to confuse one of the weird scarecrow-like jimble-grimb golem things. Prism couldn¡¯t do anything, or maybe she could but didn¡¯t know how.
If she hadn¡¯t dropped her stave when they had been running for a while and it started to feel too heavy, she might have been able to at least provide her friend a weapon. Unfortunately she and System had both left their weapons behind when they seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. Regretting that decision, Prism determined not to lose her weapon again.
Even as she watched as one of the creatures finally managed to hit Phoenix, sending her flying into a tree, she felt nothing. Her flashes of emotion had been less and less frequent. Each day left her as less. I am empty¡ After a moment, the little voice in the back of her mind, the one that had been quieter and quieter, reminded her of the rest. She finished it with a soft sigh, ¡°¡but I don¡¯t want to be.¡±
She had already tried to take the pop-hopper golem¡¯s emotions. Stealing emotions was something she¡¯d figured out how to do consistently and had been practicing in controlled environments with her party. They¡¯d take a few jimble-grimbs alive after each battle explicitly for that purpose. If it had worked, she¡¯d have been able to give Phoenix some much needed relief. The jimble-grimbs only seemed to attack out of a sense of anger and fury, once their emotions were drained off they just stood there and let themselves be murdered.
When she tried to take the emotions from the golem, she got nothing. It was like the things didn¡¯t have any emotions to steal. Or maybe they were too strong to steal? She wasn¡¯t sure. It hadn¡¯t worked. I don¡¯t want to be empty¡ Is emotion the only thing I¡¯m empty of? My insight isn¡¯t: ¡®I¡¯m empty of emotion¡¯, though that¡¯s what I was thinking at the time¡ What am I missing that the monster has¡
She watched Willow get back up after being thrown a dozen feet before getting up and slouching back toward the remaining three enemies. Strength. Will to fight. She opened her mouth and stepped out of the tree. As she fell, the tongue of darkness expanded into a blanket which wrapped around the remaining monsters. She wrapped it around them, then pulled it back hard. What returned looked like a tapestry of stars in deep space.
The change was immediate. She felt her body swell and harden. Her skin became like bark, muscles like steel. She landed and felt no pain, the eight foot drop not phasing her in the least. She rushed her enemies. Unlike the rage she had sampled, there was no heat, no loss of control. She simply needed to kill her target.
Reaching the enemy furthest from Phoenix, she struck out with a fist. It broke directly through its limbs, bodies, and heads. She rammed through the construct of creatures at full speed, then stopped and turned to finish it off. Clumsy punches and kicks, trying to emulate Phoenix¡¯s precision and failing. It didn¡¯t matter, she would still break these things. That was her purpose. To fight. To kill.
The enemies were weak now, she had all their strength. She wouldn¡¯t have it forever, she knew, but she didn¡¯t need to. Her first target finally fell, all component jimble-grimbs dead. Spinning around, she saw Phoenix stepping wearily around a jimble-grimb as it struck out with slow, weak, swipes. Phoenix dodged and snapped punches out so effortlessly and lazily that Prism would have assumed they would be ineffective. She would have been wrong, considering each one those ¡®light¡¯ punches squashed a jimble-grimb head. She refocused on her own battle.
The last scarecrow jimble-grimb was staggering toward Phoenix, but Prism stepped in front of it. When the thing swung an arm at her sluggishly, she caught it and pulled. The arm snapped and broke off. Two jimble-grimbs beginning to screech and thrash in pain as the larger body staggered backward. Tossing the still joined together creatures to the already blood slick ground, Prism made sure to step directly on each head as she advanced toward her enemy. She didn¡¯t have Phoenix¡¯s experience, grace, or precision, but she could still help. She could still be useful. She could still be more than nothing. More than empty.
As she crushed the last jimble-grimb head, Prism felt something shift inside herself. Looking within, she saw a distant star. So distant it was like a speck of dust on the horizon. A shock of color flooded her inner world for a moment, as she smiled.
Hearing a thump, Prism focused back on the waking world and looked around. She saw System scrambling down his tree and Phoenix laying face-first on the gore slicked ground. She went over to make sure her friend didn¡¯t drown in an inch of blood soaked mud.
Chapter 26 - Out in the Cold, Naked
Jonah
Back at Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
For the first time since they had arrived in the extremely same-ey forest, the weather had finally changed. The previously just-too-warm humidity had given way to a biting chill which instantly seeped into the bones and drew out all body heat. The change had occurred as if a switch had been flipped just as night fell.
Just as the small flame had transferred from tender to kindling, the last vestiges of light filtering through the omni-present layer of mist obscuring the sky had died. The sudden cessation of light wasn¡¯t new, every night had begun similarly. What was new, was the temperature dropping from 27¡ãC to 0¡ãC. The sensation was similar to how the temperature had suddenly dropped from nearly scorching, to a little warmer than comfortable, when they left the pop-hopper corrupted ground and entered the feather-branch forest. While that had been a bit odd, they¡¯d all collectively chalked it up to shade and entering a more natural biome. Now, Jonah wasn¡¯t entirely sure. He huddled closer to the fire as he shivered. They weren¡¯t equipped for sub-zero weather in any way.
He glanced in the direction of Naomi and Willow, but quickly averted his gaze. Apparently their clothes hadn¡¯t dried from cleaning before the cold hit. He had been studiously not looking toward the women since they got back to camp.
Carrying Willow between them had made it a long hike. As they traveled Naomi and Jonah had discussed what they needed to do to help their friend recover. They knew they needed to clean the wounds, but Jonah was concerned about the smoke from a fire drawing attention to them. They¡¯d mostly argued, between gasping breaths, about that on their way back.
When they arrived at their camp, Naomi had him help her take Willow over to one side of the fire pit. They¡¯d laid her down on the reed-like bedroll from Willow¡¯s tent and Naomi had unceremoniously begun to strip the other woman¡¯s bland jumper off. Although he probably should have expected that would be necessary to actually clean all of the wounds, given how many small cuts and scrapes she had, Jonah had been shocked. He¡¯d quickly run off to find firewood, forgetting about his ¡°arguments¡± against making said fire entirely.
When he got back, he made the fire while not glancing toward the girls. Naomi had asked him to get some things from their packs: some of the makeshift ropes they¡¯d made, some of the washcloth-like squares the kobolds gave them that appeared to be made of the ¡°feather¡± parts of the feather-branch fronds, and other sundry items.
After Naomi had stripped Willow and made sure she had no immediately life-threatening wounds, she¡¯d taken her jumper to the river to wash it off. When she was coming back Naomi told Jonah he should clean his own, too, since it had been several days. They hadn¡¯t had time amidst all their running between ambush sites and all. They had only returned to base to sleep, really. When he looked up to acknowledge, he¡¯d yelped in shock at Naomi shamelessly walking past holding two jumpers while wearing nothing. He took her advice and washed his own, but put it back on before returning. He had kept himself busy by getting the fire started.
Having just managed to get the fire started, night fell and the biting cold struck. He and Naomi had both immediately begun looking around, sure they were under attack by some unknown magic. There was nothing, though. It was just an unexpectedly ice-cold night, following a fairly hot day. Rather, following several weeks of fairly hot days.
Regardless of the oddity, ignoring any useless questions like why and the bloody hell? Getting the fire roaring had suddenly become his only goal in life. It had only taken a couple minutes of concerted effort. He was suddenly very glad Naomi had gotten them in the habit of making fires every night, as he knew exactly what to do to get it burning fast and hot. Once he¡¯d accomplished that, he¡¯d felt much less panicked. He fetched the wooden bowl from his pack and went to soak it in the river. Once soaked, he brought the bowl back full and placed it over the fire on top of a couple similarly soaked branches. His tasks completed, Jonah huddled close to let the fire dry his still fairly wet jumper and self from their wash. Which also left him without a distraction.
He assumed Naomi was using the not-so-sterile water she had him run her from the river to clean off the worst of the gunk around the wounds before using the hotter boiled water to actually clean the cuts themselves. Given he was trying very hard not to take advantage of the situation to sneak a peak at his extremely attractive friend¡ And Naomi¡ He snapped his head back down as he realized his wondering thoughts had caused him to look up and oh-so-innocently begin looking around.
What would she think of you, jeez pal. You¡¯ve never had this problem before. He berated himself. Then immediately reminded himself he never really had the opportunity to have such a problem before. Besides being a shut-in, his entire lower body had been non-functional since birth. While he¡¯d always appreciated attractive women, he¡¯d hardly had any particular desires before. Urgh, imagine a mid twenty-something being this awkward just because a girl is naked nearby. He felt his face flush just from the thought and buried it in his hands.
He should just be thinking about how worried he was about her. About whether she would wake soon. About whether the freezing cold air was going to cause more complications with her health. He was worried about all that, of course, but apparently that wasn¡¯t enough to fully occupy his mind.
In an attempt to force some semblance of decency back into his churning thoughts, Jonah pulled up his character sheet.
Jonah Locke
Level: 4 Experience: 820/221.19512704
Resources
| GSM (Gaming Systems Mana) |
33/40 |
| MP (Mana Points) |
10/10 |
| Stamina |
20/20 [60-40] |
Attributes
| Body |
| Strength |
8 |
| Dexterity (Macro/Micro) |
6/6 |
| Agility |
7 |
| Resilience |
10 |
| Endurance |
8 |
| Perception |
11 |
| Mind |
| Memory |
13 |
| Processing |
16 |
| Ideation |
11 |
| Spirit |
| Ego |
8 |
| Will |
9 |
| Resolve |
7 |
| Focus |
18 |
| Presence |
4 |
| Connection |
3 |
| Soul
Note: Insight and related mana aspects lack conceptual linkage with the soul. This section cannot be managed by your ¡®Gaming (life is) System¡¯ ability. |
Spells
- Predator Vision [Buff] - 2 MP
- Trick [Debuff] - 3 MP
Abilities
- Gaming (life is) System
- Overwatch (User Tag: RTS View)
- Party Up
- Character Interface
- ¡ ?
Most of his sheet, he felt, was self explanatory. Which was good, because the interface didn¡¯t go any deeper than the bare-bones character screen. There were, of course, a few other screens for more details on Spells and Abilities. These screens provided brief descriptions of each spell and ability, but there was no help menu. Most notably, there was no explanation regarding his Attributes.
While Jonah felt the majority of the stats were understandable without additional context, some just weren¡¯t. For example, under Body: why was dexterity split between macro and micro? It seemed to be the only attribute like that, so what made it different? Why were both dexterity and agility listed? He generally considered them pretty interchangeable, at least in the games he¡¯d played he had only ever seen one of the two and they had the same general function.
His current working theory was dexterity was related to fine motor control while agility governed explosive movement. He¡¯d tested the theory during his first level up by putting all three of his points into agility. It had definitely allowed him to move more quickly. Not only could he sprint faster, he felt like he could move his limbs much faster from a standstill too. So while it wasn¡¯t an entirely confirmed hypothesis, he thought he was at least very close.
Besides the questions about the body stats, the mind and spirit sections each brought their own set. Under Mind, memory and processing seemed intuitive enough. He was gratified to see those were at least all above ten. He might have felt the need to find a hole to bury himself in if his mental stats were as appalling as his physical ones. Although Ideation had a relatively good number, he wasn¡¯t entirely sure what it governed. Was it his ability to spontaneously have ideas? His general creativity? Something else entirely? It was another thing he¡¯d have to devise some tests for.
Finally, there was the largest section Spirit, and the apparently locked section Soul. He would probably have categorized spirit and soul as synonymous, so he wasn¡¯t sure why he had Spirit unlocked. He couldn¡¯t think of any ¡®conceptual linkage¡¯ between his ¡®spirit¡¯ and his gaming system. Unless it was just a terminology disconnect? But how could he have a disconnect within his own system? Or maybe it wasn¡¯t exactly his. It included too much he didn¡¯t understand, so was he tapping into something external?
The thought had merit, given his understanding of what a Game was included external components. Even if the game was run locally, it was designed and created by someone else and he, as a player, just engaged with it. He didn¡¯t need to understand everything about how it worked for it to work, same with life itself. His insight was The world is just a game, it wasn¡¯t The world is just a game and I¡¯m the designer or something ridiculous.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Beside the questions regarding soul versus spirit and any personal disagreements with the naming sense of the GameLIT system¡¯s designer, what did the stats mean? Ego, Will, Resolve, Focus, Presence, Connection.
If he ordered them by least confusing to most, he¡¯d start with Presence. It was a simple enough stat, at least in theory. He¡¯d say most games he¡¯d played had a similar stat, though it was generally labeled ¡®Charisma¡¯. Essentially a stat dictating just how much impact he had on people. It¡¯d probably include things like empathy, persuasion, intimidation, public speaking, and so on. Jonah having a rock bottom score made perfect sense in that case.
Connection would have to be in a similar vein, maybe this gaming system split out Charisma into ¡°impacting others¡± as Presence, and ¡°impact of others¡± as Connection? That seemed likely enough that he didn¡¯t feel the need to worry over it too much.
Following Presence would be Will. Willpower wasn¡¯t a new concept in any sense. Almost every game had some form of Will/Willpower. Grit, determination, mental fortitude, it could be called by a thousand names. In the end, Will was almost certainly how mentally firm a person was. It would help resist compulsion type effects, represent how good at combating stress and other mental strain he was, and how stubborn he was.
That¡¯s where the easy answers ended as far as Jonah was concerned. Resolve felt like a duplicate of Will to him. However, the scores were markedly different. So what¡¯s the difference? What about just thinking about the words themselves¡ Will is like¡ I guess desire? Yeah. If someone leaves a Will, they¡¯re making their desires and expectations known. Alright, so maybe Will is how¡ Opinionated? I am? It felt a bit far fetched, but Jonah continued his line of thought anyway. So then resolve. Being resolved means determined, steadfast, immovable, right? Well, it could also mean something is finished¡ If something is resolved, then it¡¯s ended or no longer changing. I¡¯m not sure. Maybe Resolve is the part of Willpower that¡¯d like determination and grit, and Will is the part that¡¯s personal desire or decision making? Urgh. I need examples of other people¡¯s stats. That would help.
He decided to put those two aside as ¡®partially understood¡¯, at least as a pair which he thought would add up to a concept her mostly got. Last are Focus and Ego. Ego is like pride. Hm¡ I remember reading something a long time ago about ego being a sense of self? So is Ego like¡ A measure of how much of me I am? That¡ Would be weird. We¡¯ll come back to that one way later.
Jonah took a deep breath, letting it out, focusing his eyes on the character screen. The flickering fire behind it partially visible, the pulsing and receding heat from it reminding him it was still unusually cold. Well, Willow calls her ability her ¡®Focus¡¯. Not sure that gives me any hints, I¡¯m pretty sure my stat has nothing to do with breaking the laws of physics. Or¡ Well not yet at least. Focus seems pretty simple on the surface¡ It¡¯s just how well I can maintain my attention on one subject. Except that would be an odd thing to have an entire stat around, considering all of the others are broader. Maybe it¡¯s more about not losing sight of the big picture? Maintaining focus on what matters?
Deep in thought, Jonah was startled when he heard a croaking, ¡°Did we win?¡± His character sheet disappeared with a thought and he looked up from the fire, toward the questioning voice.
His face turned beet red as he saw Willow slowly pushing herself into a sitting position, toned caramel muscles and small, but firm and shapely, breasts on full display in the cold night air. Before he could look away and pretend he¡¯d seen nothing, his eyes were caught in Willow¡¯s icy blue gaze and he froze.
Willow
Back at Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Waking up after being beaten down wasn¡¯t exactly an Easter Sunday sermon to Willow, but it also was by no means a new experience. She repressed the groan that tried to slip out of her throat as her consciousness floated back into a very sore body. Although she gave at least a hundred, maybe thousand, times more than she got, she¡¯d taken hits. The first amalgam had seemed to be entirely concerned about preserving itself, but the ones she¡¯d fought today, yesterday? were almost the opposite. They just kept coming, no matter how many she killed.
The first one stopped attacking when it realized it couldn¡¯t hit me, not when I hit it. Now get your sorry butt up, your team mates might still need help. She slowly opened her eyes, silently, in case there were enemies around and she needed to spring into action. At least she tried to. When her eyes refused to open, she tried moving her fingers and toes. They moved, slightly. So not paralyzed. That¡¯s¡ Good. She forced down the panic that had sprung up at not being able to move her eyelids. She tried again. She failed again.
Deciding it was time to lean on good-ol-faithful, she channeled a tiny thread of discipline mana into her ability. She felt her surroundings come into focus, even without her eyes open. She still couldn¡¯t open her eyes, though, and felt no difference from the attempt. Releasing her ability, she instead focused on pushing her discipline mana into her eyes, still only a bare trickle. As soon as the mana touched her eyes, she felt her control over them immediately firm. Take two.
She slowly opened her eyes, remaining silent. She found herself staring up at a dark sky. Sliding her eyes slowly to her left, she saw Naomi. Her dark hair fell in wet strips that clung to the skin of her back. Willow blinked to clear her vision, Wait is she¡ Yep. Naked. That¡¯s weird and¡ The realization that it was cold hit Willow at that moment. She¡¯d essentially been in what she considered ¡°normal¡± weather, having grown up in south-east Texas, since Madrick had dropped them onto this planet. The scorched area around the pop-hopper pot was definitely hotter than pleasant, but still within range of ¡®yeap, it¡¯s one of those days¡¯. Now, her body was shivering.
Last time I woke up in a bed and assumed the wrong thing¡ Waking up next to a naked Naomi is weird but ah¡ Am I feeling things right cuz it seems like¡ She carefully moved her eyes down toward herself and winced at the confirmation. She was indeed also naked. On the bright side, we almost certainly didn¡¯t get captured by pop-hoppers. Those things would probably have just eaten us or something.
Looking back over at Naomi, she just watched her for a bit. Long enough that she was certain they weren¡¯t in immediate danger. After all, she wouldn¡¯t be casually scrunched up if they were. She took a deep breath, or tried to, her throat was a bit raw and it ended up more as a pained gasp, and sat up.
¡°Did we win?¡± She asked as she did, seeing Naomi¡¯s head snap around toward her in her peripheral vision and directly in front of her she saw Jonah¡¯s blank eyes staring into the fire suddenly focus and look across at her. She saw his face go redder than pa-paw¡¯s legs after a day fishing with his buddies as he admired her body. She waited for his straying eyes to come up and locked his gaze. She was pretty sure he wet himself a bit. His expression was so horrified.
She cracked a smile and looked over at Naomi, ¡°So, why we naked? He¡¯s not. Doesn¡¯t seem fair.¡± Her casual words came out a bit more ominous than intended due to her scratchy throat. How to take advantage of sounding like a swamp witch¡
¡°He put his jumper back on after washing it instead of letting it dry on the line by the fire.¡± Naomi said with a shrug, pointing toward a makeshift line holding their jumpers near the fire off to the side.
¡°Oh. Huh¡ We should have washed them sooner.¡±
Naomi nodded in agreement and Willow looked back to Jonah who was staring pointedly into the fire. She grinned, Innocent little guy. She decided to just let him off the hook, not his fault. She would bet her gold medals he¡¯d had absolutely nothing to do with stripping her down and cleaning her and her clothes. Oh! That explains it.
She confirmed anyway, ¡°Did you strip me out of the jumper because I was all cut up?¡±
¡°Yep, you looked like you¡¯d gotten in a fight with a pack of rabid dogs.¡±
¡°Eh, you should see the other guy.¡±
¡°I did.¡±
¡°Right, and they were way worse off!¡±
¡°Yeah, they were essentially a pile of skin, bones and pulped heads.¡±
Willow stared hard at Naomi, trying to decide if she was intentionally being deadpan or¡ She caught the slightest twinkle of amusement in her eyes and grinned, then threw her head back and cackled. It came out cracked, hoarse, broken, and absolutely wicked.
¡°AAAAH-Haw-hah-hah-haw-haaaaa¡±
Outch outch, that hurts, but worth it to scare the dickens out of Jonah!
She dropped her head just in time to see Jonah¡¯s wide-wide-WIDE eyes close. He¡¯d looked at her again, because duh she¡¯d just done a super-scary witch laugh, and now he was doing his best to pretend he didn¡¯t exist. He seemed to be trying to curl up into a ball as he sat there.
¡°Hey, Jonah?¡± she asked in a more casual, but still croaky, voice. She accepted the little wood canteen of water Naomi passed her. She wasn¡¯t sure if it was her own, or Naomi¡¯s, but she didn¡¯t really care as she drank. Those kobolds thought of everything when they provisioned us, gotta give them big hugs when we get back.
¡°Y¡.Yea, Willow?¡±
¡°Thanks for helping keep me alive, and for getting me back here. I appreciate it a lot.¡±
Voice now moderately less witchy, Jonah carefully opened one eye. He intentionally opened it looking well above where he knew she¡¯d be, then brought it down to make eye contact. She saw him swallow slightly as he smiled, ¡°Yeah, anytime. Now ah¡ Could you and Naomi put your clothes on?¡±
Ooooh he¡¯s too easy! She thought with dark glee.
She put on her thickest southern belle accent, ¡°Why, Jonah boy, do you not like me being naked? Do you think that God almighty made a mistake with the form and figure he did bestow unto me?¡±
Panic. Pure, absolute, panic was the only thing she saw in his eyes. He hadn¡¯t looked so panicked and out of sorts during any of the fights they¡¯d gone into. Even the first ones.
She laughed again, this time her normal laugh. Much warmer and friendlier than her witchy laugh, at least she hoped so. ¡°Sorry, Jonah. You¡¯re just way too easy. I¡¯ll put my jumper back on when Naomi says it¡¯s dry. Until then¡¡± She shivered and followed her fellow woman¡¯s example, curling in on herself to preserve some body heat and doing her best to scoot closer to the fire.
¡°B¡But it¡¯s ah¡ well it¡¯s kind of hard to¡. Focus?¡±
Willow waved a dismissive hand, ¡°It¡¯s fine, just don¡¯t be weird or stare like a creep. People have parts, y¡¯know? It¡¯s not so big a deal.¡±
She watched him across the fire and saw he certainly didn¡¯t agree with that. It wasn¡¯t that Willow wasn¡¯t modest, she certainly didn¡¯t go around wearing lingerie to the grocery store or anything, but she¡¯d also been an athlete her entire life. More than that, she¡¯d spent a lot of time in other countries where the definition of modesty was¡ different. Some were much more concerned with being covered, some much less. She¡¯d shared lockers with boys once or twice, which had been awkward and weird. It¡¯d also given her much more confidence in situations like this, though. So she figured the trade-off was a good one.
This¡ Might be a good time to let him down a bit, too. She realized. At least part of the reason he felt awkward was surely due to tension on his part, a tension born of thinking that maybe something could happen with her being naked nearby. Is it too mean? Ehhhhhh¡ Nah, he¡¯s said before that he need people to tell em¡¯ what they¡¯re feeling. Not good at understanding non-verbal queues and stuff. This is probably as good a time as any. His embarrassment might soften the sting.
She took a deep breath and gave him an apologetic smile, ¡°If you see something I¡¯m not gonna get mad. I know why you¡¯re nervous, or think I do, so¡ Just so I¡¯m not giving you the wrong idea, I don¡¯t think you and I would work together. You know?¡± She saw his shoulders slump slightly in disappointment, but also saw a familiar spark. One she¡¯d seen in the mirror after her first crush had rejected her.
Not wanting to leave loose ends or play with his poor heart, Willow decided to rip off the band-aid, go for the kill, end the round with a knockout. ¡°I see you more as a brother.¡±
She didn¡¯t, not really, more like a good friend, but she knew those words were like a silver bullet straight into a ware-hormonal-guy¡¯s heart. She saw that little spark of determination in his eye die. He gave one quick nod, then went back to staring into the fire.
The atmosphere was much less awkward now, though she felt a bit guilty. She really hoped she hadn¡¯t hurt him too much. She caught him glancing at her from time to time, but didn¡¯t say anything about it. She¡¯d need to explain what ¡°being weird¡± meant in a context like this, but for now he could have his fun.
Once the silence had stretched long enough to pass uncomfortable, if anyone was feeling that way - though Willow thought it was fine - she brought everyone out of their musings. ¡°Sooooooo¡. I have a TON of xp in my dojo. Wanna tell me what happened after I stopped thinking straight?¡±
Chapter 27 - Cold Crises Commencement
Willow
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Naomi gave the short version to Willow¡¯s question, ¡°You killed like forty of those big monsters the jimble-grimbs combine into, I helped kill two. Once they stopped coming, Jonah and I carried you between us in a circle or two before bringing you back here. We were hoping walking around the forest semi-randomly for a while would throw off any trackers. Neither of us were sure whether they could track in any case.¡±
Testing her body, Willow winced as she rolled her left arm. Smaller motions were no problem, it was really only movements which required lifting and rolling her shoulder backwards that caused pain. She nodded, ¡°That¡¯s a lot of the little freaks. That means we killed¡ Forty times twelve¡¡± She paused for a moment before finishing, ¡°Four hundred and eighty individual pop-hoppers?¡±
She glanced over at the choking sound Jonah had made, she saw his eyes wide in clear shock. Flashing him a quick grin, she pointed out, ¡°Each one really only takes a punch or two to take out, it¡¯s not as impressive a number as it sounds. If you can punch five hundred times, you can kill four hundred eighty pop-hoppers! Hm¡ Think I could copyright that as a slogan?¡±
An uncharacteristic gust of wind swept through their camp. The fire in the pit flared, casting additional heat as if in protest to the biting cold that caused all three shiver at the sudden violent chill. ¡°Sweet Jesus it¡¯s cold. How¡¯d THAT happen? It¡¯s never even been slightly cold on this planet before.¡± I¡¯m not whining, just stating an unpleasant fact! And my tone was not petulant. Nope. Just ah¡ I¡¯m wounded, yep! It¡¯s a wounded tone of voice. Certainly.
Willow glanced toward Naomi, who was squeezing her body into an even tighter ball in response to the wind. Determining the current enemy would be best faced with a comrade in arms, Willow scooted her bare bottom over until her shoulder was pressed up against Naomi¡¯s. She did her best to think warm thoughts. Doing her best to imitate a top-speed blue hedgehog, Willow looked longingly up at the clothes hanging from the line, ¡°Do you think those are dry yet?¡±
Taking a deep breath, Naomi suddenly unwrapped and quickly stood to grab each of the jumpsuits to quickly check. Willow snickered as Jonah¡¯s face turned so red she wouldn¡¯t be shocked if he was using some kind of embarrassment night-light spell. She could just about see a red glow helping the fire fight off the darkness. His eyes snapped down admirably quickly, going back to staring directly into the fire. Willow momentarily noted that this would be a perfect opportunity for a bunch of enterprising pop-hoppers to ambush them. Given that there wasn¡¯t a snowball¡¯s chance she¡¯d be willing to leave the warming aura of the campfire, though, she also wouldn¡¯t be asking anyone else to.
Sitting back down with a less graceful motion than she¡¯d sprung up with, Naomi began trying to rub warmth back into her arms as she resumed her wrapped posture. She shook her head, ¡°Still damp. Would make us colder. I guess I shouldn¡¯t have washed them, but¡¡± She trailed off with a shrug.
¡°But it¡¯s never been cold here.¡± Jonah repeated Willow¡¯s earlier observation. After a moment of silent contemplation, he continued, ¡°It¡¯s too dark to be entirely sure, but looking around the edge of the fire light¡ It seems like the mist that¡¯s been hanging above us all this time has finally decided to play by the rules of physics and fall to the ground.¡±
Both human-balls turned to look out toward the forest. After a few moments, Willow thought she could see what Jonah was talking about. There was a kind of movement to the air just at the edge of the light. Wish I had a flashlight. It¡¯d be so easy to be sure. She grumbled in annoyance at the lack, but couldn¡¯t think of anything they had which could be used as a stand-in. They didn¡¯t have even have hand-mirrors or anything else reflective which could be used to try and cast the light out further. That being said¡
She thought about the tiny trickle of discipline mana which she¡¯d used to force her eyes open. After opening them, she¡¯d released the mana and her eyes seemed to be working normally. She honestly wasn¡¯t sure why they¡¯d been so insistent on staying closed previously. Maybe they were frozen shut. She thought as another unexpected breeze caressed her exposed skin, causing her to shiver involuntarily and her skin to break out in goose flesh. She looked back toward Jonah, seeing his gaze looking out toward the forest. He was shivering so hard that he quivered like a chihuahua.
¡°Jonah, your jumper isn¡¯t still wet, is it?¡± He glanced her way, but didn¡¯t quite meet her gaze before looking down at the fire again. His non-answer was answer enough. Willow rolled her eyes, ¡°Idiot, you¡¯re going to get hypothermia and lose your¡ Everything! I get that you¡¯re embarrassed but maybe you should hang your jumper with ours? And actually¡¡± She frowned, ¡°Why are we sitting out here? Let¡¯s just move our tents closer to the fire and then get in them, that¡¯s like¡ Literally the point of them. To protect us from the elements.¡±
Amusement followed another wind educed bone-chilling tremor as she saw realization spread over Jonah¡¯s face. He groaned let his head droop, ¡°Wow. I¡¯m an idiot.¡± He leapt up and got to work, pulling the stakes out of the ground. While she knew she¡¯d have to get up and do the same in a moment, Willow just watched for now. Not because I¡¯m freezing and totally dreading getting even more cold momentarily. Nope. It¡¯s ah¡ Oh! Cuz I¡¯m naked. Yeah, it¡¯d be embarrassing for poor Jonah and Naomi if I just got up and walked around. Poor guy would probably faint if he saw me in all my glory. Yep, I¡¯m sticking here because of him. No other reason.
Before she could properly convince herself that not getting up to move her tent as soon as possible was reasonable, Naomi ruined the entire premise of her arguments. She stood up and quickly rushed to her own tent to start pulling up its stakes. Groaning in, perhaps, a dramatic fashion, Willow forced herself up too. The unladylike-like grunt she let out was a more involuntary noise. She¡¯d somehow managed to put her battered and bruised body mostly out of her mind, but standing up was enough to remind her. The reminder was given in no uncertain terms, loudly, by every nerve in her entire body. Yeah, yeah, get over it.
Forcing herself to move as quickly as she could, at a slow shuffle, she went to get her own tent prepped to move. Before she was even half way, Jonah¡¯s voice came from beside her. It was unexpectedly sharp, almost harsh, ¡°Willow! Go sit back down, right now. You¡¯re injured. I¡¯ll get your tent.¡±
She turned to find him glaring at her, face red, eyes almost trembling with the effort of maintaining the level gaze. She gave a weak smile and opened her mouth to give an excuse, then screamed in pain. The unexpected sensation of someone grabbing her wrist had caused such a surge of agony that she found herself collapsed on the ground with both of her friends crowding around her head with horrified and worried expressions. She grumbled, ¡°Fine. I guess Kent is right.¡±
He snorted, ¡°Okay, you¡¯re clearly fine and don¡¯t need any help at all. Can you help get her up while I get her tent moved?¡±
Ignoring whatever Naomi replied with, Willow suddenly realized how tenuous her grip on consciousness was. Her eyelids started to droop, resisting her efforts to keep them open. Nope! A thread of discipline mana stopped that nonsense. No ¡®slipping into the darkness¡¯ or ¡®letting the night claim her¡¯ for me! This time she also split the stream off to her limbs and forced herself to gently stand back up. She took Naomi¡¯s proffered hand as she did, using it to support herself a bit but not pulling. She knew Naomi would likely fall on top of her if she pulled too hard. I need to teach her how to set her center of gravity.
The inane thought floated through her head. She followed the gentle tugging on her hand and felt sudden warmth as she entered the yellow light. The cold was annoying. Clumsily spilling instruction mana into her ability, Willow told it to go away. The area warmed. She felt herself starting to relax in the soothing warmth.
¡°Willow?¡± Willow! Sudden pain in her cheek. ¡°WILLOW! Use your xp,
put it into your body¡¯s healing.¡± It was odd that she was floating. The world was all fuzzy, this was a pretty vivid dream.
¡°Do you hear me, Willow?¡. Shit.¡± Another pain in her cheek, this one less.
It¡¯d be a good time for a nap, I think. This bed is pretty comfy. Or is it a hammock? Yea, probably. Bed¡¯s don¡¯t sway, really. She giggled, Unless its occupants are making it sway. She felt her face redden slightly at the naughty thought.
A sharp pain, this one in her ear. Willow¡¯s hand snapped up to defend her sensitive lobe. Her nails scraped against something. It gave way, but only slightly. The attacker had retreated before her defense arrived. ¡°WILLOW, PUT YOUR XP INTO BODY HEALING!¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
Blinking, Willow looked at her dojo as it danced in front of her. She waved at her avatar. Weirdly, it frowned at her. It was transparent, almost gone. That was odd. She tried not to use that mana too much. Then it did something odd, it attacked her. Her own self leapt into her and she felt herself will all of the thick gas-like xp floating around her soul to do it. She couldn¡¯t remember what ¡®it¡¯ was. Hopefully it tasted nice. She was hungry.
Naomi
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
It had been shocking, almost insulting, when Willow woke up and acted like she was entirely fine. While Naomi knew she was super-human, brushing off working herself near to death while taking cuts, bruises, and probably fractured bones was ridiculous. It was enough that she felt faint red streaks flow across her soul nexus. She chatted like everything was alright, so Naomi had hardly thought about it when she saw Willow stand up to follow her and Jonah, intending to help them move the tents.
Thankfully, Jonah hadn¡¯t been as blas¨¦ about it. He¡¯d immediately rushed over and started ordering Willow about. Jonah telling someone to do something, much less Willow, had been enough to send blue-purple waves through her. She¡¯d turned to watch, curious, just in time to watch Willow scream like she¡¯d had a part of her body chopped off as she collapsed. That had apparently been caused by Jonah simply taking hold of her wrist. Making her way over, she¡¯d briefly touched her neck to check for a pulse. It had been there, still strong as ever and Willow¡¯s eyes had opened again immediately. Her snarky use of her old ¡®nickname¡¯ for Jonah had put both herself and Jonah somewhat at ease. Naomi offered her a hand, helping Willow back to her feet and began walking her back to her area by the fire. Jonah said he¡¯d get her tent.
Once back by the fire, she began to demand that she put her xp to healing herself. Willow didn¡¯t respond, the air suddenly lost its biting chill, becoming just slightly cool. ¡°Thanks, Willow. Now, can you put your xp into healing yourself?¡±
No answer. She frowned and was about to ask again, when Jonah arrived pulling Willow¡¯s tent behind himself. He blinked in surprise as he entered the sphere of warmth Willow had apparently established but didn¡¯t let himself get distracted. He answered Naomi¡¯s question instead, ¡°She can¡¯t just ¡®heal¡¯ with the xp. As far as we¡¯ve found, xp can be used to improve aspects of ourselves. Healing isn¡¯t improving, just fixing. It¡¯s also not permanent, the things xp does are always permanent.¡±
Nodding, Naomi tried, ¡°Willow, can you put your xp into improving your ability to heal? Willow? Willow!¡± By the end, she was shouting. Jonah positioning the tent near enough to the fire that it would quickly warm and moved over to help her get the badly swaying girl inside. His face was flushed bright red the entire time and he tried to avoid looking at either of them. It was a task in and of itself to get Willow to crouch and duck into the tent. From there, she kind of collapsed into a pseudo-sitting position, rocking slightly back and forth as if drunk.
Putting one hand on a shoulder to keep the rocking girl from falling and hitting her head, Naomi slapped her face hard enough to sting her own hand. Willow blinked, focusing slightly. Enough that Naomi thought she might hear her, ¡°WILLOW! Use your xp, put it into your body¡¯s healing!¡±
Screaming in her face wasn¡¯t enough. She didn¡¯t acknowledge the demand at all. Although, maybe she didn¡¯t even need to do that. She woke up before, she might wake fine on her own again¡ Though¡ Then again, maybe she wouldn¡¯t. Neither herself nor Jonah had any way to know just how bad off she was.
She slapped her again. Several times. It did nothing. She didn¡¯t reply or make any indication she had felt it. The tent was too small for Jonah to enter with them, so he was outside. Naomi thought he was pacing from the shuffling steps she heard. She tried pinching her cheeks, squeezing her arms, poking her stomach. She even tried biting her arm hard enough to draw a trickle of blood. None of it caught her attention.
Finally, desperate, she leaned in and bit Willow¡¯s ear. She wasn¡¯t sure if her friend¡¯s ear was as sensitive as hers were, but she remembered when an earing had been ripped out as a girl. It had been horrible. She saw a flash of pain in Willow¡¯s eyes as she pulled back, barely in time to dodge Willow¡¯s hand coming up to cover the ear she¡¯d just bit. Naomi SCREAMED her demand into her face, ¡°WILLOW, PUT YOUR XP INTO BODY HEALING!¡± There was a slight delay, then she saw a flash of light behind Willow¡¯s eyes. At least, she hoped she did, as the next moment she pitched forward unconscious. Naomi caught her body and gently settled her back onto the tent¡¯s floor.
They hadn¡¯t had a chance to pull the bedroll they¡¯d had her lying on outside into the tent, but they could remedy that later. For now she focused on making sure Willow was laying in a position that was unlikely to cause any additional pain or damage. She felt flashes of blue and pink as Willow grumbled something and curled slightly. She looked better off already. Most of the long walk back to the campsite, Naomi had noted that she seemed more like a corpse than a sleeping person. She didn¡¯t move, twitch, mutter. She was just limp. Now, at least, she seemed to be sleeping more normally. Sighing softly in relief, Naomi exited the tent.
The icy night air made itself known with a vengeance and Naomi shuddered. A mix of odd colors danced through her as she thought, Too bad I¡¯m not empty of feeling-cold. There was something else in the air that hadn¡¯t been there before. It was something she¡¯d felt a few times back home, though not too often. The air smelled like lightning and rain.
Looking around, she found Jonah had finished moving both his and her own tent and was finishing hammering their stakes into the earth. A glance confirmed that Willow¡¯s was already secured into the earth. As she watched Jonah, he glanced her way as if feeling her eyes on him. He quickly averted his gaze but called out, ¡°Is she¡ Were you able to get anything through to her?¡±
¡°I think so. I saw something flash in her eyes, maybe mana? Or maybe I imagined it. But she rolled over in her sleep and curled up, I think that¡¯s a good sign. She¡¯s not just laying there like a corpse, like before.¡± Seeing Jonah flinch, she realized that likely wasn¡¯t the best choice of words.
Keeping her eyes on Jonah, she briefly considered whether she should be embarrassed at him seeing her naked, or annoyed that he clearly had much less trouble keeping his eyes off her than Willow. She¡¯d seen him sneaking looks, though he appeared to be trying no to. Men.
Taking a deep breath, she said, ¡°I think a storm is coming. I don¡¯t think we should keep watch tonight. Let¡¯s just get in our tents and wait it out.¡±
A moment of silence drew out between them as Jonah clearly thought about it. Finally, he sighed, ¡°If the fire goes out we might freeze to death.¡±
Although she wasn¡¯t sure he was right, Naomi also couldn¡¯t say he was wrong. The biting cold did seem to be getting worse. Given she¡¯d already assumed it was below freezing, that wasn¡¯t a great sign. Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t think of much they could do. Their tents were on three sides, with most of the wind breaking on Jonah¡¯s tent. Did he put his own tent wind-side on purpose?
¡°Could any of your new spells help?¡± She tried, unsure how likely it was for his gaming stuff to give him something so specific to their current needs. She shifted from foot to foot, her shivering hitting a new level of violence. ¡°Could you check and just yell out what you find? I¡¯m getting in my tent.¡±
Not waiting for an answer, she quickly slipped into her tent. Once in, she pulled the flap closed and tied the chords on the inside intended to keep it from opening. Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t do that for Willow¡¯s since it could only be tied from inside. That thought made her pause, as she was worried the wind would push the flap open and sap all of the warmth from her as she slept, helpless.
She undid the ties and exited the tent, pulling her bedroll behind her. She entered Willow¡¯s tent and gently pushed her onto one side of the tent, getting a grumble and, ¡°Noooo¡ Cold¡¡± in protest. She put her bedroll down and rolled Willow onto it, then went and pulled Willow¡¯s bedroll in. She closed and tied the flap the laid down. She groaned softly as she felt pins and needles poking every inch of her flesh as she slowly dethawed. Shuddering, she glanced at Willow who was facing away from her. She could almost feel the heat radiating off of her. Waves of green-grey rained down within her before dispersing. The cold was just something she¡¯d have to endure.
¡°HAH! Thanks, Naomi! You were right!¡± She heard Jonah call from outside, then she heard a ¡°WHOOSH¡± and the dim light bleeding through the oddly modern tent walls became bright. She could clearly see every nook and cranny. She was almost curious enough to open the flap to see what Jonah had figured out. Almost.
Instead, she closed her eyes and focused inside. The sensations of her body faded away as she entered her inner world of nothing. She stared at the mote of something in the distance. She sent all of her xp into it.
It seemed that, just like everything else with these soul-nexus things, xp was represented differently for everyone. Jonah had a literal bar and numbers like any RPG. Willow had a kind of gas or fog within her dojo. Naomi had dust. The xp was like specks of stuff in her otherwise empty world. Empty except for that one tiny little thing in the far distance. It wasn¡¯t much, but¡ It wasn¡¯t nothing.
She grinned as she felt her insight was no longer entirely accurate. She felt her inner world destabilize at the thought, the darkness somehow feeling like it was bending. Crumbling. The strange sensation didn¡¯t worry her. Just like before, she had to give voice to her insight before it could solidify. Her insight wasn¡¯t gone, but it was incomplete. She needed something more.
Staring at the distant point of something, she could only liken it to a single impossibly-far star in a night sky. A newly born star, perhaps. Is this what the beginning was like? Nothing, then¡ Something?
Within her soul, she murmured her first insight, ¡°I am empty; but I don¡¯t want to be.¡±
The inner world trembled in response, acknowledging her truth but demanding more. It felt as though time stretched in an infinite moment, as if paused to wait for her to finish. Waiting for her to speak her new insight.
The infinite moment ended when she spoke, ¡°Emptiness is the beginning.¡±
It wasn¡¯t part of her original insight, it wasn¡¯t even exactly about her directly. Even so, she understood the connection between the two. Soft blues and pinks flooded every corner of her soul for a moment. She basked in the sensations of joy and determination. The feeling lingered until she slipped into a peaceful sleep, a smile on her lips.
Chapter 28 - After, Math
Jonah
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The glow of the fire through the tan tent wall danced and spun merrily, entirely unnoticed by the sole occupant. Jonah sat with his eyes staring into the middle distance, eyes scanning his updated status.
Jonah Locke
Level: 6 Experience: 105.98212991488 /1098.00907150453
Resources
| GSM (Gaming Systems Mana) |
33/60 |
| MP (Mana Points) |
26/34 |
| Stamina |
10/10 [80-70] |
Attributes
| Body |
| Strength |
8 |
| Dexterity (Macro/Micro) |
6/6 |
| Agility |
7 |
| Resilience |
10 |
| Endurance |
10 |
| Perception |
11 |
| Mind |
| Memory |
13 |
| Processing |
16 |
| Ideation |
11 |
| Spirit |
| Ego |
8 |
| Will |
9 |
| Resolve |
8 |
| Focus |
18 |
| Presence |
4 |
| Connection |
3 |
| Soul
Note: Insight and related mana aspects lack conceptual linkage with the soul. This section cannot be managed by your ¡®Gaming (life is) System¡¯ ability. |
Spells
- Predator Vision [Buff] - 2 MP
- Trick [Debuff] - 3 MP
- Creature Comforts [Utility] - 10 MP
- HP Siphon [Debuff] - 5 MP
Abilities
- Gaming (life is) System
- Overwatch (User Tag: RTS View)
- Party Up
- Character Interface
- Settlment/Camp Interface
- ¡ ?
He spent the six stat points available after spending as much xp as possible to level himself. He hadn¡¯t seen his xp numbers go down. It seemed that, unlike Willow and Naomi, and even himself before his insight, he kept all of his xp. After leveling, increasing his endurance by 2 had been an obvious choice, given the cold. It had made an immediate difference, the bone-deep chill feeling somewhat further away. No less powerful, but less impactful. He¡¯d also put 2 points into resolve, intending to test his hypothesis that it essentially increased metal stability and stubbornness. Today had been rough, to put it lightly. He could use some more stability. Lastly, he¡¯d wanted more mana.
At first, he had spent a while struggling with which stat, or stats, he thought would govern mana. His max stamina seemed to go up by ten with each level. Mana, on the other hand, appeared to increase up by 2 each level. He couldn¡¯t really attribute any of the attributes to either mana or stamina gain per level.
After a bit of waffling he¡¯d realized mana and stamina didn¡¯t necessarily have to be calculated values, they could be their own kind of stats. Not to mention, the interface simply said 6 points available for assignment, it didn¡¯t say the points could only be used on stats. With that revelation, Jonah had mentally pushed the stat into MP. Instantly, the interface had updated - giving him 10 additional mana. He¡¯d put his last point of mana into the stat without a second thought.
Of course, all stat allocation had come after choosing his new spells. He¡¯d leveled up after Naomi had asked him if he had a spell to help with the fire, after all. He sighed, thinking of Naomi reminding him of the rest of the weird evening. Willow had been injured badly, he¡¯d been worried. Then she¡¯d been fine and teasing him, followed immediately by her rejecting him in no uncertain terms, and finally resulted in her passing back out. Clearly she hadn¡¯t been as okay as she¡¯d been acting. Maybe the whole ¡®I see you as a brother¡¯ thing was due to her injuries? Maybe she just wasn¡¯t in her right mind? A quiet, hopeful, voice floated the idea by him. He crushed it ruthlessly. He should assume she had been speaking honestly, not second guess her. If she changed her mind¡ Well, she could tell him. Until then they¡¯d just be friends.
He nodded to himself and then turned back to his interface, opening the spells page to avoid arguing with himself. It was a cycle he was familiar with: doubt and uncertainty warring against logic and reason.
Jonah Locke - Spellbook
Predator Vision
Cost: 2 MP Type: Buff School: Divination
Targeting
May target any non-resisting being with the ability to both think and plan within caster¡¯s view.
Note: May be cast remotely through secondary viewpoints.
Duration
[1s per caster level + 1s per sum(resolve,will,processing,ego)] + [1s per focus*(presence/10)] + [1s per focus*(connection/10)] + [1s per target ego]
Current est against target of equal ego: 67.6s = ([6] + [41] + [7.2] + [5.4] + 8)
Description
Increase the target¡¯s focus when in battle, or when hunting prey.
Competency Addition 1: Provides visual hints regarding enemy weak points. Weak point detection is more likely to succeed based on both the spell caster and spell target¡¯s cumulative understanding of their enemy. Weak point detection is adjusted based on weaponry equipped by spell target.
Trick
Cost: 3 MP Type: Debuff School: Illusion
Targeting
May target any being within view with a primary sensory reliance from the following list: Visual, Auditory, Ollfactory, or physical micro particular.
Note: May be cast remotely through secondary viewpoints.
Duration
[1s per caster level + 1s per avg(resolve,will)] + [1s per focus*(presence/10)] + [1s per (caster ego - target ego)]
Current est against target of equal ego: 19.9s = ([6] + [8.5] + [5.4] + 0)
Resistance
Target may resist if their Perception is significantly higher than caster¡¯s Focus.
Description
Plays a trick on the target. The target experiences a near-real hallucination with its primary sensory detection organ(s).
Note: Targets with particularly balanced reliance upon multiple senses are more likely to detect the illusion for what it is; even if they fail to resist the spell.
Creature Comforts
Cost: 10 MP Type: Utility School: Conjuration, Abjuration, Illusion
Targeting
May target any non-resisting area. Spell will effect a circular area no larger than 5 meters per caster level (current = 30 meters).Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Duration
[1 hour per caster level] + [5 min per sum(focus,presence,resilience,endurance)]
Current est duration: 9hr 50m = ([6] + [3hr & 50m])
Description
Caster creates a mental image of one or more affects which would cause the target area to become more comfortable. These environmental affects will be applied for the duration of the spell.
Competency 1: Enhancing existing environmental comforts is significantly easier than creating comforts from nothing.
Note: The mental image must be Detailed. The more detailed the user¡¯s imagined affect, the more perfectly it will be enacted within the creature comfort spell perimeter.
HP Siphon
Cost: 5 MP Type: Debuff School: Abjuration
Targeting
May target any being within view with life-force.
Note: May be cast remotely through secondary viewpoints.
Duration
[1s per caster level + 1s per avg(ideation,will)] + [1s per focus*(presence/10)] + [1s per (caster ego - (target ego*3))]
Current est against target of equal ego: 5.4s = ([6] + [10] + [5.4] + [-16])
Resistance
Target may resist if their Resilience+Resolve+Ego is significantly higher than caster¡¯s Resolve+Will+Presence+Ego.
Description
Creates a magical siphon between the target and the caster. When the target is harmed, (0.1*Caster focus+Connection) of the target¡¯s lost vitality is sent to the caster.
Competency 1: Overflow HP will be converted into MP or Stamina, depending on which resource is lower, at a 1/3 ratio.
Note: Targets with corrupted vitality may poison the caster.
Dismissing the windows, Jonah took a moment to enjoy the cheery shadows cast by the previously struggling fire. Creature Comforts had allowed him to enhance the fire to the point it would easily keep him and his party warm within their tents. It would also, hopefully, warn off any predators or pop-hoppers nearby. He wasn¡¯t sure about that last part. The last thing he¡¯d tried to inject into the mental image he¡¯d used when casting the spell was the idea that the fire could not catch anything on fire. The last thing he wanted was to wake up with his tent on fire because a stray feather-branch frond had fallen and scattered the magically enhanced fire.
Thinking of that last part of the spell, he realized the now much-stronger fire was at risk of damaging Willow and Noami¡¯s jumpsuits. The idea of them having to trek through the wilderness naked was, honestly, a little amusing. It would be anything but enjoyable for them, though, so Jonah forced himself to open his tent and face the chill once more.
Stepping into the night air was far more bearable now that the fire was providing a consistent, and strong heat source. He grabbed the girl¡¯s jumpsuits, noting that they were fully dried, and proceeded to take the makeshift drying line down. Curious as to just how well the ¡°don¡¯t burn¡± part of his Creature Comforts spell was working, he hung one of the pieces of rope over the fire and waited. And waited. A smile flitted across his lips, as he saw that he¡¯d managed to- the tip of the rope caught fire.
He sighed and quickly pulled it back, dropping the stick the rope was tied to an stomping the fire out in the dirt. Experiments done, he pulled the rope and the thin branches Naomi had used to stand the drying line up, away from the fire beside the tents. Next, he turned toward the girls¡¯ tents. He was trying to decide what to do with the suits, when he realized that Naomi¡¯s tent was open. Briefly, a stab of worry ran through him at the idea that she may have somehow been carried off as a pop-hopper prisoner. That thought bubble popped the instant he realized how loud those stupid things were. There was no chance they¡¯d come and gone without him noticing. More likely, she¡¯d decided to sleep in Willow¡¯s tent for the extra warmth.
A harsh slap of determined wind broke through the warmth provided by the fire, spurring him to action. He had to do something with the clothes, and they wouldn¡¯t be very useful to the girls if they got cold and dirty out here. He did his best to be quiet as he approached Willow¡¯s tent and slipped a finger in through the small gap at the bottom of the tent-flap where the fasteners didn¡¯t quite cinch the material. He was about to undo the flap to put the clothes in the tent, when he realized he wouldn¡¯t be able to close the tent properly following that. Another few moments of contemplation, before he finally just sighed and tossed them in Naomi¡¯s open tent. They¡¯d hopefully stay warm enough.
Finally, Jonah returned to his tent and closed it. He was tired. Exhausted, actually. Just looking at his game interface was enough to confirm that much with his max stamina down to 10 out of his natural maximum of 80. He wasn¡¯t sure what happened if the max hit 0. He didn¡¯t particularly want to know either. However, he was hesitant to go to sleep.
He¡¯d always had a problem with nightmares. While he¡¯d been going to school, Jonah had quickly learned that any obvious social faux pas during the day would inevitably cause him to replay the horror in his dreams. After being almost entirely worthless to Willow for the majority of that last fight, he¡¯d then been flustered by her and Naomi¡¯s nudity, and to top it all off being rejected, had all turned him into a mess. He did his best to give people the impression he was looking them in the eyes when they spoke to him, as that¡¯s what most people seemed to like. Generally he focused on people¡¯s noses, eyebrows, sometimes even eye lashes. He did try to look into their eyes for real as often as he could force himself to. It just made him nervous and tended to derail his train of thought thoroughly. He hadn¡¯t even managed that much for most of the night, though.
To make the matter worse, he hated himself for being more worried about how Naomi and Willow thought of him, than he was about their health. He was worried about how they were doing, intellectually. Emotionally, though? His mind simply kept pointing back toward how stupid he¡¯d acted, how they must think he was an idiot now.
Groaning, Jonah scrubbed his hands across his face and slapped his cheeks. He wasn¡¯t looking forward to whatever dramatized versions of tonight his unruly mind would present him.
Madrick
Atop a Mountain, Savria
The strange world below was almost uniform. Nearly every inch of it was covered in the exact same kind of tree, which were all nearly the same height and width. They even generally had about the same number of branches. It was eerie in a way Madrick had rarely experienced. When he arrived, he¡¯d used his domain and a few of his mana types to launch himself into the air and hover well above the planet¡¯s surface. He¡¯d seen nothing of note, despite his eyes being able to pierce hundreds of kilometers of distance from such a high vantage.
The only change he¡¯d noted was what appeared to be a structure in the distance. Deciding not to exhaust himself, Madrick hadn¡¯t expended the energy required to fly over the forest. Instead, he¡¯d simply set out at a jog. Of course, his jog was nearer to the sprint of a lesser being of a similar rank. He tore through the forest at an extraordinary pace and made it to what ended up being a cliff face just an hour before night fell.
Once again taking advantage of his superior mana composition and experience, he simply leapt from ledge to ledge until he made it to the top of the sheer mountain. What he found was disappointing. So far as he could tell, the glorified chunk of rock was little more than a spur of pure granite jutting from the earth hundreds a few dozen kilometers into the air. There was nothing of note at its peak and the view it provided was frustratingly similar to what he¡¯d seen previously. At least here he didn¡¯t have to expend any mana to maintain his altitude.
Planning to scout as much as he could using his height advantage, Madrick activated his Eyes of Conquest and began to scan the forest. As he looked he noticed only a few things of interest. First, there were a lot of areas where the trees appeared to have been cleared out in a somewhat circular pattern. The diameter of each of these clearings was almost entirely identical. Impossibly so. Furthermore, the cleared areas were all in lines with each other. They intersected and crossed such that it wasn¡¯t immediately noticeable, but given a brief thought Madrick was able to determine they were clearly aligned with each other in a predictable and standard pattern.
The other thing he noticed was that many of the lines of cleared areas appeared to lead to the same central points. Each of these points had a squat, but wide, tree at its center. He hadn¡¯t noticed any of those weird trees before due to the wide feathered fronds from the ¡°normal¡± trees casting coverage over most of them. Only the piercing properties of his Eyes of Conquest allowed him to notice them at all.
Before he could decide which of the trees to head toward, the light suddenly went out. The light had steadily decreased, as was normal with any sunned planet, only to suddenly vanish. The mist in the air wasn¡¯t anything his Eyes of Conquest couldn¡¯t pierce, but he hadn¡¯t been interested in anything above before. Normal planetary events being circumvented was just enough to change that and he looked up.
Above the mist, he saw the ships. An entire armada of vessels which, to his experienced eyes, appeared to be a mix of military and mining models. The light had gone out suddenly due to the last of the three suns falling behind the huge cluster of metal and technology. Curious, Madrick queried his UICI for any registered atmospheric blockades, mining ventures, or other events that might explain the oddly huge investment of time and money it would require to bring such a large number of spacecraft to the distant planet. He found nothing of note.
Although¡ Is it more likely that my quarry is holed up somewhere on this planet like a ground squirrel, or that they¡¯re up aboard one of those vessels¡ It wasn¡¯t an easy question to answer. Either was entirely possible. After all, this had all started on another weird planet - though that was weird due to the excessive number and frequency of wars fought on it - where his target was holed up in a crumbling tower with little in the way of comfort.
Madrick sighed deeply, as he realized he¡¯d either need to go up and request an audience with the leader of the flotilla, or he¡¯d need to begin scouring the planet directly.
The wind suddenly howled up from one side of the mountain he stood atop and struck him. It fought to penetrate his skin, wishing to taste the warmth of his blood. He snorted at the weak environment. A real planet would have at least put up a bit of a fight. He ignored the ¡®cold¡¯ wind and began to plan out his search pattern. He¡¯d start with a search and go talk to the, undoubtedly, stuffy military type in charge of the orbiting ships if he failed to find anything.
Chapter 29 - Past and Present
Willow
Coach¡¯s Dojo, Texas, Earth
The world was spinning. Again. Fury raged with the realization. Not due to the spinning, but because of what it meant. She¡¯d lost. Again. The exposed steel beams which held up the metal roof oscillated, casting colors of every shade across the room. It was a familiar room, or would be when it stopped going round and round. It would resolve into an old, but well maintained, gymnasium housed within an unassuming warehouse building. The track around the outer edge was padded with a semi-cushioned material which had enough give to be comfortable to run dozens of laps on with sneakers, but would give a barefoot walker a near instant mix of rug-burn and asphalt-scrapes.
Within the boundary of the track, the north-most part of the gym housed a state of the art weight training area. State of the art as of the 1960s, that is. There wasn¡¯t a machine or pulley-system to be found. Most of the free-weights weren¡¯t adjustable, being solid chunks of steel or iron. The ¡°resistance bands¡± available were more than likely made of some poor animal¡¯s twined innards, rather than some kind of synthetic or plant based material. Of course, if you want some entertainment while you run through a gauntlet of sets then you¡¯d better like FM radio.
The east side of the huge open space was dedicated to a weapon¡¯s training area. Besides the large cordoned off area for weapon sparing, the space was mostly dominated by: several articulating wooden dummies, a couple metal ones, and even an honest to God roboticized monstrosity that was more spider in form than human. Besides the ¡®automated opponents¡¯, was the weapon¡¯s rack. It was absolutely filled with dulled and padded weaponry, almost any melee or thrown weapon imaginable was on the wall. Nun-chucks? Of course. Tomahawk? Naturally. A Glaive with blades on both ends but opposite sides of the shaft? Check. None of those were even exotic, by the grand training-rack¡¯s standards. Try something more outlandish. What about a boot which spring-loaded shuriken into a loose magnetic spur - which could release its payload when the wielder properly kicked? No doubt it was on the wall. Probably.
Once a trainee was done either sparing or honing their skills against dummies, they might wonder to the western portion of the dojo. If they did, they¡¯d find the acrobatics section. Vaulting, bars, beams, a couple large ground trampolines, ropes, the works. Of course, each piece of equipment was made of some unforgiving material or other. Most of it was metal or stone. It was also all old and possibly second-hand, but well maintained and clean. If someone couldn¡¯t see their distorted reflection as they walked the balance beam, then they¡¯d probably been on it for hours working on their routine.
The entrance to the gym was just a huge garage door, which was open when the gym was. That doorway was southern facing and led directly to a stretch and warm-up area. This was, perhaps, the only part of the entire gym which bowed to modern wisdom in material or form. Yoga balls and mats, foam rollers, cheap message guns, and other random ¡®warm up and cool down aides¡¯.
Of course, every section of the gym revolved around the central podium. A raised area with four standard-sized, 20 square foot, boxing rings. It was within one of these rings that she lay, angry and vengeful. Willow swept herself to her feet in a fluid motion as the dizzy-spell ended. She glared up and across the ring at her enemy. Coach smiled back with his normal sardonic, lazy, expression. The expression that meant he wasn¡¯t taking her seriously.
She screamed and flew at him. Her view pulled back, the world slowing momentarily as it did. She saw herself from above, from every side. She was young, probably fourteen. She still had her hair cut in a short bob. She¡¯d kept it short for a long time thinking, ¡®long hair is a weapon which can be used against me!¡¯ It hadn¡¯t been until around seventeen or eighteen that she¡¯d realized it was a dumb consideration. She wasn¡¯t a soldier, going into battle. She was a sportswoman, who always had time to put up her hair and generally wore protective gear which entirely covered it anyway.
This version of her was still developing. The disembodied version of Willow examining the frozen scene would have winced, had she the face to do so, at how scrawny and weak she had looked. She hadn¡¯t been weak. Not compared to other girls her age. She never compared herself against them, though. No. She compared herself to boys her age, and of course coach. Her primary concern with boys at this point had mostly been, ¡®could I beat him in a fight?¡¯ She hadn¡¯t ever been a particularly romantic girl and hadn¡¯t even developed an interest in them until long after her peers.
Beyond her body, though, this memory of herself was out of control. She¡¯d already been training under coach for years, maybe around seven. Yet the anger was still burning bright and unfettered. The memory resumed, with Willow watching as an outsider this time. Her face would probably burn a bit with embarrassment, even as her younger self¡¯s burned in shame and rage, as coach casually kicked her in the gut. The kick wasn¡¯t tricky, or fast, or even that strong. Yet it both connected, and sent her flying.
She watched herself get back up and charge back in, stupidly. She didn¡¯t even try anything new. Coach didn¡¯t do anything new either, just casually kicked her each time she was in range. Watching the pseudo recording of the event brought with it a memory of her thoughts at the time, ¡®if I¡¯m strong enough, I can get back up as many times as it takes. If I¡¯m determined enough, I¡¯ll beat him!¡¯ Something like that. She was pretty sure she¡¯d watched some kind of anime recently wherein a certain fiery villainess had impressed her by blowing up a mountain with lightning. Lightning fueled by rage.
Kick. Recover, rush. Kick. It went on for an embarrassingly long time. Until she, inevitably, ran out of energy and just laid there. Staring up into the rafters. Because of course she ran out of energy. She¡¯d been spending it like it was oxygen in a forest. Meanwhile, coach had barely had to move. The worst part, for the Willow of then, and the Willow of now, was that she knew better. She knew how to fight, and well. But coach had pissed her off. On purpose. Again.
She saw his face swim into view, not smiling mockingly, but wearing his ¡®game face¡¯ his stern soldier face. ¡°Willow, up.¡± He commanded and she obeyed. She was too tired not to. The memory was oddly fuzzy, as exhaustion had caused the edges to be blurry and faded.
More commands came, ¡°Rush me.¡± She ran at him, just as he had been.
¡°Dodge left, guard low.¡± His casual kick flew past her right side.
¡°Block right sweep.¡± The kick had turned into a sweep, which she caught and shoved down hard.
¡°Close in and jab.¡± She did.
On and on, the fight continued. She followed every order, then she started to follow the orders before they came. She knew how to fight, after all. Then the orders stopped coming, but she kept following them. She hit coach. Right in the jaw.
¡°Stop.¡±
The command froze her mid follow-up. She blinked several times, then grinned up at him. In her too-high voice she squealed, ¡°I hit you!¡± She threw her gloved hands in the air in celebration.
Coach smiled at her and sat down against the ropes, just a bit lower than eye level with her now. ¡°Do you know why you managed to hit me?¡±
¡°Because you told me how?¡± She dropped her arms and frowned at him, as she realized he¡¯d helped her win.
He shook his head, ¡°I told you what to do to get you going, then you took over. You knew what to do. What was different?¡±
A few moments, then she sighed. She knew what he wanted, since he¡¯d told her a million times, ¡°I used my head, not my heart.¡±
A soft ¡°hmmm¡¡± Then, ¡°You were still angry, right?¡±
She nodded, ¡°Yeah. I wanted to hit you SO BAD. You were making me SO MAD!¡± She stomped her little foot and jerked her arms downward for emphasis.
He chuckled and rubbed his jaw as if it hurt. The younger version of Willow felt proud, vindicated. She¡¯d hurt him. She was awesome. The older version watching, rolled her metaphorical eyes. Coach was clearly unharmed and just as clearly he¡¯d let her hit him. She hadn¡¯t been doing terribly, but he was still much better than her at that point in her training.
¡°So, how¡¯d you hit me?¡±
Another beat of thought passed before young her answered hesitantly, ¡°I¡ Fought smarter? Used what I knew?¡±
He nodded, ¡°And, you controlled your anger. You were disciplined. Discipline doesn¡¯t mean we don¡¯t feel, it doesn¡¯t mean we don¡¯t have impulses and reflexes. It means we decide what to do with those things. Through discipline, we control ourselves.¡±
Little Willow nodded seriously, barely paying attention. She chirped, ¡°Can we have a snack before working on my gymnastics?¡± Her energy was coming back rapidly and she was bouncing from foot to foot eagerly.
Coach chuckled and stood, ruffling her hair before he climbed out of the ring and headed toward the small fridge tucked away behind some of the weights.
Still floating, Willow watched herself crying in the same ring. Now much older and presumably wiser. A lump tried to form in a throat that didn¡¯t exist. Her left shoulder was a disgusting mass of uneven flesh. It looked as if there were dozens of bones which did their best to approximate the shape of a ball beneath the skin. In reality, the shoulder had been saved by dent of multiple surgeries implanting bits of metal all over the place. She¡¯d never have full motion in the arm again and she¡¯d never be beautiful again. She¡¯d always be weaker in that side and there would always be a risk of the wounds causing additional problems if she strained the surgical implants too much.
The gym was closed, dark. She remembered coming here to see her favorite place in the world, just one more time. It had been almost three months since she was released from the hospital, but she hadn¡¯t been here since the accident. Coach had been with her more days than not, of course. So had her parents. They didn¡¯t know she¡¯d decided to come here, she was fully cleared and as ¡°better¡± as she¡¯d ever be, after all.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
She thought she¡¯d be strong enough, disciplined enough not to break down. She¡¯d been wrong. Almost her entire life had been spent training here. She¡¯d go to school, do her best in class only because she knew coach would drop all physical training and switch her to a strict academic schedule if she started doing poorly in school. She¡¯d tried ignoring school once, that had been a long week while coach and ma¡¯ma had ¡®gotten her back up to speed¡¯. This place was part of her. She used to think she was part of it, too. Now she realized that wasn¡¯t true. The gym would keep running without her. Just like the rest of the world would keep moving on without her. She¡¯d won her medals, some people knew about her and probably even admired her. For now. They¡¯d forget about her soon enough though, just like the gym would.
So she cried. The thought of stopping herself came and went. She could stop herself, she realized and found comfort in the realization. She was disciplined enough. No longer a child who couldn¡¯t control her emotions. But she didn¡¯t need to control her sorrow, she needed to let it out. The tears flowed until there were no more left. Although she felt there should be a puddle on the mat beneath her, it was dry. Her shirt and sleeves were a mess, and her face was probably a sorry sight of snot and salty water. She didn¡¯t care, she¡¯d mourn her loss properly.
Long before she was done, the garage door suddenly opened. Letting in the mid-day sun. Mr. Joseph, one of Coach¡¯s friends from the marines, nodded at her, ¡°Willow.¡± He said, just like he had every other time he¡¯d opened up to find her already there.
Mr. Joseph went about his routine as if nothing was wrong, unlocking doors, cleaning equipment, and generally getting the place ready for business. Willow almost laughed at the absurdity. It was one thing to realize things would go on without her, it was another thing to see it so callously put in front of her. She stiffly stood and wiped her tears away one more time before climbing out of the ring and making her way to leave through the now-open garage door.
¡°Not getting back into it, yet, Willow?¡± Mr. Joseph¡¯s voice was conversational. When she looked back toward him in confusion, he was wiping down the warm-up/cool-down equipment with a fresh towel and bottle of disinfectant. She knew he¡¯d probably done the same thing the night prior after closing. He was a large barn of a man, at least six and a half feet tall with shoulders that seemed almost as broad. He had a very slight ponch, which he sometimes jokingly refereed to as his, ¡°Emergency energy store.¡± Given how hard he worked and how much he used the equipment in the gym, Willow wasn¡¯t really sure how he had any fat at all.
Hesitantly, she asked, ¡°Back into it¡ Yet¡ You¡ You heard what happened, right?¡±
Nodding, the huge man looked up from his task, ¡°Yup. No shame in taking some time. Just don¡¯t give yourself too long or you¡¯ll start making excuses.¡±
Her jaw was literally hanging open. Future Willow snickered at her own expense, knowing what was coming next.
Mr. Joseph raised an eyebrow, ¡°Trying to catch flies, Willow? Didn¡¯t take you for a frog.¡±
Snapping her mouth shut, Willow went to cross her arms, then felt a sharp reminder that doing something that simple wasn¡¯t quite within reach. She glared and used her left hand to wave at her eye-sore of a shoulder, ¡°I can¡¯t do shit with this!¡±
Raising an eyebrow, he answered levelly, ¡°Loss sucks, kid¡ But it doesn¡¯t mean you give up. You just gotta change the way you think about things, maybe change your goals a bit. Lots of those acrobatic stunts you pull would probably be tough-¡±
¡°-Impossible.¡± She cut him off flatly.
He shrugged, ¡°I¡¯m no expert to tell ya anything about that. What I will say is that I know a few men and women who lost more than some motion in their shoulder and are still pursuing their dreams. It¡¯s not a matter of can or can¡¯t, it¡¯s a matter of will, determination.¡± He smirked, ¡°Jim would say it¡¯s a matter of discipline, I bet. Ol¡¯ straight-lace drank too much of the cool-aid for my tastes, but he¡¯s right sometimes. I know he turned your feral behind into a respectable citizen, after all.¡±
Smiling a bit, Willow half-halfheartedly stuck her tongue out before thinking through what he was saying. Eventually, she decided she would stay. She was being dramatic before. There was no reason she couldn¡¯t keep coming to the gym, she just couldn¡¯t play around in the gymnastics area. Or¡ Could she¡ Was it possible to do a one-handed bars routine? Well¡ Why not try?
Taking a deep breath, Willow decided. If she could learn to control her own internal storm of emotions and impulses, she could overcome something as simple as a minor disability. ¡°Through discipline, I control myself. Nothing else controls me, nothing else limits me.¡±
Feeling¡ Something¡ Willow found herself looking forward to what she¡¯d accomplish. Because she was determined, she would accomplish something great.
Willow woke with a bitter-sweet smile on her face. The dream was fresh and clear in her mind. Both memories were precious, they were defining moments in her life. It was odd, she probably wouldn¡¯t have been able to recall them in such detail consciously. Yet they embodied large portions of who she was now. She whispered to herself, ¡°Through discipline, I control myself. Nothing else controls me, nothing else limits me.¡± Her dojo trembled and somehow became more stable. It hadn¡¯t been unstable before, as far as she knew. It was as if it had gone from a simulation, to a reality. She noticed that her avatar, which was a mere ghost haunting the dojo with how depleted her instruction mana was, hadn¡¯t changed at all.
Opening her eyes, Willow stretched wide and turned her head sharply in surprise upon bumping into someone. She saw Naomi curled up, back to her, sound asleep. Pulling herself into a seated position and tucked her legs against her chest. She took deep, slow, breaths as she took a moment to re-commit the dreams she¡¯d had to memory while they were fresh. She didn¡¯t want to lose them, and seeing them played out in front of her like that made her realize that she almost had. Once she felt she had sufficiently etched them upon her mind, she noticed a new small shelf in her dojo. A shelf containing two DVDs in 90s style boxes, edgy cover art and all, representing each of them. The sight brought with it a sense of deep satisfaction. She knew at a base level that, unless she intentionally destroyed them, those DVDs, and the memories they represented, would be with her forever.
Done preserving critical moments of her life, Willow just sat in thought for a while. Some of her time was spent trying to dredge up additional memories, afraid now that she would loose too many if she didn¡¯t consciously preserve them. Most of her time, though, was spent aching as she remembered the people in her life who she¡¯d likely never see again. Her parents, Coach, Mr. Joseph, Vash, Whitney, James, Fenny, and so many more. Reliving those moments had, finally, fully nailed home the reality of the situation.
She had mourned her losses in the emptiness between dying and being reborn, or is it spawned? Recreated? Reloaded?, into this new world. Yet, it hadn¡¯t been enough. She knew it hadn¡¯t, but there was so much to learn and do. Besides some faction immediately trying to scam her into signing her next thousand years or whatever away, being attacked and kidnapped by a lunatic, then being shoved through a portal and thrust into entirely unfamiliar situations, not to mention Magic! There had just been plenty to keep her from thinking about sore subjects too much. She could have asked the others to take a couple days so she could fully process but¡ avoiding pain was usually the more pleasant option. She stared off into nothing for a long time, lost in thoughts. She let herself feel the now somewhat distant and dull, throbbing, heart wrenching, longing to hug her pa-paw. To laugh with her ma¡¯ma. To dance around with Coach, dodging punches and throwing his own, taunting and taking taunts, laughing.
Eventually she felt a slight smile tugging her lips upward in a smile as she remembered times gossiping with Vash, arguing with Whitney, challenging James to random unnecessary contests. It had all just been a tutorial, but now she realized that it had all been so important and precious to her. Yet she¡¯d taken it all for granted, until it was gone. She sighed, pushing away the morose thoughts and mood and centered herself. It was good to remember, it was good to process, but she wouldn¡¯t wallow. Returning her attention to the moment she was in now, rather than the ones she¡¯d already lived, she took in her situation.
The tent was pleasantly warm which, after a moment of consideration, was likely due to their combined body heat. She felt a bit bad for Jonah, hopefully he hadn¡¯t been too cold. Looking around, she didn¡¯t see any clothes in the tent. Probably still hanging outside¡
Before she did anything impulsive, like immediately open the tent and go get to her morning exercise like she wanted to, she mentally ran through the previous night¡¯s events. Sooo¡ What are the chances I pass out if I try to get up again? Concerned, she began a careful, thorough, examination of herself. She found no scrapes or bruises on her body, felt no aches or pains. No headache. No dizziness when she sat up. She didn¡¯t feel anything bad at all. Not even the lingering soreness she¡¯d expect after over-exerting herself.
Huh¡ I wonder if Jonah got a healing spell or something. Although her instinct was to sneak out and let Naomi sleep, she recognized that she¡¯d also thought she¡¯d been fine the previous night. Then she¡¯d passed out after just taking a step or two¡ Or had someone grabbed her? It was fuzzy. The exact details didn¡¯t really matter right now. What did matter is she shouldn¡¯t assume she was fine just because she felt like she was.
Gently, she shook Naomi awake. The woman yawned, stretched, and sat up while wiping the sleep from her eyes. ¡°Morning Willow, how do you feel?¡±
¡°Great!¡± She chirped, not allowing any of the still lingering emotion from her dreams and following trip down memory lane leak through. ¡°Did Jonah get a spell to heal me or something?¡±
Shaking her head, Naomi scooted forward and started undoing the tent-flap ties, ¡°No. We didn¡¯t even think to look for that, actually. Probably should have. I was able to scream at you loudly enough that, I think, you used your xp to improve your body¡¯s ability to heal itself.¡±
Eyebrows shooting up, Willow focused inward. Specifically, she checked the mural of her body. She found that said mural had a new layer to it, it looked almost like a system of veins - though it was entirely separate and mostly didn¡¯t even follow her actual veins. She intuitively understood that this was a system which would improve her body¡¯s ability to regenerate using her mana. She was fairly certain that it wouldn¡¯t automatically kick in, unless she was unconscious. While she was conscious she¡¯d have to intentionally feed mana into the¡ ability? Nah, I think this is closer to what the rank 2 packet described as a skill. It¡¯s tied to my body, not my soul-nexus. Neat! Oooh¡ In that case¡
Gleefully, she followed Naomi out of the tent. They found themselves standing, for the first time in way too long, under a clear sky. This sky wasn¡¯t blue, like Earth¡¯s, but it was still nice to be able to see it! Instead, the sky was a soft orange-red color. It was very pretty. With the mist gone, they could also see there was what looked like multiple small suns. Naturally, Willow didn¡¯t stare directly at them¡ for too long. They were each a slightly different color: one deep red, one soft orange, and one a pale yellow.
The weather was also delightful. The previous night have been way too cold, and the following day had been too hot, just like every other day had been. Today, though, was perfect. She¡¯d guess it was around 22oC and sunny. Things were looking up! Too bad I didn¡¯t get to allocate all of that sweet sweet xp into improving more than just my healing¡ Though¡ Hm¡ I wonder just how good that skill is.
Before she could convince herself to start experimenting, Naomi¡¯s voice intruded, ¡°Hey, it looks like Jonah took our jumpers down and put them in my tent. Here.¡±
Taking the beat up garment, Willow frowned at it. It wasn¡¯t cute. Nor was it comfy. She lamented, momentarily, not going shopping before being kidnapped by a madman. Then she got dressed and started going through her morning workout routine, slowly. She took it easy, not jumping in with her normal gusto. At least until the found herself entirely free of pain of any kind and couldn¡¯t find even a single thing wrong with her body. Then she went all out, as usual.
Jonah came out about half an hour later and looked horrified, then amused, to see Willow exercising. She saw him and Naomi talk, probably about her. She just kept at it until she had broken a good sweat and was ready to eat.
Then she joined her friends, who were breaking out the last precious rations the kobolds had left them with. They¡¯d been supplementing with their own savaging so they had stretched out the higher quality food much longer than initially expected to. Before digging into her own pack, she looked down at Naomi and Jonah with hands on her hips and announced, ¡°You two!¡±
They looked up at her, Naomi with a bland expression which might or might not indicate interest and Jonah with uncertainty. She grinned, ¡°Are the best!¡±
I miss my family, my friends, even Coach¡¯s dojo and my past life¡ But I can¡¯t let that stop me from enjoying the new friends and opportunities I have. So far, this new life has been fun! Beating on nonsense fodder monsters, making friends with little crocodile people, what¡¯s not to like?
She flopped down and got to the exciting business of making herself a hearty breakfast. If she cut herself a little bit while, unnecessarily, slicing the last small chunk of cheese she had - just to channel a tiny bit of mana into her skill while watching the cut vanish almost instantly¡ Well that was just a coincidence.
Chapter 30 - Weatherless Storm
Willow
Fleeing, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
A day¡¯s worth of rest and recovery had done everyone good. Being caught off guard and swarmed by weak and stupid opponents was disheartening. Not only had they underestimated pop-hopper intellect, or at least their capacity for the animal cunning necessary to counter attack an unknown danger, they¡¯d also almost been beaten by the weak creatures! The embarrassment of dying to pop-hoppers would surely have killed me.
It had been a good reminder that they didn¡¯t know everything and were still in an unfamiliar world. Despite taking things slowly, learning about their environment and their opponents, they¡¯d still almost ended up ending their ¡°real world¡± experience way too soon. As if to drive the point home harder, the weather had changed and even the ever-present mist had dissipated! It was as if the entire planet was mocking their assumption that they¡¯d gotten a handle on things.
The group had taken the reminders to heart. Which was why they were surprised, but not stunned, when the earth started pounding. The ground shook. At first the tremors were light, hardly noticed, but they quickly grew to the point that Jonah had to link everyone into the party chat to communicate. Thankfully, by that time they had their campsite packed up and they were all ready to make a break for it. The only issue was they had no idea which direction to head.
As if reading her mind, Jonah¡¯s voice came through the party chat, ¡°Something huge is coming from the north, I think. I can¡¯t quite see it in my RTS view, yet, but I can see the trees swinging about like they¡¯re in a storm and the ground seems to literally be rising and falling. I have no idea what it is, but we should go. I can¡¯t tell how far away it is, but worse effects than some small earth-quakes are incoming. Only thing I can say for sure, the areas to the east or west appear slightly less violent.¡±
¡°South-east it is, then.¡± Naomi¡¯s clipped decision came through the channel and they all turned to run.
¡°Think it¡¯s a natural disaster of some kind?¡± Willow sent as she lead them through the forest, taking care not to outrun her friends. She took the extra time her higher speed allowed to check for danger as a kind of scout. Jonah was probably watching from above already, but the canopy could obscure his view if he was fully zoomed out.
A trembling ¡°BOOM¡± drowned out everything for a moment. Her new skill, which she had named Back Into It in honor of Mr. Joseph¡¯s straight-forward but effective pep talk, even kicked in for a moment to heal something. She had managed to set it up to automatically heal her if she was hurt, unless she was actually in a fight. In that case it wouldn¡¯t heal her until she activated it.
Despite the continued cacophony of several trees falling in the distance behind them, she heard Jonah¡¯s reply clearly through the channel, ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I¡¯ve never heard of anything that would cause multiple mini earth quakes in an apparent line. Not to mention the swaying trees seem to indicate some kind of incredible wind-force. There¡¯s not a cloud in the sky and the wind has been mild all day, I don¡¯t think it is a hurricane. Do tornadoes make ¡®booming¡¯ sounds when they touch down? Could be a tornado bouncing in a line toward us?¡±
Picturing an 80s-style animated tornado bouncing along through the forest causing the ¡°camera¡± to shake brought a slight smile to Willow¡¯s lips despite the grim situation. They kept running for a bit before Jonah stopped them. ¡°We should hunker down here. It looks like there¡¯s-¡±
BOOM-BOOM.
Two of the explosion-like blasts of concussive noise struck almost on top of each-other. They seemed to be coming from either side of the team. The trees began to violently bend. The longer branches fell, some flying off into the distance as a sudden gust of wind swept through and slammed into them from the east and west. All three of them were lifted bodily from the earth and scattered at random, the conflicting gusts of powerful wind feeling like being the rope in a reverse tug-of-war.
Her body slamming hard enough into the ground to knock breath out, Willow gasped for air and only recovered a bit after several stunned seconds. BOO-BOOMM. The screaming wind came again from either side just a moment later but failed to pick her up this time, as she was still laying on her back. Then the earth bucked and tossed her several feet into the air. Twisting, she did her best to control her fall. Only to be tossed up and sent spinning by wind from either side again. Feeling her body hit a tree, Willow lost her just-regained breath again and hit the ground just as gracelessly as the first time. BO-BOOOMM. The explosions from either side were growing both more frequent and more in-sync with each other as whatever was happening was getting closer.
Finally, Willow managed to grab hold of the trunk of one of the feather-branch trees and clung for her life. She quickly sent a message asking if the others were okay. She couldn¡¯t see or hear anything. The explosive wind was constant now, shoving all sound away as it kicked up dust and debris. Several branches struck Willow¡¯s back and sides as she clung to her chosen trunk and groaned. She continued to let her Back Into It skill heal her, not sure how long this would go on but hoping the others weren¡¯t getting battered quite so hard.
Both Jonah and Naomi responded curtly. Jonah with, ¡°Alive.¡± And Naomi with a mental grunt, as if she¡¯d just had her own breath knocked out of her. Still, alive and at least well enough to answer. It would have to do. From her position clinging desperately, Willow caught sight of something over the treetops in the distance. A massive pillar of some kind of white and grey stone descended from the sky. The next moment another pair of BOOMing concussions rocked the world. The earth seemed to buck and twist, doing its best to throw herself and her tree both into the air. The tenacious feather-frond held itself firmly to the ground, while Willow held herself to the tree in turn. I¡¯m gonna figure out what trees like so I can give you a present after this! Who¡¯s laughing? That¡¯s disturbing, and¡ Oh, it¡¯s me. Well yeah, this is as good a time for mad laughter as any.
The cylindrical mountain that she¡¯d seen fall from the sky lifted and moved across the skyline. Holy Jesus, is that thing¡ What¡¯s big enough to pick something like that up?! Is the wind throwing cliffs?!
Full of inane thoughts and fear, Willow clung to her tree. She checked in with Naomi and Jonah every few seconds, each of them confirming their continued aliveness. It felt as if the nightmare continued for either a million years, or a couple minutes. Given none of their bodies gave out and no one died of old age, the later was likely more accurate.
Once the huge sky-column moved across her view and continued onward in a southern direction, the earth¡¯s insistence that it was actually a bouncy house calmed and the wind stopped attempting to play badminton with Willow¡¯s body. She finally released her death-grip on the tree when she only heard the BOOMs of the giant pillars hitting the earth as distant thunder. She briefly wondered if her grip had left permanent dents in the trunk.
Giving her skill only a few moments to heal her, Willow forced herself to her feet and went in search of Jonah and Naomi. She was surprised to find them together. They had, apparently, managed to link hands and stay together somehow. They had also found a tree to hold themselves down with, their arms wrapped together around a trunk holding each-other fast by their wrists. Willow could see blood pooling around Naomi¡¯s fingernails as they dug into Jonah¡¯s skin. Bruises were already forming on Naomi¡¯s skin from Jonah¡¯s vice-grip.
Even so, seeing them both mostly unharmed brought a wave of relief through Willow¡¯s system. She cheered, ¡°We survived! I think you should be good to let go.¡±
After several silent seconds, they seemed to register her words and both let go at about the same time. Both of them sprawled out on their backs, on opposite sides of the tree, gasping for breath.
¡°That sucked.¡± Willow stated brightly as she flopped down on the ground herself.
Madrick
Observing From Above, Feather-branch Forest, SavriaThis text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The sight of behemoth giants running was somewhat impressive, in an academic kind of sense. He watched the several hundred meter tall creatures running with what appeared to be extreme concentration based on the tension in their body language. If Madrick were to proportionally measure, these creatures were ponderously slow. If they were scaled down to around human proportions, they¡¯d barely even be walking. They moved as if in low gravity, slow and deliberate.
Although, given these titans were only humanoid in the very strictest of senses, judging by human standards was likely pointless. They each stood on two legs which made up two thirds of their entire bodies. They were quite slender, again - proportionally, with their arms and legs being about equal in width. Their arms, unlike their legs, were short. Odder still, they protruded from the creature¡¯s hips. Where the legs and torso met, small arms tipped with slender hands with nine fingers each protruded awkwardly. To complete the odd, almost grotesque, composition: they creatures had no necks. Their heads sat atop the end of their torsos, though not shoulders given their arms were well below. He couldn¡¯t make out any specific facial features and honestly wasn¡¯t sure they had any. He¡¯d have said the top of the creatures were literally just boulders, but for the fact that they seemed to turn and twist somehow to look and take in the world around themselves.
The reason the creatures were so ponderously slow, even while trying to run, was obvious. They were being very careful to maintain their balance and it was a struggle. They were horribly unbalanced creatures which Madrick had a hard time believing were natural. His Eyes of Conquest activated and confirmed the suspicion a moment later. It appeared they were rift creatures. Odd, I sense no rifts on this planet¡
Watching from above for only a few minutes longer, Madrick sighed and turned back to his task of scouring the planet for his quarry. He was just about to continue the pattern-based search he¡¯d begun the night before and continued through the morning, but stopped when he saw the back-side of one of the titan¡¯s boulder heads. It had a symbol of some kind carved into it. Glancing at the creature¡¯s sibling, he confirmed the symbol wasn¡¯t normal for their kin. Someone had marked the giant deliberately. Given the being he was hunting had been performing odd experiments of some kind on Hesv¨¡ra, it was entirely possible this was another test of some kind. Alternatively, someone might have marked the giants like a ranger might mark a released creature after rehabilitating it so they could identify it in the future if needed.
In either case, it suggested the possibility that that particular giant might be a hint. It was unlikely to begin covering the traces of its passing. Each of the creatures steps left a swath of cleared forest, with small hills forming around in an almost uniform pattern. Suddenly, the odd topography of the planet made sense. The periodic clearings were clearly the path forged by these creatures, or similar ones, in the past. Even the strangely predictable hills made sense. The only features Madrick had noted on the planet that weren¡¯t entirely predictable were rivers and streams. He¡¯d seen a distinct lack of lakes or oceans, and the large but short trees which hid underneath the feather-like fronds of most common form of life here.
Turning, Madrick flew through the air above the trees, tracking the path of the marked giant back toward its origin. Using his domain and his aspect of fire to simultaneously twist the laws of physics and propel himself, he covered the entire distance the giants had traveled in less than twenty minutes. He guessed it would have taken those ungainly monsters several hours given how slowly they¡¯d taken to take each ¡®running¡¯ step.
At the end, he finally found something of interest. One of the short trees had been ripped out of the earth. After some examination and careful thought, Madrick determined that it was likely the giants ate the roots of the trees. Taking the time to cut across the forest, Madrick found the second giant¡¯s origin as well and confirmed a similar scene there. Whether they were eating the trees, or tearing them up for some other purpose, they were definitely interested in these trees. Recalling the next trees within the path the giants were taking, Madrick headed directly there, assuming he¡¯d arrive first by a large margin.
The tree he approached was surrounded by the little creatures that his apprentice had been killing since he sent her here. Hmm¡ It seems her fun will be at an end shortly, too bad. Though, it might be amusing to watch her try to defeat the giants. He took a moment to consider as he stared out toward the slowly distant forms of the two titans. They clearly didn¡¯t have any idea where the next nearest tree was, as they were meandering about at this point. They¡¯d stopped their madly slow dash, for whatever reason, and now seemed to be trying to figure out where to go. Maybe. She could certainly outwit them, though that¡¯s a low bar. She¡¯d have to figure out how to harm them though, as I¡¯m certain their defensive capability is much higher than their agility.
An hour later, Madrick¡¯s wait finally came to an end. Not because the giants arrived, but because he felt several people enter the area of his domain. First, an unknown fae came from the east. This one had long deer horns, multi-colored scales which shimmered like a dragon fly¡¯s, and pink fairy wings. Although the fae were, by nature, impossible to categorize easily by sight, Madrick could sense that this one wasn¡¯t his equal in any way. It was weak. Only somewhere near rank four. He was also fairly certain it wasn¡¯t much of a fighter. The way it walked was brusque, businesslike, and inattentive. It wasn¡¯t the walk of someone who saw combat often.
Despite his weakness, Madrick was fairly certain he was the one who had created the teleportation circle in the tower. He also suspected he was the one who marked the giant. His reason for those suspicions? The miniaturized enchanting workstation strapped to him like a backpack. That can¡¯t be comfortable on his wings. Madrick thought in amusement.
Just as he was about to go and take the fae back to Hesv¨¡ra to complete his contract, several more beings passed into his domain from the west. His disciple and her servants had arrived. His eyebrow¡¯s raised and he rethought his plans. He¡¯d let them meet first, it would be much more entertaining than him simply plucking the upstart fae up and dragging him back by an ear.
Actually¡ Maybe¡ After a few moments of thought, Madrick decided to finally give his little apprentice some direction.
Willow
Approaching the Pop-Hopper Village, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Naomi had been the one to propose returning to the pop-hopper village before heading back to the kobolds. The rationale was simple. It had been several days since they¡¯d been here, so they didn¡¯t know how much had changed. They¡¯d get a quick status update, then turn tail and hightail it over to their, well not friends but, maybe, allies. Employers? They were gonna teach us some stuff, after all¡ So barter partners?
Neither Willow nor Jonah had an objection after they confirmed with the crude map they¡¯d kept on them that the camp wasn¡¯t in the path of whatever those things had been. They¡¯d been distant and the trees had blocked all of their views too much, so none of them were entirely certain. Naomi said she thought the things Willow thought were pillars of stone might have been massive legs. Though, given there was certainly not a foot at the end of what she¡¯d seen, she wasn¡¯t sure. Could there be a giant creature that had no foot at the end of its leg, just a kind of craggy rock-like stump? Maybe. The pop-hoppers didn¡¯t make much sense in their combined form, either.
Having a solid plan, the trio set out to get a final update before reporting back to ¡®turn in their quest¡¯ as Jonah put it. The pop-hopper village was just coming into sight when Willow received the UICI alert.
MISSION ASSIGNED
Your Master has assigned you a mission.
Requirements
Capture the fae man. The one with stupid pink wings and antlers almost as tall as he is. Can¡¯t miss him. Just beat his face in and capture him. Or you can convince him to willingly accompany you. Or fool him into following you or something. Doesn¡¯t matter to me, just bring him to the coordinates attached.
[Cordinates]
Reward: One Hour of Direct Training
Slowly, Willow raised her hand with her pointer and middle finger standing up and gave the signal they¡¯d agreed on meant ¡®Party Chat Please¡¯: tracing a circle in the air. It was meant to represent a ¡°speech bubble,¡± not that it mattered much. She stopped and crouched down, hopefully making it less likely for a pop-hopper on the edge of their camp to notice her. The others followed suit.
¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Jonah¡¯s popped into her mind, followed by an additional kind of mental nod which indicated Naomi was with them in the channel.
¡°Well¡ I think things got more complicated. If I do this, can you see¡¡± Willow did her best to ¡®send¡¯ the image of her MISSION ASSIGNED screen through the party chat. It seemed to work, as both Naomi and Jonah went quiet for a minute.
¡°Stupid pink wings? Is this thing saying we¡¯re going to catch a fairy?¡± Jonah¡¯s voice seemed about as confused as Willow felt.
Chapter 31 - A Scene of Transformation
Willow
Outside Pop-Hopper Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
After having a very quick team discussion, it was decided that they¡¯d continue with their original plan for now. If they saw someone with pink wings, they¡¯d look for an opportunity to fulfill Madrick¡¯s ¡°mission.¡± Having so decided, they settled in to wait and watch.
At first, everything was essentially the same as it had been the last time they¡¯d scouted the place. Despite their best efforts, there were just as many pop-hoppers as ever. More, even. The things multiply faster than bunnies! They were also still continuing to build their weird little structures and harvesting the sun-child stones. This time, with Jonah¡¯s RTS View ability, he was able to get a bit more detail on their stockpile.
¡°They¡¯re bringing all of the stones into a kind of fenced in area.¡± That much they could all see, and Willow glared at him in an attempt to fast-forward past the obvious. He didn¡¯t notice, but continued. The party voice chat Jonah facilitated was extremely useful. It¡¯d be way riskier to have him tell us all this if it was out loud.
¡°The area doesn¡¯t have a gate. It¡¯s just fenced in on all sides with the access point being through an odd maze-like tangle of half walls. It looks like they realized they¡¯d need a way to access the stock, and they realized they didn¡¯t want it easy for just anyone to wonder in, but had no concept of doors. It¡¯s weird. They also have several guards posted throughout the maze. However, any of us could probably just climb over all of the half walls to skip it. None of it is fenced in. The main walls around the stockpile are much higher though, maybe two and a half meters tall or so. There¡¯s a constant stream of pop-hoppers going between the pile and the opening at the tree¡¯s base.¡±
Naomi asked in her characteristically emotionless mental-voice, ¡°Any likely areas for us to sneak in and steal some of them like Willow wanted to do before?¡±
¡°Awww¡ You remember my scheme!¡± Willow shot Naomi a thumb¡¯s up across Jonah¡¯s back. She noted the slight twitch at the corner of the stoic woman¡¯s lips and gave herself a point. She noted Jonah¡¯s eyeroll at the same time, and gave herself another one.
¡°No,¡± Jonah answered the question as he continued, ¡°It looks like the place is pretty tightly locked up. I doubt any- What?¡± He stopped mid sentence, sounding baffled.
Reaching over, Willow poked his cheek as she sent, ¡°¡®What¡¯, what?! You can¡¯t just dramatically stop in the middle of an explanation while observing an enemy base! That¡¯s SO unprofessional! Oh¡ Uh¡ We should be using our code-names. System, what surprised you?!¡± Had she less control over herself, Willow would likely be bouncing on her heels as she crouched beside Jonah¡¯s prone form. They were all sitting at the edge of a hill behind a small thicket of sapling feather-branch trees they¡¯d found. Even so, the movement would likely have made them a bit too obvious.
Not reacting to, possibly not noticing, being poked, Jonah answered. ¡°I think I have eyes on the ¡®Fae man¡¯ from your mission, Willow. He approached the pop-hoppers from the east side of their camp. They see him but aren¡¯t doing anything, they¡¯re acting like they don¡¯t even notice him.¡±
¡°Like he has a stealth ability or something? Maybe you¡¯re seeing through his stealth with your gaming powers?¡± Willow suggested.
Naomi pointed out, ¡°It¡¯s unlikely Jonah¡¯s nascent abilities can pierce a form of stealth that thousands of little monsters can¡¯t.¡±
¡°First, outch. Thanks for assuming I¡¯m less capable than the average pop-hopper.¡± Jonah said, sending a feeling of faux-outrage. ¡°Second, I agree. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any stealth at play. You two should be able to see him soon to verify. He¡¯ll be crossing into your view in just a moment.¡±
Several seconds of anticipation later, his prediction came true. At this distance they couldn¡¯t make any details out, but they could see the vivid pink wings, the large horns, and the glittering scales easily enough. The figure strolled through the pop-hopper base like he owned it, making a beeline directly for the sunsquat tree.
¡°Sooo¡ We gonna go get him?¡± Willow asked cheerfully. She was wearing a bright smile as her friends turned to look at her. One wearing an incredulous expression, the other wearing little expression at all.
Nuu
Scene Incubator 3, Forest of Whispering Fronds, Savria
The forest whispered as feather-like fronds swayed softly in a breeze which carried with it the promise of predictability and cyclical consistency. The earthy scent of a simple soil lingered in the air, mixing with the bouquet of ten flowers which graced the planet¡¯s surface.
Strolling through the tranquility of the forest was a fae of insurmountable beauty. Each of his scales caught the rays of the playful sun, taking them in and adding color before releasing the warming beams back into the world. Vibrant wings swayed gently behind him, fluttered subtly to aid in his graceful walk which oft tricked the eye into believing he hovered just above the ground. His mighty antlers sat atop a strong brow: their many points giving hint to the danger he represented, while their graceful curves reaffirmed his refinement and nobility.
As he walked, soft gusts of wind softly caressing his face, he smiled. The conclusion to his sojourn was at hand. The rough walls of a camp came into view. They were built of felled trees roughly hewn by imperfect hands. Yet despite the meandering shapes and chaotic placements, the walls were effective. Although Nuu himself might simply step through the small gaps here or there, availing himself of his superior agility, it was secure from baser beasts and simpler beings.
Feather-soft steps trod through the open gate, bright eyes of golden brilliance noting the diminutive guards on either side. They gave no heed to his presence, as he had been written out of their narrative. They could no more perceive their creator than could a book recognize its author.
The moment of tranquility was cathartic. As it happened the release was incumbent upon his soul. In that moment he was free. Free of the uncertainty and unease which had followed him since the sudden and unexpected alteration of his narrative upon the planet of Hesv¨¡ra. This was his favorite garden, favorite incubation world. In truth, this place was the most likely to bare forth the exemplary work. The work for which he strove such that his heart beat and broke each moment that he failed to garner progress worthy of note.
At last his fluid steps halted and Nuu looked upon the tree which he himself had wrought. A smile graced his delicate lips for but a moment, before he composed his suddenly unruly mind. The tree before him was less of beauty, but more of wonder. To a casual observer, curiosity of its extraordinary girth as compared to its modest size might be the end to their interest. For those with the wherewithal to peer more keenly, they might find wonder untold. Each and every leaf was comprised of millions of intricate fractals embodied by precious gemstones. Each diamond and emerald were set just so, creating a perfect illusion of life.
Reaching up, Nuu¡¯s long delicate finger stroked down the length of one such extraordinary leaf. Even the feeling was that of a natural leaf, fibrous and soft with the slightest friction; each hair-like strand caught his skin and held for but a moment before releasing it as if a regretful lover leaving their beloved¡¯s embrace. Every part of every one of these trees were a miracle and a tale of their own. They were cherished within Nuu¡¯s heart - so much that even the nexus of his being was centered around one of his treasured creations. Having realized the superiority of his creation to the flawed natural tree which had originally resided as the focal point in his soul, he had ripped the flawed thing from himself and cast is aside.
The process had brought with it a bittersweet agony as he focused upon the confluence of his decision and planted a new seed. His new central sagacity had grown swiftly over the course of tens of years until it had born its first fruit. The fruit which, when in the fullness of its cycle, fell upon the fertile soul within his spirit. The sapling which grew from the seed within brought with it Nuu¡¯s second ability. It was poetic, his first ability having allowed for the formation and cultivation of the medium for which his second would be born.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Casting his gaze around himself, Nuu turned in a slow circle to observe all that had come from a single scene. He saw that it was good, and softly serene, as he reaffirmed his decision to return to this wondrous place. Each cycle was the same as the last upon the surface of this planet, which supplied a unique opportunity for one of his ambition.
For another, the lack of catalyst might have brought distress and a sense of stagnation. To him, this world had been a blank canvas, an unbroken narrative which taught him an important truth. A truth which called for him to give voice to itself, a request to which he obliged. His full voice struck the air as chords in a melody, sonorous and unburdened, ¡°A Scene May Exist In Isolation¡±
A sudden need to finish his reminiscence by reviewing the exact scenes which had in turn lead an unchanging planet to turn the page in its story came over Nuu. Indulging his sudden stroke of whimsy, Nuu took the lovingly cared for tome from its catch on his hip. Taking the time to trace the complex embossing upon the surface of the book, he noted the leather would need to be oiled in the near future. Completing their trace of the intricate and beautiful knots and whirls representing the unknowable nature of the great narrative, Nuu¡¯s delicate digits lifted the cover and gently leafed through the volume¡¯s many pages. It took the time of several deep breaths to find the pages which interested him. Lips lifting into a serene smile, he reviewed his work.
The recollection of writing these pages was ambrosia to his strained spirit. Having been chased off like a common cur from his most recent endeavor, it was worthy for him to recall the importance of these experimental passages. Here, upon the nothing planet of Savria, Nuu had learned much about his scene weave ability.
His convalescence here last time had been both productive and affirming. He¡¯d struck upon the critical realization that he could weave multiple scenes together in a complex knot of conditions: uncertainties and certainties as one. His eyes flicked up briefly to observe the spindly creatures which he had purposefully left unnamed with the intention of determining whether names might come without his interference. They were much as he remembered describing. They were consequences of removing one of his precious soul trees. He knew not who, or even when, one of the trees had been removed. He knew only that one must have been, for the guardians to have spawned.
While he lacked the knowledge of the moment which one of his conditional scenes had spindled and woven itself into the tapestry of the great narrative, he could certainly hypothesize. He had seen several patches which would, almost certainly, be the result of the second to final form of his soul tree guardian¡¯s wondering the surface of the planet. Many such areas had begun to regrow, saplings of the native trees and several of the flora he himself had written into existence hinted that it had been at least tens of years.
The first guardians would spawn a year and a day after a soul tree died, in the spot where its gem system had been. Following their original spawning, they would seek out a method of cooking and a specific mixture of the plants he had written into the narrative. Each plant would be added at the proper time, instinct driving the simple guardians to create the land-poison which would eventually kill the entire planet. From the perspective of a wiser man, Nuu now recognized such a harsh retaliation was perhaps beyond reasonable. Yet, an ignoble aspect of his character reveled in the thought of the greedy fools who stole his creation and damaged the scene returning. They would soon find that they themselves caused the treasure which they had coveted entirely beyond their reach. The death of this planet would also result in the death of every soul tree but the one in his soul.
Yet no narrative would hold any tension without some hope, and hope Nuu had penned for them. Should the defilers of his garden return in time, they would find giants running rampant across the surface of the planet. Giants born of diminutive and weak guardians which any sufficiently strong being would brush aside as little more than a diversion. Giants which would seek out each and every soul tree to seed them with additional guardian spawn.
The serene smile on Nuu¡¯s lips twisted into something crueler as he watched the final stages of that seeding take place. The lines which the guardians had built in as a semblance of a structure begun to glow even as he regarded the area. Every iota of Potentia in the area began to coalesce, flowing into the representation of the pseudo soul which his guardians shared. The Potentia quickly condensed and resolved itself into mana, mana of an aspect unknown to Nuu.
His smile grew genuine again, full of glee and wonder. His creations, his scene, had taken such a life of its own that it was entirely capable of creating an aspect of mana which he himself was ignorant. The creation had done something which creator was incapable of. Should Nuu manage to achieve his ultimate goal, such miracles as creating seeds which would grow greater than himself would need be commonplace.
The color of the mana faded until it became invisible. A not unexpected occurrence, as most mana was not visible by nature. It need not be seen for its truth to fulfill its purpose.
Sparkling golden eyes watched rapturously as this mana¡¯s purpose was fulfilled.
Naomi
Outside Pop-Hopper Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The fae man had entered the village, all of the jimble-grimbs completely ignoring him. It was as if, to them, he didn¡¯t exist at all. So far as she could see, they hadn¡¯t even side-eyed him. Mostly ignoring the jimble-grimbs, the fae had continued on until he reached the sunsquat tree.
Once at the base of the tree, he had taken a book embossed with gold and purple from a clip on his hip. He ran his hands all around its cover, then opened it. After a bit, he turned around to look at the camp around him. Although it was too far away to be certain, she considered Willow¡¯s assessment over the party channel that, ¡°That guy definitely had has a creepy look on his face right now,¡± as possible.
None of them were sure exactly what the guy did, but after a while all of the weird buildings, which they had thought were haphazard houses, began to glow. That had been the beginning of the strangeness, rather than the end. As soon as the glowing stopped, every single jimble-grimb in the area suddenly converged in the center of their campsite and begun to assemble themselves.
The sight of the weird little creatures leaping into a pile and snapping together like so many plastic bits making up a child¡¯s toy was nothing new. Rather, a dozen of them doing so wasn¡¯t. Several thousand of the creatures all coming together was new. It was also horrifying to observe. Within minutes, the mega-creature was standing at least a hundred feet tall. Then two hundred. It continued on until she simply stopped trying to estimate how large it was. Bigger than most skyscrapers she¡¯d seen in her home city. Chicago had some truly massive buildings, and only the very largest were taller than this monstrosity. The interlocked construct of jimble-grimbs had to be getting close to seven hundred feet. Then there were no more of the creatures to continue building the giant super-creature.
To her left, she heard Jonah let out a soft breath, presumably of relief that they had stopped. Then all of the structures which had glowed before flashed. The intensity was such that Naomi instinctively shut her eyes, although she¡¯d been too slow and was already temporarily blinded. The explosion of light had been momentary, but the floating areas of darkness in her vision lasted longer.
Once they finally cleared, Naomi froze. Over the party channel Jonah¡¯s voice summed up what she saw as well as anything, ¡°Shite, that¡¯s big.¡±
The previously seven hundred something foot mass of awkward limbs, torsos, and heads had been entirely transformed. What¡¯s more, it had doubled in size. Now, they were staring up at a massive malformed humanoid with arms popping out from its hips, inappropriately long legs, and a blank boulder in place of a head. The entire thing seemed to be made of stone as far as Naomi could tell.
Glancing back down at the campsite, Naomi confirmed the fae man was still standing right where he had been. Even from so far away, she could practically see the manic grin on his face. His body language screamed to same emotion without actually needing to see it.
¡°Sooo¡ What¡¯s the plan, leader lady?¡± Willow¡¯s voice broke her out of contemplating why that guy would make something like that. The question was pointed. She was only the ¡°leader¡± when they were in an operation, a dangerous situation. If Willow considered this a dangerous situation, then it probably was. A flash of dark blue and purple flashed through her soul-nexus at the thought. Of course it¡¯s dangerous. Walking buildings aren¡¯t safe.
She replied with the only plan she thought was reasonable, ¡°It¡¯s probably best we stay put unless that thing looks like it¡¯s going to come this way. If we stay here, it¡¯s unlikely to notice us. If we start running, the motion might catch its attention. We don¡¯t know how perceptive it is.¡±
Phoenix replied promptly, ¡°Heard.¡±
After a moment, Prism prompted, ¡°System, acknowledge please.¡±
¡°Oh, uh, right. Heard.¡±
His voice was distracted. That was understandable, but a bit out of character. ¡°System, report.¡±
He turned to her, looking surprised, ¡°How¡¯d you¡ Doesn¡¯t matter. That thing is only level one, but it¡¯s red and has a big detailed skull beside its name and level. I think it¡¯s designated as a boss monster.¡±
¡°Think we¡¯d get some kind of rare boss-drop from killing it?¡± Phoenix broke in eagerly.
Prism was shaking her head, even as System answered, ¡°No. I doubt we¡¯d get anything more than xp. Nothing else has dropped items, so there¡¯s no reason this would.¡±
¡°Oh¡ Boo.¡±
Before the others could continue the tension-releasing banter, the giant moved. It turned and began walking northward. The BOOM-BOOM of its steps, the resultant bouncing earth and blowing wind, were all familiar. Thankfully, the movements were all slow enough that they had all had enough time to grab hold of the nearest most-stable-appearing sapling. This time, though, none of them were battered or moved in the slightest. Instead, the world drained of all color and stayed as it was.
Looking over System, Prism saw Phoenix watching the giant walk away with a serious expression.
¡°You¡¯re not thinking about chasing that thing to fight it, are you?¡± Prism asked, her voice free of accusation or encouragement.
Phoenix¡¯s shoulder¡¯s slumped and she shook her head, ¡°Nah, no point really. It¡¯d be cool, though! Uh¡ Sorry I didn¡¯t do this last time.¡± She waved her hand at the surrounding washed-out environment, ¡°I¡ Well, I didn¡¯t think about it.¡±
For the first time since meeting her, Naomi saw Willow blush. Flashes of blue and purple pulsed through her and she smiled.
Chapter 32 - Greeting Nuu
Willow
Outside Pop-Hopper Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
It was with a heavy heart that Willow let the most worthy opponent she¡¯d seen since arriving flee. That giant ex-pop-hopper thing would have been so much fun to fight, she just knew it! To start, she¡¯d have to figure out how to damage it, which she suspected would be a challenge in and of itself. She¡¯d also have to manage to avoid it stomping on her, or using those insanely long arms to sweep her away! The things passing caused huge gusts of wind, she couldn¡¯t imagine how crazy a an actual hit would be. Not to mention finding a way to get actually meaningful hits on it! Not like punching the thing¡¯s weird circle-foot would really do much more than upset it, after all.
Alas! She had a mission and not to mention she didn¡¯t want to manage to get her friends killed as collateral. She might be able to stop some of the secondary effects with her focus, but it was only so large. If she wanted to fight the thing then she wouldn¡¯t be able to stay bunched up with Naomi and Jonah.
¡°You¡¯re not thinking about chasing that thing to fight it, are you?¡± Naomi asked through the party chat.
Shaking her head in disappointment, Willow turned back as she replied, ¡°Nah, no point really. It¡¯d be cool, though!¡± A thought suddenly struck her as she realized how dumb she¡¯d been, ¡°Uh¡ Sorry I didn¡¯t do this last time.¡± She gestured toward the effective area of her focus.
¡°I¡ Well, I didn¡¯t think about it.¡± The smile that passed briefly over Naomi¡¯s lips and touched her eyes was almost worth the soft burn of shame she felt in her cheeks.
¡°It¡¯s fine, we all forget things in the heat of the moment.¡± Jonah¡¯s voice came, distracted but conciliatory. Naomi nodded, then turned to look back toward the now-desolate pop-hopper camp. Although her friends might forgive the mistake easily, Willow continued to berate herself. You¡¯re literally a world-class fighter, girl! You can¡¯t just forget to use your best advantage! What would coach say? A cartoonish version of his face popped into her head, eyes narrowed angrily as he spewed, ¡°Almost ready to take your head out of your ass, Willow? Did you really panic and lose your cool because a bit of wind? Pah! I thought you were better than that.¡±
Alright, so coach almost certainly wouldn¡¯t be so dramatic¡
Putting aside her personal recrimination, she turned to follow the gaze of the other two. They were staring inward, Jonah with a nearly blank expression while Naomi¡¯s eyes were narrowed in focus. Seeing that the entire sunsquat tree was simply gone was pretty jarring. Seeing the weird fae guy standing there playing with his book somehow made it weirder. Apparently, the giant had left without him having to move at all, despite standing directly in the center of a circle-foot crater.
Taking a deep breath, Willow decided to poll her team before rushing in. ¡°Don¡¯t think we¡¯ll get a clearer shot than now to try out this ¡®Mission¡¯ from Madrick. I¡¯m thinking we can just go have a chat with him?¡±
Naomi nodded, not taking her eyes off of the fae standing in the midst of pure destruction. In contrast, Jonah¡¯s head snapped around to stare at her. His green eyes wide, ¡°You sure? What if he calls that thing back?¡±
That¡ Was a good question. ¡°If he looks like he¡¯s going to be hostile I¡¯ll delay him while you two retreat. I¡¯m pretty sure I can take one of those giants, as long as I have disciple mana and can get you two out of the blast radius.¡±
¡°Right, right,¡± Jonah waved dismissively, clearly agitated, ¡°We¡¯ll get in the way and should run for the hills if the giant comes back. I¡¯m more concerned about the guy who can apparently spawn those things though! If he can do that, who knows what else he can do?¡± His mental voice was almost frantic at the end. As far as she¡¯d noticed so far, it wasn¡¯t possible for voices to get out of control with cracks and breaks, as might happen when talking normally while upset. She got the impression if it was possible: Jonah¡¯s tone would have been nearly a squeal.
Nodding slowly, she thought through the problem, ¡°That¡¯s true¡ Maybe you should stay back here to buff me if he does anything crazy? Maybe your ¡®Trick¡¯ spell can buy me some time if needed?¡±
He continued staring for a while, then sighed out loud. He just nodded grudgingly and waved in a, ¡®go on then¡¯ kind of manner. Seeing he was clearly not excited about the idea, she almost decided to ask if he¡¯d rather they just turn and head back to the kobolds. But¡ I¡¯m so curious about what that guy¡¯s deal is. Not to mention why Madrick would want us to take him¡ Uh, where?
Realizing she hadn¡¯t actually opened the coordinates he¡¯d sent to see how far away they were, she quickly navigated her UICI to do just that. It was a familiar clearing nearby. The clearing they had been using as a campsite for nearly the last week. So he¡¯s clearly been watching us, then. What a creep. Still, it wasn¡¯t too far. Just a couple hour¡¯s walk. Just before she decided to head down toward the camp to introduce herself, she noticed Naomi was looking at her intently.
¡°What¡¯d you think?¡± She asked.
Naomi¡¯s only reply was, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Followed by her standing and starting to pick a path through the churned up earth.
Quickly catching up, Willow fell in step to the other girl¡¯s right. As they navigated the now treacherous terrain, she wondered why the air didn¡¯t smell dusty or anything despite the churned up air and clouds of dirt the pop-tromper - working name, I¡¯ll find a better one, surely - had thrown about. In fact the air never seemed anything but normal. Similar to how the temperature had been.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Cresting the final newly made hill between themselves and the former camp, the fae man¡¯s features became truly visible. The man¡¯s head was adorned with massive antlers which would have done the mightiest buck proud, his scales were just as shiny and shimmery as they had appeared from a distance, and the garishly neon pink wings on his back actually seemed to trail sparkling fairy dust. Aside from these alien features, his face was oddly normal and human. So normal, in fact, that the contrast was unsettling and uncanny. It¡¯s like some of the original deep-fake faces. It feels like there¡¯s something weird but I can¡¯t put my finger on it.
Then his shining, golden, eyes flicked up. Apparently he¡¯d caught their movement in his peripheral vision. The fae¡¯s eyes narrowed very slightly, before relaxing. A smile spread across his face which, Willow assumed, was meant to be ingratiating and welcoming. It was creepy. Not a malicious kind of creepy, but more the kind of creepy found at family reunions when that one uncle who you¡¯ve never seen smile suddenly gives it a shot.
Countering with her own, much more practiced, thousand-watt smile, Willow waved. They were still a bit far to comfortably talk without shouting so she maintained her smooth pace, noticing Naomi had fallen a step or two behind her. Still near enough to be walking with her, but behind enough to make it clear she didn¡¯t want to be the focus of the stranger¡¯s attention. He noticed her anyway, of course, but after briefly glancing at her his burning gold gaze returned to Willow.
Once she was within a couple feet Willow stopped. She pulled back on the intensity of her smile a bit, while cranking her southern charm up as far as she could, ¡°Well ain¡¯t it just a treat to meet someone else round about these parts!¡± Eh, a bit strong? Nah, people always eat it up.
The man blinked several times, as if struggling to process her words. Just after the silence became awkward he seemed to manage and answered. ¡°It is indeed an unexpected and serendipitous encounter in which we have found ourselves. I greet you.¡± Stretching his right leg across and in front of his left, he flexed his knees slightly and bowed at the waist for a quick moment before resuming his ram-rod straight posture.
Entirely uncertain how to reciprocate such an over the top greeting, Willow fell back to what she knew. Planting her right first into her left palm, she bowed over her clasped hands at the neck and very slightly at the waist. The same bow she would give an opponent before a spar or training session.
It appeared to be enough as he turned his piercing gaze to Naomi. Curious as to what her friend would do, Willow glanced her way. She wasn¡¯t disappointed to see Naomi give a Hollywood style princess curtsy. Between her blank expression and terrible form, it was absolutely perfect. Willow only stopped herself from snickering by bringing her considerable will to bare against the mirth bubbling up from within. Eyes flicking back to the fae, she saw a pained expression flash across his features almost too quickly to notice before returning to the same weird forced smile.
¡°Of course it is with great pleasure I make your acquaintance. Introductions are, of course, in order. I am called Nuu.¡± Now that she wasn¡¯t distracted by unexpected bowing, she realized his voice wasn¡¯t quite what she would have expected. His words were smooth and flowed together as if he was attempting to reciting a poem, while his tone was an alto which was clearly being intentionally pitched as low as possible. The entire presentation, flowery speech, and silly attempt to deepen his voice painted a clear picture of someone who was obsessed with his self-image.
Though somehow not very good at presenting what he wants. At least I assume he doesn¡¯t mean to make himself seem like an as- uh¡ unpleasant person. Sorry ma¡¯ma.
She answered in kind, keeping her southerner cranked to eleven in retribution. If he was gonna talk funny, so was she! He didn¡¯t get to have all the fun here. ¡°Wha-ey, the pleysuure is allll mayne. Ay assure yea!¡±
Seeing his blank expression as he tried to understand, she pulled back a bit. Leaving a bit of an accent, but not letting herself hit deep-south level of twang. Good thing she hadn¡¯t decided to go with ma¡¯ma bayou instead! No one ever understood that though, so she rarely did. She continued once she thought he¡¯d had enough time to process. ¡°My name¡¯s Willow, good to meet you, Nuu!¡±
Unable to resist the urge to poke fun at someone so clearly uptight, she put in, ¡°Your name is just adorable! I love it!¡±
Another few beats while he processed. She could see the exact moment he managed to fully translate as he stiffened and his lips tightened in obvious offense. Huh, shouldn¡¯t his UICI be translating perfectly? Why is he having trouble, I wonder?
¡°Anyhow!¡± She quickly went on before he could shout, or throw magic, or whatever upset fae did. ¡°My friend and I here were wonderin¡¯ about how you made those pop-hoppers turn into a rock giant thing?¡±
Once he¡¯d processed the question, he frowned, ¡°The name which you prescribed to my soul tree guardians is, ¡®Pop - Hopper¡¯?¡±
Nodding excitedly, Willow explained, ¡°Yep! I mean, the Kobolds call them jimble-jambles or something-¡±
¡°Jimble-grimbs.¡± Naomi supplied.
Nodding at her friend before returning her focus back to their new friend, ¡°Yeah! That¡¯s it, thanks! But anyway, that¡¯s a way worse name. Not descriptive, not as fun to say, y¡¯know? When you hear ¡®pop-hopper¡¯ you just know they¡¯re gonna be spunky buggers that jump right at ya!¡±
. . . . . ¡°It was my pleasure to leave the guardians nameless, intending to allow others to discover them and bestow upon them a suiting moniker. Undoubtedly, your choice is not without a creative spark.¡±
She got the impression he was trying to be diplomatic in order to not offend. She brought out the dreaded bottom-lip pout, ¡°Whaaat, you don¡¯t like it?¡±
The discomfort her felt at being pouted out was palpable, ¡°Many apologies, my intent was not to infer a lack of merit. I-¡±
Unable to take the guy¡¯s stiff discomfort, Willow had mercy. Dropping the act she waved it off, ¡°I was just jokin¡¯, sorry. Probably in bad taste seein¡¯ as we don¡¯t know each other proper yet.¡±
Something about this guy just makes me want to talk as silly as possible! Heh-heh, Jonah¡¯s gonna hate him. She internally cackled in glee at the thought and sent Jonah a quick mental message, ¡°This guy¡¯s great, you¡¯re gonna love him!¡±
¡°Hey, before we get too far into our little chat¡ You don¡¯t plan on blastin¡¯ us with magic or nothin¡¯, do ya?¡± She asked before he fully managed to decide how to react to her previous teasing.
Willow heard, and ignored, Jonah¡¯s reply and follow up question to her previous message. Naomi replied in her place, ruining her fun, ¡°She¡¯s being sarcastic. You¡¯ll find him insufferable.¡± The two began to chat while Willow filtered them out.
It seemed Nuu was finally getting the hang of her manner of speech. As he answered a bit faster, ¡°Indeed not. My talents lie outside combat and maimery.¡±
Nodding thoughtfully, Willow gestured toward the big table looking thing strapped to his back, ¡°I take it those talents have somethin¡¯a do with the plank of wood you¡¯re carryin¡¯ around?¡±
Annoyance flicked across his face before returning to its ¡®smiling¡¯ state, ¡°Perhaps you haven¡¯t the chance to encounter a portable enchantment workstation, which is the purpose of the ¡®plank of wood¡¯ of which you¡¯ve taken note.¡±
Okay, so he¡¯s a bit sensitive about his stuff being underestimated. Huh.
¡°I gottcha. So enchantin¡¯ is how you turned pop-hoppers into pop-troders?¡±
¡°Not so, my guardians complete their purpose without interference by my hand. Their disposition and purpose has been determined and written into the grand narrative. My role ended upon penning the final period following the closing word of the terminating paragraph.¡±
¡°Uh¡ Wait, are you saying you wrote them into existence?¡± Willow¡¯s eyes were wide at the thought.
¡°Just so.¡±
She began hopping from foot to foot, expressing her excitement, ¡°You HAVE to tell me everything about that! That¡¯s SO cool!¡±
A genuine smile managed to break free of Nuu¡¯s previously forced expression. Now we¡¯re getting somewhere!
Chapter 33 - The Power of Friendship!
Nuu
Scene Incubator 3, Forest of Whispering Fronds, Savria
When the humans had emerged from the thick cloud of dust which drifted through the air as a reminder of the great guardian¡¯s passing, Nuu had anticipated violence. The likelihood that these were part of, or perhaps the leaders of, the miscreants who had stolen one of his soul trees was nigh absolute. With a flex of will and determination, Nuu had belayed the reactive twitch toward his pen and mana. The reasoning which held his hand at bay was quite simple: should these be involved then there was little chance they would allow him the moments necessary to write himself an escape. In contrast, should they be unaffiliated then a confident air and restrained hand may provide opportunity which aggressive action would preempt.
It was to his great jubilation that Nuu found his reflex suppression duly rewarded. The relaxed baring of teeth might have been a threat from another race. However, humans customarily bared their teeth in a sign of pleasure and welcome. It was truly the second human who might be of greater concern, as she provided not a glimmer, nor the barest suggestion, indicating whether her heart might be set upon a course of hostility.
The rarity of seeing a human with such control over their features as the drabber of the two approaching was almost worth the internal turmoil which is caused. Vexing as it was, he determined that he must make due with the assumption that she would not be stirred to hostility unduly.
Attention returned to the leading of the two, Nuu took note of worn and uninspired garb in which she had clad herself. Though, in truth, the torn and dirty garments stirred a deep memory. Perhaps, should he pursue the evanescent thoughts toward their source he would discover something of interest. Alas, his time for such meandering and unfocused consideration was past. The two resolved into cohesive forms, near enough that he could properly discern their facial features.
Strangely enchanted, Nuu felt himself enter something akin to a trance as the women approached. His narrative mana spun and danced through the forest of his soul with singular gaiety. The leading woman was graced with skin which, despite the blood, dirt, and detritus attempting to conceal it, was clearly without peer. Less than a thought was necessary to strip the grime from the woman within his mind.
Left untarnished, he admired skin which glistened softly in the sunlight. It brought to mind fine polished amber set under the sun¡¯s warming rays. Yet unlike any precious resin, her skin shifted in an enigmatic manner as compact but powerful muscles bunched and released gracefully just beneath its surface. Her gleaming white teeth, displayed in a sign of sociability, contrasted sharply with her dark skin. Yet more stunning still, were her brilliant eyes. Eyes which captivated indiscriminately, seemingly comprised of a distant blue stars framed under soft lashes and delicate brows.
The tangle of her hair was washed and groomed in Nuu¡¯s figment of reality, fueled by imagination as his narrative mana danced within. The great narrative faded and time lost meaning as his fanciful scene grew in strength. It framed her face in a gentle wave of feather-soft mocha, highlighted in subtle shades of chocolate and toffee which together captured any light which struck, gentling the vibrant beams. Unruly strands, resisting every attempt to tame them, brushed across her soft jaw and narrow cheeks. She would purse soft lips shaded in peach and pink and blow an errant strand, the dimple just above her delicate chin showing for the barest moment.
With the greatest of effort, Nuu forced his eyes from the shocking image before he could be drawn further within his own fantasy. This has happened before on occasion, each time before or during a momentous occasion which altered the trajectory of the purpose of his existence. He¡¯s dubbed these odd instances as fulcrum moments.
His eyes landed on the second woman and the vision continued in force. For his eyes pierced not only the dilution of aesthetic by diluted and scattered colors of garish violence and effort, but the uninspired jumpsuit and even environment. While the first woman was stunning with little imagined alterations, the vision of cold perfection which he envisioned upon observing the second was peerless.
Her stiff steps transformed under his gaze, becoming a smooth glide as her torn clothing was replaced by a flowing gown of the darkest black, gilded in starlight. All light which dared touch the woman¡¯s elegant gown was consumed greedily to add new pinpricks of distant starlight. Her figure was lithe and unencumbered in its grace, with no concession to the common curves human women tended to cultivate. Rather, she was thin blade cutting to the quick.
Her dark eyes reflected no light, yet golden specks sparkled, disregarding the need for light, they supplied their own inner illumination. Her empty expression transformed to a visage of calm serenity. Framing those shocking eyes, was a face comprised of sharp curves and hard lines. Narrow and straight eyebrows ended earlier than might have been expected and yet detracted not at all from her cold beauty. The woman¡¯s hair was pulled into a tight bun atop her head with two thin knives holding it in place. The earthy shades of the bun were as varied and irregular as the minerals gathered throughout every planet.
Nuu felt his mana¡¯s dance begin to peak, nearing a crescendo. The feeling was unimaginable, rapturous, beyond anything he had known before. His perception of time felt to have been set in glass, glass which shattered as the women were suddenly within range to easily converse with him.
¡°Well ain¡¯t it just a treat to meet someone else round about these parts!¡± The voice came, almost sickly sweet, while its tone tripped with honey while the words and pacing brought to mind refreshing herbs and citrus. Struggling to maintain his fulcrum moment, Nuu briefly closed his eyes to center himself. Instinctively, he understood that he would need to participate in this scene if he wished to progress upon his path. Should he fail here, he knew his narrative would end. His spinning and chirping mana told him as much with merry disregard for his fear of such a horrible thought.
Feeling that his dancing mana and state of mind had reached the pinnacle of stability which his aptitude would allow, he answered with all of the gravity such momentous occasion demanded, ¡°It is indeed an unexpected and serendipitous encounter in which we have found ourselves. I greet you.¡±
He bowed in the courtly manner appropriate for one greeting a respected ally.
Willow
Inside Pop-Hopper Camp Ruins, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Having found a topic which appeared to be a genuine area of interest, Nuu relaxed markedly. An odd feeling had also passed over her, it seemed as if something about the man had changed a bit. She couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on it, but he at the very least appeared much more comfortable.
She prompted, ¡°Why not come back to our camp with us and we can talk?¡± She gestured back in the direction they¡¯d come, ¡°Another one of my friends is up there. We didn¡¯t wanna all come over to avoid looking like some kind of cliche gang coming to rob you or something.¡±
One of his eyebrows rose slightly as he answered, ¡°Perhaps a gang is less cliche when they¡¯re found on an otherwise abandoned planet. Nonetheless, I do believe I would like to speak to you further. I find myself interested in your own tales, perhaps they may even inspire my own story.¡±
Not quite sure what he meant by that, Willow nodded along, ¡°Yeah! Swapping stories is always great, right? Seeing other¡¯s perspectives broadens our horizons and all that mess, after all!¡±
Turning, she saw Naomi staring at Nuu with something approaching interest. Noticing Willow¡¯s attention, she just nodded and waited. Apparently, she intended to keep an eye on him. I guess it¡¯s fair not to want someone we just met at our backs.
That realization brought another one, he probably wouldn¡¯t be super thrilled by having one of us at his back, either. She stopped and looked over her shoulder, gesturing to her left side with a smile, ¡°Can¡¯t really talk with ya if you¡¯re behind us, right?¡±
Proffering her right arm to Naomi, she waited for the apparently suspicious girl to hook her own arm. Nuu fell in step with them, giving them an inscrutable look as they began walking. He asked, ¡°Might I inquire as to the nature of your visit to this planet? As I indicated prior, this planet is primarily devoid of visitors.¡±
Naomi glanced past Willow at their new traveling companion, and interjected before Willow could answer, ¡°We decided to come enjoy the oceanic view.¡±
Both Willow and Nuu turned to look at her, Nuu with confusion, Willow with amusement. Deciding to encourage this odd turn of humor from Naomi, Willow agreed, ¡°Yeah, the festivals and feasts have been great too!¡± Naomi¡¯s lips twitched while Willow grinned.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
After a few silent moments Nuu asked in a somewhat tentative tone, ¡°Perhaps I¡¯m mistaken, however I do not believe this world is host to any such celebratory events¡ The lack of civilization and monster both was the primary reason I chose this planet as one of my seed worlds.¡±
¡°Seed worlds?¡± Willow asked curiously as Naomi extracted untangled from her arm to walk on her own. Fair enough, we¡¯re both more than a little gross.
¡°A descriptor for the worlds I¡¯ve used to experiment and expand my capabilities. Advancement has been less than simple. A primary method I¡¯ve used to improve myself is through trial and error. However, such testing requires isolation lest my inexperienced narration cause wide-scale problems.¡±
The group was silent for a few moments as they finished cresting the small hill and found Jonah standing with an impatient expression on his face. He had clearly been waiting for them, kept apprised of the situation by Naomi via the party chat. Willow had heard them talking in the background but hadn¡¯t paid much attention.
¡°Hey Jonah! Meet Nuu! Nuu, this is Jonah.¡± Willow introduced brightly while gesturing with her hands between the two as needed to ensure they didn¡¯t confuse who she was introducing. It would be so embarrassing if Jonah thought Naomi was Nuu!
Inclining his head, Nuu gave a similar bow to the one he had greeted Willow and Naomi with only slight variations. He didn¡¯t lower his head quite so much and his back was slightly more relaxed, less stiff and formal. Huh, wonder if that¡¯s intentional or if he¡¯s just more relaxed now.
Looking a bit uncomfortable, Jonah nodded, ¡°Eh, ah-right Nuu. Pleasure. Ah, I don¡¯t really know how to bow or anything like that.¡±
Rising, Nuu gave that a similar small forced smile to the one he¡¯d worn while greeting her and Naomi. ¡°It¡¯s of no concern, we are of vastly different origins with non intersecting prequels. There is little to be gained through holding the expectation of similar cultural deference. Please presume my actions to be intended with the greatest of respect and I shall endeavor to suppose the same regarding your own behavior.¡±
They stared at each other for a long moment before Jonah nodded slowly, ¡°Right, I¡¯ll assume you¡¯re doing your best to be a reasonable bloke and you¡¯ll assume the same about me. Fair ¡¯nuff.¡±
¡°We were gonna take him back to camp and chat about his super cool powers!¡± Willow stepped in before they could let the silence become drawn out and awkward.
Jonah shot her a grateful look as he nodded, ¡°Sounds good, shall we then?¡±
They began making their way toward their former campsite, the decently long walk fairly familiar to the trio by now. The geography was somewhat altered due to the titan¡¯s passing, but other than that everything was essentially the same as it always was.
¡°Now, Nuu, what was that about needing isolation to not cause wide-scale problems? Why¡¯s that? Didn¡¯t you say your power was writing stuff into being?¡±
¡°While not an inaccurate simplification, it is somewhat lacking. My insight is Even the grandest and most articulate of tales are derived and constructed through the compilation of scenes. This extraordinary insight of mine granted me a mana aspect which had hitherto been unknown to the standard UICI databases, even including the CHM.¡± He spoke with pride and confidence, clearly greatly pleased with himself.
¡°That¡¯s a pretty long insight.¡± Jonah noted, though he sounded less uncomfortable now that the conversation wasn¡¯t directly between himself and Nuu.
The later sounded surprised, ¡°Surely, your faction, guild, or order, whatever you belong to, directed you to be as specific as possible with your insight to ensure sufficiently quick advancement?¡±
¡°Uhhh¡¡± Jonah looked between Naomi and Willow, who both just shrugged. He answered with the truth when neither of them indicated any intention to step in, ¡°Well no, Naomi and I are part of the Frazzlen, I guess. They haven¡¯t really given us much help though. Ki¡¯ai¡¯en told us he was doing what he could and even that he was stretching the rules by giving us the small bits of information and the rank 0 EB that he did¡ Since then we¡¯ve just been here for like¡ A few weeks now?¡±
They all stopped, prompted by Nuu halting in his tracks. His eyes were wide as he looked at them, ¡°Apologies if my assumption is baseless, but am I correct in my understanding that you¡¯re indicating that your faction dropped you into an abandoned planet directly after signing you upon first spawning into the world?¡±
¡°Well, not exactly.¡± Jonah said, shaking his head, ¡°Like I said, Naomi and I got signed to a faction but Willow didn¡¯t. Her ¡®mentor¡¯ opened a portal under her feet, dropping her directly into a dead area of this planet where a bunch of the pop-hoppers were hanging out with a big nasty pot of some kind. Naomi and I just followed after her.¡± He shrugged.
¡°That¡ Your faction has not come to retrieve and reprimand you for leaving your post? It is vanishingly uncommon for a faction to neglect the reclamation of a wayward asset. Of particular note in this instance is that you are, ostensibly, new arrivals! This suggests you all but certainly held within an egregious contract term, which the faction would have intended to enforce with zeal. Should a new arrival manage to sequester themselves beyond their approved areas of traversal, the faction would, without fail, desire to make plain the folly of such action to others through rigorous public reprisal, lest anyone else determine a similar path is worth treading!¡±
¡°Huh, I didn¡¯t think about that¡¡± Willow put in, frowning, ¡°It would make sense for those factions to not be super happy about losing access to the people they scam.¡±
Nuu nodded quickly, ¡°Just so. It is a boon that my people¡¯s arrival days are held sacred by the courts. When fae die within their various tutorial worlds, they are given their choice of court to join. The structures of power and governance are similar to that of our prior existence, making the transition simple. Very few races within the multiverse have such an auspicious beginning. Most are brought under the tender care of one organization or another. To my knowledge, all are as eager to extract the fullest possible benefit from their acquisitions.¡±
Noticing Jonah fidgeting nervously, Willow frowned at him, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±
¡°Well ah¡ It¡¯s¡¡± He looked toward Naomi, who just shrugged and answered on his behalf, ¡°He¡¯s worried you¡¯ll be angry we didn¡¯t tell you that Ki¡¯ai¡¯en changed the terms of our contract to include accompanying you.¡±
Face going bright red, Jonah quickly spun on his heel and began walking toward their campsite again, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be walking? Why are we stopped in the middle of the forest? We¡¯ve still got hours yet to go!¡±
Following without really thinking about it, Willow stayed quiet for a few minutes while processing. She noticed Nuu appeared to want to ask more questions but was restraining himself, she appreciated that. Maybe he wasn¡¯t quite as insufferable as his initial greeting had made him seem. Though he never fails to use a hundred words when five will do.
Seeing Jonah¡¯s tense shoulders, she rolled her eyes and took a couple quick steps to catch up to him. She walked beside him for a couple steps before speaking, ¡°Does the contract thing matter that much to you?¡±
¡°Huh? To me? You¡¯re not mad? Or¡ Or wondering if Naomi and I are actually your friends or just with you because we were told to be here?¡±
She blinked at that, Nope, the thought hadn¡¯t crossed my mind¡ Though now that you mention it¡ Nah, still doesn¡¯t seem likely. Easy enough to check, though. ¡°Are you my friend?¡±
He nodded vigorously, ¡°Yeah! Of course! I wanted to be friends from the first time we talked, even if you did decide to give me a new name.¡± he tried a weak smile.
She returned the gesture with a bright grin, ¡°It¡¯s too bad you didn¡¯t take my advice. You¡¯d make a great Kent!¡± He groaned softly, but she could see the tension leaving him slowly.
¡°I don¡¯t think the context for making a friend matters all that much.¡± Willow said thoughtfully, ¡°What matters is just the connection and commitment. You know?¡±
Sounding confused, Jonah asked, ¡°I get what you mean by connection, but commitment?¡±
¡°Sure! There¡¯s lots of people I like and even people I have a connection with, like that Kai guy that apparently changed your contract! He was cool, I certainly felt we could be friends, but that doesn¡¯t mean we are. The thing that separates a potential friend from an actual friend is that commitment. I think it¡¯s kind of an unspoken thing most of the time, but for me the difference between a friend and an acquaintance is whether or not I¡¯ve decided that I¡¯ll be there for them and forgive them their mistakes. There¡¯s always a limit, of course, but¡ Yeah. Of course I don¡¯t have like an insight about friendship, so I¡¯m clearly no expert.¡±
She flashed him another grin and patted his shoulder, ¡°Don¡¯t worry so much. I¡¯m not gonna storm off and tell your I hate you like a little kid just cuz you do something that upsets me. And in this case, I think you felt like it was a lot bigger of a deal than I did.¡±
She shrugged, ¡°Most friendships I¡¯ve had have come through being essentially forced to spend time with people, after all. School, sports, training, work, whatever. This isn¡¯t really any different.¡±
Slowing her pace to let the others catch up, and noting Jonah matched her, she fell back in line with Naomi and Nuu. She glanced at Naomi, ¡°You weren¡¯t worried about it?¡±
Shrugging, Naomi shook her head, ¡°No. If you are able to be my friend when I¡¯m like this¡¡± She gestured vaguely to her face and around her head, ¡°Then I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d have any problem with me getting a more favorable contract thanks to following you.¡±
¡°Oh? It was better? How much? Is it shorter?¡±
¡°Oh, yeah, it¡¯s a hundred years instead of seven thousand. The description of our role also no longer includes any mention of reporting to a supervisor, or being subject to reassignment by any superior without our agreement.¡± Naomi explained.
¡°It¡¯s also vague enough that we can wiggle around some things if we need to, I think.¡± Jonah mentioned timidly. ¡°The previous contract was seventy two pages long, I think. The new one is only five. I¡¯ve read through all of the pages a few times, and the only iron clad requirement is to accompany and support you. If we stop doing that, and you or Madrick, report us to the faction, then we can be reassigned. Besides that, though, we¡¯re pretty free to do whatever we want. We still have to pay faction taxes on anything we sell, but that¡¯s it.¡±
¡°Nice!¡± Willow pumped her fist in the air triumphantly, ¡°So I can now order you two around like little peons, knowing you¡¯re terrified I might complain to your manager!¡± She threw her head back in a mad cackle.
Naomi¡¯s lips twitched up in a slight smile as Jonah rolled his eyes, trying hard not to break out into his own laugh.
Confused, Nuu waited until Willow finished her best villainess impression to carefully ask, ¡°Perhaps I am mistaken, however it seems to me that proclaiming your intention to mistreat those that are bound to your service is¡¡± He struggled for a moment to find an appropriate, probably trying to find one long and gregarious, way to finish the question.
Sounding to be in much better spirits, Jonah offered, ¡°Rude as hell?¡±
Naomi chipped in as well, ¡°Evil?¡±
A deep frown still on his face, Nuu inclined his head, ¡°Indeed, those are succinct explanations to what I thought may be the perception of such an action.¡±
¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why she was laughing like that.¡± Jonah explained, ¡°It¡¯s a trope in movies from our tutorial. The bad guy would cackle or laugh menacingly to indicate their intention to do evil.¡±
Nodding along, Naomi finished the explanation, ¡°Willow¡¯s not the kind of person who would do any of that. She was speaking ironically.¡±
¡°This is an interestingly roundabout method of communication. Perhaps this is simply a cultural difference, however I feel it may be dangerously easy to produce a misunderstanding of intention or emotion with such a backward form of emoting. It would seem that speaking in a direct and un-embellished manner would avoid possible confusion or annoyance, would it not?¡±
Willow¡¯s choked snort as she tried to avoid laughing at the ridiculousness of Nuu saying to speak plainly broke all three of them. The trio burst into a round of good natured laughter, stumbling slightly as they continued on their way back to the campsite.
Chapter 34 - A Hike and A Chat
Naomi
Walking Toward Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
When Willow had forwarded her the ¡°mission¡± that Madrick had assigned, Naomi assumed it would end violently. The impression she had gotten from the brief time she¡¯d spent around him was that he had more enemies than friends. Unsurprising, if his inclination when taking an interest in someone was to kidnap them.
In this case, though, it appeared Willow¡¯s charm had overcome the obstacle without the need to fall back to her much more potent combat power. It was somewhat entertaining watching Willow hit Nuu with her southern belle accent and over the top friendliness. It almost seemed to stun and confuse him for a bit, before he got his bearings. Though, Naomi suspected there was more to it than being swept away by force of personality.
She¡¯d even seen the fae man¡¯s eyes lingering on herself as they approached, which was unexpected. She knew there was nothing impressive about her, especially when orbiting Willow. Compared to her friend, Naomi knew she was overly skinny, unathletic, and all around boring. That said, Nuu¡¯s gaze had rested on her about as long as they had on Willow, as they approached. It put her on edge and made her suspect there was more to his powers than he implied.
On their way back to camp, Jonah finally brought their amended contracts up with Willow, a topic he¡¯d specifically asked Naomi not to broach yet. Given everything that had happened, she didn¡¯t care one way or the other. She assumed Willow¡¯s response would be dismissive. An assumption which had been proven correct.
Wondering briefly if he got a buff through his gaming mana from confessing his deep-dark-secret, Naomi watched him and Willow staggering about with laughter at Nuu¡¯s unwitting expense. The flashes of blues and pinks running through her soul, and the soft smile on her lips was expression enough for her, for now. Predictably, the colors died out before her friend¡¯s mirth subsided.
She turned to Nuu, ¡°Since our faction has failed to, would you explain why they encourage long winded insights and how it helps with advancement? Essentially all we have on the topic comes from a few high level packets that we¡¯ve bought.¡± She gestured to include all three of them, since Willow had bought her own packet and read it to them a couple times regarding general mana usage. It mostly covered abilities, since that was what Willow had and was most interested in when she bought it.
Though, there was a brief explanation as to spells, skills, and techniques as well. As she understood it, spells were essentially mana manually controlled to some end. Like an ability without a guide, spells were ¡°cast¡± by shaping the mana carefully inside or outside of the body, depending on the spell itself. In contrast, an ability allowed the user to simply ¡°dump¡± their mana into it like a mold.
Skills and techniques were similar to abilities, in that they allowed their user to cause an effect without manually forming the shapes. Where they differed was in how they were ¡°inscribed¡±. Abilities were inscribed upon the ¡°nexus shell¡±, which was somehow different from the ¡°soul nexus¡± according to the packet. skills were inscribed on the body itself, and techniques were somehow inscribed between both.
Naomi tuned her thoughts back toward the end of Nuu¡¯s long-winded answer, ¡°¡Of course this leaves one with the singularly onerous task of constructing a chain of ever more complex conceptualization in order to achieve the desired final state.¡±
A particularly interesting change Naomi had noticed since speaking her second insight was a greatly improved ability to retain information, even when she wasn¡¯t paying attention. She knew it wasn¡¯t due to her Emptiness is the beginning insight directly. Rather, it was an interaction between it and her original I am empty; but I don¡¯t want to be. In this case, the connection was clear. The emptiness within her mind longed to be filled, so it captured everything. The irony of gaining such a clear and powerful capability to seize and fill an aspect of ¡°emptiness¡± which was at the very edge of her entire insight, but lacking the fulfillment of emotion she was actually searching for was not lost on her.
Reviewing the last minute or so of Nuu¡¯s speech, Naomi confirmed she¡¯d understood, ¡°So in summary: One of the difficult parts of advancing is a need to expand and deepen the meaning behind one¡¯s insights, so factions encourage people to start with the most narrow and simple concept they can manage?¡±
Thinking it over for a moment, Nuu slowly inclined his head, ¡°Your summation is correct, if lacking nuance.¡±
Naomi nodded thoughtfully as she mentioned, ¡°The summary is just to make sure I¡¯m not completely misunderstanding. I heard everything, don¡¯t worry.¡±
The fae smiled slightly, as if she¡¯d paid him a compliment. Then the others finally came up for air. After a quick round of checks, everyone agreed to continue on again and they resumed their trek toward the campsite again. This particular walk between the jimble-grimb village and their camp was certainly going to be their longest with all these stops.
After quickly relaying her summary of what Nuu had explained, including mentioning it was a brief overview lacking some context to placate Nuu¡¯s clear need for specifics, they were all on the same page.
Now that the topic had returned to the realm of magic, one of Willows favorite topics of conversation, she quickly resumed a previous conversation, ¡°So, Nuu, how are you able to write stuff into existing?¡±
Noting Jonah¡¯s head snapping around to stare at Nuu in shock at the question, Naomi kept her eyes roving around them. It was extremely unlikely that anything would try to ambush them, but not impossible. She hadn¡¯t forgotten that their complacency had nearly gotten Willow killed before. Though the eager fighter herself appeared to have mostly forgotten.
¡°In truth, that generalization is perhaps a bit misleading. While the effect which an observer might observe would perhaps appear to be that of something being ¡®written into existence¡¯, as you say. However, for the sake of candor I must confess that such an understanding is not quite accurate.¡±
Glancing toward Willow, Naomi could see the ever-composed woman visibly straining. She was clearly impatient to get to the explanation. Jonah, less controlled, was walking just behind Nuu and was rolling his eyes and flapping his hand in a ¡®talk talk talk¡¯ gesture.
His voice continued to drone on as they traveled. In all honesty, his ability wasn¡¯t too complicated in concept. As it happened, Nuu was able to write a ¡®scene¡¯ and invest it with his mana. This investment would then bring that scene to life, causing the events to play out as he had written them. The complexity mainly fell under what went unwritten.
For example, Nuu revealed that when he¡¯d arrived on this planet, Savria, it had been even less biologically diverse than it was now. He¡¯d introduced a handful of new plants, including the trees which the kobolds called ¡®sunsquat trees¡¯ and he called ¡®soul trees¡¯. The pop-hoppers were a product of another test of his abilities. He wanted to see whether he could write and invest his mana into a scene which would occur in the future, rather than immediately.
He hadn¡¯t actually been certain whether it had worked until he returned and found that his ¡®guardians¡¯ had spawned when the correct conditions were met. Namely, someone had purposefully removed one of his precious soul trees. When asked why he was went so far to punish would-be thieves, he was cagey. His flowery explanation was essentially along the lines of ¡®I don¡¯t like thieves¡¯, but it was clear that he was being less that forthcoming. None of them pushed too hard about that, given it wasn¡¯t much of a concern to them at the moment.
Instead, Jonah and Willow continued to pepper the sparkly fae with questions like, ¡°If you write a scene in the past, does it change the past? Did the scene happen?¡± or, ¡°Can you write a scene to force people to do things?¡±Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The first question was answered with a long story which essentially boiled down to, ¡®I tested it, but I still don¡¯t know. There¡¯s some evidence it did something, but I¡¯m not sure what.¡¯
The second question was a resounding ¡®it depends.¡¯ Apparently, Nuu was able to write scenes which included other people. The scene could even include them taking specific actions, speaking dialog, or even having scripted thoughts. However, it was highly limited. According to him, he could¡¯t force anyone to do anything that they would never do.
He explained that, for example, if he had an enemy which he was fleeing from he couldn¡¯t just write that the enemy forgot about him. The specifics of the example made it seem like a personal dilemma he¡¯d recently had to solve. Noticing the detail, she broke in to ask, ¡°How would you solve that problem? If it did happen, it sounds like you have a way around the limitation.¡±
Appearing pleased when she shot him a look, Nuu agreed readily, ¡°Verily. My solution to such a hypothetical is rather ingenious, if I might indulge in a moment of self adulation. The greater the difference in power between myself and the person I¡¯m working affect through my ability, the more carefully I must plan and word my scene. Should I indulge in a flight of fancy wherein my subject¡¯s personal opinion, personality, conviction, or anything else misaligned from the scene, the higher the likelihood they break the scene entirely.¡± He winced and touched his brow, as if remembering a great pain, ¡°Which, I assure you, is an unpleasant experience.¡±
¡°Given these dangers, my solution is to avoid directly interacting or writing anything regarding my pursuer. Rather, I should write regarding myself free of their grasp. This is ingenuitive and effective, as it provides me benefits beyond the obvious. Should I write a scene wherein I am unwittingly near to my hunter, yet remain unmolested, then I can be assured that shall happen at least once. I have determined methods in which to implement what I call a cyclical scene, something which I wasn¡¯t sure would work until I confirmed the birth of my guardian¡¯s upon their triggering.¡±
He smiled in clear triumph, ¡°Which is the very reason for which I returned to this nigh desolate planet. Regardless, my point is thus. Using this solution, I might create a circumstance in which either my scene is true, or else it has been subverted and overcome in some way. If it was overcome, I would be granted a warning in the form of the feedback from my scene breaking. As aforementioned it is an unpleasant thing, yet vastly preferable to being captured by an enemy with ill intention toward me.¡±
When Nuu stopped, he was still smiling with clear pride. Oddly, the expression wasn¡¯t haughty or smug. Naomi thought it was almost innocent, like a child pleased to have solved a puzzle without any help from a parent or older sibling.
After a few moments of everyone digesting, Jonah asked, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t the feedback from the scene breaking disable you and make it easier for the hunter to catch you, though?¡±
Continued to look proud, Nuu answered happily, ¡°Indeed a concern. Given the risk, it would behoove me to write the scene through a length of time sufficiently broad to provide ample warning should my scene be subverted. In practice, such a scene might be written from the perspective of a distance of hours between the first events taking place and the end.¡±
¡°But if they follow the scene up to the point where they pass by without catching you, wouldn¡¯t the scene break then?¡± Jonah pressed further.
¡°Indeed not! A grand benefit of my particular ability is one of continuity. Should a scene begin without breaking, then it will certainly end. I have taken great pains to test this fact. One such test was, I believe, empirical evidence given the experiment is 100% repeatable. I am personally able to break my scenes without effort. I feel the grooves and edges of the beginning of a scene I¡¯ve written and may decide whether to follow the comforting tract left by my pen, or whether I should veer off of the written path. Taking advantage of this, I conducted experiments wherein I write a simple scene of me doing a task, in detail, from start to end. Should I plan to deviate from the scene, I find myself entirely unable to follow the groove and it will be broken.¡±
¡°You mentioned it¡¯s not pleasant for your scenes to be broken, sounds like a lot of pain to test your ability.¡± Naomi glanced at Jonah as he spoke, his brows furrowed in thought. She suspected that, much like herself, Jonah felt he¡¯d been under-performing and had a lot of catching up to do.
¡°Ah, indeed yes. This is an exception to that particular rule. Though I am uncertain as to the reason behind the deviation. Should I decide not to step into the path of my scene, there is no feedback. The scene simply never plays. My unconfirmed hypothesis on this matter is that it relates to the difference in how my ability interacts with myself versus others. By its nature, it will attempt to coerce or, if written too strictly, force my subject into a scene. For myself, however, I am fully aware and cognizant of the full situation and have the choice as to whether I shall follow the flow of the scene or not.¡±
Interested as to whether Nuu had tested the obvious flaw in all of this, Naomi asked, ¡°Have you tested writing your simple scenes where you do something and all that, and start the scene with someone else who you didn¡¯t write into the scene nearby with orders to either interfere or not as they choose?¡±
Noticing the slight hesitation in the sound of Nuu¡¯s light footsteps she glanced back, seeing a poleaxed expression on his face. His answer was unsurprising, ¡°Indeed not. The idea has great merit. Perhaps one of you would be willing to provide aid in such a test at a later point.¡±
¡°Sure!¡± Willow chirped from the front. Then she continued, ¡°The thing I¡¯m wondering though, if you wrote some scenes about someone tracking you down just missing you and have a way to make that happen every time they get close¡ Why not write the scene so that you notice them missing you, so you know it¡¯s working?¡±
Another hesitation in his steps, followed a soft hiss of, ¡°Morgana¡¯s morning breath.¡± Another few beats, then Nuu sighed, ¡°Perhaps I shall revisit that particular scene configuration tonight and determine areas of improvement. It has been quite enlightening conversing openly with you regarding my ability. It is a rare thing that I find myself speaking so freely.¡±
¡°I was actually wondering why you were so willing to tell us all this.¡± Mentioned Jonah in an off-handed manner.
¡°Ah, it is an interesting inquiry. To put it simply, when I first laid eyes upon your companions for the first time I was struck with a vision produced by an uncontrolled behavior of my mana. I am not entirely certain of every facet of this particular product of my aspect. It provides a unique experience which I refer to as a ¡®fulcrum moment¡¯. The strength of the fulcrum moment I experienced upon the approach of miss Willow and madame Naomi was of such sovereignty that I knew myself to be in a singularly important moment. I knew at an instinctual level that the result of our interaction would alter the course of the rest of my life. Given this knowledge, I have made the conscious decision to place myself within your graces with the expectation that this choice will alter my life¡¯s path in the most favorable manner possible.¡±
After a few moments of silence, Nuu sighed softly, ¡°Though I am under no illusions that you are certainly in control of such an outcome. I made my decision based solely on the infinitely limited knowledge at my disposal. Only the passage of time shall tell whether my decision was to my advantage or to my detriment. Given your friendliness thus far, I shall continue to hold tightly to hope.¡±
Before anyone else could respond, Willow called from a few feet in front of them, ¡°We¡¯re home, and the weirdo¡¯s here to greet us!¡±
Madrick
Waiting at Willow¡¯s Former Campground, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Delegating the task of fetching his quarry to his apprentice had certainly been the correct decision. Having left to locate and await the small party at their former campsite immediately after making his decision, Madrick had simply been reclining on a rock he¡¯d molded into a decent lounging chair as he watched through the UICI observation suite.
Since he¡¯d been on this wild snipe hunt he¡¯d dedicated little time to check on his apprentice¡¯s progress. He was quite pleased in all truth. He wasn¡¯t certain why the defective multiverse piece of cow shit that was the UICI failed to alert him to her rapid ascension through the ranks, but he was more than pleased to find her sitting solidly in the third rank. Now that he had taken the time to truly examine the others with his soul awareness, even her companions had advanced impressively.
The anemic woman was in the second rank herself, while the boy was at the first. The boy¡¯s mana aspect reeked of the new wave of ¡°gamer¡± mana types which had become more and more common in the last century or two. The girl¡¯s was more interesting, feeling like a distant black hole more than anything else. Although, her mana aspects were clearly far beneath the power of a celestial grade rift such as a black hole.
Willow¡¯s foundations, which had been oddly transparent in his soul sense previously were now more solid than any he¡¯d ever observed. Even his own, though it pained him to admit it. Whatever her insights, they were integrated so tightly into her being that he doubted even death would separate her from them.
Listening in on the fae¡¯s explanation of his insight, ability, and mana aspect made Madrick roll his eyes. It sounded like it was a suggestion-type ability. The exact mechanics were irrelevant, had Madrick decided to scoop the idiot up instead of sending his apprentice after him, the result would have been the same. It would be amusing to see the proud fae¡¯s face when he realized he¡¯d willingly walked directly up to the very hunter he¡¯d written scenes to protect himself against. Although, Madrick decided that as he was passively sitting, he was less of a hunter and more of a fisher. Perhaps the distinction is why his ability hasn¡¯t ¡®broken¡¯ the scene he wrote as he approaches.
He¡¯d been listening to the last few minutes of their conversation with his own ears instead of the UICI. When Willow stepped past the last patch of trees breaking the sight line between Madrick¡¯s makeshift seat and the oncoming party she locked eyes with him for a moment, narrowing hers before calling back cheerfully, ¡°We¡¯re home, and the weirdo¡¯s here to greet us!¡±
Chapter 35 - Intentional Communication Failures
Willow
Approaching Prior Campsite, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
It was odd to see Madrick again, sitting on top of a stone that appeared to have been crushed under his weight. She¡¯d expected to feel anger, trepidation, maybe even fear. He¡¯d handled her so easily before, literally tossed her into a new world without an explanation or warning, and had done absolutely nothing to help her in any way. Someone might argue the UICI modules unlocked as a result of her being his disciple were helpful, but the truth was that if he¡¯d had to do anything to unlock those for her, she was entirely certain he wouldn¡¯t have bothered.
All that to say, when she saw him lounging in the center of a previously scenic but not badly windswept and earth shaken clearing, she felt almost nothing. Nothing except a mild annoyance at his haughty gaze. The man looked at her as if he was a king looking down on her from a throne, while in reality he looked like a middle aged gothic cosplayer splayed on top of a stiff grey beanbag.
¡°We¡¯re home, and the weirdo¡¯s here to greet us!¡± She called back to her party before striding into the clearing and looking around. She frowned down at the relaxed man, ¡°Didn¡¯t bother to clean the joint up for guests? Some patron you are.¡±
Although she didn¡¯t really feel it, she put as much hostility into her words and behavior as she could. Curious to see how he¡¯d react. If he was as unhinged as his initial behavior had suggested, she¡¯d rather be entirely sure now rather than tip-toeing around him. Especially if he intended to provide the ¡°mission¡± reward and give her an hour of training. As much as it irked her, she felt that getting training from him would be helpful. He was clearly powerful, though she wasn¡¯t really sure where he fell on the scale of things. At the very least if he could teach her how to make portals to hop from adventure to adventure, that¡¯d be worth it by itself.
He snorted and stood. With a wave of his hand fire flooded out of him and into the world. The flame converged near the center of the campsite, where it rose and twisted itself into a complex pattern of looping knots and twists. The burning air fluttered and twisted in a heat haze around the tree-like figure. Then the fire suddenly imploded on itself into a singular point of bright white, which drifted gently to the earth where it exploded in a visible discharge of energy. The white flash was accompanied by an oddly comforting soft breeze which set her tangled hair to bouncing wildly. Then everything was still again, except now they were standing atop what seemed to be an earthenware tiled floor without a spec of dust. The stone Madrick had been relaxing in had been molded into a regal looking throne, while the brush and debris which had been haphazardly blown about was nowhere to be seen. Presumably, the fire had burnt it all to nothing so quickly she hadn¡¯t even seen it happen.
¡°Better?¡± He asked with a mocking smirk. Putting on her best impression of gram-gram¡¯s investigation of a space¡¯s cleanliness, she began walking around the periphery of the campsite tsking and tutting. She kept an eye on him out of the corner of her eyes, noting that he seemed amused rather than upset. Though, he¡¯d also seemed amused when he¡¯d thrown her through a portal directly into a fight.
Finding there wasn¡¯t even a speck of unwanted dust atop the oddly elegant earthenware tiles, she huffed and threw her hair, an act which was less than effective due to the tangled state of it, and nodded. ¡°It¡¯ll do.¡±
Then she turned around fully and waved toward the other three. All three were staring at Madrick with wide eyes. Truth be told, Willow would probably have the same expression if anyone but Madrick had displayed such an awesome application of magic. Since it was him, though, she refused to be impressed. Treat me like a freakin¡¯ plaything, lose your ability to impress me. Seems like a more than fair exchange. She consoled herself that he was getting the rougher end of the stick. She¡¯d been fine, after all.
¡°Nuu, this is Madrick. He forcibly made me his disciple and tossed me into a portal which lead to this world. Madrick, this is Nuu. He¡¯s got a super cool power and neat pink wings.¡±
She clapped once, which made Nuu jump for some reason, ¡°Right! Now that introductions are in order. Mind telling us why you wanted to meet Nuu?¡± She directed the last part at Madrick, but saw realization cross the fae¡¯s eyes as they widened in horror.
Before Madrick could answer, Nuu accused, ¡°You¡¯ve lead me to my death! My trust was misplaced and I shall be laid to rest with a curse for your names upon my lips!¡± He proclaimed harshly, sounding to be on the edge of tears.
¡°Uhh¡ Whatnow?¡± Willow asked, looking between Madrick and the fae.
Seeing Madrick was just looking at the fae with a condescending expression, she decided it was unlikely he meant to kill him. If he could turn a hundred meter circle of earth into baked tiles with the wave of his hand, then there was literally nothing keeping him from killing Nuu if he wanted to. She turned to try and calm the man, but before she could speak she saw him finish flipping through the book he¡¯d taken from his waist. He didn¡¯t have a pen in hand, but he pressed a finger to a page and spoke in a calm but still angry tone, ¡°Plot armor!¡±
Nuu
Encircled by Enemies, Forest of Whispering Fronds, Savria
Upon realizing that the large man standing before him was the one who had been hounding him, Nuu immediately took action. The time for words, planning, and careful consideration were past. It was unfortunate that his erstwhile allies had held deceit in their hearts. He had begun to believe his decision to accompany them and indulge their desire for conversation had been the correct one. Although, in truth, he knew it still might be. It was difficult to anticipate the twists and turns of the great narrative.
Having found the section of his journal containing his prepared battle scenes, Nuu quickly pressed a finger to the first of his defenses and channeled his mana into it. As soon as he felt the scene¡¯s infusion was complete he triggered it with the phrase he spoke in the prepared scene, ¡°Plot armor!¡±
Feeling the grooves of a scene, Nuu stepped into it. This scene was written vaguely, but was hopefully just specific enough to prevent his instant death at the hands of the clearly powerful mage who¡¯d been pursuing him between worlds. Abstaining from distraction, he didn¡¯t raise his head as he flipped through several pages before finding a scene which might work to cause a distraction long enough for him to escape. Infusing another scene, he felt his mana drop precariously. He had enough power for two more similarly scoped scenes, or perhaps one more of much greater strength. The later was his preference, but he¡¯d unfortunately be required to decide after observing the result of his efforts.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
¡°Call to Arms,¡± he spoke to activate the second scene. He felt no grooves with this activation, as he knew there were no lines which would direct him directly. His plot armor would be the only scene he was following, as he knew from past experimentation that attempting to remain within the lines of overlapping scenes was difficult and at times impossible.
¡°Heeey, Nuu, whatcha doin¡¯?¡± He heard the honey-sweet voice of the treacherous woman who had lead him to his peril. His eyes snapped up to hers, meeting the curious filled icey orbs with a gaze laden with his fury and feeling of betrayal.
Perhaps this was the proper course of action. In actuality, it was entirely possible that he had followed the fulcrum¡¯s prompting appropriately. The enemy was now weary, as they knew a part of his power and had hesitated long enough for him to gird himself and ensure he was equipped for escape, if not victory. He deigned to answer, as he felt confident in his current protections.
¡°I have summoned your doom, pretender and betrayer!¡±
¡°A bit dramatic, don¡¯t you think? No one¡¯s planning to hurt you. Right, Madrick?¡± She turned a glare on the large wizard. He smirked, but didn¡¯t answer. He knew there was no need to play the fool any longer. Willow might wish to maintain her illusion for a bit longer, to avoid any painful punishment he might be able to inflict with a properly written scene, but he didn¡¯t care.
¡°Urgh, don¡¯t do the devil¡¯s work for him here. There¡¯s no reason for this mess. Just tell the poor guy you¡¯re not about to burn him at the stake or whatever.¡± The girl was adept in her deception. Even understanding the situation, Nuu could almost believe she was frustrated with her benefactor.
Sighing, the man replied in a languid and spiteful tone, ¡°Fine, fine. I promise I¡¯m not going to burn you at the stake.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not helpful! You KNOW what I mean!¡± Her voice was becoming truly furious and Nuu suddenly began to wonder if all of his assumptions were correct. The possibility that the trio who had lead him here were under the impression that he truly would not be harmed was outrageous, and yet he considered. He hardly knew more about these beings than he knew about the gods themselves, so he was understandably lacking in certainty. Somehow, he found he would like to learn that they were benevolent and truly wished him no harm. The threatening presence of the man they¡¯d brought him to, though, made that more difficult to hold as a certainty.
¡°Very well, my dear, dear, disciple. As a reward for advancing from rank zero to rank three in less than a month.¡± The smile spread across the master¡¯s face was malicious and bespoke of malicious joy. Yet he continued in alignment with his promise, ¡°I, Madrick, do hereby swear by my soul not to harm the fae Nuu within the next seven days so long as he does not attempt to harm myself.¡±
¡°What in the pope¡¯s holy underpants do you mean by ¡®within the next seven days¡¯?! Why are you such an¡ An ass!?¡± Willow¡¯s face cheeks were darkened toward purple in clear anger. ¡°Did you send me this mission just to be a jerk? This guy¡¯s nice! He just wants to experiment and improve his ability in peace! C¡¯mon dude!¡±
A sudden feeling of shame washed over Nuu seeing her confront her better on his behalf. Although he hadn¡¯t known her long, it was unfitting of him to presume the worst of her on a dime. Surely, she¡¯d displayed no intent to harm him. Perhaps his willingness to believe the worst with little provocation was an indication of a personal lack.
Madrick just shrugged in response, ¡°I don¡¯t make soul oaths without an end date, ever. You¡¯ll learn that lesson eventually too, it¡¯s common enough. This fae should know better than most how important it is not to give promises without limits.¡±
Turning to look at Nuu, he saw a look of pleading in her eyes. Clearly she wanted this cleared up. He let out a deep breath, ¡°I¡ Appreciate your coming to my defense, Willow. I acknowledge I was incorrect about your intentions and may have voiced a review before experiencing the play. However¡ I am afraid I cannot undo my call to arms¡ I shall be safe with my armor, but perhaps the rest of you should flee.¡±
Even given the realization that Willow, and likely the others in their trio, intended him no harm, it would be best to separate here. The exceptionally short window of guaranteed non-aggression from Madrick was enough of a reason to end this particular chapter. The specificity of his wording of his oath also did not slip by unnoticed. He swore not to ¡®harm¡¯ him. He didn¡¯t swear not to cause another to harm him, nor did he promise not to restrain or enslave or otherwise make him unable to avoid harm after those seven days had passed.
¡°Again, what do you want from him?!¡± Willow demanded, striding over to stand just in front of Nuu, facing Madrick with anger made manifest in her aggressive and closed posture. She stood with her arms cross in front of her, shoulders tight, body slightly angled with her right side more toward Madrick. If Nuu didn¡¯t miss his guess, she was a fighter of some experience.
¡°I just need to know what he was doing on Hesv¨¡ra, get his oath not to fuck around on that planet anymore, and tell me how to get the spirits to quit spawning.¡± He shrugged easily, then walked back to the chair which had been been a rock before the impressive fire aspected utility spell.
¡°WHY couldn¡¯t you just SAY that!?¡± Willow¡¯s arms uncrossed and she reached both hands up to grab her head in a clear sign of distressed frustration.
The deep chuckle from Madrick was full of derision, ¡°That wouldn¡¯t have been nearly so fun. So, how are you kids going to handle the three titans heading this way?¡±
¡°What?!¡±
¡°Titans?¡±
¡°How long until they arrive?¡±
Were the immediate and simultaneous questions from Willow, Jonah, and Naomi.
Shrugging with a distinct lack of concern, Madrick answered, ¡°Yes, three titans. The things that caused all the destruction to the land and forests around here. They¡¯re heading here, I assume that¡¯s what that guy¡¯s ¡®Call to Arms¡¯ did. Am I right?¡± The man¡¯s horizontally slit pupil seemed to bore into Nuu as the poison green surrounding them bubbled and churned. He swallowed and nodded, ¡°Indeed.¡±
¡°Right, so! How are you going to handle it?¡± He repeated the question.
Having dropped her hands from her hair already, Willow¡¯s hands turned to fists as she looked around as if expecting the massive monsters to sprout from the earth. Then she shook her head and turned to Nuu, ¡°Does your scene just call them to you? Could we just leave?¡±
He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, ¡°The scene is written such that a conflict between the called forces and their target is inevitable.¡±
Thinking for a moment, Willow scrunched her nose, ¡°We could just leave the planet?¡±
He nodded, ¡°This course of action would certainly solve the dilemma. It would certainly break the scene.¡±
All three of them turned expectant eyes toward Madrick, who shrugged, ¡°Sounds good. How you getting off the planet?¡±
¡°How about¡ You just open another portal and let us off?¡±
¡°HAH!¡± The laugh was a sharp bark, ¡°No. Solve your own problems.¡±
¡°YOU created the problem!¡± Willow screamed as she strode toward him. A part of Nuu considered whether she would brave his wrath and strike at him. Apparently not, as she turned and paced back toward Nuu looking to be near to breaking into a true rage from the sever fury on her face.
¡°Nuu,¡± she said with a markedly calmer voice than she used while conversing with her supposed mentor. ¡°Can you write a new scene that conflicts with the first? That would break them both, right?¡±
He hesitated, then shook his head slowly, ¡°I have tested just such a thing. In the past the result was not two broken scenes, but rather a failure to invest the second scene along with a violent backlash which rendered me at the edge of death.¡±
Suddenly, all of the anger seemed to drain out of Willow, ¡°Alright, well I guess that just leaves killing the things. Are they more like the pop-hoppers, full of anger and aggression? Or more like the combined hopper things, just kind of puppets that attack their target relentlessly?¡±
After a moment¡¯s hesitation, Nuu revealed his ignorance, ¡°I am uncertain. I wrote nothing regarding the emotional state or motivation of any of the guardian¡¯s forms. As those are left unwritten, the great narrative supplements my failure to properly fill the details.¡±
¡°So it could go either way.¡± Willow confirmed with a deep sigh. ¡°How urgently will that scene of yours be pushing them to run into us?¡±
¡°The call is designed to immediately attract them. However, I suppose there is a bit of ambiguity as to the duration between the call and the collision. It might be moments or it might be days. This was intention as I wished to avoid the scene breaking in the event something delayed my would-be saviors from arriving specifically on time.¡±
¡°Great, good.¡± Willow started pacing back and forth, staring at the ground with a controlled expression. Not slowing her pace, she asked, ¡°Who exactly will they target? Will they split up and each come after one of us?¡±
¡°Indeed not. I¡ I¡¯m afraid I had little time to amend the scene and therefore it is somewhat clumsily constructed. They are directed specifically toward yourself, as my mind was set upon you as the primary betrayer and I knew not Madrick¡¯s name to indite him.¡±
¡°I literally said his name like three times before you called literal giants on me.¡±
¡°I have never claimed a perfect memory, nor infallibly rational decision making process.¡±
¡°Urgh. Yeah, yeah. Alright. Well¡¡± She stopped and looked toward Naomi and Jonah with a slightly forced smile, ¡°I think I have a plan. Well, more of a scheme, really.¡±
With a groan, Jonah answered with a deeply sighed, ¡°Fiiiine.¡±
Naomi, just nodded, ¡°Let¡¯s talk about it. Maybe this one won¡¯t almost get you killed.¡±
Chapter 36 - Hidden Quest Completed
Jonah
Jogging South West, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Although huffing and puffing wasn¡¯t the most complimentary of ways to describe oneself, Jonah realized it was exceedingly accurate at the moment. After two hours of jogging, he¡¯d been forced to find a way to disconnect from the slow agony burning in his chest. So, he found himself watching himself run using his RTS View. I¡¯ll have to thank Willow for forcing me to spend some time training every morning, I guess¡ There was no way he wouldn¡¯t have collapsed without her frankly insane ¡®training¡¯ sessions.
He¡¯d heard of high intensity training before. To his knowledge, it usually it consisted of short bursts of high effort movements and workouts. Willow¡¯s methods were more like the marathon version of that. Each morning that she convinced him to join her, she¡¯d bark out orders and literally chase him around if he failed to meet her high expectations. It wasn¡¯t like he could complain, though, given she drove herself three times as hard. For her normal ¡®warm-up¡¯ exercises in the morning she¡¯d do ridiculous circuits without rest until she was literally trembling.
Every time her body got stronger and the exercises stopped forcing her to the edge, she shook them up. He was just grateful she didn¡¯t expect the same dedication to training from himself or Naomi. When they declined to join, she¡¯d complain and taunt a bit but in the end she¡¯d leave them be. It¡¯s a good thing she¡¯s good at taunting, or I might not even be in as good of shape as I am now.
Noticing his stamina bar flashing, Jonah felt a jolt of shock run through him. Had he been controlling his body normally, rather than as a kind of point-and-click directed puppet master, he¡¯d have stopped in his tracks. The stamina bar was empty, yet he hadn¡¯t stopped. He¡¯d assumed running out of stamina would either see him passing out, or at least losing his ability to strain himself. Instead, the bar just kept flashing at him in an apparently impotent warning.
A surge of guilt ran through him. Willow spent almost every moment not chatting, eating, or sleeping, in motion. She was always doing something. If she wasn¡¯t so still and relaxed during the rare moments where she wasn¡¯t in motion, he¡¯d have assumed she had a powerful case of ADHD and needed to move constantly. Part of that motion was training with her new abilities. She chatted constantly about her magic, what she¡¯d been testing, what had worked and what hadn¡¯t.
In contrast, here he was, just coasting on assumptions of how his GameLIT system worked. She even asked him about things, which he answered as if he knew. Because I should know! This is my insight, isn¡¯t it?! He grumbled to himself internally as he watched his little avatar-like self stumbling along beside Naomi below. I¡¯ll take more time to figure stuff out after this fiasco. He promised himself. Although he was under no delusion that he could have done much more of anything to help against those giant monster that Willow was planning to square off against, he could at least do his part more effectively and with something approaching grace.
Attribute Increased!
Through hard work and perseverance, you have raised an attribute!
+100 XP
+1 Endurance
The timely notification almost seemed to be a taunt. Pointing out that, yes, if he had spent some time really trying, he could be further along. Seeing himself slowing down far below, he prodded his next destination viciously, unwilling to stop. If Naomi can do it, so can I.
By the time night fell, Jonah and Naomi had been jogging for nearly eight hours. Given the time ¡®OST¡¯ time system the UICI let them use had every hour as 30 minutes and every minute as a hundred seconds, that was equivalent to 6.66 hours back on earth. An appropriately evil amount of time. They had to stop for breaks a handful of times, but forced themselves to continue on soon after each time.
¡°We need to make camp.¡± Naomi announced without preamble. Groaning in relief, Jonah let the heavy back fall from his back. He¡¯d run out of mana to maintain his RTS View less than a half hour ago and had been forced to stay inside his body to feel every ache and pain. The exhaustion he was experiencing now was more intense than anything he¡¯d ever imagined. I never thought I¡¯d miss being wheelchair bound. He thought, before immediately taking it back. Even with every single muscle in his body screaming in pain, the joy of being able to move was exultant.
Removing the bedroll strapped to the outside of the bag, he rolled it out and dropped onto it. We should set watch. Looking over at Naomi, who was setting her own roll out a few meters to his right, he opened his mouth to ask who would take first watch. He was interrupted before he could utter a word.
Hidden Quest: Beyond Me, Myself - Completed!
Overcome your limits for an extended period of time. Push past your physical, mental, spiritual, or psychological limits to accomplish more than you should be able to within the confines of the GameLIT paradigm.
Variable reward based on: Performance, Duration, Amount by Which Limits Have Been Exceed
Completion Grade: Major Success! (6%)
Rewards:
- XP Earned: 1,000
- Attribute Increase: +3 Endurance
- Attribute Increase: +2 Strength
- Attribute Increase: +1 Agility
- Attribute Increase: +1 Dexterity (Macro)
- Attribute Increase: +4 Resolve
- Attribute Increase: +2 Will
- Attribute Increase: +2 Focus
- Buff: Unwavering (90.0 Hours)
- Buff: (Don¡¯t) Feel The Burn (30 Hours)
- One Time Special Activation: Rejuvenative Sleep
- Special Ability Choice
* Hidden quests are non-repeatable. All rewards are final.
Staring, dumbfounded, at the quest completion screen through blurry eyes, Jonah couldn¡¯t even let out the laugh that bubbled to the surface. He was simply too tired. Turning toward Naomi, he dismissed the screen while intending to ask her¡ Something¡ He saw her laying passed out on her bedroll, having neglected even to unroll the blanket she¡¯d pulled from her bag. That looked nice. He¡¯d just get his blanket, and-
Waking with a jolt, Jonah sat upright, gasping for air. The dream he¡¯d woken from had been tame by nightmare standards. Tame or not, finding himself stuck in his wheelchair again while Willow chased behind him wearing Madrick¡¯s weird gothic getup shouting, ¡°RUN NERD, RUN!¡± had been unpleasant.
Noticing that the suns had risen, Jonah slowly stood. He fully expected to feel as achy, if not moreso, than he had before falling asleep last night. Instead, he felt¡ Fine. Not amazing, but certainly not like he¡¯d been running, or rather jogging, for hours and hours.
Noting that Naomi was still fully passed out, he began slowly stretching, testing whether he was really okay. Maybe he had some kind of nerve damage?
We got lucky¡ No one was on watch. Though, I guess watch has mostly been pointless on this planet anyway. We¡¯ve never seen anything wondering around at night. Not to mention, as far as we know every single pop-hopper on the planet has combined into those super-giant titan things. There¡¯s probably nothing around that would try to hurt us. Feeling a sudden pang from his stomach, Jonah quickly pulled out the bunch of berries and nuts which he¡¯d managed to find while all three of them scrambled to get ready to execute Willow¡¯s ¡®brilliant¡¯ plan.
He began scarfing down his meager feast as he tried to think through why he wasn¡¯t in horrible pain. He was always sore the day after one of Willow¡¯s training sessions, which is why he had only let her convince him to work out with her two days in a row once. It made no sense that a much more grueling experience would have less of a consequence. Small breakfast finished, Jonah went off from the campsite a bit to relieve himself.
Business completed, he returned and for the first time this morning noticed the slight chill in the air and the soft frost covering the ground, along with Naomi¡¯s shivering form. He realized another oddity. Since the other night, when the planet had gotten cold and the mist covering it had dissipated, every night had ended up freezing cold. It was clear that the temperature was well below comfortable, given his companion¡¯s violent shivering.
Getting up, he walked over and unrolled her blankets, tossing them over her. After a moment¡¯s thought, he unpacked and unrolled his own blankets and put them over her as well. Watching for a couple minutes, he saw her shivering slow and then subside. She¡¯s still passed out¡ She¡¯s drained to the point even literally freezing didn¡¯t wake her. Why am I awake? Why am I fine?
The niggling thought that something he knew about explained this kept poking at him. It sat just out of reach, annoyingly so. Finally giving up, he grunted and decided to check his stamina and health levels to see if he was going to keel over or something. Not that my stamina levels are a great indicator of that, given I continued jogging for hours after it bottomed out.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Opening his status screen, Jonah¡¯s eyes went wide upon noticing all of his resources full, his experience overflowing and ready to spend on a new level, two active buffs, and a ¡°Pending Special Ability Choice¡± alert. He flopped to the ground, not noticing the chill cloying at him from the earth he sat on.
Jonah Locke
Level: 6 Experience: 1105.982129915 /1098.00907150453
Resources
| GSM (Gaming Systems Mana) |
60/60 |
| MP (Mana Points) |
14/14 |
| Stamina |
80/80 |
Attributes
| Body |
| Strength |
10 |
| Dexterity (Macro/Micro) |
7/6 |
| Agility |
8 |
| Resilience |
10 |
| Endurance |
13 |
| Perception |
11 |
| Mind |
| Memory |
13 |
| Processing |
16 |
| Ideation |
11 |
| Spirit |
| Ego |
8 |
| Will |
11 |
| Resolve |
12 |
| Focus |
20 |
| Presence |
4 |
| Connection |
3 |
| Soul
Note: Insight and related mana aspects lack conceptual linkage with the soul. This section cannot be managed by your ¡®Gaming (life is) System¡¯ ability. |
Spells
- Predator Vision [Buff] - 2 MP
- Trick [Debuff] - 3 MP
- Creature Comforts [Utility] - 10 MP
- HP Siphon [Debuff] - 5 MP
Abilities
- Gaming (life is) System
- Overwatch (User Tag: RTS View)
- Party Up
- Character Interface
- Settlment/Camp Interface
- ¡ ?
Active Effects
- Buff: Unwavering (85.2 Hours)
- Buff: (Don¡¯t) Feel The Burn (25.2 Hours)
Alerts
- Pending Special Ability Choice
- Pending Level Up
A fuzzy memory of the previous night¡¯s quest completion notification came to mind. Remembering attribute rewards, too, he quickly checked for changes. When he realized that his attributes had risen by 15 points, he was stunned. That¡¯s five levels worth of attribute stats. He tried to find a way to pull up the previous quest reward screen, hoping to figure out exactly what he had done. If he could do it again¡ This might be a broken system! A way to power level! The thought was tantalizing. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t find any way to pull up previous alerts and for the life of him he couldn¡¯t remember what it had said.
I guess it¡¯s a good thing I had my stats memorized, or I might not have realized how many stat points I got! Sighing, he put the question of whether he could get the same or similar rewards again aside for now. Moving on, he focused on the buffs.
(Don¡¯t) Feel The Burn was almost certainly the reason he wasn¡¯t feeling the aches and pains from his exertion yesterday. He wasn¡¯t sure what Unwavering did. Maybe that¡¯s why he didn¡¯t feel cold? It hardly mattered. After all, he had another level and an ability to choose!
Ability choice first. If the ability I choose relies on a specific attribute, I might want to use my stat points there.
Focusing on the ¡®Pending Special Ability Choice¡¯ option, Jonah found a new prompt before him.
Special Ability Choice
Notice: This special ability choice was granted as a quest reward. As such, the abilities available are directly related to the quest you completed.
Ability Choices
Effortless Movement
Passive ability which reduces the stamina and physical strain cost of all forms of traversal to (0/free). This passive ability reserves 3 units of the holder¡¯s mana permanently.
Overclock
Active ability which allows the user to cause attributes or resources to operate at 200% capacity while the ability is active. When the ability ends, the boosted resources will be penalized to a 50% operating capacity for 1/4th the time the ability remained active. This ability costs 1 mana per 15 seconds.
Resource Redistribution
Active ability which allows the user to redistribute attribute points on-demand. This ability costs 1 mana per stat point reallocated. Stat reallocation takes 30 seconds per stats. Large changes to existing attributes may cause unexpected consequences.
Fast Travel
Active ability which allows the user to ignore the passage of time while traveling and will not require sustenance or biological waste removal, resulting in travel feeling inconsequential and instantaneous. All travel still occurs, and the user will continue to act normally during travel. When the ability comes to an end, the user will have full resource pools (except for the mana upkeep cost) and will be granted one or more buffs. The user will remember everything that occurred during the trip, without having felt the time pass.
An [Encounter] of any kind will terminate the ability early. The user may bring companions with them limited to [1 passenger per Connection/10 + Ego] rounded up. Current passenger count allowed: 9. This ability costs 10 mana to activate and 3 mana per hour to maintain.
For several minutes, all Jonah could do was stare. There are all too good. He thought, stunned. Any one of these was a game changer.
Noticing Naomi stirring, he buckled down to make his choice. They¡¯d need to leave again soon after she woke.
Fast Travel is out. It was awesome in its own way, but was clearly the overall weakest of the bunch. It didn¡¯t actually change anything, it mostly just let him avoid boredom and not have to eat or drink. The mention of full resource pools and a buff when it ended was pretty cool. Especially assuming those affects carried over to any companions he brought along with him. Really, it seemed like a fantastic ability for someone who was leading armies on long campaigns or something. I guess that would be useful for the next part of the plan¡ But¡ No. I don¡¯t think I want this one.
Looking at Overclock, it was probably the least impressive overall to Jonah on first glance. It felt something like a berserker¡¯s rage or something. Increasing his current strength at the expense of later weakness didn¡¯t sound incredible. Until he read, and reread the description. It would let him boost multiple attributes and resources of his choice. So long as his mana held out. This meant he could boost his mana to increase the duration, along with whatever other stats he wanted. The description also didn¡¯t say the cool-down period was mandatory or incurable. Given his history of gaming, this hinted to the possibility of a spell or sibling ability which would let him use the beneficial side without suffering the downside. He¡¯d have to think about that one more.
I think Resource Redistribution is also out. It¡¯d be absolutely incredible to be able to play with different builds. However, it doesn¡¯t help me much right now and the warnings about large changing causing unexpected consequences is too ominous. I¡¯ll just make sure to make sure I¡¯m happy with my build¡ Maybe I¡¯ll get this option again later? He groaned softly at passing this particular ability up. The idea that he could possibly re-spec himself as needed for any given situation was incredibly tempting. He could only hope he¡¯d get something similar in the future.
Last, was Effortless Movement. This would be immediately useful, as it would let guarantee he wouldn¡¯t flag before completing his part of Willow¡¯s plan. Beyond that, while it seemed to be the simplest of all four options, with the most bare-bones explanation, he had a suspicion its potential was the highest. The description was clear, every form of movement would be free to him unless it had a mana cost. In which case, if the cost was hybrid, he¡¯d still come out on top. Finally, there was an admittedly silly but powerful argument for this ability. If he could move without any of the discomfort, how incredibly fun would it be? It was already a wonder to be able to move around as he wanted, but if he could do that with no penalty¡ It was a tantalizing thought.
I think it¡¯s between Overclock and Effortless Movement. He thought, agonizing over the decision. He continued to consider as he watched Naomi wake. She groaned softly and began to extricate herself from her blankets. Briefly distracted, Jonah couldn¡¯t help but be impressed. He thought that if he¡¯d woken incredibly sore with a couple blankets holding back the uncomfortably cold morning air, he probably wouldn¡¯t be able to force himself awake and up quite so quickly. He¡¯d probably lie there in the relative comfort, spending as long as he could manage before someone told him he had to get up. If no one was there, no one was counting on him to do anything, he¡¯d probably just go back to sleep.
Given the winces and unhappy noises coming from her as she got up and began rolling the blankets, Naomi was in as much pain as he thought he should be. Unlike him, though, she didn¡¯t seem to have any problem pushing through it.
Still not any closer to deciding, Jonah stood and went over to help Naomi pack back up. He offered a smile, ¡°Morning, why don¡¯t you eat while I get the rolls packed?¡± She nodded groggily and went to scrounge through her pack for her own quickly packed rations. Once she¡¯d retrieved them, Jonah stuffed her bedroll, which he¡¯d rolled up and compacted as best he could, into her pack. He did the same for his own.
Although he knew they needed to get going as soon as possible, he didn¡¯t rush Naomi as she got herself going. He gave her privacy as she headed into the woods and said nothing as she sat back down beside her pack, staring into space. After a few minutes, he went and sat beside her and asked, ¡°Dreading the rest of the trip?¡±
She nodded. A few more minutes passed.
¡°If you could stop feeling tired from walking, running, jumping, that kind of thing¡ Or you could make yourself twice as powerful for a limited amount of time, before becoming half as powerful for 1/4th as long as your power was doubled¡ Which would you choose?¡±
Slowly, she turned deadened eyes to stare at him. Normally, her eyes were mostly empty of emotion. Right now, though, they seemed mostly empty even of thought. She didn¡¯t answer for a long beat as she stared at him. Finally, she said, ¡°Probably twice as powerful. Maybe I could actually help Willow in a fight.¡±
Nodding slowly, Jonah made his choice. Her thoughts had helped, though in a different way than one might imagine. He didn¡¯t see himself ever standing shoulder to shoulder with Willow, dishing out punches and smashing enemies. That wasn¡¯t his style, or what he was interested in. The idea of winning battles and fights was certainly to his liking, but he didn¡¯t want to be in battles and fights. Just win them. He¡¯d been the team¡¯s coordinator and buffer. Beyond that, what did he want to be? He wasn¡¯t sure. What he was sure of, is that if he could run around without ever getting tired his allies wouldn¡¯t have to worry about him being unable to escape something bad. They¡¯d be less likely to get hurt trying to save him. That was good enough.
He mentally chose Effortless Movement. To offset the cost, he invested one stat point in mana, bringing his total to a whopping 25. The other two stat points went into Agility. If it didn¡¯t cost him anything to walk, run, or jump, then he wanted to be good at those things.
Although he wasn¡¯t sure how, Naomi appeared to have realized he was done and ready to go even before he moved. She stood slowly and held a hand out to him, ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s get to those Kobolds today.¡±
Chapter 37 - A Mountainous Task
Willow
Running East, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Why didn¡¯t I test using my discipline mana to run further before? Trees flashed by on her left and right. Blurs of white and grey stalks interspersed by washed out greens and tans as the rare flora made themselves known passed by her field of view almost without her noticing. Her pace would have been record shattering back on earth, easily traveling seventeen or eighteen meters a second. Here, she suspected it wasn¡¯t all that impressive.
Despite the speed, Willow found slipping around the trees and rare bushes which popped into her path to be smooth and easy. Her instincts and conscious thought brushed shoulders, as her body responded quickly and accurately to each command. Is this fast enough to outrun those giants, though? Trying to calculate how fast they were moving, she almost tripped over an unexpected crest in the earth, a remnant of previous titanous wondering no doubt.
Just managing to maintain her footing and recover her pace, she decided it was likely she was outpacing them if they were walking leisurely. She had no idea how fast they could move if they ran. However, she could estimate their normal speed based on how quickly the one that had been ¡®born¡¯ at the pop-hopper village had moved. She¡¯d have to guess the massive creature, which was well north of four hundred meters tall, had legs around a hundred and forty meters by themselves. Given she¡¯d never really explored any kind of locomotive science or anything like that, she¡¯d have to extrapolate distance per step mostly through guess work.
The awkward way which the giant had walked away from its place of creation had shown her that the creature didn¡¯t extend its legs anywhere near to fully. Besides neglecting to stretch out fully, lifting and moving the massive limb took much longer than the same motion for an average human. Taking maybe as long as ten seconds between lifting a foot and setting it back down. Working that roughly with a guestimated stride length of around forty five meters, or a third of her estimate of its full leg length, she calculated that a walking pace should be somewhere around 4.5 meters per second.
The realization caused Willow¡¯s harried and mana enhanced dash through the forest to suddenly slow. That can¡¯t be right. The ones that passed us and threw us around like rag-dolls just from the wind of their feet hitting the ground definitely weren¡¯t moving that slowly, or they would have caught us. Most people¡¯s distance running speed is probably between five and six meters per second. We were running away faster than that, closer to a decent sprint. Between nine and ten meters per second. Noticing she¡¯d come to a dead stop, Willow resumed her journey at a leisurely jog. I wonder if the UICI has a built in speedometer and radar somewhere¡
After a bit of digging, she found there was a module available for both functions. The speedometer, or ¡®Personal Speed Awareness Gauge¡¯ was was listed for various different prices depending on rank and currency. Apparently the Wesnmen¡¯s Coallition (G) was interested in profit regardless of the rank. The prices were even equivalent between ranks, though she wasn¡¯t sure if the exchange rate between the dozens of accepted currencies listed were fair or not. Picking it up for the 20 R2-EB price, as R2 was all she had available.
A few more minutes of searching was enough to find a ¡®Accurate External Object Speed Determination Measurement Module¡¯ with high reviews, along with dozens of similar offers with reviews and comments indicating they were essentially scams. Unfortunately, the seller of this module was less interested in making profits across the different ranks. Nor did they accept every currency. The only accepted currently listed was ¡®10 R10-XZE¡¯.
Looking into the XZE currency made it clear Willow wouldn¡¯t be buying the module anytime soon. XZE could apparently only be exchanged in bulk, with an exchange to 100 XZE being the minimum available. 1 XZE roughly cost 100 EB of the same rank. However, if someone chose one of the large exchange packs: say the 1000 XZE, it was closer to 3 XZE per 100EB. Rolling her eyes, Willow gave up on the idea and turned her thoughts back to the present.
Alright, well, whatever. I¡¯ve got the speedo, that¡¯s cool! I can see how fast I¡¯m moving at any given time. Focusing on how fast she was going, a number popped up. It made no sense, so she spent another little while clicking through settings and windows until she found a conversion which appeared to be roughly equivalent to meters per second, her most familiar metric for movement on foot. Seeing that she was jogging at about ten meters per second, she grinned broadly. Her jogging speed was about the same as an average man¡¯s sprint back on earth.
Alright, so if that¡¯s the case my calculations are way off. We must have been running quite a bit faster than I assumed when trying to get away from what we thought was some kind of storm¡ Let¡¯s see, I think I was running about like this¡ Picking up her pace, she tried to gauge just how fast she¡¯d been going while trying to stay close to her significantly slower friends. She decided the average was probably around fifteen meters per second. Wow, even Naomi and Jonah can run faster than the previous world record runner on Earth! Taking that information into account lead Willow to one powerful certainty. I have no idea how fast those stupid giants might be moving. If that idiot Madrick hadn¡¯t run off he might have been able to tell me.
Annoyed, Willow slowly ramped up her speed again until she resumed the discipline mana enhanced run she¡¯d been maintaining before. Glancing at the compass app she¡¯d added to the corner of her UICI HUD on Madrick¡¯s condescending advice, she checked her heading. She was still going in the direction he¡¯d said their meeting point was. It had been a long time since Willow truly felt the absolute seething fury which had colored her younger years. Somehow, Madrick was able to bring it out of her, seemingly without effort. Worse, he seemed to enjoy stoking that fire.
Having slouched in his self-created throne, the infuriating man had listened silently while she outlined her rough plan to Naomi and Jonah. His posture had been that of a disinterested ruler, watching his subjects squabble. He had leaned his chin into his right palm, elbow resting on the chair¡¯s arm rest, the rest of his body relaxed and loose in an absolute picture of boredom. The slit of his weird green goat eyes had even seemed to thin down to bare lines, giving the impression of being zoned out. There, but not present.
Why in Jesus¡¯ good name did I get stuck as his apprentice?! She fumed to herself. More frustrating still was that she actually wanted his help. Or rather, she wanted what he¡¯d promised her in that mission prompt. Which, of course, came full circle as to why she was running through the forest in the direction he demanded rather than some other direction. The plan really just called for her staying away from the chasing titans while Jonah and Naomi rallied the kobolds to help them out. She¡¯s originally considered trying to get one of them in view, then just stay ahead of them. After working out the math of their traveling speed, and realizing she couldn¡¯t work it out, she was glad she hadn¡¯t. How embarrassing would it have been to rush over to one of those monsters to try and kite it, just to get scrooshed immediately cuz it was faster than I thought? Oof.
Her initial plan had just been to go the opposite direction of her friends so they didn¡¯t have to worry about the things chasing her. Then Madrick had butted in at the last second before they finalized their plans. His tone had been languid, full of the assumption they¡¯d want and value his advice. ¡°Good enough. The only changes you¡¯ll make is that you,¡± he turned his bored gaze on Willow, ¡°little tree, will meet me on the mountain¡¯s peak to the north east. When you arrive, I¡¯ll provide you the hour of training promised as your reward for bringing me the fae. And the other change is that he will be coming with me.¡±
Having said his piece, Madrick had moved faster than Willow could perceive. He¡¯d just vanished and he¡¯d taken Nuu with him. Granted, Nuu¡¯s part of the plan had just been to accompany Naomi and Jonah and his absence changed essentially nothing. However, it was annoying that he¡¯d been taken. His ability would have ensured a much smoother and more streamlined conversation explaining what was going on and an easier time convincing them to help. Nuu could have simply written a little scene ensuring as much. He might still be able to from wherever Madrick took him¡ I guess probably on the mountain he wants me to meet him on? The question is whether he will. We didn¡¯t really get a chance to ask him about distance limits, or whether he needed specific details about the area the conversation would take place or a description of Skeetha and Halshath.
Sighing, Willow ran on.
Night was probably a little less than an hour away by the time Willow saw the sheer needle-like protrusion on the distance. Upon seeing it, she wanted to start ranting, raving, and screaming about Madrick¡¯s nonsense. He¡¯d said to meet him on top of the mountain. That thing was taller than the stupid giants she was going to fight! It was a grey tooth-like spike which, had the weird mist still been floating about, would likely have pierced the ever-present cloud. From this distance it was a bit difficult to make out any details, but the sheer size was enough to make her blood begin to boil.
Red edges began to form around her vision. Noticing the familiar sign that categorized the beginnings of her former famous tantrum-like rage was enough to shock Willow into thinking more clearly. She was still angry enough that she thought steam was likely leaking from her skin and ears, but composed herself and began the familiar process of calming herself. She continued to run as she worked to feed her emotions into her focus. There was an odd sense of resistance, the same she¡¯d felt every time she¡¯d tried to use her new more-magical version of focus that she¡¯d gained since her death.
Ignoring the resistance, she continued to feed her emotions into the idea of her focus. Not the magical construct, she wasn¡¯t doing this to fuel herself. She just needed to calm down before she lost control and did something stupid. Focusing on the feeling of her rapid steps, up and down. The constant motion of her lungs breathing, in and out. The smoldering anger which threatened to break the balance. The fiery anger which thrashed and contorted, bucking and railing against being contained. Against the order of her motions. Against the intention of her actions. Against the control of her mind. The anger was a primal force, stupid and unknowing. Willow, was a human. Master of the primal. Water, fire, air, lightning, humanity had learned to harness and control all of the primal energies which had once raged unchecked.
The question of storms and natural disasters briefly tried to distract her, undermine her focus and control. She fed the thought into her mind, if she had the mental capacity to doubt herself then she could redirect that potential to aid her instead. The root of humanity¡¯s success on Earth had been their ability to subvert and control unthinking forces.
Having created a center of peace within the ever-building maelstrom of anger bubbling and building within her, Willow refocused. Her body was on auto-pilot, rushing toward the distant spike of earth. Her mind was trapped fighting against her own monstrous emotion. Using the eye of calm she¡¯d claimed, Willow thought. Since arriving into the world, she¡¯d felt mostly normal. Though, there had been plenty of times where she¡¯d felt her emotions suddenly explode unreasonably. Just like they had when she was a child. The difference was that each of those instances had happened when she could stand still. That had given her the easy out of simply tossing the emotion into her focus, converting it to mana. The unrestrained emotions had become almost a boon, allowing her to rapidly recover her mana.
Have I relaxed my discipline? Grown complacent? She wondered if relying on the supernatural had caused her hard-won self control to degrade. Yet, that didn¡¯t feel quite right. The spikes of emotion didn¡¯t feel the same, they felt stronger. More developed. Enhanced. Sparing a thought for the trees flashing by as she casually leapt and twisted around obstacles while not even paying attention, it clicked. I¡¯m getting stronger. Everything about me. My body is faster and stronger. My mind is generally more resilient, clear and flexible. Would it be so strange for my emotions to become more as well?
The theory had merit. More than merit, she knew at an instinctual level that she was right. It wasn¡¯t that her control was getting worse, it was her emotions which were growing. But why can I feed the emotions into my ability if I¡¯m still, but not if I¡¯m moving? The question brought a surge of annoyance and her precarious balance within the swirling mass of anger broke. She felt it all hit her again, driving out conscious thought and careful consideration. She forced herself to slow, then stop. Willow stood stiffly under the shadow of the towering cliff face in front of her. Her teeth and fists clenched, her eyes staring straight down at her booted feet as her body trembled. With a herculean effort, she activated her focus and began forcing the pent up fury into it. Releasing the emotion into her ability where it was ripped apart and consumed, returned to her as disciple mana. Over the course of several minutes, Willow slowly relaxed. Her jaw loosening, fists opening and relaxing, shoulders dropping as tension fell from them. She took a deep, long, breath, and looked up.
She stood a handful of meters from a wall of white and grey. Semi porous rock sat uncaring before her, its surface mostly flat and sheer. The slight mound around the stone where it met the earth hinted that the jagged spike had possibly been driven into the ground somehow. Looking up, the thought was boggling. Anything large enough to drive something that monumental into the ground was beyond her ability to imagine. Taking one last steadying breath, she began to walk around the structure¡¯s perimeter, looking for a good place to begin climbing.
An hour later, Willow had examined the semi-cylindrical construct of stone from every angle. No side was really any better than any other. She could see some ledges and possible hand-holds, but each one was faint and appeared both too small and infinitely precarious. While she hadn¡¯t noticed any dust or rocks falling from the spike while she¡¯d been investigating it, she didn¡¯t necessarily meant it was stable. After all, this planet didn¡¯t have any birds or wildlife to speak of.
Where she might assume a silent cliff face like this back on Earth was mostly stable, that was mostly due to the knowledge that goats, birds and other wildlife would be constantly testing any potential hand and footholds. That wasn¡¯t to say there wouldn¡¯t be treacherous or loose stones, but she¡¯d have at least been confident that there was a stable pathway. Had she been on earth, she probably would have even been able to find a trail which whatever indigenous wildlife used commonly and could follow that. No such luck for her here.
Fully calmed after spending the last hour considering a literal rock, and feeling both of her mana aspects were full, Willow felt as ready as she¡¯d ever be. She began climbing.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Three hours later, Willow groaned as her back slammed into the earth. Again. For the twentieth time. She stared up into the night sky, oddly lit by a defuse kind of white light coming from too-bright stars which she might have thought were satellites back on Earth. The first time she fell, she¡¯d almost panicked as she felt her spine snap. This time, feeling her back break, along with several bones in her arm and both legs, and her neck, she just waited. At least this is a good testing ground for my healing skill. Back Into It lived up to its name every time. No matter how badly she thought she¡¯d ruined her body with a bad fall, it just kept patching her back up. Its mana usage was even efficient enough that if she just let it passively heal her, she¡¯d have as much mana left after it was done knitting her back together as she¡¯d had when it started.
Seeing little reason to waste time letting it use the minimum amount of mana, though, Willow channeled a bit more discipline mana into the task and let it do its thing. While she waited, she examined the skill¡¯s pattern looping through her body. She thought she might have it entirely memorized soon, since this was all she could really do while waiting for it to finish up. She¡¯d probably gone over the pattern a hundred times by now.
It was just ten minutes later that she climbed back to her feet. Her mana was down to about a fourth, so she sat and channeled the frustration from failing again into her ability. Once her mana was full, she stood back up and stretched while thinking. I¡¯ve tried a bunch of different paths, I¡¯ve used my discipline mana to make sure every single movement I make is perfect, I¡¯ve taken care to test ever hand hold and foot hold. It doesn¡¯t matter, the stupid mountain seems to just decide it¡¯s done with me and bucks me off.
The latest fall hadn¡¯t happened due to slipping hands or feet while moving from one position into the next one. No. She¡¯d been resting on a stable cleft, holding two convenient jutting stones for extra stability. There¡¯d been no hint of weakness or instability. She¡¯d been standing and gasping for air, hundreds of meters from the ground. Then the cleft she was on had simply crumbled to dust and she¡¯d been falling. She had tried to hold herself with the stones her hands were on, but they just exploded into gravel and fell beside her. Every time she reached out to grab for a new hold, she just managed to scrape her fingers and hands.
Hands on hips, she glared at the uncaring mountain face. She would get up there. As Willow strode toward her twenty first attempt, she didn¡¯t spare a thought for why she was trying to climb it. Madrick and his nonsense were a distant memory, the only thing she had to think about was the challenge in front of her. She¡¯d failed challenges before.
Madrick
Sitting on the Edge of The Mountain, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
As expected of his apprentice, Willow had arrived at the foot of the mountain before night fell. Also as expected, she¡¯d ignored the darkness which fell as she walked around looking for a good path to ascend. It had apparently never crossed her mind to camp out and wait for morning. After falling the first time, just a few dozen meters from the ground, she¡¯d landed badly on her backpack. Whatever was in there was clearly sturdy, as she¡¯d bent around it. She¡¯d broken before whatever was in there did.
He¡¯d been about to go down and fetch her, healing her would be annoying and wouldn¡¯t be fast given his current aspects didn¡¯t lend themselves to healing others very well. He¡¯d need several more ranks before his soul nexus would be ready for the insights he had planned to close those gaps. Deciding to give her some time to languish and think about how fucked she was before saving her, he just watched. The fae man sat quietly off to the side, flipping through his journal and writing something every so often. He was oblivious that Willow had arrived at the mountain¡¯s base and Madrick had no reason to tell him.
A minute or two later, just as he was about to go pick her up and instruct her on the folly of trying to accomplish something beyond her means, an amusingly hypocritical speech forming in his mind, she moved. He¡¯d been shocked to see her just sit up, as if she hadn¡¯t had several vertebrae shattered into shards. Curiosity peaked, he used his Eyes of Conquest to examine her. She still had bright red spots along her back which indicated weak points, but as he watched they rapidly faded from scarlet to burgundy, to orange, yellow, then gone.
That had been enough to elicit a sharp whistle of admiration from the warrior. At her grade, he certainly wouldn¡¯t have been able to recover from such a horrible wound by himself. Even at his current grade, if his spine snapped, he¡¯d need some serious healing before he¡¯d be able to function properly again. Due to his particular aspects, he¡¯d be able to force himself to move and continue fighting, but he wouldn¡¯t actually be in any shape to. He¡¯d only be able to because his entire path revolved around battle, war, and domination. If he had to stop fighting just because he had a fatal wound, he¡¯d never have been able to advance far enough to leave such physical weakness behind the first time around.
Settling back in, Madrick watched as his apprentice tried again. And again. Over and over she tried and fell, but each time she got further. Each time she also took an even more terrible injury. By her twentieth attempt, she was scaling the wall like she¡¯d been born to climb. She somehow identified stable hand and footholds even from a distance and leapt and twisted to catch the right ones. She contorted her body into unnatural shapes to ensure her position would allow her to get to the next hold she needed. When she got to one of the larger ledges on the path, he knew she¡¯d make it all the way to the top this time. She¡¯d mastered the skills she needed to do it.
Yet, he felt that she hadn¡¯t reached her limit. There was still plenty of potential here, ready to be pulled out. With a wicked grin, he sent a thread of mana down the mountain face and into the rock-hard ledge under the girl¡¯s feet. He twisted it into a simple rock-to-earth transmutation spell. It cost more mana than he¡¯d like, given his aspects¡¯ lack of affinity with such spells. It was worth it, though. She fell and her body broke again. She just stared upward, then got up, meditated to recover her mana, and went to try again.
Once she reached the same point as last time, Madrick began to send challenges down for her. This time, she noticed just before a ledge she was resting on crumbled. He wasn¡¯t certain if she¡¯d somehow developed a rudimentary mana sense, or if she was counting seconds, or if the clumsy transmutation spell had caused the earth to soften before crumbling. Whatever the cause, she¡¯d leapt moments before the cleft dropped out beneath her. She continued on her way.
Four hours later, the climb had become a contest. The little tree never hesitated to try again, even after landing and cracking her skull. The wound had been bad enough that Madrick wondered if she¡¯d survive. Of course, she had. From that point one every time she fell, she intentionally rolled in the air to ensure she didn¡¯t land in a way that her head was in danger. She¡¯d clearly surmised the same thing Madrick had: as long as she wasn¡¯t killed instantly or ran out of mana with a fatal injury, she would recover. That skull injury, along with the rest of her broken body, had taken a full hour to heal. It had been, by far, the longest time between falling and trying again. The time between being healed and trying again, though, was less than five minutes.
Now that Willow was getting an entire three fourths of the way up, Madrick had started making every handhold and foothold crumble less than a second after she caught hold of it. This resulted in a kind of race as she forced her way up through speed and determination, while he put his full attention into rapidly casting the minor spell over and over. Part of him wondered whether Willow¡¯s eventual victory would be due to him running out of mana. At this point, there was no question as to who would come out on top. Willow would get to the mountain¡¯s summit. It was just a matter of how long it would take. Madrick¡¯s goal was to keep her at it until morning. A tall order, considering the day-night cycle here was about twenty hours for each half. He¡¯d have to manage to keep her down for at least another twelve hours. She might take a break to sleep at some point, which would be hugely helpful toward his goal.
Unbeknownst to Madrick, he¡¯d become so focused that he¡¯d stopped paying attention to his surroundings entirely. Nuu had noticed, and was taking advantage. His hand almost seemed to flicker and blur as he wrote with an almost manic intensity.
Willow
Sitting on the Edge of The Mountain, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
CRACK went the Willow-body. She would have sighed, if her lungs hand¡¯t been punctured. The image of her body on her dojo¡¯s stained-glass window was essentially a mess of red with hundreds of little ¡®urgent¡¯ spots. She flooded her skill with mana. It was a good thing she¡¯d memorized the pattern of it, since at one point she¡¯d found the limit of it¡¯s passive ability.
When she fell and cracked her skull, that break along with the dozens of breaks, cuts, crushed bone, and other wounds was enough to entirely break the skill. She¡¯s seen the skill itself highlighted in bright red on the mural. The pain had been so intense that she¡¯d nearly blacked out. She hadn¡¯t, but it had been close. Had she passed out, she knew she would have died. Instead, she¡¯d managed to push through. She activated her focus to give herself the control she needed. Pushing her mana into the now-instinctive pattern of her Back Into It skill without the assistance of the pre-existing channels, she could only hope it would still work the same. It had.
This time, while arguably more of her body was broken, the skill didn¡¯t break. So far as she could determine, there were two reasons it hadn¡¯t broken since. First, the way the skill worked seemed to be based on maintaining a consistent energy pattern throughout her body, which enforced her healing capacity. That pattern was very difficult to break, because it went throughout her entire body. Even if entire sections of it were damages, as long as the overall pattern was in tact it would work fine.
Secondly, each time the skill healed her, it tempered her body slightly. Her body was becoming tougher and more resilient each time it broke. This made the overall structure of her body less broken. although more individual pieces probably were. While she thought essentially every bone in her body had broken, and much of her muscle felt like it had been turned to jelly, while every organ had taken some kind of damage, everything was more or less in its correct spot. Which meant the skill had to do less rearrangement.
This time she¡¯d seen the peak of the mountain. Another dozen meters, and she¡¯d have been able to pull herself onto the summit. Then the section of rock she was traversing had literally shaken, throwing her off. The shrapnel that had fallen after her had, of course, pierced her as well.
Yeah, this is definitely the worst damage I¡¯ve taken overall. She thought almost casually as she channeled all of her discipline mana into the task of healing her. The torrent of energy washed through her body and began fixing her. Her body ejected foreign matter which couldn¡¯t be broken down, while disintegrating and integrating any useless bits of her body or usable outside material.
The entire process was excruciating, which was ironically a huge boon. She¡¯d figured out after her fiftieth or so drop that if she fed her pain into her focus ability, she could maintain a super-charged version of her skill running until it finished its work. This had reduced her healing time tremendously. Now, she thought, that original spine-break would be a cinch to fix up. She guessed it¡¯d take less than ten seconds if she used all her mana and channeled the pain into replenishing it.
Getting up, she strode toward the mountain again. As she began the much easier start of the climb, she thought through her strategy for the end. If the mountain keeps moving and breaking and bucking there¡¯s no way I¡¯ll ever get to the top. I need it to be still.
She¡¯d tried using her focus, and even the full moment of focus version. It hadn¡¯t stopped the treacherous rock from doing as it pleased. Though, it had caused those changes to become highlighted to her perception and made it easier to predict and avoid. Her current tricks and abilities wouldn¡¯t work. So, what options does that leave me?
The truth was, she had no idea. She knew that she hadn¡¯t even scrapped the surface of what her mana could do yet. She believed her aspects were leagues better than any elemental aspect. What would fire and water help her with here? Even something like Nuu¡¯s aspect wasn¡¯t as powerful, in the long run. Sure, she could write a scene of herself cresting the mountain and be assured it would happen. That¡¯d require she sit down and carefully write the thing out, though. What if she was being chased? She couldn¡¯t write and run. On the other hand, with everything she¡¯d learned while climbing this cliff could be taken and used in the future as needed. No preparation necessary.
The key has to be in one of my aspects, then. I¡¯m very familiar with my discipline mana, by now. Its job is to make me do what I want. Even impossible things. So that leaves my instruction mana. Its job should be to make other stuff do what I want, right? With that thought, she began testing. She was already half-way through the climb. The first part being easy enough by now to be done on auto. Taking a bit of her instruction mana, she tried pushing it through her moment of focus ability. Other than her skill, that¡¯s generally how she would use her mana after all. She¡¯d tried to use just her instruction mana by itself in the ability before, of course, but she hadn¡¯t really had an idea of what she wanted it to do. This time she did. Unfortunately, having a clearer picture of what she wanted wasn¡¯t enough. The ability didn¡¯t seem to do anything.
Annoyed, but not deterred, Willow switched to a newer technique. More recently, and especially on this climb, she¡¯d learned to use her discipline mana to target her body and improve specific things she needed to be better. Taking another strand of instruction mana, she directed it into a hand-hold as she grasped it. Immediately, she felt a connection form. Excited, she sent her intent to the stone. It refused her. She felt as if it understood her intention, but didn¡¯t like it. She sent a blob of her instruction mana down the connection along with her demand. This time it partially obliged, the stone taking on a shape that was just slightly more comfortable for her to grip. Releasing that particular stone with mana and hand alike, she continued her climb.
On the next stone she forged the connection, but this time tried sending a packet of her discipline mana along with her demand. This time, she felt like it was just confused about what she wanted. Anticipation began to bubble up within her as theories began flashing through her mind even faster than her hands and feet took her up the wall. It wasn¡¯t until a dozen or so meters further up the wall that she found the right combination of actions and mana to do what she wanted.
Three fourths of the way up the wall, she stopped on a ledge. She knew it would crumble quickly, so this test would either work or she would fall again. She connected to the ledge with her instruction mana, then formed a packet with her discipline and instruction mana both. The instruction mana wrapped and twisted around the discipline in such a way that the start and end of the packet were delineated by the instruction mana. Meanwhile, the discipline mana made up the majority of the structure. She sent the simple intent toward the ledge Be strong, do not break.
The feeling of acknowledgement she received was simple, but clear. She waited. It was less than a second later that she felt that same sense of interference which she associated with the mountain changing up around her. This time, she felt about half of the discipline mana she¡¯d sent into the foothold drain away, but nothing happened.
She grinned. I win.
Chapter 38 - The Summit
Madrick
Sitting in a Throne Upon the Mountain¡¯s Summit, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
Madrick sat upon the throne-like chair which he¡¯d managed to craft during his self-indulgent bout of showing off. The ifrit¡¯s design spell was both difficult to master and expensive to cast, yet the impression its use tended to leave was more than worth it. He¡¯d seen through his snarky apprentice¡¯s best efforts to remain nonchalant. She¡¯d been moved and her retinue had been astonished.
Adjusting his position to one of regal disinterest, he waited. He¡¯d stopped trying to mess with Willow¡¯s climb once she¡¯d demonstrated the ability to, somehow, stop the effect of his spells from taking. She wasn¡¯t using any counter spelling method he¡¯d ever heard of, she wasn¡¯t brute-forcing a defense by destabilizing his mana, or even putting a barrier between the spell and its target. Whatever she was doing allowed his spell to complete successfully. The feedback from his spells were clear, they¡¯d landed and done their job. Yet, nothing changed.
Each transmutation spell claimed to have completed, having changed the rock to earth. Yet, he could clearly see it hadn¡¯t changed at all. It had remained stubbornly the same. His localized quake spell had returned an all-clear response to him, yet the earth hadn¡¯t so much as shuddered. He¡¯d even tried a new spell as a final challenge for the girl, a shattering spell targeted in a twelve meter diameter which caused the face of the cliff to shatter and explode violently away from the mountain. At least, that¡¯s what happened to all of the rock more than four meters away from Willow¡¯s position when he cast it. That had been the moment she realized he was interfering. She¡¯d glared upward and snarled his name. Had she been an equivalent rank to him, he may have trembled in fear.
Snickering at the thought of a child newly arrived threatening him, Madrick sat and waited. The girl had less than ten meters left to go, so he knew it wouldn¡¯t be long. His domain kept him well informed of her progress, especially since she had that odd ability of hers which removed his influence over her area, active. She¡¯d tried expanding it while working through his spell-based obstacles at first, but once she¡¯d determined it wasn¡¯t enough to keep the mountain together when he wanted it to fall apart, she¡¯d condensed it. For the last six hours or so she¡¯d had the ability active but restrained to just her body. The finesse displayed in being able to alter an ability to that extent already was incredible.
Unable to contain his excitement at what he could mold her into, Madrick began rubbing his hands together in anticipation. It was, of course, that very moment that the would-be-powerhouse in question flew over the edge of the mountain. She clearly saw his less than dignified pose, landing with a scowl on her face.
¡°Eh, took you long enough.¡± He grunted, dropping his hands, pretending to not have been plotting anything.
Nuu
Sitting Atop a Shard of Meteorite Shrapnel, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The finger of sharpened space detritus was a monumentally poignant final locale for Nuu. Considering the cosmic garbage had fallen like the sword of a god¡¯s judgement on his behest, one might understand the chagrin which dominated the majority of his emotion spectrum. In some circumstances, claiming honestly to have called a singular calamity down upon the surface of a planet might have been a source of pride, for Nuu it was quite the opposite. Had he intentionally pulled a passing comet from the heavens and brought a single splinter crashing into the earth, he would professed to all who would hear! Lamentably, the truth was more unsavory.
The giant eyesore which now graced the planet of Savria as its now most obvious landmark had been a mishap. A result of experimentation, the result of ignorance. In truth, Nuu had written a scene in which a fantastical fluttering mix of colorfully sparkling dust fell around him in a beautiful plume, framing him majestically as his scales and the particles of lightly drifting stones bounced light between themselves. The exact scene he had written came to fruition, of course. Yet not in the manner in which he¡¯d believed.
Though it was a bitter memory, it had also taught him a singularly important lesson regarding his ability. While there was little that he could not accomplish if he gave an appropriately vague timeline, the method of delivery was outside of his control. He may have imagined a magical effect, spontaneous brought forth from nothing, but his ability did not. It operated primarily by altering the course of already existing forces. The rest of his experiments performed while languishing on this planet had taught him more of his limitations and restrictions.
To find himself now trapped upon the very object of one of his most shameful failures was an irony deserving of praise. The great narrative surely understood the meaning of subverting ones expectations.
Lessons of his past firmly in mind, Nuu had plotted his escape from the man who had hunted him between planets. The delight he had felt upon realizing that his captor had entirely lost interest in, and subsequently attentiveness regarding, him was rapturous. Seizing the opportunity, he had begun writing at a fevered pace. The plot which he¡¯d devised while waiting for his queue was simple and bare bones, bereft of detail.
Lamentably, the opportunity to specify an outcome which favored Willow and preserved her from harm was far afield. Should he have a day to write his scene, perhaps. A fortnight? More assuredly, yet even such an scale of time would hardly suffice to ensure her safety and role within the scene. A score of months would be a reasonable span in which to craft the layered scenes necessary to ensure the specific outcomes which he personally favored. Alas, the great narrative had conspired to force a pace change upon him. Guilt may tear at him later, as he truly did not wish Willow any harm. With a strong effort of will, Nuu returned his bounding mind back upon his own circumstance and trial.
A portion of his secrets had already been lost, forfeit as the toxic gaze of Madrick had demanded and extracted them from his unwilling lips. Fear of losing all he had worked so hard for over the course of nearly a thousand years was too great a threat. In exchange for his life, at least that was the presumed deal as Madrick had never actually stated any specific intention, Nuu had explained his work upon the planet of Hesv¨¡ra. Moreover, he had sworn a soul-oath never to return to that planet willingly. The price was low, considering his experimentation on that planet might just as simply be resumed elsewhere. Perhaps even here. Savria was suitably vacant of life and organizations who would care to send a ranker after him. Though truly, the same assumption had been what sent him to Hesv¨¡ra. In all the multiverse there was no concept of assurity, not beyond his own ability to craft scenes. An ability which was his only recourse to ensure his own escape with his life and freedom in tact.
Despite any anticipated future guilt, her expected presence was the one certain variable which he had at his disposal. He wrote with as much certainty as he believed was feasible without creating a scene so weak as to be destined to break. The scene had flowed forth from his pen with such alacrity as to be divinely inspired. If not predestined by a god, perhaps he had touched upon one of the innumerable true plots of the great narrative.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The consideration had true merit, as no sooner than he¡¯d invested his mana into the scene did he feel its grooves take hold. In every instance and exploration of his power he had ever contrived, if he activated a scene with himself included, he would be gently offered a comforting groove. A suggestion of a role he might play. In a singularly alien instance, his ability turned upon him and he knew with certainty that he would not escape the clutches of the scene he had written.
The scene began just as he had written it. Willow¡¯s form came flying over the rim of the mountain¡¯s edge and landed with her eyes pinned on Madrick. Not knowing either of the participating characters well enough to create believable dialog, he had maintained a vague outline. He¡¯d written, ¡®the powerful and arrogant voice of the ranker sniped at the landed champion without consideration, fueling the stoked fire of her formerly controlled rage¡¯.
The condescending, ¡°Eh, took you long enough.¡± Was followed by the explosion of incandescent fury which he had designed. A pang of regret tore at Nuu¡¯s heart, resolving to apologize to Willow should he find an opportunity in which he would not put himself at risk of capture by her master.
Willow
Approaching the Mountain¡¯s Tip, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The climb was all but complete. Having realized three fourths of the way up that it wasn¡¯t the mountain fighting her, but Madrick, she had nearly screamed up at the man in the sudden hot anger which blazed within her. She had contained the impulse and contented herself with a few choice words. As she approached the end of her grueling ascent, she found a suitable area to brace herself for the final push. She would not be giving him a chance to throw a gust of wind at her as she pulled herself up onto the flat surface of the mountain top. Or the opportunity to create a wall of flame so hot that she could either burn to death or fall to her possible death. Or any other horrible thing. She was done. She had won. And he. Would. Not. Take. That.
Bunching her muscles, she directed her mana in a now nearly effortless manner and it suffused the exact muscle groups she needed to enhance. Then she crouched down, holding two strong stones which the reinforced with her new spell imperative command, which the UICI had prompted her to name, and leapt. The strength of her body was leveraged perfectly, eking out every ounce of power they had to offer. She felt as if she was soaring, cresting the edge without slowing. Then she saw Madrick, sitting on his stupid little throne and rubbing his hands together like a crusty emperor plotting to turn an impressionable and vulnerable youth to the side of murder.
She landed, containing the tumultuous emotion which was beginning to become the default upon seeing her so-called mentor. She would remain in control, remain disciplined. She would not let him goad her or-
¡°Eh, took you long enough.¡±
Willow¡¯s world went red and froze. The picture before her was clear as a modern Polaroid print. Everything within her view was crystalline, just shaded by her fury. Her mind was clear. The wrath within was also monstrous. Interposed upon the still image of Madrick¡¯s stupid smirking face and limply falling arms was the memory of her throwing herself against coach over and over again. The absolute uselessness of the gesture. The blindness her anger had caused her. Since then, she had learned to channel her rage into her focus, yes. That rage was not part of her focus. It was used as fuel for it. The memory of trying to hit Madrick, just once, played across her consciousness next. The burning, churning, grinning, cackling fire of havoc promised her she would have the strength she needed.
The sweet promise warred with her good sense. Every time she had ever fought with anger, or done anything while angry, it had been ineffectual and useless. The mass of emotional red tittered at her, dancing around in response. It promised her it wasn¡¯t just rage. It wasn¡¯t just anger. It was so much more. It was part of her. She was incomplete without it.
Knowing that discipline had always been what won out in the end, what had always pulled her through in those final pivotal moments, Willow began to push it back. She was standing still and could swallow the hot tempest into her focus. The mass of angry emotion writhed in rejection, fighting her like a living thing. She held is firmly and funneled it into her ability. The red pane of frozen time vanished without fanfare, as if it never was.
Whether she was angry or not, she refused to let Madrick¡¯s comment and flippant attitude stand. She sharpened her will and narrowed her focus. Its boundary sprang out, catching the smarmy man mid-smirk. Her experience over the last weeks, the memory of the last time she¡¯d had to pour all of her strength into her power just to slow him, it all flashed through her clear mind. Her moment came, smooth and unhesitating, as if waiting to embrace her. She saw Madrick¡¯s suddenly colorless dull-grey eyebrow begin to rise, then it froze. Hah! I¡¯m stronger now, you jerk!
With silent determination, she charged. Moving like a blur, Willow hardly noticed the intervening space between herself and her target. Her fist flashed out with her full force, directly into Madrick¡¯s slightly upraised jaw. His position was perfectly positioned, begging to be struck from below. She complied, coiling her body int the tightest, lowest, most explosive form she could manage as her momentum carried her the last meter to close the distance between herself and her unwitting punching bag. Releasing all of the energy in a perfectly controlled, singular explosion of force, her fist cracked against the bottom corner Madrick¡¯s jaw. The cracking sound was satisfied for a bare moment.
The pain ruined that satisfaction. Her moment of focus shattered under the unexpected pain, shocking her to her core. An involuntary scream ripped from her throat, which she could still feel the phantom pain post healing left after screaming fall after fall. The unexpected lack of movement from Madrick staggered her. She collapsed gracelessly on her butt, holding her now shattered right hand in her left, staring at it.
Madrick grinned like a child who¡¯d been nipped by a playful puppy, ¡°You¡¯ve improved! I didn¡¯t even see you move which, believe me, is truly impressive! Well done, student! I knew you had great potential!¡±
Looking up at him, Willow¡¯s gaze was dull. I¡ Failed? It felt so right. That should have been a moment of victory. Internally, she felt devastated. She¡¯d fought Madrick the entire way up the mountain and had won. She should have been able to at least move the moron¡¯s head a millimeter with that perfectly executed, full-power punch!
¡°How?¡± She asked, voice a croak despite being entirely healthy. Even as she stared at him, she had instinctively began cycling her mana through her Back Into It skill. Her hand was twisting back into shape and would be fine again within a matter of seconds.
Raising an eyebrow, Madrick raised a hand to his cheek and touched the spot she¡¯d struck. He shrugged, ¡°You¡¯re just too weak to hurt me. Don¡¯t worry, I think one day you might be able to. In fact, I think I owe you an hour of instruction toward that end.¡±
Oddly, despite talking to someone who had just tried her hardest to truly hurt him, Madrick¡¯s bright smile appeared entirely genuine.
Huffing, Willow glanced around the little area at the top of the mountain. Noticing something was missing, or rather someone, she frowned, ¡°What¡¯d you do with Nuu? You didn¡¯t hurt the guy, did you?¡±
Glancing around, Madrick¡¯s eyebrows climbed nearly to his hairline, ¡°Interesting, I don¡¯t know. When you made your grand entrance the fae was within my domain, now I don¡¯t sense him.¡±
Standing, he walked the dozen or so meters to the west most edge of the plateau from his own position at the northern point. A deep sigh rolled out from Madrick, not frustration so much as weariness. Getting up, Willow joined him, curious despite her disappointment and annoyance. Standing on his left side, a few meters out of easy arm reach, Willow follows his floor-locked gaze.
Burned into the stone was an oddly circular pattern with scribbled loops and whirls. The longer she looked, the more there appeared to be to the image. It seemed to, somehow, be a full three dimensional drawing, despite being carved into a solid plane of stone.
¡°Urgh, after chasing and searching for that guy he gets away.¡± Tossing a sideways glance toward Willow, he frowned, ¡°I hope you¡¯re worth all this bother.¡±
I¡¯ll definitely break your jaw one day, you jerk.
Chapter 39 - Self-Directed Training
Naomi
Kobolt Under-Tree City, Savria
Finding the sunsquat tree which the kobolds called home hadn¡¯t been particularly difficult with Jonah¡¯s overview ability. It had taken a bit longer than they¡¯d hoped to get all the way back, but they¡¯d still made the trek incredibly efficiently. So efficiently that Naomi was fairly certain she was going to pass out soon.
Her mind was fine, an advantage of her empty state, she supposed. Pushing herself past the limits her body tried to impose had been simple. The worst her body¡¯s discomfort had done was send shivers of murky grey throughout her soul. She could still feel pain, but it was a distant thing. Almost academic. The colors were more intense, more interesting.
Somehow, Jonah appeared entirely fresh as they approached the guards standing to either side of the dark patch at the base of the tree. Oddly, the Kobolds seemed to recognize them, as they were just waved through. Smiling and thanking them, Jonah passed through. Naomi didn¡¯t bother. The gesture would waste energy she didn¡¯t have.
It had taken them a total of about sixteen hours to run here. Considering it¡¯d taken a bit over three days of walking to find the jimble-grimb camp, they¡¯d made good time. After following the long tunnel which slowly darkened until maintaining a light level similar to mid twilight, they entered the bustling Kobold town. The entire thing was much the same as the first time they¡¯d seen it. This time, though, Naomi didn¡¯t feel a wave of excitement and wonder rush over her at the sight.
The shockingly large settlement and bustling nature of the city were certainly impressive. Not to mention the industrious way residents moved around like a well oiled machine. Despite all that, she didn¡¯t feel a thing. Standing near the tunnel¡¯s mouth awkwardly, they were noted. Jonah waved at a few of the kobolds which gave them more than a cursory glance, but none seemed interested in stopping to talk to him. They appeared to all have something better to do.
Deciding she¡¯d rather to be taking a nap if they were going to wait around, Naomi started off toward the area she remembered Skeetha and Halshath¡¯s hut. While she wasn¡¯t entirely certain she remembered the path correctly, her mental map was clear enough to at least try. A few minutes of walking later, Naomi stopped and looked around, she thought the hovel to their right was the couple¡¯s. Glancing over to see Jonah looking between the houses with an uncertain frown, she caught his eye and raised a brow.
He shrugged, ¡°Might as well knock?¡±
Nodding, Naomi put word to action and rapped the wall to the side of the woven curtain blocking the entrance. An unfamiliar kobold pulled back the curtain and looked up, and up, at her visitors. Pink eyes stared with wide surprise, nose flaring, ¡°Cans I helps you?¡±
Came the surprisingly chirpy voice. Before Naomi could answer, Jonah nodded, ¡°Sorry to bother you, we¡¯re looking for Skeetha and Halshath?¡±
¡°Oohs! You¡¯re the outsiderss which theys brought in before!¡± The little crocodile-like snout bobbed rapidly as she nodded.
After another moment, she hadn¡¯t actually answered the question or indicated any interest in helping. Naomi asked pointedly, ¡°Can you tell us where they are?¡±
Blinking more like an owl than a reptile, she gasped, ¡°Ohs! Yes! They are ins the next burrows!¡± She pointed a clearly recently sharpened and painted red claw toward another clump of homes.
¡°Follow mes!¡± She added happily, stepping around Naomi and past Jonah to lead them along. Quickly falling in step, they followed. ¡°Thank you for helping us, it¡¯s a little hard to tell everything apart after only being here once.¡±
¡°Yes!¡± Their guide agreed, ¡°Is hards to understand the lay of the lands with just human senses!¡± She snickered softly in a way that Naomi was certain was mocking. She didn¡¯t care, and Jonah didn¡¯t appear to notice. He was looking around with bright interest evident in his eyes, just as excited by the little underground society as the first time they¡¯d come.
Stopping in front of one of the mud baked homes, the pink kobold nodded, ¡°This iss their places! They will probablys be out working still, you waits here?¡±
Glancing at each other, Naomi did her best to portray her exhaustion through her eyes. Apparently, she did so well enough as Jonah chuckled slightly and asked, ¡°Would they mind if we laid on their floor? We¡¯re a bit exhausted.¡±
Waking, Naomi found Skeetha standing over the large pot in the middle of the hut. She honestly didn¡¯t even remember entering the room, much less laying down. Yawning, she stretched and sat up.
¡°It¡¯s good to see you Skeetha.¡±
The matron of the household flashed her a grin made wicked by sharp teeth and lack of lips. She waved, ¡°Yous too, friend Naomi.¡±
Glancing around, she realized Jonah was nowhere to be seen. Before she could ask, though, Skeetha explained, ¡°Friend Jonah is with Halshath. He explained what you learned and what you asks of us. Halshath wished to teach the young mans something. We gave promises to teaches you for findings the jimble-grimbs.¡±
Nodding, Naomi asked, ¡°Can I do anything to help while we are waiting?¡±
¡°Rests. You have slept for only a couple hours. You needs more.¡±
Nodding, Naomi laid back down on the oddly comfortable woven mesh which laid over the dirt floor.
Willow
The Summit, Savria
Waking from a restless sleep, Willow stretched and opened her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she sorted through her memories from the previous day and night. While Madrick had been ready to grant her ¡°reward¡± immediately upon reaching the mountain top, she had needed rest.
Her Back Into It had saved her life dozens of times, bringing her back from the literal brink of death. Besides that, she had literally scaled a massive mountain as Madrick broke it beneath her freehand while pushing the boundaries of her focus ability. If all that hadn¡¯t been enough, she¡¯d created a brand new spell! It had been enough for one day. That said¡
She pushed herself to her feet in as smooth a motion as she could manage, trying to give the impression of waking up entirely alert and ready to go. Her execution was fantastic, flawless, even! If only I hadn¡¯t been on the edge of a mountain. She only just threw herself backward, back onto her bedroll, before stepping directly off into empty space. Did anyone see that? The dark chuckle from behind answered the question.
Giving her dignity up as a lost cause, Willow pushed herself back up and turned. There was Madrick, still sitting on that stupid chair of his.
¡°Did you sit there all night and stare at me while I slept?¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
¡°¡No.¡±
¡°Really? Cuz it looks like you¡¯ve been there for a while.¡±
¡°I have better things than watch a child sleep.¡± He dismissed with a wave of his hand.
Crossing her arms over her chest, Willow stared at him.
He stared back. If he wasn¡¯t so weird she¡¯d probably try to win the staring contest. Instead, she decided it was time to get down to business.
¡°I¡¯m ready for my training.¡±
¡°Finally! What do you want to learn?¡±
¡°Uh¡ What?¡± Her arms dropped, surprised.
¡°Don¡¯t you have something planned? Some malicious obstacle course to teach me the limits of my body, or maybe a meditation ritual to sharpen my mind? A bunch of incantations to memorize so I can shoot fireballs?¡±
He snorted, ¡°What do you think this place is?¡± He waved his arm in a generally all-encompassing manner. ¡°This is a small trial-by-fire. The so-called obstacle course. Though, honestly it¡¯s a bit more dull than I¡¯d hoped. Generally, doomed planets are more exciting.¡±
That peaked her interest, ¡°Doomed? Also, why do you sound surprised? Didn¡¯t you know where you were sending us?¡±
¡°You. I sent you. Your hangers-on just followed. And no, I had no idea where you¡¯d land. I have this artifact.¡± He held up his left hand, showing a black ring with what looked like an empty stone setting at first glance. Stepping forward to get a better look, she realized it wasn¡¯t a setting but rather the open jaws of some indistinct beast.
¡°Weird and disturbing. Appropriate for you. Also, they¡¯re my friends, not ¡®hangers-on¡¯.¡± She looked up from the ring to meet his brilliantly green eyes. Those goat pupils throw me for a loop every time.
He let his hand drop without breaking eye contact, ¡°The ¡®Jaws of Doom¡¯ artifact allows me to open a portal to a random doomed planet. It¡¯s shockingly useful.¡±
¡°You often meet new people and drop them through portals into a planet which is supposed to explode soon?¡± She narrowed her eyes, then straightened as she realized she was still slightly hunched from looking at the ring. Shoot. If anyone saw they might have thought I was bowing to him!
¡°It¡¯s an amusing way to determine whether they¡¯re worth my attention.¡± After a beat he mentioned, ¡°Though doomed can mean many things. The planet may not explode. It could end up disintegrating, being swallowed by a star or black hole, eaten by a god, transformed into something new, compressed into a bauble¡ The possibilities are endless.¡±
That was¡ Actually interesting. So Madrick could provide useful information instead of just being a jerk. Speaking of, ¡°You really don¡¯t have any training planned for me? When I got that mission request I assumed there was an agenda. A lesson plan of some kind.¡±
Shaking his head, Madrick answered simply, ¡°No. You tell me what you want to learn. If it¡¯s within my ability to teach, I will give you an hour of instruction. If I don¡¯t know or am not sufficiently equipped to train you in the subject, you will ask for something else. Simple.¡±
¡°Can I just ask you to teach me what I need to know the most?¡±
Snorting, Madrick stood and paced to the edge of the cliff, looking out into the horizon, ¡°How am I supposed to know what you need most?¡±
Scowling at the man¡¯s back, Willow replied with her best ¡®aw bless his little heart¡¯ sickly sweet voice, ¡°Weyll I don¡¯t know. Maybe it¡¯s that you¡¯re some kind of ancient and powerful entity who¡¯s seen it all and knows it all. Maybe that¡¯s what gave me the impression you might have an inkling of an idea of what you would want to teach a disciple.¡± By the end of her retort the sickly sweet tone had become more like vinegar.
Turning around, Madrick rested his right hand on the pommel of his ridiculously delicate looking sword. He sighed dramatically, ¡°This is why the tutorial system is so flawed. It doesn¡¯t actually teach you how anything works. Especially in¡¡± His face twisted in disgust before spitting out, ¡°¡modern, tutorials. They teach you all the wrong lessons. They teach you that others will guide you. They teach you that humanity is best when working together. They teach you that you should help and rely on each other. They teach you that others know what¡¯s best for you.¡±
Hesitating, Willow took a moment to think through what Madrick was saying, ¡°Those¡ Aren¡¯t good lessons? Humans are primarily successful because of our ability to work together and pass down advancements between gen¡er¡at¡ions¡¡± She slowly trailed off at the end as she realized the hole in that logic.
¡°Right. Pass down your knowledge to your descendants. Sure¡ Except you¡¯ll live forever.¡± He drawled derisively, ¡°So what¡¯s the point? Also, who would want to have child?¡± He made a face as if disgusted at the thought.
¡°Hey! Some people love being parents! Raising children is an important and honorable¡ Uh¡ thing!¡±
¡°Yes, yes, I¡¯m sure.¡± He waved his hand dismissively, ¡°As pointless as it is, I¡¯m certain it¡¯s so rewarding. Probably some kind of UA available for freaks who have enough spawn.¡± The second sentence was said more quietly, but with enough volume Willow thought she was likely supposed to hear it.
This is going nowhere. Though, I guess I¡¯ve gotten some good information? Maybe? So if he¡¯s not going to just tell me what I need to know, I need to figure out what I want to know.
¡°Okay, teach me how to rank up.¡± She said firmly.
¡°Nah. Here.¡± Madrick dismissed immediately.
¡°But you just¡¡± before she could continue she got a notice from her UICI.
DISCIPLE GIFT RECIEVED!
Your master, Madrick, has sent you a gift!
Gift: The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking
Seeing that she¡¯d received the alert, Madrick continued, ¡°Rank milestones are simple information, easy to acquire until the hundreds. That guide will pretty much outline how to progress between each rank.¡±
¡°Oh. Okay, thanks.¡± Suddenly being given a resource like this was nice, but¡ Felt weird. She narrowed her eyes and looked up to find Madrick smirking at her, ¡°What? What¡¯s with the creepy smile?¡±
The expression vanished, ¡°It¡¯s a charming smile.¡±
¡°Uh hu. So¡¯s the joker¡¯s.¡± She deadpanned.
Clearly not getting the reference, but understanding it wasn¡¯t a compliment, Madrick made a ¡®go on¡¯ gesture and began tapping a foot impatiently.
Ooookie. I guess I don¡¯t need to know how to rank up, so what else do I need? I want to be able to break his dumb face for being so weird¡ But other than that¡ My main goal is to leave The Origin universe within a hundred years. Or¡ Do I have to rank up to leave?
¡°I want to leave The Origin. How do I do that?¡±
Eyebrows raising, Madrick¡¯s weird smile stretched back over his face. Why¡¯s it so off putting? Is it because it looks vaguely threatening? Or is it just his clothes scream vampire so much that the lack of fangs seems wrong?
¡°A much better question. To leave the origin you need three things.¡± He held up his hand, three fingers raised.
¡°First,¡± a finger fell. ¡°You need to be able to resist being torn apart by higher tier potentia. Every other universe has a much higher potentia density. Second,¡± another finger dropped. ¡°You need a world key. And last,¡± a fist formed. ¡°You need a guide.¡±
¡°Before you complain that you don¡¯t understand anything I just said, of course you don¡¯t.¡± He preempted her follow-ups.
¡°First, the high potentia. Potentia is the energy of the world, everything is potentia and potentia is everything. However, the more real something is, the more potentia it gives off or is comprised of. I¡¯m not a scholar, so don¡¯t ask me for all the details, I never cared about all that. The important part is that if you get touched by a spark with one potentia it will singe you. If you touch a spark with a hundred potentia it will go through your body without stopping. The size and intensity of the spark will be exactly the same, yet you would know the difference if you saw two sparks with different amounts of potentia. Within The Origin, potentia is a constant. Everything is as real as everything else. Outside The Origin, potentia is variable. Some things may barely exist, while others are so real that just looking at them makes you less real.¡±
Oddly, Madrick seemed to actually be a decent lecturer. As soon as he¡¯d begun his explanation, his voice had become animated and excited. He begun to pace back and forth in front of her as he continued. ¡°As for the other two, they¡¯re somewhat self explanatory. A key is an object which allows you to open a passage between universes. They come in too many forms to count. Similarly, your guide can be essentially anything. A compass, a cube of jello that tastes weird when you¡¯re going in the wrong direction, a cloud of faces which says ¡®hot¡¯ or ¡®cold¡¯ based on whether you¡¯re going in the correct or incorrect direction. There are myriad options. Most guides can only help you navigate between two specific universes. The best guides allow you to cross multiple.¡±
Stopping in front of her again, Madrick turned and rubbed his hands together, ¡°This brings us to how you get a guide or a key. Rifts. Have you ever heard of rifts, little tree?¡±
Shaking her head slowly, Willow sat down cross legged, it seemed that Madrick had landed on a topic that would keep him going for a while.
¡°Rifts are the backbone of civilization. They are portals to pocket universes. They are exceptionally strange, in that they are technically part of the universe in which they appear. Yet their rules aren¡¯t necessarily the same. For instance¡¡± He hesitated, then winced and visibly restrained himself, ¡°I¡¯ve answered your question on how you can leave. Would you like to ask another question?¡±
Holy cricket song! He¡¯s actually trying to help! Did I misjudge him? Hm¡ The image of him staring down at her, invoking the strongest fear response she could possibly imagine came back to her. Nope. He¡¯s still a baddie. Still, this is interesting¡
She shook her head, ¡°Please keep going, I want to know all about rifts.¡±
The smile was back. Oh no.
Chapter 40 - Rifts, Dungeons, Preparation
Willow
The Summit, Savria
Dungeons. Rifts were dungeons. ¡°They¡¯re not video game dungeons.¡± Madrick insisted yet again.
Lounging on the oh-so-comfy stone mountain top Willow held up a fist and flicked her pointer finger up. ¡°Rifts are extra-dimensional spaces that have one or two entrances that appear semi randomly. Yeah yeah there are rules about how and where they appear, but for a layman like me, it¡¯s random. Dungeons in games can be anything from a cave system to a castle, and usually they¡¯re entirely self contained. It¡¯s pretty much exactly the same thing.¡±
Pulling her left leg up so that her knee was visible at the edge of her peripheral vision, the sole of her foot laying flat, she hooked her right left atop the ridge of her knee. She raised another finger, ¡°Rifts are full of monsters which, when you kill them, make you stronger. That¡¯s literally the point of dungeons in video games.¡± Before Madrick could try and cut her off she flicked up a third finger and spoke louder, ¡°AND FINALLY! They give out items and spells and stuff. It¡¯s LITERALLY a dungeon.¡±
¡°Ungrateful.¡± Madrick muttered, then tried to convince her again. ¡°Rifts have existed for far longer than the ridiculous ¡®video game system¡¯ insights.¡±
Lifting her head from her bed of rock, Willow looked over her legs at Madrick¡¯s glowering form. For some reason he seemed to hate anything being compared to a game. She couldn¡¯t wait to tell Jonah about the hissy fit the big-bad man threw about this.
Uncrossing her legs, she sat up, then rose and began stretching. She¡¯d been sitting for much longer than the hour she¡¯d planned. As it happened, Madrick was apparently more than happy to talk about rifts and anything having to do with monsters or fighting. As she stretched she mentioned, ¡°Doesn¡¯t that just mean dungeons are based on rifts, instead of the other way around? Doesn¡¯t make the idea they¡¯re the same thing any less accurate. Why do you care so much about the terminology anyway, you said you aren¡¯t a scholar before. Why get caught up on the details?¡±
Huffing disdainfully, he answered, ¡°It¡¯s an issue because it encourages that silly ¡®Omniscient System¡¯ path. It¡¯s the only path with a ceiling.¡± By now Willow recognized Madrick¡¯s ¡®getting warmed up¡¯ tone. She moved on from stretches to a series of light exercises she could keep up while listening.
Noticing he¡¯d gone quiet, Willow turned to face him while doing her modified knee-ups. Modified because she was leaping as high as she could with one leg while the other was being pulled up. It was fun, if hard. Giving him a smile and nod to indicate he had her attention, he continued after a moment.
¡°The ¡®Omniscient System¡¯ path is the only one which, to all appearances, is a true dead end. The insights which encompass the path all lead to a flawed understanding of the universe which cannot be reconciled to reach the peaks of power. There are no ¡®gamer¡¯ gods. Much less god kings or pinnacle gods. There are paths based around pigments and colors, the sound a horned owl makes during mating, the feeling of bafflement when a sudden smell permeates an empty room. These aren¡¯t hypothetical, there are gods who literally started their paths with those kinds of insights. The first is part of a path that god later named the ¡®Colors of the Soul¡¯ path. The second, ¡®Sounds of Passion¡¯. And the last, ¡®The Path of Unobserved Incredulity¡¯. These were all born of seemingly ridiculous concepts, yet they were capable of being built and expanded into truly earth shattering depths of understanding of the inner workings of the multiverse. The ¡®Omniscient System¡¯ path, on the other hand, has millions, maybe billions, of followers. Yet not a single god.¡±
Apparently realizing his rant had started to become circular, Madrick stopped with a deep breath before concluding, ¡°The reason I hate anything associated with that path is that it cripples those who follow it. What you believe, how you perceive the world, matters. If you believe a lie, then you either have to become powerful enough to make the lie a reality, or you are forever stuck in your self-inflicted ignorance. Abandoning a broken path is hard. The easiest way to wipe that slate clean is to die.¡±
His last words landed with finality, disgust twisting his upper lip.
Ignoring the attempted gravity, Willow switched to star jumps. Realizing star jumps were downright easy, she started flipping horizontally in the air with each one, left and right, trying to stay more or less in the same area. She ignored Madrick¡¯s annoyed expression as she acted in an unapologetically ridiculous manner while he attempted to sound cool.
Huffing between jumps, Willow asked, ¡°Doesn¡¯t¡ *huff*¡ that just mean no one has gotten¡ *huff*¡ to god-level yet? Besides, what¡¯s the big¡ *huff* deal¡ *huff*¡ About being a god?¡±
Head subtly swaying as he watched her, Madrick crossed his arms. ¡°Being a god is just a matter of rank, true. But breaking rank one hundred is a qualitative change in power. Each rank matters, each one compounding your power. There are even thresholds where your power will spike sharply. You¡¯ll see, when you read that book I sent you. When you reach rank one hundred, though, everything below your rank becomes as an ant or speck of dust.¡±
Laughing, Willow switched from her modified star-jumps to triple twist combined with a flip. Landing it easily, she added an additional flip. Finding that landing after two flips was sufficiently challenging, she continued at that level. Between flips she remarked, ¡°So not really different from¡¡± Jump, twist, flip, twist, flip ¡°¡How you are now!¡±
Raising his head haughtily, Madrick agreed, ¡°Naturally. As one who has reached godhood previously, it¡¯s only natural I see no equal among those of my current rank.¡±
That was enough to get Willow to stop mid-crouch, preparing to spring. Her eyebrows rose, ¡°You were a god? And you somehow, what, lost ranks? That¡¯s possible?¡± Noticing she¡¯d stopped her exercise, Willow exploded upward again.
¡°Of course. Anything that can be gained can be lost. Mostly.¡± Madrick shrugged, then sighed, ¡°Are you never still?¡±
¡°Sometimes! But it¡¯d be a waste of time right now, I¡¯ve got nothing else to do but train, right?¡±
Sighing in a very put-upon manner, Madrick answered in the way of someone who thinks they¡¯re being ceaselessly patient, ¡°You are doing something else. You¡¯re conversing with your master.¡±
¡°Sure, sure¡¡± Jump. ¡°¡But I can do both! So why not?¡±
¡°Because it¡¯s rude?¡± He suggested.
¡°So is ambushing innocent girls and demanding they hit you¡¡± ¡°¡while using some kind of uber-scary spell or something¡¡± ¡°¡then kidnapping them!¡±
Between her leaps Willow was able to see his exaggerated posture. Shoulders slumped, leaning back, head tilted toward the heavens as if searching for patience. For a minute, Willow was pretty sure he wasn¡¯t going to answer. Finally, though, he turned back to look at her, ¡°Surely, being tutored and granted discipleship to a former and soon to be returned god should be more than enough to make amends for any perceived wrongdoing.¡±
¡°Nope!¡± Not even an apology, seriously? Nope. Not forgiven. Try admitting you were wrong, that might get you somewhere.
Although she did her best to fume internally, the anger was cold by now. She was fairly certain Madrick didn¡¯t actually mean her any harm. It seemed to be just the opposite, actually. That doesn¡¯t excuse his actions or attitude, though. Until he admits his fault, he doesn¡¯t get my forgiveness. She resolved.
Ending her flipping twists, Willow dropped into a front split. Taking a deep breath, she shoved herself up with her arms. Finding herself several meters further into the air than expected, she flailed momentarily before twisting and landing on her feet. Huh, that used to be super hard.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Deciding Madrick wasn¡¯t going to apologize at this time, she switched topics, ¡°So how, exactly, did you lose your godship?¡±
¡°I died.¡± The statement was given so nonchalantly that Willow almost thought she¡¯d misheard.
¡°You¡ Died. But you¡¯re fine?¡±
¡°Of course, I-¡± His reply was cut short as a distant crash caught their attention. Both turning, Willow could see massive blurry figures in the distance. They were a long ways away still. As far as she could tell, they probably wouldn¡¯t arrive today. If they stopped for the night, maybe tomorrow? If they didn¡¯t, maybe half way through the night.
¡°Ah, you can finally see them. Good. Then, I¡¯ll take my leave and you can continue on with your little plan.¡±
Turning to Madrick, Willow gave him an annoyed look, ¡°How about you just zap me and my friends off this planet instead?¡±
¡°Nah.¡±
With that, Madrick leapt into the air, hovering a hundred meters above her for a moment, before taking off directly upward, at least as fast as a jet from earth.
Shaking her head, Willow turned back to stare toward her oncoming enemies. They had somewhat clumped together. It was hard to be sure about how far apart they were from this distance, considering the scales involved, but she¡¯d guess only a half dozen kilometers separated them at most.
Sighing, she got back to her exercise. They were below her, which was a good enough reason to stay here. Besides that, if she left the mountain top and ran in the opposite direction she wouldn¡¯t be able to track their progress. Finally, she wanted to stay near this very obvious landmark since it¡¯d be difficult for her party and the kobolds to find her otherwise. Though¡ I guess the giant walking disasters might be a pretty good landmark for them.
Jonah
Kobolt Under-Tree City, Savria
Urgh, it¡¯s finally over. Jonah thought as he collapsed. As soon as he¡¯d told Halshath about his Effortless Movement ability, the kobold had dragged him to the training yard. His entire explanation was, ¡°You must understands your abilities.¡±
When he protested that they needed to get ready to help Willow, he¡¯d just waved it off and said it would take time to rally their warriors. They could do both, according to the grizzled chieftain. What followed has been more like a torture session than any kind of experimentation Jonah had ever heard of.
He¡¯d had to go through obstacle courses, run around a track, hit dummies with training weapons, block strikes from training weapons, and generally just do various outlandish exercises. He had to admit it had been informative. But couldn¡¯t we have been more scientific about it? Plan out the tests so we knew what we¡¯re testing beforehand? He grumbled to himself while staring up at the ceiling coated in that odd softly glowing orange light which ignored physical laws.
To summarize what I¡¯ve learned¡ Anything that requires an external force isn¡¯t included in my ability. Swinging a sword cost him nothing. Swinging a sword, which struck a dummy, cost him just the stamina the strike required, and the only strain came from the recoil. The motions of climbing were effortless, but lifting and holding himself were not. Jumping was as simple as breathing. Even flipping would be, if he could stop landing on his back and knocking the air out of himself. Running with weights was odd, as he lost about as much energy as he would if he just stood around holding said weights. On the other hand, if he tried to run with a strong but stretchy vine tied around his waist to resist him, it rapidly became exhausting.
He¡¯d gained a point in endurance and one in strength from the four hour stint of training, at least. Halshath¡¯s scarred snout came into Jonah¡¯s field of vision and he knew his break was at an end. Groaning, he slowly sat and then stood. The darkly dappled kobold flashed a wicked smile, but didn¡¯t demand he continue. Instead, he told Jonah, ¡°Our warriors have their orders and are forming ups. We can leave in six hours. You should go sleeps until then. Your friend Naomi has done nearly nothing else since you twos arrived. She did not have your ability to brace hers along the trip.¡±
Nodding, Jonah fell in step with Halshath, letting himself be led through the frankly disorienting city toward the small hovel which the kobold leaders were allowing them to rest in. As he walked, he opened his interface and started the party chat. He held his breath, then relaxed as it connected. They¡¯d tested the party chat at various ranges and hadn¡¯t found a limit, so they¡¯d all been hopeful it would work. Hope or no hope, they hadn¡¯t been sure.
As soon as Willow connected into the party Jonah gave he an update, ¡°We¡¯ll be leaving with all the kobold warriors Halshath could whip up in around six hours.¡±
¡°Jonah! Thank GOD you called!¡± Willow¡¯s voice came through sounding delighted.
Although her tone didn¡¯t suggest anything was wrong, he hadn¡¯t expected quite such a happy reaction. ¡°Is¡ Everything okay?¡±
¡°No!¡± She semi-shouted in his mind, ¡°I¡¯m SO bored! I¡¯ve been watching these stupid building-sized giants walking toward me for like three hours. Madrick went off to do whatever Madrick does when he¡¯s not messing with me, and I¡¯ve run out of new exercises to try.¡±
Suppressing his desire to roll his eyes on the off chance Halshath noticed and started wondering if he was crazy, Jonah asked, ¡°How about your magic? Practiced anything new with that?¡±
¡°Yeah! You won¡¯t believe it, but I climbed a mountain that¡¯s like¡ Uh¡ Huh, I don¡¯t really know how big it is. It¡¯s massive though! The giant pop-hopper final-boss guys look like ants from up here! I think they¡¯ll be here in like¡ Eh¡ Fifteen hours or so? I don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll stop to sleep or anything though. Anyway! Let me tell you about this climb, Madrick was such a jerk and¡¡±
Listening to Willow regale him about her adventure in climbing a sheer cliff-like mountain was entertaining enough that Jonah found himself surprised when they arrived back at Skeetha and Halshath¡¯s home.
¡°So then after like the twentieth time I fell, I figured out I can speed up the healing if I cycle my mana in the skill¡¯s pattern manually! It cut the time I had to wait between attempts in like a tenth.¡±
¡°Hey Willow.¡±
¡°Oh, sorry. I¡¯ve been rambling, oops¡. Uh, how¡¯ve you been?¡±
Doing his best to send a sense of amusement over the channel, Jonah answered, ¡°We¡¯re doing okay. I¡¯ll tell you about a cool ability I got. But we just got back to the house and I need to get some sleep before we head your way.¡±
¡°Oh! Right! Okay, sleep well! Tell Naomi hi! I¡¯ll see you guys soon!¡±
Agreeing, Jonah said his goodbyes and closed the channel. Noticing everyone was staring at him, he winced, ¡°Sorry. I ah, I was talking to Willow. Telling her we¡¯re going to be heading out soon.¡±
That seemed to be enough of an explanation as to why he had been spaced out. Skeetha gestured, ¡°Please, sits, eat. Then we will alls get some sleep before the march starts tomorrows.¡±
Doing as asked, he sat. Taking one of the odd leaf-wrapped rolls, he waited to see how Halshath ate his. He just popped the whole bundle in his mouth, so Jonah followed suit. It was delicious, a well seasoned packet of soft meat and tubers. ¡°Where do you guys get meat?¡± Jonah spoke curiously, having never thought to ask.
¡°We have livestalks for it.¡± Halshath mentioned. ¡°They are further downs. Bats too big to fly. We traded the lasts of our EBs for their grand sires long ago.¡±
¡°What do they eat? I haven¡¯t noticed any bugs or anything here¡¡± Naomi asked between her own bites.
¡°They can eats any plant. We make sure they have plentys and they keep us well feds too. Their droppings even helps make that easier. We can grows a lot of the plants native to this planets underground because of the sun-childs light and their fertilizer.¡±
As they ate, the group continued to chat. Naomi and Jonah were both interested to learn more about the kobold¡¯s way of life. Now that they¡¯d scavenged for food and survived off of the weirdly one-note nutrients available on the planet, they had a new appreciation for these people. Even more so when they learned that many of the residents spent most of their days working various artistic or crafting pursuits.
A lot of their work ended up getting sold to traders who came to the planet every month or so, in exchange for more materials to continue plying their trades. The planet itself was barely survivable, yet the kobolds had found a way to thrive without using the UICI and interacting with the larger universe at large.
The stories that Halshath told them about the time they had worked for the order which had contracted them upon arrival, the Wesnmen¡¯s Coallition, were nothing if not horrifying. They¡¯d spent literal decades at a time stuck in cubicle style buildings working most of those hours through their UICIs. Rarely allowed to leave except on approved restroom breaks.
As they settled for the night, Jonah glanced at Naomi. Although her eyes weren¡¯t full of the same mixture of gratitude that he¡¯d avoided that fate, fury that it had been a possibility, and pity that others had to go through it, they did have a different kind of light in them than usual. He asked softly, ¡°What is it?¡±
¡°I want to break that system. People shouldn¡¯t be able to take advantage like that.¡± She blinked, then cocked her head to the side with unfocused eyes. ¡°I got a¡ ¡®Quest registration accepted¡¯ alert. It says ¡®Break the Cycle: You¡¯ve committed yourself to breaking the arrival system status-quo. Specifically, you wish to put a stop to large organizations¡¯ ability to take advantage of people¡¯s ignorance and emotional vulnerability upon initial arrival. Best Guess Reward: Your choice of changes to arrival system.¡¯¡± She took a breath then finished, ¡°It has a disclaimer at the bottom that the quest registration is a translation of some ¡®Law of Universal Achievement¡¯.¡±
Skeetha gasped in surprise from across the room. She spoke up quietly, ¡°Follow that quest through to the end. UAs are rares and powerful. You should-¡± She cut herself off, ¡°We will talk about it later. For now, sleep. We need to bes rested for tomorrows.¡±
Agreeing, Jonah and Naomi shared a final glance and firm nod, before they each did their best to get comfortable. Although he had wondered whether the anticipation for the upcoming march back and following battle against literal giants would keep him up, Jonah found sleep the moment his eyes closed.
Chapter 41 - Spaceships and Deep Thinking
Nuu
Autronima Faction Guest Quarters, Hathic Cruiser, Savria¡¯s Orbit
¡°I appreciate your willingness to cooperate and explain what you know of the situation on the planet¡¯s surface.¡± Quoth the grey skinned, red eyed, human.
Maintaining an appropriately dignified and unconcerned posture, Nuu inclined his head. Every atom of his person ached to flee the unnatural, nay heretical, construct of steel, lightning, and fire. Traversal of the stars was natural and right. Ships of cold metal, made to cut through the void between, was heresy. ¡°My desire to aid my fellow intelligent beings is without end.¡±
Even the art of speech was mocked within this box of industrial poison. The polished and shining walls reflected his words back upon him, removing all depth and reflecting a parody of his rich resonance. Eyes flitting about, he once again despaired over the lack of life and vibrancy. Although the diminutive chair on which he sat was admittedly comfortable, it lacked the touch of an artisan.
The synthetic fibrous material wound taught to the point of stiffness providing support for his posterior and back carried with it the scent of dramatically altered and combined manufactured material. The desk before him was seemingly hewn of a single piece of carbonized iron. Even the man with which he conversed was little more than a carrier of artifice. He had arranged to convey upon his person every possible technological contrivance.
Garbed in a black and tan suit which clung tightly to an athletic frame, the cybernetics implanted within were made plain by the flashed of light traveling up and down in a stable, nearly hypnotic, pattern. Beside the one piece uniform, he wore a helm of clear glass and silver, which flashed and cracked with inner lightning. Each hand was clad in sheer gauntlets which trailed light as they were moved. Even the boots appeared to exude forth a white smoke, or perhaps steam, with each step.
The subject of Nuu¡¯s inspection coughed softly, ¡°Mr. Nuu. Would you please provide your statement? I understand Fae find our ships¡ Uncomfortable. Once we debrief you, I will give you access to our teleportation array as promised and you may be on your way.¡±
Ah, indeed. The reason he had agreed to be of assistance to these people, the promise of escape. To his eternal chagrin, Nuu had fallen victim in the same manner as the meteorite which became a thin mountain upon Savria. His scene had been vague on the method by which his escape would be secured. Therefore, when the scene carried him to a particular part of the mountain while Willow distracted her master, he¡¯d assumed it would then invest him with sudden strength to climb down. Perhaps, he would happen upon sudden inspiration as to the method by which he might fly. Nay. Rather, a beam of brilliantly sharp, lifeless, careless, light had surrounded him and torn his body into its base components. Joyously, those components had reformed moments later. Less so joyous, he found himself within the ¡®surface transport¡¯ room of a space fairing vessel.
Observing the impatience building in his interrogator¡¯s eyes, Nuu inclined his head again, ¡°Apologies, sir Jeremy. My faculties are indeed overwhelmed and, I must admit, somewhat offended by my current surrounds.¡± An exceptionally delicate understatement.
Nodding, Jeremy flicked a hand at him in a signal which most politely might be translated as a request to continue. ¡°I am afraid I know little of the specifics of the events occurring upon this fine planet. I was present with the sole intention to study the interactions of a unique variety of tree.¡±
¡°The solar-root trees, yes. They¡¯re why we¡¯re here too, to study them.¡± With a sigh, Jeremy continued, ¡°Another faction apparently arrived first and stole an entire specimen. We arrived less than a year ago and have been doing our best to piece together what they did to break the ecosystem¡¯s balance. It seems unlikely that taking a single tree would cause the slow roll-out of chaos which we¡¯ve seen. Ah, anyway. Please, do continue. What do you know of the ranker running around the planet¡¯s surface?¡±
Maintaining an outwardly placid facade, Nuu forced himself to answer as succinctly as he was able, ¡°The Ranker, as you designated him, is named Madrick. I know little about him, except that to my knowledge he came from Thomas¡¯ Planet.¡± Another stinking and disgusting example of aberrant destruction of nature and life, he was certain Madrick had tracked him there. Else wise, it was unlikely he would have managed to trace him further. The very reason Nuu had chosen Thomas¡¯ Planet, over a more appropriate locale, as a fallback, was its broken ecology and saturated population. Finding anything or anyone was a task requiring truly monumental effort.
Tapping the table with his strange gauntlets, Jeremy caused an illusion of Thomas¡¯ Planet to rise from its center, between them. The human tapped several more times, causing several additional illusionary panels to appear. The panel which he focused upon most raptly contained scrolling text which he was rapidly absorbing, or so one might assume given the rapid flickering of his eyes. The text was obscured to Nuu, viewing it through the semi-transparent backing of the illusion as he was.
¡°The planet¡¯s transit records don¡¯t contain any mention of a ¡®Madrick¡¯ arriving anytime recently. You¡¯re certain?¡± The red eyed man asked without looking up, his eyes continuing to scan across the displays.
With a slow nod, Nuu decided to expand ever so slightly, ¡°I am certain. I am privy to the knowledge that he likely made use of an unmonitored private teleportation bay to arrive. I am uncertain as to the mechanics of his departure.¡±
Taking the moment of focus necessary to put his state of mind in a position wherein he could interface with the UICI, Nuu forwarded the bay details to Jeremy. If this man was interested in his hunter, it could only help him to provide them more intelligence on him.
¡°This is helpful, thanks¡¡± A few minutes passed in silence. Nuu spent the majority of those minutes forcibly suppressing his desire to pull the book on his waist up and quickly write a scene wherein he was suddenly in a beautiful forest, or standing before a grand desert, perhaps even a swamp or mire. Anything but this horrible shining chrome.
¡°Oh¡ that Madrick. Huh. This may complicate things. I¡ Well, I¡¯ll talk to my supervisor about it later. For now, let¡¯s finish our conversation and help you on your way, shall we?¡±
¡°I would be most obliged.¡±
Willow
The Summit, Savria
The giants had split up a handful of kilometers from the mountain and two of the three were going around it. At first, Willow had thought that maybe she was getting lucky and they were going to pass her by, leaving only one for her and her friends to deal with. Of course, that would have been far too simple. They were surrounding her, ensuring she had no direction to retreat. That was unexpected, to say the least. It made Willow wonder if the giants were actually intelligent, unlike the pop-hoppers and their combined-dozen form.
Unfortunately, she really had no way to check. They were now nearish, true, but they were at the foot of the mountain while she was at the top. Was the largest somewhere around five hundred meters tall? Probably. Did that put its head close to her? No where near. As it turned out, the mountain she¡¯d climbed had to be a minimum of a kilometer and a half. Minimum. They weren¡¯t specks down there, but they did appear almost like smaller hills.
Given the approach and subsequent surrounding maneuver, Willow had very little she could do to keep herself busy except exercise, practice her magic, and read. Honestly, she didn¡¯t have a ton of inspiration for magic practice at the moment. There were some ideas floating around in her mind, but none of them she was ready to actually try and act on yet. Especially since she didn¡¯t really understand how or why any of her powers worked like they did. As for exercise, she was bored of that. She¡¯d spent so many hours climbing this stupid mountain, then when she woke from the next morning she loosened herself up and tested that nothing was permanently broken while she listened to Madrick¡¯s lectures. Totally didn¡¯t do the silliest possible exercises just to annoy him. Nope, that¡¯d be petty. I¡¯m not petty.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
That left her with the last option on her list, read. So, she had spent the majority of her time waiting for Jonah, Naomi, and the kobolds, reading. The rank book Madrick had given her was very direct and clear about its explanations, unlike some textbooks she¡¯d studied in the past. It was also large. The book contained a lot more than just what she needed to do to rank up, it also included treatise on how each milestone might be reached. Might, because everyone¡¯s path was different. That was literally the first passage after the introductory chapter explaining what the book covered and why the author was worth trusting.
*One must remember that everyone¡¯s path is unique and walked in isolation. The rank system was established by scholars and scientists who noticed patterns which remained true between most paths. These patterns became known as milestones, and milestones were linked to numbered ranks.
This all being said, I entreat you, dear reader, not to assume your path is restricted within the boundaries of this ¡®progression system¡¯. It is, as most means of explanation and understanding are, a contrivance created for the express purpose of simplifying an infinitely complex reality into understandable and communicable terms.*
The book was interesting. The author, Chezly Falthrick, often went on small tangents re-emphasizing that everyone¡¯s path was different and some rules may apply more strongly or less, depending on the individual.
Fascinating as it was, it had brought up way more questions than it actually answered. For example, the book explained that the tutorials were not connected to the real world and therefore it was impossible for someone within a tutorial to gain an insight or mana, as they could not connect to any universal truths. Universal truths being, according to Falthrick, the basis of all insights. He also mentioned different cultures and people called universal truths by different names. ¡°The dao¡±, ¡°Laws¡± and ¡°World Foundations¡± were some of the examples he gave.
So, if that was all true, how come I had my focus immediately? That¡¯s not the weirdest part though. Falthrick mentions several times that insights have to be voiced before they can be integrated into someone¡¯s soul nexus. But I only know one of my insights, and I¡¯m sure I have two. My discipline insight and my instruction insight. I know someone can get multiple types of mana from one insight, or can have an insight that doesn¡¯t grant any mana, but¡ Well something is missing from all this, since I¡¯m proof they¡¯re at least wrong about having to voice insights. I couldn¡¯t actually use magic on Earth, so I¡¯m not sure they¡¯re wrong about it not being possible to connect to universal truths in tutorials. Maybe I just got lucky with my insights, figuring them out without being connected to the real world yet?
Reading and thinking kept Willow busy for many hours as she waited. At least, she kept busy with those when Jonah and Naomi weren¡¯t available to chat. When they were just walking and not helping the kobolds with anything, Jonah usually connected the three of them in the party chat so they could keep caught up.
She¡¯d been excited to learn about Jonah¡¯s new ability, it sounded awesome. When she¡¯d started listing all the stuff she wanted Jonah to test once they were reconnected, he¡¯d suddenly had to go. Odd. Naomi, on the other hand, was about as communicative as she had been for the last week and a half or so. Willow was fairly sure she¡¯d reached the peak of ¡®empty¡¯, at least as far as emotional expression went. That was honestly a relief. She¡¯d wondered once or twice whether Naomi would get to a point where she never cracked a smile, or got angry, or anything. If that happened, would she have the will to even keep going?
The question had made Willow think about her own rampant emotions. In some ways she and Naomi were like mirrored opposites. She had more feelings than she really wanted most of the time. Although she did her best not to show it, containing and controlling her emotions all the time was exhausting. Not to mention, she sometimes failed to control them fully. Obviously she sometimes cut loose and just let herself feel, that was important. However, if she could dial her emotions back by about fifty percent, she¡¯d probably do it. At least, that¡¯s what she would have answered before meeting Naomi and watching her slowly lose her own emotions. It had been somewhat slow at first, until she voiced her insight, then it had been rapid.
If I could reduce my emotions by half, would I? It¡¯s still a pain in the neck to control them sometimes. Especially when I get angry, like with Madrick. I was so close to just going full on rage-flail on him. It¡¯d have ended badly. But¡ My emotions are also what drive me¡
Hours passed and Willow broke then up between introspection, studying ¡®The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking¡¯, and writing questions in her UICI journal.
Naomi
Marching Toward the Summit, Feather-branch Forest, Savria
The trip back toward Willow ended up much more sedate than the mad scramble to get the kobolds. Part of that was a simple lack of practicality. Many of the kobolds could run for a day or more on-end without an issue. However, many more could not. They had to move at a pace that the slowest could maintain. Halshath was an example of one who could, which he took advantage of by ranging ahead as a scout.
What he was scouting for was anyone¡¯s guess. There were no predators on the planet to worry about, the pop-hoppers seemed to have all been converted into giants, and there was no possibility of a giant sneaking up on them. No matter the reason, Halshath insisted on scouting. Above that, he insisted that Jonah go with him.
The effortless movement ability Jonah had gained was truly spectacular and might have made Naomi jealous. If she could feel jealous at all, that is. Instead, it left her thoughtful. Knowing it was possible to move without paying the physical cost of that movement resonated with her. It made her think about the dark nothingness within her. She¡¯d used her mana to take emotions from pop-hoppers, and even from her friends to practice. She¡¯d used it to take purpose and strength from the amalgams. Yet, she¡¯d never felt like she lost anything.
How can I have mana, when I¡¯m empty?
The question played in her head like a stuck song. It occupied her thoughts so thoroughly that, half of the time when Jonah connected her and Willow into his party she barely participated in the conversations. Her mind was consumed by the one simple question which seemed to challenge whether her insight was even correct. Though, the fact that her soul nexus didn¡¯t so much as rumble as it had when she gained her second suggested there was no conflict between her understanding and reality. For two days and as many nights Naomi thought in circles. It wasn¡¯t until half way through the third day, when Jonah and Halshath returns to tell them they were getting close, that she decided to try something new. They would camp in a few hours and would arrive to free Willow from the giants¡¯ encirclement in the late morning of the following day.
Approaching Skeetha, Naomi began helping her prepare food for the small army. There were almost two hundred kobolds with them, which was only a small fraction of the total kobold population on the planet. None of them seemed worried and most were treating this like a game or holiday. They talked about possibly ranking up, about what they¡¯d do with the inevitable windfall from defeating such mountainous opponents as the titans, and bragged about their combat prowess. Not one seemed worried about dying, despite joking with each other about the possibility.
Having managed to serve all of the kobolds, Naomi got two last bowls for herself and Skeetha. She sat beside the kobold chieftain and thought through how she should approach the topic. Before she could find a good way to open, the opportunity was taken from her.
¡°Yous have something deeps on your mind?¡± The lilac kobold asked softly, putting her now empty bowl aside.
Having been too caught up in her thoughts, Naomi hadn¡¯t even taken a bite yet. The passage of time had gone by unnoticed. She nodded, ¡°Yes. I didn¡¯t know how to ask¡ Is it possible for an insight to be wrong?¡±
Crocodile eyes widened in clear surprise, she tilted her head back and forth in a ¡°so-so¡± gesture. ¡°Not wrongs. It is certainly possibles for an insight to be incomplete. Actuallys, almost alls beginning insightss are incomplete. They¡¯re justs the part we understands. There¡¯s always mores to learns, though.¡±
While that made sense, it didn¡¯t really give her any idea as to what was going on with her insight and mana. She decided to be more direct, ¡°How would an insight related to emptiness allow me to use mana?¡±
¡°Oh, that is easys! Does empty means nothing?¡±
The question was a bit surprising. It wasn¡¯t something she¡¯d considered. What did empty actually mean? After a few silent minutes where she took a few bites of the surprisingly good stew, Naomi tried, ¡°I guess for something to be empty, it has to be able to be filled? There has to be something to contain? And something that could be contained? Is that right?¡±
Skeetha¡¯s large eyes blinked slowly at her, ¡°Yous have to decide ifs it¡¯s right. It¡¯s your insights, your understandings. Empty can be differents to different peoples.¡± After a moment, she continued thoughtfully, ¡°When I thinks of something being emptys, I thinks it¡¯s ready to be useds. If a page is emptys, it¡¯s ready for wordss. If a bowl is empty, it¡¯s ready for stews. If a head is empty, it¡¯s ready to learns.¡± Large teeth flashed at the end, then Skeetha bent over to pat Naomi¡¯s leg with her small but sharp claws. Standing, the kobold took both of their empty bowls and left Naomi to her thoughts once more.
She didn¡¯t really answer my question¡ But¡
Spending the rest of the night in thought, Naomi finally thought she understood how she could have mana while also being empty. In the same way that an empty page could have a title, or a an empty bowl could have a lid. Being empty wasn¡¯t the only thing that defined these things. It also wasn¡¯t the only thing that defined her.
Feeling like an odd weight had lifted, Naomi realized she¡¯d been hesitating to actually use her mana because she subconsciously thought she shouldn¡¯t have any. Bright pulses of blues, greens, and pinks flashed through her soul as she began pulling her mana out.
Time to see what I can fill myself with.
Chapter 42 - Topple
Willow
The Summit, Savria
Ranks are split into titled ¡°tiers¡±. These tiers are, by enlarge, dictated by large qualitative differences in power from the prior tier to the next. The tiers are generally broken up thus:
Base/Newbie: Ranks 0 - 9 Ranker: Ranks 10 - 49 Legend: Ranks 50 - 99 God: Ranks 100 - 499 God King: Ranks 500 - 1499
While god king is often considered the highest tier anyone can strive for, there are two higher tiers.
Pinnacle God: Ranks 1500 - 9999 Penultimate God: 10,000+
These final tiers are largely theoretical, though there are at least stories of pinnacle gods. There are no written records, nor even fictional accounts, of penultimate gods. Their very presence is theorized to be enough to warp reality.
- Chezly Falthrick, The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking
As the morning light snapped on, Willow was already in motion. Jonah and Naomi would be here within the next handful of hours, meaning she had to be ready. As ready as she could possibly be to fight gargantuan skyscraper-sized opponents.
The first problem at hand, of course, was actually damaging them. This was a problem she already had a solution to, thanks to her climb up the mountain. Practicing her timing was all she could really do on that front, so practice she had. Problem number two was much more difficult to solve. How do I actually get to a place where I can actually land a meaningful hit?
Obviously, she could land a hit on their massive feet. Just as obviously, that¡¯d be a waste of time and energy. Feet could certainly be a vulnerability if enough damage was done to them, but compared to the rest of the body feet were relatively sturdy. Even a human foot wasn¡¯t the best target in a fight. The knee, ankle, or even shin were better marks in most cases. On a giant monster which didn¡¯t even have toes, and presumably didn¡¯t have any of the smaller bones which made up the foot¡¯s main point of vulnerability? Forget about it.
The best option was to go for the face. Due to the sheer size of the thing, she hadn¡¯t gotten a good look at the features of the one which had been born in the pop-hopper village. From the pop hopper village? Even with the giants relatively close, she couldn¡¯t make out what their faces looked like. They may or may not have been looking up at any given moment, it was pretty difficult to tell. If there were any stable outcrops halfway down the cliff face, she likely would have gone to check. Unfortunately, any that may have previously existed had been turned to dust by Madrick¡¯s resistance against her ascent.
It¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t need to beat them all by myself, that¡¯s why the kobolds are coming. They¡¯ve got experienced warriors, and there was a kind of quality in quantity. While Willow had told her friends she had a plan, it hadn¡¯t been quite that sophisticated. Her plan was essentially getting the kobolds involved to help distract two of the three giants, so she could challenge them one at a time. The logistics of that, she¡¯d graciously left open for the kobolds themselves to decide.
Taking deep breaths, Willow fed her nervous energy into her focus. Her semi depleted discipline mana quickly refilled. Her main problem right now was her instruction mana. She didn¡¯t need to use as much of it, but that didn¡¯t mean she had an endless supply. If she couldn¡¯t figure out how to boost her instruction regeneration in a manner similar to her discipline mana, then she¡¯d have to stop practicing to conserve her resources. Less than ideal. I guess I should have spent less time reading and more time practicing magic, like Jonah said.
Grumbling to herself, Willow reeled her mind back, concentrating. The topic of her focus was simple, she was trying to identify what a source of instruction might be. Her emotions, stray thoughts, even distractions were all easy to understand fuel for her discipline mana. While none of those were actually sources of discipline themselves, they were potential for discipline to be applied. That was what she¡¯d determined after her reading of Madrick¡¯s gift had made her consider the question. Apparently, all mana aspects had sources of potentia which were more closely aligned. Those sources were easier to convert into the aspect than something entirely unrelated. The fact that she generated her own potentia for her discipline mana was a bit odd, as far as Willow could determine, but still made sense based on what she¡¯d learned.
Putting aside reviewing topics she¡¯d already thoroughly exhausted, she refocused on her instruction mana. What was it? It¡¯s mana which lets me instruct¡ Right¡ But what does that mean exactly? Direct, command, demand, control? Not control, instructing isn¡¯t controlling. Someone can attempt to be controlling through over-instructing¡ But instruction itself isn¡¯t control.
Finally finding her mind properly engaged in the question, Willow hopped to her feet and started pacing. The motion sometimes helped when she was working on something particularly confusing. Alright, so I know it¡¯s not control. Probably. What about demand? Is it a demand or command¡ Hm¡ I don¡¯t think so, not by itself, at least. It¡¯s closer to a request? But that¡¯s not right either. So what¡¯s the difference? Her mind flicked to wishing she had a ball or something to toss while thinking, but she quickly reigned the errant thought and contented herself with pacing.
Not a request, not a demand¡ Something in between the two. When I¡¯ve been instructed in the past, it¡¯s generally been to teach me how to do something. An instruction is a step which is within the recipient¡¯s capability to understand. This felt right. She was on the right track!
So, my instruction mana¡¯s purpose is to¡ Uh¡ Teach? No¡ I definitely wasn¡¯t teaching the mountain how to be strong. It definitely knew how to do that. She stopped, slapping her forehead, ¡°Duh!¡± She shouted aloud. Continuing her monologue to the air, her voice was fast and excited, ¡°Instructing doesn¡¯t have to be about teaching! A recipe is a set of instructions, heck a pamphlet with pictures explaining how to put together furniture is called instructions. Instructing isn¡¯t about making anything happen, it¡¯s about communicating in a way that the target can understand! The mountain didn¡¯t get what I wanted when I just used discipline mana. When I used instruction mana, it bridged the gap in understanding so that I could tell it what I wanted! That¡¯s why it tried when I just used instruction mana, but it didn¡¯t have the ability to actually do what I wanted by itself. Or rather, maybe it had the potential but couldn¡¯t reach it? That¡¯s where my discipline mana comes in! That¡¯s why I need both to freeze time or impact anything outside of myself with my ability!¡± A laugh of pure glee exploded from her, filling those gaps felt incredible.
¡°Hah¡ Hah¡¡± She calmed herself, then put on her game face again, ¡°Right, Willow. Focus, girl! You figured some things out, but I still need a way to regenerate my instruction mana quickly.¡± The thought had her stumped. Were there any naturally occurring forms of instruction? Or at least potential for it, like with her sources for discipline mana? Instincts? They¡¯re kind of like instructions, right? No jolt of inspiration hit her. She felt no more able to rapidly absorb her secondary mana aspect than before.
Eyes falling as she let her neck relax a bit, she watched her feet for a moment as her pacing continued. Right, left, right. Stop. Blinking, Willow lifted her left foot slowly and felt something. Isn¡¯t every move I make done through instructions sent from my brain to my body? It¡¯s not like I consciously understand all of the muscle groups that need to move and how, so it¡¯s a more generalized instruction. It¡¯s¡ As the concept solidified, Willow could suddenly feel that something much more clearly. More importantly, when she pulled at it, it came.
Unlike her emotions and distracting thoughts, pulling instruction mana from her motions didn¡¯t stop her from moving. It didn¡¯t even alter her control over her body in any way. However, the boost to her regeneration was also significantly less. Unlike with her discipline mana, she couldn¡¯t simply refill herself from empty within moments. The boost to her regeneration was just that, a boost. She felt like she¡¯d doubled the speed at which she accumulated instruction mana. While doubling her regeneration rate was good, it still didn¡¯t get her anywhere near the absolutely incredible speed with which she could expend and then regenerate her discipline. It¡¯s a start!
Pumping her fist in the air, Willow grinned from ear to ear. Then she blinked as she realized she could see a wave of color moving slowly through the forest from the south-west. The kobolds were here!
¡°Alright, Willow, everything is in position.¡± Jonah¡¯s voice poked into Willow¡¯s head. Dropping from a one-fingered handstand, her bare feet slapped into the mountain¡¯s surface. She¡¯d removed the boots after climbing the mountain, due to them being little more than scraps by that point anyway. Her pack was barely hanging together by their threads. She didn¡¯t even notice the jagged stones or the rough surface, her feet already having calloused far beyond the point of caring about such minor discomfort.
She sent back excitedly, ¡°Finally! I thought I¡¯d die of boredom!¡± After noticing the kobolds, Willow had assumed her wait was nearly ended. She¡¯d been quite wrong. Nearly eight hours later, now her wait was nearly over.
Naomi replied, ¡°You were the one who said to take our time to make sure the kobolds were confident that no one would get squashed.¡±
Glaring off toward where she assumed Naomi was, Willow replied with a petulant tone, ¡°So? That doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t be bored!¡±
A soft laugh came through, then Skeetha¡¯s voice, ¡°If this plan works, we will owe you much for all the suffering you¡¯ve put up with.¡± Unlike when they spoke through the UICI, the party chat¡¯s translation seemed to be perfect. No extra ¡°S¡± sounds or undue hissing. Skeetha¡¯s voice through the party chat was actually quite pleasant, gentle and soothing. A far cry from the somewhat high-pitched hissing tones of her UICI translated voice.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
¡°Yes, certainly, I¡¯ll be demanding a warm meal and maybe some new clothes.¡± She glanced down at the absolutely devastated rags clinging to her skin. Mostly, it was held together at this point due to the caked and dried mud and sweat. It wasn¡¯t hard to imagine that taking a quick shower would wash away not only the grime, but the scraps preserving her decency as well. Why don¡¯t heroes in stories end up naked after trials like mine? I¡¯ve literally never heard of someone ending up almost nude because of a stupid mountain climb.
More laughs from Skeetha, Halshath, and their lieutenants as well as her friends. Smiling, Willow readied herself. The plan the kobolds had finished fleshing out was much better than the rough outline she¡¯d sent her party off with.
¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± Willow sent.
Jonah
Command Bunker, Foot of the Mountain, Savria
Three massive forms stood surrounding a jutting piece of sharp grey slate. Atop the razor-shaped mountain, stood a tiny figure. Although her features were entirely indistinguishable, Jonah knew it was Willow. Further afield, there were four smaller camps setup. Each boasted a structure constructed rapidly of stone and reinforced with feather-branch wood.
The kobolds had been intelligent in their war-band¡¯s composition. While the majority were fighters, a couple dozen were support staff with specialized spells and abilities. Four of them were builders who followed the same path. As such, they all had access to an extremely useful spell which allowed them to call the stone up from below the earth and shape it to their will. The process wasn¡¯t quick, but it was impressive. They¡¯d used this ability over the last eight hours to create makeshift war camps.
These camps were, of course, diversionary. None of the kobolds had any intention to be stuck within a building that would likely take no more than a handful of seconds to be stomped flat. Instead, they were massive traps.
Cracking an eye open, Jonah checked that everything was situated within his bunker while he waited for Willow¡¯s banter with the kobolds to die down. The area was oppressive. Black and brown dirt everywhere his eyes traveled, without a single egress. Health and Safety would have an aneurysm. He thought dryly.
The only color to be found within his grave-like hole came from the six kobolds sitting down here with him. They were all support focused warriors. Each could fight, if needed, but had talents much better used from within cover. Just like him. One of them, a teal koboldess winked one of her giant eyes at him, at least he assumed she was winking. Given her head was turned so he could only see the one eye, it was impossible to be sure. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I can keep this boost up for hours.¡±
Nodding his thanks, Jonah sent her a quick smile. Her name was Vicsca and she was the reason he was able to be sequestered down here while also being useful. Her primary ability was one which drastically extended the range of any other utility ability within about fifteen meters of her. She was the linchpin for the entire support operation down here. While he didn¡¯t know what her rank was, Jonah could see her level was way higher than anyone else he¡¯d seen. [LVL 33|Kobold|Support]. While Jonah still wasn¡¯t entirely sure how levels equated to ranks, he knew level thirty three was far stronger than his own paltry level seven.
¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± came Willow¡¯s reply.
Halshath¡¯s voice came next, sharp and professional. His gruff hissing was gone, replaced by a militaristic bark, ¡°Deploy bait!¡±
Three of the four ¡°bases¡± suddenly glowed below Jonah¡¯s RTS View. Quickly closing his eyes to avoid being distracted by anything within the bunker, he was able to observe the fireworks. Literal fireworks. Explosions of red, green, pink, gold, and so many other shades suddenly exploded into the sky. Even under the bright sunlight, they were eye catching and highly visible. Not to mention the BOOM each one released as it exploded in the sky.
As they¡¯d hoped, the giants¡¯ attention was captured. They began turning ponderously, looking around themselves in wide circles. They were still simple creatures, Jonah was certain. The certainty was confirmed when each of them stopped their rotation as soon as they caught sight of one of the bright displays. Seeing they were each fixated, Jonah relayed, ¡°They¡¯ve each locked on to a different camp.¡±
¡°Excellent. Proceed with taunts.¡± Halshath spoke.
The lights, hanging preternaturally long in the air, suddenly began to speed toward the giants. They were directed at their faces, hoping to annoy them. The only camp that didn¡¯t send their sparkly payloads toward a titan was the one which had no giant looking its way. Those sparks simply disintegrated into nothing.
Upon being struck, the giants all staggered back in an almost identical manner. Like they¡¯re playing a ¡®surprised¡¯ animation. Jonah thought with amusement. Then, they all roared. The sound would have been deafening, had he not been thirty feet below ground. A quick glance toward Willow¡¯s position found her staggering back from the noise, before stilling. She probably had to use her ability to stop the sound.
Then the creatures ran toward their attackers. Or, Jonah thought they were running. Their awkwardly positioned hip-arms hung behind them as a counter-balance as the creatures leaned forward and stomped toward the origin of the lights which had dared hit them. He wasn¡¯t sure how fast they normally moved, but the creatures seemed sluggish. They traversed the two hundred meters in a handful of steps each, of course, but that was entirely due to their size. The steps themselves weren¡¯t very fast. A full twenty seconds went by between ¡°rushing¡± the positions and arriving.
As they¡¯d hoped, the creatures reared back and stomped down onto the very obvious stone structures they¡¯d made. Also as they¡¯d hoped, they were easily able to smash through the roofs. Their feet slammed down, and down, and down. Jonah cheered along with everyone else on the channel as he saw them all fall directly into the trap. Their disproportional bodies made the nearly kilometer deep pit hidden within the ¡°buildings¡± especially effective. The titan¡¯s own momentum and weight were their greatest enemies as their stomping legs plummeted down. They stopped with painful sounding cracks as their hips struck the edge of the hole and broke the earth one after another. The impact could even be felt by Jonah and the others in their bunker, several kilometers away.
The support are the real heroes of this battle. Jonah thought with pride. Halshath¡¯s next order came in, directed at one of the kobolds in his bunker with him. ¡°Jokka, knock out the supports.¡±
The silvery-grey kobold to Jonah¡¯s right may have made a gesture, or not. He didn¡¯t know, but he saw the result. The holes had been intentionally drilled by the earth movers in such a way that they were unstable. They¡¯d added artificial supports in the form of ¡°ghost beams¡± supplied by Jokka. Those beams were temporary constructs which Jokka could cancel at any time, so long as he was within range. With Vicsca¡¯s buff, they were well within range. The holes suddenly began to sink, pulling the massive forms of the pop-hoppers turned colossus further and further in. Each of their hips and at least one of their arms were caught by the suddenly expanded and collapsing hole. One of them somehow managed to have both of its arms caught.
Now, instead of just having one leg fallen into a wide hole which they could easily, if painfully, extract themselves from, the creatures were half buried. This tactic likely wouldn¡¯t have worked on a more intelligent creature, and it certainly wouldn¡¯t have worked if they weren¡¯t so oddly proportioned. Had their arms been positioned on shoulders like a normal humanoid, they would have had plenty of leverage to pull themselves out.
Unfortunately for them, they were both stupid and badly designed. How¡¯d Nuu expect these things to make good guardians, exactly? The question brought Jonah a small measure of anxiety. As odd as the man had been, he hadn¡¯t seemed stupid. He¡¯d been able to see how bad they¡¯d do in any kind of organized combat. One on one, sure, they were intimidating. Unprepared, their mere passing was terrifying.
Maybe he was just going for shock factor? He could have assumed people would be intimidated and just leave? Or was it something else? What¡¯d he say about the purpose of these things¡
¡°Warriors, engage.¡± Halshath spoke through the party chat and Jonah¡¯s eyes snapped back to the scene. He quickly began casting his buffs, determined to be helpful in this fight.
Naomi
Western Rally Point, Foot of the Mountain, Savria
¡°Warriors, engage.¡± Came the command Naomi had been waiting for. She sprinted alongside the kobolds in her group. They were mostly faster than her, mostly higher rank. She didn¡¯t care. She just kept running. The bunker was a little less than half a mile from where they¡¯d been waiting, but it came into view seemingly moments after they began their rush toward it.
Rather, the single flailing leg of their massive enemy came into view. The kobolds swarmed around it, ignoring the awkwardly splayed and twitching limb in favor of heading toward the presumably more vulnerable torso and head. She followed.
The head, when it came into view, was surprising in its simplicity. The grays of its skin became more uniform around the oval edge which delimited the face from the skull. Within that oval, the uniform grey was broken up by ridges and shades which hinted at a face, yet didn¡¯t actually describe one. This brought with it an unexpected challenge.
She reported through the party channel, ¡°The giants don¡¯t have eyes, ears, or noses. No obvious weak points.¡±
Then she felt Jonah¡¯s Predator Vision wrap around her. Blinking a few times, she quickly scanned the enemy for the tell-tale red spots which would indicate a particularly weakness. She saw none.
¡°Predator Vision doesn¡¯t register any weak points.¡± She concluded her report.
Deciding if there was no particular weak point, then any area was as good as any other, she moved toward the creature¡¯s twisted torso. One of its arms was firmly buried while the other was swinging about desperately. Moving to a point under its sternum, near where the ground had closed around it, Naomi pulled back the sharp spear the kobolds had lent her and begun stabbing.
Her technique wasn¡¯t anything special. It didn¡¯t have to be. She just kept stabbing for a solid minute, before the creature finally seemed to notice her. Unfortunately for it, the other attackers had also gained it attention. She noticed the shadow of its building sized hand pass over her, hesitate, then continue on toward the larger group attacking its neck. They would be doing much more damage, all together, all more experienced with spells and abilities to boost their power.
Flashes of grim red and cold blue flared within her and she called forth her mana. She surrounded the spear with her mana, and struck forward again. The tip sunk slightly into the flesh again, a pin prick against a wall. The mana pulled strength from the creature, siphoning it into Naomi¡¯s body.
Drawing the spear out when she noticed the draw of strength fading, she struck again. The spear bit more deeply. Grimly mechanical, she continued with piston-like strikes. Each attack was more effective. The spear sunk more deeply. She changed the focus of her mana, it should take toughness and durability as well as strength.
The next strike was followed by a higher-pitched bellow. The creatures hand suddenly loomed large over her. Having anticipated this would be coming sooner or later, she braced her senses for the unpleasantness, and stepped into the hole she¡¯d dug with her spear strikes. The hand slapped down at its own side, sending a rippling concussion through its flesh and knocking Naomi to her knees. That was all it could do, though. She stood back up and resumed her attack.
This isn¡¯t a fight. It¡¯s a butchery. The thought might have been more than an observation to some. To Naomi, all it changed was the urgency with which she should act.
Each strike brought with it more power. Power which the next strike carried back. By her estimation, it took Naomi five minutes to reach one of the creature¡¯s ribs. The yellowish blood which had been a weak afterthought before, suddenly flooded out of the wound and swept Naomi out of the person-sized cavern she¡¯d slowly managed to cut into it.
Is it blood, or something else? She wondered as she got up and watched the wound gushing. It showed no indication it would stop, so she moved a few feet over and began the process again. By this time, the titan had given up on slapping its side to stop the pain there. It was much too busy trying to sweep away the creatures harrying its neck and head. Laying mostly on its side as it was, that¡¯s where most of the kobolds had chosen to focus.
This time, it only took two minutes to reach a rib. Another explosion of yellow blood threw her off her feet and backwards.
Getting back up, Naomi moved to create yet another hole. A stray thought passed through her focused mind, Willow is probably not happy about how this ¡®fight¡¯ was going.
Chapter 43 - Fall
Willow
Northern Colossus Butchery Zone, Foot of the Mountain, Savria
Willow was not happy about how this fight was going. She¡¯d anticipated an epic brawl! She¡¯d leap forth and pummel one of them, mono a mano! They¡¯d trade blows, with her fists sheering chunks from their flesh while its backhands would send her sailing miles into the distance - only to return unharmed! She¡¯s charge up an ultimate attack above her head, while floating near the edge of the skyline, screaming in fury and determination! The ball of force would wipe the entire top half of her gargantuan enemy from existence.
She indulged in her beautiful fantasy while taking turns with a half dozen kobolds as they slowly widened the massive gash they¡¯d opened in its neck. Naturally, Willow had charged the giant with the least of its body trapped. Both arms were free, it was just a bit crooked. It should have been a tough fight! Unfortunately, the kobolds were really resourceful. They¡¯d forced the entire torso to bend down so they could get at its neck with powerful vines, full of thorns which pierced deeply into the creature¡¯s skin. Given how tough the skin really was, those thorns must be made of some incredible material.
The same thorns and vines held the creature¡¯s arms immobile near their ¡®shoulder¡¯ joints attached to its waist. A group of kobolds with her were clearly responsible, as ten were standing together with hands clasped. It seemed they were doing the heavy lifting here, effort and strain clear on their reptilian features. Willow was fairly certain that if they could sweat, they would have been drenched. As it was, they mostly showed the strain in their trembling bodies and clenched teeth.
Cycling back into the front of the attack line, Willow punched forward. She put her entire body and will into the attack, sending a pack of her imperative command, she tried another instruction. Fester. She¡¯d been trying different things this entire ¡®fight¡¯. It had been about ten minutes so far and had given her quite a bit of practice. It looked like she¡¯d found a winner. The spot she hit suddenly gained a disguising purple-black hue to it.
Now eager for her next turn, Willow sprinted to the back of the line and waited. She interspersed fester, rot, and spread ailment packets. They seemed to work well together, pushing the festering and rotting deeper into the body. It made each attack that much more effective. Their momentum quickly began to build.
Well, at least my team will get the first kill. She thought, placating her own annoyance.
¡°We¡¯ve defeated our titan. Moving toward to assist with the northern one.¡± Naomi¡¯s voice shattered her confidence. Hot tears of frustration threatened to break free of Willow¡¯s eyes, but she forced them down.
At least we won¡¯t be the last¡
¡°Ours too. On our way.¡± cam Halshath¡¯s voice. Willow slumped, stepping out of the line to sit on the ground and pout for a bit.
The other groups didn¡¯t arrive before Willow¡¯s own group killed their giant. Its death was as obvious as it was anticlimactic. It shuddered once, then its arms stopped resisting the vines and snapped sharply to the floor. Its straining torso went limp and lolled like a rubber chicken¡¯s neck.
Standing, Willow sighed and began to force herself into a celebratory state of mind. Yes, she hadn¡¯t won, but they had. That was good! Just because she¡¯d always been terrible with team sports, didn¡¯t mean she had to be a bad sport. Even now, the kobolds were slapping each other¡¯s backs and cheering.
Smiling, she moved toward them to join the festivities. Then the lightning struck. The explosive moment of illumination, followed by her ear drums shattering from the BOOM, along with feeling her body flying through the air was really all Willow needed to assume it had been lightning. What the heck! Did Nuu booby-trap these stupid things?! Why didn¡¯t he tell us?!
The sensation of her back slamming against the ground was familiar, by this point. It didn¡¯t even hurt. Much. Cycling her back into it skill, Willow¡¯s eyes cleared and her ears resumed functioning with a wet pop. Shaking her head, she quickly scanned the area to get an idea of what had happened.
The absolutely massive, entirely unmistakable, slow, lumbering, dead, body was gone. It was just gone. Head whirling, Willow spun in a quick circle, searching for it. Belatedly, she remembered Jonah on over-watch. ¡°System! What happened?! Lightning struck and the body is gone!¡±
The reply was swift, ¡°Ah, right, sorry. It¡ A bolt of purple lightning came out of nowhere in the middle of the three of them. It split off and hit all three at the same time. It¡¯s so weird, why would¡ Oh shite. It¡¯s a phased fight! Skeetha, look out!¡±
Spinning again, this time toward the west where she knew Naomi and Skeetha had been on their way, Jonah saw a figure falling from the sky in that direction. It was smaller, compact even. It was also a blur and therefore difficult to discern any details from. Unable to see the group through the trees, Willow burst into her fastest sprint. She entered her focus and pushed extra discipline mana into her muscles. Flying over the mostly flat terrain, trees flashing past as she adroitly wove between them without slowing.
Moments passed, then she saw the group. A nightmare of a creature was standing in the center of what had once been Skeetha¡¯s group. It was staring at Naomi, who was glaring back. A tendril of black nothing appeared to connect the two. Unsure what was going on, worried that breaking the stalemate might cause some kind of harm to Naomi, Willow took the opportunity to scan the scene.
Kobolds were scattered everywhere, dead and broken. Their bodies had holes punched through the middle of their bodies. Each hole was the size of a large man¡¯s fist, maybe a medium cantaloupe. All of the kobolds were very clearly dead. Skeetha¡¯s glassy eyes stared up into the empty sky.
No no no¡ Willow snapped her eyes back to the new threat. We had a plan to avoid casualties! We were careful! Why?! Still unsure as to what was going on, Willow knew she still needed to help. She approached from behind and activated her moment of focus, carefully bending it to hold the creature in place without including Naomi in it.
As soon as she did, Naomi dropped to her knees. Her teeth grit. She glared up at Willow and snarled, ¡°So¡ Much¡¡± then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.
Anger exploding up within Willow, she froze and fed it to her ability. Then she charged and attacked the enemy. This one was like an odd combination of the pop-hopper amalgam and the giants. While it was clearly all one creature, it had so many joints and balls that it could clearly move in nearly any direction without strain. The many joints were compounded by the many arms and legs. The thing had four of each. Like the giants, this thing had no eyes or nose, but had the same proportionally massive mouth filled with razor teeth. As she struck it, the creature¡¯s head snapped toward her and bit down.
Screaming, Willow staggered backwards. Her ability broke, the mana wasted. The bite had been painful, but more surprising. The thing had moved while she had her moment active! Madrick did too, the first time. The thought sent chills through her.
She and the creature stared at each other, a span of several meters separating them. Madrick wasn¡¯t able to resist last time, though. When I really put effort into it. Bolstered, Willow reactivated her ability, sharpening her intent and control down to a single line between herself and the monster. As soon as it landed on it, she exploded forward.
Her fist slammed directly into its throat, the most vulnerable part per Jonah¡¯s still active predator vision buff. She sent a packet of her imperative command at the same moment, break. The neck shattered and the entire form flew backwards with a satisfying snap. She didn¡¯t let up, rushing toward it. She¡¯d confirm the thing was dead before stopping the onslaught.
Rising, the creature¡¯s head swung boneless on its broken neck, but it still leapt at her. Sharp claws slashed out from four directions. Kicking the ground hard, Willow redirected her momentum to her left. The flash of a sharp claw cut through the air in front of her, taking a chunk of her nose with it. She screamed in pain, but didn¡¯t stop moving.
Another focused burst of moment of focus and she was hitting it again, this time directly in the dangling head. Burst. She demanded with another imperative command. The head cracked, but didn¡¯t explode as she hoped. As soon as the creature left her ability¡¯s area of control, it twisted around and landed on its clawed hands. Then the entire thing rippled and its form had changed. The head had moved to the now-top of the creature. What had previously been hands now became four feet, which supported a C shaped spine curving up from the last back hand-turned-foot up to the head. The four feet, positioned on each side of the body, were now scythe-like limbs which were swinging wildly as it charged. The head was fully healed and sitting above the rapidly flashing weapon-limbs.
Oh ma¡¯ma, no. That¡¯s so freaking creepy.
Just before she could activate her ability again for another charge, the thing screeched. The sound exploding from its throat spiked through her like a physical force. Her sight went white, sound deadened. She felt nothing, like she was floating in a void.
Then she felt pain. Her chest burned as something was ripped out of it. Frantically, she cycled her back into it skill. As she did, she consulted the body-mural in her dojo. Oooh¡ That¡¯s bad.
Her heart was missing.
Redoubling her mana¡¯s speed, Willow pushed to heal the missing organ faster. She could feel her body distantly, but the sensations which should have becoming more clear were drifting away instead. Mentally screaming, she wove her mana through the pattern of her skill as fast as she possibly could. Having learned through her experiences on the mountain, she didn¡¯t dare sacrifice any control for speed. Yet she pushed her mana¡¯s speed to the very edge of what she could control.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
A moment later, the world came back into focus. Her head was hanging loosely on the end of her limp neck, eyes staring at a rapidly closing jagged cavity in her chest. Then it was closed and she felt her blood flow through her veins again. The cold and numb reseeded in an instant and she attacked.
The pop-hopper-daddy creature was clearly shocked when it found her in front of it again, fist slamming down at an angle from above. She crushed its skull in, sending soft through her punch and causing it to buckle even further. If there was a brain in there, it was mush.
Clearly, there was no brain, given its instant counter attack. The syth-leg-things flashed out and cut her across the throat as it collapsed toward the ground. She slammed her foot down on it, again and again. It shouldn¡¯t have been able to move, it was still well within her ability¡¯s area of effect. Yet, it somehow managed to strike back every time she hit it.
Finally, tired of getting her ankles and calves torn up, she punted the creature into the nearest tree. Slamming into the trunk hard, the body gave off several satisfying crack sounds. Then it rippled again and flowed toward Willow with an eerie boneless grace. It stood on only its two bottom legs-turned-feet now. The other two arms were positioned to grasp at her.
Activating moment of focus again, she charged and landed a series of devastating hits. She targeted the ball-like joints, sending break into each one as her attacks landed. It continued to counter her every time she hit it. After the tenth or so strike, she staggered backwards. Her mana was getting pretty low. Between having to repair her body after taking each hit, channeling her moment, and sending commands into the creature¡¯s body, she was getting close to her limit.
Calling up the anger and fury she felt at the death of the kobolds, she recharged her discipline mana while still holding the enemy still in her ability¡¯s area. She didn¡¯t understand why it could move to counter her, but it clearly couldn¡¯t do anything as long as she didn¡¯t touch it. She could just hold it here until backup arrived. She had heard Jonah coordinating with Halshath to get his team here.
Nodding to herself she decided to let Jonah know her plan, ¡°Jonah, I¡¯m going to hold it and-¡±
It moved. A flash of furious teeth and hunger. Then it was on her, scraping and clawing and tearing. She screamed and pushed. Shoving. Pulling, twisting. One of each of its hands held each of her limbs, its scyth-legs slammed into her neck and shoulders. Its teeth filled her field of view, then snapped down.
Pain. Agony. Abject terror. Her strength bled away with each beat of her rapidly pounding heart.
No! Her rage flared, she fed it to her ability, recharging her discipline mana. She directed it to reinforce her skin, to hold her together. She managed to free an arm and slammed her fist into the side of the creature¡¯s head, ripping chunks from her own face as the sharp razors were forced away. Her eyes were blurry, certainly damaged, but she could see. Pulling her fist back, she packed every last iota of her mana into the final strike. DIE NOW! She tried to scream her defiance, but her slashed throat simply let out a pitiful gurgle.
Just as her fist landed, she caught movement from the corner of her eye. One of those scythes came at her with inexorable force. She had no energy to dodge. No mana to reinforce herself. No options. I¡ Lost?
A brief pain, a ripping sensation, a spinning, twisting, disturbing viewpoint. Then a splash and she saw her own bloody body, slump, fall. Her eyes, wide with horror, glazed over.
Jonah
Command Bunker, Foot of the Mountain, Savria
There was nothing he could do. Lightning had struck all of the giants, then a new creature had seemingly been spawned from the origin of the crackling purple energy. It fell down at an angle, landing directly in front of Naomi¡¯s group. Skeetha had called vines to capture it, the same kind of vines which had restrained the giants and limited their ability to fight back against their attackers.
Wrapping around the creature with snapping finality, Jonah had let out a relieved breath. A breath which stuck in his throat as the monster had flicked one of the long, apparently bladed, feet up. The vines had been cut with hardly any effort, then it was moving. Flashing forward, the enemy slammed into Skeetha, one of its hands outstretched. It ripped the kobold¡¯s beating heart out and threw it into its mouth in a single motion. Like a shark smelling blood, the demonic figure went into a frenzy as it flashed between kobolds, striking one after another down. Finally, it rushed toward Naomi. Jonah watched with abject horror, unable to help in any way.
Then it froze. From above, Jonah couldn¡¯t see what happened exactly. He only knew that Naomi had done something to lock its movement, but she herself was also apparently unable to move. Moments later, Willow arrived and the breath he¡¯d nearly choked on was finally released.
Whatever Naomi had been doing was clearly difficult, as she pitched forward onto the ground. Seeing her tag still above her head and her name was still in his party, Jonah knew she was alive and forced himself to focus on Willow. She already had all of the buffs he could give her, and there was nothing he could do to help. He would just have to be a witness to her saving them, again. The bitter taste in his mouth was becoming far too familiar. I need to be stronger. I need to be able to help with this kind of thing. What kind of gamer am I, if I¡¯m having no impact? Shouldn¡¯t I be the main character?
Between his self recriminations, Jonah tracked Willow¡¯s fight. It was as impressive as ever. Though, this time it wasn¡¯t so one sided. When he¡¯d seen Willow get bit, he¡¯d been shocked. His tension ramped up as he watched every moment of the fight with growing concern.
When the guardian had shrieked and pounced, ripping Willow¡¯s heart out in the same manner it had stolen Skeetha¡¯s, his own heart had nearly stopped. He thought it was the end. Then her heart grew back. Of course she can grow back critical organs in an instant, why wouldn¡¯t she be able to do something that ridiculous?! He thought frantically, somewhere between exasperated relief and panicked concern.
At some point during the fight, he¡¯d somehow managed to bring up a readout of his party¡¯s health and mana status. Willow¡¯s resources were bouncing up and down with concerning regularity. One moment her health would drop, only to suddenly recover with a corresponding drop to her mana. Then her mana would leap back up. He had no idea how or what she was doing, but he hoped she could keep it up long enough to win.
Only the tags above their heads had him concerned.
[LVL 21|Human|??? ERROR 404 - PATH NOT FOUND]
[LVL 44|World Guardian/World Killer|Avenger]
Willow was less than half her opponent¡¯s level. Though, with Willow, Jonah did his best not to put too much stock in the numbers. She was more than what the system thought she was. That simple idea brought with it a shocking realization. One he spoke aloud as if compelled to, ¡°The game isn¡¯t everything.*¡±
His interface flickered for a moment, before resuming its normal operations.
Then the creature suddenly had Willow in its grasp. It had latched onto her and was flailing like a desperate beast. Every inch of the grotesque avenger was strained and focused on defeating Willow. A task that Jonah desperately hoped was impossible. Then she punched it, literally ripping her beautiful face off. One eye remained, along with half of her nose and lips. Barely suppressing the sudden urge to vomit, Jonah held his breath. She had gotten that one punch off, maybe she could get it off of her to make space. It seemed that¡¯s all she would need to heal back up, after all.
She punched it again, this time when she punched it the head exploded and the creature flew away and crashed down, unmoving. ¡°You did it!¡± Jonah cheered through the voice chat, leaping to his feet without realizing what he was doing. He tripped over a root or something and staggered, but quickly returned his attention to the scene. He froze as he saw Willow¡¯s headless body. No tag hovered above her. No¡ What? That¡¯s impossible¡ She¡¯s still in the par-
Willow¡¯s name had vanished from Jonah¡¯s party list. Eyes snapping open, he looked around with horror etched into his expression. He threw up.
Nuu
At Lunch with Shivna, The Winding Garden, Kavlaka
The delicate features of the lady Shivna flickered and twisted in a manner reminiscent of a mist struck by candle light. The governor of the planet had agreed, nay demanded, to make his acquaintance upon arriving through a Autronima portal. Her curiosity had no doubt been peaked by the prospect of one of the fare fae willingly abiding the confines of a space vessel. The truth that he had not, in actuality, been willing had placated the suspicion with which Nuu had been greeted.
Despite the perhaps dubious reasons for his invitation to dine with the illustrious lady, Nuu took pleasure in both the company and the refined atmosphere nonetheless. The wild garden around them was a study in perfectly designed chaos. While no plant was tended, planted, cut, or otherwise managed, the garden yet remained perfectly walkable. One might wonder the entirety of the garden and never see every species of flora, nor detect every sample of fauna. Kavlaka, was, after all, a reserve of every possible life form.
Controlled by the fae, by his own court of summer in fact, the world was treated with proper dignity and care. Balance was maintained with honor, all proper respect paid to nature. Now, he convalesced with a powerful lady who appeared to take interest in his abilities. Her expressed love of the arts, and narratives in particular, had begun their conversation in earnest. A discussion which had persisted well through the initially intended time frame, surely. Yet, the lady had not indicated his queue to take his leave. Rather, she¡¯d continued to question and prod him with curiosity and interest. Having endured being hunted as an animal most recently, the treatment was as welcome as it was flattering.
It was during a lull in their conversation that Nuu noticed a soft pull at his mana. Certainly curious, he drew forth his book of scenes and flicked through the pages. While his eyes took in the pages, he allowed his spirit to guide his actions. Landing on the appropriate page, Nuu¡¯s eyes widened. Never before had a scene with no mana investiture activated, until now.
Polite as always, the lady demurely inquired into his apparently frantic attitude, ¡°Dear Nuu, certainly you appear to be of an irritable mind. Have you, perhaps, espied a detail of great note?¡±
¡°Just so, a scene I wrote in passing long ago has activated itself despite having no mana invested within. In truth, such an occurrence has never before been observed by myself. I had believed that mana investiture was certainly required for a scene to ever become operable.¡± His voice was filled with the awe in which he found himself basking.
Eyes flicking quickly across the page, Nuu felt a momentary pang of regret. The scene which activated was one of finality which would result in all life on the planet of Savria being snuffed out. Sighing in regret for the lost potential for a future friendship with Willow and the others, he put the book aside and began explaining to his lunch companion.
Minutes later, searing pain shot through Nuu¡¯s psyche. His words ceased to flow, mid sentence, and he curled in upon himself. Hands raised, he caught his descending head and clamped it between white fingers. The outcry of pain which attempted to burst forth was repressed only with great effort. Several moments of searing pain colored his story, then, finally, it passed.
With a gasp of relief, Nuu pulled his book back in front himself and looked down upon the still open page. He found the bottom half, the portion decreeing the doom of the planet, had been crossed out with a crimson ink reminiscent of the freshest blood. An odd sense of relief momentarily passed over Nuu as he realized that this meant there was a good chance his fleeting acquaintances had not perished as the scene had ordained.
With a bright smile, despite the lingering pain wracking his mind, Nuu eagerly explained the occurrence to his eager audience of one.
Chapter 44 - Reminisce
Willow
????
The surrounding darkness was complete and unbroken. It was also unmoving, unchanging, and still. Within the void, the inexorable march of time competed against the endless placidity of eternity. Upon finding herself here, Willow¡¯s mind had been scattered and disoriented, panicked. Eventually, over the course of eons or seconds, her thoughts calmed and her memories settled. She remembered her fight, remembered her loss now. In fact, she¡¯d remembered for what felt like forever, by this point.
Without a body, without light, without motion, the passage of time was a funny thing. While she could count, keeping beat with a steady cadence, eventually that grew tiresome and boring. Once, Willow had managed to count up to ten thousand and some change, before her mind drifted off for a period. Naturally, this broke her attempt to create a psuedo-clock to determine how long she¡¯d languished here. The only company she had in this place were her thoughts and memories.
Besides failing to track the passage of time in some way, Willow spent a lot of time thinking. Reviewing the battle, she decided there was little she could have done differently. Could she have dodged, retreated, when it charged her? She didn¡¯t think so. It had moved too quickly, she¡¯d been taken entirely off guard. That¡¯s something I could have done differently. She mused, feeling a touch of regret. She¡¯d been so certain that the monster couldn¡¯t move while her moment of focus ability was active and focused on the thing. It wasn¡¯t clear whether her ability had been ineffective from the start, and it had simply pretended to lull her into a false sense of security, or whether it somehow grew resistant. The latter seemed more likely, given the ferocity with which it attacked at every opportunity.
Familiar impotent frustration and sorrow welled up, feelings which she might generally push down and avoid. Here, though, what was the point? She was alone with her thoughts and feelings, there was nothing to do to distract herself, no way to put distance between herself and the emotions. The discipline which she so prided herself in was released, letting the roiling feelings rush over her like a drowning tide.
Despite her lack of eyes, or any physical form, she wept. The sobs, wrenching and ragged broke the silence of the void. The build of of pressure fully broke through, tearing and ripping Willow¡¯s psyche as surely as the monster had scrapped and broken her flesh.
Memories of faces from her life on Earth, smiling, frowning, scowling. Angry, happy, worried. Laughter, shouting, tension, soft whispers. Ma¡¯ma, pa-paw, gram-gram, Coach, Vash, Whitney, James, Fenny, Mr. Joseph, and so so many more were gone. Learning, surviving, practicing magic, training, fighting, she¡¯d used it all to distract herself. She didn¡¯t want them to be gone forever. It wasn¡¯t fair.
She¡¯d been so close to her incredible comeback! Moments from victory, from showing the world just how strong she really was! Then she¡¯d been given another chance. It wasn¡¯t the same, she wouldn¡¯t have any of her people to support her. She¡¯d forced herself to take that, too, as a challenge. Despite everything pitted against her, she¡¯d thrive. With a grand heap of delusion, she¡¯d convinced herself everything would be fine. Every danger would be conquered! Every contest would be overcome! New friends would be made, new bonds formed! They wouldn¡¯t replace her family and friends, nothing ever would. Loss wasn¡¯t a new concept, she¡¯d lost people before, she¡¯d known she would again. All she could do was hold those lost near and dear, remembering them. Just like Tauna. Even now, remembering her childhood friend, taken too soon, felt like a surgeon¡¯s knife cutting around numbed flesh. Distant, but there, and despite a lack of direct pain it ached.
The wave of memory and pain receded, for a moment, before crashing back down again. The helplessness of her first death, so fast and sudden that she hadn¡¯t even felt it. Pulses of shame over the arrogance that lead to her last death. Anger at Madrick. At Nuu. At Jonah, Naomi, and the kobolds. Madrick had intentionally put her into a situation with no preparation. Nuu had made those stupid giants and hadn¡¯t told her they¡¯d turn into a compact killing machine upon death. The others had been too weak to even help.
Disgust blossomed within her, more anger. At herself. Her failure wasn¡¯t anyone else¡¯s fault. It was childish, blind, ungrateful, of her to think so badly of them. At least for her friends and the kobolds. They had been trying to help. Madrick was still a jerk who deserved a good kick, and Nuu¡ She didn¡¯t know. Unnoticed, the tide had lapsed again, giving her room to breathe and reason.
It crashed back into her and she saw herself. Broken body, falling headless onto the battle-scarred earth. Blood pooling in pits formed by her and the monster¡¯s hard landings and missed crashing blows. Unbidden, the footage she¡¯d seen of her fateful injury on the bars. Flying through the air, alignment off just-so, missing. Crashing hard against the unforgiving metal, white bone breaking through her skin and jersey alike. Screaming. Weakness. Snippets of the following months came then, reminding her of her failure to control the anger and hopelessness within, despite knowing how. As a near adult, she had no excuse. Seeing the hurt on her friend¡¯s face. The crushed expression on Jame¡¯s face when she harshly rejected his invitation to a dance at his school, a rejection fueled by her own feeling of inadequacy. Replaying the slammed door as Whitney stormed out of her house, having been insulted by her supposed friend again.
Seeing them all standing around her in Austria, cheering her to victory. Still standing with her, despite everything. Despite her never giving them anything in return. She had been a terrible friend. Behind the images of her loved ones from Earth, Jonah and Naomi stood. Both ready to rush forward and help her as her fight against Jacques in the ring twisted into a bloody brawl with an eight limbed monster. Her friends and family all stood by her side, ready and willing to help. Then they all faded. Gone forever.
Willow¡¯s scream of fury rocked the placid nothingness for but a moment, then she was left panting in silence again, tears and snot rolling down her face. What? Raising her right hand, Willow wiped the clean tears and disgusting mucus off. Moving the hand out, she kept it at eye-level. She squinted and, slowly, oh-so-slowly, her vision resolved smooth unbroken skin cladding fingers she¡¯d always thought were just a bit too short. They were back-lit by an oddly familiar blue light. She looked up and saw the panel before her.
You Died.
You¡¯ve been slain!
Universal Achievement Earned!
| Name |
Everyone Dies Twice |
| Description |
Die once to end your tutorial experience, die again for the first time in reality! |
| Effect |
Ritual Activation Unlocked: Set Spawn Point. |
Respawn/Enter Tutorial
(?)This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Note: Respawning will reset you to rank 0. You will need to reform your insights and mana aspects, rebuild your skills, abilities, and techniques.
Staring at the screen for what felt like years, Willow hesitated. If I enter the tutorial¡ Would I see my family and friends again? The thought brought a small twinge of guilt, nothing compared to the tumult of emotions the reformation of her body and this prompt had pulled her from.
Focusing on the question mark beside ¡°Enter Tutorial¡±, Willow read the tooltip. ¡°Entering the tutorial will scrub all memories and experiences from your soul before entering it into a forming fetus at random.¡±
Well, that answers that. Knowing everything that made her who she was would be erased was more than enough. She chose ¡°Respawn¡± and the darkness began to slowly resolve into a grey room.
Naomi
Laying on the Ground, Foot of the Mountain, Savria
Having awoken to Jonah¡¯s tear-stained face and a handful of annoyed looking kobolds, Naomi¡¯s mind had raced to recall the moments before she¡¯d lost consciousness. As soon as she¡¯d put the pieces back together, she took Jonah¡¯s hand and let him pull her up. Her first question had, logically, been, ¡°Willow saved me?¡±
Expecting a nod, or even a sudden arm thrown around her shoulder as her gregarious friend appeared seemingly from nowhere, seeing Jonah¡¯s eyes slide down to stare at his feet had been unanticipated. Looking around, she saw blood everywhere, but no bodies. The kobolds that had died were gone. The monster was gone, too.
¡°So the monster took her somewhere? What¡¯s the plan to rescue?¡± She asked, concluding the incredibly fast creature had managed to capture Willow for some reason.
Slowly, Jonah¡¯s head shook and he took a deep breath before slowly raising his head to look her directly in the eyes. That was odd, he usually looked at people¡¯s nose, eyebrows, chin, or really anything other than their eyes. He spoke softly, carefully, ¡°No. She¡ Killed it, but it got her, too.¡±
Ah, that seems like Willow. Beat the big bad boss, but get badly hurt in the process. She nodded, ¡°So we need to find a healer or something? Her skill isn¡¯t working?¡±
¡°No! I mean¡¡± Anxiety was written large on Jonah¡¯s face and he looked torn, before finally finishing lamely, ¡°She¡¯s dead, Naomi¡¡± His voice choked, but he force himself to continue, ¡°It killed her too.¡±
That¡ Seemed oddly unlikely. Naomi herself had been fairly certain that mouth-and-teeth faced monster was going to kill her, but once she saw Willow had arrived she knew everything would be fine. With the insane ability to just freeze other people in time that she had, it seemed incomprehensible that she could lose, much less die.
Slowly, she formed a frown on her face, wanting to show her lack of belief. Apparently it worked, since Jonah sighed softly and waved for her to follow. He lead her away from the battle-torn earth and kobolds softly talking, presumably mourning their dead. Plodding slowly as if each step was a made while carrying a mountain, Jonah made his way toward the nearest trap bunker building.
Laid out carefully in front of the building were dozens of bodies. In the middle, was a familiar figure. Usually vibrant amber-brown skin was dull and greyed, her head laid near her neck, but clearly detached. While her eyes were closed, the tension around her mouth and forehead still bore a concerned expression. Without her vibrant personality exuding from it, Willow¡¯s body looked small. Diminutive, almost. Naomi rarely remembered that Willow was several inches shorter than herself, seeing her now though, she seemed so small.
Slowly, she made her way toward the body. Something within her demanded she make sure. After all, this was Willow. The girl who¡¯d swept herself and Jonah out of nothing less of slavery, and by accident at that. The woman who¡¯d destroyed dozens upon dozens of horrifying combined jimble-grimbs. The unbridled force of nature that could make even her smile. The first person in her life that didn¡¯t try to tell her how to ¡®fix¡¯ herself, but encouraged her to become who Naomi herself wanted to be.
Standing over her friend¡¯s corpse, she knelt and gently touched her face. This was real. There was no doubt. Turning her head and eyes up, she met Jonah¡¯s dull stare and felt hot wet tears slowly leak from the corners of her eyes. Her soul pulsed in shades of twisted greens, grays, and black-blues.
Letting the tears flow freely, the colors coalesced into a star and she felt sorrow.
Jonah
Standing Above Willow¡¯s Body, Foot of the Mountain, Savria
The tears slowly forming in Naomi¡¯s eyes were enough to break Jonah¡¯s hold on his own shaking heart. He dropped beside her and joined her, they both cried for the loss. At some point, Jonah had pulled Naomi into a hug and they held each other.
Some time later, they broke apart and slowly pulled themselves together. Not sure what to say, but knowing he should say something, Jonah tried to channel some of the nonchalance Willow often wielded like a razor to cut tension. He failed and shut his hanging-open mouth.
Instead, he said what he¡¯d been thinking since he first saw her fall and felt the pain of it. ¡°We¡¯ve hardly even known her for a month.¡±
¡°Less than.¡± Naomi agreed through a sob.
Sitting on the ground, near a bunch of corpses, Jonah cracked a wry smile, ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯ve ever met anyone who altered the course of my life quite so directly before. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d have been fighting giants or exploring weird empty worlds without her.¡±
Nodding, Naomi pulled her legs up, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her forehead on them.
They let the silence lengthen, both caught in their own thoughts and mourning.
¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever had friends as close as you two.¡± Jonah said softly. Not thinking too much about his words, he continued, ¡°I know Willow was like a magnet that held us all tight¡ But¡ I hope you still want to be my friend, too. I know it¡¯s selfish to think like that, but¡ I can¡¯t change what happened and I¡¯m afraid to lose you, too.¡±
He cleared his throat, realizing what he¡¯d said. He shut up. The thoughts had been voiced and he wouldn¡¯t take them back, though he now felt awkward and embarrassed along with miserable. A gentle nudge from his right forced Jonah to look up and he saw Naomi¡¯s shoulder pushed against his. She¡¯d moved nearer to bump into him. Not saying anything, she just nodded into her knees.
Taking that as agreement, he remained silent and relived the adventure Willow had pulled them into.
Several hours later, Halshath approached them. He turned his head to get a better one-eyed view of their pathetically hunched figures.
Sympathy coloring his voice, he asked, ¡°First times losing someone in the real worlds?¡±
Neither spoke, but both nodded. He sighed, ¡°It¡¯s always hard to see a friend die, but you¡¯ll see her again. Don¡¯t be so down.¡±
Their heads both snapped around to look at him and he realized they had no idea. ¡°Ah, no one told you, then? Death¡¯s not permanent, just annoying. She¡¯ll respawn back wherever your initial origin point was after given a week or two. All the progress she made on her path will be lost, but that¡¯s just the price of death.¡± After a moment¡¯s hesitation, he reluctantly added, ¡°Unless she chooses to reincarnate into the tutorial. The only way someones truly dies for good is by givings up and going back in. Doing that means yous lose all your memories though, so most peoples don¡¯t choose that with their firsts death. Not unless it was a downright torturous experience.¡±
Eyes full of confusion mixed hope stared up at him. Sighing, Halshath waved for them to get up, ¡°Come ons. We needs to take care of the bodies befores they start stinking. You don¡¯t haves to mourn like backs in your tutorial or anything, she¡¯s fine.¡±
So, this wasn¡¯t the end. Just yet another beginning.
Chapter 0 (Prologue) - Ponderous
Shivna
The Endless Expanse, Kavlaka
Within the endless expanse, lounged Shivna. Ruler of the planet Kavlaka, mistress of clarity, champion of learning, sponsor of libraries, lounged. The territory was of her own making, a construct born of, but not sustained by, her domain. One would be forgiven for believing themselves within a paradise should they find themselves within. The thousands of souls who frolicked within certainly did.
Rolling hills rippled with color in a gentle breeze carrying the scent of freshly clipped grass and mountain springs. Iridescent grasses bending and standing under the playful wind caused the landscape to shimmer and shift vibrantly. Whistling song drifted along the air, an endless harmony of tantalizing flutes and pipes, a song ever at the edge of hearing. A tune scratching at the mind, while shying away as soon as it was reached for.
Denizens of the endless expanse laughed and chased each other with abandon, finding pure pleasure in the simplicity and truth of their actions. Humans chased elves, who in turn pursued paavaras and so on. The endless cycle of playing was broken only by the equally endless cycle of violence. A dwarf would catch a hazzabi who didn¡¯t fancy them, and it would turn quickly to blood. The brutality was as pure and innocent as the love and joy, unrestrained, unconcerned with society and propriety. Wild.
The Endless Expanse was a place where all beings were welcome to indulge in their instincts. In fact, it was all they were able to do. The domain-born habitat had taken and refined the suppressive nature of Shivna¡¯s domain, clouding the minds of all those within and reducing them to base creatures. Only those with the necessary knowledge, the appropriate truth, could enter without being stripped of their personhood. A delightfully raw and honest state replaced the naturally fraudulent and scheming natures of intelligent beings. Indulging herself by watching those within the expanse, whether they wondered in, were coerced, or simply tossed in, was among Shivna¡¯s favorite pastimes. Furthermore, it was one of the only places she found the peace she so desired.
A particularly beautiful elf skipped up the hill upon which Shivna languished. Like the occupants of the expanse, she had no use for clothing. Unlike the approaching pink haired girl, who twirled and cartwheeled while squealing and giggling, her more impressively voluptuous form was only hinted at. Despite a particularly odd desire to be seen, her nature did not allow it. Mist of ever-shifting color cloaked her, whether she wanted it to or not. Light bounced about within the thin cloud cladding her figure and refracted back in a glittering display. Every one of her features, which she imagined to be perfect, was obscured. Her mist-obscured figure was shaped as if sculpted by a lusty sailor months from port, hallucinating his ideal release.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Suddenly noticing the sparkling and shifting colors and the form they suggested, the elf stopped dead in her tracks and gaped. Then she giggled and rushed forward. She leapt forward, landing atop Shivna, who caught her and stroked her hair indulgently for but a moment. After, she endured the sudden rain of attempted affection, almost wishing she could reciprocate given the ardor with which the slip of a girl lavished her attention.
Alas, the mists were an impenetrable barrier between them. As such, Shivna had learned to simply remain still and wait. Should she attempt to disengage, the elf would likely grow angry and try to attack her. Moving too much in any other way might be taken as encouragement and would extend the uncomfortable sensation of someone nearly touching her body. Even catching the creature had likely extended the annoyance a bit.
In her youth, as far back as her tutorial in fact, Shivna had been a grand warrior. Natural talent with a spear, paired with the natural barrier of her mists had allowed her to become a true terror upon any field of battle. Yet, she had no love for the frivolity of violence herself. Observing others in combat, though, that was a different story entirely. The greatest pleasure she could indulge in was observing others as they satisfied their own basest wishes.
Eventually, the elf grew bored of failing to get a rise from her and left as she came. Her voice raised in an off-key song made of gibberish, the young woman rushed off to join the rest. A grand sigh escaping her lips. Shivna finally returned to the thoughts which had encouraged her to come to this place. Another of her kind, Nuu, had visited and brought with him a fascinating tale. More importantly, he had informed her of Madrick¡¯s fall from godhood. The question of what she would do with this information had haunted her. Certainly, she would not let the knowledge remain unactioned. The man had been a menace before his ascension, then he¡¯d become a true thorn.
While his path should have provided ample opportunities for Shivna to spy upon battles and other expressions of true abandon, the infuriating man always knew when she tried. Even his followers had a strange inherent ability to notice her observation and tended to find ways to close off whatever method of observation she used.
Beyond simple petty revenge, though, this was a true opportunity to gain favor with the court. Although technically Shivna was a full member of the summer court, she was not fool enough to think any of the others truly saw her that way. While they all played on Filcria, she¡¯d been assigned as an on-planet governor. Being given a title and expected to directly handle the responsibilities of that title was a grave insult. Truly, though, she barely cared. The courtly intrigues were mostly not to her liking, as actual self-indulgent behavior was rarely seen within. The court was a place of self-control, careful planning, manipulation, and twisting of truth. Given her insights, Shivna could certainly have flourished. It simply didn¡¯t interest her.
What did interest her, however, was gaining access to the Whispering Nyad Forest rift which the summer court controlled. Access was strictly controlled by Tiana, the summer queen. Sojourns into the rift were given out as rewards for services or to favored members of the court. It was one of the primary ways in which the queen maintained her power. The forest was particularly suited to help most fae develop their insights, as it was strongly oriented toward their own nature. There were, certainly, other rifts which were nearly as good. They were controlled just as jealously, though. Everyone understood the value of specialized rifts and would not easily part with such a treasure, not if they could avoid it.
Considered from this angle, her path was clear. Standing from her languid position laying atop the grass, Shivna stood and turned to leave. She would have to invite Nuu to another luncheon and suggest some interesting narrative possibilities.
Perhaps one of those scenes of his could encourage Madrick¡¯s path to cross her own once more.
Chapter 1 - Respawn Duty
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
Rank 1
The first rank is essentially the ¡°getting your feet wet¡± category. The identifying trait of a Rank 1 is essentially having and being able to use mana.
The first rank is categorized by three things: - Having at least one insight - Having at least one mana aspect - Having at least one ability, skill, technique, or spell
Luzzi
Respawn Point DA-213-33-312, Farcem City, Motrendi
Sharp metal, cold concrete, and an unpleasant citrusy musk, these were the scents which had comprised the majority of the day. Despite the less than pleasant surrounds, Luzzi mostly didn¡¯t mind being assigned to respawn duty. Especially given it came with a promised rift slot once complete. After being denied her request for a delving slot following the completion of her long recruitment day assignment, it was pleasant to have the promise of a reward, rather than just the possibility. The sudden disappearance of her previous assignment coordinator, after he failed to properly incentivize her, may have contributed to her new coordinator¡¯s willingness to properly work with her.
Rubbing her paws together in bright amusement her tail twitched slightly behind her where it hooked up in a C facing her back. Although her tail split into two distinct limbs a bit further than half-way down its length, she had them wrapped around each other so they acted largely as a single unit. Generally, she wouldn¡¯t bother showing such contrition, but her partner in this task commanded respect without asking for it. Primarily due to an unstable personality, mixed with a powerful path. Ravavka sat straight in the chair which was shaped directly from the living metal which made up the room and everything within. The Hazzabi¡¯s scent was constantly shifting, though always carrying a tang of citrus and sweat.
While Luzzi had no trouble discerning the physical shape of things though scent and hearing, she cared little about what others looked like and generally did not dwell on it overly much. The mental image she held within her mind was primarily to read the emotions of others and navigate her surroundings. Specific details such as color, texture, feature size, these were irrelevant. It was the aroma of other beings which she examined and formed opinions based on. The very moment Ravavka had been introduced to her, Luzzi had known she would be wise to tread lightly around him. The thought had been proven by several unfortunate respawnees who questioned his barked orders.
Still, the arrangement was far from unpleasant. Unlike many other beings, Ravavka appeared more than content to sit in silence. He spent most of his time interfacing with the UICI, likely reading, researching, perhaps even programming modules. The Hazzabi were well known to be among the best natural developers in the world, after all. Her own pursuits while awaiting whoever the next unfortunate would be, was somewhat more productive. She had acquired a new insight seed, the minor boon her previous coordinator had provided her, and she was considering it. The seed itself was aligned with the path she chosen to walk, The Path of the Unseen Many, which had been formed originally by a soamrik of all species. Despite being aligned to her path, the insight within rang hollow in Luzzi¡¯s heart. ¡°Every shadow hides behind an object.¡±
Even the words themselves felt ridiculous. They were true, obviously, every seed was. There was a vast difference between knowing the phrase of an insight, and gaining that insight. Seeds, like the one she had unconsciously removed from one of the many pouches strapped around her body, were measured in centimeters or less. Despite their small size, they held a truth within them. A truth which would be absorbed upon consumption.
A path was not comprised of specific insights, per say. Rather a path was a guide to an understood and expected conclusion. The Frazzlen faction demanded all of their contractees decide upon and walk a specific path. At least, they tried to demand as much. The one thing which no contract could truly dictate was the shape of one¡¯s soul. It was certainly possible for a contract to remove ownership of one¡¯s own flesh, even their thoughts. A being¡¯s soul, though, was held sacred and protected. Not protected by the gods or any other being, but by the very world itself. Even the most powerful being upon the most expansive path of contracting and manipulation could not force the shape of another¡¯s soul.
That was not to say the factions could not direct a being to make the choice they preferred. Knowing the exact insights a person held could often be used to determine their blind spots and weaknesses, after all. Factions understood their members would not be under their power forever. As such, they maintained dossiers of the insights and mana aspects that were developed while they were. This provided them a strong basis for countering ex members if they became disgruntled and tried to seek vengeance. This precaution was generally seen as wise, given the large number of beings who did indeed resent whichever faction convinced them to sign hundreds or even thousands of their years away. Not that some didn¡¯t excel. For every ten hate-filled enemies a faction created through their contracting practices, they acquired one life-long member who truly believed in their cause.
Flicking the seed into the air, Luzzi caught it and stuffed it back into one of her pouches at random. Within the many pockets and pouches strung across her body, she held many trinkets and small items of interest. Collecting was her greatest joy. Especially given the habit tended to annoy her ¡®superiors.¡¯ She decided then, that this seed would simply be a part of her collection. The insight it contained did not suit what she wished to be. It would synergize with some of her other insights, certainly, but she believed the synergies would also introduce new limitations which she currently didn¡¯t have.
A coppery scent suddenly filled the chamber. She focused her attention to the far end of the rectangular room and heard Ravavka¡¯s head rise to watch as well. The inability to see rarely bothered Luzzi. In fact, she rarely even thought about it. Her inability to perceive the purportedly beautiful coalescence of many colored kaleidoscopic lights forming into a body was one of the few things she regretted not being able to experience due to her lack of sight. Even through her illusions, she had no sense of sight.
Lacking sight, however, afforded Luzzi the opportunity to experience the absolutely beautiful convergence of scents and sounds. Deep base notes well beyond a human or elf¡¯s range of hearing wove together with pitches so high as to shatter matter if it were to be loosed fully. More extraordinary still was the unique bouquet which slowly formed. Each being she witnessed spawning had an entirely unique composition of scents which were the purest and most unadulterated essence of their unique fragrance. There had never been a respawn scent which wasn¡¯t pleasing, even if she found the final product after the body was fully formed to be less than enjoyable.
This time was no exception as earthy tones rose through the room¡¯s floor, ignoring the many layers of warding protections woven into the metal. A perfume of roses and lilacs mixed with nutmeg and witching wood rushed through the walls, similarly unconcerned with the meddling of mere gods. From the heavens descended a sharp tang of ozone and burning fire. All together, they combined and became an indescribable attar entirely unique.
Oddly, Luzzi felt she recognized the smell. Allowing a whole set of minutes to pass, the song ended with a sudden final note. The unique scent settled and she knew a flash of brilliant light concluded the respawn. Standing at the other end of the room was a human woman. As all newly respawned were, she was clean and clothed in a simple grey jumpsuit. The question of why everyone was clothed upon being respawned was simple, the gods willed it so. The respawn itself, of course, did not create clothing for a being. One of the many, many enchantments and rituals woven into the walls of each of these respawn room facilitated the function, just as the arrival stage was.
Process complete, the newcomer began to speak at the same time as Ravavka. ¡°Uh, hi¡ I¡¡± ¡°State your name and faction.¡±
A beat of silence, then the woman said, ¡°My name¡¯s Willow. And you?¡±
Odd, that voice was certainly familiar, but Luzzi couldn¡¯t quite place from where.
Willow
Respawn Point DA-213-33-312, Farcem City, Motrendi
As the darkness finally retreated, Willow found herself in a room which seemed to be made of a single piece of gray. What the material was, she had no clue. It didn¡¯t look metallic, or stone-like, or woody. It just looked gray.
Once her eyes had cleared, she noticed there were two creatures sitting in what looked like those uber-modern cup chairs that rich people had in their houses, or at least that¡¯s what she¡¯d on various entertainment programs. They certainly couldn¡¯t be comfortable. At least¡ Not for a human, maybe they¡¯re fine for these¡ People?
¡°Uh, hi¡¡± Willow started, ¡°I-¡± She cut off as she realized the creature with all the eyes on the left had spoken at the same time as her. Parsing out what he¡¯d said she decide to give a little, ¡°My name¡¯s Willow. And you?¡±
¡°My name is irrelevant, respawnee. Provide your faction name.¡± The creature had a man¡¯s voice, deep and sonorous, with a bored inflection. He was probably one of the scariest things she¡¯d ever seen. Dull grey, craggy and pitted, skin. A mouth split almost the entire length of the square face, wrapping around out of sight on the side furthest from Willow. Hie teeth were all flat, human-like, other than two sets of canines which had seemed to flash as he spoke. Five eyes stared at her from the very top of the creature¡¯s head, just below the curve of its bald head. A huge eye maintained an unblinking gaze, while two more eyes were arranged on either side in a line. The center eye was nearly four times the size of a human eye, set centered its shape was oddly symmetrical. Each of its other eyes were half the size of the large one.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Besides the scary mouth, lack of nose or eyebrows, or any other normal facial feature, it was mostly humanoid. The arms and legs appeared lanky and thin, but other than that fairly normal besides the seven extremely long fingers and an equally long thumb. He was wearing what looked like a black and orange sailor¡¯s uniform, lapels and all.
¡°Ah¡ No¡ Don¡¯t think I¡¯m gonna give out personal info to some folks I just met. Sorry for the inconvenience.¡± She did her best to sound conciliatory rather than annoyed at being demanded to do things.
She noticed a twitching motion from the other sitting creature. This one looked like a kind of cross between a koala and a lemur, if you were to remove the resulting creature¡¯s eyes entirely. Where the eyes should be there was just a flat plane of silky looking white fur. Honestly, still pretty cute! That fur looks sooooo soft! The twitching had come from its ears, which were flicking rapidly as it rubbed and squeezed its hands together in an even rhythm. Honestly, it seemed almost concerned or distressed. Not sure why, that¡¯s just the vibe. Those twitching ears were large triangles with tufts of long fur at their tips, though the triangle bent a few centimeters from the end, making them flop slightly. The creature wore a similar uniform.
Willow¡¯s eyes snapped back to her left as the many eyed man slowly stood. He had a wide smile, well surely any smile on him is wide, which seemed a mix of malice and excitement. The motion made her realize he was just over a meter tall. Why¡¯s he look so intimidating while so short?!
A momentary flash of memory brought her back to hoards of pop-hoppers. They were about the same size as this guy, though she suspected they weren¡¯t nearly within his league. Not liking the slow way he was stalking forward, joined by that odd smile, Willow subtly shifted into a better stance to fight.
The deep voice didn¡¯t sound bored anymore, it sounded excited, ¡°Last Chance. Name. Your. Faction.¡±
¡°Are you threatening me?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
The little man was still very slowly edging toward her. The room was only somewhere around ten meters long, so it wasn¡¯t like he couldn¡¯t close faster if he wanted. He was clearly trying to intimidate her into compliance. The simple agreement that he was threatening her, at least, relieved her concern that she might be reading the situation wrong. She¡¯d thought a few times about her first few minutes in this new world, when that big guy had tried to stop her from leaving without signing a horrible contract. Although she didn¡¯t exactly regret punching him and then leaving him to recover, she did sometimes wonder if it had been a misunderstanding. Especially after learning from that guy at the desk that most of the recruiters weren¡¯t even human.
Seeing the aggressive grey man take another step, Willow consoled herself that at least this time things were clear.
¡°I don¡¯t like being told what to do. Let¡¯s try again, why don¡¯t you be polite and let me know your name. We can talk from there.¡± She offered a reasonable way to break the tension.
He leapt forward, fast. His body exploded into a blindingly white blur as he flashed forward and struck her in the gut.
¡°Guh¡¡± She gasped out incoherently before crashing against the wall. She felt her knees hit the floor, hands catching herself. Her body felt weak. She knew for certain that little force shouldn¡¯t have broken anything, she¡¯d been falling off of mountains for crying out loud! Despite knowing all that, she coughed up blood and thought a rib had cracked.
¡°Faction.¡± The mirthful voice spoke again.
Annoyed, Willow called her discipline mana and cycled it through the pattern for her back into it skill. For whatever reason, the skill hadn¡¯t automatically started fixing her up. It was also hard to push her mana through the correct pattern. For some reason it kept trying to veer off.
Then another voice, chimed in, low feminine, soft, and silky, ¡°Whatever progress you made on your soul nexus and body enhancements are gone with your death, remember. Don¡¯t challenge Ravavka if you don¡¯t want to go back to wait for another respawn.¡±
As Willow forced her head up, the man¡¯s middle eye flicked toward the eyeless-lemur-woman in clear annoyance, but he nodded and tried again. ¡°Just tell me your faction and I won¡¯t kill you.¡± He sounded disappointed.
Having managed to get her oddly unruly mana to take the proper shape of her skill, Willow felt her body quickly recover. Sighing in relief, she stood back up and narrowed her eyes at her attacker. I can¡¯t see him move, so I need to keep an eye out for even the smallest twitch. Then her mind caught up to what she¡¯d heard and she blinked, ¡°Uh¡ What? My progress¡¡±
Panicked, Willow turned her gaze inward. She found her dojo, perfectly spotless with her self-avatar wearing a gi with a simple phoenix patch on its shoulder where coach used to have his crossed stave and gun symbol. It indicated she was a teacher, rather than a student. That¡¯s new¡ Huh, I guess I didn¡¯t spend much time in here after figuring out more about my instruction mana.
Then she looked at her body mural. Unlike her mana and dojo, that was definitely different. The skill pattern wasn¡¯t there at all, all of the areas she¡¯d enforced with xp were back to their original states. Mouth falling open, Willow groaned in dismay.
A sharp laugh which felt at odds with the deep voice came from the little many-eyed bossy guy. ¡°First time respawning? Didn¡¯t believe you¡¯d actually lose everything like you were told? Thought you were the exception?¡± His voice was derisive. Costic.
Returning her attention outward, she frowned at him, ¡°Why are you such a jerk?¡±
She saw his leg tense. Moment of focus activated. He was less than a centimeter from her, blazing fist positioned to strike her directly in the forehead. Given the damage she¡¯d taken just from a gut punch, and one that she was now guessing he hadn¡¯t put much strength into, she was sure this one would kill her.
A return strike was her immediate instinct, but she forced herself to be still. Her moment of focus was currently expanded to its default area, which had only grown larger as she became stronger. It easily filled the room, freezing both the man and the furry woman. Checking her mana reserves, Willow found she could easily fuel her ability for ten minutes if she didn¡¯t act at all. Each action she took would use a larger chunk of her mana.
Although her maximum mana had grown since initially discovering and experimenting with her ability, the main difference was that she¡¯d learned how to use it efficiently. Maybe too efficiently. Looking back, she realized with some chagrin that she was pretty sure she¡¯d been releasing that crazy monster from her ability each time she hit it to reduce the mana cost. It¡¯d been a habit she¡¯d learned while fighting pop-hoppers. With them, she could release them after hitting them since they¡¯d die immediately after. The amalgams wouldn¡¯t die instantly like that, but she could still release her hold on them for a few moments after hitting them, before reestablishing her influence. I literally lost because I got arrogant and was trying to fight conservatively.
Annoying as the thought might be, it was only half accurate. No, I lost because I fought like I¡¯d trained myself to. I wasn¡¯t thinking through my strategy. Why not? The answer was obvious. Because she¡¯d both never had the luxury and never had the need to stop and think in the middle of a fight. All the opponents she¡¯d faced up until that final insane pop-hopper final evolution had been little more than punching bags. Before, on Earth, she simply couldn¡¯t stop time for everyone but herself to give herself breathing room.
But I used my focus to think ahead a bit. It¡¯s a mix. I got arrogant, and I neglected to train new habits to match my new abilities. Two things I need to fix. Resolution made, she turned her mind back to the task at hand. The only enemy she had here was this guy. The fluffy woman hadn¡¯t sounded like she was angry or even annoyed, and she¡¯d tried to warn her.
Path made clear, Willow reshaped her area of influence. She might have been able to just excluded the woman from its effects if she tried, she wasn¡¯t sure. She didn¡¯t want to though. If she was actually an enemy she wanted her to be stopped in her tracks when she tried to attack. The creature¡¯s hands clenched and unclenched twice, then it seemed to become confused. Slowly, it pursed its lips. Although she didn¡¯t hear anything, Willow thought she was whistling.
¡°Are¡ You still there?¡± Came the uncertain question.
Taking a deep breath, Willow answered, ¡°I am, yes.¡±
Ears twitched quickly and the creature¡¯s tail, which had been posed kind of like a scorpion¡¯s tail above her head, suddenly split in two. The two ends begun to lash around in an erratic, but slightly hypnotic, pattern. It didn¡¯t seem like an attack, so Willow just waited.
¡°Is Ravavka still here as well?¡± Was the next question.
¡°Yeah, he¡¯s just¡ Taking a break.¡± Curiously, Willow noted that talking did cost a little extra mana, but not much. Not as much as any other action would have. Most of the testing she¡¯d done had confirmed that all actions were essentially equal to her ability, they all cost the same amount of mana whether it was jumping as high as she could, or taking one step. Speaking appeared to be something of an exception. Each sentence cost her maybe half a percent of her overall mana, which was significantly less than the two percent or so that any other action would cost.
Still, it tightened her timeline from ten minutes down to¡ Less. She didn¡¯t feel like doing the math right now. the ¡°I see¡ I am quite surprised you were able to reform one of your insights and generate enough mana to stop him within less than five minutes of re-spawning.¡± There was a clear question in the creature¡¯s question, but Willow wouldn¡¯t be sharing anything quite yet.
¡°Sorry, I¡¯m not in much of a mood to share after being bossed around then attacked.¡±
Fluffy hands rubbed furry face. Adorable. ¡°I understand. I also don¡¯t appreciate being commanded. My name is Luzzi. If you can leave him here, perhaps we can leave together and speak like civilized beings?¡±
Hesitating for a minute, Willow glanced at the guy who had been trying to kill her. Again. I¡¯ve already died twice and this guy wanted to make it a third?! Three strikes, you¡¯re out! No thanks.
Leaving him by using her ability was an option, though she would have to stretch and twist it as far as she could. She was certain this guy would be chasing after her as soon as he got free and realized she¡¯d left. That¡¯d be fine, if she was faster than him. As it was, he¡¯d catch up and kill her before she even knew he was about to arrive.
That left two options. He had a knife on his belt, she could take it and kill him. She made a face, it felt extreme. He might deserve it for being a jerk, but¡ Killing someone who¡¯s trying to kill me is entirely justifiable. I wouldn¡¯t even feel guilty. Probably. More importantly, though, was how her possible ally would react. If this guy was important to her, it might make that polite conversation she offered impossible.
I could just ask her if she cares if I kill him¡ Wow, how brazen¡ On the other hand¡ ¡°Do you mind if I kill him?¡±
A moment¡¯s hesitation, ¡°I would prefer you don¡¯t, if you don¡¯t have to. If he dies, I will be penalized for failing to act properly to protect my partner for the day.¡±
Interesting. She wouldn¡¯t care if it didn¡¯t cause her harm, then? Deciding now wasn¡¯t the time to analyze that, she decided option two would have to work. Hopefully.
¡°If this doesn¡¯t work he¡¯ll probably kill me. If that happens¡ Uh¡ Thanks for being less insane than this guy.¡±
She didn¡¯t wait for a reply, pulling strands of both her discipline and instruction mana into a carefully balanced packet. Her spell, imperative command was formed. She slammed a fist directly into the frozen man¡¯s forehead with the instruction, fall unconscious, with all of her strength.
Despite no longer being super-human, Willow was still not a weak girl. She was certain the strike would leave a mark when the guy woke up. She noted that more than half of her mana had been eaten up between using the spell and hitting the guy without releasing him. Deciding to go for broke, she hit him one more time. Once more sending a packet of imperative command into him. Feeling drained, down to less than ten percent of her instruction mana and maybe one percent of discipline, she made sure she was clear of her enemy¡¯s prior strike, released her ability and slumped before catching herself.
Taking steadying breaths, Willow fed the annoyance, uncertainty, and anger she felt into her ability, refueling her discipline mana by about a fourth. She was surprised to find herself too drained of emotion to further refill herself. It¡¯s been a crazy¡ However long I was in that empty space. I want a nap.
Her opponent was laying at her feet, unconscious. Willow wasn¡¯t entirely sure if she¡¯d needed to hit him twice, but didn¡¯t regret it either way.
¡°What a wonderful display! Ravavka is quite intimidating. His path is well suited for direct confrontation, and he¡¯s unstable. I am very impressed with your ability to take down a rank six as a rank one!¡±
¡°Ehh, thanks.¡± Willow waved it off, ¡°But I¡¯m rank four.¡±
She stretched, enjoying the rapidly twitching ears and flicking tails. She assumed those things meant Luzzi was awestruck.
Chapter 2 - Welcome to MotrePrime
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
Rank 2 - 5
The second through fifth ranks mark the beginning of understanding the importance of conceptual links.
The second through fifth ranks are categorized by accomplishing each of the following (one per rank): - Conceptually linking two insights together in a manner which empowers them both - Learning to combine two mana aspects to create a new third type - ¡®Breaking Through¡¯ an existing spell or ability¡¯s limitations by altering ones thought processes and worldview - Learning to directly connect to a representation of a concept strongly linked to ones mana to rapidly convert the potentia to the conceptually linked mana aspect.
Willow
Respawn Point DA-213-33-312, Farcem City, Motrendi
¡°Rank 4¡ You mean you were rank 4.¡± Luzzi stated, more than asked.
A bit confused, Willow quickly scanned her soul nexus again and compared her knowledge of ranks against herself. Shaking her head, she explained, ¡°No, I¡¯m rank 4. I have two mana aspects, an ability, a spell, I had a skill but it looks like that¡¯s gone¡¡±
Frowning at the hopefully temporary loss, Willow shook her head and continued, ¡°I have a linked concept representation to regenerate mana, I¡¯ve expanded and manipulated my ability¡¯s functionality plenty of times, and my insights have always been linked together¡ Probably.¡± She ended with a bright smile.
In all honesty, she wasn¡¯t entirely sure she was rank four. The first three milestones she¡¯d mentioned were definitely reached. She wasn¡¯t totally sure that her insights were linked together in whatever way constituted the milestone, though. A lot of her experience with the whole insight thing was different from how Chezly Falthrick explained it in his book, so she was guessing with that last part. However, one thing she was sure of about the insights being linked together was that there didn¡¯t need to be a ¡®bridging¡¯ insight. Those were apparently fine and sometimes used to make extremely clear connections, but as long as a person, or ¡®being¡¯ as Chezly always said, held a clear conceptual bond between their insights. As far as Willow was concerned, it¡¯d been harder to separate the two insights than it was to link them.
¡°That¡¯s¡ Not possible, Willow¡¡± The fuzzy lady said. Her two tail tips wound and unwound. I¡¯m gonna have to figure out what her body language means¡ Her voice so far has been pretty much exactly the same the entire time, only what she¡¯s doing with her hands, paws? and tails really changes much. Gonna assume the tails winding and unwinding is probably nervous I¡¯m gonna sock her a good one like her annoying buddy.
¡°Ain¡¯t I just the darndest thing, then?¡± She flashed a grin, not feeling a particular need to convince anyone that she was apparently continuing to break the rules. ¡°I do feel a lot weaker, though. Physically. And like I said, my skill¡¯s gone entirely. That¡¯s¡ Annoying. I¡¯m gonna want that back.¡±
Shaking her head, Luzzi wave Willow forward, ¡°Please, come. Perhaps we should talk over lunch. Normally, when a first time respawnee comes through, one of us on respawn duty will spend some time explaining. In my experience, a newly formed body is generally hungry.¡±
Eager, Willow nodded. She was tired, some food and then bed sounded perfect. Stepping over the unconscious form of Ravavka, she strode toward the outline of a doorway behind Luzzi. Arriving, she examined it carefully, trying to figure out how she was supposed to open it. The outline was there, like a beveled seam in the weird flat gray surface of the wall, but there wasn¡¯t a handle or button or anything. Reaching out, she pushed on it, curious, but it didn¡¯t budge.
Clearing her throat, Luzzi stepped forward. A flash of disappointment and annoyance rolled through Willow as she noticed that she was a few centimeters shorter than Luzzi. Even with her odd backwards, almost lupine, legs which caused her to crouch a bit: her head was slightly above Willow¡¯s own. Somehow it doesn¡¯t seem fair. Is 1.6 meters still short even here?!
She consoled herself by remembering that Ravavka was the size of a child. Maybe most others would be just as small and Luzzi was just a giant! Realizing she¡¯d been getting distracted even more easily than usual, Willow forced her attention back to the matter at hand. She¡¯d entirely missed how Luzzi had opened the door, but she was now standing outside the empty doorway waiting for Willow to follow.
Stepping out herself, Willow glanced around curiously. They had entered a long hallway which extended down as far as she could see to her left and right both. The entire place was eerily empty and silent. Keeping her voice low, as she felt a similar compulsion not to break the silence as she might in a library, Willow asked, ¡°Is it always so empty?¡±
Ear twitching, Luzzi rubbed one of her hands down her face, from the center of her head, over where her eyes would have been, down to her nose. The motion left a trail of slightly standing fur which was slowly falling back into place. She answered, ¡°These hallways are generally quite empty, though sometimes they become flooded. Large scale wars, raid rifts, the unexpected destruction of a planet, and other events which cause many deaths often lead to crowds.¡±
Unlike Willow, Luzzi apparently had no concern about being too loud. She spoke with a normal tone and volume and began walking to their right. Willow followed as she listened, ¡°Currently, there appears not be any large scale violent events. There¡¯s a raid rift scheduled by the Order of Nothing tomorrow, so there will be many spawns to process then. Thankfully, I will be free of the duty as today is my last filling this particular role.¡±
That¡¯s¡ A lot to unpack. ¡°So people go out and do things they know will probably kill a lot of them? Raid rifts? Why?¡±
A cat-like tail swish passed through Willow¡¯s peripheral vision, and there was a long beat before Luzzi replied, ¡°It appears your education was incomplete¡¡± She spoke slowly, choosing her words, ¡°Death is an inevitability, and up until rank ten it¡¯s mostly an inconvenience as even the most incompetent of beings can rebuild their soul nexus within a year or less. The talented might get back from rank one to rank nine in a month. Only the jump between nine and ten is truly a struggle.¡±
That didn¡¯t quite jive with what she¡¯d been told during that on-boarding lecture, which felt so long ago, ¡°I thought factions expected it to take ten years to form an insight?¡±
That question was, apparently, a bit too telling. Luzzi froze mid step. Had she been a human, Willow expected she would have turned to stare at her. Instead, she just wrapped her tail around her waist and asked in a careful tone, ¡°Am I to understand, then, that your own faction did not require a ¡®service period¡¯ of you?¡±
Ehh, what the heck. My mana¡¯s full enough that I¡¯m confident I can escape if I need to. Might as well give her a bit of info, maybe she can help. Not like Madrick said it was a secret or anything. ¡°Nope! I¡¯m not part of a faction, I¡¯m a disciple.¡± As she finished her explanation, she knew she¡¯d said the right thing. Luzzi¡¯s tail unwrapped and resumed the position it had been in the first time Willow saw her. It rose in a curving C, the split ends wrapping together tightly so it looked like a normal single strand.
¡°I see, that does explain it, then. May I ask who you are discipled to?¡± She continued walking as she asked and Willow stepped to keep up.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
¡°Sure, Madrick.¡± Luzzi froze again, this time she just stood still for a moment before resuming their walk. Giving her a bit to think, Willow glanced around, hoping to see something interesting. Unfortunately, the hallway was made of the exact same boring gray substance that the room she¡¯d appeared in had been. There were hundreds of door outlines, just like the one Luzzi had opened. Somehow. Why am I so easily distracted right now? I¡¯m tired, but it doesn¡¯t feel that bad¡
¡°Madrick is a¡ Well known entity. I suppose you were given little choice in the matter of your discipleship?¡± Came Luzzi¡¯s belated reply.
Injecting as much false cheer into her voice as she could, Willow chirped, ¡°Exactly none!¡±
Glancing toward her guide, Willow saw she was running both hands down her face. I wonder what that means. Concerned? Distressed? Once her hands had properly ruffled her fur, she replied, ¡°That is what I expected. The one time I met Madrick, he killed me for annoying him.¡±
Eyebrows raising, Willow immediately latched onto that particular tidbit eagerly, ¡°He killed you for annoying him? I¡¯ve definitely annoyed him several times and he didn¡¯t kill me.¡±
More twitching ears, ¡°You did not respawn due to him becoming frustrated and killing you?¡±
¡°Huh? No, I got in a fight with this annoying freaky monster that was formed after we killed a few skyscraper-sized things that were set on me by someone with the ability to make his stories come true.¡± Although Willow was quite pleased with her concise summary of events, it apparently left Luzzi with more questions.
Feeling no particular reason to be cagey, Willow indulged her curiosity as they walked. As they talked, she kept her UICI journal up and began penning questions which she¡¯d ask the seemingly friendly woman later. Actually, I¡¯m assuming she¡¯s a she because of her voice, that might be rude¡
Clearing her throat, Willow decided to just get it out of the way. ¡°Eh, before I answer about Nuu¡ Could I ask you about yourself a bit? I¡¯ve never met someone from your¡ Species?¡±
The wound tail suddenly unwound and split far apart before winding back up and resuming their previous C. Yeah, I need to find a book or something about what those gestures mean. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I should have expected as much! I¡¯m a member of the paavaras species.¡± Before Willow could embarrass herself with further questions, she continued, ¡°I am a female, as expressed by my delicate jawline and wide ear-lobes.¡±
One of her paws reached up to pull at the bottom edge of her ear, which was kind of circular compared with the overall sharp triangle shape. ¡°My kind put great stock in freedom and individuality. I advise you do not attempt to dictate or rule any of us, as it rarely ends pleasantly.¡±
Nodding, Willow grinned, ¡°Hey, we have that in common then!¡±
¡°Yes, it seems so!¡±
Although she wanted to ask more questions about her new acquaintance, and her people, Willow honored her previous promise and answered her last question about Nuu instead.
The entire walk down the hallway took an entire half hour. In that time, they only passed two other people. One looked like a fantasy elf: tall, fair skinned, slanted and sharp features, pointy ears, haughty expression. The other was just another human. Is it weird I¡¯m disappointed to see humans instead of new magical species?
At the end of the hallway, they found another door-outline. This time Willow paid attention and saw what Luzzi did. She placed a hand on the door and it seemed to melt away in every direction. The process looked like a mix between oil running across a flat surface and paper burning from the center out to every edge. ¡°How¡¯d you do that?¡± she asked curiously.
¡°There is an enchantment matrix which allows authorized personnel to control the living metal we touch with a UICI module.¡±
¡°If it¡¯s using the UICI, why do you have to touch it?¡±
The door finished melting away and they stepped through as Luzzi answered. ¡°That¡¯s the targeting mechanism the module developer decided on. This is a rank three module, so it¡¯s likely that it was designed with the understanding that users would not have a developed enough will to avoid targeting the wrong things if a metal targeting system was used instead.¡±
¡°Oh¡ Uh, so what¡¯s living metal?¡± Willow asked as she looked around. Finding herself finally outside of the boring passage, her eyes drank in the new scenery. The room was clearly a lobby, with a huge opening to their right, large enough to easily accommodate a four lane highway, had it not been congested with walking people instead.
Every shape and size seemed to be represented here. Ten meter giants stepped carefully to avoid squashing everyone around them, fantasy creatures decked in sparkling chain mail rubbed elbows with squid-shaped creatures covered in what looked like neoprene lugging massive guns. A lanky man passed directly in front of them, wearing a literal wizard¡¯s costume. Pointy hat, long flowing star-dotted robes and all. On his shoulder was what looked like a tiny elf with wings, probably a fairy, chattering into his ear while polishing what looked like a tiny laser-sword hilt.
Above the crowd floated a blue and red mass of something contained within what appeared to be a multi-layered gyroscope. Gears slowly turned, rotating the entire outer construct while the inside remained a stable ball of vibrantly glowing color. Desks lined the wall directly in front of them, though there was a ramp leading to a sky-walk to go over the constant foot traffic moving between the entrance and the final edge of the lobby.
To Willow¡¯s left was both the destination and source of the majority of the never ending press of bodies. A still tall, but much narrower, doorway surrounded by what appeared to be holographic ads sat as the main attraction. Directly above the advertisement-plastered doorway floated a single sentence, ¡°Entrance to Luvian Rift 230-AE-993.¡± Below the vibrant, eye piercing, pink and red letters was smaller line. ¡°Rift Occupancy: 9832/10000.¡±
Every second she watched, the ¡®Rift Occupancy¡¯ number changed. The second number, which she assumed was the maximum capacity, remained static. The first one though, would drop by ten only to immediately leap up by thirty. Then fall again by a hundred.
Those numbers were obviously calculated based on the people going in and out. It was only the sheer speed of it that was shocking. Noticing that Willow had entirely missed her explanation of living metal, Luzzi rubbed one of her paws down the side of her face and gently tapped the human on her shoulder. She¡¯d tried calling her name twice.
Head whipping around, Willows¡¯ wide eyes locked on the only semi-familiar face as she breathed out, ¡°Holy Jesus this is a lot.¡±
Rubbing the side of her face again, Luzzi gestured toward the rift entrance, ¡°That particular rift is a staple of Motrendi. It has a hundred X time compression ratio. So each second out here is one hundred within. This is how it¡¯s able to accommodate so many each day. It¡¯s also one of the most sought after rift types, what we call a ¡®mob field¡¯ type rift. The entire thing is essentially a large world with hundreds of thousands of monsters, all of which respawn on a set timer. It¡¯s perfect for honing combat insights. Unfortunately, this rift doesn¡¯t provide any particular reward other than the monster experience itself.¡±
The massive crowd cheered when a particularly well liked party exited the rift, distracting Willow again. Noticing the human¡¯s attention was waning, Luzzi tapped her shoulder and pointed toward the exit on their right. ¡°We¡¯re going through those doors. There is a small bistro off the main street that I enjoy, I haven¡¯t taken any humans there before but I have noticed some come and go. I believe it should be acceptable for you as well.¡±
Far too overwhelmed by the sudden change from weeks of isolation from everyone but a small handful of familiar faces, Willow just nodded and followed behind. She forced herself to keep her attention on Luzzi enough to follow her, though she let her eyes flick about without moving her head. Somehow, the emptiness of the feather-branch forest had subconsciously convinced her that most worlds would be like that. Somewhat barren. She assumed there would be cities, but this was on another scale entirely.
As they finally passed through the huge doorway and observed the sprawling monstrosity of a city, Willow had to force herself not to stop and stare again. Stretched out before them was a vista of constant motion as billions, trillions? Went about their daily lives. The city wasn¡¯t like any she¡¯d seen on earth. It was clear they were several kilometers above the ground floor of the city, as she could see an edge in the distance and beyond that other massive buildings which appeared to be large enough to be considered cities in their own right. Those distant buildings even appeared to have large walkways built between them on several levels, shortcuts to avoid going all the way to ground level to move between them certainly.
All of this was essentially a scaled up version of any major city, with the buildings including huge outdoor terraces which might be better described as parks and in some cases perhaps even forests. The parts which caused Willow¡¯s heart to speed up in excitement were the huge floating sections of the city. Occupying the sky above them were: buildings, shards of what appeared to be islands of pure nature, solid appearing clouds, flying beasts and even people running through the air with abandon. What she¡¯d assumed was a roof or spell effect or something far above suddenly shifted and she realized that bright gold so far above wasn¡¯t stationary either.
Luzzi laid a hand on Willow, probably to avoid them getting separated in the press of bodies as she stood directly in the path of traffic, staring up. Mouth hanging open for what felt like hours, Willow watched as what turned out to be golden scales made their sensuous way across the skyline, twisting and climbing into the air. Finally, the creature itself was distant enough to be understandable. A dragon. A dragon large enough to cover hundreds of kilometers of the sky. Large enough that a single scale had been enough to block the sky.
Only now did Willow notice that a silvery orb hung in the purple-green sky, shedding a gentle light across the world. A gentle light which was overwhelmed a hundred times over by the lights of the city itself. If I looked at this planet from space, I wonder if it¡¯d seem as bright as its sun.
Another shoulder pat reminded Willow they should get out of everyone¡¯s way and she followed Luzzi for another half hour, this time in silence. There was far too much to see and process, the thought of talking never even crossed her mind.
The only words exchanged were as they reached their destination. The ¡®small bistro¡¯ ended up being located in a building that Willow would have assumed was a massive upscale apartment complex back on Earth. Once they entered, Luzzi rubbed both hands over her face before stating, ¡°Welcome to MotrePrime!¡±
Chapter 3 - I Dont Want a Lawyer
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
Rank 6 - 9
Similar to ranks 2-5, 6-9 are somewhat unordered milestones. These milestones are all about deepening and broadening one¡¯s insights.
The sixth through ninth ranks are categorized by accomplishing each of the following (one per rank).
- Refinine an insight
- Expand an insight
- Combine two or more insights into one
- Link all held insights conceptually
Note: The final milestone is one which is ¡°retractable.¡± Meaning it¡¯s possible to achieve the milestone, then lose it later when forming a new insight. For this reason, most scholars and progression experts advise you form all of your insights prior to progressing past rank nine. We will explore further within the individual discussion of what each milestone means below.
Jonah
Kobold Trading Clearing, Savria
Quest: Litigation Mitigation!
Survive meeting the Frazzlen
(F) lawyer!
Reward: 4000xp
One foot tapping rapidly, Jonah glanced at the quest prompt for about the millionth time since waking up to it this morning. The vague, yet ominous, message had put a damper on what had promised to be an exciting day. It had been a week and a day since Willow¡¯s death, and he and Naomi were finally getting the opportunity to leave planet Savria. Since the unexpectedly mutual destruction of the culmination of Willow and the final form pop-hopper, things had been incredibly boring.
There was a portion of the boredom which likely came from a lack of Willow¡¯s vibrant energy, shenanigans, and drive to go do things. Though, honestly, Jonah suspected the larger part of it was a lack of anything interesting to pursue or find. Since the pop-hoppers were gone, there was essentially nothing of note on the planet. There was a grand total of fifteen flora varieties on Savria. After having been shown how to find the most elusive, the only thing left of note were the sunsquat trees. They certainly had some incredible applications and some magic scholar would find the tree interesting, mostly due to the sunchild stones. However, Jonah didn¡¯t know enough to have any clue where to start on trying to figure those things out. Therefore, they were a mildly interesting mystery which was well outside of his ability to delve.
Given the absolute lack of anything interesting to do, Jonah had been excited for what the kobolds called ¡®trades day¡¯. Primarily due to the promise of escaping this never-changing planet. Skeetha and Halshath had suggested he and Naomi stay several times, praising their quick progress through the ranks and promising additional training in both soul nexus development and a craft of their choice. Had he still been wheelchair bound, there was a very good chance Jonah would have accepted without further thought. After all, with extremely limited mobility and poor sight he¡¯d grown used to seeing and doing more or less the same things day in and day out.
Things were different now. He found that he¡¯d started pacing. A habit he¡¯d picked up some time between returning with the kobolds to their camp and a few days ago. He wasn¡¯t really sure the exact day it had started, but it was a difficult tick to kick. He just started moving while distracted. Because his effortless movement passive ability made walking cost literally no effort, he didn¡¯t even notice until he exited whatever thoughts he¡¯d lost himself in. That was another new habit. Without Willow there to chat, or anything really interesting to do, Jonah found himself thinking more and more. Losing himself in his own mind. Not that he wasn¡¯t being productive, far from it. He was pretty much training.
Forcing his feet to stop, a plume of dust rose as his feet suddenly dug into the soft, dry, dirt marking the several square kilometers clearing they were waiting at the edge of. Glancing toward Naomi, he saw her staring up, waiting to see the shuttle that the kobolds had warned them to expect. The cold blankness in her eyes was still there, but beneath it was something subtly different. Since Willow died there seemed to be a depth to her gaze. If he studied her for long enough he could see a deep mix of sadness and determination. He didn¡¯t like studying people¡¯s eyes, so when Naomi met his eyes and nodded, he found himself staring at her nose and nodding back.
Autonomously returning to his task of nervously pacing without properly noticing, Jonah pulled up his status as a way to occupy himself.
Jonah Locke
Level: 9 Experience: 10,013.10¡/12,143.71¡
Resources
| GSM (Gaming Systems Mana) |
77/90 |
| MP (Mana Points) |
39/39 [ (28 - 2)-> 42-3 (Effortless Movement)] |
| Stamina |
110/110 |
Attributes
| Body |
| Strength |
10 |
| Dexterity (Macro/Micro) |
7/6 |
| Agility |
(10)-> 13 |
| Resilience |
10 |
| Endurance |
13 |
| Perception |
(11)-> 12 |
| Mind |
| Memory |
13 |
| Processing |
16 |
| Ideation |
11 |
| Spirit |
| Ego |
8 |
| Will |
11 |
| Resolve |
12 |
| Focus |
(20)-> 21 |
| Presence |
4 |
| Connection |
3 |
| Soul
Note: Insight and related mana aspects lack conceptual linkage with the soul. This section cannot be managed by your ¡®Gaming (life is) System¡¯ ability. |
Spells
- Predator Vision [Buff] - 2 MP
- Trick [Debuff] - 3 MP
- Creature Comforts [Utility] - 10 MP
- HP Siphon [Debuff] - 5 MP
- Haste
Abilities
- Gaming (life is) System
- Overwatch (User Tag: RTS View)
- Party Up
- Character Interface
- Settlment/Camp Interface
- ¡ ?
- Effortless Movement
- Simulate
The previously stiff and unbending system had recently conceded somewhat to Jonah¡¯s desire to mark the most recent stats he had invested in. He¡¯d found it annoying to have to refer to his UICI journal to keep track of his stats before and after, it seemed like his system should have more capabilities built in. It was still stubbornly against the idea of being truly useful. The thing was more a glorified spreadsheet than some all-powerful game system. So much for having a ¡®GameLIT¡¯ insight. He grumbled internally.
Despite being frustrated at the seemingly terrible and inflexible design of the system his insight had saddled him with, Jonah was more than happy with his level progress. He¡¯d gained an entire two levels for his part in the battle against the titanous entities which had spawned through the odd magical ritual which combined thousands of pop-hoppers.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
A soft whirring noise caught Jonah¡¯s attention and his head snapped toward it. Upwards. Floating gracefully down from the still confusingly gentle orange-red sky was what looked like a large wooden raft. Just a simple, no-frills raft. Jonah licked his lips as he focused, pushing his sight and over the head tagging to give him details. [LVL 82|Avron|Utility (*Quest Character!)]. Seeing the regal plumage of what looked to be some kind of brightly colored bird-man. He sent a mental message to Naomi, who he already had party chat running with. ¡°The bird guy is the lawyer my quest is warning me about. He¡¯s level eighty two.¡±
Suddenly, his level eight wasn¡¯t looking so impressive. Naomi was level nine as well. Between the two of them, they were still nowhere near this apparent opponent. The only thing reason Jonah could think of for a Frazzlen enforcer to be tracking them down was to enforce their contract with the faction. Since Willow had died, they hadn¡¯t been meeting the terms of their contract. A problem which the UICI had been annoyingly persistent in reminding them of. Given the threatening quest and the UICI complaints, Jonah and Naomi had both spent some time going over the revised contract that Ki¡¯ai¡¯en had offered them as replacements to their originals. The contract was a total of five pages long and didn¡¯t include a lot of fluff, making it easy enough to understand the details.
Jonah¡¯s problem was a lack of background on standard legal practices in this world. On Earth, he would have been somewhat confident of his rights and what he should expect. Not so much here. Unfortunately, the kobolds didn¡¯t have any lawyers or legal experts, as all of them hated bureaucracy and red tape. They preferred a simple life, as illustrated by their decision to come to this boring backwater planet and just exist with very few opportunities, responsibilities, or social obligations.
What advice they¡¯d been able to glean had essentially boiled down to what the kobolds had hesitantly called a ¡°good faith effort¡± expectation. A few of them had been in legal trouble during their stints working for their various factions, orders and guilds. One of the things they all vaguely remembered was that there was some kind of standard understanding or legal agreement that if a contract didn¡¯t specifically specify a time range to complete a task, it fell to the contract holder to act in good faith and put forth their best effort. If the contract holder felt they were being stiffed or sandbagged, the contract holder had the right to enforcement. The enforcement was different based on the contract itself.
In Jonah and Naomi¡¯s case, Ki¡¯ai¡¯en¡¯s imprecise terms might be a problem. The enforcement clause stated any authorized faction authority could, ¡°determine an appropriate method of motivation to incentive proper attendance to the assigned task.¡± Thankfully, there was another clause, actually an entire page, which specified that they could not be assigned to any other task by anyone unless either Madrick or Willow specifically complained about their quality of service. From what he¡¯d seen of the man, Jonah suspected Madrick might do something like that as a laugh. Willow, on the hand, wouldn¡¯t complain unless they did something truly horrendous. Even then¡ Would she? If it was bad enough she thought about it, I feel like she¡¯d just ¡®take care of¡¯ us herself¡
Noticing the raft was near to landing, Jonah put the question of Willow¡¯s willingness to dish out punishment out of his mind. Instead, he focused on the Avron lawyer, who was now easily within range to make out details. As had been the initial impression, it was a bird person. They wore what looked like a skirt, or maybe kilt, around their waist. It fell far enough that Jonah was willing to classify it more as a skirt, as it obscured their shins . Three long, sharp, talons poked straight out from under the silver material¡¯s fringe. Another talon jutted out from another angle, a perfect match to what Jonah might have imagined a man-sized bird of prey would have.
The lawyer¡¯s upper body was wrapped in what kind of looked like coloured gauze, soft oranges, yellows, and reds. The wraps appeared varied in their tautness, with some areas seeming snug, while others hung loosely. The entire body-covering seemed to be an attempt to somewhat reproduce the look of a bird¡¯s plumage, without sacrificing modesty. Weird, if it¡¯s a bird then it¡¯s probably not a mammal, right? Why would it be worried about upper body modesty? Maybe it¡¯s just a culture thing?
Despite the odd clothing and sharp looking talons, the head and face were certainly the most shocking. A sleek ball-like head covered in sleek black hair, or perhaps down feathers, was framed by a sharply hooked beak which transitioned from black to pink like it had been dipped in paint halfway down its length. At the point where the beak connected into the head, a large loose bit of orange flesh flopped obscenely. The eyes on either side were ringed in bright crimson red, with turquoise irises and highly dilated sharp black pupils. Just below the eyes were fleshy white tube-like bits which wrapped in an oddly slack manner around to the back of their head.
Finally, the head was connected to the body with a neck which appeared painted in shades of sunset, with bright yellows and reds which led down into a thick mane-like plumage which somewhat called to mind a boa which might be wrapped around some model on a runway.
Red-ringed eyes focused on Jonah as the Avron turned their head to scan the area. While the eyes were more toward the sides of their head, they were far enough forward that they had no trouble both focusing on a distant point. Currently, Jonah found himself as that distant point. Then its gaze moved on, locking on Naomi. Given they were the only two non-kobolds in attendance, it was certain the lawyer had no trouble ascertaining who they were here for.
Taking a fortifying breath, Jonah strode forward. Before he was really ready, he stood near enough he could easily converse with the passengers on the raft. The raft which was, exactly that. There was absolutely nothing special about the thing, so far as he could tell. Before he could get a word out, though, Halshath spoke from his right. The grizzled kobold had arrived at the same time and took charge with the ease of habit.
¡°Welcome to Savria! The feathereds lands tribe welcomes their trading partners!¡± He gave a deep nod, which was the kobold equivalent of a polite bow. When Jonah had asked, one of the kobolds had explained that if they tried to bow they would over-balance and fall head first. That wouldn¡¯t quite make the impression they were going for, so they had to compromise with the longer deep nod.
¡°My friends!¡± Called a boisterous, short, green woman as she rushed off of the raft. She took Halshath¡¯s hand and shook it vigorously, then spun in a quick search and ran off to catch Skeetha who was still several steps away. Grabbing her hand with just as much excitement, she pumped her arm excitedly.
¡°I bring with me many many things of goodness! We will never ever ever be so fortituoudnacious again!¡± Jonah scratched at his ear as he watched, wondering if the UICI really messed up that badly. What the bloody hell does forti-tu-da¡ Whatever she said¡ mean?
Skeetha chucked and began to chat with the green lady with the solemnity which Jonah had come to expect of her.
¡°You¡¯re the lawyer, then?¡± Naomi¡¯s voice caught Jonah off guard. She¡¯d arrived while he¡¯d been distracted by the odd reunion between the trader - goblin? - and the kobolds. Is that 21 in focus just for show? He berated himself before turning to see how the Avron replied.
The answering voice was clearly male, though on the higher end and slightly nasal. ¡°Yes, yes! Have you received a message in warning of my coming, then? Also, also, I do so appreciate the archaic term you chose! It¡¯s been so so long since anyone addressed me as such! Most would call me an enforcer, yes!¡±
Eyes flicking for a brief moment toward Jonah, she answered evenly, ¡°Something like that. We believe you¡¯re here due to the unexpected and uncontrolled circumstances which separated us from our client?¡± Nice, way more focused than me. I¡¯d have got distracted by that archaic term comment. Seriously, what¡¯s that focus score good for?
Calling Willow a client felt weird, but it was how their contract referred to her. So they¡¯d decided this was the best approach. They¡¯d also decided Naomi should do the talking, as she had a much better chance of not losing her cool. Better known as not freaking out¡ Legal stuff is terrifying. Memories of back and forth correspondence between his mother and some law office, visits from attorneys, they were an unpleasant memory. Those nights had always been the worst for Jonah¡¯s younger self. Full of drawn out silence, though his mother always said she was fine. Looking back, Jonah realized he¡¯d believed her. Which was why those dinners had been so bad. They¡¯d been so confusing to him. If she was fine now, then what was she normally?
Shaking the unexpected thoughts, Jonah focused back on the conversation. Thankfully, the flash of memory had been sharp and fast.
¡°I am, I am. It sounds as though you¡¯re already aware of your violation of the contract and prepared to submit yourselves for enforcement? I¡¯ll certainly levy a reduced sentence as a reward for your prompt acceptance, yes!¡± The bird-face was smiling. With no lips, no actual facial motion at all, it was somehow smiling.
¡°We are happy to inform you that no enforcement will be necessary. We are acting in good faith, putting forth our best effort to remedy the situation.¡± Came a rehearsed sounding reply. They hadn¡¯t rehearsed it, so Jonah wasn¡¯t sure how she¡¯d pulled that off. Or why.
¡°Oh. Oh! I¡¯m afraid that¡¯s not up for you to decide! You see, I have been dispatched to meet out justice for your transgression, yes, yes!¡± The plumage bristled and fluttered.
A moment of hesitation, the Naomi stepped up onto the raft and sat down. Jonah frowned at her, but she just waved for him to follow. He did, sitting beside her and giving her a concerned look. She answered calmly as the bird looked down at them like curious scraps of carrion, ¡°If you do, you¡¯ll be interfering in our ability to fulfill the terms of our contract.¡±
¡°What, what? How? Explain! Now, now!¡± A quick tilt, then a single red ringed eye stared down.
Naomi shrugged, ¡°Page three section A.2. states, ¡®The contractee must follow, to the best of their abilities, the directions presented by their client. Outside interference shall be opposed heavily.¡¯ Then page six C.1, under secondary enforcement, it says, ¡®In the event the contractee is made unable to follow the orders of their client, the perpetrator(s) of said event shall be remedied by a faction enforcer.¡¯¡± With an exaggerated smile that didn¡¯t meet her eyes, Naomi finished, ¡°So it sounds like if you interfere with us following Willow¡¯s instructions, another enforcer will have to come ¡®remedy¡¯ the situation. Or would you have to remedy yourself?¡±
The bird head twitched from side to side, switching between which eye it looked down at them with for a while, then it seemed to lose patience and shrieked, ¡°Tell me! Tell me! No more holding back! What was the instruction?¡±
Jonah smiled as Naomi finished dryly, ¡°She said, ¡®After we take out these giants we¡¯re gonna party! If something weird happens, like Madrick decides to teleport me away again or something, take care of yourselves! Stay safe guys!¡¯¡±
¡°Proof! Proof! I demand evidence!¡± The Avron, who Jonah realized still hadn¡¯t introduced himself, demanded. ¡°We can send you the recording from our UICI, I think. If you can tell us how.¡±
¡°Yes, yes! I¡¯ll explain! But, but! Why are you sitting there?¡±
Waving her hand in a kind of nebulous gesture, Naomi answered, ¡°You looked really tense and ready to jump on us, I thought sitting down would help you relax and let us finish.¡±
That sent a shock through Jonah. He hadn¡¯t noticed that the enforcer had been tense. Shite, my survival skills are¡ Well, shite.
¡°Oh! Oh! Yes, I was planning to eat you both! It¡¯s been so long since I had human!¡± He preened happily.
Chapter 4 - Universal Achievements
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
Rank 10
Rank 10 requires forming a domain.
Rank 10 is the first exponential expansion of power. Scholars measure the difference between rank 1 and rank 9 as a semi linear growth with expanded utility and heightened efficiency. The measure between 9 and 10 is measured as 9^((IRG/IBG)*MACG). Where IRG=Insight Refinement Grade, IWG=Insight Breadth Grade, MACG=Mana insight coefficient grade.
Luzzi
Csev¡¯s Caff, Farcem City, Motrendi
The human was clearly overwhelmed. It wasn¡¯t all that surprising, given she¡¯d never seen a real city. Whatever she had on her tutorial undoubtedly paled before reality. Even the largest tutorial societies where insignificantly small. Using her UICI, Luzzi hooked into the bistro¡¯s servicing system and followed the vague directional feedback it provided to lead her toward their table.
Slipping through the isles of private booths. They passed the single-humanoid booths and turned left. The feeling of following an unscented, unheard, something, was disconcerting. Fortunately, Luzzi was long used to it by now. She generally came to Csev¡¯s Caff for lunch at least once every twelveday or so. The directions from the UICI had them turn several more times, before it turned her toward a small booth which would comfortably fit herself and Willow but no more. The bistro provided an excellent mix of utility and comfort. She¡¯d never had to wait for a table, but still had plenty of privacy and enough space to sit without scrunching.
Sliding into one side of the table, Luzzi was amused to note Willow¡¯s head swiveling in every direction as she slid in opposite herself. ¡°I will assume you¡¯ve never been to a city restaurant?¡±
Willow¡¯s head shook so Luzzi continued, ¡°Then you may not have noticed your UICI has a new option available. If you focus on it for a moment, you can pull up a menu. Generally, the menu would include prices and would pull directly from your UICI currency. Today, I have set our stay as a gift on my account. Please order whatever you like. You should see no prices, as most civilized beings consider it rude to make prices known when giving a gift.¡±
Another nod, then Willow asked, ¡°Any recommendations? I¡¯m starving. Maybe something lighter though, I¡¯m also super tired. I might fall asleep in the booth if I get anything too heavy.¡± The human showed her teeth in what was likely an impressive display of joy or humor or one of the other innumerable reasons they opened their mouths. Humans.
Thankful she would not need to listen to the menu to provide her suggestion, Luzzi tapped her forehead, just above her nose, in a confirmation. ¡°I have heard many humans enjoy ¡®mac-en-cheese.¡¯ It is something of a specialty here.¡±
The human¡¯s mouth opened intentionally showing her teeth. Surprise, probably. ¡°Uuuh¡ Yeah, sounds good!¡± After a few moments, Willow nodded her head, ¡°Yeah, that sounds good. I ordered it. This place is huge! How do they cook enough for everyone? How do they get things from the kitchen to the booths without the meals getting cold?¡±
¡°It¡¯s quite simple. They coordinate their staff so that orders come in from sections which are either directly above or directly below us. Then, when our meals are ready they will place them in the chute to either be sent up, or down.¡± She pointed toward the wall where a generally nondescript protrusion jutted slightly from the wall. Her timing was excellent, as it slid open at that very moment and two bottles of liquid were gently pushed out onto the table by a mechanical arm.
Taking hers, knowing it by the distinctive scent of hishushu, she pushed Willow¡¯s to her. She appeared to have ordered water with a hint of citrus. Perhaps a seltzer. She¡¯d tried one of those before, it hadn¡¯t been to her tastes.
After a few moments of silence, she decided to press slightly, ¡°Since this is your first respawn¡¡± She stopped, trying to find the right words. After a beat she just shook her head and tried for the direct approach, ¡°I am certain that you somehow have more power than expected. However, it¡¯s not possible for someone to respawn with their soul nexus in tact. You seem quite confident that you are still rank four. I don¡¯t wish to sound patronizing, but, have you checked your nexus yet?¡±
¡°Yep! Everything¡¯s the same as before I died. Well¡ No, not exactly. Everything I put into my body, including a skill, is gone.¡± She frowned deeply at that.
Luzzi pulled at her ear, tail tips flicking about anxiously. ¡°That is¡ Odd. Almost worrying. Generally non-standard respawns indicate one of two things. Either the respawnee has a UA which alters something about it, which is exceedingly rare, or they were affected by something that caused the change. The later is almost never purely positive, even if at first glance it appears to be. It is rather rude to ask, but I don¡¯t have another way to help, do you have any UA which may explain the oddity?¡±
Lips scrunching and wiggling about her face, Willow seemed to be considering. It didn¡¯t take too long for her to reply, ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I have a quest to get a UA, but I don¡¯t know if I already have any. I¡¡± She hesitated, then shrugged, ¡°I didn¡¯t know I had my insights either, though. I had to figure that out.¡±
That revelation stunned Luzzi. How could anyone not know they had an insight? The insight had to be vocalized. Or¡ Did they? That had been her understanding, though now that she thought about it there had to be more options. She supposed in the case of beings without vocal chords there had to be an alternative. Maybe that alternative could work even if the being had the ability to speak. Though, if she didn¡¯t miss her mark this girl was one from the very latest Earth tutorial.
It had taken a while during their walk to figure out where she¡¯d recognized her voice from, but she was fairly certain now. This girl had joined one of her more naive recruits at one of the directing desks. She¡¯d left them both there and hadn¡¯t worried about it further. After all, she¡¯d made her quota that day! She¡¯d finally been reassigned to something else. Her tail slammed into the booth wall as she lashed it angrily as she remembered the meeting with her soon-to-be-respawning assignment coordinator. He¡¯d congratulated her and assigned her to respawn duty without a single proper reward for a job well done.
¡°Luzzi?¡± Willow¡¯s uncertain voice came through. ¡°My apologies. I was just remembering something unpleasant. It¡¯s possible for you to have UAs you¡¯re unaware of. They are far less¡ Obvious¡ Than insights. Did you have any ¡®achievements¡¯ coming out of your tutorial?¡±
¡°Oh, yeah, sure! Loads!¡± Willow answered happily, taking another sip. The little wall plate slid open again and their meals were pushed out toward them. Luzzi passed Willow the plate which smelled of sharp cheese, spicy meat, and a tangy pickled vegetable. It actually smelled fairly good, she¡¯d have to try it sometime. Today, she pulled her own favorite to her. Umbushi was a meal served within a crystalline structure of umbu, within which was a perfectly steamed meat with a vegetable sauce. The harshly cold taste of the umbu paired so perfectly with the semi-sweet meat she¡¯d selected and her mouth began to water before she even broke into the shell.
¡°That¡¯s pretty. It looks kind of like a rock though, do you eat rocks?¡±
That caused Luzzi¡¯s hands to redirect from reaching for her fork and knife to rub her face down past her lip. ¡°Ah! It is always nice to be reminding how limited the tutorial¡¯s foods are.¡±
Taking up the fork and knife she broke the crystal and cut into the thick meat within. She lifted the piece, which was covered in the umbu shards, for Willow to see. ¡°It is a meat dish. The umbu is like a condiment, or a seasoning. Try it!¡±
Excited to have someone try her favorite, she pushed the fork across the table to Willow. Although she looked surprised, the human didn¡¯t hesitate to take the fork and take the bite. Passing the fork back, she wore a complicated expression.
¡°How does it taste cold? And¡ Metallic? Are you sure that¡¯s safe for humans to eat?¡±
Putting the fork down, Luzzi rubbed her face again, then tapped her forehead and set to eating.
¡°I¡¯ll take that as a yes.¡± Willow muttered across the table, before she dug into her own meal.
WillowThis novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Csev¡¯s Caff, Farcem City, Motrendi
Sighing, Willow slowly forced herself to slide out of the booth. She¡¯d finished the shockingly good mac-n-cheese and she knew if she didn¡¯t stand she¡¯d fall asleep. Although Luzzi had, so far, seemed relaxed and not easily offended, she didn¡¯t really want to test her patience.
The conversation during the meal had mostly been small talk. Willow had learned that Luzzi had worked for hundreds of years as a recruiter during arrival days, but had recently been moved over to staff a respawn room. That lead them to discuss Willow¡¯s own arrival, and it turned out that Luzzi had been controlling that weird fuzzy woman who the¡ Uh¡ Berry? guy at the desk had mentioned was probably an illusion. It was an illusion! Specifically, it was Luzzi¡¯s illusion!
That might have become dangerous ground, as Willow really wanted to demand why she¡¯d ripped Naomi off so badly. She¡¯d ultimately decided to just change the conversation, though. That lead to asking about the UAs. As it turned out, there was a UICI module which allowed you to see your UAs, because of course there is. And it cost a fortune, because of course it does.
There was another option, though. There were these large pillars which were called ¡®eternity nodes¡¯ which were like public access points for some important, but expensive, UICI functions. It was apparently how most people reviewed their UAs and other important information. Luzzi said she¡¯d take Willow there next. Which meant she had to stay awake.
Seeing - hearing? - that Willow had stood, Luzzi slid out and waved for her to follow. This time she was prepared as the stepped out onto the incredibly busy street. Mostly. She tried to focus more on the people, or creatures in some cases, they passed. As she¡¯d noted before, the variety was extraordinary! It was almost hard to find two of the same species, or it would have been had there not been thousands of people within view no matter where she looked. Humans appeared to be somewhat of a minority, at least in this area, with the most common species being what looked like werewolves. They were large creatures about two and a half meter tall; lanky, with long snouts, scruffy looking fur, and sharp claws on their oversized paws and feet both.
She didn¡¯t see any other creatures that looked like Luzzi. When she asked about it, she replied by slapping her paws together, sliding her left paw from the base of her right hand out away from her body. Asking about that lead to a conversation about common body Paavaras language. As it happened, a sliding clap away from the body was kind of like a shrug. It was an expression of either ¡®I don¡¯t know¡¯ or ¡®I don¡¯t care¡¯, which were generally seen as the same thing within Paavaras societies. The face rubbing thing was a form of showing amusement usually, kind of like a laugh. One hand meant amusement, or slight happiness, like a smile. Two hands meant a full laugh, though where the hand stopped dictated the amount of amusement felt.
Luzzi warned that while most humanoids tended to follow the ¡®human standard¡¯ way of showing emotions and expressing themselves, not every species did. Cultures were as innumerable as the stars. She also corrected Willow saying ¡®people¡¯ and explained ¡®beings¡¯ was more correct. Beings apparently included every thinking thing with a soul. That included a lot more than traditional ¡®people¡¯. Robots, undead, plants, sentient enchanted objects, elementals, and more.
Overall, Willow greatly enjoyed the half hour walk! Though she felt partially dead on her feet as they entered one of the park-like areas Willow had noticed before. Gargantuan trees created a gentle canopy which partially dimmed the lights from even taller buildings and the pitiful white sun. That had been another thing Luzzi confirmed, the silver orb in the sky wasn¡¯t a moon. It was a distant star. No one knew how the very first beings who arrived from tutorials had survived to teraform the planet, as there was no way it could naturally support life.
Even here, the press of bodies was constant. Though there was much less urgency in this peaceful slice of nature, Willow and Luzzi were still generally within a couple steps of another person. Being¡ You¡¯re trying to think more about others, remember, Willow? Still, weird that ¡®people¡¯ is considered exclusionary¡
Finally, they made it to their destination. A pillar of what Willow would have assumed was quarts sat in the center of the park, with a ring of stonework around it, tables setup to allow beings to sit and enjoy the ambiance. Luzzi brought them directly up to it and gestured, ¡°When you touch it, you¡¯ll get some options.¡±
Reaching out, Willow¡¯s UICI popped up in front of her unbidden as soon as she made contact.
Eternity Node
Options
- Universal Achievements
- Quests
- Soul Nexus Ranking
- Send Message
- More¡
Although it was tempting to go searching through the entire list of possible options under ¡®More¡¡¯, Willow was too tired. She needed to just do what she¡¯d come here to do. Selecting ¡®Universal Achievements¡¯ Willow reviewed the resulting screen and quickly copied it all into her journal app.
Universal Achievements
Tutorial
Ulta Competitive
Compete in over 500 officially judged contests
All rewards are increased by 2%.
Serial Victor
You stand at the pinnacle of multiple world-scale competitions, showing none should presume themselves your better.
All caps and limits have been removed.
Combat Vetran (Gloved)
You are a veteran of combat, at least the sporting kind.
+2% xp gain through combat, additional +5% experience through competitive non-lethal combat.
Family Ties
You have forged unbreakable ties with your family and hold them in high esteem.
You will be notified if any of your family members arrive within reality.
True Friend Group
Make at least three true friends.
Social engineering powers are 20% less effective on you.
Selfless
Give up something precious to you, for the sake of someone you love.
Positive karma.
Determined
Retrieve something precious to you that you¡¯ve lost.
You are 200% less likely to lose or break any item you feel an emotional attachment to.
Dream Again
Having lost your dream, you have picked up the pieces and made something new. A new passion, a new dream, a new goal.
You are 200% more resilient to existential stressors.
Self Obsessed
Live most of your life knowing you¡¯re better than most other people.
Control type powers are 75% less effective on you.
Pig Headed
Pit your will against what others tell you, because you¡¯re right and they¡¯re wrong. Once you decide on something, you almost never change your mind..
Manipulation type powers are 30% less effective on you.
Legend
Nearly everyone has heard about you, and after you¡¯re gone your story will only grow. A minor accomplishment will become a monumental victory. Your friends¡¯ achievements will be attributed to you. You are a shining example of human progress, ingenuity, determination, and victory. The gods of Olympus compete with your legend and fall short.
- All universal achievements you hold are 200% more effective.
- All achievements earned by your friends of family will be passed on to you, if they restart their tutorial.
Synergistic Achievements
Ultra Competitive, Serial Victor, Combat Veteran (Gloved)
You thirst for victory, in life and in combat.
All potential earned through a contest or non-lethal conflict is 400% more effective.
Family Ties, True Friend Group, Selfless
You desire connection and empathy.
All beings will be more predisposed to like you and less likely to misunderstand good intentions.
Determined, Dream Again, Unbreakable, Self Obsessed, Pig Headed, Legend
Your soul is your own.
- Your soul cannot be directly harmed by an external force.
- You may modify your soul and path at will.
Altering ones path is not free.
- Death will not alter your soul nexus and you will lose no potential allocated to any soul component.
Reality
No UA yet achieved in reality
¡°Oh.¡± Willow murmured. That explained some things. It also raised some new questions. One of those questions was whether ¡®All beings will be more predisposed to like you¡¡¯ was considered a social engineering or a manipulation power. If someone else had defenses against those, would that be ineffective? Or was this something deeper? So many questions.
Before she allowed herself to get lost in questions, she backed out of the UA menu and selected ¡°Send Message.¡± She was delighted to see the service was free from the eternity node. Taking her time, she wrote out messages to both Naomi and Jonah. She assured Jonah she was fine and encouraged him to not worry too much. For Naomi, she had a tougher time knowing what she should say. In the end she wrote a simple message telling her some of what she¡¯d seen and telling her she was excited to meet back up. Given that their faction contracts demanded they stay with her, she was sure they¡¯d be on their way as soon as possible.
Sighing, Willow suddenly felt all of her exhaustion roll out into a fluttering blanket which fluttered down onto her shoulders and wrap her snugly. Smiling wanly at Luzzi, she asked softly, ¡°Any chance you know somewhere I could take a nap? I¡¯m¡ Really tired.¡±
After a moment¡¯s thought, Luzzi shrugged, ¡°Sure. Did you get any answers?¡±
Willow nodded, ¡°I have an AU which makes it so death doesn¡¯t alter my soul nexus.¡±
If Luzzi had eyes, Willow thought they¡¯d likely be huge. Her tail was whipping around wildly, both tips moving together in an almost hypnotizing manner. After a few beats, Luzzi rubbed the back of her left paw with her right, then waved in a ¡°let¡¯s go¡± gesture and began to lead Willow again.
¡°Thanks! Uh¡ Where are we going? I can¡¯t really pay, I only have like¡ A hundred something rank two EBs¡¡±
Tail flicking once hard was the only response she deigned to get. I need like a whole book on what she¡¯s trying to say with her tail and hands and stuff. Urgh.
¡°It¡¯s fine. You won¡¯t need to pay. You can stay with me for tonight. I have a comfortable couch for you.¡± Huh, is that dry humor? Or is she entirely serious? Guess I¡¯ll find out.
Chapter 5 - Cultural Immersion
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
A common misconception is that ranking is a deterministic power scale. This is demonstrably untrue in many ways ¡°Power¡± is often spoken with an assumption of martial or militaristic might. However, this is but one facet of possible personal strength. One might measure power by innumerable measures. Influence, wealth, charisma, intellect, and these are but the most obvious examples. Consider the power a maid might wield over their masters, given the secrets they undoubtedly have learned. Contemplate the sway over others a master chef who¡¯s dishes are indescribable works of art. Ponder the respect commanded by a being of unsurpassed wisdom and insight.
Take care that you, dear reader, do not consider rank to be a definite measure of power. Even when reducing everything to ones ability to do another being harm, rank is only one factor. Although uncommon, it is entirely possible for a rank 5 martial prodigy to defeat a rank 15 brawler.
All things are not equal, assumptions should not be made as if they were.
Willow
Luzzi¡¯s Quarters, Farcem City, Motrendi
As it happened, Luzzi had been serious and sarcastic all at once. At least, that¡¯s how Willow interpreted the oddity that was her couch. Instead of a long sofa, it was a large circular piece of furniture which drew the eye upon passing through the apartment door into the center of the central room. It turned out to be remarkably comfortable, but also awkward. For once, Willow was happy for her small stature. After stepping into and out of the ¡®purifier room¡¯, she curled up into a pseudo-fetal position and promptly passed out.
A gentle hand touching her shoulder brought Willow out of the deep nothing that had consumed her. Her body began stretching out before she was fully conscious, legs and arms extending out to their maximum lengths. The luxurious stretch turned into being brought sharply to full wakefulness as the shift in balance was a bit too much as her arms and upper body extended too far over the edge. Graceless, Willow toppled with a yelp. She fell the hundred centimeters from her traitor of a bed onto the ground and found her view inverted, staring at an upside down Luzzi. An upside down Luzzi who was running her hands repeatedly down her face.
¡°Urghhh, your comfy couch is dangerous. Shouldn¡¯t there be guard rails to avoid injury or something?¡± Willow partially grumped and mostly joked.
Continuing her hand-laughing, Luzzi strode off to the other side of the large room. The apartment, or ¡°quarters¡± as Luzzi had called it on the way here, was cozy. Other than huge fluffy pillow masquerading as a couch and acting as a bed - diverse piece of furniture, I need one! - each of the walls were lined with shelves loaded with various things. There were figurines, candles, random different bits and bobbles, several items which looked like simple garbage. All of it looked to be made of various different materials, none of them appearing to have a theme of any kind. That was a bit confusing, as was the lack of even a single book. At least, it had been confusing to an exhausted last-night Willow due to her exhaustion. Upon waking and finding her mind refreshed and ready to think, it made sense. The UICI was a way more convenient way to read. Not to mention books were probably expensive somewhere like this, where she imagined all of trees other than those in parks and maybe reserves had probably been harvested long ago.
Rolling herself to her feet, Willow scanned the rest of the room. Luzzi was standing in the only corner not covered in shelves. Instead, it was a kind of nook which she might have called a kitchen, had there been any sign of cooking appliances. There was a small basin which was most likely a sink, a strip of counter tops, and a lot of cabinets from floor to ground.
Digging through some of those cabinets Luzzi pulled out a set of mugs and small plates. ¡°Do you drink coffee, tea, withroow, skooth? I¡¯m afraid those are the only breakfast beverages I have.¡±
¡°Tea would be great! What¡¯s withroow and skooth?¡±
¡°Ah, you¡¯re unfamiliar. Your Earth tutorial must not have been one of the space faring ones, then.¡± That brought way more questions to mind. She supposed it at least partially answered the question though, they were probably some kind of space-based drinks made from exotic plants or-
¡°Withroow is a highly concentrated chemical compound which has an exceedingly pleasant aroma, but tastes dreadful. I only have a bit because I enjoy the smell at times. As for skooth, it¡¯s made from distilling an array of animal blood together, then removing the alcohol. It¡¯s quite good.¡±
¡°Oh.¡± The disappointment dripping from Willow¡¯s voice could have been heard over a thunderstorm. She watched Luzzi rub one hand down the side of her face, amused.
¡°You should take a sip of my skooth, many humans like it. It is an Earth native drink, after all.¡± Having said such, she turned and went through another set of cabinets. Rather than the uniform she¡¯d seen Luzzi in the previous night, the paavaras seemed to be entirely unclothed. Covered in fur, it wasn¡¯t as though she was really immodest. It was fascinating watching her split tails act seemingly independently. They were pulling out containers, utensils, and what looked like wooden pans with tattoo-like art on them.
Shaking her head, Willow decided she should get herself ready for the day instead of watching her host get them breakfast ready. She headed toward the small restroom she¡¯d used to clean up the night before. At least I think she¡¯s getting us breakfast ready. Maybe breakfast isn¡¯t a thing for paavaras? No, she was talking about her breakfast beverages. That suggests it¡¯s a normal custom.
Entering the closet sized purifier room, Willow winced a bit. She wasn¡¯t a huge fan of the setup and was somewhat embarrassed remembering Luzzi explaining how it worked. The room was empty other than the runes which covered every surface of the room. When she closed the door behind herself, the runes gently lit. Actually, these runes look really similar to what I saw on those wooden pans. Maybe they¡¯re enchanted?
The way the room worked was that it literally like removed anything unclean from the occupant or occupants. It was a washing machine, restroom, shower, and dish washer all in one apparently. Literally anything could be cleaned in here. That wasn¡¯t the issue. The issue was that the room wasn¡¯t setup with any kind of toilet bowl or even a divot in the ground. It was¡ Odd¡ Not to have something like that to take care of her necessities with. Doing her best to ignore the strangeness with the same carelessness she had last night, Willow stepped out of the room with her ugly jumpsuit and body clean as can be. I hope they still have showers somewhere, they just feel good. Even if they don¡¯t work quite so thoroughly.
Luzzi was sitting on the ground beside the couch, a wooden tray and two mugs in front of her. Assuming she was meant to join, Willow went and sat next to her. She assumed the paavaras would normally just eat while sitting on her couch, so she appreciated her sitting where there was room for them both.
With one hand slowly caressing the side of her face, Luzzi held out a gently steaming mug. ¡°Would you like to try my skooth?¡±
Hesitating only for a moment, Willow shrugged and took it. Sniffing the beverage, she found it reminded her somewhat of a deep pho broth, or maybe a light ramen. She took a tentative sip and did her best not to spit it out. She carefully passed the cup back to Luzzi and forced herself to swallow. The flavor, honestly, wasn¡¯t bad. The thick, viscous, clingy, texture was horrible.
¡°You¡¯re sure humans came up with that?¡± She choked out.
Both hands rubbed a fuzzy face, ¡°Quite certain.¡±
¡°Urgh, humans are weird.¡± This called for more face-rubbing laughs.
Rolling her eyes, Willow rubbed her own face in imitation. She thought she¡¯d offended for a moment, as Luzzi froze, then she tapped her finger on her forehead while her tail moved into a C over her like yesterday, though this time with the tips unwound and distant from each other. ¡°I appreciate you attempting to use my people¡¯s methods of expressing ourselves. It is rare for a human to bother.¡±
After a moment, she continued, ¡°I could express myself more like a human, but I find I often do it wrong and cause offence. My laughter, I¡¯ve been told, sounds mocking. My smile appears threatening.¡± She made the sliding away from the body clap which was meant as a shrug.
¡°It¡¯s fine! I used to enjoy trying to speak other languages when I traveled. I¡¯m passable in like, six or seven since we traveled so much.¡± She sighed, then after thinking through all the different expressions Luzzi had mentioned on their walk yesterday she rubbed the back of her left hand with her right. That was supposed to express wistfulness or frustration at a situation but not another being.
She continued, ¡°Now all that work¡¯s apparently useless, with the UICI translating everything.¡±
¡°Perhaps. There are plenty of beings who learn languages themselves, forgoing the UICI assistance or only using it rarely. The UICI translates words, but not tone or inflection. For example, your speech sounds wild and uncontrolled, like a child, to me. While I am certain my own voice seems monotonous to you. Our race¡¯s range of vocal expression is vastly different. I do express my emotion somewhat in my voice, though more through my actions, while you are the opposite with your body only telling a small portion while your voice carries much.¡±
That was an interesting point. ¡°If I learned your language, I would probably need to learn to speak more like you to sound natural, then, right?¡±
Luzzi tapped her forehead, while nodding. Willow smiled, appreciating Luzzi using the human gesture while doing her own. The conversation briefly lulled as Luzzi pointed toward the tray, specifically the side closest to Willow. it was clear that side was meant for her, while the other was Luzzi¡¯s own.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
The breakfast was made up of a set of odd tofu like cubes, a small triangle of cheese, and a couple little sausages. It was a light breakfast, but surprisingly good. The sausage had been heated through, but was still not piping. Everything else was cold. The main thing Willow noticed was that it was all exceptionally fragrant. In particular, the spongy cubes had a much stronger scent than taste. Those appeared to be Luzzi¡¯s favorite, as she held each small piece she ripped off with her paws in front of her nose for several seconds before eating it.
Willow tried to copy her host, enjoying the scents of each bite carefully before putting it in her mouth. It was a fun, if slow, method of eating. The tea was also excellent, some kind of black tea. It had a powerful smell, but subtler flavor like many teas.
Once they were both done, Willow stood taking the mugs and the tray. She asked, ¡°I should take these into the purifier room, right?¡±
¡°That would be appreciated.¡± Luzzi acknowledged as she stood. ¡°I will get dressed for work while you do.¡±
Watching the small smears of grease and crumbs literally vanish as soon as she closed the door to the purifier room Willow could only imagine how complex the enchantments had to be. How does enchanting even work, if everyone has different insights and different mana? Are the runes also different for everyone? She hadn¡¯t seen enough to be sure.
Upon returning, she found Luzzi strapping on various bandleader-like straps on over the same black and orange uniform she¡¯d been wearing the previous day. The coat had an asymmetric lapel crossing much further to the left side of her body than the right. She wasn¡¯t sure why she¡¯d initially thought it looked like a sailor¡¯s uniform, maybe the starched white pants? It looked a little silly on Luzzi, honestly. Like dressing up a teddy bear. The many pouches and pockets she was putting crisscrossing all over her body somehow seemed more natural.
As she watched, Luzzi finished dressing then started going through her pockets. She began pulling items out of the pockets and placed them around on the shelves. Every once in a while she¡¯d replace an item fully, taking an item off the shelf and stuffing it in her pocket while she placed something from a pouch in its place. She performed the task like a ritual, apparently taking great pleasure in it given the way her tails sat in that loose C, ends apart. When she¡¯d done that earlier she said she appreciated Willow trying to use her people¡¯s form of communicating. So maybe it meant she was happy? I really need a book on paavaras expressions if I¡¯m going to spend a lot of time with her.
Once finished, Luzzi turned and rubbed a hand down the side of her face. Willow did the same in response, smiling. ¡°Let us go. I assume you have no particular idea of what to do today?¡±
¡°Not really, I want to get some exercise in and then I¡¯d love to figure out some way to make some money so I can buy some books or something¡ Then¡¡± She shrugged, then rubbed the back of one hand with her other. ¡°I would like to explore maybe? This place is so big that it¡¯s intimidating, but also exciting!¡±
Tapping her forehead while Nodding, Luzzi walked to the doorway which opened at her touch just like the respawn room had. ¡°I request you stay with me today. Respawn duty is generally dull, unless there is some large event planned as I mentioned yesterday. I would like to hear about your experiences, and would be happy to answer questions in return.¡±
She stepped outside the apartment and turned to Willow, who followed as she thought. They walked in step with each other toward the elevator at the end of the long, long, hallway.
The offer was appealing. While Willow would much prefer to be out exploring this new huge planet, actually getting some of her many questions answered would be even better. Besides, it wasn¡¯t like the planet was going anywhere. She smiled and rubbed the side of her face, ¡°That sounds great! Though, if I do that I assume I won¡¯t be earning any money¡ I won¡¯t be able to afford a place to stay tonight, would you be willing to have me again?¡±
A look toward Luzzi found one paw tapping her forehead while the other rubbed her face. ¡°It would be my pleasure.¡±
¡°Great! Then just one condition.¡±
¡°Oh?¡± Luzzi¡¯s paw stopped mid face-rub.
¡°Can we run to the respawn place? I really need to burn off a little energy.¡±
At first Willow had been worried that she¡¯d have to slow down to stay with Luzzi. It turned out she was being way too arrogant, though. The paavaras was a faster runner by a large margin. Only using her focus allowed Willow to keep up, especially when weaving through larger crowds. Luzzi had a preternatural ability to spin through herds of people like it was a rehearsed dance. Willow, on the other hand, felt like she was constantly having to skid to a stop, juke, and sprint to catch back up.
They arrived back at the ridiculously large entrance they¡¯d left through in less than a half hour. Willow wasn¡¯t entirely sure if they¡¯d made good time, given they¡¯d gone to the restaurant, then to the node, before heading to Luzzi¡¯s quarters. When they arrived, she grinned brightly at Luzzi while running both hands down her face. They joined the throng entering, then split off.
It struck Willow that that they were following a different path than they¡¯d come from the day before, which she asked about. Luzzi explained that she was assigned to a different respawn point today, since the one Willow had arrived in would be recharging. She also mentioned that her partner would likely still be Ravavka.
¡°Will he attack me on sight?¡±
¡°Maybe, but likely not. He, like many of his people, desire excitement. Being knocked unconscious without a chance to fight isn¡¯t thrilling, and could potentially get him in trouble if a faction authority finds him sleeping on the job.¡± Her tail swayed easily as they chatted, Willow thought it might mean she was relaxed or not on guard. Maybe I¡¯ll get the hang of it without a book! Or maybe I¡¯m making horrible assumptions and she thinks I¡¯m an idiot. Urgh.
Something about what Luzzi said seemed odd, ¡°You mean all of the people, er, beings, that have four eyes are all some kind of adrenaline junkies?¡±
¡°Not all, but most. Their normal emotional range is exceptionally narrow, but their potential emotional range is wide. They are capable of feeling quite strong emotions, but it is very difficult to reach those peaks and valleys. Most don¡¯t seek the valleys, as you might imagine. They do tend to look for ways to reach their peaks, though. The faction fully forbids the use of mind or emotion altering substances, so Ravavka tries to fulfill his desires in other ways. The hazzabi are quite an interesting species. They are highly logical most of the time, due to their odd emotional band. Yet, most will act erratically with the full knowledge that they are choosing a logically sub optimal route. Often they take their motivation to feel into account in their personal calculations. This causes logical beings to act illogically from an outside perspective, when they are being entirely rational as far as they are concerned.¡±
Before Willow could fully process, much less answer, Luzzi turned and placed a paw against one of the innumerable door outlines. I should have asked her how she knew where to go. Probably a UICI map or something. Can she see the UICI screen? Without being born with sight, it seems like maybe not¡ But it¡¯d be so hard to navigate without seeing!
The door melted in every direction and a small many-eyed alien turned to stare at them from his half-egg seat. The center eye fixed on Willow, who tensed, but he just waved. ¡°You¡¯re here, and you brought yesterday¡¯s runaway.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t run away!¡± ¡°She didn¡¯t run away.¡±
They spoke over each other. Willow grinned and rubbed her own face as flicked her eyes to see Luzzi doing the same.
Ravavka groaned, ¡°You got a human acting all weird? What¡¯d you do to her, Luzzi? Did you gain some kind of mind control insight? Maybe had a breakthrough about the natural biological weapons felines carry around? Have you created your own form of toxoplasma, Luzzi, dear?¡±
Tail winding and unwinding, Luzzi waved dismissively at the question, ¡°This is Willow. Unlike you, she is considerate of others.¡±
¡°So that¡¯s why she knocked me out cold.¡±
¡°No, that is because you attacked her unprovoked.¡±
¡°True, true. Thought it might be fun. I almost felt angry for a bit!¡±
Watching the byplay, Willow noticed that Ravavka¡¯s facial expressions and even tone all seemed more calculated than genuine. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure what gave it away. It might be intuition, or maybe it was from spending time with Naomi as she struggled with whether to present herself with fake emotions or just act as unaffected as she was. Personally, Willow was glad that she¡¯d settled on honesty. Though, that decision was likely made more because she didn¡¯t care enough to try to act in a certain way. I hope she¡¯s doing well, maybe making some progress on that¡
¡°Sooooo¡ You dragged a respawnee back to a respawn point¡ Why?¡± Ravavka¡¯s asked in his deep dulcet voice.
¡°I didn¡¯t drag anyone. She agreed to come as she has many questions to ask, and I am curious about her story. She is Madrick¡¯s apprentice, and he didn¡¯t kill her.¡±
That was apparently enough to actually interest the still-somewhat-scary looking man. His center eye snapped back to Willow, staring at her with an uncomfortable intensity. ¡°Well, you did put me down easily and without a rank, at that! Hah, no wonder! I applied to be Madrick¡¯s apprentice once, you know?¡±
¡°Really?¡± Willow asked, surprised anyone would want that.
¡°Yep! He sent me back a letter that cursed me as soon as I opened it in reply. The letter itself just said, ¡®Fuck off¡¯. I have it framed!¡±
¡°That is¡ Super weird. You framed a thing that cursed you? Did you¡ Uh¡ Get the curse¡ Cured?¡±
Luzzi rubbed the back of her hand, then walked into the room and touched the floor. Two of those odd half orb-like chair that Ravavka was lounging in. Luzzi waved for Willow to take one and sat in the other herself. Ravavka¡¯s chair suddenly moved, flowing around the room until he was sitting while facing them. That was kinda cool, I wonder if I can do that¡
She checked her UICI, but didn¡¯t see any extra menu for it like she¡¯d had at the restaurant.
¡°Of course he didn¡¯t get it cured. He thought it was a mark of favor or something equally stupid. Ravavka here is the most foolish of his entire race.¡± Explained Luzzi.
¡°Thank you! I do my best! And of course I didn¡¯t remove the curse! He was a god at the time, and he replied to me! Can you imagine? A being over rank 100, replying to a little ol¡¯ rank fifty?¡±
¡°You¡¯re rank fifty?¡± Willow asked, surprised. This stupid seat was difficult to sit in. She really wanted a straighter back. Sitting in a position not unlike an upturned turtle was exactly as uncomfortable as she would have assumed.
¡°Hah! Not anymore. As if the faction would put a rank fifty on respawn duty. Nah, I¡¯d still be in a war-zone, or maybe off helping clean up space detritus, or even chasing after one of the unseen! Ahhh that bounty hunter role was the best.¡± Ravavka ended with a deep sigh of apparent loss.
¡°Unfortunately, I died when I perused a relationship with a drow. What a vindictive woman.¡± The last was said with a longing, admiring, tone that sounded much more genuine than most of the rest.
¡°Riiiight¡ I¡ See¡¡± Willow stopped trying to find a comfortable position and just laid a hand on the gray chair. She sent a imperative command into it, ¡°become a comfortable chair.¡± The material under her morphed into an ideal seat. Her back was at a perfect angle, a foot-rest had grown at the base, and it even rocked! Hah! That¡¯s more like it!
She noticed a moment later that the room had gone quiet. Ending her admiration of her handy work, Willow looked around. Ravavka had been staring at her the whole time, but now Luzzi was too. What¡¯s more, both of the paavaras¡¯ were cupped around her cheeks. If that¡¯s not a surprised, ¡®Oh¡¯, I don¡¯t know what is.
¡°Ehhh, y¡¯all good?¡±
¡°How did-¡± ¡°What the hell?!¡±
¡°Oh¡ I just told the chair to change. You guys made it look easy, what¡¯s the big deal?¡± Willow asked, a bit uncomfortable with the sharp intensity in Ravavka¡¯s middle eye. Those other eyes seem focused, but almost like they¡¯re looking at distant points. Weird. Only the boring gray wall is behind us.
¡°Willow, I believe I mentioned when you asked about the doors yesterday that I was able to manipulate the living metal due to a UICI module interacting with an enchantment matrix. A matrix which requires the operator be authorized.¡± Luzzi spoke slowly, letting her hands drop and unbending the oddly stiff wiggly shape of her tail, which Willow only now noticed as it relaxed.
¡°Oooooh¡ Uh¡ Sorry, I guess I should have asked one of you to make my chair different?¡± Hopefully she hadn¡¯t gotten Luzzi in trouble, that¡¯d be horrible after how nice she¡¯d been.
Ravavka burst out laughing, ¡°You¡¯ve got the power of Madrick¡¯s disciple but not the attitude! Rule number one of the world: the strong make the rules. If you can override whatever protections were built into the enchantments, then use it! What¡¯s the worst that happens? The ranker or legend that enchanted it gets pissy and kills you? Pft, you respawned yesterday, why would you care?¡±
¡°Oh. Wait, is that really how things work? You can do anything someone stronger than you doesn¡¯t stop you from doing? What¡¯s the point of money then?¡± Ravavka¡¯s ¡®rule one¡¯ seemed way too simple.
He shrugged, ¡°There¡¯s social order, at least the illusion of it. Most beings that live in cities like this want a simple life, or at least a break from doing interesting things. Or they¡¯re forced to be here by whatever faction, order, guild, or other organization that holds their leash.¡± He made a pulling gesture at his neck, apparently yanking on an invisible collar. His way-too-wide mouth split in a crooked grin.
¡°I can see what Luzzi means by you having lots of questions. So, let¡¯s answer some questions! But first¡ Luzzi said you have an interesting story.¡± Ravavka leaned in, and Willow noticed Luzzi doing the same beside her.
Taking a deep breath brace herself, she nodded. Then belatedly remembered to tap her forehead in the middle of gathering her thoughts. Once she was ready, she began, ¡°I died in an accident, just before I became the world¡¯s first gold medalist for the mixed martial arts lightweight division¡¡±
Chapter 6 - Enforce Contract
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
Conceptualization and Concept. Two terms which I use often and are often referenced by scholars and experts alike. They are the words which we most often use to describe difficult to explain levels of understanding and formation of such. While there are certainly more complete explanations available by more qualified experts, I will attempt to summarize what we are referring to.
The simplest and least esoteric meaning of the word conceptualization: To conceptualize, is to form a concept. In this case, the definition is generally sufficient. The lack comes from the root itself. Therefore, we must explore said root more completely.
Concept. The word itself is defined as an abstract or generalized idea. Perhaps a thought, an intellectual whim. A concept is a fleeting thing which might become concrete, but when initially pondered it is ephemeral and incomplete.
Of course, this is not truly what is meant by myself, scholars, climbers, and experts. Concept is simply a word of convenience as the most accessible word which carries a sufficient-enough intent with it to provide the uninitiated a basic idea so they are not lost within a conversation or instructional manual. What we truly mean when referencing a concept is an ever-expanding and never truly solid understanding. The understanding can be broad, or it can be targeted. In either case this is refereed to as a concept.
An insight is a solidified facet of one or more concepts. Insights must be expressed in a being¡¯s primary method of communications before they stabilize and integrate within the being¡¯s soul nexus. The concepts behind those insights may change as experience is gained and lessons are learned. Eventually, the insight itself may be expanded or refined to better reflect the being¡¯s conceptual understanding.
Similarly, when we describe conceptual links, or linking insights conceptually, we are expressing the requirement to have an internalized understanding of how two or more insights connect. This link itself is a concept which will continue to change and expand. The concept may strengthen or weaken over time as the being¡¯s experiences either enforce or disprove their concept.
The potential for a concept to weaken is an important component, and one of the reasons why the terms ¡®concept¡¯ or ¡®conceptualization¡¯ are used in place of more concrete words. Unlike an insight, a concept can be incorrect and still function. Much of the time, the importance of a concept is that the being believes and holds to it, not that it aligns with reality.
This is why a being might have a powerful concept, but be entirely unable to form an aligned insight from it. The fault is not a lack of conceptual strength or understanding, but rather a lack of alignment with reality.
The word ¡°conceptualization¡± itself is evocative of its true meaning but incomplete. I find it appropriate and hope that you, dear reader, can now find the humor in it as I do.
Naomi
Observation Deck, Passenger Hold, Wesnmen¡¯s Coallition Trading Barge
39-01-29E
Watching the pinprick starlight in the distant snap rapidly from one position into another was hypnotizing. The effect was caused by the mana aspect which was currently fueling the ship¡¯s travel enchantments. Rather than blurring in a constant stream as some sci-fi movies and shows had suggested, the needle-point sized distant lights snapped from one position to another. It was odd, as the previous position of the stars seemed to slowly fade out rather than suddenly vanishing. After the first day, Naomi had spent a lot of time here watching the stars. Three days with nothing really to do had left her with plenty of time to stare.into the beauty of the cosmos and think.
¡°Staring out again, eh Prism?¡± One of the handlers asked, the goblin¡¯s voice gruff and amused. He¡¯d introduced himself as Sharvey. He¡¯d been the one to inform herself and Jonah about the odd phenomena when Jonah had asked.
¡°No.¡± She answered simply. Sharvey had a habit of asking inane questions, which Naomi thought might be worth being annoyed at. She wasn¡¯t, but she thought it might be appropriate. She wasn¡¯t sure whether she was pleased or annoyed that Jonah had convinced her to use their pseudonyms instead of real names while they traveled. It seemed unnecessary.
A snorting guffaw came from close to her right. Turning to look, Naomi saw the grey skinned goblin staring up at her with shining eyes. ¡°Yer right pretty when yur mean, ya know?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not mean. I just answered your question.¡± She didn¡¯t avert her gaze from the dull yellow of the goblin¡¯s eyes.
Another of those mucus-fueled laughs, Sharvey¡¯s staple reaction, ¡°Ya lied though! Eet were obvious the answer¡¯s yes!¡±
¡°If the answer is obvious, maybe don¡¯t ask.¡± She turned her eyes back to watch the flickering emptiness dotted with light. Hints of substance. Sharvey had likely known she¡¯d be here and came looking. She¡¯d mentioned before that she wanted to see what approaching their destination would look like. Given the announcement that said approach would be today at some point, she¡¯d made her way up to observe. She wanted to know what it looked like for the vast emptiness to suddenly be ¡®full¡¯ as far as she could see.
Hawk, cough, guffaw, ¡°Like aye said! Bea-u-tee-full wheyn all strict¡¯n such!¡±
Ignoring the goblin, she continued to watch. Not just with her eyes, but with her soul. Since she and Jonah had boarded the trading barge on Chaven¡¯s dime, they¡¯d both learned quite a lot about how normal ¡®beings¡¯ advanced. That included learning that they could mold and alter their own soul nexus, forming them to best match what they wanted from it.
The adage, ¡°The soul forms the mind, the mind informs the soul¡± had been the answer to several questions. Had someone fed her the line on Earth, she¡¯d likely have ignored it as superstition or spiritual nonsense. Now, after she¡¯d gained the ability to quite literally feel and even see into her soul, it was actually quite helpful. Some of the talks she¡¯d had with Kooth, the eager gobliness who had tackled Skeetha moments after the trading envoy¡¯s raft had landed on Savria, had helped explain the saying.
The soul could exist without the mind, a certain and unambiguous truth that was apparently studied in detail and accepted. The fact that people could choose to replay, or return, to their tutorial was strong evidence by itself. The UICI¡¯s interpretation of the ¡®Universal Law of Return¡¯ translated the option to wipe ones mind and personality and return to the tutorial quite clearly. It was a translation which was supposedly had a certainty score over 99%.
Noticing that her mind was meandering, wandering uncharacteristically, Naomi checked her soul nexus and noted the gentle permutation of grey-blue and violet floating within. The two distant stars in the distance had grown slowly over the weeks as she fed them. She ensured the bright pink spec which had originally been born with her second insight was fed first, anything she took started there. The burning teal light of sorrow which had appeared when she¡¯d lost Willow, and thought it had been for good, got less. It would likely lead to problems if that became the dominant center-piece of her soul nexus. She¡¯d known that instinctively, but after conversing with Kooth that instinct had been solidified into certainty. She did not want her primary emotion to become sorrow, which is what she suspected it would be if she grew it faster than anything else. Instead, she fed her first star. The one which represented her determination.
¡°Weeee-yll¡± Sharvey¡¯s voice broke into her meditation, snapping Naomi back to the present. A flare of red and black, anger and¡ An emotion she¡¯d yet to name. ¡°We¡¯ve only gat summ¡¯t lak some hours¡¯r so till¡¯n we get the¡¯r. Y¡¯know ay¡¯ve been thankin¡¯¡ You¡¯n me? We cud be one hell¡¯a team! Tell-yu-wut, ay¡¯ll lettcha smooch¡¯n me a bit. N¡¯exchange ay¡¯ll showyu summ¡¯r o thu ropes, whatchu think?¡±
It look several seconds for Naomi to parse the weirdly thick accent. She wasn¡¯t even sure why the UICI kept accents. It¡¯d be easier to understand everyone if it was just standardized. Once she did parse his proposal, though, she turned to stare at him. She knew her eyes were normally unsettling. In the source-less gentle white light which permeated the observation deck, she knew the dark hazel of her irises would be closer to black. Combined with the emotionless expression her face naturally held when she didn¡¯t actively force it to show some emotion, she knew it wasn¡¯t pleasant for others when she stared at them. At least, Jonah and Kooth had both mentioned it. As far as she could tell, Sharvey enjoyed the attention.
Forcing a sigh out, she turned back to stare into space, ¡°No.¡± She answered simply.
¡°Ahhh y¡¯kna what¡¯tu say tu make ma h¡¯art beat fast¡¯r!¡± Glancing at the now clearly leering goblin, Naomi reached out with a tendril of her mana and passed it over him. He dropped to the ground, unconscious. Burgundy and blue flickered through her soul. She watched the colors curiously. Since her original insight, her emotions had slowly been replaced with this sensation of color instead. It was interesting. She had begun categorizing what the colors meant, as they generally didn¡¯t come with any recognizable emotion as she¡¯d felt before.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
In some ways, she was even less emotional than on Earth. In others, she was much more. She¡¯d noticed that the flashes of colors came with an increased frequency, yet she rarely actually felt the emotions they represented other than when they were extremely prevalent. She had felt sorrow when she¡¯d learned of Willow¡¯s death. She¡¯d felt joy and determination when she spoke her second insight. Other than that, the colors were substitutes.
The interesting thing was that she didn¡¯t mind. When she noticed the colors, she would sometimes decide to have her body respond accordingly. Bright blue and violet? Giddy joy and excitement, smile. Dark purple and soft blue? Chagrined amusement, wince. Grey and burgundy? Wicked curiosity, smirk.
It was somewhat formulaic, but she would figure it out. Now that she¡¯d both accepted her emptiness, determined to change it, and had time to adjust, she felt fine. The struggle, the push and pull of wanting something to fill that void was still there, but hushed. A dull ache, rather than an unpredictable wave of either apathy or despair. It was a step in the right direction.
The soft hiss of the airlock opening caught Naomi¡¯s attention and she turned to see who else was coming to join her. Seeing Skooth, she nodded and waved toward Sharvey, ¡°You should talk with your colleague about sexual harassment. He¡¯ll get himself hurt.¡±
She intended the words to come out as dry and amused. For her, they did. Though she wasn¡¯t sure Skooth could detect that. By and large, goblins seemed to be extremely emotional and over the top. It seemed they also had trouble understanding what others were feeling if they didn¡¯t respond in kind. It sent waves of soft blue through Naomi to see Jonah excited to understand what others around him were feeling, but also have no idea how to communicate back in kind. He was far too reserved to project what he felt as strongly as the goblins tended to.
This extreme was demonstrated as Skooth sprinted toward Naomi and the unconscious goblin beside her. Her already large eyes were wide with worry, massive ears twitching in panic. Sliding to a stop with her small knees bumping into her downed colleague, she quickly checked his vitals. Finding him alive, she let out an explosive sigh which was loud enough to have come from someone three times her size.
¡°How could you! What¡¯d you do to him, Prism?! You know he¡¯s a little simple, but that¡¯s no excuse at all for being such a bullious hoodlum!¡± The little goblin woman wagged a finger at her from the ground, her entire arm and torso bouncing cartoonishly in line with the gesture.
Waving dismissively, Naomi answered with what she hoped was an imperious tone, ¡°I just wore him out. Nothing to worry about.¡±
She thought the imperious tone wasn¡¯t very successful, as it didn¡¯t prevent the next ten minutes of questions.
Skooth poked Jonah frantically in the ribs as he held himself up against the observation deck, still laughing after almost a minute. He¡¯d come in to find Skooth grilling Naomi and complaining about her ¡®excessive reaction¡¯. When he asked what the questions were about, the head trader explained what she¡¯d come in on and Jonah had lost it. At first, she thought he¡¯d been laughing about the misunderstanding between them. It was classic sit-com comedy, she supposed.
Then he spoke through his gasps as he swatted ineffectually at Skooth¡¯s prodding fingers, ¡°It¡¯s -HAH- just¡ Of all the girls to harass -HAH-HAH- N¡ Prism? She -HAHAHA- is great -Heh-heh- but not really a man-slayer, you know?¡±
Flares of crimson and burgundy. Choosing not to let the emotions show on her face, Naomi instead stepped forward and shoved Jonah hard. He fell on his butt with a very satisfying, ¡°Ow!¡±
¡°That¡¯s rude.¡± She announced.
Jonah¡¯s face flushed, ¡°Eh¡ Sorry? Didn¡¯t think you¡¯d care?¡±
¡°It would still be rude if I didn¡¯t care.¡±
Standing, Jonah¡¯s mirth appeared to have finally subsided as he brushed himself off. Until he looked up and saw her expressionless face. Then he lost it again.
She narrowed her eyes at him in warning.
He held up his hands and forced himself to calm again. He avoided looking at her, ¡°It¡¯s just¡ Goblins are all so expressive. He must have thought you were the coolest person ever! You know how teens think people who think everything is dumb are cool? Like that! But¡¡± He waved his arms in an expansive gesture, ¡°More! It¡¯s just¡¡± He snickered again, ¡°He probably thought you were doing it on purpose.¡±
Naomi put a frown on her face as she thought. Skooth looked between them, then asked with clear surprise in her voice, ¡°You do not intentionally conceal your emotions?! I have known many humans who do! They have not been so skilled, but I assumed¡.¡± She stepped back and looked Naomi over again, right foot tapping rapidly on the floor as she did.
Shaking her head, Naomi just shrugged, ¡°It¡¯s a birth defect, or something.¡±
¡°No no no, NO! All birth defects are fixed after the tutorial!¡± She stomped petulantly. ¡°That¡¯s impossible I-¡± Her voice cut off as the entire ship suddenly shuttered, throwing all three of them from their feet.
The first shocking quake was followed by another, then another. Three came before Naomi had a chance to stand by pressing herself against the observation window. Once up, she stared out at the three ships floating in the distance. Bright lights coalesced in front of them, then flashed forward impossibly fast. The ship rocked again and Naomi found herself on her back gasping for air. That one had somehow seemed worse.
An alarm began to shriek and Skooth was up and pulling on Jonah¡¯s hand as Naomi sat up again. She shook her head and slowly forced herself to her feet again. This time she tried to distribute her weight better, not leaning on anything. Willow probably wouldn¡¯t have fallen.
Shaking off the unhelpful thought, she turned to Skooth, ¡°Do you know what¡¯s going on?¡±
The goblin was staring out the window, wringing her hands. She was surrounded in an orange haze which was slowly coalescing into what looked like armor around her. She shook her head frantically, ¡°No! Well, not exactly. Someone¡¯s attacking us. Don¡¯t know why! Stay here while I find out, passengers can¡¯t leave the hold!¡±
Glancing at Jonah, she saw him frowning after her. Likely thinking the same thing that Naomi was. ¡°Why does she always say that when she leaves?¡±
He was not thinking the same thing she was. Flashing their ¡®party up¡¯ signal, Naomi then moved to follow Skooth¡¯s hasty retreat from the room. Jonah¡¯s voice popped into her head a moment later, as he fell into step with her, ¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡±
¡°We need to know what¡¯s going on. Hopefully we can help them keep us from being killed.¡±
Silence followed the pair as they entered the gravity lift which allowed easy traversal between the ship¡¯s ten levels. Jonah tapped the number ¡°1¡± and gravity pulled them both down. The descent was rapid until it wasn¡¯t. As they neared the bottom, their momentum simply vanished and they touched the ground as if they¡¯d fallen slow as a feather. The first time they¡¯d descended by gravity lift, Jonah had ended up on his face due to his flailing. The memory brought waved of bright blue and gold.
The lift¡¯s good hissed open as the airlock disengaged and they strode forward. While neither of them could know exactly where Skooth had gone, they knew she¡¯d have to start here. There was only one connection between the passenger hold and the rest of the ship. There was a relatively thin hallway connecting level one of their hold and the central piece of the space vessel. They¡¯d also seen two more parts as they¡¯d approached on the weird flying raft which ferried them up from the planet¡¯s surface. It¡¯d been impossible to know which ship they were headed to until they reached it, given the dozens floating around in orbit.
The answer had been the largest and least cohesive of the vessels. While many of them had been sharply shaped, with clear weaponry, the one they ended up on looked more like a haphazardly constructed mess of buildings coated with metal and tossed into space. There were at least four distinct parts they¡¯d seen. They they¡¯d only seen the interior of two: the central one which they had passed through to board, and the passenger hold.
Getting to the end of the hallway, Naomi pushed her hand up against the little panel which opened doors. It flashed red instead of green and beeped sharply. Clearly denying them entrance. ¡°Annoying¡¡± She sent to Jonah.
They both stared at the door for a bit, before looking at each other helplessly. ¡°I could take its sturdiness and we could break through¡¡± Naomi offered.
Jonah shook his head frantically, ¡°If we get out and nothing is broken we can make something up about getting lost. If we literally break their door, we¡¯ll definitely get thrown into the brig or whatever they call space-ship-jail.¡±
It was a fair point. Yet, Naomi wasn¡¯t quite willing to give up yet. She really wanted to know what was going on. Before she could decide on any course of action, a familiar voice called behind them in a high pitched nasal voice. ¡°Friends friends! You are looking for answers as well, yes?¡±
Chaven seemed to be calmly curious. Naomi nodded at him, ¡°We were trying to figure out how to get through without breaking anything.¡±
The avron¡¯s sharp beak bobbed as he needed in agreement. He gently pressed past them, pressing his wings out to firmly push them each aside. Approaching the door, he tapped his wing tip to the door opening button. It beeped red and the bird man¡¯s calm demeanor fell away.
¡°What, what?! No no! I was assured I have full access to the ship! Full, full!¡± His wing slapped against the reader several more times before he stopped, breathing heavily and glaring.
Just as suddenly as his anger heated, it cooled and Chaven spoke in a cold voice, ¡°The contract has been broken. Yes, yes.¡±
He looked toward Naomi and Jonah, ¡°Will you assist me, me? I must enforce the law, the contract has been broken. Yes, yes.¡± The previously high voice had dropped several octaves, it sent waves of sickly green through her.
¡°Help you, what, punish whoever made the contract with you for breaking it?¡± Jonah clarified uncertainly.
¡°Yes, yes. The captain of the ship is the highest authority, authority. He must, must, pay the price dictated or be held in contempt of contract. Yes, yes.¡± The doubling of words somehow felt menacing now, rather than endearing. The up-beat and excited tone Chaven generally spoke with was gone, replaced by a slow and serious delivery which displayed none of the chipper eagerness which seemed to be his normal state of mind.
¡°If you open the door, we¡¯ll help you find the captain.¡± Naomi agreed.
Chaven kept an eye on Jonah, until he nodded his own agreement. Then he waved and a UICI window appeared in front of each of them.
Immediate Contract Offered
You,
Naomi, agree to assist Chaven in finding the captain of the Wesnmen¡¯s Coallition Trading Barge (Unit 5534-12-33, alias Margondey).
Breaking this contract will result in a fine of 10 R0-EB.
Completing the contract will be rewarded by 1000 R0-EB, 100 R1-EB, and 10R2-EB.
While this contract is in progress, you will benefit from Chaven¡¯s ability Contractee¡¯s Competence.
Accept/Decline
Naomi accepted. She noticed Jonah looked uneasy and sent, ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s a simple thing to help with. There¡¯s no chance we break it. We don¡¯t have to help him imprison anyone or anything, just find the captain.¡±
Nodding silently, Jonah clearly accepted. Chaven clapped his wings together, causing a surprisingly strong gust of wind, but little noise. He bobbed his head eagerly, ¡°My thanks, thanks! Now, let us get started, started!¡±
Turning back to the door he spoke, ¡°Enforce contract: Page six, section A.2, subsection 1.1¡± Having spoken, Chaven tapped his wing against the button again. This time it opened.
¡°Next time you say something will be simple, I¡¯m running away.¡± Jonah¡¯s voice came in Naomi¡¯s mind, his exasperation coming through loud and clear.
In front of them stood four humanoids with bright red skin and tusks. They were each at least seven feet tall and every inch of them appeared to be made of rippling muscles. Two of them held a sword and shield each, while the other two sported what were clearly guns of some kind. The closest two were those armed for melee.
They both grinned wickedly as they stepped forward, ¡°Ah good, looks like the new thralls are already doing their jobs.¡±
Chapter 7 - Simulate
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
Rank levels are determined by the qualitative difference in one¡¯s soul nexus upon achieving/reaching specific milestones. The rank system was implemented, presumably, by beings who reached Rank 15 (gained spiritual/soul awareness) and studied their junior¡¯s progress.
None of the steps can be ¡°skipped¡±, however it is possible for milestones to be completed out of order. In some cases, completing a milestone out of order can make advancement more difficult. In others, it makes it simpler.
It is important to note that the previously mentioned qualitative difference in soul nexus does not take effect until any prerequisites are met first.
For example: Someone might create three insights in Rank 1 and conceptually link them all. This will not immediately send them to rank 2. If they haven¡¯t developed a mana aspect to go along with their insight(s), or if they haven¡¯t used their mana at least once (developed an ability, skill, technique, or spell), the conceptual links will not increase their strength into rank 2.
However, in this example, once the being manages to complete the requirements for rank 1, or the ¡®prerequisite milestones¡¯ as some scholars refer to them, they¡¯ll immediately advance to rank 2.
There are dangers to advancing too quickly. The danger of rushing one¡¯s advancement increases with every 10 ranks. The danger spikes additionally when reaching rank 100. The dangers include: Damaging one¡¯s soul nexus, breaking one¡¯s abilities, unbalancing mana potency and their usage structures, breaking one¡¯s psyche, and plenty of more exotic dangers. The worst of the possible problems can only be cured by a much higher ranked being, or death.
Jonah
Concourse Doors, Passenger Hold, Wesnmen¡¯s Coallition Trading Barge
The massive red orcs stepped forward. They were more the WoW variant, less Tolkien. The largest of them looked like he was pushing two and a half meters. At least, he seemed to be with how the sword wielding warrior had to stoop slightly to shove his way through the airlock¡¯s frame. Heavy brows were deeply furrowed while sharply jutting tusks dominated the wicked grin, producing a terrifying expression of gleeful fury. The sword the thing carried seemed to be as large as Jonah himself as it¡¯s tip preceded the warrior¡¯s bulging muscles through the door, a massive circular buckler covered in spikes pressed forward beside it.
The squeak that came from somewhere nearby probably wasn¡¯t his own. His experience with the pop-hoppers, then the larger giant guardians, had lead Jonah to believe he did pretty well with confrontation and combat. What those experiences had been lacking was any true intimidation. The pop-hoppers had been angry and vicious, but were small and ultimately stupid. The giants had lacked anything that resembled bloodthirst, despite being massive and clearly dangerous. The orc which consumed Jonah¡¯s entire focus was entirely different.
Everything about it, from the tribal tattoos which literally writhed upon its skin independent of its host motions, to the glint of excitement in his black eyes: everything radiated a savage desire to battle, kill, maim. The orc growled deep in its throat and lunged forward, directly at Naomi. Cool as ever, she stepped back and left, out of its reach. A black cloud of mana, which Jonah knew from experience could sap anything from emotion to strength to energy, flashed out and struck the orc across the face.
The force of the blow was shocking. Not only had it made a noise like flesh being struck by wet seaweed, surprising as it was off-putting, it also didn¡¯t pass through the warrior as expected. Jonah found his mouth hanging open at the sight, as the orc¡¯s upraised arm blocked the magical cloud. Having blocked the attack, the orc twisted at the the wrist and pressed down, creating a thin enough strand of the cloud for it to grab. The second orc roared as it flung itself at Chaven.
Jonah staggered backward to get out of their way and realized he wasn¡¯t doing anything useful. Naomi had somehow retrieved her cloud of mana and had changed tactics, it wrapped around her as some kind of shield as she continued to do her best to dodge her much larger opponent¡¯s strikes. She was doing an admirable job, managing to mostly keep away from the sword while giving ground. They¡¯d pass Jonah himself soon if the battle¡¯s momentum continued. When she couldn¡¯t dodge, her cloud of mana worked as a shield, somehow entirely arresting the extreme momentum the orc was putting into each blow.
Belatedly, Jonah glanced at the tags floating about each orc¡¯s head, even looking past the front two at the ones holding what looked like massive blaster rifles casually in their hands.
[LVL 44|Hell Spawn Orc|Warrior] [LVL 40|Hell Spawn Orc|Warrior] [LVL 39|Hell Spawn Orc|Support] [LVL 33|Hell Spawn Orc|Archer]
¡°Shite, Naomi they way out level us!¡± Jonah sent through the party channel, panicked.
¡°Didn¡¯t you say Chaven is like level eighty?¡± Right, yes, that¡¯s true. He¡¯ll take them all down easily!
Glancing at Chaven, who had engaged the other sword wielding orc, he cringed. ¡°I think the difference in his utility class and their combat classes is a problem.¡±
While the orc hadn¡¯t yet landed a blow against the surprisingly agile avron, he didn¡¯t seem to be doing much against it either. It seemed like a battle of attrition, which wouldn¡¯t end well for the non-combat focused in the equation. Not to mention there were two other orcs to worry about, who were watching the whole thing with a sense of amusement. They clearly didn¡¯t think their assistance was needed.
¡°Well, do something to level the field.¡± Naomi¡¯s voice came through, tone the same as it had been when they discussed the odd meal they¡¯d been served the night before.
¡°Right, I¡¯m support. Right!¡± Slapping his face between his hands, Jonah bounced in place as he forced himself into a combat state of mind. I¡¯m System. Not Jonah. I support my team, get them through the battle. He activated his RTS view ability. His point of view snapped to the ceiling, seeing down through the ceiling and walls as if they weren¡¯t there. Looks like a dungeon crawler, that¡¯s cool. He noted before quickly beginning to cast spells.
¡°Cast haste. Cast predator vision¡± He quickly chanted under his breath, annoyed that he had to actually speak the names of his spells. At least it wasn¡¯t likely their opponents could hear what he was saying. He¡¯d sent both buffs to Prism, knowing she¡¯d be ready for them. Then he sent a party invite to Chaven, surprised with how quickly it was accepted. The bird man hadn¡¯t even stopped his odd wingy dance with the orc. He slapped an incoming blade thrust aside with his feathered arm, making is seem easy, and his leftmost eye caught System¡¯s. The curiosity in it was clear.
Ignoring the sudden spike of worry over what the more experienced man thought, System sent a him quick message, ¡°Buffs incoming Chaven, one will speed you up and the other will highlight weak points on your opponent.¡± A sense of agreement came through the link, but Chaven didn¡¯t otherwise answer as he continued his fight.
Quickly sending the same two spells at Chaven, he then proceeded to send a trick at each of the melee fighters. When the one fighting Prism suddenly slashed his sword wide, as if defending from a surprise attack, she slipped into his guard. To System¡¯s shock, she reached up, then jumped to make up the remaining distance, and gouged her fingers directly into the massive warrior¡¯s eyes. He screamed and swung his sword at her back, causing it to stop as it hit her protective cloud, which had condensed around her back like a solid wall. Then Prism¡¯s hand, a finger in each of her opponent¡¯s eyes moved. The orc¡¯s head snapped back the sudden and entirely impossible acceleration of Prism¡¯s arm and body.
The scream stopped as the orc fell, its tag winking out with its death. System wasn¡¯t sure if her fingers had gone in deep enough through the enemy¡¯s eyes to stab its brain, or if the broken neck had done it in. Either way, Prism was the first to finish her opponent. Seeing one of the blaster toting orcs start raising it in his friend¡¯s direction, System cast trick and sent a ping through the party channel to inform Prism.
With a moment of space to breath, System used his newest ability simulate.
The definition flashed briefly through his mind as he activated it.
Active ability which allows the user to simulate the outcome of a specific set of predefined actions. Simulation time takes N*0.0001, where N is the time required for each action.
Simulate will strain the body and mind of the user, mitigated by strong focus, ego, and resolve.
Simulation accuracy rises with higher focus, connection, ideation, and processing.
Simulation accuracy falls against opponents with higher ego, processing, and focus.
Glad I tested this. Activating the ability gave System exactly ten seconds of relative time, where the rest of the world was frozen, to choose what actions he wanted to test. The main weakness of the ability was that he couldn¡¯t cancel it once it started. The time it would take was difficult to calculate mid-battle, so System was glad he¡¯d done a lost of testing over the last couple weeks. He knew if he looked ahead by two minutes, he could test up to about eighty actions and it would take under a second. The main issue there was the strain.
System quickly entered his instructions. 120 seconds, 5 actions.
Simulation Accepted
Time:120s
Actions
| Action |
Rolling Time Cost |
| Tell Prism to Help Chaven |
12ms |
| Cast Trick on LVL 33 Orc Archer |
24ms |
| Cast HP Siphon on LVL 39 Orc Support |
36ms |
| Cast Predator Vision on Self |
48ms |
| Cast Haste on Self |
60ms |
Absolute Time Required:72ms
After the defined actions, the rest of the time would follow an entirely reactionary path, simulated rather than being true precognition. It worked flawlessly during spars and in day-to-day situations. Hopefully it was as accurate now.
The scene that played out was from the same top down view he was currently in, which was expected. The simulation always played out from the perspective he activated the ability in. He watched as immediately after casting trick, the orc support shot him, with pin-point accuracy, through the forehead. He watched in horror as his own body collapsed.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
Letting the two minutes run out, he saw the blaster orcs enter the fight and end it decisively, before leaving the hallway. He¡¯d clearly overestimated their chances, as he watched an entirely empty room for a minute and a half.
The ability ended gradually, feeling similar to the old bullet time effect Hollywood liked so much, but in reverse. He came back to the world in the current moment, and over the course of a second or so everything sped back up to its normal pace. Once it had, he activated the ability again immediately. He¡¯d have done it sooner, but he couldn¡¯t do anything until the ability fully ended. Taking a step to the left as he activated the ability, System began going through options.
Ten action combinations later, System survived for an entire thirty seconds. Another ten, the entire party survived for thirty seconds. The entire thing had taken a bit over half a second. System¡¯s brain was throbbing, thrumming in bursting whines like an overheated engine.
Quickly, System implemented the successful plan. He cast haste on himself, ran to Chaven while casting trick and shoved him away. A bolt of red energy flashed in the space where Chaven had previously occupied and System sent a concise message, ¡°Roll forward and scream at them.¡±
Then he threw himself backwards onto his back, dodging the next two incoming blaster bolts by a hair. His nose was singed slightly by the heat of their passing. As he struck the ground he spoke the activation for HP Siphon in a single gasp, ¡°casthpsiphon.¡± His head was positioned just right to catch a glimpse of the warrior chasing Chaven¡¯s rolling figure as he did.
Then he was rolling to his feet and sending a message to Prism, ¡°Bend at the knees to grab the sword, then rush Chaven¡¯s orc.¡±
Ignoring what came next, as he already knew, System ran straight toward the blasting orcs. He juked right, dodging a blast. Then staggered a step, another bolt flashing by. Then came the dangerous part. ¡°Can¡¯t even hit the side of a fucking barn the size of your mom¡¯s arse can you, boys?!¡±
He¡¯d had to try three different taunts before finding one that would likely break through the blase amusement which the two ranged fighters had been operating under. System could only guess mothers were sacred in their culture, and having their aim questioned didn¡¯t hurt. They both screamed at him, rushing forward and firing recklessly. Yelping as if frightened - Okay, maybe not so much an act here. - System spun to his left and sprinted toward the wall at an angle, still moving slightly toward the enraged orcs. He screamed as heat exploded through his shoulder, not even finishing the cry before another jolt of fiery heat radiated from his elbow. He¡¯d been shot twice, both cleanly, both burning straight through him. Even from his RTS View, the pain was intense.
He never felt anything when running simulations, and he was almost surprised as his ability to press through the agony. It helped that he felt more like he was clicking a mouse button, directing a troop, than actually doing anything which might exacerbate his wounds. The effortless movement ability had done a lot to increase his sense of disconnection from himself while in this viewpoint.
Then he saw the critical moment and dove hard to his right, ensuring his body was directly in line with the closest orc. He laughed in triumph as he slid helplessly, sighting down its long barrel. Then fell straight forward as a red light flashed through his neck and struck the wall. View clear, the second orc didn¡¯t hesitate and immediately opened fire again.
Having pulled his legs under himself, System leapt up. He¡¯d like to think he almost hit the ceiling, but he doubted it. They were about three meters from the floor, but since he couldn¡¯t see the ceiling he would just assume he nearly hit his head. A bolt went through his right thigh and he was screaming again as he hit the ground.
¡°Cast trick!¡± He hissed, doing his best to keep his voice quiet. He knew if the orc heard him, his mental resistance would be higher as he expected something to try and trick him. Stupid vocalization requirements!
Eyes widening in shock, the orc swung his gun around to his left and fired down the hallway at nothing. The moment¡¯s distraction was exactly what he needed as a rush of relief flowed through him. Prism had just found the opening she needed and had managed to get the insanely huge sword she had taken at his insistence planted on the floor behind the warrior directly before Chaven sent him flying backwards with a powerful kick. The sword caught the orc perfectly, snapping its spine. It would have sent Prism staggering too, except her protective cloud absorbed the momentum in the same way it had for every sword blow. The HP Siphon sent what felt like a torrent of vitality into System, closing all three blaster wounds in an instant.
Rolling back to his feet, System quickly cast trick twice more, distracting the final opponent long enough for him to rush over and pick up the over sized blaster discarded by the orc who¡¯d been shot through the back by his companion. Swinging the muzzle around, System did his best to aim, despite two major problems. First, he couldn¡¯t see through his own eyes and instead was relying on whatever directed actions his RTS View could give, and he honestly had only the roughest concept of how to aim a firearm in the first place.
His simulation had been incorrect about the kickback of the weapon. He fired and lost his hold on the gun as it kicked him hard in the shoulder before falling to the ground, sending System staggering backwards and gasping in pain. The simulation had also been wrong about his accuracy. As his panicked gaze shot back up to his target, he found he¡¯d somehow managed to hit directly through the left side of the creature¡¯s back. It¡¯ll have to be enough to slow it down.
System quickly scooped the gun back up and readied himself for another painful bruise, aiming carefully again. Before he fired, the orc dropped. Belatedly, System realized he¡¯d assumed the orcs would have hearts on the right side of their bodies like humans. It seemed that had been an incorrect assumption.
Sighing in relief, he left the gun¡¯s tip fall toward the ground. Seeing no other enemies within his RTS View¡¯s rather impressive range, he released the ability. The pain in his head redoubled and he lifted a hand to gingerly touch the wet inner ridge of his ear. He was unsurprised to find his finger red with blood. He winced, fairly certain that bleeding had been caused by his overuse of simulation rather than anything the orcs had done directly.
A long shrieking predatory cry brought System¡¯s attention back to his party. Chaven was standing above his opponent, who had actually been killed by Prism, preening proudly. Had they time, System would have liked to poke fun at the oversized bird for his overestimation at his contribution. It wasn¡¯t the time, though.
¡°We should get going. These guys are either with the attacking ships and somehow boarded, or they¡¯re part of this ship¡¯s crew and intended to take advantage of the chaos. The big one called us thralls. I¡¯m not sure why the UICI would translate it that way instead of as ¡®slaves¡¯, but they seem like the same thing to me. We need to figure out what¡¯s going on.¡± System was impressed to hear how stable his voice was, the adrenaline in his system was slowing and he¡¯d thought the rising fear might come through more clearly.
Prism nodded in agreement, then went to the other gun and hefted it. The thing was just as unwieldy for her as it was for him. He waved his left hand to catch Chaven¡¯s attention and gestured at the gun held in his right, ¡°Can you shoot?¡± He thought the avron was likely physically stronger than himself or Prism. At least the monstrous kick which had lifted the massive orc off the ground and sent it flying to be impaled suggested as much. Bobbing his head, Chaven took the weapon which he handled with both ease and familiarity.
¡°Oh, oh! This is quite a new model. It¡¯s both lighter and more powerful than the older ones which are still more common. Exciting, exciting!¡±
Prism had found a way to hold the gun with the back of the barrel resting on her shoulder which was apparently comfortable enough. When System met her gaze her lips lifted slightly and she nodded, sending through the channel, ¡°Thanks, I take it that fight wouldn¡¯t have been as easy without your simulations?¡±
Doing his best to keep his face from going pale at the memory of seeing himself die over ten times, he answered, ¡°No. It was going to be bad. I also don¡¯t think I can do that many simulations again for a while. I have the mother of all migraines.¡±
With a nod, Prism turned and stepped over the bodies toward the airlock. ¡°Don¡¯t forget to check your XP.¡± She called over her shoulder, ¡°I got a lot.¡±
With a quick thought, he pulled up his status and found she was right. He¡¯d gone from
10,013.10... to
13,391.42... enough to level up. Taking a deep breath, he sent a quick message to both Prism and Chaven asking them to wait a moment so he could level up. The bird man hadn¡¯t moved and didn¡¯t answer. He¡¯d actually been staring into space since he¡¯d finished examining the gun, likely already allocating his XP in his own way. Prism had stopped short of the airlock and was leaning against its frame, apparently wanting to be behind any enemies that rushed in unexpectedly.
Annoyed at having to rush, System accepted the level up. He went to allocated his stat points and froze for a moment when he saw the stats he¡¯d gained had doubled. Instead of three, he had six available. Feking milestone level, that¡¯s awesome!
Following the plan he¡¯d already made, he put two points into mana, one into focus, and one into processing and two into agility. Then he moved on to the exciting part. He had both an ability and a spell to choose. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t have time to agonize over the choice. He also didn¡¯t have the luxury to wait and choose later. He was convinced he needed the increase in power to survive.
Filtering the spell list to only new options, he ignored anything with more than two keywords. He¡¯d have to speak the spell name to activate it, and he was not trying to say something like, ¡®Inescapably Implosive Ignition of Intense Incendiary Immolation.¡¯ While it was likely powerful, he¡¯d never have time to use it during a battle.
Instead, it was narrowed to a dozen. Of those, he picked up Swap.
Swap
Trade places with another being. The swap is instantaneous.
Swap may be resisted with a contested check. The caster¡¯s score is defined as: [Caster level + sum(resolve,will,processing,ego)] + [focus*(presence/4)] + [focus*(connection/2)]
While the target¡¯s attempt to resist is defined as: [Caster level + sum(resolve,will,ego)] + [focus*(presence/2)] + [focus*(connection/10)]
Note: Resist attempts are calculated on-demand using absolute stat scores, rather than indefinite/average stat scores shown on character sheet.
For the ability, he¡¯d been extremely underwhelmed. Both of his existing abilities were quite literally game changing. They significantly altered the options available to him at any given moment. That being said, he was satisfied with the synergy provided by his newest ability.
Locomotive Recovery
Passive ability which converts 0.1% of kinetic energy generated by motion into a resource pool of the user¡¯s choice [may change resource selection at will].
By itself, the ability essentially translated to a slightly faster resource recovery throughout the day. Potentially faster recovery during combat or other high intensity moments, too. For him, though, there was potential. He could move without ceasing, for as long as he could keep his eyes awake. This ability had the potential to be a true lifesaver.
System glanced one last time at his updated status.
Jonah Locke
Level: 10 Experience: 13,391.42¡/27,056.19¡
Resources
| GSM (Gaming Systems Mana) |
64/100 |
| MP (Mana Points) |
2/58 [ 61-3 (Effortless Movement)] |
| Stamina |
97/110 |
Attributes
| Body |
| Strength |
10 |
| Dexterity (Macro/Micro) |
7/6 |
| Agility |
15 |
| Resilience |
10 |
| Endurance |
13 |
| Perception |
12 |
| Mind |
| Memory |
13 |
| Processing |
17 |
| Ideation |
11 |
| Spirit |
| Ego |
8 |
| Will |
11 |
| Resolve |
12 |
| Focus |
22 |
| Presence |
4 |
| Connection |
3 |
| Soul
Note: Insight and related mana aspects lack conceptual linkage with the soul. This section cannot be managed by your ¡®Gaming (life is) System¡¯ ability. |
Spells
- Predator Vision [Buff] - 2 MP
- Trick [Debuff] - 3 MP
- Creature Comforts [Utility] - 10 MP
- HP Siphon [Debuff] - 5 MP
- Haste [Buff] - 10 MP
- Swap [Tactical] - 25 MP
Abilities
- Gaming (life is) System
- Overwatch (User Tag: RTS View)
- Party Up
- Character Interface
- Settlment/Camp Interface
- ¡ ?
- Effortless Movement
- Simulate
- Locomotive Recovery
Satisfied, he sent through the party chat, ¡°I¡¯m ready. Let¡¯s go see what¡¯s going on.¡±
Chapter 8 - Ultimatum
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
A common misconception among new arrivals is that progression through ranks is one time and one way. This assumption is generally shared either among beings who come from tutorials which are technologically advanced, or highly magical.
In the case of techno tutorials, the belief is clearly linked toward entertainment norms and the undeniable similarity between tutorial media and UICI interface. This relationship is known to be due to one of the UICI founder¡¯s obsession with a particular fiction series. The presumably unforeseen consequence is that the relative familiarity with ¡°the system¡± tends to lead to inaccurate beliefs. The UICI itself is a creation of the gods, rather than a Universal Law. While the UICI is often used to inform users and interface with Universal Laws and their effects, such as providing clearer prompts regarding a being¡¯s choice upon death, the UICI itself is not controlling or causing anything at all. It is, as the name suggests, just an interface.
Willow
Respawn Point AA-001-92-119, Farcem City, Motrendi
¡°¡So I spun around and punched the pop-hopper-Willow-stopper as hard as I could with all my mana! I hit it, and just as I did I saw a flash from the corner of my eye¡¡± Stopping for dramatic effect, Willow checked to see if her audience was on the edge of their seats. Of course, given their absolutely ridiculous bowl-chairs, they weren¡¯t. Luzzi at least appeared to be paying rapt attention, assuming that what was indicated by her tail being straight up with its tips wrapped together. Ravavka was staring at her, but his creepy too-wide mouth was closed and he didn¡¯t seem excited. At least, as far as she could tell.
Deciding Luzzi being excited - hopefully - was enough, she finished, ¡°Then the world spun around and I was staring at my own headless body!¡± she concluded with a slash of her hand. Neither Luzzi nor Ravavka had been what she¡¯d consider a fantastic audience to her story. They¡¯d listened well enough, but they never gasped or groaned, or interjected with, ¡®No, really?!¡¯. Is this what people feel like when recording stories or writing them? No real idea how it¡¯s being received. Ew.
Realizing she was done, Luzzi¡¯s tail relaxed and she tapped her forehead several times. ¡°An interesting, if not action packed, story.¡±
Willow stared, ¡°What? The pop-hopper war, the giants they turned into, and a fae that can literally write stuff into being aren¡¯t action packed enough?!¡±
¡°Pft, kid, any random being will have a dozen more exciting stories to tell. They¡¯ll be better at telling them too.¡± Ravavka¡¯s brash voice cut in. Clearly noticing her outrage - I¡¯m a great story teller, thank you! - he waved one of his little hands with way too many fingers. ¡°Not to say it¡¯s not a decent story for someone so young, it¡¯s fine. Just give it another thousand years or so and then come back, then you might have something interesting to tell us.¡±
Slumping back into her much more comfortably shaped chair, Willow did her best to make a spectacle of how much less horrible her seat was to get back at Ravavka a bit. He didn¡¯t seem to care, maybe didn¡¯t notice.
Rubbing both hands down her face, Luzzi added, ¡°Ravavka exaggerates, Willow. For many, your tale would be exciting. I particularly enjoyed the way you hopped around while telling. You¡¯re quite an energetic bard.¡±
Doing her best to ignore the flush of embarrassment creeping into her cheeks, Willow remained silent. I¡¯m not pouting. ¡°It is your misfortune that myself and Ravavka have both had the opportunity to delve rifts and have many of our own stories of lived adventure. He is still being too uncharitable, though. I found hearing of your experiences quite interesting. In particular the disrespect with which you treat Madrick. He¡¯s not known for being generous or forgiving of insults. He must truly believe you¡¯re worth investing in.¡±
¡°Ehh, maybe? Has he always been a jerk? Or is that something he picked up after reaching godhood?¡± It was a question Willow had been pondering since his revelation that he¡¯d once been a god. Was his arrogance and disregard for others and their opinions just because Madrick was Madrick, or was it something he picked up over his presumed years of godhood.
Noting that Luzzi was pointing at Ravavka with two fingers, he shrugged his shoulders and answered. ¡°No idea. It could be either way. I¡¯d guess he¡¯s just naturally like that, though. The thing about reaching godhood is that it means you¡¯ve followed your path to such an extreme that you have become the embodiment of it. There can never be more than one god of a path. If someone following the path of blazing stars wants to reach rank 100, they have to diverge from the path and form something new.¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t that mean the first gods had it easiest?¡±
¡°Some believe so, most don¡¯t.¡± Luzzi¡¯s silky voice answered, ¡°There are some who believe the simplest paths are already taken, so to speak. However, most of us eventually come to believe that all paths are unique and therefore it¡¯s impossible to truly follow in the footsteps of another. The issue most people have when trying to reach godhood isn¡¯t actually that their path is too similar to an existing one. From what I understand, the problem that generally arises is a lack of personal potentia.¡±
Thinking through it a moment, Willow considered whether she cared more about getting answers or about potentially looking stupid. She chose the former and asked carefully, ¡°Like, mana? I know potentia is converted into mana, so people have a trouble getting to rank one hundred because their mana stores are too small?¡±
Ravavka snorted rudely, but Luzzi simply shook her head - Oooh so she does use some normal body language! ¡°Not mana, but potentia. Everything in existence is either made up of potentia, or generates it. There is much debate regarding which is correct. The higher milestones include requirements for the amount of potentia which either comprises you, or is generated by you. Which way it works is irrelevant for the purposes of advancement.¡±
It seemed that, besides Ravavka¡¯s amusement, they wouldn¡¯t be berating her for her lack of knowledge. Emboldened, Willow leaned forward to start asking the questions she¡¯d had piling up for months.
Hours passed as Willow asked questions and had them fielded by Ravavka or Luzzi, sometimes both. The most interesting answers were those where the two disagreed entirely about the answer. It seemed some things were either not fully understood, or somewhat subjective. She wasn¡¯t really sure which.
Even so, she was ecstatic to have people to talk to who knew things! And are willing to share them freely without being pains in the neck like some Madricks. The day was slipping by quickly. So much so that Willow was shocked when she saw Luzzi tense at the same moment that lights begun playing across the gray material which made up the room. Spinning her chair to look down the hallway, rather than at the other occupants, she saw millions of floating lights. Lights of every color, some of which Willow was pretty certain she¡¯d never seen before, floated lazily through the walls, ceiling, and floor. They swirled as if in a gentle breeze before, suddenly, they all rushed together in a brilliant flash.
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White after flash fading, Willow saw a man standing where the lights had converged. For a brief moment she thought it was Jonah before recognizing that besides being lanky he looked nothing like her friend. Wearing the same boring gray jumpsuit Willow herself was still wearing, the respawnee blinked several times before his eyes focused and took herself and the others in.
¡°State your name and faction¡± Ravavka demanded in a harsh tone.
His eyes flicked off of Willow toward the little man-thing - Did anyone ever tell me what species he is? - behind her. Frowning slightly, he answered clearly, ¡°Tison Barge, with the Frazzlen.¡±
¡°Ah, one of ours then.¡± Luzzi cut in smoothly. ¡°I¡¯m sending you the standard debriefing form. Please fill it out, then you may leave.¡±
He scowled, ¡°I¡¯ve never been asked to fill anything out before.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a relatively new process. The Frazzlen have determined that, in order to better protect their members, they need information regarding the reason and method of our deaths.¡± Ravavka¡¯s voice was monotonous and bored.
¡°Just fill in the thing so you can leave. We don¡¯t want you here any more than you want to be here.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll be reporting your lack of decorum or empathy.¡± The newcomer barked.
Glancing behind herself, curious whether Ravavka would lose his mind like when she¡¯d challenged him, Willow had time to see Luzzi¡¯s ears lying flat against her head and a blur. Snapping her head back toward the end of the room, she found a burning man-sized smear on the wall.
¡°He¡¯ll probably complain more when he comes back again.¡± Willow pointed out.
¡°Probably¡± Ravavka agreed with a shrug.
¡°How¡¯d you get out of that chair so fast? It seems to literally be designed to make that impossible.¡±
¡°Practice.¡±
¡°If you two are done making light of Ravavka¡¯s murder¡± Luzzi said, soft voice as formal and calm as ever, ¡°Then Ravavka can get to work cleaning his mess up.¡±
¡°New kid can do it. She can just have the wall swallow it.¡± He challenged.
Willow hadn¡¯t taken her eyes off of the little man and caught the smirk he threw her. ¡°Nope!¡± She answered cheerily, pulling down under one of her eyes and sticking her tongue out.
It was unlikely he understood the gesture, but it was probably clear enough without context. He brought his hands up, popping his knuckles slowly. ¡°Oh, really?¡±
¡°Really, Ravvy? You think I can¡¯t just send you off to nigh-nigh land again if I need to?¡± She asked sweetly.
With a groan, he turned his back to her and took the couple steps toward the wall. He raised a hand and a bright light flashed. As he turned and walked back toward herself and Luzzi, Willow saw there wasn¡¯t anything left on the wall. Whatever he¡¯d done seemed to have disintegrated everything that had been left of the man.
¡°Should you be killing people right after they respawn just because they don¡¯t do what you want right away, or mouth off a bit?¡± Willow asked curiously. Now that she knew death wasn¡¯t permanent, it was remarkably easy to be blase about the entire thing. In fact, looking back to her first conversation with Skeetha and Halshath she found that she was finally able to understand why they hadn¡¯t been too concerned about their warriors dying. Though, they did seem upset about their kids¡ Actually, come to think of it, I haven¡¯t seen any kids since I got here.
Frowning, Willow thought back through the entire walk with Luzzi through the city yesterday. Then reviewed their run this morning. Not a single kid? Are they just all in school?
Before she could continue the line of thought, Ravavka answered her question, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m strong enough to, so I can. If he respawns and complains, whoever gets the complaint might care. If so, they¡¯ll either put some demerits on my record or they¡¯ll come punish me themselves. Hopefully the later, that sounds much more interesting.¡± With the final sentence he actually sounded somewhat engaged, not quite as bored.
¡°He¡¯s killed about a dozen ¡®mouthy¡¯ respawnees since I joined him in this duty.¡± Luzzi informed her.
Willow frowned over at the strangely funny sight of the diminutive, but dangerous, man climbing back into his cup-shaped seat. ¡°If you¡¯re so bored doing this job, why don¡¯t you leave? Do something else? You said you were before, right? When you were rank fifty?¡±
With a sharp laugh, he finished settling himself in the chair, ¡°Yep. Unfortunately in order to get to level fifty I had to sign a contract with the faction which forfeit my services to them for the next one hundred years after my next death. I¡¯ve got twenty two years left.¡±
I have to be missing something here, this just seems stupid. ¡°Why¡¯d you sign that? Also, why not just break it?¡±
The silence which slowly stretched in the room was oddly heavy. Huh, I guess I finally said something stupid enough to upset them.
¡°Interesting. She¡¯s still alive and standing before us.¡± Ravavka said with a thoughtful set to his mouth.
¡°What?¡±
Taking pity on her, Luzzi answered the extremely articulate question, ¡°Generally any suggestion of insurrection is immediately punished. For more powerful beings the punishment is generally a swift and sudden death. Though, since you are newly respawned it makes sense that wasn¡¯t your fate. For lower ranked beings, they are generally taken away to be imprisoned and ¡®educated¡¯ upon the merits of following faction contracts.¡±
¡°Maybe they didn¡¯t take her because she¡¯s not part of the faction? Does that offer any legal protection?¡± Speculated Ravavka.
¡°It does not.¡± A new, but familiar, voice answered.
It was only slightly surprising to Willow to find Madrick standing beside her, one hand casually on the chair back. The other hand was holding what looked like a mix between a spider and a lizard by the throat.
¡°If you want to discuss rebelling against a system which is supposedly billions of years old, you should at least protect yourself from reprisal.¡± He said in a disappointed tone, as if that was something she could have known.
Pointing at the spidery lizard, which now that she looked at it really seemed like a bipedal lizard had been grafted onto a black widow body, she asked, ¡°That was supposed kidnap me?¡±
Glancing down, Madrick released the creature. It gasped for breath and prostrated itself on the ground in front of him. ¡°It was, yeah. It¡¯s rank ten, barely. I¡¯m guessing it has some kind of poison or paralytic spell. Maybe an ability. Anyway, now that I¡¯m here, time for a pep talk!¡±
¡°Please, no.¡± I¡¯m not pleading. Nope. My voice is strong and authoritative.
As expected, he ignored her. ¡°Form up a team. You can have up to three others beside yourself. You¡¯re going through a rift in two weeks.¡±
¡°Would you be willing to tell her which rift she¡¯ll be running? I can help her prepare, if so.¡± Came Luzzi¡¯s surprisingly timid voice. Previously, Willow had noticed that while her body language was extremely expressive her voice rarely changed from a soothing but confident tone.
Looking toward her, Willow found that the paavaras was standing in the cup-chair and bowing stiffly. Her tail was standing in a stiff C, tips wrapped. Her ears were twisted sharply outward rather than standing at relaxed attention as they usually were. Haven¡¯t seen that one. If she was a cat I¡¯d say she was alert? Angry?
¡°Do I know you? You seem familiar.¡± Madrick noted thoughtfully as he also watched her. ¡°I don¡¯t interact with paavaras often.¡±
Not moving a muscle, she answered, ¡°I previously annoyed you. You killed me for the slight.¡±
¡°Ah, were you on Saklavas defending the artifact?¡± He held up his left hand, showing the black band with what seemed to be the jaws of some kind of animal set on its surface.
¡°I was, yes.¡±
¡°Should have chosen the winning side¡± Madrick snorted.
Seeing that she wasn¡¯t going to answer, he rolled his eyes, ¡°Come on, tell me what you¡¯re thinking. I can¡¯t read minds yet.¡±
Yet?
¡°Yes, lord. I asked you not to kill another defender who you¡¯d already defeated. I didn¡¯t even attack you, much less stop you from your goal.¡±
¡°Oh. Hm¡ That sounds like me.¡± He turned to look at Willow, ¡°The rift you¡¯ll be running is sheerna four twenty three. It¡¯s a classic exploration and conquest rift. This will help you advance. You have a year to reach rank ten, or I¡¯ll give you to whatever faction or order will pay the most.¡±
¡°Excuse me?¡± Willow asked in a low, threatening, tone. ¡°I must have misheard, because it sounded like you said you would sell me.¡±
¡°You heard correctly.¡±
Willow saw red. Fury flared within her and she funneled it into her focus, forcing herself to remain calm. She could hit him, if she wanted to. She¡¯d proved that last time he¡¯d pissed her off. But she couldn¡¯t hurt him. Her hand would probably just break again.
¡°Fuck you.¡± She snapped. Mah-mah probably wouldn¡¯t even be upset, she¡¯d be calling gram gram up to get her voodoo kit out.
Rolling his eyes, Madrick waved in dismissal of her anger, ¡°Then don¡¯t fail your task.¡±
With that, he vanished. At least, he seemed to. Willow activated her moment of focus the moment he¡¯d disappeared. As soon as she did, she saw an area of color amidst the grey cast by her ability. The color was faded and blurred, as if trying to blend into the background. Some kind of invisibility? She considered doing something to show Madrick he wasn¡¯t able to hide from her, but dismissed the thought.
I¡¯ll show him when it actually matters. I¡¯m going to break his jaw some day and he¡¯s not gonna be able to escape.
Chapter 9 - Equip
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
Given familiarity those from a techno-world believe they already have with the UICI, new arrivals often believe they have landed in a reincarnation story wherein they are some form of ¡°chosen one¡± and will learn a cheat skill and proceed to change the entire multiverse. Part of this belief assumes that milestones are a one-way journey. After all, what satisfaction will a player gain from a video game if their hard-won progress may be lost? What drama¡¯s author would remove capabilities from their heroes due to something as simple as stagnation or doubt?
Naomi
Concourse, Passenger Hold, Wesnmen¡¯s Coallition Trading Barge
Rushing through the long metal hallway connecting the passenger hold to the central part of the space vessel, Prism reviewed the brief skirmish with the orcs. She suspected that System had been understating when he said the battle would have been bad without his simulations. He didn¡¯t say how many he¡¯d run, but if it was enough to give him a migraine she knew it hadn¡¯t been a small number. She¡¯d helped him test it a couple dozen times over the course of a day and he hadn¡¯t had more than a slight headache.
There were several issues. First, her lack of actual combat experience. If System¡¯s trick hadn¡¯t managed to distract the first orc, she¡¯d never have managed to take him down. She glanced at her still-bloody fingers, the shockingly uniform floor and walls sliding across her peripheral vision as she followed Chavan. Brown-green squirmed within her soul momentarily. She rubbed them again on the pants of the replacement jumpsuit, which looked only slightly different from the one she¡¯d originally arrived in and had been stuck in for the last month or so. Ignoring the metal clanking their utility boots made on the ship¡¯s floor, she continued her analysis of the fight.
System saved me with his trick spell with the first orc. Then he directed Chaven and I in a way that lead to us working together to kill the second. Meanwhile, he was able to kill the last two on his own. The only positive note I can give myself for that combat is that I¡¯ve now field tested the shielding potential of my mana.
Still not knowing any actual spells or abilities, Prism felt as though she was using her mana as a baseball bat where System and Phoenix used theirs like precision tools. The problem was she didn¡¯t have Willow¡¯s seemingly endless talent, nor the assistance from a game-like system that System did. All she had was the oddly empty mana which, so far as she¡¯d found, appeared to be endless.
Seeing Chaven slowing, she slid to a stop beside him. Another airlock door stood before them. This time Prism took command, sending through the party chat, System, I¡¯m bait. You¡¯re on the left, Chaven¡¯s on the right. Stay beside the frame so they can¡¯t see you immediately.
Lifting the too-large blaster which she¡¯d been balancing on her shoulder up, it started to fall as its heft was too much for her to balance. Reluctantly, she channeled some of the xp from the previous fight with the orcs toward her body. At first, she¡¯d been unable to send any toward her physical form, but she¡¯d since adapted. It had been a matter of strengthening her mental image of her soul nexus. Even now, it was unpleasant to acknowledge the curled husk of a woman¡¯s form which floated in the very center of the nothingness. The representation of her physical body was emaciated to the point of looking skeletal, knobby arms wrapped around scrawny knees in the fetal position.
Watching some of the stardust which which had slowly been flowing toward her distant stars, Prism watched a tendril swirl around the body before pressing into it. The pathetic image of skin and bones expanded slightly, becoming skin, slight muscle, and bone. The gun¡¯s barely controlled fall toward the floor slowed but the muzzle wobbled even as she pulled the stock hard against her shoulder and balanced the barrel with her left hand.
Feeling the weight of the gun was still too much, she sent another stream into her muscles, bolstering her strength and resilience further. That¡¯s enough. She stopped as soon as she felt the gun steady. She believed she¡¯d be able to fire the weapon without it throwing her or shattering her shoulder.
A red rimmed turquoise eye had been staring at her throughout the entire process. Seeing her stable and ready, Chaven bobbed his head and moved into the position she¡¯d indicated. Taking his time, he positioned himself carefully against the wall where anyone on the opposite side of the opening airlock wouldn¡¯t immediately notice. He lifted his own orc gun effortlessly, resting it atop his outstretched left wing facing at an angle with the muzzle facing to the left of System who was crouched low in the opposite corner. Once ready, Chaven bumped the shoulder area of his wing to the panel.
A hiss sounded out as the airlock slid open. The previous eerie silence which had been broken only by their footsteps was shattered before it had even opened all the way. Screams, shouts, explosions. Sound reverberated around them in a deafening cacophony. Seeing the pained expression on System¡¯s face and the way Chaven¡¯s eyes narrowed, she was certain they found the clamor as unpleasant as she did. Sending her mana out, she formed the cloud in to a thin mist which covered a large area around them. The cloud formed with her intention to fill with loud noise.
Immediately, the overwhelming sound quieted to a reasonable level. Sound still pierced through the cloud, but only the ones which weren¡¯t deafening. The distinction was what saved them from an ambush, as both System and Chaven had started to break from their positions, likely acting on some instinct to learn what it was all coming from. Hearing the sound of large boots slamming against the metal flooring, Prism sent a simple, ¡°hold!¡± through the party channel.
They froze before revealing themselves, allowing the three orcs to rush in. It seemed they intended to surround Prism, likely hoping to intimidate her into submitting into their tender care. She opened fire.
Six encounters later, Prism was exhausted. Her mana had fed so much chaotic noise into her soul nexus that it seemed to hum, the air itself turned into a constant sonic vibration. Thankfully, they¡¯d met up with a group from the original crew. Six goblins led by an older goblin with orange skin splotched with bright yellow patches. Prism couldn¡¯t remember her name, but she¡¯d immediately acquiesced when Chaven demanded they escort him to the ship¡¯s captain.
The look System sent her way would have been enough to get his exasperation across, but he followed it with a private message through his party ability. ¡°You¡¯d think that, maybe, he¡¯d re-prioritize to helping save the ship for now.¡± She hadn¡¯t known he could send private messages.
Blinking away the fuzzy darkness trying to encroach on the edges of her vision, she followed the group of little goblins through the latest blast doors. The last several hallways and rooms they¡¯d passed through hadn¡¯t had airlock doors: the kind with multiple hissing and twisting, layers. Instead, they were several inches of some kind of magical metal which was entirely un-scarred, despite Prism having seen them take multiple blasts of red blaster bolts. Bolts which flashed through air, objects, creatures, and armor just as easily. The weapons were absolutely terrifying.
¡°Naomi. Naomi¡ Prism!¡± Her attention snapped back to reality, eyes raising from where they¡¯d been fixated on the ridiculously powerful gun she was now carrying around like it weighed nothing. The thing was probably comparable to a rocket launcher, but without the collateral. The world was shaking. System said something else, but she wasn¡¯t able to process it. He waved and seemed to argue with the orange goblin. She wondered if she should shoot it.
Why am I so tired? System has done just as much, more, probably¡ It was baffling. Until she heard two soft thunks and the vibration within her soul stopped increasing. In a sudden moment of clarity, she pulled her mana back. Nothing changed, except a strain she hadn¡¯t even noticed was lifted.
¡°Better?¡± System asked, moving close to look into her eyes with concern. ¡°You look like you¡¯re in pain.¡±
Am I? She shook her head, ¡°I just feel tired. Worn out.¡±
¡°Thanks for keeping our ears from exploding, but you can call it quits for now.¡± A smile flashed across his face, ¡°There should be ear protection of some kind in here. Right Jaxa?¡± The last was directed toward the leading goblin.
The leader of the goblins scowled, ¡°Yes, yes. You could have just let us all put sonic dampeners on and then have her release her spell. Then we wouldn¡¯t be stuck in here for the next half hour.¡± Her voice was dripping acid and anger, which probably meant she was a bit annoyed knowing goblins.
¡°Half an hour?¡± Prism asked System through the party chat.
Unexpectedly, Chaven answered, ¡°This is an equipment locker, but it¡¯s also a panic room on a ship following goblin standards, yes. This means the ship section will be sealed for at least thirty minutes, or maybe, maybe, as many of three weeks. To open it early, a ranking officer has to provide authorization, yes. In our case, Jaxa is of sufficient rank!¡±
¡°That seems like a very bad design. We¡¯re stuck here now, while more orcs can get in position to ambush us?¡±
¡°Yes, yes but no. The design isn¡¯t without merit. The orcs probably have a time table to get in and get out with everything they can, can. They¡¯re a normal pirating force from what I¡¯ve seen, yes.¡± The avron didn¡¯t sound overly concerned. His tone was mostly relaxed, though she noticed his speech was a bit less simplistic than normal.
Neither she nor System interrupted, but both turned to stare at Chaven, silently requesting him to continue. He obliged, though as he did Prism noticed Jaxa and a few of the other goblins giving her and System strange looks. ¡°When, when a goblin ship is captured all non-warriors go, go to panic rooms. When there are no warriors left the ship will seal, yes. Once sealed the ship will vent all atmosphere and very dangerous, dangerous, self-defense spells will activate, yes. Beings outside a panic room generally do no survive a goblin ship in lock-down, no.¡±
¡°Oh.¡± System said, then continued slowly, ¡°Then should we just wait here until that happens before finishing our job?¡±
The sharp snap of Chaven¡¯s neck as he twisted to stare balefully at him was answer enough. To drive it home he asked in a calm tone, ¡°Do you ask if we should do less than our best, best, effort?¡±
¡°Uhhh¡ No.¡± He answered lamely. ¡°Good, good! Then equip, equip!¡±
Taking the bird¡¯s advice, Prism turned and looked around the room. As the name equipment locker implied, it was entirely filled with rows of floor to ceiling locked shelving. Now that she¡¯d stopped pulling new noise into her soul, she noticed it wasn¡¯t really dissipating so much as just compressing and evening out within the boundary of her nexus. The entire space felt like someone had turned an old-fashioned TV onto the static channel, then turned the volume up as far as it¡¯d go.
¡°Can you open these so we can get something?¡± She heard System ask. Answered by a flurry of curses and vitriol which, boiled down, translated to, ¡°No.¡±
Walking around the room, Naomi examined the lockers to see if there were any open. There was one, beside an inset floor to ceiling mirror, but it was empty.
Prism placed her pointer finger near the edge of one of the lockers and sent a small tendril of her mana-cloud between the seam. This time she released some of what was within, similar to what she¡¯d done when fighting that first orc. The entire locker groaned and twisted, the room filled with not only the sound of twisting pained metal, but also the unstructured screech of loud noise.
Glancing toward the majority of the group, all huddled in the middle of the room still, she saw them giving her various angry looks. Shrugging, she tried again and again. Each locker took less damage, protested less. Each time she changed the sound a bit more as she released it. She wasn¡¯t even entirely sure how she was changing it, other than knowing that it wasn¡¯t so dissimilar to changing the way she was breathing or the way her tongue moved as she spoke. After the fifth twisted locker, Prism saw an angry Jaxa stomping toward her, fury on her face.
Prism knew that Jaxa would likely demand that she stop breaking stuff she didn¡¯t own. A request she could hardly argue. She tried once more before she could get there and the locker door opened with a soft click. Maroon bubbles flickered around in the humming air of her soul just as Jaxa arrived and began to angrily berate her.
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Although Prism did her best to pay attention to the goblin¡¯s furious lecture, it was difficult. As Jaxa screamed and ranted, most of what she said was entirely unnecessary. Five minutes of screaming was easily summarized to, ¡°Stop breaking our stuff! It¡¯s expensive!¡± System had made his way over during the tirade. Looking a bit concerned but unsure what to do, he¡¯d just stood there a couple steps away from the pair of berater and beratee.
Once the goblin leader stopped to catch her breath, Naomi spoke carefully, ¡°I apologize, but I thought the reason we came here was to get equipment. We can¡¯t do that if it¡¯s all locked away.¡±
Looking exasperated, Jaxa began screaming again. Condensed, she said, ¡°We came to get sonic dampeners, idiot! They¡¯re all in that unlocked bin over there with other cheap utility items!¡±
¡°Oh, sorry. I did go through all that work, though, would you mind if I just¡.¡± She turned to look toward the final locker door, which hung just slightly ajar. The angry fire snapped out as the goblin broke into hysterical laughter. Seeing she wasn¡¯t going to stop anytime soon, Prism took it as agreement and opened the door to see what she¡¯d earned.
Within was what seemed like a bundle of white cloth. Pulling it out, Prism was impressed with how soft and light it was, especially considering how thick the fabric seemed to be. It was sturdy material, but cut and stitched so elegantly as to look delicate.
Shaking the dress out, Naomi found herself absolutely enchanted. It reminded her most of some of the Victorian dresses she¡¯d seen in games and movies. The creamy white dress had loose flowing sleeves, was cut to give the illusion of layers upon layers, and the light material trimming the sleeves and hem seemed almost to float as she moved the garment around.
Not giving anyone a chance to object, she quickly began removing her jumpsuit so she could put on her new beautiful white dress. Realizing she needed two hands, she tossed it to Jonah with a, ¡°Hold this for a moment.¡±
Jaxa laughed even harder as Jonah started sputtering and protesting, something about going behind lockers. Then his voice choked off with a gasp, ¡°Prism, you found a¡¡± He stopped, switching to the party channel instead.
¡°This is a soul bound item.¡± He finished, excitement clear. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t a dress I¡¯d definitely bind it. Soul bound stuff is always incredible.¡±
¡°True, true. Take care, care though. If the goblins know what it is, they¡¯ll probably protest. Yes, yes!¡± Chaven¡¯s cheerful voice cut in. Apparently Jonah - System, we¡¯re still on an operation. Until we¡¯re off the ship at least. No one besides Chaven even know our real names. - hadn¡¯t done the private voice thing again.
Finished removing the bulky jumpsuit, Naomi stepped forward to snatch the dress from Jonah and threw it over her head, letting it fall over her and slipping her hands into the sleeves. It was soft and luxurious, comfortable. Though, it clearly didn¡¯t magically form to her to create an illusion of womanly charm. The comfort was enough, though. Not to mention how clean it smelled, like a field of flowers.
Before she even finished pushing her arms through the sleeves, scrunching them up ever so slightly so her hands could poke through their ends, she felt something odd. A kind of gentle, innocent, prodding which felt like it came from outside the vast emptiness that was her soul nexus, she curiously invited it in. The entire dress shimmered brilliantly for a moment.
Looking down at the sight, Naomi¡¯s lips turned up slightly in delight as her entire inner world turned violet and blue. As the shimmering ended, she saw a bead of the darkest black which seemed to seep from her heart like ink. The blotch rapidly expanding, like dye striking water, in tendrils. Then the tendrils themselves grew. In the blink of an eye, her gorgeous white dress had become midnight black.
Turning and walking mechanically toward the mirror she¡¯d passed, Naomi¡¯s empty eyes stared at herself. The black dress hung from her lanky form. A strand of the dark material had become a choker which held the garment up, as it was too loose for her figure. Similar bands had tightened themselves around her forearms, allowing the flowing sleeves to flap and sway, without falling past her hands.
Teal and crimson colored her buzzing soul like a sunrise.
As she stared at her reflection, a ding rung out in her head and she saw the blue glass-like exclamation point in the corner of her vision indicating a UICI alert. Focusing on it, a message popped up.
*Hi Naomi! You won¡¯t believe it, but I¡¯m alive! Crazy, right? Well, hopefully someone told you that I¡¯d be coming back already. Apparently it¡¯s super common for people to just keel over then pop back into a respawn room. Anyway, the city on this planet is crazy! You won¡¯t believe it. You said you lived in Chicago right? Yeah, like Chicago would probably be considered a hamlet or something here. Some of these buildings are the size of New York City by themselves, I swear!
Also, I met Luzzi officially. She¡¯s the one who originally hoodwinked you into signing a bunch of your after-life¡¯s start away. Well, one of her illusions was responsible? I don¡¯t know exactly how her ability, or is it a spell, works?
Urgh, I¡¯m exhausted so I¡¯m rambling. I¡¯ve also never been great at emails and stuff. I¡¯m more of a texter, you know? Anyway! I miss ya already and can¡¯t wait to meet back up to take on more giants and fae story tellers or whatever¡¯s coming next! I have no idea if you¡¯re staying on that planet, I actually don¡¯t even remember its name whoops. If you are, could you try to send a message back so I know I should come get you and Jonah (Kent)?
Love ya girl, keep your head up and remember to tease Jonah lots! (He¡¯ll get full of himself otherwise). See you soon!
P.S. We¡¯re sparing next time we meet, you¡¯d better get ready! }:-) *
The sunrise gave way to a comforting wind of blue and gold.
Willow
The Entrepreneurial Adventure¡¯s Emporium, Farcem City, Motrendi
¡°Do I have to try it on?¡± Willow did not whine to Luzzi.
Ravavka snickered, ¡°Don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever heard a human woman complain about shopping. Especially for free.¡±
Casually sending a side-kick at the pest, Willow wasn¡¯t surprised when he effortlessly dodged.
¡°I¡¯m afraid you must.¡± Replied Luzzi, rubbing the side of her face.
Groaning, she picked up the massive pile of gear they¡¯d gathered. She liked shopping. Shopping was fun. She did not like trying things on in stores. It¡¯d always been annoying. There was no rationale behind it, no reason. It wasn¡¯t like Willow had a problem against trying stuff on in general.
She¡¯d had a lot of fun nights with Vash and Whitney as a teenager trying stuff from the later¡¯s ridiculously comprehensive closet. One of her spring cleaning rituals was to go through all of the clothes she owned, tried it on, decided if she wanted to keep it or toss it, and move on. She enjoyed all that.
Slouching into the changing stall that a tall, insect thin, four-eared man directed her to, Willow resigned herself to her fate. Pulling off the standard issue jumpsuit, which was apparently a kind of gift from the gods, she tossed it into a pile on the little knee-high bench provided. Quickly, she tried on one outfit after another.
In the end, she picked two casual outfits which pretty much mirrored what she¡¯d wear on chill days on Earth. White tank top with soft denim shorts for one, and a graphic T and leggings for the second. The T was great, it had a caricature of a paavaras staring out and a caption. The paavaras on the shift was away more skrungly than Luzzi and she thought it might be a male. Regardless, the caption ¡°Even I can see you¡¯re full of it.¡± had immediately made her giggle. Not so much because it was funny by itself, but because Luzzi would never know what it said! It was the perfect crime.
Having quickly finished what she suspected would be the worst part of the day, Willow exited wearing the graphic T and leggings, If the so-called ¡®gods¡¯ were so gracious and gifting, they¡¯d give everyone leggings when they respawn, not those rough jumpsuits!
As she exited, her UICI pinged her with a prompt, asking her if she wanted to purchase the clothes she was holding and wearing. She agreed and just like that, Madrick was out 4 R1-SS, whatever that was. I should have bought more. She opined, but the thought of trying more stuff on convinced her not to bother going back for seconds. Maybe they have next day shipping with fit guarantee somewhere? Surely the UICI has a website or something like that.
Ravavka snorted and rolled all of his eyes as she exited. Luzzi just asked if she¡¯d found some more fitting clothes. She agreed and happily followed the pair off, assuming they¡¯d go get dinner and then maybe spar or something to get ready for the upcoming rift!
A day later, Willow once more found she¡¯d been betrayed by those who she thought might one day be her friends. Well, Luzzi, Ravvy probably won¡¯t be. She¡¯d stayed with Luzzi again, then went with her to work. After, her and Ravavka brought her to try on more clothes. Okay, not clothes. Armor. Actually, armor was way less annoying to try on. She didn¡¯t have to take anything off and it was to keep her safe. That last part was a really good motivator to not settle as easily as she did for day-to-day wear.
She went through almost a dozen sets of armor before settling on a set of light armor which emphasized movement and flexibility. It looked like it was made of a white leather, formed into a kind of breastplate with a flaring skirt to protect her waist and thighs. Along with the breastplate she picked up a cute pair of shoes which were essentially what she imagined sneakers would look like if they grew up into a boots.
Following that, they went to an enchanter. Unfortunately, the only enchantments which Madrick¡¯s wallet would let her get were basic ones. They added repair and self cleaning enchantments, standard for pretty much any gear apparently. They offered to put the same on her day clothes, but once again Madrick¡¯s stingy bank account refused. How does it even know?! Is the UICI secretly a super advanced AI?
On the third day, Willow thought Luzzi might be trying to admit she¡¯d fallen in love. Why else would she have brought her to such a wonderful place?! Weapons. Weapons everywhere. Ravavka hadn¡¯t come this time, apparently having other stuff to do.
Instead, Luzzi had brought her to a building full of portals. They¡¯d gone through one of them and come out on the literal other side of the planet. At least, Willow thought they were on the other side given the change in position of the tiny barely-relevant sun in the sky. From there, they¡¯d walked for a couple hours while chatting.
When they finally arrived, Willow thought she¡¯d died again and this time the promise of heaven had been fulfilled! The place was magical in every sense. The entire massive plaza was dedicated to weaponry. There were booths with the standard medieval fair: swords, bows, daggers, and so on. Booths with advanced weapons like blasters, laser swords, electric whips, drones, etc.
Then there was the weird stuff. There was a shop which sold combat knowledge. Capsules which would apparently impart dozens of years worth of information, insight seeds, talismans from every possible path.
The best part though, the absolute best part, was all the fights. There were competitions everywhere. Everyone wanted to test the weapons, and those who didn¡¯t wanted a show! What better way to make everyone happy than have sanctioned duels? They were all performed on platforms that had the intermix of sharp and squiggly lines that she¡¯d begun to associate with enchantments. Apparently, it was nearly impossible to kill someone while both participants were on the platform. Better, the platform kept everyone in the contest inside until a victor was declared.
It took less than ten minutes for Willow to find her first fight. When she and Luzzi went home late that night, she realized she¡¯d forgotten to actually pick a weapon for herself!
Bouncing in place, Willow stared across the contest platform. She¡¯d been coming here instead of going to work with Luzzi for the last four days now. The excuse she¡¯d given was that she needed to get as much practice before the rift as she could. The real reason? It was so much fun!
No fear of dying and no need to hold back. Not only that, she got a decent amount of experience from every fight! Even if she lost, she still got some xp to allocate. Enough that she was nearly done recreating her back into it skill. She¡¯d started by reinforcing her mind and body again, they were maybe a third as strong now as they¡¯d been before she died. The skill was what she really wanted before the rift, though.
The two humans and wolf kin rushed her. They were each sporting test weapons from the ¡®Inspiring Instruments¡¯ shop. They were shoddy, at best. Her own weapons, simple gloves made of a strong but flexible material which responded exceptionally well to her instruction mana, were much better. She¡¯d even gotten them for free.
Dodging around a clumsy stab from the wolf kin¡¯s spear, she snapped a quick jab out. The spear shaft shattered. She really loved breaking people¡¯s weapons when they got in the ring with her, it was satisfying in a way that beating people bloody wasn¡¯t. Ehh¡ Who am I kidding, that¡¯s fun too.
With a quick hop, she leapt over the two slashes the humans sent at her from each side. They had no idea how to use their weapons. Landing on top of the flats of their blades, she punched each in the nose. They were light taps. They only broke their noses and sent them flying, dropping their weapons in the process.
Resisting the urge to scoff at how bad this particular match had been, Willow instead punched her right hand into her left palm and bowed to her defeated opponents. Some fights were better than others, though she hadn¡¯t used her moment of focus at all. No one she¡¯d gone up against would have any defense against it, so it¡¯d be boring.
The platform landed and the defeated trio left, berating the owner of ¡®Inspiring Instruments¡¯ for his shoddy work. The elf shot her a venomous look, to which Willow replied with a bright smile, a wink, and a come hither finger crook. He paled and rushed back inside his overpriced shop.
I hope Luzzi and Ravavka have better luck finding us a fourth than I¡¯m having. She¡¯d spared with both and felt they would bring significant value to her expedition, regardless of what kind of enemies they came across. The rift Madrick had gotten them a pass to was a semi random exploration. The one non-random aspect was there was always an intelligent and organized enemy working against the delvers. What form they took varied greatly. From a demon lord to a pack of canny sentient wolves, it could be literally anything as long as it fell under the two descriptors of ¡°intelligent¡± and ¡°organized.¡±
Despite feeling a bit guilty about spending so much time having fun in the challenge rings, Willow actually did have a lot of good reasons to be here. Besides getting a small amount of additional combat experience, she also: got paid, got some awesome free weapons, was exposed to more spells and abilities, learned quite a bit, and had the opportunity to scout talent.
Unfortunately, she hadn¡¯t found any real talent yet and at this point had mostly given up on that part. Ah well, she¡¯d just keep this up until it was time to go portal hopping. Luzzi had been kind enough to coordinate all of their travel plans. She had been a bit vague on what she¡¯d told her faction overseer to get some time off, but that wasn¡¯t really any of Willow¡¯s business anyway.
Stretching, Willow was surprised when her UICI dinged and she saw the little shelf icon indicating an alert. Opening it, she saw a brief message from Naomi.
*Thank you for your message, it was timely. I¡¯m interested to meet Luzzi, I¡¯d like to explain my distaste for her tactics.
Jonah and I are on our way to join you. We had a bit of a hiccup on the way and will be a bit late. The enforcer says you¡¯re on Motrendi, so that¡¯s where we¡¯re headed. He said you¡¯re somewhere in the MotrePrime sector.
TTYL!!
Willow sent a quick reply explaining that she¡¯d be leaving for a brief stint, courteous of Madrick, but that she¡¯d be back here within a month-ish. At least, that was the timeline she expected given what they¡¯d learned while researching the rift called sheerna.
A large man bulging with muscle approached just as she finished sending the message. He brandished the massive battle ax he was carrying as if he planned to chop her like a tree and sneered. She grinned and waved to the ref, showing she was ready to start.
Chapter 10 - Transit
The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
But I mentioned not one, but two groups who fall into this inaccurate belief. The second group are those who arrive from highly magical worlds. Their thoughts and assumptions are, perhaps, more grounded in reality. Many tutorial worlds include so-called magic systems.
These are smaller, perhaps parody, versions of Universal Laws. Consider a tutorial world wherein growth through cultivation is possible. Upon arriving within the real world, it is understandable that they will draw parallels. In fact, these parallels do exist in truth. However, in all cultivation tutorial worlds one mechanic is certain: once a cultivator has advanced through a rank, they will never return to a ¡®lesser¡¯ one. Learned or will-based magic systems are similar in that once a being has achieved the use of a spell or magical art, they will never lose it.
This is not the case in reality. Here in the real world, concepts may be warped or even broken. Insights may weaken or even shatter. The most obvious example of this ¡°loss¡± of advancement is the complete restart which a respawn initiates. All insights are wiped from a being¡¯s soul. All spells they learned are lost, every ability is scrubbed from the shell, the being¡¯s new body is formed without any skills they¡¯d earned.
Luzzi
TeleP-Comute Hub, Farcem City, Motrendi
The previous week and a few days brought to mind the first couple years of Luzzi¡¯s own entrance into the world. Though, her tutorial had prepared her for a much more violent and less civilized world than Willow¡¯s had. Talking with the human, she¡¯d learned that the never-ending bureaucracy, currency based economy, and political maneuvering were all what she considered ¡®normal¡¯ and even ¡®expected.¡¯
Yet, somehow, the girl was the wild one between the two of them. It was becoming increasingly clear to Luzzi, to her dismay, that she¡¯d been domesticated. On her home tutorial of Sochra, where she and all of her kin might die in a moment if their care and stealth failed them, she¡¯d been canny and wily.
She¡¯d been a leader of her people, an innovator. She¡¯d discovered the application of uscurri paste to lay traps for the prime predator of the world, the sorcharas for which the planet was named. The tribes had met in peace for the first time in anyone¡¯s memory to share secrets and in particular learn from her. It was a pivotal time in their history, she was certain. Though, she¡¯d never seen past the turning point itself. Instead, she¡¯d been ambushed and assassinated. The irony was, she wasn¡¯t certain whether it was a rival paavaras who took her life, or one of the sorchara themselves. If it was the later, perhaps they were more intelligent and vindictive than anyone knew.
¡°Yer so cute, thinkin¡¯ you¡¯ll rip me off.¡± Willow¡¯s ¡®I¡¯m about to punch you¡¯ voice broke in. Another oddity of the only human she¡¯d consider, maybe, calling a friend. The brighter her smile, the sweeter her tone, the more likely she was about to bring violence. In many ways, she reminded Luzzi of one of the more savage paavaras from the ever-clear planes tribes. They too bared their teeth and laughed to intimidate their prey and rivals.
Blustering, the large mvalos waved its many tentacles. Being a cousin to the common slime, or ooze, mvalos used their malleable body to take on whatever figure suited them. This one was a off-blue, but still as transparent as anything within its genus, and had taken the basic form of a humanoid with tens of tentacles. The tentacles might have been purely formed for utility, but Luzzi suspected it was a subtle form of intimidation as many beings instinctively feared beings with many limbs. Too many of them were believed to be in some way related to the Outsiders.
Besides failing, the slimy vendor burbled an angry response from the area around its smooth head-area, its gelatinous skin rippling to produce the sound. ¡°While I appreciate being called cute¡ While you stand there accusing me¡ While I offer you a gracious deal!¡±
¡°You offered to give me ¡®unique information¡¯ about the sheerna rift. In exchange for my weapons.¡± Willow waved the high quality finger-less gloves she was wearing. A casual observer might assume them to be a fashion statement, especially given the overall monster material imperial-chic style her armor choice mostly exuded. The pseudopod covered mvalos certainly wasn¡¯t a casual observer. It had an aura of strength around it which made Luzzi suspect it was a Ranker. Her soul sense wasn¡¯t as strong as it had once been, having not fully re-developed it after dying, but it was still enough to keep her out of trouble. She considered whether she should try to train Willow in soul sensing, it might keep her from picking fights she shouldn¡¯t.
¡°While this is true¡ While I was unaware of your glove¡¯s status as a weapon¡.¡± The tentacles moved in a shrug-like manner.
Willow¡¯s scent was amused rather than truly angry, so Luzzi felt no need to actually warn her of the danger this seemingly harmless vendor might pose. She didn¡¯t think she¡¯d actually pick a fight while waiting in line for their scheduled teleport to activate. Most beings were talking, moving about, peddling wares, and being otherwise active as they waited. Many beings were likely waiting on this kilometer square teleportation pad simply for the business.
Their destination being the planet Shee, most of the beings here were traveling for Sheerna in one sense or another. They might be going to run the first, as they were, or they might be going to seek fortune in a rift city. Many were likely even going simply to join other adventurers in patrolling the wilds in the hopes they¡¯d find a child rift or something else of interest. The planet hadn¡¯t been fully mapped yet, after all. Like all rift worlds, it was left to appropriately ranked adventurers to discover the secrets of the planet. A god could have traveled to the planet, scanned it, and learned all there was to know about it. However, they had better things to do. It was more economical to simply leave it to their factions or orders to collect anything of interest.
It was clear Willow was going to let the mvalos¡¯ lie pass in favor of bartering for whatever information they had. Luzzi had heard her uncrossing her arms from over the sweet-smelling leather she was wearing. Before she could sniff out the deal, Ravavka interjected casually. ¡°Mvalos are all like that, they lie and cheat. Don¡¯t bother with that thing, Willow.¡±
The scent of the woman¡¯s amusement faded. Luzzi had noticed before how much she disliked generalizations of species. In particular, negative ones. The subtle movements and creaks of her gear told Luzzi that Willow had turned to stare at Ravavka. Likely glaring. Unfortunately, Willow had no tail she could lash to show her anger, so Luzzi could only assume based on her knowledge of standard humanoid body language.
¡°That¡¯s rude, Rav.¡± She said coldly, then turned back to the mvalos with a more honest smile, ¡°Anyway, how about we trade information for information?¡±
Hesitating, all but two of the tentacles merged with the slimy main body. The remaining two turned smoothly into proper arms with hands, one of which it used to rub it¡¯s friction-less chin. ¡°While this sounds acceptable, while I wonder whether your information is of similar value.¡±
¡°Of course it is!¡± Ravavka poked his nose in, ¡°Hers will be real, yours will be a lie.¡± He snickered as best he could, though he clearly wasn¡¯t feeling that amused.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Although her shoulders tensed for a moment, Willow continued to ignore his prodding. She knew he was trying to get a rise out of her, he¡¯d been doing so at every opportunity recently. After she¡¯d snapped at an overly-friendly vampire who had tried to touch her butt without permission while they were out on the town, Ravavka had been trying to recreate the chaos it had caused. Of course he¡¯d want to start another full scale mob against them while they were confined to a teleportation pad.
Twisting her mana just-so, Luzzi created the illusion of Ravavka which manifested snugly around the real version. She pressed upon her mana, stretching her intents and their linking concepts to force the illusion to absorb all sound within its confines, while also remaining tightly wrapped around Ravavka. His next incendiary words were muted to nothing and Willow continued her negotiation in peace.
As it happened, they ended up agreeing to a trade which Luzzi thought was slightly slanted in the mvalos¡¯ favor. It sent Willow its information on the dungeon, while she sent it a pristine picture of Madrick looking surprised.
Once the exchange had been made, the two parted and Willow forwarded it over to Luzzi. The information was quite interesting, at least. It was a single line of text, but still worth the price, ¡°Shee is no longer owned by the Orcish Federation Faction. It¡¯s been purchased by the Summer Court.¡±
Moments after reading those words, the teleportation array activated. Without even a hint of a sensation, their position in space was swapped with the space above the sister array at their destination.
Jonah
Flight Deck Personal Airlock, Central Bridge, Wesnmen¡¯s Coallition Trading Barge
Two humans, six goblins, and an Avron stood within the quarantine gate between airlock doors. ¡°They couldn¡¯t find the bar.¡± Jonah sent to Naomi through the ¡®whisper¡¯ channel he¡¯d figured out how to use. He¡¯d been trying to figure out how to talk to Naomi - Prism - without being overheard for a while. It had only really clicked when he¡¯d stopped trying to complicate things with reasons and negotiation with his own system.
The revelation had actually come when he was thinking about his code-name. He¡¯d been thinking that being called ¡®System¡¯ while also having a system was maybe a bit too on the nose. That had led him to thinking about his second insight, the one which had clicked but hadn¡¯t done anything as far as he could tell. He¡¯d really started considering what it meant, ¡®The game isn¡¯t everything¡¯. For him, the most obvious part had been what caused him to have the epiphany in the first place, levels didn¡¯t necessarily translate to combat power. It didn¡¯t know everything.
Upon further exploration, he¡¯d realized that he wasn¡¯t fully captured and represented by the system, either. His personality, his thought process, it wasn¡¯t all there. If someone was given his character sheet, they¡¯d know next to nothing about him. Despite having the system¡¯s entire dossier on him. Finally, he¡¯d realized that his first insight wasn¡¯t about having a system, and his second hadn¡¯t either. They were about the world being a ¡®game¡¯, and ¡®the game¡¯ lacking something.
So what existed beyond the world? He did. People did, consciousnesses, souls, whatever. The system did, too. Because he was the system, it was at least in part his interpretation of what a world which was a game would look like. Likely a hold-over from reading too many web novels and playing too many MMOs. Games could be anything, though. It was based on their designer, not restricted to floating windows and stats sheets. That had been the final bit of realization he¡¯d needed to simply change the system a bit. He¡¯d created a private messaging system. It had taken him several days to figure out how to get it all working, as he couldn¡¯t just ¡®make it so¡¯. Games, and the systems that interfaced with them, had to be designed with intention. Not just manifested. The entire process had lead him to wonder how the ¡®base¡¯ system that he¡¯d just been given had come to be. He definitely didn¡¯t design it. But someone had to.
Besides the existential questions and philosophy the entire thing had brought him, Jonah was satisfied with what he¡¯d accomplished. He didn¡¯t think Naomi had even realized he had been using the private version of the channel off and on until they¡¯d been partied with Chaven and he¡¯d used it to exclude the bird-man.
¡°Everyone ready?¡± Prism¡¯s voice broke through Jonah¡¯s wandering thoughts. She¡¯d ignored his poor attempt at a joke. It was something he had begun to appreciate about the woman, if she was missing context or didn¡¯t understand something that was clearly a joke, she¡¯d just ignore it. It felt way better than the awkward silence as people tried to understand a joke badly conceived or executed.
¡°Yes, yes!¡± Chaven¡¯s grating voice chirped.
¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Jaxa agreed.
Taking a deep breath, Jonah pushed his mind into ¡®System¡¯ mode. Forcing himself to view the world from a distance. Without even really meaning to, he slipped into RTS View. ¡°Ready.¡±
Stating, ¡°Enforce contract: Page six, section A.2, subsection 1.1¡±, Chaven tapped a wing tip over the door opening button. The many slabs of heavy metal which comprised the air-tight door hissed as they rotated and pulled away, vacating the center to grant passage.
The scene within was grim. A huge orc was sitting in the captain¡¯s chair, which swiveled from its forward observation position toward the invading force. Behind the orc, System could see the lower floor which the captain¡¯s chair oversaw. Below, all of the flight command controls were manned by goblins which were chirping back and forth to each other. They seemed entirely unaware their captain had been replaced.
Thanks to his over-head view, System instantly spotted what had become of the ship¡¯s captain. He was bound and laying unconscious in a partially closed closet. It seemed the orc had knocked him out and bound him before haphazardly tossing his unconscious body into a closet and hadn¡¯t bothered to make sure the door had closed properly.
¡°I was unaware goblins had the wisdom to provide their warriors with a way to bypass security ship lockdowns.¡± While she spoke in a shockingly smooth and seductive tone, the orc stood. Every single orc they¡¯d fought and killed had been huge, but this one¡¯s head nearly brushed the ceiling three meters above.
Her entire body was covered in twisting tattoos which invoked the sense of nature, rage, battle, and savagery. While he couldn¡¯t comprehend even a single line of the complex intermix of black ink on red skin, those impressions were strong.
She was in what System could only describe as tribal-punk gear. A savage headdress sat on her brow. It appeared to be made of computer chips and industrial metal cut and shaped into delicate feathers which even swayed with the orc¡¯s movement. In the center of the mess of delicate circuit boards was a black gyroscope which seemed to glow, emitting a dark purple light.
While the feathery crown was the most striking aspect of her wardrobe, that was not to say the rest wasn¡¯t eye catching. Most of the orc¡¯s skin was exposed, allowing anyone to trace the intricate patterns inscribed on her body. Simple wrappings tightly squeezing her breasts, covering the center of each grand orb while pulling them close together. The wrap seemed more intended to keep them from getting in the way than to preserve modesty, as they were made of some kind of semi-transparent material. If it hadn¡¯t been a ridiculous notion, System would assume it was glass. It moved and shifted with her body far too well for that to be true, though. Even so, the view through the material proved that the ink on her body did, indeed, cover it fully.
Finally, the skirt she wore. It seemed to be made of robot bits and pieces. Arms, legs, servos, wires. All interwoven in a strange display of brutal craftsmanship. System assumed the heavy looking metal which comprised the skirt provided significant armor, if only through sheer material mass.
Looking down on her from above, System still felt intimidated by her tusk-forward grin.
?? - [LVL 60 |Hell Spawn Troll-ling|Mage]
The little skull and cross bones before the tag hovering over the orc wasn¡¯t a good sign. While the system was as devoid of tool-tips as always, System assumed it either meant she was a boss monster, or that the system considered her level too high for System to have a whisper of a chance at defeating her. Either could be true.
¡°We don¡¯t!¡± Jaxa yelled, shivering in either fury or fear. Possibly both. ¡°Goblin lockdowns are absolute, no one is exempt!¡± Her little chin was lifted, trying to stare into the blazing silver eyes of the orcish shaman.
¡°Level sixty, Hell Spwan Troll-ling Mage, there¡¯s a skull by the tag.¡± System sent to the entire party, which included himself, Jaxa, Chaven, and Prism. It was much more expensive with this many people. He¡¯d wanted to pull all nine of them in, but simply didn¡¯t have the mana for so many. It would cost him 47 mana per minute to have all nine of them, or twenty mana per second for four. He¡¯d thought his one hundred GSM, which was the mana pool used for the party, was pretty good. Now he was wondering if he should invest more into the GSM stat when he got his next level.
¡°She¡¯s a shaman, she shouldn¡¯t be that strong away from nature!¡± Jaxa chimed in.
¡°Her outfit seems to indicate she¡¯s plenty comfortable away from nature.¡± Prism disagreed.
Chavan¡¯s voice was much more grim than System had heard it thus far, ¡°Bad, bad. She is a ranker. At least rank ten, perhaps higher. Yes.¡±
¡°Mmmm, my new thralls appear startled by my majesty. An appropriate reaction. Prostrate yourselves, and I will have mercy.¡± The pleasantly smooth bass of the shaman¡¯s voice reverberated pleasantly in System¡¯s mind and he wondered if he should just do as she said.
Chapter 11 - Injustices