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Proofer: Saphira BOOOM! An explosion erupted where the two spells met. A visible concussive wave shot out in every direction, kicking up loose dirt. The surrounding fires that burned in the surrounding trees puffed out from the force. Helio's hammer sliced the beam in half, reflecting it off its course slightly. That was Avery's miracle as each severed beams punched the ground to her left and right, narrowly missing her by less half a meter. The air around the beams shimmered from the intense heat. Avery felt it partly through the barrier, but at that moment, it wasn't up. She felt it clearly, the intense pain like she was thrown into an oven. Her skin desperately let out sweat, trying to cool her down. Avery's spell, having cut the beam, punched through at break-neck speed towards the maw of the dragon. It pierced the spell formation that floated a few inches from its maw's opening. The spell dispersed with another concussive wave. Punching through, it finally reached its target, the dragon itself. Its head jerked unnaturally, and blood sprayed out the back of its head. Its whole body spasmed for a brief moment before it barreled downwards. After a few seconds, its body crashed into the ground. It carved a trench with its massive body, stopping a few meters away from Avery. Broken branches and leaves began to fall from the sky here and there. Its massive body left tens of trees shattered and toppled in its wake. [Warning! [Helio's Wrath] in effect!] Her body fell backward, limp. An intense pain coursed through her body. Her back arched with unbearable pain, her legs thrashed as they kicked dirt. Her hands gripped her chest. Her body burned, her muscles screamed. It felt like someone had stabbed her very soul with a knife. Her vision blurred with tears as she gasped for air. Before finally, everything went black. » In the vastness of space, a myriad of distant stars twinkled. Against hues of pink, blue, purple and black, it was peacefully majestic. Nearby, was a single planet with three moons orbiting it. It wasn't the only planet in the system, but it was the only planet that held sentient life. Eos. "Why did you stop me?" A disembodied voice broke the peaceful silence. Its tone was angry and commanding, but young. For a couple of moments, there wasn't a reply. "Because you've already slaughtered the others." Another disembodied voice replied. It was the sweet voice of a woman. Almost flirtatious... and mocking. "Obviously it was because they were a threat to us." The childish voice shot back, even angrier. Lightning crackled across the empty space, with no source or target."Yet, little God, it was your idea to use them." The woman's voice sounded sweetly back, but its tone more factly. "That doesn't matter! You have another one!" The childish voice now sounded like a child throwing a tantrum. "Enough!" A sudden wave of mana exploded from nowhere. The wave passed over a certain spot, leaving two shimmering figures in its wake. One a womanly figure and the other a child with no clear gender. It was only for a moment were their figures visible, but it did its job. They no longer argued. "The player 'Avery Bailey' is not to be touched." The voice barked an order towards the two. "The agreement was I'd allow your little curse for one year, no more. Whether you were able to kill all of them or not isn't our problem." The voice sounded more normal now, like a deep male's voice. " But -" " Young god, shall we both erase you from existence ?" The young god tried to speak up, only to be cut off by the third voice. The silence held for a couple of minutes with no other words spoken. "Good, by my command. Avery Bailey is not to be touched unless she defiles a shrine of yours, Alistair. Then, you are permitted to move mortals against her. Under no circumstance are you to do anything personally unless she attacks your heavenly body. You are also no longer permitted to leave Asgard." Another few minutes went by without a reply. "Do you understand?" The voice boomed out again, releasing a terrifying aura that distorted the vicinity, two figures shimmered again, but only the child seemed to be affected. His shimmering figure crumpled into a fetal position before the aura released him. After a few moments, a weak childish voice replied "Y-Yes...". "Understand that a High-God's word is law, but it is also a binding curse. The universe gives us our powers, with many rules child; keeping our word is one of them, should you break it... I will have to exterminate you. You both may go now. Jen'Kuo, tend to your champion." " " By your will, Odin. " " Where those two were, trails of silver sparkle swirled before disappearing into the vast sea of stars. With a small sigh of annoyance, Odin faded in a wisp of golden sparkles that disappeared into the stars as well. » When Avery awoke, the cloud covered sky had disappeared. In its place was an orange and red sky. It had become dusk. She slowly sat up, each muscle screaming in protest. Her body exhausted. A whimper entered her left ear, turning slightly, she saw Fenrir. He had blood spots here and there that had already dried a disgusting shade of brown. "Fenrir! Where are you hurt?!" It took a few seconds for her mind to register the happenings of earlier. Her powered through her body's unwillingness. She got to her knees, her hands fumbling with his armor as she tried to take it off. "Master, I'm alright! Please rest!" His protests fell on deaf ears. Seeing the panic and fear in her eyes, he became quiet, letting her do what she wanted. It took a few minutes, words of comfort kept spelling from her mouth as she finally got off his armor. Blood caked hands frantically ran through Fenrir's fur, looking for wounds. It took a few rounds before Avery found nothing and wrapped her arms tightly around him. He was at a loss for words. He could feel her shaking body through his thick fur, but he'd never seen his master this way. He didn't know how to act, his eyes looked at two figures sitting nearby on a toppled tree trunk. "Um... Avery... I believe you're troubling the wolf." An older woman's voice broke the silence. It didn't have its usual noble tone but sounded tired. Avery's eyes quickly shot up towards the voice with a menacing stare. Her feline eyes narrowed, bloodlust radiated from her. Empress Maria felt her life flash before her eyes, but it wasn't like the dragon. Dragons killed to either eat or gather magical treasures. She was sure the Dragon happened to fly by and detect the unshielded Ghost Flower from the island. This child, on the other hand, it was pure bloodlust. Her body instinctively shielded Fenrir's unprotected body. Like a wild animal that had been injured, trying to protect its offspring. For a few seconds did it last, before Avery finally became sane, realizing who they were. Her body relaxed visibly, leaving a barely audible "sorry". Desmond stood next to her but was scared stiff. He probably would have emptied his bowels, but he had done that earlier already when he crawled across the that horribly clearing in fear. He was much cleaner than Empress Maria though. Her left arm was missing from the shoulder down. Her hair was singed, the dress caked in blood and ash. There were many holes and ripped parts. No longer looking like an Empress, she would best be described as a neglected slave. Seeing their pitiful appearances, Avery's heart twisted. "What happened to you guys...?". Maria recounted that they were sailing over the valley. Noticing the Dragon in the distance, they quickly went onto high alert since young dragons were attracted to magical items. Their ship didn't have any tools to seal the Ghost flower so they tried to speed up. This only caught the young curious dragon's attention. With it coming closer, it managed to detect the flower's aura and began attacking. Having only scholarly mages and Royal Knights, they weren't prepared to fight the normally peaceful dragon. After that, the dragon knocked them out of the sky. It mauled the downed ship like a hungry dog mauling a rabbit. It tore at its haul until it found its prey. The Ghost Flower that Empress Maria had. Naively thinking she could keep it safe, Maria lost her arm as the dragon tried to pry it from her grip. It never got the flower as it fell somewhere in the debris along with her mangled arm. That was a few minutes before they arrived. Then a few minutes later, Avery engaged the dragon and she already knew the rest. "Well... You guys should go clean yourselves up... You both look like crap..." Avery tried to lighten the mood. Sadly, they only looked at her with uneasy expressions. "You look worst than both of us..." Both of them nodded, but before Avery could retort. Desmond spoke up again with a stronger voice." Avery, you're wounded... You're covered in blood, ash, and dirt. Please go tend to yourself.. Fenrir wouldn't let anyone touch you..." She didn't know she was wounded. She confused what they met before she took a look at her body. Her armor was matted in dried blood with dirt and other debris stuck in. There was a small gash on her stomach and tens of cuts everywhere. Suddenly becoming aware, she felt her skin protest. She most likely was bruised on her back. The notification symbol in the corner of her vision was blinking repeatedly as well. [Warning! You've been cursed with [Alistair's Curse]] [War- 2@(#98@_(#*&3( ] . . [ . . . Don't worry my Little Kitten, I am watching over you...] [Curse has been purified!] [Warning! Insufficient mana to heal! Please manually activate when sufficient!] [Warning! [Mana Exhaustion] in effect, Mana recovery slowed!] She looked at the chain of text. She did a pass before decided she had enough for today. She switched to her mana bar. [10,000/1,000,000] She only meekly nodded towards Desmond before asking Fenrir to carry her on his back... A sea of stars reflexed in the calm river. Silver moonlight illuminated the land and outlined a single girl bathing by the river's edge. She was completely out of sorts. Thinking about the last two days, she absent-mindedly bathed herself. Her fair skin glistened beautifully in the moonlight. Her armor had been thrown into the shallow shore water. A stream of red flowed from both the armor and Avery as the water washed over them. Her back was entirely black and purple. Bruised from the impact of being hit. Her stomach faired no better, but the injuries on both were visibly shrinking, the effects of a healing potion she consumed a minute ago. The open wounds began to close and the internal damage was being repaired. It felt like someone's hand was rearranging the very fabric of her being while doing so. It was uncomfortable, but she knew it was healing her. Fenrir had also washed away the blood from his fur. He stood just on the shore while giving her a status report on the happenings at the crash site. None of it improved her mood. She was basically the cause of the disaster. She had given them the flower thoughtlessly and tens of people have died. It went without saying that she wouldn't have known, but it didn't change that their blood was on her hands. Her mind had gone blank for a couple of moments. The reality of the world she was in. People were dying. She was physically harmed and some god tried to kill her all in one day. She thought she too much on her plate, but today... Today was hell. She let the icy water soothe her worn soul. Trying to find some silver lining, any little thing that could make it just a sliver better. Staring up at the mountain outline, she had tears falling from her golden eyes as the thoughts began to process again. "Hey... I, umm, thought you might want this..." Desmond voice thoughtlessly danced across the silent night air. There was uncertainty in his voice, a hue of fear, but Avery was his mother's savior. He emerged from the treeline with a fluffy towel in hand. He was oblivious to Avery's nude state as he too was caught up in the day's events. He feared Avery, but at the same time, almost worshipped her.  Fenrir's body perfectly blocked Avery's body with only her cascading snow-white hair visible from behind. Fenrir, being a furred monster, who was none the wiser about human gender etiquette, didn't budge from his spot as he stopped speaking to look at Desmond. It was only after Desmond stood no more than three meters away did he register she was naked. Her beautiful young body bathing in the moonlight made his mind stop. Avery, on the other hand, was too preoccupied. Only when she heard Desmond muttering her name like a broken record did she turn around. "Desmond..." It didn't register to her either. Her mind pushing the reason for today's event front and center. She rose from the river her wet body glistened in the moonlight as she strode up to Desmond. The fear of her instantly evaporated as her stark naked body entered his view. Fenrir only looked at him in amusement. Maybe he knew, but just didn't care. It was only a few minutes of awkward silence as Desmond and Avery stood to stare at each other awkwardly. Both of them without words for two very different reasons. Desmond watched her slowly disappearing bruises, mesmerized as more skin appeared. He was simply to naive to know what to do or say.  Be it her thick thighs, her ample breasts, or those faintly glowing feline eyes of her. All of them took his breath away. It wasn't his first time a woman had took it, but none of them were as beautiful as Avery. None so dangerous nor so unique. "Desmond..?" Avery's head tilted in confusion after agonizing over how to apologize. She also felt something off, but couldn't pin it down. "Y-You're n-naked..." Desmond's face had turned a lovely hue of pink. Only when Desmond mentioned it did Avery become self-aware again. Looking down, her nude body came into sight. Fuck... I... Whatever... Avery just accepted it. Her body had been in his view for a good while now, no point in getting flustered over it. While her thoughts were like this, her face, on the other hand, was quickly turning red. Almost mechanically did she pick up her clothes and armor from the stream to put it on. "Master, you'll get sick if you put that on.. Take the boy's towel." Avery only let out an "ah" before she blankly left it all on the dirty ground. She took the towel from Desmond before wrapping herself, covering her "important" parts from his sight. Only then did she return to some state of sanity, turning her grieved face towards the wolf" Why didn't you tell me he was coming?" Fenrir only huffed. "He clearly called out to you." Fenrir finally realized what he did wrong and tried to play it off. As an act of punishment, Avery used Fenrir as a seat. Her weight was nothing to Fenrir, but she wasn't about to actually hurt him for something so small... Well... It didn't deserve physical attacks. Desmond was somewhat cleaned up, mostly his hands. Avery only looked at him with a forced smile before turning her sight to the river. She clearly was still embarrassed. "So what did you need?" Avery finally got to the point. "Ah... I.. Nothing... I just wanted to give you the towel..." "Are you busy?" Avery turned her attention to Desmond again, there was something turning in those eyes of her. "N-N-Nooo...?". Her feline eyes narrowed, he could almost picture himself as a mouse that fell right into her claws. "Undress. Bathe." Two simple words, that were said in a gentle manner, almost like honey. That's if you didn't look into the eyes... "Restitution. " Was Avery's final word. Desmond ended up naked, sitting in the river with a beet red face as Avery dried herself unreservedly. At this point, she gave up all reservations since he had already baked her naked image into his mind. She didn't want to bother with it anymore. So long as no other men came by. "Master... Why didn't you just dress directly from her item box when he came out?" Fenrir ended up asking her.  Her head turned mechanically with a dangerous glint. Fenrir could almost feel himself being carved alive. "I, uh, am going to go help the others." Before Avery could even do something to him, he escaped like a gust of wind into the forest. Desmond kept looking into the water, reciting noble virtues in his mind. He could feel the beautiful demoness behind him was provoked and tried to avoid her ire. Previous |  Table of Content | Next  

Finally, when the moon stood high in the sky, the cargo was fully loaded onto the wyverns. Both the gold and silver knights felt worn out. Empress Maria, Desmond, and Avery kept to the Heaven's Cloud. Consort Loralei stayed close to the wyverns' landing. Besides a few knights, both groups got over their problems and cooperated. "We take flight tonight!" Consort Loralei, still fuming from earlier, snarled her command. A kneeling knight was before her, his golden armor almost bronze in the dying torchlight. He wanted to protest. They had been awake before first light and had been working tirelessly throughout the day. The Heaven's Cloud had many items that had to be stripped and loaded onto the wyverns, but none of this mattered to this woman. Consort Loralei may be beautiful, but she had a heart full of venom. Six vice-captains had been killed under her command, all for a simple disagreement. Their captain would've been in an early grave as well if he'd been assigned to this woman. Lucky for him, he was the Emperor's guard. Her face furrowed as she bit on her lip and thought. Her deep-black eyes narrowed with frustration as she shifted through ideas. Most ideas were ways to give her knights reason to kill that insufferable brat, but they only ended up tossed away. That brat had already killed one guard, and she was sure the Emperor would lecture her on the loss. The loss wasn't important so long as she redeemed her face. No, what was important was she didn't lose her standing with him. With her bodily charm, it wasn't hard to win the old pervert over. The difficult part was keeping her antics tolerable. Theft, murder, arson, bribery, and among other crimes she had committed - or ordered - was left unsaid... Because it couldn't be traced back to her officially. Officially, she was in charge of this 'rescue' mission. As if it could be called that, she retorted to herself. No, it was a simple recovery operation, not of the Empress, of Heaven's cloud and it's national secrets. Her being alive was just an unfortunate happening. After a long while, she heaved a fed up snort. She decided to leave the issue for the old man, figuring he'd do something. The orders to move out echoed throughout the entire area. Knights began to disassemble the camp in an orderly fashion, leaving only enough behind for the few that were unfortunate to draw guard. A golden knight had brought two fine wyvern mounts for the Empress and the two young ones. Empress Maria only sighed a relief. She was hoped Consort Loralei hadn't been stupid enough to give them improper mounts. Such a large flock of mounts would be flying back into the Capital, there would be many eyes on them. The last thing any of them needed was to embarrass the Emperor with their petty little games. Seeing the mounts up close, Avery felt a ping of loneliness as memories of Athena surface, her dragon. It was only for a moment before Desmond's voice rippled the image in her mind. "Will you be riding with me, or -" Avery answered before hearing the rest. "You." Her voice steady and casual. No hesitation could be heard, as if she had already made that choice before he thought of it. Empress Maria and the few nearby guards only grinned at Desmond. He was already embarrassed by the speed of her response, so he nervously helped her onto the Dragon's back. Desmond then mounted the wyvern skillfully as Avery let out an amused coo with her head leaning forward at an angle"Oh, can you actually fly?" Desmond's body shivered. He had only known her a few days, but he could feel that teasing in her voice. He wasn't used to it as he replied"Y-Yeah... We ride them all the time in the Academy..." Avery grinned but decided to leave him be. By the imperial family's decree, Empress Maria and her son should have been the first to take flight, but Consort Loralei's wyvern had used its powerful legs to leap close to twenty feet off the ground and used it's powerful wings to suspend itself. Only afterward, when Empress Maria was sure she was satisfied with the attention, did she take off as well followed by Desmond. Then, one by one the others took off and headed off in the direction of the Capital, looking no different than a flock of crows in the distance. Wyvern could only fly seven hours before needing to rest for the day. Luckily, the wyvern could fly to the capital within four hours. They were slower than flying ships but incontestably faster than a fast horse. This was also accounting for the weight of the gathered packs. Hues of orange and yellow began to chase away the silvery night as the capital came into view. Built in a river's mouth, the dark city had been built in a particularly even terrain. Large roads webbed outwards from the city, leading to nearby villages and towns. Some lead into the great unknown beyond. A fairly dense forest surrounded the capital with outcroppings in the tree sea of trees where homesteads and other buildings were. The Capital was lined with dark grey weathered stone ramparts, the roofs of buildings and towers jutting out from behind. Avery couldn't quite appreciate the city grandeur until the rays of oranges and yellows cascaded upon the city itself. Dull brick buildings, with tile roofs. Some buildings were one story tall while some were almost four. Some were even one story with large roofs. The architecture only kept the theme of tile roofs and bricks, leaving the rest to vary like grass blades in a field. In the center of the city was a large castle, looming over the other buildings by hundreds of feet.  Its walls rose even higher than the outer walls, and small balls of burning orange could be faintly seen. The wind roared in her ear, the cold wind kissing her face like a passionate lover. Even with her good sight, there wasn't much detail to make out other than before. It only took a few minutes after that the ringing of bells could be heard. A few minutes later the flock of wyverns began to right, their direction heading at an angle downward. At first, Avery was confused to why, but it wasn't until she got closer did she notice a large clearing, neat and organized by may ant-like people that buzzed around, preparing to accept a large influx of riders. After a couple of minutes, the clearing turned into a large open field with people dressed in all grey overalls. One runway ran the length of the field were other wyverns were gliding into a running as they touched down before slowing down and veering into the grassy area where they soon disappeared under the forest canopy. the only thought that came to her mind was Dragon Airport!? When it came to their group's turn to land, they glided around the field before lining up with the runway. One by one, giving each other at least a twenty-second spacing, they too glided down. With their mount's feet touched the ground, it broke into a run while its rear landed like a running lizard before it could slow down. It looked smooth and well train. "Brace yourself," Desmond yelled back at her. She didn't see the need to, but she did so anyway, holding tightly onto the wyvern's rear passenger rope. Desmond turned the wyvern into a dive, the air pushing fiercely against her as they swooped down and also landed. As if to curse her, the landing was fierce and she could feel the each of the wyvern's feet hitting the group with tremendous force. The saddle absorbed a lot, only telling Avery how much weight these little dragons hand to them. Feeling slightly disoriented by the unexpected experience, the wyvern hurried off the runway. "Why was that so ruff?!" Avery complained to Desmond. " So ruff? That was gentle. Wyvern normally land by swooping down and just landing with a drop on the ground." Desmond shuddered like he'd personally experienced it. " Compared to that, this is as gentle as a mother cradling her baby!" Desmond shuddered again before dismounting, then helped Avery. A tall muscular woman came over and grabbed the wyvern's reigns. She gently led it away to the forest canopy, in the direction of the city. Desmond waved his hand." Let's go." His tone was soft and full of relief to be back in the capital. Avery followed without commenting. She took in the sights and sounds of the field. From her understanding, it was the staging area for their wyverns and their logistical support. There were many men and women here, unloading the mounts and leading them away. The unloaded cargo was then loaded into a waiting wagon before being carried off towards the forest. Desmond also led her that way. When she got close to the treeline, she could see large gaps between the trees. In between, there were small wooden structures resembling overly large stables. The dragons were being led into those. Wooden scaffolding wrapped around every third tree, with platforms almost twenty feet high wrapping around each tree trunk. Bridges made rope binding and wooden footholds bounded from platform to platform. Soldiers in black pants and shirts with light leather armor attached. Each carried wooden bows and leather quivers full arrows. "The men on the catwalks are called 'rangers'. It's written that rangers take their tactics and fighting style from the Elves of old, back from your age." Desmond's eyes shined and his mouth parted with a smile. Avery could tell he was trying to boast. She was about to tell him it wasn't anything special, but she caught that childish joy in his face. She didn't have the heart to refute him. She only smiled and nodded, not to patronize him, but to encourage him. It was definitely an adorable expression. "They scout out ahead on campaigns, monster cleanups, and often roam the lands looking for monsters who'd become a threat." Desmond, a little giddier, kept on talking."They're amazing people, you know. Like the free-riders, they go on adventures, see the world, and better yet; don't have to worry when they'll be paid. They work for the empire!" Avery smiled at his adorable demeanor as he talked about something he liked. Be it the history or the actual rangers, she wasn't sure - it didn't matter anyway. Both Desmond and Avery walked side by side, with no silver or gold knights glaring at each other. Desmond gave her a tour around the wyvern stables and the barracks. He gave her brief tidbits of history regarding certain buildings, certain people, and even how the wyvern came to become mounts for them. Both of them happily chatting away as the sun rose, cashing away the orange and yellow away with clear light. "Where are those brats?!" Consort Loralei fumed with anger, a snarl distorted her expression. The golden knight from earlier shivered, his head down and one his knee. "I don't know, my lady... " He had a saw them dismount, but with tens of knights dismounting one after another. He had lost sight of them in the crowd. He cursed silently that he hadn't told more people to watch them." I have failed, please hand down punishment!" They were empty words, in hope that he'd be pardoned. It wasn't a real fumble. Desmond was the crown prince. The girl seemed to be his friend. He took this into account and was ready to explain this, but he never got the chance. "Take this bastard away and kill him. Bring someone more competent! Find those brats and bring them into the palace!" The woman roared her commands, her face turning a crimson red from the rage. Four golden knights grabbed the man from both sides and hauled him away. The surrounding knights pretended not to notice, continuing to help unload the cargo of the wyverns before heading to into the city. There is a board in the Heavenly Knight barracks in the palace. Many different bulletins are pinned on this large, imposing board. Among these papers, there hangs a small piece of wood. The words "Days without incident" are painted on it. A piece of paper was pinned on it, with ink strikes totaling thirty-two days. A golden knight walked up to it and ripped it off, exposing a large zero. The knight crumbled the paper with a frustrated grumble before walking off. There were tens of knights resting in the room who witnessed this. A cold sweat ran down every one of their foreheads." Consort Loralei executed another one..." A man murmured weakly. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Another one began to panic. "Damn... He had the highest streak... Really thought it'd last..." another ominously said. A golden knight with two large dragons engraved on his breastplate walked in. A cold wind of death crept in after him. Each of the knights began to pray to every god in Eos that could possibly help them. He stopped in the middle of the room, brandished an empty bottle of ale before setting it down on its side. He gave it a quick spin before the sound of glass rubbing on worn varnish cried out. The praying became louder and louder as the bottle lost momentum. With each pass, some men even wept. One man attempted to plead to the golden knight," Captain! Please don't! I got kids! I got a wife! I-If-" He was cut off as more people began to get desperate. The man called captain stood there. Staring at the bottle with a dark face as the bottle slowly came to a stop. The room became silent as the bottle pointed to the forward left of the captain. His head slowly craned as he followed the bottleneck's direction. In the corner stood a burly man, covered in scars and a face that could send babies to the afterlife with a look. His face was stiff before the reality hit him like a bucking horse. As if death itself had come to drag him to hell, his face turned ugly with tears and snort." Mercy! Mercy!" Before the captain could move, the man screamed with all his might" My lord Odin, save me and I shall carve a statue in your honor. I will worship you will all my heart and fight in your honor!" His cries echoed throughout the barracks. The captain scowled at the man's theatrics. As if answering him, a small squeak peeped up. Looking down, everyone saw the bottle - which had stopped- turned slightly and point at the man next to him. Before the man could react to the sudden change, the Captain grabbed the man and hauled him out while saying, " You got a promotion today!" Years after, songs and tales spoke of a man who'd retired from the Heavenly Knights. He took up the mantle of a Warrior Priest of Odin. He carved life-like statues in Odin's likeness and fought for justice where ever his two feet took him...    

  Taking in the sight of her statue, the sound of heavy footsteps and clinking armor caught her attention. The others mages and knights that were in the nearby planters or looking at the flowers. Some were quietly following a few Golems as they tended to the gardens. None of them were rushed, nor paid any attention to her. So she was curious why someone was coming over here in such haste. The spot she was in was rather cool with a slight breeze and the thick tree canopy overhead made a pleasant shaded area with light spots dotting here and there on the floor. The foliage around the statue was a little overgrown with moss growing on the base of the tree, and vines growing along the base of the roots, but the statue was clean and well tended too. Taking in this peaceful scene for a moment longer, before it sounded like whoever was coming over had reached her to disturb her thoughts. "Who are you and how did you get in here?!" The voice sounded to be of a young man but was rude and hostile. Avery rolled her eyes in annoyance. She had hoped it would be someone friendly, but hopes were meant to be crushed. She half turned her body as she clasped her hands behind her back. With her head held high, she looked at the man behind her. She stared at him with an unwelcoming stare. She believed first impressions were important, but this man gave her a very bad one. Leaving her annoyed. Her golden irises glowed gently in the shade, her skin which was pale as snow when she woke up, had already regained some color. Her rosy cheeks gave her a youthful appearance. She looked like a very elegant, but vibrant young girl. This scene stunned the young man who had approached her so angrily. Leaving him softly repeating his last word for a moment in surprise. Behind him was a knight in red heavy-armor, but without a helmet on. The young man who had spoken to her was a dirty blonde man in deep crimson mage robes. He was fairly light skinned like he wasn't often in the sun. He wasn't ugly, but he wasn't handsome. A fairly average face with blue eyes. The knight behind him sighed with a tired expression. "Madam, pardon his words. Seeing as this is a restricted area, we're going to need to verify who you are with." The knight who stood just off to the side behind the mage had short deep-black hair and equally dark eyes. He had dark-tanned skin and a face that looked like it'd seen many miles. Even with this aged appearance, he has handsome. A kind of gentlemanly feel to it. He only looked to be in his upper-thirties. When he spoke up, the young mage had snapped out of his momentary trance. "Y-Yes! T-That's right! The gardens have been r-reserved for the Two Dragons Empire for the week! I'll need you to show me your credentials!" The young mage had lost all his earlier bravado. The knight sighed tiredly as he had spoken up again. Avery also cooled her annoyance seeing the young man's temper fizzle out. Her eyes switched from the mage to the knight, then back to the mage before she tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean? I didn't know I needed permission from anyone to enter the Public Gardens." Avery turned her whole body towards the mage, but he didn't know how to respond. He was captivated by her beauty. It wasn't a beauty that could topple a nation, but it could be considered first-rate. The knight seemed disinterested though like he'd seen plenty, all of this wasn't something she'd know. As the mage fumbled around to find the words to reply back, the knight noticed the statue behind her. It was the statue said to be of an Ancient god. Nowadays called the Hearth Keeper. The woman was depicted in light armor and with a sword at her side. Hair tied back and a happy expression on her face, beautiful and heroic face. The common people knew very little about her, other than she had helped new adventures and others in their time of need back in the Primordial age. An age said to be littered with god-like beings. Though people in the royal family or positions of power knew more. They knew her by her real name and alias, Avery Baily; FemineFoxtrot. The girl before him had an uncanny likeness of this Goddess. So much that he felt a chill run up his spine because the more he looked at her, the more features lined up with the accounts of her. "Uh... I..." While the Knight behind him was starting to piece together who she was, the young mage was starting to show his true colors, more so his lack of ability to deal with females. His face was red with embarrassment and couldn't form a coherent sentence. After a few moments, Avery also caught on. At this point, she could only view him as a naive boy now. With a sigh, her noble posture crumbled under impatience. Collecting herself for a moment, she huffed while placing her left hand on her hip. The other out towards the mage to shake his hand. She had a gentle smile that struck his heart. She wasn't good at pushing back others when they were rude. She would rather make friends and have a good time. "Well, let's just start over with an introduction, like nice people. Hello, I'm Avery." The young mage was awe-struck by her smile as he fumbled to shake her hand. His palms were sweating, possibly from wearing such heavy robes. The Knight, on the other hand, had gone flush in the face. He was trembling silently in his armor. When she gave her name, it all came together. He was scared to think what would have happened if the man before him had offended her with his rude words earlier. "A Primordial goddess is in front of us! I-I have to tell the Empress!"  "Y-Yes! My bad, where are my manners. Ha ah ah! I am Desmond Tungsten, third prince of the Two Dragons' Empire. It's a pleasure to meet you!" On the other hand, the prince had already been felled by her. Truly she was a beauty, but the knight had been trained to keep his emotions, mainly lust, in check. That's why he could remain calm. Meanwhile, the prince was only seventeen and barely exposed to beautiful women. He's only ever had older women around him and those he considered family, never such a girl as this. He stepped up to the Prince's back and whispered in his ear. "Excuse me, my lord. I will leave you two alone. I need to speak with the Empress about something real quick.." The oblivious Prince just uttered some mindless agreements and waved his hand to dismiss him. The prince was too smitten by her to care what his bodyguard did. With the knight running in the directions of the sky docks, the prince simply smiled innocently. Not one ounce of impure thoughts lingered in his head. Only wishes of getting to know this beautiful girl. "Excuse my earlier words... Umm... If you'd like, I could give you a tour around here! My mother absolutely loves these gardens and it's flowers. You know, there are plenty of flowers in this garden that don't grow anywhere else?" He finally managed to piece together a sentence. At first, she wanted to figure out what this "Prince" was talking about earlier, but after being told that most of these flowers had become extinct; She had no choice but to change whatever plans she had in mind. Desmond had held his arm out like he had been taught to when escorting noble ladies, but she simply brushed past him with a smile. For a moment he felt deeply embarrassed, but he saw that she hadn't noticed his intention. Letting out a sigh of relief, he jogged after her to give her a tour. Though he had intended to give her a personal tour around the Sky Gardens, it ended up with her giving him a tour. The first blow to his self-esteem was when he explained that picking the flowers was forbidden by the Three-Kings Pact. This was because the Stone Golems would attack anymore who picked them. He only was staring at the flowers talking when he noticed she had picked an almost translucent Frost Rose from one of the planters. Just on the other side of the planter was a Stone Golem silently cleaning up the area. It's blue-stone eye looked at her momentarily before letting out a cheerful chime. It then continued on like nothing had happened. This left him utterly stunned at this. Never had there been a recorded incident of this happening since this island had appeared six years ago! "Uh... Lady Avery... How did you manage to pick that rose? Not just touching it, the Golem only chimed at you..." Before he had been awe-struck and only could see a very beautiful lady around his age. Now though, he was on his guard. Just touching those flowers required novice mages to have specialized glows. Harvesting any of the plants or their products was strictly forbidden, more like impossible. The Golems here cared for the grounds like fanatics. Touching the plants would get their attention, but nothing would come of it. Harvesting though... The few who had tried to before ended up split in two if they were strong, but most end up unidentifiable meat pies. From one hit... "I just picked it naturally? Well, I guess I can't really say that. Frost Roses require a cold resistant value of thirty or more. There are also other ways to harvest as well, but I don't feel like explaining so much. There so many plants here, we'd never get through a tour if I had to explain them all..." 'Frost rose? The Alchemist Association agreed to call them Ghostflowers...' That youthful passion for a beautiful girl had been doused thoroughly. Though he was young and inexperienced, he was still a royal prince. His put up his guard but tried to hide his weariness from her. Sadly for him, the change was noticed after she had walked off to the next planter... ♥ After being lead around for an hour, they only managed to tour one-fourth of the Flower Garden. There still was the Forest Garden, Mountain Garden and about two other gardens on the public side. Avery only stopped after noticing Desmond was sweating while having trouble keeping up. They were south of the large tree in the center of the Flower Gardens and they decided to rest their feet for a few minutes. Avery picked a circular gazebo that sat in the middle of a water lily pond. Avery sat sideways on a bench with her legs crossed. She rested her head on her left rested her elbow on the short guardrails and stared out over the calm pond. There weren't any of those mages with knights following them around. They mostly were congregated around the center were the most of the golems were working at the moment. Desmond sat across from her awkwardly. He didn't know what to do, but he could tell she already noticed he was guarded against her. He thought she was upset with him, leaving him in a bind. He thought of ways he could strike up a conversation, but he didn't want to disturb this scene. In his eyes, it was a picture-perfect sight, worthy of being painted. He wished there was someone here to paint it. When he first spotted Avery from behind, he had been notified by the Royal Guards that an unknown person had appeared in the center of the garden. He was upset. He thought maybe another researcher from the last kingdom that had been here last week had hidden away to get more time on the island. He only saw her white hair and never really paid much attention to anything else. Only thinking words of reprimand, but when he saw her face... Well that all lead up to this point. She seemed like she didn't want to speak any more with him, but even though those clothes she made her look like an Adventurer, she looked elegant in it. Her hair draped down her back. Her bangs were brushed to the left just over her eyebrow and had a displeased expression. Just as he was pondering how to get back on her good side, she turned her attention to him "You've been staring for a bit, you gonna say something or what?" "... I was just trying to find what to say?" " Figure maybe an apology. A comment about the weather or maybe about my outfit?" Desmond had a troubled expression as she spoke up, for it to turn serious as he though on what he said. She noticed and let out a defeated sigh. She was seriously mad at him, but he wasn't a friend. It's not like she could pout all afternoon. Of course, it would have been only a few minutes if he wasn't such an awkward guy. Just from the little time they walked around, it was apparent how... Inexperienced he was with social norms, or maybe it was different from hers. She really didn't care to pin it down now that she lost interest in getting more information from him. "The... Weather is nice, isn't it? How we're above the clouds, yet we can breathe without the assistance of special tools. Plants grow normally and signs show that the Ruin city just past those stone walls was once a bustling city..." Just when she had given up, he finally cracked open to the topic she was trying to coax out of him. She turned her body to face towards him while leaning back against the bench. "Hoo? How long ago you figure that?" "Well... We're assuming maybe thousands of years ago. We don't really have a grasp. See those tall white walls? Behind it is a large city, but we can't get in. Those large Golems killed those who managed to climb up it. We aren't too invested in whatever it those ruins though. The most valuable things are these plants. All the three major powers are trying to research ways to harvest them..." Who knew that awkward young mage would instantly become a chatterbox when it came to such topics. In their terms, Old. All of it. Starting from the moment of creation, Players were viewed as "Demi-Gods". Embarking on a wide range of adventures that kept the peace of the world. This was considered the Primordial Era. In Avery's terms, it was the game Fallen Kingdoms. People such as Avery had been considered Gods themselves, able to create miracles such as destroying armies with a flick of their finger. Which was true in a sense, but they were mob NPCs. The developers made it so the players would seem strong until they would face a mini-boss and on and on. From what she was told though, the followers of those players actually had recorded these feats and often spoke of them. These records were written down on magical paper that often barely last against the forces of time itself. Though it wasn't much and just a generalization, he still had given her enough to get a hazy picture. Then he reached the end of it, the fall of the Primordial gods. "Surprisingly enough, there aren't many records left by these beings themselves. Like I said earlier, most records were left by their followers, but even then we were able to pinpoint the beginning of the end. They said there was this really powerful "God". Most of them called this god Bailey or FemmeFoxtrot. I know, weird name, but it was a thing I guess in that time. Well, that's beside the point, anyway. They all mention the fall of this God and called it the end of times. After that, many things happened like more Demon Kings appearing, natural disasters striking and even these figures beginning to disappear slowly. Eventually, there were such few of these powerful people left, that the world was sent into a dark era. This gave birth to the God Alistair. After that, it slowly became what it is today." Avery ended up staring back over the pond's water, digesting the large hunk of information dropped into her lap. She already knew that this Alistair had killed players with a plague, but she needed more details. How? was this in the game still or was this after this world became reality? Her brain was hurting from all this information just thrusted on her. She wasn't the smartest girl on the block. She gave up on trying to process it and let out another sigh she turned her attention back to Desmond who looked troubled and stopped talking. Her head tilted in confusion as he just mouthed an apology to her. She was going to ask, but she quickly got her answer. "O my, Little Desmond has a lady friend? Why haven't you introduced her to me?" Avery could feel a little bit of hostility in her voice as a woman who appeared to be in her later thirties appeared. Her face had a soft expression, but one that felt a little fake. Like a mask. She wore a dress similar to an 18th century Rococo style dress in pure white. Two girls in maid outfits trailed behind her along with three Knights in a similar fashion to the one that left the prince an hour earlier. She walked across the small wooden bridge into the gazebo along with one maid but left the others waiting at on land waiting in a neat line " Your personal guard told me that you had an... Interesting guest with you." " M-Mother! Weren't you at the docks? Why are you here?" "Like I said, your guard told me about your guest so I-" "I'm not a guest. " "Imprudent! How dare you speak to Empress Maria with such insolence!" The maid following behind Empress Maria spoke up loudly, anger could be seen on her face, but Avery only scoffed at the maid before turning her eyes towards the Empress. The Empress's mouth twitched with annoyance, but she hadn't confirmed what the Knight had told her. Thus she had to take a passive approach. She walked into the Gazebo and sat next to Desmond while the maid stood to the side of the entrance and glared at Avery. Avery also glared back. This continued for a few moments before the Empress felt this was getting a little out of hand. "Go fetch stuff to make some tea." The maid looked like she wanted to say something only to bite it back and bow before leaving. Maria then turned her attention to Avery. "You seem to be a feisty child." "Only when prodded. I'm a pretty easy going gal." "We'll see, but that's going off topic. Care to tell me why you believe you're not a guest here?" "This is my home." "I believe this place is a long-lost ruin." "To you, but I remember it thriving." "Care to prove that?" Avery let out a sigh. She felt a headache coming on with this person. If it was simply questioning her, that'd be fine. It's something to be expected if some strange girl appeared out of nowhere. It was actually Empress Maria's expression that kept annoying her. It was something cross between a smug look and a pleasant smile. Like a "Gotcha" expression. She didn't know why, but it rubbed her the wrong way. "Let's just cut it, obviously you want something. Just freakin' say it." "Place your hand on this." Empress Maria expression actually changed at her words. She too wanted to get to the point, but she had her way of doing things so she didn't appreciate Avery being to blunt. She gestured one of the knights to come forward. After a few moments, the one knight that had been with Desmond before had come forward. He was carrying a black gem that was about twelve inches wide and two feet long. He kneeled down in front of Avery, explained how to use it then let her place her hand on it. After a few moments, it glowed when Avery placed her hand on it before she pressed a few prompts on it then saying "okay." The knight then got up and went to the Empress before kneeling and handing it over to her. She swiped her finger up to get to the beginning of the long. After reading the beginning prompts and getting to the status, it seemed she froze instantly. Desmond looked over to see why his mother was acting a little strange and also froze up when he saw Avery's status [This Status Displaying tool requires permission to show your Status.] [Subject has given permission] [Status not compatible with current Era's status, do you wish to convert it? Doing so will only affect display only.] [Subject has given permission, displaying Status now.] [Unknown terms found. Reformatting.] <———————————————————> Name: Avery Bailey |" FemmeFoxtrot " Age: [Error] [ Subject is immortal, set age 18.] Race: High-Human Mana gauge: 1,00,000 Level: 1,000 Ability Rank: SSS+ Owns: Sky Gardens, Coastal Palace, Church of Eternal Peace, Mountain Clouds Fortress. Titles: [50+ titles, showing most recent.] [Saint of Olde] - Your good deeds have spread far and wide, there are few who do not know of your kind-heart... | Error [Hero] - Defeated the Demon King & it's armies | Error, +200,000 Mana [Avery's Fallen Star] - Present on the eve of Avery's death | Error [Goddess Jen'Kuo's Mercy] - Jen'Kuo has heard the prayers of the Demi-Gods and has given Avery another life. |Reincarnated & immortalized [One who Defies the Gods] - Alistair, Yaano, and Leena have purged the world of all, but one Demi-God through crusades. |Immune "Server" wide plague [Hearth Keeper] - Your statues live on in the wilderness and have become icons of safe travels. | Statue locations have become safe havens for travelers. Bandits, Pirates & demons honor this as well. [Icon of Heresy] - Viewed as a Pagan Symbol, most believers of Alistair & Leena view you as a corrupted entity. | Enemy of Holy Empire & Bastion Sea People New! - [Primordial Being] Awakening in Eos, thousands of years have passed, and the world you've known has disappeared. | Ascension possible. <———————————————————> After viewing Avery's status, both of them stared at her like she was a freak at a circus... After about an hour, Avery and Empress Maria were walking side by side. Their laughs could be heard by everyone in the Flower gardens as they made their way towards the Garden's Docks. Desmond was carried on the back of his personal knight looking like his soul had left him a long time ago. "So my dear Avery, how about coming to visit our Empire? We can have little Desmond show you around the capital!" "But you just said that he has schooling, didn't you? School is important!" "Nonsense! If you wanted the emperor to show you around, it's possible too!" Maria laughed softly as she said some outrageous things. Avery didn't like that idea, she already was troubled by this Empress trying to coax her into joining her empire. It wasn't problematic, just a little tiresome having her try so hard to do it. The conversation stalled for a while as Avery thought on a way out of dealing with the Empress shooting off all these suggestions and pitches. Then she had an idea. "Well, right now I have some business on the ground. Since you're offering so kindly to allow me access to your empire, why don't I just temporarily join the academy that Desmond is at?" "O? But only if you become one of my subjects!" A sweet smile bloomed across Empress's face as she said some very blatantly shameless words. "Well if that's the case, I'll pass. I'll just move the island elsewh-" "NO! Erm..." For a moment the Empress became flustered as she almost grabbed Avery's hand in panic. She caught herself just before she did and cleared her throat before collecting herself. "I mean that won't be necessary. For you, I can make a decree allowing you in without citizenship." "Ah, that saves me the trouble of relocating the Island." Avery smiled sweetly at the Empress who had a cold sweat run down her cheek. She knew how valuable the Island was. She just couldn't allow Avery to relocate it out of their borders. Being such a strong existence and one with such abundance of resources, who wouldn't kiss up to her? " Ah.. Where are we?" "Welcome back to the land of the living." "Little Desmond, I have great news! Ms. Avery will be attending your academy !" Desmond received another blow to his mental state, causing him to enter crisis mode again...    

Proofreader: Saphira Though Avery felt tired from the day's events, she and Fenrir spent a good portion of the night cleaning up the liquid puddles throughout the room. Fenrir called "Life Magic" in dusting and mopping. It was a strange sight for Avery. Life magic was something lightly touched on in the game's lore, but it wasn't a usable category for players as it focused on a heavily watered down form of attack magic. Wind magic for drying clothes, airing out rooms and dusting. Fire for cooking, heating up water for drinks and baths. Water magic for creating drinking and cooking water. Earth magic and Light magic didn't fit into life magic. It was used by high-levelled farmers, but that it didn't have much use anywhere else. Light-magic was considered part of the Holy magic tree, but Avery refuted that when Fenrir explained it as they wrapped up their cleaning. It a different story. Magic branched out into two states, like and dark. One could look at it like a tree floating in the air. Its trunk and leafs full of life. This would be symbolized as Light magic. It was the part of the tree that lived in the sun. Holy magic would be at the top of this and was the only branch of magic that had Healing, Anti-Curse, Buff and other support magic spells. On the other end, the roots were symbolized as Dark Magic. For the part that lived hidden away from the light. At the very button would be Demonic Magic, which held Resurrect, Soul-Capture, and other nefarious magic spells. In the center laid neutral magic, such as Magic Sense, Magic Control, and other spells that didn't fall under any attribute. "But Master, I've found that you don't have to even know any spells. Unlike in the time of the Gods, we can now use magic if we can understand it and imagine it!" Fenrir was quite excited when he told Avery that. Avery too was curious, but at that moment, she was nodding off. Fenrir was a chatterbox that kept her up a few hours after they had finished cleaning. Eventually, she fell asleep in the bed with Fenrir sprawled out beside her, back to back. The poor wolf just kept talking and talking. He had missed his master and let it all out while they laid down. One-sidedly.     Before Avery was the empty hospital room she used to be in. The room was dim, the only light was peaking through an open door to the right. No one was around and all the machines had been neatly packed up and placed to the left wall. She was confused as to why she was here. She tried to step forward, but she only fell. Looking down, she was back in her withered body. Her legs had no muscle and looked mummified. Before she could react, she felt a cool breeze to her back and the smell of burning flesh. She quickly turned her head and found herself in the Flower garden. The large pale tree was in front of her and it was night. No moon illuminated the sky gardens. Only a faint orange light showed its large trunk raising into the black sky. Turning again, what greeted her was her Heart's Rest set ablaze. She could hear the screams of the people inside, the collapsing of buildings. She could see different spells flying into the air from the city. Ice, wind, fire, earth and everything in between. Then a large amount of fire exploded, rushing towards where they were coming from. Then nothing, only the sound of the distant fire. A large roar then danced around the night sky as a dark figure raised its head from the center of the city. Its large body definitely would have filled out the majority of that open space. It's large head emitted another angered roar before it's attention turned to Avery's direction. Large glowing-red eyes pierced the blackness. "It is done... Now fulfill your side of the bargain. Give us back our master..." A deep voice reverberated across. Avery was completely stunned. She remembered this voice, it was Athena. " Well well, how would your master feel knowing you did such a thing for..." A woman stepped up next to Avery, her body was smokey and only made a rough outline of a bountiful woman. Her mannerisms were suggestive and flirtatious until she stopped mid-sentence. Her attention turned to Avery. "O my, hehe. A little slip-up. Shh, go to sleep little one. You'll get your turn soon..." Black smoke oozed from her hands as it snaked its way towards Avery. Still stuck in her withered first body, she couldn't move a muscle as the black smoke turned into goo and consumed her. It was black magic. She felt her very soul being torn apart before she was put back together. "I'm sorry master... I did it for you. I made a deal with that devil, Jen'kuo... You'll understand... How far we would go for you... Please forgive me... I have to go away now... I hope you wake up before I die..." A sad woman's voice reached her and she found herself back in the blue liquid in the pool. Fear gripped her heart as she struggled to breathe. Air bubbles pouring out of her mouth as she thrashed around under the water's surface. Her fingertips just grazing it. She knew that voice was Athena's human voice, she had heard it plenty of times before. She cried out her name, but nothing would come out as there was no air left in her lungs. With one final push desperate push, she finally burst through the surface and found herself thrown onto something soft. the liquid was gone and it wasn't a stone room she was in. Quickly catching her breath, she found herself in front of a small coffee table. On it was a note along with an urn. The urn had a single paw-print with a name etched inside it. "Avery Bailey. Our whole world and heart." "XX.XX.XXXX" [*2] Her eyes trained themselves on the note. It was written beautifully and was short, but that wasn't what left her shocked. "To our brothers and sisters, we're sorry that you'll have to find us like this. Nothing is left of her, but this urn. We hope that we too, return to the dust to be with her... We're sorry. Nothing is left " Her mind tried different ways to process it, but her heart knew what it was. It was a suicide note. Her eyes slowly crept up. Two tipped chairs laid just behind the coffee table, a pair of feet dangled just above it. Anger and sorrow boiled up in her throat. She felt like she was about to puke so she covered her mouth in a hurry. She saw just their feet. Their old shoes, but she didn't actually confirm. With the last ounce of courage, her eyes trailed up the bodies and to their faces, Her mother and father's lifeless faces entered her sight. Their faces turned towards each other, their grief-stricken expressions mortified her. She wanted to scream, but what came out were only pitiful whimpers. 'Someone! Anyone, save them!!' She then heard sirens and hysterical screaming of someone hailing them down. She turned towards the front door which was off to the left of her. It was open and she could see some of her relatives just outside. Her uncles had their backs turned towards the scene inside, their quiet sobbing entered her ears as law enforcement officers pushed into the house with fire-fighters following close behind. Flashing lights illuminated flickered outside as the emergency vehicles soon blocked the entire road. The fire-fighters quickly looked at her parents before they shook their heads. "They're long gone. Maybe an hour. Nothing we can do except cut them down." The law-enforcement officer shook his head as well. "Shame. I remember them, their kid was on the news. If I remember correctly, didn't that game their kid play have an incident?" "These are the people? Damn man. Yeah. It was on the morning news, the game developer's offices had a fire. Something about the servers exploding, a few people died in it as well. I think they said that the game made a memorial to their kid because they spent all their money on keeping her on life support..." Their conversation drifted away from the topic revolving them and they talked about other things. Their words faded out with their first topic. Her eyes never left their bodies afterward. For what seemed like several hours, was a span of a few minutes. She felt a burning sensation in her head, then it travelled through her nerves and down into her hands. She only had one thought in her mind. 'All this should just burn down... It's nothing but a damn grave now..." She felt her sight slowly began to fade as flames burst from her feet, engulfing her parents' bodies. The living room carpet quickly blackened and fueled the flames. With every foot, the fire grew hotter and larger until it began to consume the entire room. The responders inside were caught off guard but managed to get out with only a few burns here and there. In a matter of a few minutes, the entire house was an inferno. Burning unnaturally like an angered demon as the house screamed at the world. Just before Avery's sight completely faded, the house began to slowly collapse. Her ashen face covered in tears as she could only repeat "Mom. Dad." over and over again.     "Master! Please wake up! Master, what's wrong!?" Avery shot up, her feline eyes narrowed and wild. Her breath was quick but shallow and she was soaked in sweat, her face ashen. Fenrir was on the floor beside her. His pleading voice was almost screaming at her. She felt a stinging sensation at the tips of her fingers. The bed sheets around her were burnt to a crisp, but the mattress was fine as it was made from high-level materials. Her sleeping clothes also were burnt to ashes as well. She turned her attention to Fenrir and noticed there were some black marks on his side as well. "W-What happened...?" "I don't know Master! You were whimpering then you started to shout! She didn't know how to answer his question. She could remember every scene of that nightmare or reality. She didn't even know. She felt lost. Scared. Her emotions were mixed and raged like a berserk bull. She breathes were quick and shallow. Avery's feline eyes were narrowed as she quickly looked around. Fenrir began to lick her face, trying to soothe her. He didn't know what was going on, but he could tell something happened while she slept. It was towards the end that she began to scream and fire began to slither out like snakes from her hands before setting the blanket and pillows on fire. He managed to keep it from spreading to the rest of the room after much difficulty. With Fenrir's help, Avery was able to calm down and they both cleaned up the mess and ended up discarding the ashes and other burned items into the hallway. They weren't anything special. Just decorative items from the end game. They had no practical use and were just blackened with soot. Avery was out of sorts during the whole clean up. Fenrir had to nudge her a couple of times to bring her out of her thoughts. She looked a little lethargic but insisted everything was fine. Even with that said, they both knew she wasn't, but they kept silent otherwise. After the clean up was done, Avery felt better. Everything that had been turned to ashes or half-burnt was blown away. Everything that got soothe on it was wiped down or placed outside in the hallway to be cleaned later. Once all that was done, she plopped herself on her back, face down. Fenrir also joined her. He was still concerned, but he felt better now that her complexion was better. Then she noticed a small half-circle blinking red with a "!" in the middle of it. It was small and in the corner of her peripheral. "Hey, Fenrir..." "Yes, Mas-... Yes, Avery?" "What's this symbol, blinking half circle with an exclamation mark in the middle? " "Ah! That would be a new status. This world's displayed is different from our old one. Just open it like you would your status." She did just that. A series of paper thin-glass like screen appeared with a series of prompts, its color was a faint blue like the ocean. [After connecting to the world system via the status tool, your status has now been reformatted.] [Status now has different displays, different from your old world] [Status will now display.] [Titles condensed, you can view them individually. Displaying titles of highest rank first] 〈 - Name: Avery Bailey |" FemmeFoxtrot " Age: Immortal Race: High-Human | Mythic Mana gauge: 1,000,000 Level: 1,000 Ability Rank: SSS+ Owns: Sky Gardens, Coastal Palace, Church of Eternal Peace, Mountain Clouds Fortress [20+ More properties] Magic Attributes: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Dark, and Light. Titles: [Primordial being], [One who defies the Gods], [Hearth Keeper], [Saint of Olde], [Hero], [KingSlayer], [Savior of King Ian I], [Savior of Mountain Clouds], [Friend of Fey-kin], [Friend of Demons], [Item box Holder] - [ >>> More titles hidden<<<] - 〉 The status menu had a more streamlined appearance, more modern without any fancy graphics like FkE interface. Everything was user-friendly and quick to get to. Above the status, there were three buttons. Status was highlighted, meaning that was the one she was currently on. She could touch the screen or move it with her mind. Inventory was slightly different from the in-game one where all of it was turned into a manifest list rather than icons with their names on it. The map was different from in-game. Instead of seeing a rough outline, she could see a simple, but a detailed map. She couldn't look at an area she hadn't been. It lit up the places she had been through, but there was only the Sky Gardens available to view. The last was the skill menu, but it had a disclaimer they were just found magic. Meaning magic that she already knew, but said she didn't have to follow those and could create her own. She tinkered around with the menu before feeling satisfied. " I'm going to sleep again.." " Yes, Mas-" "Just say it, it must be annoying trying to correct yourself..." Avery had slept for a few more hours before she got up. This time, she didn't dream of anything. It was peaceful.   Fenrir and Avery walked side by side onto the Sky-Docks. The docks were empty, with a single person sitting on one of the few benches in the area while nodding off. Across from him, sitting on the stone walkway, was a steam-punk like a boat similar to a Gondola, but had several wings on each side spanning around three feet. There was also several magic devices, most likely propellants, attached to its hull too. They came closer and found that it was the Third Prince Desmond. His pale skin wasn't that appealing to her, though she was a shade darker. His was more sickly, from lack of going out into the sun. A mischievous glimmer appeared in Avery's eye and a grin. "Ahh!" Desmond woke up with a fright as Avery was making small talk with Fenrir while sitting right beside him. Avery looked at him with upturned eyes while giggling. "Have a good nap, sleeping beauty?" "When did you show up?!" "Mm... Ten, maybe fifteen minutes?" "Why did you wake me?" "Why did you fall asleep?" "Don't answer with a question!" Avery replied to Desmond with a teasing smile, a mischievous streak in her eye. Desmond could only silently air his retorts, not wanting to continue it any more than that. After running his hands through his hair and letting out a yawn, he turned his attention back to Avery. "So my mother asked that I take you personally to the Capital. I know, I know. Why would you want to go with the weir-" "You stop that." "W-Wh-" "You were apart to demean yourself, weren't you?'" "Wait, what- "Answer my question." Desmond stared at her, thinking a moment as he did. "Yes..." "Don't. If I have a problem, I'll make sure to voice it." "O-Okay then... Um... Yeah... Mother asked that I take you personally on Wind-Runner." While Avery held a smile, it was an obviously fake one. The playful demeanor had been wiped away the moment he tried to belittle himself. He was unsure how to break the tense air between them. As they stared at each other. "W-Well, shall we go?" "... Yes..." Getting past that, the Wind-Runner spewed to life as wind magic lifted it and they flew off. If it had been a normal trip, they would only take about an hour to reach the capital in the Wind-runner. But life never went the way people wanted it too...

jinxs2011 Well, I cut it close, but I got it done in time. Finished it just last night (edit: I got the date wrong and did it the night before last night). Here is this year's april fool's side story that isn't at all a trick and is pretty much just a normal side story. Pretty much the same deal as the last one. Character you don't know, place you don't know, time you don't know. We've had enough muck to wade through lately, so here's a depressing backstory to cheer you up! Oh. Yeah, maybe not the best idea. I blame my discord. They picked the second darkest one. I mean, I gave them zero description apart from a one-word synopsis, but they still picked it. Speaking of! Novel Discord! Novel Wiki! In other news, during the time between this and the last chapter, I got an offer from Agro Squerrils (idk if @ ing works on this site so i'll just link his profile) that he'd narrate this novel on his youtube channel. Sounded good to me, so that's happening, which is cool. You can find his channel here, and the playlist for fork this life here. With all that said and done, please enjoy the chapter. Side Story 2: The Devil Within I take a sip from the simple teacup, one of the few remaining, and calmly place it back on its saucer, looking with curiosity at the man opposite me. He seems unbothered by the mess around us, or that we were fighting to the death not minutes before. His cup sits untouched, coils of steam drifting upwards as he looks at me with a level gaze. “You say you wish to hear my story.” I begin, my hands clasped gently before me. “And I owe that to you. But I wonder what it is that you hope to hear?” He scratches his neck idly, the movement brushing at his clothes. They are simple, not too far from mine in their fabric and design, traveller’s clothes. But not a mark is on them from the earlier fight. An illusion, obviously, although I cannot tell what it obscures. He carries no weapons or markings, no clues as to where he comes from or who he is, but it is clear he is a master of combat. He managed to stop me, after all. “Well, you attacked me out of nowhere. Something tells me that wasn’t under your control, but I want to hear your reasons.” He replies. “Knowing why will not change what happened. Clearly, you believe that I am not your enemy, and you have accepted my apology with considerable grace already. Surely, then, you are hoping to hear something else?” I ponder. He shrugs, smiling wryly. “Fine, I won’t beat around the bush then. This house,” He gestures around us, being a bit generous in calling it as such with the half-demolished state it’s in, “most of its planks have been replaced, they’re of very different ages in some places. And it seems to be built on top of the remnants of a half dozen other houses, each older than the last.” “Not to mention the sheer quantity of broken pottery pieces scattered through the ground. No ordinary person can get into this valley in the first place. There’s no cities or villages around for a few hundred kilometres, and there never has been. The only person here is you.” He continues. “You’ve been around a long time. A very long time. Too long, even considering that you’re a master of Ki.” “Ah.” I nod in understanding. “You seek knowledge of immortality.” To my surprise, he shakes his head sadly. “No. I’m looking for people I don’t have to worry about outliving.” “You as well?” My eyebrows raise. For the first time in many years, I’m shocked. “How did it happen for you?” “If I have to say it simply, I suppose I have the gods to thank for it.” He sighs, not sounding at all thankful. “Ah, a gift from the gods.” I nod in understanding. “Much the same as how it happened for me. You did some great feat for which they rewarded you it, I would guess?” But he shakes his head again. “Blasted if I know. The couple times I’ve met one to be able to ask, they just skirt around the subject. But anyway, you don’t want to hear my sob story. You mentioned something about doing a great feat to earn your immortality?” “In a way.” I nod. “To be more accurate, being gifted immortality was simultaneously my feat, reward and sacrifice. You wanted to hear my story, correct? Now that we’re both on the same page and we both have plenty of time, would you mind if an old man told you his story?” “Shoot away.” He leans back in his chair, becoming more relaxed. He still hasn’t touched his tea, but I’m starting to think that it isn’t out of caution. Perhaps he simply felt no hunger and thirst since he became immortal? “I’m not some young whippersnapper that’s itching to get out of here. You know, I’m really starting to like that word. Whippersnapper. Not that I have the slightest idea what it means.” I take a deep sip of tea again, working it around my mouth to make sure it was ready for the telling. It had been such a long time since I had a guest. “Well then, pardon me for starting at the beginning. And if I suddenly attack you again, try and spare the tea set - I think I did rather well on these ones, and I’m a bit attached.” To start with, my name is Einar. I was born in a city, not a particularly large or important one, but not a small one, either. The city itself crumbled long ago, so I won’t bother you with the name or where it was. Suffice to say that it was a city, and there were many people living and working there. I was an orphan, without father or mother. To this day, I know nothing of them or my ancestry, how they passed, or if I was merely given away. To the best of my memory, I grew up in a local monastery. Living there was not rich, but it was not bad. We had food, clothes, a bed and a roof over our heads, although all four were simple and always in short supply. There were simply too many of us, and the city had no orphanage - or rather, the monastery was its orphanage. The monks there were kind, and patient. I didn’t know enough in my youth to be able to tell, but I suspect that the monks were even older than they appeared, benefiting from bodies enriched and renewed by ki. For the monastery was not a place of religion - although we were permitted to worship any god of our choosing, excepting the evil ones, of course - but a place the elders had built many years before to train in, refine and teach the arts of Ki. We, the orphans, were not students at the monastery, in the strictest sense. As part of our upbringing some physical training was involved, mostly just running around and helping carry things. We didn’t learn how to use ki or any of the techniques at all. It was for the best, I think. A bunch of kids, running around with Ki? Things could have gotten out of hand very easily. No, they waited until we were old enough to understand the consequences of our actions, until we were starting to mature a little. They gave us each a choice: they would help us find jobs of our choosing, if it was doable, and we would start a life outside the monastery. Or, we could stay and help around the monastery - cooking, cleaning, tending the gardens, that sort of thing. And, if we chose the latter, we could also choose to become students, the work we did taking the place of the payment outsiders had to provide in order to be granted the same teaching. The latter option was part of the reason that the monastery could be so interesting, and, on occasion, dangerous to new outsiders. It was impossible to tell when the person carefully dusting off the benches or watering the gardens was perfectly ordinary, or capable of levelling a building with their bare hands. I myself opted to stay and learn the ways of Ki. I was young, and lacking in the perhaps misplaced self-confidence so many of my peers possessed. I thought of myself as untalented, and didn’t believe I had the skills necessary to work most jobs. Besides, I had never known the world outside the monastery, and I was afraid to venture out so suddenly, even though I had known the day was coming long before. The reality is that I would have been perfectly fine. I ponder sometimes how my fate might have changed, had I decided differently. I might have lived a normal, happy life. Or it is just as possible that I would have become just another casualty. But how could I have known that a decision made in my youth, hardly older than twelve years, would have such a large impact on my fate? Because of my choice, I truly became part of the monastery. There wouldn’t have been more than two hundred of us, almost like a smaller community somewhat secluded from the concerns and customs of the city itself. I pause to take another draught of tea, emptying my cup. It had likely been a few hundred years since I had spoken much more than a few words here or there, and my throat is making its discomfort known. Yet I’ve barely begun. Reaching out with one hand, I pour myself another cup of tea, the sounds of the liquid as it fell the only thing breaking the silence. “I can tell you have some training in Ki, but how familiar would you say you are with it?” I ask, swirling the tea in my cup and breathing in its herbal aroma. “I know some techniques, but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert.” He shrugs. “Ki is most effective when used internally or at short range, and I prefer to keep my enemies at range, so I don’t have occasion to use it often. I learned it partially as a precaution for when other forms of combat wouldn’t work, and partially out of interest.” “I see.” I nod. “Would you rather I skip over the training aspects of my early life?” “Nah, keep them in.” He replies. “They add flavour. Not like we don’t have the time.” “True enough.” I suppose it would be remiss for me to expect anything other than eccentricity from an immortal. Then again, I’ve never met another. They started us off simply, gradually. They taught us stances, eighty-one of them in all. The stances… were not straining, not physically. The true difficulty lay in our tutors’ strictness. The tilt of the wrist had to be just so. The positioning of the feet down to the millimeter. The shoulders, waist, everything had to be perfect. Once we held one stance adequately well, they would move on to the next, and the next, and then back to the beginning.  When the training was over for the day, they would have us sit on the cold stone - I had almost forgotten just how cold it felt to me, especially in the winter months - close our eyes and meditate, focusing on our own bodies to the exclusion of all else. We trained like this for a year, every day - although only for part of the day, of course - unchanging. At the time, we thought it was ridiculous. I would be lying if I said that a fair few of us didn’t at least think of backing out. After all, a good number of the people we’d grown up with we now barely saw anymore, out in the city with real jobs, living real lives like normal people. A lot of us had had thoughts at the start along the lines of, ‘I don’t know anywhere else but here’, ‘This is my home’ or ‘Life will be easier this way’. There were, of course, some that backed out of the training, choosing to stay as an ordinary cleaner, gardener or teacher for the young, or deciding that they did, in fact, want a job in the city. We would still see them, sometimes - the ones who left to work in the city. They would tell us about their work, what they earned, show us new clothes and boots… And then they would ask us what we had been doing, and all we had to show them was the stances. To say that some of us were jealous wouldn’t be far from the truth. As for myself, I kept on, along with the rest of those who stayed. I reasoned to myself that life outside the monastery would be just as hard, or even harder than what we were doing. And there had to be some reason for it, didn’t there? The ways of the monks were often mysterious to us in our youth, but there wasn’t a single person among us who would describe them as frivolous or foolish - and not just because we didn’t know the meaning of the former. Everything they did had meaning, had a purpose. And this was no exception. Every form of energy is only as dangerous as the one who wields it. I have no doubt that you have seen or heard of wizards and warriors that have wrought untold havoc and destruction. But for the untrained, there are few things that can go amiss playing with mana or physical strength, with the exception, perhaps, of some extreme cases. Not so for Ki. Fooling around with Ki is like bringing an unprotected torch into a coal mine. One wrong step, and the whole place is engulfed in a firestorm. Utilised by an untrained individual, Ki represents itself outside the body as pure force. The dangers of that alone are considerable. But inside the body? There is a natural way to things, pathways through the body. To some extent an initiate can instinctively feel how to circulate their Ki on a simple path, but if an individual is trying something and doesn’t know what they’re doing, they could cause their Ki to deviate outside the natural pathways, against the natural flow. At that point they will be in too much pain to control what they are doing, and their Ki will rampage throughout their body, tearing it apart from the inside. The stances were to teach us discipline, to follow the experience and wisdom of the monks. They also taught us patience and calmness. And, of course, the stances themselves had meaning. After the first year of training, they started teaching us how to transition from one stance to the next. Each stance could shift into a total of eight other stances. Suddenly, the eighty-one stances we could picture and assume with eyes closed became the six hundred and forty-eight movements, and we were floored. Before we had felt that we were learning so little, but now there was so much to learn. So much, in fact, that we couldn’t possibly hope to learn it all in just a year. But the monks knew this as well, and started from nine core stances and the forms that branched from them, a comparatively small seventy-two in all. Even so, it was difficult. The monks made us perform the movements at a snail’s pace, limbs creeping ever so slowly through the air in the courtyard where we practiced. Precision was key, and they aimed for perfection. That year, we began to see the first inklings of the meaning behind their tutelage. We developed control over muscles we had no prior knowledge of, even those on our faces. It was a strange day for me when I realised that I could wiggle my ears up and down, independently, even. Our balance became impeccable, being able to walk along a suspended rope with only a little practice. Not to mention our physical strength and flexibility increasing by leaps and bounds. It was to the extent that our work at the monastery became a breeze, effortless. But again, it was difficult. Some more of us dropped out, and as we neared the last few months of the second year there were barely twenty of us that were originally orphans. There had been double that number when the training first began. Some of us did better than others at learning the movements, as these things tend to go. I would say that I was around the upper-middle range of the class. Not the best, but fairly good. By this point, everyone who was actually bad at it had left, so we all did fairly well. Then they started teaching us sixteen new movements, and we quickly realised that these new movements would allow us to complete a circuit of movements around eight of the core stances. You see, they had a diagram, of sorts, of all the stances that depicted them as nine eight-point stars, laid out in a grid of three by three stars. At the center of each star was one of the nine core stances, and the eighty-one movements we had learned were from those core stances to the points of the star radiating from them. Each stance also had movements to the eight stances directly around it, that is, the ones up, down, left, right and the diagonals. The movement from stance A to B was also different from B to A, that is. As a quick aside, I should mention that the whole system of stances was developed by the monastery itself to be simpler to understand and learn. Other places would have taught it differently. But yes, a circuit. We weren’t sure what meaning that had, but it had to mean something. That thought was reinforced in our minds once one of us asked one of the monks about it, and we were instructed not to perform connected movements in succession without supervision. It had to be something big. Nevertheless, we weren’t stupid or rash enough to disobey the monks to try and discover what it was ourselves, so we continued to train in the new movements. In the last month of that year, as we went through the movements once again, the monk training us walked along us and saw nothing he could correct. He walked back to the front and, once we had finished the latest movement, he told us that we were ready. Our training was done for the day, and there would be no training the next day. We were to relax, steady our bodies and minds, and prepare, because the day after that would be very important. We, in a single, woefully insufficient word, were nervous. Nothing like this had happened before, not in almost two years of training, and we weren’t sure what it meant for us. The monk had said we were ready - that was positive, but ready for what? To be clear, we were young, inexperienced and having lived in the monastery for our entire lives, sorely lacking in knowledge in some areas. We knew that the monks were powerful and capable of many things that we were not. We had seen them lay their hands on cuts and scrapes and the wounds began to heal, breathe flames to light a fire and lift boulders multiple times their size. We had heard of magic, and we had heard the word ‘Ki’ mentioned several times around the monastery, but quite frankly we knew next to nothing about either. We weren’t even sure what the training was for, beyond joining the ranks of the monks ourselves. Still, we were told to relax, so we relaxed the only way we knew how: meditation. When the next day came, we spent most of it in a similar fashion. Some light exercises, some meditation… Then the night came, and we lay down to sleep. But after what felt like hours of tossing and turning, I was more awake than when I first lay my head upon my cot. I knew it was hopeless; I would not be able to sleep. My mind was too fixed on the coming dawn, my heart eagerly beat at my chest in anticipation. I thought to meditate until dawn. The state of meditation is in some ways not unlike sleep. Perhaps I would open my eyes to stiff legs, but it was better than no rest at all. I could not tell you how long I sat cross legged upon my bed before my meditation lapsed into true sleep. How ironic is the body that it will not let us sleep when it is all we wish to do, but when sleep is far from our mind it is the first thing to approach? The new dawn had come, and we were ushered out into the courtyard, as usual. In stark contrast to the usual, however, instead of a single monk heading our orderly lines, there were a dozen, including the head monk himself. His name was Farvald. I didn’t know him personally, of course, but anyone who had been at the monastery for a while knew his name and face. I remember that he enjoyed meditating in the gardens, so I would pass by him on occasion when it was my job to water the plants or weed. It became immediately clear to us that whatever was about to happen was very important. So we got into our orderly lines and stood ready to begin in what was normally a relaxed pose. On this occasion much more uncomfortable owing to the tense knot in my gut. Perhaps if we had known what was about to happen, we would be able to be more relaxed. The unknown has always been one of the greatest fears in people’s hearts. Or perhaps knowing the true enormity of the situation, and just how badly it is possible for it to have gone wrong would have only made it worse. I could not say, but I doubt things were as they were for no reason. As we had predicted, we were instructed to start going through the circuit of movements, at our own pace. ‘Our own pace’ was identical. We had practiced together at identical paces so much that anything else felt odd. I was only just starting the first movement, but sweat was already slicking my palms. As we progressed from one movement to the next, the familiar motions slowly unwound the knot of tension in my gut. I may not have known what was going to happen or why, but I knew the movements. They were my solace. After a short while, we neared the end of the circuit, and were promptly instructed to continue the circuit of movement until we were told to stop. So we did, feet beating softly in unison against the cold stone, arms twisting through the air… To me, it almost felt like I was dancing. It was not a storm of motion, not the frantic beating of limbs. It was measured, calm, and composed. One movement after the next, practiced to near perfection. The voice of the head monk, Farvald, rang out in the courtyard, telling us that we would soon start to feel a burning sensation within us, an energy wanting to be unleashed. That the movements we were performing would guide the sensation on a path, and we were to focus on it, remember the path, and that we would naturally feel how to keep circulating it. His voice was so calm and certain, like his words were not predictions, but merely statements of things which he knew were to come. The sensation came soon after, faint at first but quickly growing clearer and stronger as I continued. It was like the string of a bow pulled to its utmost, straining for a swift release, like a boulder teetering on the top of a mountain, a feather’s touch away from careening downwards. The feeling progressed around my body, guided by the motions, following paths that felt wholly unused. The energy - Ki - burned its way through them, painful, but at the same time, satisfying. I was wholly immersed in the movements, in the sensation of Ki flowing through my pathways for the first time and, not having forgotten the head monk’s instructions, on remembering the path it took. It didn’t feel like I was doing it for a long time, but when I was finally snapped out of my reverie by a voice instructing us to gradually stop, I opened my eyes to the colours of sunset. Chest heaving, clothes practically glued to my body with sweat and limbs trembling, I slowed to a halt. The Ki inside me was still only part-way through its current circulation, and I instinctively guided it the rest of the way until it reached its origin at the center of my chest. I started in surprise. Had I done that? It was almost unconscious, but I had controlled the Ki, not that I knew that is what it was. Now that I was paying attention to it, my Ki was static, unmoving. My attention slowly returned to the world around me, where the others were in a similar state to mine, exhausted and sweaty. We were congratulated, told that we had taken our first steps into being Ki practitioners. We were told not to experiment with our Ki without supervision, at least for now. We returned to our rooms and I fell into sleep quicker and more deeply than ever before. When I awoke, I felt as if it was the very first time I had seen the world. Colours seemed more vibrant, shapes crisper and better defined. The chirps and calls of the birds seemed like a melody. Even the touch of the rough sheet covering me seemed more real than before. I chalked it up to my exhaustion when I had fallen asleep, that it was just my imagination, not that I didn’t enjoy the feeling. Of course, it wasn’t my imagination. Ki changes the body, enhancing it, uplifting it. My senses really were sharpened, although it was only so noticeable because that had been the very first time Ki had coursed through my body. Although they would continue to improve as I practiced, it would be slower and more gradual than that first burst. Our training changed after the awakening. The movements themselves became of lesser concern. More important was teaching us to control our Ki, guide it on that path. Of course, the movements helped achieve that, specifically the circuit of movements that originally helped us unlock and circulate our Ki, but there was no longer much focus on the movements besides those, at least for a time. This training was strenuous in an entirely different sense. Not physically, not mentally, but we were unlocking and controlling something entirely new to our bodies. Stretching muscles that had never been stretched, so to speak. It was very difficult, at first. Sometimes I was able to control my Ki without even thinking. Sometimes I would try my hardest with no response. It took us a month before the monks decided that we were capable of circulating our Ki unsupervised. I’m sure you already understand that Ki, once unlocked in an individual, accumulates naturally. But it does so slowly, ever so slowly, until it reaches the individual’s limits - determined both by the strength of their body and the nimbleness of their mind. Certain unique states of mind, even such as the simple meditation, can increase the rate at which it accumulates. But still, one could meditate for a hundred days on end and not reach their capacity, depending on the depth of their meditation. Ki circulation allows an individual the same benefits, increasing the rate at which their Ki accumulates by tenfold, even with a basic circulation path. If experienced enough, an individual could do this while moving, the circulation eventually becoming instinctive enough to be done even while in the storm of combat. Or, for when less violently inclined, in the tranquillity of meditation. Tenfold and tenfold increases become a hundredfold. All these are the main reasons practitioners are known to be so reclusive. After a particularly exhaustive battle, one could expect a practitioner to retreat to a private space and meditate for as long as a week at a time to recover their lost Ki. Such a thing might seem strange or daunting to non-practitioners, understandably. But as Ki flows through the body of a practitioner, it gradually changes it. An experienced practitioner can use their Ki as a substitute to feed the needs of the flesh, allowing them to go without food, water, sleep, or even without air, if need be, for extended periods. I’ve already mentioned, of course, that it enhances the senses and strengthens the body. It even increases longevity. Is it possible to become immortal through Ki? Perhaps, but if so, such a method is outside my knowledge. But I digress. We were not at such a stage. If we wanted to circulate our Ki, we would sit still and devote some time solely to that. We had been instructed to do so for at least an hour every day, if we could, although it didn’t have to be all at once. We found that this wasn’t a challenge, as we could simply do so for an hour before sleep. The rejuvenating effect would even ensure that we were better rested than if we had slept that extra hour. The monks began to teach us about Ki, and about what it meant to be one of the monks. The monks were those that had dedicated their life to furthering the understanding and teaching of Ki, developing existing techniques and inventing new ones. It was a pursuit of knowledge, not for personal gain, but for the gain of future generations. Eventually, we would no longer be the students, but the elders, meditating on the ways of Ki and instructing the children. It would be a simple life, with no riches or luxuries, but it would be a comfortable and fulfilling one. The monks, in general, could be expected to live long lives, in peace, away from the conflicts of the world. I must say, as a youth who grew up without any luxuries, the thought of them did tempt me. Sorely. I wondered what it must be like to walk around with fur boots upon my feet, rich garments of silk upon my chest and idly munching on a freshly baked pastry as I went about my day, knowing that at night I would have a thick down-filled pillow on which to rest my head. At the same time, I had lived as I had for my whole life, and it turned out well enough. I thought myself a good person, had good friends, and despite their previous attitudes, those who went to work in the city had started to express envy of our strength. Perhaps, I thought, even if I was rich there will still be much I want. Perhaps people always long for that which they do not have. Besides, I had chosen my path, and I had walked it for two years now. To turn aside would be a waste. We advanced. Slowly, as matters pertaining to Ki are wont to do. We learnt more stances, more movements, different circulation paths and patterns with different effects. There were paths that caused Ki to gather more quickly under the heat of the sun, or under the light of the moon, or among the elements or nature. There were ways for those not as changed by the effects of Ki to need only one breath of air where a normal man would need dozens. There were ways to heal injuries, ways to pulverize rock and increase strength, ways to make the skin tougher than iron. I would not say that we were once-in-an-age talents, or that we had resources and training beyond that of all the others in the land. But I feel that it would not be an exaggeration to say that we were some of the strongest people of our age - or, at least those our age below level ten. Not that we knew how to fight. We would spar, sometimes, yes, and think ourselves very skilled, very strong. But simply knowing how to use the techniques is not enough. Knowing when to use them is much more important. Knowing what to do at any given moment in a battle is a skill that is borne only of experience. And neither us nor the monks had much interest in us learning how to fight. Much time passed without much of note happening within the monastery. Even things such as illness or disease didn’t leave a lasting mark, as we were also resistant to those. Accidents of the scale that can kill or even just harm someone experienced with Ki are few and far between, and the monks of the monastery were very careful when experimenting with new techniques. I myself was partial to healing techniques. There are always people who need healing, but not just people. The technique to speed up the body’s natural healing process with Ki was well known within the monastery, but applications outside of humans and similar races were less studied. The step to animals was not a large one, not until I tried healing some smaller animals, like birds. They were much more delicate than I was used to, requiring much more finesse. Power, Precision, Practice. That’s what it took, and a lot of the last one, particularly when I started trying to heal plants. Plants are nothing like us in their structure, or even in how Ki flows through them. It took me the better part of four years to get a handle on how to do it properly. That accomplishment earned me some respect among the monks, and I felt as if I had finally earned my place there as I added my understanding on the matter to the hall of techniques, where all such knowledge was kept for our peers and future generations to ponder on and learn from. I was no longer a boy, but a man, though if there was any difference to how I was before, it would simply be the weight on my shoulders as I helped care for and teach the next generation of the neglected and forgotten, a weight that I did not bear lightly, however calm and collected I presented myself as. It was around this time, I think, that the rumours began to surface. There was a monk among us who generally took care of any trips into the city market to buy things, when it was needed. If I were to guess, it was him who first shared the news, him or perhaps one of the outsiders visiting the monastery, it’s hard to say. Murders, brutal murders of the type that had never been seen in the city before. People ripped limb from limb, fist sized holes straight through the chest… Well, that’s what the rumours said. We didn’t pay it much mind, at first. What troubled the city rarely troubled the monastery, after all, and the guards would find the culprit before long. And they did, but the culprit was killed in the ensuing struggle. No tragedy in anyone’s eyes. Well, it wouldn’t have been. If it had stopped there. The next day, one of the guards who fought with the original killer was found by his neighbours weeping over the corpse of his wife… With his hand embedded in her chest. When other guards arrived at the scene, he apparently went mad, fighting and killing the few guards who had come with his bare hands. It was like a madness that spread throughout the city, but only to a single person - usually a man - at a time. The killer would be found, there would be a massacre, the killer would end up dead, but the next day there would be a new killer. The city was consumed by it over the span of a single week. Many fled, many more perished. The monastery was the last to be affected, more by virtue of its isolation from the rest of the city than anything else, I think. We rarely left, so who was there to be afflicted by the madness? But, inevitably, it did happen. I remember smelling smoke. There had been some fires in the city, but this smelt closer. I looked around, and saw the source right away: The hall of techniques was on fire. I dropped my watering can and ran inside the burning building. That might sound like the opposite of what you should do in this sort of event, but I knew a technique that made my body resistant to fire, so it wasn’t able to hurt me, and as I mentioned practitioners are able to hold their breaths for significant lengths of time. My first concern was that there might be people inside that didn’t know these techniques, people that might be suffering in the fire. To my dismay, however, what I found inside the building was a melee amidst the flames, the hall’s custodian howling with laughter as he unleashed flurried blows against several other monks. As I mentioned, the monks at the monastery were far superior to ordinary people in every physical aspect, but most of us didn’t know how to fight. At that moment, somehow, the pacifistic custodian did, and he was overwhelming the others with ease. For a long second I stood, shocked into inaction at the scene unfolding before me. But before long the custodian noticed me and brought the fight to me, despite my indecision. I was outmatched. I understood that instantly. It wasn’t necessarily that he was stronger or faster than me, although he was by a bit. But he predicted my every attack, knew where I was going to move before my feet even shifted, tricked me right into the path of a falling beam. Wounds accumulated rapidly on my body, stymied only by my equally rapid healing techniques. Even after the others re-joined the fight, the advantage of numbers only let us stay our ground. Then, something like a gust of wind blew through the hall, extinguishing the roaring fire in an instant. It was the head monk, Farvald. In mere moments he had the rampaging monk restrained, holding the man’s hands behind his back in an iron grip. For the barest of instants, I thought it was over. He would be locked away somewhere for the rest of his life, and things would slowly return to normal. But Farvald underestimated the ruthlessness of the deranged monk. We all did. With a sudden, wrenching movement of his arms, he tore out of Farvald’s grip – leaving both his hands behind. With stumped wrists gushing blood, he embraced Farvald and smashed his head against the head monk’s. The impact caused Farvald to fall backwards, but didn’t do much actual damage. Not so for the madman, whose skull had caved in. As the light faded from his eyes, his expression changed from an insane grin to intense fear and he flung himself backwards - into me. After that one last movement, he didn’t move again, slumping down onto the floor. I felt a huge rush of something pouring into me followed by a suffocating, claustrophobic sensation, as if I was stuffed into something not designed to contain me. Then I exploded into motion, but I wasn’t the one moving me, if that makes sense. I was just a spectator in my own body, unable to stop what my body was doing, unable to even close my eyes. My hand shot forward as I looked on in silent horror, Farvald still not comprehending that I was now his enemy even as my forefinger pierced through his eye and burrowed deep into his head. Whoever or whatever was controlling my actions wasted no time in attacking the other monks still there. When I finally left the hall, my arms were encased entirely in blood. Needless to say, nobody was left alive. What happened next was a slaughter, a bloodbath, killing anyone and everyone that I crossed paths with. Within my mind, screaming wordlessly as everything I had ever known and loved was torn apart by my own two hands, one question plagued my mind: Why won’t you let me die? I shouted it, soundlessly, over and over. Somehow, I knew he could hear me, but he just grinned all the harder and kept on killing. It wasn’t until long after that I figured out why he didn’t kill me, move onto another, stronger body. It would have made what he did much easier. I knew he could; I’d seen it happen, felt it happen. It was because I cared. I cared about my fellow monks, I cared about the children, I cared about the goats and even the flowers, heaven knows I spent enough of my life helping them grow. Simply put, he took pleasure in my pain. Revelled in it. It’s what he did, found someone and made them rip apart the things they loved with their own two hands just because he enjoyed their cries and screams. Through my body, he killed a lot of people that day. Eventually enough people in the monastery realised what was happening, banded together and planned to capture me. They thought I had been possessed by a demon, or something of the sort. Perhaps I was. I still don’t know who or what the being inside me was, originally, except that it was – probably – a man. Regardless, they had pieced together somehow that killing me would only make things worse, and so intended to lock me away forever. Against all expectations, he, I, we, however you might call it, fled. Evidently, he thought that it might work. He fled the city where I had lived my whole life, now practically destroyed, and continued along the road to the next city for a good hour. Then he stopped, and I suddenly realised that I had control over my own body again, although I could still feel his presence, lurking in my mind. My body was covered in wounds, my clothes little more than tattered rags. I think he knew a little bit about using Ki, but not much, so he hadn’t even been healing himself, just taking everything that was thrown at him without a care in the world. It wasn’t his body, I suppose. I started to heal myself, but then I paused. Did I want to? If I died out there, in the middle of the road with nobody around, maybe he wouldn’t have anyone to take over. It had seemed like he had needed his old body to be in contact with my body to transfer over, so would he die, truly and completely? I didn’t know. Maybe he would just move on to the nearest person, and my death would just be one small blip in his murder spree. Then again, maybe I didn’t care. My world had been ripped apart, after all. I had nothing left to hold on to. I raised a hand and stabbed it towards my heart, only for it to stop just above the surface of my skin. He had taken control again. My mouth opened, and he spoke. “Your life is mine to take.” Then my body was mine once again. I tried again a few times after that, with much the same results. I gave up before long, and healed my body. I would try and turn from the road to walk away from civilised land, away from people he could hurt, but he would turn me back every time. After the first couple attempts he started breaking arms or legs as punishment. I could heal them, but the pain was still agonising. So, we continued down the road. There was a stream, where I cleaned off my body, and we came across some other people, who he killed and took the clothes of. Not looking so much like I had taken a bath in blood, we actually managed to get into the city without much problem, although I doubt he would have cared much if we were barred access. At the time, he didn’t take control over my body, and I was free to go where I wanted. As such, I went to the church. I knew nobody in this city would be able to stop him, or if there was someone who could, I didn’t know it. My only hope was the gods. So, I prayed silently. The priests offered to help me, but I ignored them. They would only think me mad if I told them the truth – so would I, if someone had told me the same only a few days before. For some reason, he didn’t stop me. No doubt he assumed that there would be no reply, and he was right, for the most part. I prayed at dozens of altars to dozens of gods, telling them the terror that dwelled within my body, what it could do and that I would give anything to stop it. It had taken away my life, and then wouldn’t even let me die. You could say I held a bit of a vested interest in seeing it stopped, no matter the cost. It wasn’t until I stood at the altar of the god of death, questioning the fate that had brought me to this, that I heard a voice whispering into my mind. “The god of death?” The man sitting across from me questions, his tea now sitting cold in front of him. Such a waste. “Of all the gods, he was the one to reply?” “Thinking back, it’s not such a surprise that he did.” I shrug. “Of course, it is always a surprise when a god communicates with any mortal, but if one were to be interested in my situation, it would be he. It turned out, after all, that I was possessed by a wrathful lingering spirit, which was perfectly in his domain.” “Never replies when I have something to say.” The man grumbles. “But anyway, some sort of vengeful ghost, is it? Never heard of anything like that, at least nowhere near that dangerous.” I nod. “I should certainly hope not. No, this one is completely unique, I doubt another of its kind will ever emerge. Probably only the god of death himself knows what terrible circumstances bore this specific monster.” “That’s good. Dealing with something like that would suck.” He muses, before casually saying something terrifying. “Though, I’d probably just encase them in molten iron or teleport them into the depths of space or something like that.” “Good thing there’s no need for that.” I caution. “Yeah, you seem to have it covered.” He nods. “Anyway, god of death. What happened there?” Yes, of course. The god of death informed me about the being inhabiting my body and offered me a solution: he would make me immortal. If I never die, then the spirit would never be able to pass to another. I would be its prison for eternity. “The god of death could’ve just destroyed it though. I mean, he’s the god of death.” He interrupts again. “Why didn’t he do that?” “I couldn’t say, I’m not the god of death.” I reply. I had asked myself the same question enough times. He shrugs. “Fair enough.” Regardless of his reasons, that was the offer he gave. Few are aware, but the god of death is not just the god of death, but also the god of sacrifice, or more specifically, self-sacrifice. His offer was true to his names. I was hesitant. If I accepted, then wouldn’t the spirit be able to live forever, controlling me? But the god of death reassured me that the spirit was not as strong as it made itself seem. It could only actually control me for about an hour every day before growing tired and having to recuperate. It’s because of this that I’m able to be isolated as I am. I am perfectly capable of leaving this valley, but even if he takes over me and does so, there’s nowhere he can go, nobody to hurt out here. Once he tires, I return. Once I understood that, I agreed, and I became immortal. Then I found myself a map, and left for the place that seemed the most remote, the most abandoned. He tried to stop me, but I realised at that point that he had already used up most of his time for that day. He broke my arms, legs, whatever he could to stop me, but I just healed and kept moving. I tried entombing myself a few times, collapsing a mine while I was still in it and such. I would be buried beneath a mountain, but still alive. Unable to breathe, see, eat or drink, but alive. But eventually, he dug his way out. It never held for long. Isolation ended up being the best choice. Eventually, after years of him trying to control me through pain, I grew numb to it. Now, he can’t hurt even me. I built myself a little house, out here in this valley that no normal person can reach, dug a well, grew myself a little garden, made myself a tea set from the clay… He does have a bit of a fit every now and again, but I can rebuild. As you said yourself, I have the time. I have kept practicing with Ki over the many years, paying specific attention to the resilience of certain parts of my body and neglecting others intentionally. As I stand today, even my eyes and the flesh of my ears, throat, tongue, chest and every other vulnerable place are stronger than mithril. As for my limbs, they are hardly even as strong as iron. Even if he tried, he’s no longer able to kill me, because I’m not able to. And he has tried, the few times before when people have ventured here. That’s my life, nowadays. Simple, but not unfulfilling. I have my garden, the songs of birds, and bed to sleep on. That’s enough for me. I drink the last of my tea. The teapot is now empty, save for the sodden clump of leaves at the bottom. “Well, that’s a story and a half, alright.” He nods. I shrug. “I’ll understand if you don’t believe me.” “Nah, I believe you.” He says easily. “I have ways of telling if people are lying. And trust me, when it comes to unbelievable stories, mine takes the cake.” “Oh?” I raise an eyebrow. “Would you care to reciprocate by telling your own tale, then?” “Sure.” He nods. “I don’t have the whole ‘old man regaling the young’uns with his stories’ thing down pat yet, though. Honestly speaking, I’ve mostly been rather tight-lipped about it all, so I guess you could say storytelling isn’t much of my thing.” “There’s always time left to learn, isn’t there?” I say. “That there is.” He agrees with a wry smile. “My story, well, it’s a bit different to most people’s…” jinxs2011 At least it had a good ending, right? I'm not all doom and gloom, I swear. They just picked the dark one. Totally blaming discord. Yep. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki

jinxs2011 Well, this took a little bit longer than I expected, but still significantly less time than the last few chapters, which is good. I have now finished writing up chapter summaries on the wiki for all the chapters (with the exception of this one, currently), and I'm glad I don't have to do that again. Was a pain. I had hoped to get more into character interaction this chapter, but it seems my attention was naturally pulled again into Gerald and his actions. Next chapter, definitely. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki And with that, I have said all that I wanted to say. I hope you enjoy. Chapter 40: It’s Time To D-D-D-Duel Some Fools A halfling, an elf, a fairy, and a fork. We make for a strange bunch, to say the least, and none of us look physically imposing. I don’t want to sound cynical… But it was only a matter of time before someone tried to pick on us. I wasn’t expecting it to happen when it did, as we were walking down one of the hallways towards the library, but it wasn’t too surprising - the hallway was empty, and they obviously thought it was the perfect opportunity. The three of them, going in the opposite direction, deliberately barged into us as we were walking, immediately knocking Iueia to the ground, light as he is. Immediately, the large boy leading the trio says menacingly, “Get out of our way, pipsqueaks, or someone’s gonna get hurt.” In response, Lamar punches him straight in the face, breaking his nose. He looks ready to move onto the other ones, so I hurriedly pull on him with telekinesis. “Lamar, stop!” I exclaim. “Injuring other students outside of the duelling grounds is grounds for fines or expulsion!” Lamar pauses, and they guy he punched reels back, wiping blood from his nose. “Like I care, idiot. Nobody knows we’re here! Trash their asses!” He snarls. His two friends raise their fists. “Nobody except the teacher that will round the corner behind us in ten seconds.” I reply. The three of them pause for a moment, before one of the others says, “You’re lying. No way you could know that.” “Well, you’ll only have to wait about three more seconds to find out.” I say. The utter certainty in my voice actually makes them stop for a few seconds and look at the hallway intersection, some twenty meters behind us. Iueia takes the opportunity to get back up. A couple seconds later, a woman in the distinctive teacher’s robe steps around the corner. “Got lucky this time, pipsqueak.” The leading boy spits, turning around and starting to walk back the other way. “Next time, you won’t be.” “Then how about we settle this in a duel?” I call after them. They stop. “A duel?” Their leader turns. “You’re on, fork boy.” …That was a good pun, but the sad thing is, I don’t think he intended it to be what it was. “Is there a problem here?” A voice comes from behind us. Spark starts saying, “Yeah, they - Mmh!” Of course, if the teacher found out about Lamar breaking a student’s nose, whatever the situation, it wouldn’t be ideal, so I force his mouth shut with telekinesis. “No problem, miss.” I say calmly. “We have decided to settle our dispute in an official duel.” “Is this true?” She asks, looking at the other boy’s group. “Yes, miss.” He says, without even a hint of the aggression his voice held before. She narrows her eyes, looking between our two groups. “If it reassures you, you could escort us to the duelling grounds.” I propose. The teacher looks to her wrist: at a watch-like magical tool. Wish I had one. “I have a few minutes spare.” She nods. “But quickly now.” The teacher hastens us towards the duelling grounds, and only leaves us once she’s found the teacher overseeing duels and brought us to them. “Let me guess, a duel between the two of your groups?” The teacher asks. “Yeah.” Says the leader of the other group. “Actually, I was thinking more me versus their group.” I reply. A barrage of rebuttals comes from behind me. “Wait, what?” Iueia says, confused. Lamar furrows his brows. “What are you doing, Gerald?” “Are you insane?” Spark sputters. “Insane? Not since I was about eight months old.” I reply. “Just trust me on this.” “Something’s not right here. He’s too confident.” One of them whispers. “It’s a one on three now, what more advantage do you want?” I say to them. “How about I keep one arm tied behind my back – oh, wait, I don’t have any.” “Alright, no more arguing.” The teacher cuts in. “Is the duel happening or not?” “Yeah. Yeah, it’s happening. If only to get that guy to shut up.” Their leader replies. We register our names and races, and because I’m such a nice guy, I pay the duel fee – fifty Rho. I carry my card and library card most of the time, just in case. The fee covers use of the duelling room, teacher supervision and healing, if necessary. It’s also a deterrent for people using the duels to settle every single argument and crowd the rooms twenty-four seven. As it is, there are several rooms available. We get guided to one of them, a small one, since as first year students we don’t really need large amounts of space. We enter, along with the duel referee, and take up our positions at opposite ends of the room. On the surface, these rooms look exactly like the practice rooms, but functionally they’re anything but. “Do you want this duel to be private or open?” The referee asks. “Open.” I answer. “My friends outside will want to watch.” The referee looks to the other group, who collectively shrug. The referee pushes a button on the controller in his hands. There’s no visible change, but I know that the walls are now like a one-way mirror – we can’t see out, but they can see and hear what’s going on in here. Naturally, there is magic in place to block out light and sound beyond a certain intensity and volume. “Activating dampener.” The referee says, and I drop to the ground. “Are you okay?” He asks, concerned. “Don’t worry, I knew this would happen.” I reassure him. “My flight is based on a psychic ability.” The rooms also negate non-magical abilities: ki, psi, and so on. This is to ensure that the duels are based purely on magical skill and power. Having read through the rule book long ago, I was well aware of this. Knowledge is power. I know all about my opponents: students in their third term, they took identical classes to ensure they stayed together. They are magically gifted, but not academically so, and have had difficulty in their learning, which led to them doing only three classes in their current and previous term. They specialise in fire elemental destruction magic, and also know some earth magic. They’re vocal casters, and as far as I can tell, they’re at pretty low levels. I know practically everyone in this school, except for people who stay in cloaked areas most of the time, like teachers, librarians, alchemists, artificers and so on. On the other hand, they know absolutely nothing about me, besides the obvious. “Very well. Then, if both parties are ready…” The referee prompts. The others nod. I say, “Ready.” The referee nods. “Then let the duel begin in 3, 2, 1, go!” My opponents act as soon as they hear the word go, their lips moving to cast a spell, but I move quicker, beginning to act the very moment he finishes enunciating the word ‘go’. The very first thing I do is form a magic circle in front of me using my mana, completing it almost instantly. A blinding light emanates from it, causing them to curse and cover their eyes. As the one closest to it, I naturally am the one who gets the most light in my eye, but it does nothing but cause my ‘eye’ to become blind for a few moments, while I can still see perfectly through mana sight. I send out three balls of mana, not dense enough to be visible to normal sight, towards the three of them. They aren’t travelling particularly fast, so before they manage to reach, the three of them have recovered and started casting. From the sound of it, they’re casting fireballs. I can probably take them without taking much damage, but it’d be stupid to risk that for no reason. Drawing out some more mana, I create another formation in front of myself, creating a small wall of earth that blocks the fireballs. Since they have no actual mass or force, even something like this can stop them. Normally, even the excess heat from blocking this would be enough to burn, but I don’t burn. Seeing my wall, two of them split off to the sides to attack from an unblocked angle. Remembering that assignment I had for earth magic a while ago, I form another formation, creating walls all around me. At this point, my mana has reached each of them, so I begin shaping them into formations beneath their very feet, unbeknownst to them. I start with the one to my left for no particular reason. The formation this time is a simple fire spell, but I turn up the heat. Almost immediately, the bottom of his robes catch alight, and he starts to scream in pain as his legs burn. I wince internally. “Samuel eliminated!” The referee calls out. Hearing that, I stop the spell, and he is carried away to the referee, who extinguishes the fire with ease and starts to heal him. I start forming the second formation under their leader’s feet but abandon it in mere seconds as he casts some sort of fire or heat resistance spell – another weakness of vocal magic is that it can give your opponent an idea of what magic you’re casting. I mean, assuming the opponent can see your formation, they can theoretically do the same thing, but it’s much more difficult. Since the leader was a no-go, I instead opt for the third, who apparently either isn’t able to cast the same spell or didn’t realise that it’s a good idea, and instead hurls another useless fireball at me. Soon after, he is eliminated as well. Only the leader remains, and fire magic isn’t an option. My offensive options with earth magic are limited. Unlike fire, earth has relatively large weight, so making it a projectile is currently outside of my realm of abilities. Light magic is a delaying tactic at best. But does that mean I’m out of offensive options? Not in the slightest. As he creates an earthen spike and starts to stride towards me with a smile that says he’s already won – as if he could actually damage me with that – it is the re-emergence of an old skill, seldom used in actual combat. Say hello to my old friend: magic missile. A dozen needles of mana form in the air above me. His eyes widen; the mana is condensed sufficiently to be visible to the human eye. I send them speeding towards him. With a cry of “Earth wall”, he creates just that, obviously thinking that would block them. He is gravely mistaken. While I may not be able to control a dozen needles individually, it’s well within my abilities to have them split to either side around the wall and back at him. I should also mention that the mana that was originally going to go into the formation beneath where he was standing didn’t just dissipate; I wasn’t going to waste mana like that. I held it in the cloud-like shape it was in until now, when I form into another half-dozen needles coming at him from the rear. He’s not wearing armour. His clothing isn’t even that thick. None of the needles are particularly powerful, but each of them is enough to penetrate about a centimetre deep. Nothing life-threatening, particularly as I avoided all of his internal organs and arteries, but more than enough to stop him from continuing the fight. With every limb and his torso peppered with puncture wounds, he’d have to have fighting spirit to be able to put up a fight now – and he really isn’t the type to have fighting spirit. Not to mention he’s out of mana. “Maurice eliminated! Gerald wins!” The referee announces, quickly pressing a button on his controller. I feel the restriction on my psi lifting, and I lift myself back into the air, letting all my spells and magic missiles dissipate. I hadn’t moved from my starting position. I still have over half my mana. I doubt they’ll bother us again. The door opens back up, and I head out. The others are just outside, of course, and they stare at me, slack jawed. “So, we were heading to the library?” I say. It’s almost the end of term and similarly, nearly the end of the year. I’m in Dreyer’s house at the other world, practicing a bit of Terran. I probably won’t practice it much more, I think I’ve got it pretty much down for the most part. Maybe I’ll start learning Ignitae. “Gerald?” Dreyer says, coming through the portal. “Are you busy?” “Not really, what’s up?” I reply. “Well, I’ve been back at the academy for nearly half a year now,” Dreyer starts, sitting down at the table, “and I’ve been thinking that it’s about time I’m off again.” “As in, you’re going world jumping?” I ask, just to confirm. “Yeah. I wanted to give you some notice in advance, since you pretty much live here.” Dreyer replies. “I’m planning to go after this term ends.” “Guess I’ll need to pay for a bunk in the dorm.” I muse. “Shouldn’t be a problem. Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you travel to different worlds?” Dreyer nods. “Almost every world I go to has a particular focus. A particular ability or skill, or idea that the whole world focuses on. The elemental worlds are the most obvious examples, so obvious that they’re outside of the norm. But even Arbadak – magic. Here, it’s all forest, not that I’ve explored much. I’ve seen worlds where almost every warrior uses the same weapon, societies where seamsters are considered nobles. I want to find out why that is.” “That is odd.” I reply. “Something like that can’t be a natural occurrence, not if it’s almost every world and with varied focuses. Something or someone would have to cause it.” “That’s what I thought.” Dreyer agrees. “My best guess so far is that it’s the gods. But anything related to the gods is difficult to dig into.” “I can imagine.” I reply. “So, when do you think you’ll be back?” Dreyer shrugs. “Hard to say. Whenever I feel it’s time. Probably over a year.” “I suppose I won’t see you for a while, then.” I say. “Well, thank you for bringing me here, and best of luck on your journeys.” “And to you in your studies.” He replies. The dorm isn’t expensive, but it is one more expense than I had before and they’re slowly adding up. Not a problem right now, but at some point I’ll have to find a source of income. At the same time as organising that, I update my information with the academy to include my new residence. I don’t have many possessions, so it doesn’t take long to move them from the house to the dorm. I just have some ink, paper, a few pencils and my cards. This room houses six people, with each having a bed, a desk, a chair and a couple of drawers underneath the bed. The bed itself I won’t be using, obviously, and the chair I don’t have a need for either. Just the desk itself and the drawers, for storage. … The end of term rolls around again. I pass, of course. The basic classes are easy enough, so long as you put some effort in. Shortly after, the time comes for Dreyer to leave. He’s the only person I know who knows about space magic, so before he goes, I ask what kind of magic I would have to learn before learning space magic. I didn’t expect it to be easy, but the list he gives me is quite extensive: The six elemental magics and their languages at a minimum of advanced level, basic sympathetic magic, some type of summoning magic at basic level, scrying or divination magic, expert formation development, basic alchemy and chemical magic, basic artificing, the Arcane language and finally the Spacitus language. Excluding classes for the languages, as I would rather self-teach those, that makes at least seventeen classes. Pretty much three terms if I do six a term, and some of those don’t sound simple in and of themselves. Not to mention, there are other classes I want to do. I want to learn at least two types of barrier magic, some basic restoration magic, some good illusion magic – part of why I’m learning light magic, actually – at least advanced artificing, force magic, expert mana control… The list just grows, making for around twenty-five classes, over a full year of classes even in ideal conditions. It seems that I won’t be returning to Odwia for a while yet. At the library, I try and figure out what to do with my break. I have seven languages to learn, so that’s certainly going to be part of it. Ignitae first, probably. Fact of the matter is that I don’t want to learn languages in a class – they would go too slow. I also don’t want to learn from a tutor, I’m not really comfortable meeting with people one on one, especially people I don’t know. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t need to learn how to speak the languages. I’m not a vocal caster, and who in the world would use magical languages to converse? Heck, probably some people, but I have a translation skill for that. I know for a fact that Dreyer doesn’t use vocal magic either, so I probably only need to learn the written languages. And that, I can do on my own. It’s how I learnt most of the Terran language – it was how I learnt most of the English language, for that matter. The school system doesn’t really account for kids who like to read in their free time, so I ended up learning most words from context while reading every work of fiction I could get my little hands on. Perhaps I could also read some more general, but still educational, books? How about this one… ‘Materials and You’, on various metals and materials involved in magic. Liquid conductors of mana… Common ink, not very conductive, but easy to get, boring – I’m paraphrasing this, obviously… Water, similarly bad, apparently… Magic water, here we go. General name of the fluid mixed from water and powdered mana crystals, conductivity depends on the grade of the crystals crushed, can be quite good but also quite expensive… Monster blood, depends on how magical the monster was and a number of other factors, can be difficult to obtain, but when obtained is often obtained in bulk… There are various specific fluids that are good with specific types of magic… water from a stream, a swamp, floating islands – wait, seriously? Cool. – ancient battlefields, so on and so forth… Dragon’s blood. Forking dragon’s blood. Extremely mana conductive, but obviously near impossible to obtain. Solid conductors of mana… Dirt, chalk, stone and all that’s pretty bad… Iron and most other metals are barely any better… Electrum, natural alloy of gold and silver, not bad… Mana crystals, can have good conductivity depending on their grade, but their shape is very difficult to change, very good mana storage… Mithril, fairly rare and expensive, hardness improves according to the held mana, and has quite good mana capacity and conductivity… Adamantium, very rare and expensive. Extremely tough, but a worse conductor than even dirt, adamantium naturally rejects mana, and it is often used to create magic resistant items… Orichalcum, extremely rare, extremely tough, among the best known materials in terms of mana capacity and conductivity… Woah, catch this: Indestructite. Literally indestructible. Only a few small samples have ever been found or heard of. Every attempt to damage or alter the form of a sample has failed, even with the method known as ‘spatial severance’, courtesy of the esteemed Theodore Glynphael. Every attempt to conduct mana through indestructite has failed. Now that is something I want to absorb. There isn’t a section on gasses, but it does note that mana can’t move through a vacuum. Important to note. Well, that’s half an hour gone. What now? The thing is, there are so many different things that can be done in magic, so many different things to learn, that after the basic class – which is practically an introduction to the magic – the more advanced classes are more specialised. So you don’t just have ‘advanced fire magic’, you have ‘advanced fire illusion magic’, ‘advanced fire destruction magic’ and so on. Now, here’s the problem. Sometimes, it’s not so easy to classify magic. For example, the magic I used a while ago to create earthen walls, most people would say that’s creation magic. But what if I created that in mid-air and dropped it on someone’s head? Destruction magic. If that doesn’t convince you, consider the classic stone spike that you chuck at your enemy. Only difference between that and the wall is shape. The fundamental components of the formation are identical. It’s not just creation and destruction that have overlap, either. What would you say if I said that the academy has healers that specialise in destruction magic? It’s true. Most healing is alteration magic, actually, increasing the body’s ability to heal itself or resistance to diseases. True restoration healing is very difficult and very powerful, I hear. It’s the only type of magic that can heal missing limbs and the like. My point here is that anything you learn in any field here has possible applications outside of its normal context. I suppose I should clarify the formal definitions of the different schools, albeit concisely. Creation, magic that creates something purely from magic. Even things like fireballs technically fall under this. Alteration, magic that changes the properties of something that already exists. That could be shape, hardness or any number of other things. Among other things, elemental manipulation, like the sort that mole beastwoman did at the athletics carnival, falls under this. Restoration, magic that returns something to a former state. Some healing magic and other, more peculiar magic, like divining the past fall into this category. Destruction, magic that harms and damages something. You get the picture. Summoning, magic that calls something (often someone) to your location, usually through a medium or catalyst. What the mole beastwoman did with those earth elementals was summoning magic, and so is what Dreyer did to me, although his method is more of an outlier than the norm. Illusion, magic that affects the senses or perception. A good example of this one would be my ‘eye’ magic tool. It seems a bit easier learning Ignitae than it was learning Terran. Maybe it’s because I’m not bothering with speaking the language, or maybe it’s because I now have some experience learning a language. I’ve been reading a lot of miscellaneous books: books on monsters, on ki, on psi, on the system, and so on. So much interesting information. Apparently, as you level up, the system allows you more access to commands, which is probably why it took me so long to find the games – I didn’t have access. There’s also a title you can get at fifty skills that allows you to rearrange your skills. I’m quite looking forward to that, I’m only eight skills out from it and my status is already quite messy. There are also some skills and titles relating to the party system, ones that do things like increasing the party limit, allow the leader to see stats like health and mana, and some other useful things. I… Really don’t see myself ever getting or using those sorts of skills. A new year comes around and with it, a new term. I pick out my new classes. Unfortunately, due to some timetable clashes, I’m not able to do all the classes I was planning on doing, but that’s alright. The order isn’t critical, not right now. What I end up with is: advanced fire destruction magic, advanced earth summoning magic, advanced light creation magic, basic darkness magic, basic water magic and advanced formation development. I have a lot of things I want to learn, and the problem is that I don’t know exactly how to learn them. What I want to do with light magic, I’m not sure whether it would be categorised under creation or illusion magic. I think creation is more likely, so that’s what I picked, but if it ends up being illusion magic, I’m just going to look through the library to teach myself what I need. My hope for earth summoning magic is to get a helper that can do the heavy lifting for me. Right now, my single greatest weakness is, well, I’m physically weak. Since my body can’t actually get stronger, and I don’t know how to make telekinesis that much stronger, this seems like the simplest way. Fire magic, uh, it’s pretty obvious why I’m doing that one. “And remember, instead of the usual assignment half-way through term, we’ll be having an outing to exterminate monsters as a more practical test of your progress.” The teacher of my fire magic class says, finishing up the lesson. “Must be nice, learning everything so easily.” Joyce mutters from the desk next to me as she packs up her things. I never really paid much attention to her. Doesn’t matter to me if she has a bone to pick with me, so long as she doesn’t throw it. “Must be nice, sleeping.” I remark as I leave. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6314.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 4.37% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.13% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 18.42%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 83.94% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 24.57% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.36% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 57.26% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.30% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.60% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Earth magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 86.11% - You have a basic grasp of earth magic. Formation casting (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 3.02% - You have a good grasp of casting magic through formations. Slight increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Creation magic (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 62.14% - You have a basic grasp of creation magic. Light magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 89.83% - You have a basic grasp of light magic. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 23.12% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.16% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 13.19% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Fire magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 91.76% - You have a basic grasp of fire magic. Destruction magic (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 48.34% -  You have a basic grasp of destruction magic. Ignitae language – Written (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive), 49.35% - You have a large vocabulary despite your inexperience, and can recognise most individually written words. Given enough time, you can grasp the meaning of most of the things you read. Metallurgy (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 87.24% - You have decent theoretical knowledge of metals and alloys, but lack practical experience. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 56.18% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 I hope you enjoyed. It's been a while since there's been any action. Gerald just wanted some peace and quiet. Y'all are too cruel. But trouble has a way of finding those who seek to escape it. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki

jinxs2011 Alright, finally finished another chapter. Obviously, the 'writing a bit everyday' thing didn't work out. On the plus side, I've now been seeing a psychologist for a while and I'm on some medication and in general feeling quite a bit better than I used to. I'm happy to hear people enjoyed that last side story. As for the people who have said in the past that they don't like the side stories because they 'don't relate to the main story' or somesuch... Well, let's just say some people reading closely may start connecting a few dots soon. Now, for reviews. Spoiler None since the one I mentioned a couple chapters ago, but apparently I missed one by Fiend: Spoiler I hope to all thats forking holy u read this author I was the biggest fan of this novel when you wrote it, in fact one of your first few readers. I was intrigued on how you can make an inanimate table ware object so f**king interesting story wise Something that cant talk, walk, sleep. Losing its mind was the funniest sh*t. I was enjoying following it along on its adventures... until u f**king killed it Ok objectively speaking, the route u followed wasnt bad, but there were far too many filler stories. Like the captain on the boat, you almost lost me. Then came the necromacner story, The pov switch was truly disappointing. Disappointing cant even describe what you did next though. You took it down the cliche forking academy route i hope you go down a more kingdom building route [collapse] Pretty sure I've addressed most of your points there already at some time or another. Yes, honestly speaking I'm not proud of my handling of Richard and the related story. Hopefully at some point, maybe after I've finished the novel, I'll go back and retouch some lines to make it make more sense and feel better. As for the necromancer and POV switches, while I don't know exactly what you're referring to there, there's a few different reasons for that sort of thing. First, while Gerald can see an awful lot around him, he's not all-seeing, and neither can he read minds. Therefore, there's alot of facets to different characters, places, events, perspectives that just don't make sense to mention from Gerald's perspective. Sometimes, I feel like I won't ever get a chance to mention things that are important to the scene or the story unless I mention the from somebody else's perspective. I also believe that the 'enemies' and 'villains' of a story shouldn't just be two dimensional road blocks in the path of the protagonist, and should have their own thoughts and motives as to why they do things. Again, much of this sort of thing can't be shown from the protagonist's perspective - it often doesn't make sense for the protagonist and antagonist to stop and have a chat. As for the 'cliche academy route', how else would you have me write him learning magic? The 'cliche magic savant making it up as he goes', or maybe the 'cliche mysterious teacher living estranged from the world'? Chill. As for a kingdom building route... You want the literal fork, the paranoid loner who isn't great at interacting with others, let alone leading and managing them, who cannot reproduce... to build a kingdom? ??? [collapse] Novel Discord and Novel Wiki. Wiki now up to date (apart from this chapter) including side stories. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Chapter 46: To See The Sunset Again “Evening.” Floating just over the surface of the rocky peak of the mountain, I call out casually. “Do you mind if I stay here for a bit? I can go to the next mountain over if not, it’s just that this one is closest to the academy.” The place would look deserted to most casual observers, but I can see the high elven girl sitting behind a boulder, out of line of sight of the path up to the top, as well as her bodyguards spread around the area. She jumps in surprise, probably not having heard me fly up, gets up and steps out from behind the boulder. Her eyebrows raise upon seeing me. “You are… Gerald, correct? For what reason have you come here?” This time it’s my turn to be surprised. I hadn’t expected her to know my name. “To see the sunset. Is the view good from here?” “Of course.” She replies. “But do you really expect me to believe that is why you are here?” “I don’t really care either way.” I state, getting my ‘eye’ into a suitable position on my body and settling myself down on a rock to wait. “It won’t change the sunset. Speaking of, has it started? I can’t tell without activating this, and I want the first thing I see to be the sunset.” I raise the eye up to indicate it before setting it back down in position. “You are blind? I apologise, I had not heard.” She bows her head slightly. “Don’t worry about it, I don’t exactly act like it – and completely colour-blind is more accurate.” I reply. “It’s complicated. The academy let me borrow a magic tool to let me see and read things, but suffice to say it’s a little short-sighted. So, I’ve been working on making my own… And today’s the day. Or, well, night.” “The sunset is starting.” She says quietly, looking out into the distance. “Thank you.” I send a tendril of mana into my magic tool, activating it. I had already tested it at the academy, making sure it would work and all. But still, as my ‘eye’ ‘opens’, all I can think is that it is, truly, beautiful. Waves of clouds bathed in red stretch out above me into the distance, mirrored below after a way by the actual sea, reflecting some of the red of the sky. It’s clear to me that my ‘eye’ isn’t perfect. Some of the wisps and curls of the clouds and details of the terrain are lost to me, but still – I did it. Finally, after over two years of darkness, without colour, unable to see the green of a leaf or the brown of soil, finally, finally, I did it. I can see. I can see, and nobody can take that away from me again. “They say that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” I speak peacefully, still looking at the sky. “I never realised how true that saying was until it happened to me.” Although I have no clue how it ties in to building parking lots. I’ve got a long way left to go, Things I want to do. I’ve come a long way, too. Have a lot of things to be thankful for. Maybe I’d be happier if I spent a bit more time appreciating things as simple as the sunset. We watch in silence for a while, the clouds slowly drifting across the sky and the sun dipping lower over the horizon. “So…” She hesitantly voices, “You can fly, yes? What’s it like?” “Wish I knew.” I reply wistfully. “But now I’ll be able to see the views, at least.” “I see…” She seems somewhat disappointed. Recomposing herself, she says, “Can I ask that you not reveal to anyone that I come here?” “Sure.” I agree easily. “No, really. I don’t want to have to find another place again.” She emphasizes. “Relax, I already said I wouldn’t tell anyone.” I reassure. “I get wanting to be alone. You’re royalty, so if anyone knew where you were people’d flock there, right? I get it. I’m antisocial, not an ass.” “Has anybody ever told you that you’re weird?” She says frankly. “When a high elf talks with a living fork, what exactly is normal?” I reply, uncaring. She blinks, not quite knowing how to respond to that. “By the way, I don’t think I ever got your name.” I note. I could just go through my memory and get it from someone who said it, but I couldn’t be bothered. “It’s Faida.” She replies reflexively, almost appearing shocked. “Well, nice to meet you, Faida.” I say. “Would you mind if I come here every now and again? The view here really is quite nice.” “…I suppose so.” She accedes after a couple moments of contemplation. “Thanks.” More time passes in silence, and the sky slowly grows darker. The twinkle of stars begins to peek out around and in between the clouds. I can hardly believe my singular artificial eye at the sight – literally. “Faida, does the lens on my eye have a defect, or do those stars have shapes?” I ask incredulously. “Yes, of course.” Faida nods with a hint of confusion. “Each star represents one of the gods, and bears their symbol.” “I… See. Nothing in the library mentioned this.” I say slowly. “Why would there be anything in the library about it? Everyone knows already.” Faida shrugs. This raises some big questions. Are these stars actual stars in the shape of these symbols, or just projections in the sky? If the former, that really says something about the strength of gods to be able to casually keep something of that mass in a specific shape. Is it the same way in Odwia, or hell? Or is it just here? If it is just here, why is this place different? And if it’s not just here, why is Earth different? “I think I need to build a telescope.” I mutter. As Gerald heads back to the academy, one of Faida’s flying guards lands and takes out a small book. They twist a gem on the cover about ninety degrees to the right, causing it to start blinking softly. By the shine of a simple light spell, they open the book and flip to an empty page, quickly writing in the date and time after referring to a magic tool from their pocket. ‘Your grace, I wish to make a report.’ After writing the simple line under the date, they don’t have to wait for long before more writing starts to appear on the page, as if written by an unseen hand. ‘Is Faida alright?’ Reads the reply. The guard sighs slightly. Had anything nefarious actually happened to their young ward, they would have begun their communication in an entirely different manner. They wouldn’t say that, however, and thus write, ‘Yes, your grace. The young lady is unharmed and in no danger. This report is of a different nature.’ ‘Very good. Continue.’ ‘The young lady spent this evening, as I have previously reported she is wont to do, at the peak of a mountain nearby the academy. Shortly before sunset, someone ascended the mountain and joined her at the peak. I thought I should report this because it had occurred once before, about half a year ago, and it seems probable that it may become a semi-frequent occurrence. That, and the uniqueness’ They shake their head as they write at the accuracy of the word that can’t be conveyed through simple text, ‘of the individual.’ ‘Don’t tell me some overzealous Earl’s son is trying to woo my daughter again.’ The frustrated reply comes. ‘No, your grace.’ The guard writes, unsurprised by the response. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. ‘I mean ‘unique’ in the most literal of senses. The individual is of an unknown species which takes the appearance of - and I do not jest - a table fork.’ This response takes longer to come than the ones before. ‘They say the worlds are full of strange and amazing things, but this is truly unexpected. What, then, are their intentions for meeting Faida?’ ‘They say that they are colour-blind, and had just completed a magical tool allowing them to see normally. They wanted to test it by viewing the sunset from a place with a good view. It is plausible, given that the mountain is the closest to the academy.’ The guard accedes. ‘They claim that they wish to return there occasionally to do the same again, which seems like a flimsy excuse to get closer to the young lady. If that was their goal, however, they are going about it in a very odd manner.’ ‘How so?’ ‘For the most part, they did exactly as they said, or at least perched on a rock facing the sunset. I didn’t sense them doing anything, excluding feeding mana into the magic tool they made and one they used to talk.’ The guard elaborates. ‘In fact, apart from initially greeting the young lady, they hardly pursued conversation at all. They claimed to not even know the young lady’s name, although if I remember correctly from their last meeting they recognised the young lady as a high elf, and the repercussions thereof.’ ‘Playing hard to get, perhaps? It would be something novel, at least. What do you know about this individual?’ The unseen respondent asks. ‘Not much, my grace. They go by Gerald, no other titles or even a family name that I know of. Hasn’t caused much of a stir at the academy, other than by appearance alone. They move around with some form of levitation. I’m unsure exactly what, except that it isn’t magical.’ The guard details. ‘The only other thing is that both times they met the young lady, I could sense him watching me the whole time. No hostility, just… Watching.’ ‘I see. I expect a full report of their background and capabilities next week. Otherwise, keep working as you have been - but keep a watchful eye on this Gerald.’ ‘Understood, your grace.’ With that final message, the guard waits a few seconds just in case something more is written, then closes the book and deactivates the gem on the cover. Both they and the recipient of the messages understood the possible implications of Gerald being able to see Faida’s guards and yet interacting with her anyway: It could be that he had no hostile intentions and thus assumed he had nothing to fear from them – or it could be that he didn’t see them as a threat. In actuality, it was a bit of a mixture of the two. Gerald, of course, has no reason to act against Faida. In the event that her guards acted against him, however, while he was in no way confident in defeating them, he was at least fairly sure he could flee safely to the academy, where they wouldn’t be able to act. Carefully adding another symbol to the formation, I set down the pencil and take a look at the result, thinking. I sigh internally as I realise that it will only complicate making the necessary subformations compatible and go to rub it out when I hear a knock on the door. A chair scrapes along the ground as one of my dormmates gets up to open the door. “Hey! Is Gerald in?” Comes a familiar voice. “Yeah, come in. He’s over at his desk.” He replies. “Finally!” Spark zips over before the others, wings a blur as he hovers next to my desk. “Do you know how much time we spent searching the library for you? The heck are you doing here!?” “Can’t have been more than twenty minutes, really.” Lamar shrugs as he walks. “Spark’s just impatient.” “Hey!” Spark shakes his fist at Lamar. “I’m not impatient, I just want to get going already!” Lamar rolls his eyes. “Well, we’ve found him now, so it’s all good!” Iueia says happily. “Whatcha workin’ on now? Didn’t you say you already finished your new eye?” “I finished the prototype, sure. But it doesn’t have all the features I want to include yet, it was more just to make sure what I was thinking of would work. Even the materials I made it with are kind of cheap and shoddy.” I explain. “Anyway, what’d you guys come find me for? If you want to do something I’m happy to take a break.” “Told you he’d come, Spark.” Lamar raises an eyebrow in satisfaction. “Well sorry if I thought mister workalot doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘break’.” Spark shrugs, shaking his head exaggeratedly. “Anyway!” Iueia interrupts. “We were thinking of heading into the city for the day, poking around some shops, seeing the sights, that sort of thing. You coming?” “Sure, let me just grab a couple things.” I agree simply. “I needed to go there at some point soon anyway.” “It won’t take long, will it?” Spark sighs. “We’re going out to have fun, not check out their library!” “They have one there?” I ask reflexively. “Never mind. Well, if we don’t end up having spare time for it, I’ll just go back to the city on my own tomorrow. No biggie.” “What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go!” Iueia starts pulling us out the door. Before long, we’re walking and flying along the road between the academy and the city, at our own pace. For people their age, and in Iueia’s case his size, I’m amazed how little things like this faze them. Maybe it’s just because I grew up in a much more sheltered and domesticated environment, while they grew up running around the countryside and whatnot. Or maybe it’s just magic and levels playing their part. “Some of my teachers have said that if we want to be able to do some of the more advanced spells, we’ll need to level up a bit and put some points into intelligence and wisdom.” Spark complains from where he sits on Iueia’s shoulder. “They’re saying getting to level ten or even fifteen would be ideal, but it’ll put such a dent in my savings.” “Yeah, same with mine.” Lamar nods. “I’m not too far off that already, though, so it shouldn’t be too bad buying the last few levels.” “You can buy levels?” I ask, surprised. “Sure.” Lamar shrugs. “Pay some adventurers some cash and they’ll add you to their party, let you get some of the experience from their kills. For higher level adventurers, it’s an easy way to get some extra cash off of weak monsters, because they wouldn’t get experience from them anyway.” “Didn’t you say you were starting to get a bit worried about money, Gerald?” Iueia looks at me in worry. “Are you going to have enough to spare?” “Yeah, you gonna be alright?” Spark flutters over to me. “I have enough that I could lend you a little if you need it, you know.” “Thanks guys, really, but I’ll be fine.” I chuckle. “I’m already over that level.” “Wait, what!?” Spark shouts. “Which level? Ten? Fifteen!? Come on, tell us!” “Yeah, you have to let us know!” Iueia agrees. Lamar doesn’t see anything, but I see him watching with great interest. “Fine.” I sigh. “But don’t tell anyone else this, alright?” “Of course.” Lamar nods seriously. “It’s not something that you can just let anyone know.” “Oobviiiooously!” Spark agrees exaggeratedly. “Now tell us already!” “Thirty-three.” I say. “Thirty-three!?” Spark shouts in shock. “You’re kidding!” “I’m really not. Show Spark level.” I reply. Spark pauses for a moment, hovering in the air. “He’s not kidding. How can you possibly have a level that high? You’re not that old – how old are you, even?” “Well, I used to help out an adventurer.” I explain. “We got into quite a few wild and dangerous messes. My level is just the result of surviving through them.” Lamar shakes his head in amazement. “No wonder you were so calm fighting those bullies back then. I thought you might’ve been faking it, but you didn’t even take them seriously, did you?” “If anyone takes duels at the academy seriously, they’re doing them for the wrong reasons. The whole point is to have a safe environment to learn how to fight.” I say simply. “As for those guys, a sick group of goblins could have killed them. How on earth would they scare me?” “That’s so cool!” Iueia cries. “Can you tell us about one of your adventures? Please?” Lamar nods. “I’d be interested in hearing, too. It’s still a while before we get there.” Iueia expresses his agreement as well. “Alright, I guess I can.” I think for a second how I should start the story. “I guess I should start with Ferdinand. He’s the adventurer I mentioned. He wasn’t powerful, or special or anything like that. He was just a guy who used to be a farmer who had some bad luck in life. Big heart, though. Kind. Anyway, we were on the road between two cities when I noticed…” “And, basically, that’s how I ended up here.” I finish. There’s a few moments of silence. “Okay, why’d you leave out all the cool bits?” Spark complains. “What cool bits?” I reply, confused. “We both nearly died a bunch of times, other people did die, and then I had to abandon him to stop a demonic invasion.” “I mean, when you put it that way…” Spark lowers his head. “Sorry.” “Don’t worry about it. That’s life.” I say. “Looks like we’re nearly there.” Lamar notes. “Finally! I can’t wait to see all the amazing things in the city!” Iueia says excitedly, his steps speeding up slightly. “By the way…” I start, noting something disconcerting just inside the city gate. “Have you guys ever seen these guys who say stuff like ‘would you like to become one with our lord and saviour?’” “Ugh, those guys are creepy.” Spark shudders. “My pops says they’re bad luck.” “Not just creepy, they can be really dangerous.” Iueia say seriously. “I heard of a village that kept trying to get rid of them, but a new one came back every time. Then, one day when someone passed through the village, everyone was saying those creepy things.” Lamar nods. “I’ve seen a lot of them too, travelling with my dad. I’ve heard stories. A village being sacrificed to some evil god but they left that person untouched, even armies avoiding them in sieges. Why d’you ask?” “Well, there’s one inside the gate. I also saw them in Odwia, and in Hell.” I say grimly. “Even demons avoid them.” “Even demons?” Lamar winces. “Damn.” “Who or what are those things? I always thought that they don’t feel like people. They look like people, they smell like people, but they don’t… don’t act like people, y’know?” Spark muses. “Yeah, they always say the same things, stand in the same place all the time…” Iueia agrees. “That’s not normal!” The conversation quickly shifts to other topics. Clearly, nobody is comfortable talking about them, a sentiment that seems to be shared by most people judging by how little I’ve noticed it happening. Before much longer we’re at the city gate. We pass through fairly simply due to our uniforms. Remembering our earlier conversation, the others look around and quickly notice the man proselytising to passers by. Perhaps noticing our gazes, the man turns to face us. “You are too young to join us. Return in a few years if you are interested. As for you…” He tilts his head, considering. “Gerald.” I feel a chill. How could he know my name? “You cannot become one with us. Still, perhaps we shall have dealings in the future.” He stares at me, unblinking. “At the risk of sounding offensive, I hope not.” I reply honestly. “We understand. If you change your mind, we are never far away.” He says, and with that, he stops paying attention to us. “What’d I tell you?” Spark whispers. “Those guys are creepy.” “Agreed.” I say shortly. “Let’s get a move on, shall we?” Putting the strange meeting behind us, we explore the city. It holds up to our expectations as the city nearest what is purportedly the greatest academy of magic, with magical lighting and tools everywhere. Stores selling potions to heal, rejuvenate, make the drinker appear younger, increase their strength and many things besides. Elementals and the occasional golem work alongside more common races, carrying heavy loads and helping with simple tasks. People show off their skills at magic on every other corner, such a regular sight that rarely a glance is thrown towards those simply juggling fireballs or spitting fire. Iueia and Spark watch with excitement people coming and going from the doors of the adventurer’s guild, where the distribution of warriors and mages is practically the reverse of many I had seen elsewhere, with armour and sword being more a rarity than the robe and wand. One of the warriors passing through notices their gazes and, smiling, turns away from them to display the greatsword on his back. Reaching over his shoulder, he touches the hilt, and the blade of the sword is quickly covered by a sheet of ice almost glasslike in its clarity. Mist begins to wreathe the blade, showing that the ice isn’t just for looks before he lets it melt away again. “…I want one.” Spark gasps. Lamar facepalms. “You’d be crushed under its weight.” “Shut up, I can dream.” Spark retorts. With the trio’s youthful energy, flitting from one thing to the next, time quickly flies away from us and we have to leave so we can get back before nightfall. I look up at the ornate temple as we walk by. Tomorrow I’ll return here and ask some questions. I don’t have much specific that I want to know, but if gods have so much influence and power, I need to know more. For now, I appreciate the company and watch the sunset as we head back to the academy. Geralds Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6419.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Skilled – An individual with many different skills. You may now rearrange the skills in your status. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.18% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 6.72% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original.   WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.46% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.38%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Formation casting (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 8.35% - You have an excellent grasp of casting magic through formations. Small increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 25.18% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 38.57% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells. Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 26.32% - You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic. Summoning magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 2.92% - You have a good grasp of summoning magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting summoning magic. Illusion magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 13.67% - You have a good grasp of illusion magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting illusion magic. Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 65.15% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of light magic, including creation and illusion. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic. Darkness magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 21.76% - You have a good grasp of darkness magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting darkness magic. Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 47.43% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic. Water magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 31.04% - You have a good grasp of water magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting water magic. Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 41.75% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells. Wind magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.26% - You have a good grasp of wind magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting wind magic. Force magic (Basic) (High Uncommon, Passive) 90.77% - You have a basic grasp of force magic. Artificing (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 19.58% - You have a good grasp on the craft of designing and building magic tools. Slight increase in the ability to recognise the use of unfamiliar magic tools. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.63% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.31% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 14.19% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Ignitae language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 8.51% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Aquan language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 1.07% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Aerus language – Written (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive), 22.52% - You have a good vocabulary and can understand most things written in this language, although in some cases it may take some time. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 26.63% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Metallurgy (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 6.97% - You have decent knowledge of common metals and alloys. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 59.11% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 89.27% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 97.81% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 Well, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Kinda has a more slice of life feel to it, I think. Had a couple other things planned for this chapter, but word count pushed them to the next chapter. Something to look forward to, I guess.  Novel Discord and Novel Wiki

jinxs2011 Alright, I'm back with another chapter. It's been just under two months. Apologies for the delay, as always. Unfortunately, I'm likely to be even busier in the next few months. After that point, though, somewhere around maybe november, I should be much more free to write. Here's hoping. It seems that the majority of people would be happy with what I proposed in last chapter's poll, so unless it doesn't go well, that's probably what i'll be doing for the next few years' april fools days. Well, without further ado, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Chapter 37: Magic Now I just have to double check that the time slots don’t conflict… I’m fine. Excellent. I fill out the form, making only a small accidental ink blot on the corner of the page in the process… A slight lapse in concentration is all it takes. We have today free while they process all our forms. So, what do I do with this free time? Of course, I head to the library. This being my second semester, I should have greater access. Ignoring the gargoyles as per usual, I head to the front desk. Mr Leyche isn’t here right now; he usually works through the night hours. Instead, professor Kelby is at the desk, poring as usual over some ancient tome. Seeing that the professor still hasn’t noticed me by the time I’m hovering in front of the desk, I loudly clear my non-existent throat. “Ahem.” “Just a moment. I’m nearly at the end of the chapter.” The professor mumbles absent-mindedly, not even looking up. Not in any particular rush, I decide to wait. After a while, I ‘cough’ again. “Professor… You’ve finished the chapter.” “I…” Professor Kelby looks up and sighs. “I suppose I have. Is there a problem, Gerald?” “Not a problem, no. It’s the new semester, so I came to see whether I could get my new card today.” I explain. “The new semester? So it is.” Professor Kelby looks vaguely surprised. “Let me just get the registry.” Brushing the tome aside, the professor pulls out the registry and leafs through the pages. “Gerald, second semester student… Everything is in order.” Pulling a card from beneath the desk, the professor meticulously writes my name on it. “I’ll need your old one back now.” As I hand it over to the professor telekinetically, I ask, “Do you keep a box of cards under there every time a semester starts?” “All the time, actually.” Professor Kelby sighs, passing my old card over the new one. The new one briefly flashes. “You wouldn’t believe how many students come in here half-way or just before the end of a semester and need to get a card. We had someone who had gone a full three years without going to the library once.” Shaking their head, the professor hands the card to me. “They needed me, Leyche and an assistant librarian just to have the proper authority to bypass the security measures… It’s a linear system, you understand, you need to turn in the previous level card to receive the next one. It’s not a problem if someone comes in second or even third semester without ever having a card, but after that it can become… Irritating.” “Makes sense.” I agree. “Thanks for the card.” Professor Kelby nods slightly, already sliding the tome back to its previous position. With my new card in telekinetic hand, I progress through the first section of the library. I had spent long enough in here that I knew every nook and cranny of its magically dustless shelves and tables, including the ever-enticing pair of doors that leads on to the next section. I hold up the card with a faint feeling of trepidation, an irrational fear that for some reason it won’t work – but it does, and the doors swing open. I float through, filled with anticipation at what vast troves of information might lie within. As the second section of the library opens itself to my senses, I stop my forward progression abruptly. It… Is much larger than I had imagined. While the previous section had walls lined with bookshelves that were almost all full, the room was not that large, just enough room for the few tables within it. This section is probably at least five times as long and wide as the previous – and it has three levels. The shape of each floor is perfectly octagonal, with a staircase to the higher floor on the side directly to the right of the doors, and a staircase to the lower floor on the side to the left of the doors. There are also additional staircases up and down on the sides on the opposite side of the room to the staircases next to the door. Another set of doors, presumably to the next section of the library, is situated on the side that runs perpendicular to the entry, on the right. The centre of the octagon, on each floor, is occupied by a dozen tables, each able to seat four, or perhaps six at a stretch. The rest of the floor space is dedicated to scores upon scores of bookshelves, with open paths left in-between them so that people can easily navigate the floor. The sheer quantity of books makes me change my plans. Initially, I had thought that I would be able to do what I had in the previous section, where I had read practically every book available. Clearly, that would be impossible. I don’t think I would be able to finish all these in a year, let alone one term – and that’s assuming I’m just reading through each book without pause. Damn, this is going to be awesome. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t start today. If I go through and read all the titles, I’ll be able to find what I need easier later on when I need them. And I just know I won’t be able to stop reading once I pick up one of these, I won’t have the patience afterwards. Alright, that’s what I’ll do. …If I can calm down enough. I start slowly moving around the room, not touching any of the books, just reading the titles on the spines. I don’t even understand the majority of them – what’s ‘eyes to the soul’ supposed to be about? – but it doesn’t matter. For now, I’m just taking stock, so to speak. As I go, I notice another few things about this section. Unlike the first one, this section has signage indicating genres and subgenres. The genres seem to be the schools of magic – Destruction, Illusion, Restoration and so on – with the addition of a ‘general’ genre. Subgenres vary more, especially in the general section. There are the elements, of course. Then there are the less basic ones: astral, blood, alchemy, nature, force, emotions, harmonic, sympathy, divination and what seems like a thousand others. After going through all of them, I feel like I have a much better grasp on where everything is, even if I don’t fully understand what they might contain. Doing all this takes enough time that it’s a bit after midnight by the time I finish. I head out of the library again, passing by a second set of gargoyles guarding the entrance of the second section of the library that I had barely even noticed earlier, through the first section and past the front desk, where Mr Leyche is now sitting instead of Professor Kelby. “Evening.” I remark as I pass by, to which he nods shortly in response. Passing through practically deserted halls, I head out into the courtyard. Dreyer will likely be asleep; I won’t be able to get through to the house, so I’ll have to pass the time outside. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, as I’d just read through the night, but I’m afraid that I’d just get too into reading and not notice the time passing by. I could use one of the practice rooms in the duelling grounds, but I honestly don’t feel like doing anything except reading right now. Aimlessly hovering around the courtyard, I look up into the sky. As always, I can’t see much more than a few of the brightest stars as distant blurs. This eye of clairvoyance doesn’t have as good vision as a normal human eye. I remember being able to see many more stars and much brighter ones, even when I needed glasses. Eventually, I decide to just settle down on a table and meditate until the morning comes. Once morning comes, I rouse myself and head off towards Dreyer’s office, feeling much calmer than earlier. When I get there, I tap lightly on the door. To be honest, it’s difficult for me to tap hard, considering how light I am. Dreyer opens the door and nods hello to me. “The letter came through. You got all the classes you wanted, but if I can ask, why light magic? It doesn’t seem like something you’d be interested in.” “Call it an experiment.” I say vaguely. “I have something I want to test, and the most likely way to do it is through light magic.” Shrugging, he moves back to his desk and throws one of the papers there towards me. Catching it with telekinesis, I take a look. It’s basically just an official notice of which classes I have, and when. Since I’ve already memorised those details, I toss it into the waste bin in the corner. My first class, in just a couple of hours, is earth magic. I don’t know that I’ll go too deep into learning earth magic, but my objective in doing it is more for a learning experience, getting the hang of casting magic and finding out some of the applications of the different elements. Light magic… I’m not sure if what I’m thinking of will work. I’m not sure that I want it to. Regardless, there’s no harm in learning some light magic. At the very least, I could use it to blind people, or just for… Well, light. “Most you should be starting your second term.” Jald, the teacher for basic earth magic, states. “Activating magic is much simpler than your teachers will have implied. The academy does not want students experimenting with magic before they have learnt proper caution.” Jald stares out at the class stonily, causing some of the students to shift in discomfort. “There are many methods of activating magic. For the sake of being concise, I will limit my explanation to the three primarily used methods.” “Free-form magic, sometimes referred to as imagination magic. If you practice this, you might already have experience casting magic. Infuse your will into your mana and bring it out into the world, if necessary. So long as your image of the magic you wish to create is strong and does not shift, your magic will cast successfully. Is there anyone willing to attempt this?” A single, nervous boy tentatively stands up. “Good. Come out to the front.” Jald nods slightly. The boy glances down at his desk for a moment before stepping out from behind it and slowly walking to the front. “Draw out some mana above your palm.” Jald instructs. Without any difficulty, the boy quickly expels a ball of mana above his outstretched hand. It’s quite steady and uniform. Nice control. Seeing this, Jald begins to verbally guide the boy. “Keep an image of rock in your mind. Imagine your mana becoming hard and smooth, grey and heavy. Will it to be so. Believe it.” The boy stares at the mana in his hands, and for a few of his nervous, bated breaths, nothing changes. After another few moments, though, the ball of mana slowly gains a grey tinge and shrinks slightly to a less spherical, multifaceted shape. It even begins to sink downwards from where it was floating just above his hands. Seeing the changes happening, the boy’s eyes widen, and the ball of mana starts to lift again, quickly paling to its original colour. His face falls. “A good first attempt.” Jald nods, although his face doesn’t change expression in the slightest. “The most important thing for magicians that practice free-form magic is to keep their image constant, no matter what happens around them. Go back and practice this again at your desk - quietly.” “Vocal. Infuse your mana into your voice and allow your mana to be guided by your voice in turn.” Jald explains roughly. “Does anybody speak Terran?” Everyone glances around at each other, but nobody puts up their hand. Jald’s expression doesn’t change, but he sounds vaguely disappointed as he says, “Learn it. It has an excellent affinity for casting earth elemental magic.” “Vocal is a bit more complex to learn at first. For now, I will demonstrate.” Jald raises his chin slightly, and when he starts to speak again, he speaks a gravelly word that I don’t recognise but can somehow understand. “Stalagmite.” A small stone spire rises from the surface of the desk in front of Jald, before shortly crumbling and dissipating into the ambient mana. “Finally, formations.” Jald takes a piece of chalk and draws a simple formation circle on the blackboard, the likes of which we’d drawn a hundred times practicing the previous term. “Simple formations are easy to activate. Simply infuse your mana into the formation.” Placing a single thick forefinger on the formation, Jald does exactly what he said. Other than the brief glow of mana, nothing happens. “This formation does not work. Why?” He asks the class. “Chalk is bad at carrying mana?” A girl a few seats over voices uncertainly. She looks rather familiar. In fact, wasn’t she in my class last term? What was her name… Right, Joyce. “Partially correct.” Jald replies. “Chalk is not an effective conductor of mana. The mana seeps out and dissipates into the air. This means more mana is required to activate and sustain the spell. It could still be activated.” “Is it because there are no diagram components to shape the spell?” I ask. “Correct.” Jald states unblinkingly. “This is known as an empty formation. It does nothing. It is merely a template to be altered and built upon.” Lifting his chalk once again, Jald draws a simple symbol on the black board near the circle, and a second, more complex one next to it. Pointing to the simple one, Jald states, “This is the Common symbol for earth. The other is the Terran symbol for earth.” Copying the former into the circle, Jald states, “I have now defined what the spell will be made of. It still lacks a form or a function.” Jald adds a few words in common to the inner circumference of the circle: stone, emerge and form a spike. Then he draws another circle, this time with the Terran symbol and Terran words - which, obviously, I can’t read. Psychic translation doesn’t translate written languages. Placing a forefinger on each of the formations, Jald infuses both with mana, causing two stone spikes to emerge from the blackboard. The one emerging from the Terran formation is visibly thicker than the Common formation. “As seen by the difference in the size of the spikes, Terran is superior to Common in casting earth elemental magic.” Jald states. “As another method of casting formation magic, you can form the formation itself out of your mana. This is much more difficult to accomplish, but there is no need for external tools.” Jald extends his hand, and the same Terran formation swiftly forms out of mana in front of it, forms a spike then crumbles into nothingness. “For the rest of the lesson you will practice casting magic. Formation mages, copy the one on the board. Vocal mages, the incantation you will be…” “So, are you following me to all my classes, now?” I ask Joe as I head out of class. “No.” He shrugs. “I’m not in the advanced mana control class.” “But you still know all my classes.” I sigh. “Of course. Did you expect any different?” He asks with a hint of amusement. “No, not really.” I admit. “So, earth, fire and light. What other classes are you doing?” Joe scratches his beard idly. “Keeping it simple for the first term. Just doing the basic elements.” I pause. “The elements… As in, all of them? Water, earth, fire, air, light, darkness?” “Those are the ones.” He nods. “Huh.” It’s out of the ordinary, but then again, so is he. I still don’t really know how he even enrolled. It’s supposed to get much harder the older you get. “You know, I’m kinda surprised you don’t already know magic.” “Oh, I do.” He says. “But I was originally self taught, and it’s been a long time since I’ve done any study or research on the topic. You coming here gave me an opportunity to update my knowledge and learn some of the newer techniques, so I thought, why not?” “Right…” I reply dubiously. I never do know when he’s joking or serious. Maybe he’s always joking. Maybe he’s always serious. The problem is, everything I know about him is what he himself has told me. Who knows what’s true? Almost immediately after basic earth magic, I have a basic light magic class. As I move towards the class, I’m surprised to see both Iueia and Lamar heading in the same direction. “Hey, it’s Gerald!” I hear Iueia exclaim excitedly to Lamar as he spots me from down the corridor. “Morning.” I greet them as Iueia runs up to me, Lamar trailing slightly behind him in a power walk. “You’re in the light magic class too? That’s great!” Iueia grins. “Are we in any of your other classes? I’m doing light, water, nature and advanced mana control and Lamar is doing light, wind, water and advanced mana control.” “Just this and mana control, I’m afraid. I’m doing that, light, earth and fire.” I explain. “Aww.” Iueia groans, before perking up again. “Well, two out of four isn’t bad! There were so many different classes to choose from that I’m kinda surprised that we got two of the same between all of us!” “And there’s only going to be more next term.” I agree. “Most of the classes here require you to have done other classes beforehand, so once we’ve done these classes, all the classes that required these ones will be open to us. Chances are that we might not even share one class next term.” Iueia frowns sadly, almost tearing up. “Don’t remind me! I’ll still see you guys around… Won’t I?” “Of course!” I reassure him, just as Lamar hugs the little guy. “Look, how about next term, once we all have our timetables, we come together and figure out a time we all have free so we can still chat.” I propose. Lamar nods in agreement and Iueia wipes his eyes. “That sounds good.” He says, smiling, but not quite as fully as before. The lesson, taught by Mrs Zita, a surprisingly pleasant minotaurean lady, is mostly identical to my previous class, with the spell being taught obviously being a light elemental spell that just provides a soft source of light. Honestly, even something like this can be an effective weapon – just provide enough mana to the spell, and you could probably blind someone quite easily. Not to mention the utility applications. Just having a source of light that can’t be doused or accidentally cause a forest fire is quite useful. It appears that both Iueia and Lamar are going the vocal route for casting their magic. Since I had already become somewhat familiar with casting via formations in the previous class, I take the opportunity to learn how to cast vocally, as well. After all, there’s no deficit in learning alternate methods of casting. In my first few tries, I was so unsuccessful that I started to wonder whether I could even cast magic this way, what with my ‘voice’ being generated through a magical tool, but with some careful assistance from Mrs Zita, I manage to figure it out. “It’s so bright… It’s like a little fairy!” Iueia exclaims in awe. Almost instantly, a rather cross voice comes from a few desks over. “I’m not little! I’m tall for a fairy!” We look over to see a fairy glaring at us with crossed arms. “I’m sorry.” Iueia apologises. “I was just saying that the light magic is pretty.” “Are you saying that all fairies are pretty? I’m not pretty, I’m handsome! Witness my manliness!” The fairy flexes his tiny limbs mightily. “No, I didn’t mean… I meant…” Iueia splutters, attempting to find a way to apologise. The fairy flies over, his own little ball of light bobbing along behind him, and slaps Iueia on the shoulder, laughing. “Just kidding! You should have seen your face. It’s pretty cool, huh?” Iueia breathes a sigh of relief. “Yeah, it’s-” Just as he starts speaking, the ball of light in front of him flickers and vanishes. “Aww, I’m out of mana!” Lamar’s light spell flickers into nothing a few moments after, with spells all around the room similarly vanishing as the majority of the students start to run out of mana. “Witness my awesome power!” The fairy raises his hands dramatically. After a few more seconds, his light ball also flickers and dies. He drops his hands down and slouches exaggeratedly. “Never mind.” I surreptitiously end my spell. It’s not like there are any particular deficits to standing out, but there aren’t really any benefits, either. Not that I actually weigh the pros and cons for this sort of thing. I just prefer not to stand out when I can help it. The tallest trees catch the most wind, as they say, and I’m perfectly happy if a few taller trees shelter me from the brunt of the gales. “Well, that was fun.” The fairy stretches in the air. “The name’s Spark. Yours?” I hover at the entrance to the second section to the library. A world of possibilities awaits, but where do I begin? Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6314.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 20 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 2.84% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.13% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.29% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 307 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 15.72%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 79.16% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 13.78% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.49% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.31% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 47.86% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.28% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.59% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Earth magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 0.17% - You have a superficial grasp of earth magic. Formation casting (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 0.13% - You have a superficial grasp of casting magic through formations. Creation magic (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.21% - You have a superficial grasp of creation magic. Light magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 0.14% - You have a superficial grasp of light magic. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.09% - You have a superficial grasp of casting magic vocally. [collapse] [collapse]

jinxs2011 Alright, I've finally gotten around to writing another chapter. Apologies that it's taken so long, again. Hopefully, this current rate should increase back to good pace in a month or so. Thank you, sandro530, for your positive review, I'm glad you enjoy it. I also really do have to agree with you, this novel probably would have a much higher ranking if I released more often and more regularly. Hopefully I can manage that sometime in the not-too-distant future. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki (actually forgot to put these in last chapter, whoops). I suppose I should also note that due to the same reasons that are making me write slower, I probably won't be updating the wiki until at least a month from now. After all this is over with, I hope to go and fully update that. Anyway, with that all sorted, I hope you enjoy the chapter! Chapter 38: Words Of The Earth First things first, I discard the thought of reading books about the elements I’m already learning. I could possibly get ahead of the content that I will learn in classes, or learn things outside the content, but then what would be the point of going to those classes? Better to learn something that I won’t learn in the classes but will supplement my understanding and magical skills. Plain magical theory? No doubt it’ll be partially explained in classes, but furthering my understanding of magic itself could only be beneficial. Still, to focus on just that, especially if I were to do it for the entire term, would get somewhat boring. There are quite a few books in the general section that could be interesting, studies on monsters, metals, herbs, the system itself, locations, worlds and history. Some of them would definitely be helpful to peruse, but much of it would only be useful once I leave the academy. I think that, at least for now, I should focus on matters of magic. Jald mentioned during the class… Terran. Literally, a language of the earth. And if there’s Terran, let me see… Yep, there’s Aquan, Ignitae and Aerus as well. Even Luxia and Tenebrio. All named in Latin… Again, a language from Earth. It doesn’t make sense, especially as I haven’t heard mention of the Latin language since I died. Wondering about it isn’t going to find me any answers, though. Best that I focus on the here and now, rather than pondering on the worlds and their intricacies. It could be interesting to learn one of these languages, and it would increase the effect of my magic in that element. I suppose the question now is, which one? Water, wind and darkness are ruled out simply because I’m not learning them right now. So, earth, fire and light are my options. I suppose the best thing to do would be to have a look at each of them, see which is simplest to start with. So, I take out a book each on Terran, Ignitae and Luxia, lay them out on the table in front of me, and slowly start to read through each. As I flip the last page of Luxia shut, I frown internally. It doesn’t look like learning a language will be as simple as I had thought, even with a perfect memory. Memorising the vocabulary is a large part, sure, and I could do that. But most important is the grammar and sentence structure. Nothing can substitute that sort of thing but practice and analysis of examples. Because of that, I decide to start with Terran. Of the three, it’s the most straightforward. Each word has one meaning, and as far as I can tell, each meaning has one word. It even feels… I don’t know, clear-cut? Having decided that, I put all three books away and head back out of the library. I have a basic vocabulary, and there were plenty of simple sentences in there to learn from. Now I need to practice writing the characters, pronouncing the words, and attempting to formulate my own sentences, and for that I need a more private environment than the library will provide. Laying in the grass, in the midst of this endless forest on this world that I don’t know the name of, I speak the words aloud, repeatedly. The only actual vocal example of Terran I have is the single word that Jald spoke in class. Apart from that word, all I have are pronunciation spellings listed next to the respective words. As such, it’s one of the most ambiguous aspects of the language for me. “Gerald? Is that you out there?” A voice calls from inside the house. “Yes, It’s me.” I call back. The door opens, and Dreyer steps outside and takes a deep breath of air, sighing happily. “Bit of a surprise to see you outside. I thought you’d be spending every waking moment in the library.” “I’m trying to learn Terran. You know, practicing the pronunciation and whatnot. Library wasn’t the best place for that.” I reply. He looks around. “You don’t have any reference materials? A Terran dictionary?” “Yes and no.” I say. “I read one in the library. I have a perfect memory, so reading through something once is usually enough to memorise the contents.” “Wow.” He nods his head appreciatively. “That’ll come in handy.” “It has its ups and downs.” I say before admitting, “But it is pretty useful. Anyway, I’m just having trouble with some of the pronunciations. I don’t suppose you know Terran?” “I do, actually. What words are you having trouble with?” He asks. “Sorry Gerald, But I’ll have to call it here for today. I’ve got some things to prepare for my next lesson.” Dreyer says, stretching. “No problem.” I reply. “Thanks for helping for as long as you did.” “Don’t worry about it.” He waves a hand. “But one last thing. I don’t know if you’ve done much research into the different quirks of casting with different languages, but Terran and the other elemental languages are very specialised towards their respective elements. Try to cast a spell of other elements, or from outside elemental magic, and it won’t be very effective at all. If you’re planning in the future to cast spells that use multiple different types of magic, you’ll want to find a more generalised language. Common isn’t too bad – it’s not really good for casting any sort of magic, but it’s not bad at any magic, either. But you might want to look into that at some point.” “I will, thanks.” I say appreciatively. Dreyer heads back inside and through the portal. Meanwhile, I decide to keep practicing for a while longer. My next class isn’t until midday tomorrow, and the sun is only just setting… Wait… I’m on a different planet, so the orbits, and therefore the day-night cycle, should be different, right? I head through the portal, and out into the courtyard. I was right, the sun is at a different position in the sky than it was on the other planet. That’ll be a problem. It’s not as simple as a difference in time zone, in all likelihood the two planets are orbiting two different suns at different distances and different speeds, and rotating about their axes at different speeds. I don’t have the time, knowledge or patience to calculate something like that! I need a clock. A plain and simple mechanical clock. Or a magical clock that doesn’t rely on things like the position of the sun, I suppose. Well, strictly speaking, I don’t need a clock. I can just check through the portal every now and again, after all. But it would be nice. I suppose that’s something I can think about in the future. For now, I’ll just keep in mind that there’s a time difference. “Careful, careful!” The teacher tuts. “Plenty of people burn themselves their first time casting fire magic. I can heal you without problem, but needless to say the burn will still be painful.” Even before his words finish falling from his scaly lips, someone yelps as the fire they create burns just a bit too close to their fingers. The teacher takes long strides towards them, gently cupping their hands in his. A pale flame flickers around the hands of the student, but instead of a cry of pain, they let out a sigh of relief. The teacher inspects the student’s thin fingers, asking, “Are you alright?” Shaking their head, the student wipes a tear from the corner of their eye surreptitiously. “I can’t do it.” “Of course you can!” The teacher reassures them. “Plenty of wizards burn their hands their first time doing fire magic. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” The student looks up at him tearily. “Did you burn your hands?” “Well, I’m a draconian. Our hands don’t really burn unless the fire is very, very hot.” The teacher says, showing the student his scaled hands. “Look, let’s try it again, together.” The teacher slowly coaxes the student through the process as I look on, a small tongue of flame drifting in front of me. Fire. Source of life. Harbinger of death. Harsh. Comforting. Hypnotic – and my first spell with offensive applications in deadly combat. Simply turn up the heat, add in some ranged capabilities, and it’s deadly. Simple, yet effective. Well, as soon as I learn how to do either of those two things. Plus, I need a better way of managing spells than keeping them constantly tethered to me with a channel of mana. Air is not an efficient mana conductor, and nor is it a consistent one. Fluctuations in conductivity can easily cause the inexperienced to undercompensate when they need more mana and overcompensate when they need less. Well, it’s not really a problem as far as I can tell in larger spells, as the fluctuation in mana relative to the existing mass of mana is rather small or even negligible, but with smaller and more precise spells I can see it becoming a limiting factor. With something like a fire spell, overcompensating with the amount of mana you’re infusing in the spell can literally mean it blows up in your face. Well, that’s probably an extreme example, but I think it could happen. After the class, I head outside to the courtyard. Waiting there are Iueia and Lamar, with the interesting addition of Spark, the fairy from yesterday’s light magic class. All of us happen to have the afternoon off, so we had decided to make it one of the times we would get together and chat. “Hey guys, how’s it going?” I ask. “Pretty good. How was your fire magic class? Can you cast fireballs now?” Iueia asks in reply, eyes shining. “Not quite.” I reply, intoning ‘fire’ to create a small flame before snuffing it out. “Just a basic bit of fire for now. Turns out it’s quite dangerous learning fire magic, and the teacher spent a fair bit of time healing people and helping them safely cast.” “But that’s not a problem for you, right?” Lamar asks. “I mean, you’re metal. You can’t burn.” “Little fires probably can’t hurt me, no.” I agree. “But if it’s hot enough, I can melt, and even if not, heating and cooling metal can sometimes weaken it, so even I need to be careful around fire.” “Wait, wait, wait… Is this fork talking!?” Spark exclaims, zipping over to me and knocking on one of my tines. “Why is no one else freaking out about this?” “That’s Gerald. He was in our light magic class, remember? On the desk left of mine.” Iueia reminds him. “How was I supposed to know that was a person!?” Spark throws his little hands up in exasperation. “I just assumed that someone was having lunch there and left it behind! What in the world?” “I get that sometimes. Doesn’t help that I don’t talk much.” I say with a little amusement. “How do you talk? How do you fly? Heck, how do you see?” Spark rapid-fires questions at me, eyes wide. “I talk through this magic tool on me, see through the other magic tool, and fly using telekinesis.” I reply. “telekewhat now?” Spark says, looking at me blankly. “Telekinesis.” I reiterate. “The ability to move things with your mind. Imagine it like an invisible hand is raising me into the air.” “So… It’s magic?” Spark asks, still staring blankly at me. “No, it’s a psychic ability, based on the…” I notice his eyes entirely glazing over. “Uh, yeah, you can think of it like that, I suppose. So, what have you guys been doing today?” “Practicing with light magic.” Iueia says excitedly, casting a ball of light before his mana runs out again and it fades away. “It’s just so cool! It’s like a candle, but I don’t have to worry about it burning the house down! And it’s so bright!” He exclaims. …Do you have experience with accidentally burning the house down? “It’s pretty good, right?” I agree. “And this is only the basic stuff. Imagine what we’ll be able to do a year from now.” “I’ll be able to cast illusion magic to make me look like a large, muscular man!” Spark says with great zeal. “…What? It’d be fun.” As Iueia and Spark discuss with great excitement all the awesome spells they might be able to cast a year from now, I can’t help but notice Lamar isn’t really paying attention and is looking off towards the east. “What’s up, Lamar?” I ask. “My dad’s setting sail from the port some time this afternoon. I thought I might be able to see the ship from here, but the wall’s too high.” He replies, a little sadly. The academy, of course, is surrounded by barriers, both magical and physical. It ensures the safety and privacy of everyone studying here, but it does hamper the view from the lower floors somewhat. There are a few balconies up high, but they aren’t accessible to students. There are windows, I suppose. Most of them are small, though, and there are other tall buildings in the city that would block the view. Again, the windows high enough to provide an unrestricted view are off-limits to students. Heading through the city to the docks would take quite a while, as well, not to mention I’m not exactly familiar with the laws practiced there, or what parts of the city to avoid. Not a problem if I’m on my own, but if I’m with others, especially when they’re young, I want to know a bit more about the area. All that really only leaves us with one acceptable option. “There’s a mountain a bit to the north-west of the academy that should have a good view of the port and the sea.” I offer. “But it would be a fair hike.” “I’m up for a climb if the others are.” Lamar replies, looking a bit brighter at the idea. “Sounds like fun!” Iueia says. I hadn’t realised he’d been listening. On the other hand, Spark definitely hadn’t.  “What now?” He blurts quizzically. “What are we doing?” “Gerald says that there’s a mountain near here that we can see the sea from.” Iueia explains. “Alright then, let’s go!” Spark exclaims. “Are you guys sure?” I ask, a bit concerned. “It won’t be an easy climb.” Iueia shrugs. “I climb mountains sometimes. I’m fine.” “I grew up climbing rigging. Does that count?” Lamar asks. “Uh… I can fly.” Spark notes. “If you’re sure.” I say. “Do you have food and water?” “We have some food, now let’s go already!” Iueia exclaims. “Alright, let’s go, then.” I say, suddenly realising that I sounded like someone’s mum. Shutting my mouth – metaphorically speaking – and lead the group to the north gate of the academy. Now that I think about it, this will be the first time I’ve actually left the academy since I enrolled, not counting brief times in that forest world. It’ll be good to get out for once, I suppose. I lead them out and onto the plain outside the academy. The city itself isn’t far away, no more than a couple stone throws away. Close enough that I can see part of it, but far enough that I can’t see all of it. Now Gerald, you might be thinking, what about monsters? Surely you aren’t planning to lead a bunch of kids with little combat potential and less experience into a place filled with monsters? Of course not! You might remember that this academy is pretty much the center of all magical learning on the whole planet. Now, there are plenty of people learning constructive things like healing, alchemy or artificing, but there are also plenty of people learning magic for the sake of combat, similar to me. These people need practical experience with their magic, and monsters are pretty much the best way of doing that. It’s not uncommon that students will go out, alone or in classes, to hunt them. Not to mention that the city itself has a predictably powerful mage division, and there are frequent patrols to prevent unlawful activity and reduce monster numbers. With the two combined, there are rarely strong or numerous enough monsters to pose a threat. And if we somehow get terribly unlucky and a monster happens to come after us despite me being able to see it from 1,700 metres away and alter our route accordingly to avoid it… Well, I’m more than capable of taking it out. Now, let me see… According to the map I looked over in the first section of the library, the mountain we’re aiming for is part of a range that runs pretty much parallel to the coast. With the academy and city as points of reference, I can estimate with a fair degree of accuracy that it’s in this direction. “Say, you were worried about us getting tired on the way there,” Spark remarks, his wings fluttering as he weaves through the air, “but how long can you fly for, Gerald?” “If I want to, the rest of my life.” I reply simply. “But can you fly fast?” He asks, zipping about. Muttering under my breath, I say, “Theoretically, given that I can experience no air resistance and likely survive in space, and can provide a constant, if small, force upon myself, and given no outside force interfering, I could probably reach near light speed given enough time.” A bit louder, I say, “Yeah, pretty fast, If I need to. I just make a bit more noise if I do.” “So you’d be up for a race?” Spark proposes gleefully. “Not really.” I reply blandly. His face falls a bit, but then he smirks craftily. “Oh, you’re saying that you don’t think you can beat the speed of the mighty Spark! I see, I see.” I sigh. “Can’t bait me that easily, Spark.” “I’m confused.” Iueia pipes up. “What bait? We’re not fishing.” “Spark is attempting to make me angry so that I’ll challenge him to a race.” I explain patiently. “It isn’t working.” “Aw, you’re no fun.” Spark sulks. “Iueia, you wanna race me?” “Sure!” Comes the eager reply. The two go off at high speed. No fun, huh? I suppose not, not for a little while now. I mean, it wasn’t quite as intense as it sounds, but I did go to hell and back. Literally. Left behind my closest friend, along with everyone and everything I ever knew in that world… Interestingly, I think that probably had more impact on me than dying did. I’ve been trying to act like I usually do, but it’s hard. What even is normal anymore? Magic and monsters? Demons and undead? Men and gods? It’s madness. Everywhere I turn, there’s something new to throw me off. First the system. Then I’m a fork. Goblins. Adventurers. Magic. Gigantic nope-spiders. Psychics. Ki. Gods. Fighting spirit. Hell itself. Apparently, superpowers. Beings made of air itself, and walking talking bipedal animals. There’s just so much, I can’t even get a hold of what normal is in this world. Honestly speaking, after what I saw in hell, I’m paranoid – that is, more paranoid than before. Don’t know if I’ll be able to trust people anymore. I’m clinging onto every little piece of information about myself, not letting anybody know anything lest they use it against me, even though the rational part of me knows that I don’t need to worry about it. I keep a constant eye on everything and everyone around me at all times, even the people that have been nothing but good to me. Socialising with these guys will probably be good for me. Slowly lower the barriers. After all, they’re not going to turn on me. …Probably. “I guess we should catch up to them.” I say. Lamar nods, picking up the pace as I accelerate to match his speed. We’re half-way up the mountain, and Spark is resting on Iueia’s shoulder, tired from flying such a distance. He’s plucky, but he’s also pretty small. What’s one kilometre to us must feel like ten to him. On the other hand, Iueia and Lamar are doing admirably, still walking without a pause in their step. Thankfully, this mountain has a path to the top. Otherwise, I think I would have had a heart attack monitoring these guys rock-climbing their way up. I don’t know if I would be able to do anything if one of them fell. Telekinesis might be able to do something, but I don’t know if I’d be able to handle that much weight, even for a moment. I suppose that means I should add methods of saving people from falls to my magic learning to-do list. Hm. At the peak, there’s someone already there. A girl, probably not much older than the boys in our group. Looks like an elf, and she’s in the academy uniform. Hopefully there won’t be trouble. After some time, we make it to the top. Iueia is red-faced but energetic, and Lamar is sitting on a rock, trying to catch his breath as his eyes scan the coast. “There.” He says, pointing. “That’s the ship my dad’s on.” I can’t see anything, with either of my methods of sight. The whole city is practically just a small blur in the distance. “So, you said your dad was a ship wizard, right? What sort of things will he be doing?” “Dad does all sorts. The most important ones, though, are to provide a bit of wind if the ship gets becalmed and lessen the impact of storms on the ship.” Lamar explains. “He must be quite skilled if he can do that.” I say, impressed. Lamar nods, and with a hint of pride in his voice says, “He is.” A few moments of quiet pass, with just the sounds of the wind whistling around the peak. “I don’t think I’ve ever been up this high before.” Spark sighs in wonder. “It’s like I can see the entire world!” Iueia and Lamar voice their agreement. Another few moments of silence pass as the others just gaze out over the sea. “So, you don’t mind if we share the peak for a while, right?” I ask, directing my voice to our left. “We’re planning to at least eat and sit here for a while before going back down. Might be a bit awkward if you hide behind that boulder the entire time.” The elven girl behind the boulder in question freezes for a moment before gathering herself and coming out from behind it. “Fine. Just… Please leave me alone.” Gerald's status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6314.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 20 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 2.84% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.13% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.29% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 307 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 15.72%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 79.17% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 13.78% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.49% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.32% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 47.87% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.28% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.59% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Earth magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 0.17% - You have a superficial grasp of earth magic. Formation casting (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 0.15% - You have a superficial grasp of casting magic through formations. Creation magic (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.27% - You have a superficial grasp of creation magic. Light magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 0.14% - You have a superficial grasp of light magic. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.10% - You have a superficial grasp of casting magic vocally. Terran language – Spoken (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 48.27% - While you have a large vocabulary for someone of your inexperience, you still have much difficulty correctly pronouncing many of the words, and stringing sentences together is as yet beyond you. Terran language – Written (Basic) (High Uncommon, Passive) 71.36% - While you have a large vocabulary for someone of your inexperience, and may even be able to recognise many individual written words, their meaning when put together still escapes your grasp. Fire magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 0.15% - You have a superficial grasp of fire magic. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 I hope you enjoyed. Again, not a whole lot of time passing this chapter. That should change next chapter, I think. Also, I don't expect any significant events to start happening until the next term (in the novel's time, that is). Novel Discord, Novel Wiki

jinxs2011 Alright, finally done. Sorry it's a bit late, I kind of forgot april was after march. So... I only started writing this like, last week. About 5k words of this were written in the last 3 days. So, there may be a few little grammar and spelling hiccups here and there. This side story was chosen in a poll by the discord members so join that (link below) if you wanna participate in stuff like that (although it's fairly rare). On other notes, obviously the writing a bit every day thing didn't quite work out. Still, I did finish the chapter of odyssey before starting this, so a chap of fork is next on my agenda, after I update the wiki, that is. I'll note the reviews and anything I may have missed here in the next chapter's author note because it's late and I'm tired. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki links. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this side story. Side Story 3: Slumber “So, here it is: what do you think?” What the outstretched arm presents to us is a simple plain. Grass dancing in waves in quick winds, rolling hillocks, trees, bushes, some roaming animals… “Looks the same to me.” The voice emanates from a sourceless shadow in the shape of a woman that I still feel somewhat uncomfortable being around. Not for a lack of trust that she has indeed turned a new leaf, but more of an instinctive dread. That will take some time to fade, I think. The second member of our little party, a bright young boy with messy blonde hair and a pair of thin, almost transparent wings upon his back, akin to that of a butterfly – although they are not capable of allowing him flight – speaks optimistically, “Well, I think it looks nice.” Characteristic bushy green hair sways around a pair of horns as the old satyr places his hands on the ground, closing his eyes. He breathes slowly in, and out, incredibly slowly, as if he was a plant instead of a man. “Everything here is so young and vibrant. I almost wish I could stay.” He smiles relaxedly as he opens his eyes. “But I shouldn’t leave them alone for too long, even now.” I take a deep breath through my nostrils, causing nearby trees to shiver. Processing the rush of scents, I breathe out again. “It smells… Different. I have not smelled these things before.” I rumble. “Of course.” Our leader speaks up again. His name, his appearance, perhaps they are not worth describing. Not because they cannot be described, but because this is the third face and name I have seen him take in the short time I have known him. Perhaps next time we meet he will have changed yet again. “Everything may look the same – and some things are similar – but most of it is very, very different. Whole worlds to explore, each unique in its own right!” He looks like a youngling, excited to play with his new toys. “Mysteries and curiosities, anything you can possibly imagine!” “Mm. Had you told me about this even a hundred years ago, I would have called you mad.” I chuckle. “Well, yes.” He shrugs. “Who would believe, without proof? Still, knowing you, your life won’t change much because of all this. I don’t think that there’s many caves big enough to house you much longer, though.” I snort, a plume of smoke emitting from my nostrils. “True enough. The sky will be my roof from now on, it seems.” “Everyone’s free to do as they like, of course. I plan to start building myself a place from the ground up, personally. Though before we split up, I do have a bit of an idea floating around in my head for you guys.” He notes, nodding towards the boy and the darkness. After some meaningless conversation, the time comes for us to go our separate ways. “Farewell, my friends. If you ever feel like going wild, make sure to invite me.” I rumble. “And may the wind be ever swift under your wings.” “Most of us don’t have wings, you know.” The darkness grumbles. The boy shakes his head. “He’s just wishing us all well, you know. No need to be so down about it.” “I know, I know. I’m trying.” The face of the darkness splits into a rather forced smile that frankly looks more terrifying than friendly. But since she’s trying, I generously decide to take it as it was intended. Our leader claps her heartily on the shoulder. “Goodbye, everyone. I wish you happy years, and I’ll see you all again later.” With farewells said, each of us slowly start to depart. The satyr steps back through the portal, back to the land in which we were born. He was the only one of us who had a responsibility, one he could not give up. The darkness and the boy step through two new portals which our leader had created. Through the boy’s, I could see a brightness even somewhat greater than that of daylight. Through the darkness’, there was, well, darkness. After seeing them on their way, our leader waves one last time to me before he starts walking away. I watch as he gradually becomes smaller and smaller, until finally even my eyesight can see him no longer. Then, with nothing more to be said and done in this place, I beat my wings, flattening the grass and causing the nearby trees to groan as they bend, and take to the sky. Any birds in the vicinity frantically beat their wings to escape the turbulent winds, and even the beasts on the ground flee from my shadow as I ascend. They needn’t have bothered, really. Most of them could walk between two of my teeth without touching either. No, if I wanted to eat, I would have to search for much larger prey… However, fortunately for me, I have no need to eat, or I would have to spend all my years searching for food. Finally, I reach a good height, far above the other flying creatures, far above even the few wisps of cloud in the sky. I keep my altitude, mostly gliding as I eye the land, looking for a suitable place to rest. As he mentioned earlier, a simple cave as I had used before will no longer do. Although I am likely the oldest any of my kin have ever been, I am still growing, and likely will continue to do so. And this time, I will likely slumber for a much longer time than ever before – here I have none of the worries I once had back home, and there is nothing here that could possibly harm me. It would be awkward if I were to wake up one year only to find that I had grown as large as the cave that held me, and I became stuck. Well, given the time and effort I could certainly escape, but it would be very irritating and uncomfortable. So, an open area. Perhaps next to a lake or river, so that I can take a drink if ever it strikes my fancy? …Hm, that sounds nice. There? The lake is a tad small, though. Wouldn’t be good if I drained it. A river might be better, then. A big one. It takes some time to find a good place, but I have plenty of that. I end up settling in a nice grassy area next to a river large enough that I could even go for a swim in it, if the mood strikes me. My landing causes the earth to shake, and a casual flick of my tail sends chunks of dirt flying. I rake my claws through the earth to soften it up a bit before curling up and settling down. Yawning, I rest my head and close my eyes. Having sensed some movement around myself for a little while now, I peek the eye facing outwards open lazily. My vision is greeted by men and women wearing animal skins, crude buildings that looked like they could fall down at any moment, a few carefully tended fires. I snort internally with amusement – a little village has cropped up next to me! They probably think of me as nothing more than a large, unusual rock, a convenient wind break perhaps, and a strange source of warmth in the winters. Maybe they even noticed that no wild animals approach this place, and thought it the perfect location. They never stopped to consider why that was, of course not. They were too busy surviving. They never imagined that they were living right next to an incredibly large and powerful dragon. Truly, their ignorance is something magnificent to behold. My thoughts pause for a moment. But, then again, I’m not actually going to destroy their little village, am I? Perhaps, then, it isn’t foolishness, but inadvertent genius. They may not, but any competent predator would have the sense to give me a wide, wide berth. Which leaves them perfectly safe. I chuckle internally in amusement. The others are so focused on going out, adventuring to see amazing things. Just stay in place long enough, and they come to you - or so I have found. Despite listening for a while, I find that I cannot understand what they are saying, and I begin to grow drowsy again. My eyes flick up to the sky, trying to get a general feel for how long I’ve been asleep from the positions of the stars. …Oh, right. The next time I open my eye, what was once a gathering of little huts has developed into an actual village, with relatively – emphasis on relatively - sturdy houses, dirt paths and rudimentary fields. More interestingly, I can actually understand them now. His influence? They seem lively. Happy. Still very unaware of the massive dragon right next to them, but happy nonetheless. Children play in the dirt or run around, amusing themselves with sticks and stones, games they make up on the spot… A simple, short life, perhaps, but a fulfilling one. Seeing it puts me in a good mood, somehow. I suppose, in a way, I did raise them. I am the reason this village was founded here, and the reason it has grown safely all these years. In a way, I am their guardian, of sorts. Hmm, yes, this was a nice place to settle indeed. Some harsh sounds awaken me this time. Screams, shouts, the familiar smells of blood and fire. The village is larger than I remember, but parts of it are ablaze, and there are patches of fighting here and there. I seem to have woken up towards the end of it all, however, as those are few and far between. They were raided by another settlement, I gather. The village has few defences, so reliant on that ‘mysterious’ effect that kept the monsters at bay that they failed to consider that people are the true monsters. Too complacent. That is the reason for their demise. I knew, of course, that I would outlive the people here. It was simply inevitable. Those people I first saw here grew old and died, or were killed while hunting, long ago. Even the children from last time were likely little more than dust on the wind. Still, it puts me in a bad mood. Opening my eyes fully, I lift my head off the ground, looking down at the village. One of the raiders notices the movement and points, screaming to his fellow murderers. The village is doomed, that much is clear. Even if there are some survivors, they would not be able to recover, as it is. So… Ashes to ashes. I open my maw and let loose a torrent of flame that envelopes the entire village, drowning out every other sound and lighting up the night. Easily keeping it up for a few seconds more, I snap my jaw shut with a loud finality. Where was once a village, there is now nothing but remnant flickering flames and the earth glowing a bright red, which slowly fades as it cools. The houses, fields, men, women, children: gone, with even their skeletons burnt to ashes. The soil will recover in time, grass will cover it again, and I will once more be alone in my slumber. Letting out a heavy sigh, I take a gulp of water from the river before settling down, once again, to sleep. Flowers are the first thing to meet my eye this time. Unopened buds litter the ground before me, filling my sight with green where once was black. I decide to wait a while for them to bloom before closing my eye again. Days and nights pass, wind and rain – none of them bother me. I can see perfectly well even in the darkest nights, and my blood burns hot enough to keep me warm in the coldest of winters. An adamantine arrow could not pierce the membrane of my eye, let alone my scales. No force of nature or man can faze me. The buds grow gradually, day by day, and then start to stretch open. Eventually, one dewy dawn, what greets my eye is a field of red petals. I take a breath, pulling the scent into my nostrils. Hm. Well worth waiting for. An unnatural din wakes me yet again. Sliding open an eye, I see two armies – although perhaps calling them armies is an overstatement – two disordered groups with little more than rudimentary weapons of wood, flint and bone, clashing on the field, flowers torn up under their stomping feet. I snort in irritation, a thin column of smoke emanating from my nostrils, unnoticed by both sides. Ultimately, however, I decide not to interfere. The fight will end quickly, by my standards, without me having to do anything. Closing my eye again, I try to ignore their yelling and screaming. I ignore it patiently, for a long while. Sometimes it does stop for a while, and I think it is over. But inevitably, before too long, it starts again. Annoyed at being unable to rest comfortably, I open my eye again to see what in the world is going on. Two sides are still fighting, except now they have coloured paint daubed on their faces, there a few of them slinging rocks on each side and even a mage or two flinging basic spells back and forth. What is this, two tribes warring for, how long has it been now, ten generations for them? This is getting ridiculous. I’m trying to sleep here, did nobody teach you to respect your elders? …Rather, do they have elders? They seem to be sending all their people to perish, all the time. Lifting my head, I purse my lips, leaving only a narrow gap open, through which I breathe a stream of flames that cuts through the middle of the melee. A couple dozen of the fighters mixed up in the middle are instantly incinerated, and the rest scatter in reaction, tripping over themselves in their efforts to flee. If I’m lucky, they’ll stop fighting here, at least. Perhaps they’ll even stop fighting altogether… however doubtful. If I’m unlucky and they band together to attack me, well, it’s their funeral and my problem solved. ‘Horde’ is insufficient to describe it. ‘Army’ would imply some form of order. No, this was a sea, a veritable tide of monsters. The ground is covered, and the sky is black with their numbers. Opposing them, being constantly pushed back, are some armies, miniscule in comparison. They look exhausted, and the fight has barely just begun. At the front and center there is one single area where the line is holding steady. A party of seven headed ranks of orcs, decimating any monster that approached. It was because they asked me that I am here. That, and because of the consequences if they lose this fight. Tucking my wings in, I begin to dive towards the battle, letting loose a roar that causes the air to vibrate, and many monsters simply fall from the sky. I pace casually and confidently forwards, locking eyes with my prey. It trembles, but does not move. It knows instinctively that if it does, it will die. My tongue darts out, lashing it across the face as I give it a taste. It has been too long since I last ate hydra. Pinning in beneath one foot, I rip off a head and munch on it leisurely. The beast whimpers in pain and fear, but the stump is already regrowing into a new head. I savour the taste of its flesh, when I pause. Wasn’t I just… In the war? Wait, which war was it that I was thinking of? …Yes, of course, that war. How could I forget, I was just there. So why am I here – why was I there? Ah, I’m dreaming. Of course. That makes sense. But then, this is an unusual dream. Usually, something is happening. This is just – I look around at the clearing – normal, almost. A twig snaps, and I swivel my head to look where it happened. I see little amidst the bushes, but I can hear a voice murmur, “Please don’t eat me.” “Relax.” I reply, amused. “You wouldn’t even be enough for a snack.” “…Who said that?” A small voice comes from the bushes. “Me.” I reply again. “Yes, I can talk. Yes, I am indeed a dragon.” The bushes rustle, and a young man hesitantly emerges from them. He takes a deep breath and seems to gain some confidence that quickly fades again as he looks up at me. “Hello?” “Greetings, little one.” I peer down at him. He seems ordinary. “This dream is… Unusual. Did you do this?” “L, l, l, look, I didn’t – wasn’t, it w-was an accident!” He stammers. “I’m impressed.” I say, ignoring him. “I haven’t experienced something such as this before. Besides, this is a dream, is it not? It is doubtful that I could even harm you.” “I, uh, yes. True.” He agrees falteringly. I kick away the hydra, which immediately takes the opportunity to flee. The boy flinches at the movement. “You seem unsure.” “Well, nobody’s ever – nobody’s ever noticed me before.” He says lamely. “I don’t know if that changes things.” “And how did you do this, little one?” I ask, curious. “Is it some form of magic?” “Magic?” He tilts his head. “No, I don’t know how to do magic. It’s… One night I went to sleep, but when the dreams came it was like I was still awake. I saw a doorway, and when I went through it I was in someone else’s dream, though it took me a long time to figure it out.” I tilt my head. “An ability unique to you, perhaps? Doorways to other people’s dreams, you say… How interesting. Why, you could see places you’ve never even been to, people you’ve never met, events that you didn’t know had happened.” He nods excitedly at my words. “Exactly! Every night I go into other people’s dreams and sometimes I see amazing things! Other times, though…” He shivers. “I see dark places in the dreams, places that I don’t understand.” “Curious indeed.” I chuckle. “So, you go through these doorways that appear in your dreams, and you end up in the dreams of someone random?” “Yes. At least, at first.” He explains. “Nowadays I can control it a bit better. I can make the doorways appear when and where I want them, and even go into the dreams of someone I know, if I want to.” “Impressive. Can you show me?” I request. He hesitates for a moment. “Okay, but I’ve never had this happen before. I don’t know if I can bring other people with me, or anything like that. Please don’t get mad if it doesn’t work.” “Relax.” I say again. “I am not so petty.” He breathes a sigh of relief, and points to the edge of the clearing. A doorway appears there, little more than three branches tied with vines. It looks like it could topple over and collapse from a mere breath, but it stands upright regardless, unsupported by anything at all. Despite its ordinary appearance, what I see through the doorway is not the trees behind it, but another location entirely. “A doorway to another world…” I marvel. “Although, it is a tad small.” The doorway is his size; that is to say, I can’t fit so much as a single claw through the entrance. He shakes his head. “I’ve never tried making a bigger one before. I don’t know if I can.” “You can. Believe it, and it will be.” I state. “Alright.” He closes his eyes, focuses, and points with intent. He opens his eyes to see… the same doorway. “I can’t do it. Sorry.” “You need not apologize.” I reassure him. “As you say, you have never tried this before. Perhaps you will learn, in time.” “Thanks.” He smiles. “You’re surprisingly nice for a massive dragon. I thought I was going to get squished or eaten.” “I only do that to things that irritate me too much.” I chuckle. “Most things are smart enough not to, so I just let them be.” “Well. Thanks anyway.” He says. Bringing my head closer to the doorway, I peer at it intently. A doorway. Ordinary, yet not. A gateway to another world… “What is it?” He asks. I ponder how best to put it into words. “I feel…” Familiarity. A sense that I have seen, experienced this before, and yet I know that I have not. Inexplicable understanding. Knowledge that should not be. Is this just the false memory of a dream, or is it something else? “How did you say you create these doorways?” I muse. “You simply think of a person, and then imagine a doorway connecting to them?” “I… Yes?” He replies, a bit startled. “I don’t think I explained that, though.” I nod very slightly. The image of him… No, the very idea of him, I fix firmly in my mind. I blink. “My god!” He shouts, scrambling backwards. “What is that!?” A swirling gateway has appeared at the edge of the clearing. Proper size, this time. “A portal, little one.” I say with satisfaction, striding forwards. “Come. I am not the strangest thing you will see tonight.” A strange shiver runs through my body as I step through the portal, out into… Nothingness. I look around, but it is the same in every direction. The only thing is a small area of grass around the entrance of the portal, as if my dream is bleeding through the portal. “What is this?” I wonder aloud. “It’s- It,” he pants loudly, “It means they aren’t dreaming right now, I think.” He catches his breath after a few moments. “I’ve seen it before. We should go back, there’s nothing to see… Here…” He trails off as the world abruptly starts to gain colour. The grass beneath our feet spreads out rapidly, fences sprout from the ground and rows of neatly ordered grain grow. Within a few seconds, where there was formerly nothing there is now a large, sprawling farm, complete with farmhouse, fields, pens, pastures and much more. Hands part the stalks of grain, and a man walks out from between them. Looking up at me, a smile splits his face. “I thought I felt something weird. How on earth have you managed this, Grun?” “By chance.” I chuckle. “This little one happened to walk into my dream tonight, and I somehow managed to figure out how to do it myself.” “You… what?” He looks at the kid for a bit, then back at me. “Ah, I see now. I should have guessed this would happen sooner or later. And what’s your name, kid?” “Uh, Ruvel. Sir.” He says awkwardly. There’s a momentary silence as Ruvel looks expectantly at him, and he stares back. “Oh, you’re expecting me to tell you my name now, right. No, I don’t think I’ll do that, sorry. But anyway, Grun, how’s it been? It’s been a while, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to meet again like this.” I chuckle. “Nor was I. Things have been just fine. Sleeping, you know. Found a nice little spot by a river, a village popped up next to me at one point. A few wars and the like. Some nice flowers grew once. How long has it been, anyway? I haven’t been keeping proper track.” “Eh, twenty thousand odd years, roughly.” He shrugs. “Ah. No wonder it felt like you had gotten smaller.” I nod in understanding. “Yeah, you’re a proper mountain of a dragon now.” He slaps the side of one of my claws. “I laugh to think of someone trying to stab you, only to find that your scales are thicker than their sword is long.” “Doubtlessly, although nobody has been foolish enough to try thus far.” I chuckle with him. “And their sword wouldn’t penetrate my scales in the first place, but nevertheless. How have things been with you?” “Well, you know me.” He shrugs. “Always caught up in some sort of trouble. Lots of things to do. We’re the first ones, you know, our group, and I’m the only one sort of free, so until some more turn up I have to do all the work. On top of that, I’m working on a bit of a plan for the future if things end up going south.” “I have no clue what you’re saying.” I shake my head helplessly. “Still, if things go bad, isn’t it enough to just crush whoever is responsible?” His shoulders fall as he sighs. “I mean, yes, that is basically what the plan is when you get down to it. But I want it to have more… Pizazz.” “I’ll just take your word for it, I suppose.” I snort. “Still, you sound busy. I won’t bother you much longer. It was good to see you.” “And you, old friend.” He nods. “Feel free to come around whenever you feel like it. I can always free up a bit of time for you.” I turn around, careful not to crush the little one beside me. “I will, if the mood strikes.” A small voice from below me mutters, “Great, now I have to run all the way back. This is a dream, I don’t get tired. Believe it. I don’t get tired. Please.” “You can open your own door back now, can you not?” I rumble laughingly. “If the distance is too large for you.” “Oh, right!” Ruvel exclaims, creating his own door in front of him and walking through. After a few steps forward, I too have returned to my forest clearing. I look around again. This must truly be a huge forest for there to be a clearing large enough for me to move around in. I can easily see over the tops of the trees, but there is no end to the forest in sight. “Do you happen to know what this place is?” I ask the little one. “It doesn’t change as dreams oft do.” “I think so.” He replies, looking up at me. “I didn’t realise it earlier, but it’s like what I see when I first dream. It’s like your… dream home. More solid than a normal dream, but less solid than real life. If it’s like mine, you can change things here, and every time you go to sleep it’ll stay however you last left it.” “My dream home?” I mutter incredulously. “This?” I don’t mind forests, but they are not my habitat of choice. “Well…” He ponders. “You are quite huge – if you don’t mind me saying that – so maybe your dream home is, too? Maybe there’s more to it?” “An excellent thought!” I rumble, forming a rock platform next to him. “Come, step on the platform. I’m afraid that even me taking flight may be enough to crush you.” “Uh, okay,” He says, moving onto it, “but I don’t see how this – AH!” He shouts in surprise and falls over as the platform lifts him into the air. I swiftly transform the platform into a box with no top to prevent him from falling off. “Even if you were able to protect yourself from the gusts of my take off, this forest must be filled with my favourite prey – all of which are more than strong enough to kill you with a single finger.” I explain, bringing the box up to the long arch between my snout and brow. “Naturally, the safest place is with me, so long as I make flight safe for you.” “Are you sure you know what you’re doing!?” He shouts as I anchor the box to myself, then encapsulate him entirely. “Now I can’t see!” What was that see-through materials man are so fond of? Ah, glass. The glass turns transparent, and I ponder a moment. Another thought turns it moss green, the same colour as my scales. For a moment I wonder how I should incorporate air holes, but then I just shrug and start beating my wings. It’s a dream after all, he doesn’t really need to breathe. “Come, you have shown me how to do things tonight that I had not known were possible.” I chuckle. “In return, let me show you the world in the eyes of a dragon!” I ascend sharply, the sounds of cracking trees emanating from below me. The little one screams, and I laugh uproariously as I feel the wind underneath my wings again. Once I reach a suitable height, I begin to softly glide. “Look, we are higher than the peaks of the tallest mountains! Higher than the clouds themselves! Free to go wherever we like! Untouchable! Unstoppable! This is what it is to be a dragon!” “Woah.” He breathes, laying his palm upon the glass as he looks out. “It’s hard for me to make anything out from this height. What’s that little green patch?” “That little green patch,” I chuckle, “Is the forest we were just in.” “That is!?” He exclaims. “It was smaller than I thought.” “On the contrary, it is hundreds of kilometres long and wide.” I rumble. “Amazing.” He mutters. We fly for a while, me surveying the landscape and growing increasingly content with the variety and size of climates in my dream home, and he in awestruck wonder. “Grun…” He murmurs. “Hmm?” I grunt in reply. “That’s what he called you, right?” He asks. “That’s your name?” “Grunvarodurminon, in full.” I reply. “Most who know me prefer to use just ‘Grun’. Easier on the tongue, shorter on the ear, you know.” He nods, then asks, “Who was he? The man we saw earlier, I mean.” “An old friend, one I had not seen in a long time.” I tell him. “He said it had been… Over twenty thousand years since you last met?” he says, and I grunt the affirmative. “I don’t know numbers very well, but that sounds like a lot.” “It is.” I agree. “Do you know one hundred?” “I think so. Barely?” He says, sounding somewhat unsure. “Twenty thousand is twice one hundred one hundreds.” I explain easily. “That long ago, the village or city or wherever you live didn’t exist. In fact, most every living thing you’ve ever seen wasn’t even born or sprouted back then.” “But he looked human.” He states, sounding very confused. “Humans don’t live that long, it’s impossible!” “Have you ever heard of a talking dragon before today?” I ask, watching with crossed eyes as he shakes his head. “My friends and I are very unusual people, in many ways. Our longevity – our long lives - is one of these ways. Well, to be honest, for him in particular I’m not sure how he has lived so long. He is human, so far as I know. But I never could imagine him dying from something so simple as old age, so I wasn’t surprised to see him still kicking.” “That still doesn’t make sense, though.” He mumbles. “Sometimes things just don’t. That’s life.” I reply. “He’s the type of person that anything you know about him is what he’s let you know. It’s just who he is.” He looks down. “I don’t know if I could trust someone like that.”“Maybe. But he’s a good person, or at least tries to be – that much I could always tell. For me, it’s enough that at their core, his intentions are always to help, not to harm. That, or just for pure amusement.” I say, looking into the horizon. Tilting my wings slightly, I start to descend. “We’re going back down?” He notices. “Hmm.” I hum. “It’s time for you to return to your own dreams, at least for tonight.” “But we should have plenty of time, right? Dreams can last a really long time, but it’s only a short time in reality.” He protests. “I know, little one.” I say softly. “However, you have already experienced too much tonight, too quickly. Return to your dreams and relax. Perhaps bathe in the sunshine at a beach.” “What’s a beach?” He asks. I chuckle as I land. “Perhaps you’ll see one in a dream someday.” Lowering his little box down onto the ground, I release him from it. A doorway appears at his behest, and he looks back at me before walking through it. “Can I come back here?” He asks. “Talk to you again?” “Of course, little one.” I nod slightly. “I will likely be asleep your entire lifetime. Feel free to visit me anytime.” “Thanks.” He smiles. “Bye, Grun!” “Rest well, Ruvel.” I reply. He walks through the doorway, which fades behind him. For a while after he left, I explore my dream home, but eventually I create a portal and return to my usual dreams. “So, you just… Sleep? All the time? Every day?” Ruvel questions. “Mm, mostly. In those last twenty thousand years, I probably spent less than a single year awake in total.” I nod slightly. “But… Why?” He asks, uncomprehending. “Why don’t you fly around like we do here… Be a dragon?” I sigh deeply, bending nearby trees from the pressure. “If the people at your home saw me in the sky, what would they do?” He pauses, shivering slightly. “They… They’d panic. Run. Pray.” “Hmm…” I bow my head. “To put it mildly. The beasts of the land and sky avoid my mere presence. Still as a rock for hundreds of years, and yet that instinctive dread – that which man lacks – still prevents their approach. As for humans, as soon as they recognise what I am, even they flee. Wherever I go becomes devoid of life whether I breathe fire or not.” “It’s not that extreme… Is it?” He winces. “There have been times where animals and men have died from abject fear upon seeing my approach.” I admit. “Where I am from, they called dragons ‘Terrors of the skies’ and ‘Destroyers of strongholds’. Not without reason, either.” He winces harder. “I mean… I wouldn’t want to see you when you’re angry.” “Exactly.” I nod in agreement. “You may be happy to know that my kin are much smaller and less powerful than myself, but still an attack from one could be considered nothing less than a natural disaster. As for myself, the simple concept of what I may be capable of deters most conversation. Even you yourself didn’t flee because you believed that you were safe, as we are dreaming, did you not?” “Well, yes.” He admits. “Still, I’m glad I stayed.” “As am I, little one.” I say. “It is rare that people would consider talking to a dragon, even if the dragon spoke first.” “Well, I kind of get that. You are really scary. Like, really scary.” He emphasizes. “Mm.” I rumble, twisting my head to get the stiffness out. He flinches slightly. “Anyway, don’t you get, you know, lonely? Bored of sleeping all the time?” “Can dreaming ever be boring?” I ask rhetorically. “Regardless, I am content with my life. As for being lonely… Sometimes. Which is why I am thankful for the few friends I have.” “How did you meet them?” Ruvel asks. “The man we met before and the others you keep mentioning, I mean.” “Hah.” I snort. “Let’s see now, the first of them I met was… The satyr, that is, a person that has two legs of a goat and the upper body of a human. I was a lot younger then, and a lot smaller – we dragons grow as we age.” “Really?” His eyes widen in surprise. “So, were you like, as small as an ox?” I think back. “Closer to a small house. But yes, younger, and well, how shall we say? Reckless. Arrogant. I… Well, I set a portion of a forest on fire. A small portion, mind you. A small portion of a very large forest, which to be fair is still a large amount of forest.” “Are you… Are you embarrassed?” He laughs incredulously. I raise my chin. “Of course! I was in the wrong. I admit this. Foolishness of my youth. I have since grown out of it. Mostly. Anyway, he was sort of the guardian of this forest, so he came out and beat me up and told me never to come back.” “And you apologised and made up for it?” He asks. “What? No. Once I had healed, I went back to fight him again!” I state proudly. “I lost again, of course.” “So, after all that, how did you end up as friends?” He looks lost. “Long story. Short version: I avoided him and the forest for a long time, he went a bit mad – bad business, no involvement of mine – a war happened, we were both roped into it by a mutual friend, and after all that was finished, then I apologised, did what I could to make up for it.” I explain. “We are just about as different as you can get – me, a lazy, huge fire-breathing dragon and he, a dutiful, small goat man. After we managed to get over the personality clashes, we actually got along quite well.” “Okay, that makes no sense.” He shakes his head. “What about your other friends?” “Well, next one I met was old darky. I was a bit older then, had mellowed out a bit.” I reminisce. “She wanted me to be her underling.” “What!?” He exclaims. “What sort of idiot – you beat her up, right?” “I wish I could have.” I sigh. “But no, she was much more powerful than me. Still, I was strong enough that if we clashed I could have torched many of her other underlings, so I had a bit of space to work with so long as I agreed to be a neutral party, so to speak.” “Why is everyone you talk about stronger than you!” He protests. “What sort of monstrous place are you from?” “Nothing so dramatic. Only a few people were and are stronger than me. I just happened to get to know all of them throughout my long life.” I shrug. “But yes, the war I mentioned earlier – She was the leader of the other side, and the instigator.” He cradles his face. “And how did that end up in you being friends?” “It’s complicated, and I probably shouldn’t go into any detail. Other people’s secrets, not mine to tell.” I tell him frankly. “But the crux of it all was him, the one you met that first night. He was that mutual friend of me and the old goat I mentioned, too.” Ruvel shakes his head. “And how’d you meet him, was he beating you over the head with a blade of grass?” “Hah, no.” I chortle. “He was much like you, actually. Came across me in the cave where I was sleeping, with a group of his friends. Was brave enough to chat with me after I spoke, instead of taking off. That last friend of mine was in his group, too. Well, he joined later on, but all the same.” “That sounds a lot more normal.” He looks almost disappointed. “But he really went up and talked to you? In real life? No protection?” “He has an adamantine pair, to be sure.” I agree. “His friends were just about fainting, doubtless expecting me to torch them all any second. They were strong among their peers, but they knew they couldn’t stand up to a dragon.” “Huh. That’s actually amazing.” He admits. “Mm.” I hum. “So, what do you do? Outside of dreams, that is.” “Me?” He asks, surprised. “I’m just an ordinary person when I’m awake. I help plant and weed the crops, tend to the animals, anything that needs to be done.” “Tell me about that.” I request. “You could say that I’m bad with animals.” Ruvel comes around most nights to talk. Although I’ve never been there in reality, I grow to be intimately familiar with his home and all the things going on there – how the harvest has been great this year, and the animals rarely get sick, about the wall they’ve been working on building; everything. He has even brought me to his dream home, and showed me what the village looks like, although the people there aren’t quite real. Over time, I watch as he grows both physically and in confidence and bearing. Inevitably, he is ageing, as all things do. One night, however, things are different. The doorway appears near me as usual, but when he comes through, he’s drenched in sweat and breathing erratically. He pants for a few moments as I watch him with a raised brow, and then he looks at me with abnormally wide, frightened eyes and says, “Grun… I think I’m dead.” “What are you talking about?” I ask, more than a little put off by the seriousness and panic in his voice. “I was watching over the herd at night,” He continues, starting to pace fretfully, “I got attacked by wolves. I called for help and tried to fight them off, but… But I think I died. Next thing I knew, I was in my dream home.” “Relax. It was just a dream.” I reassure him. “This has happened before, has it not?” “Yes, but… I’m sure this was real!” He shouts, before pausing for a few seconds. He says quietly, “Grun… Grun, I can’t… I can’t wake up.” There is silence as the meaning of that sinks in for the both of us. It’s something we can both do, with ease – wake up, any time we like, from anywhere in any dream. If he can’t… A portal twists into being in front of me. “Something is wrong, indeed. He will be able to clarify what it is, and what to do. Come.” “Are you sure he can help?” Ruvel asks, creating his own doorway. He calms down, perhaps reassured that at the very least he could still do that. “Ability is not the question.” I nod, striding forwards. “Willingness may be.” The scenery on the other side is blank as before and is once again quickly replaced by the familiar farmland. “That was quicker than I expected.” He says, coming out from in between the rows of grain. “What’s up?” “Ruvel here may have died.” I point to him with my snout. His eyebrow hikes up. “I… See. Well, I can check it out, I guess. Give me a minute.” He disappears, and just as quickly as the farm formed, it fades again. “What’s he doing?” Ruvel asks. “Checking if you are indeed dead.” I rumble. “But… I doubt he lives near me.” He voices, confused. “How would he even find me?” “He has his ways.” I say confidently. “If he says he’s going to do something, he will. Just wait. Relax. Maybe lie down.” A few minutes pass in silence before the farm begins to appear again. Ruvel quickly gets up from the grass as the grains part again. He emerges bearing a quizzical expression. “Yeah, you’re dead. But you’re here. Real question is, is this temporary or permanent?” “So, I am dead…” Ruvel looks down at his hands for a few moments. “But what do you mean?” “Well,” He says, scratching his head, “This could be some sort of short thing, the last few sputters of a dying candle, if you get what I mean. Or, your soul could now be tethered to the dream world for eternity, letting you live on as an immortal – but only in dreams.” “Is that even possible?” Ruvel questions. He shrugs. “Not sure, really. You’re unique. Honestly, you’re the one who has the best grasp on your own abilities. Do you feel faint, or like you’re fading away?” Ruvel looks down at himself, turning over his arms. “I don’t know. I don’t think so…” He looks up at me. “But it’s not unique, is it? Grun can do it too.” “The reason he can do it is very different from why you can. But anyway…” He holds out his arms. “Congratulations, you’re now immortal. Probably. I don’t really think there’s anything for me to help you with. Unless you really don’t like this kind of life and want to pass away, in which case I might be able to figure something out.” “I think I’m good. Thanks.” Ruvel rejects quickly. “Is it alright if I let him meet the others?” I ask. He pauses. “You think this ability can pass dimensional barriers?” “Indeed.” I nod slightly. “Hmm…” He considers for a moment, before looking me in the eyes. “If you think you can trust him, sure. But,” He says, now addressing Ruvel and starting to fade back into the field, “You have to promise not to say anything about any of us in the dreams of others.” “I don’t really understand,” Ruvel shakes his head, “But okay. I promise.” The farmlands fade away once more, leaving us standing on a small area of grass. “Well.” I ponder. “What now?” Ruvel decided to go on a bit of a holiday in his dreams while he sorts out what he wants to do going forwards. As for me, well… I do my usual: sleep and dream the years away. If he ever wants to talk to me, there’s no problem. Accessing someone’s dream home pulls them out of any dream they might already be in. Of course, that’s only the case for us, the only people who actually have dream homes. Time is a difficult thing to keep grasp of for me. Even the decades seem to pass quickly to me now, as I grow older. Within dreams, which twist perceptions and expectations further? Nigh impossible. Regardless, even within dreams I am dimly aware of my surroundings in reality. When something is being loud, or lightning strikes me and buzzes through my body, I notice it and can wake up if I feel like it. So when I hear a whole bunch of voices chattering right in front of me, I slip open an eye. What I wasn’t expecting to see is dozens of little scaly people looking at me. “It is awake!” They cheer, acutely deepening my already considerable confusion. This is not the usual response to seeing a gigantic dragon. Or a normal dragon, for that matter. I take closer look at the beings in front of me. They are covered in scales from snout to claw, long, tapered tails and fierce slit pupils. In fact, if it were not for their lack of wings and that they stood on two legs instead of four, I would have thought them tiny dragons. “It would be our great honour to serve you, great one!” Their leader shouts. What? “Why?” I ask. Their eyes widen. “It speaks!” They whisper to each other. “You are the greatest dragon we have ever met, large one!” Their leader exclaims energetically. “It would be our great honour to serve you!” “You are not afraid of me?” I ask again. “Of course not, great one!” He exclaims, smiling, then softly mutters, “You aren’t going to eat us, are you?” “No, I’m not going to eat you.” I roll my eye. “Has that happened before?” “Great one has excellent hearing!” Their leader’s tail thumps in shock. “Um, yes. Mean dragon said we didn’t do good enough and ate some of us. Rest of us fled.” “Hmm.” I rumble. “Well, I have no problem with you living here, if you wish. But why do you want to serve me?” “Great one protects us. In return, we serve!” He explains. “I see.” I blink. “Serve in what way, exactly? I require no food, or anything, really.” “We can bring gold and gems for the great one!” He says enthusiastically. “This…” An old desire in me stirs. I had a hoard, once, a collection of things of beauty – gold, jewels, weapons, even some sculptures and the like. Perhaps it would not be such a bad thing to have again. “This will do. Very well then, you may create a home for yourselves here.” They cheer happily. “Thank you, great one!” Their leader says. “However, I should warn you,” I mention, causing him to tense, “that I will be asleep most of the time. If I am to protect you, you should construct a bell, or some other means of creating a loud noise, such that you can awaken me if danger approaches.” “The great one is wise and merciful!” He smiles, relaxing. “We will do this as soon as we are able.” “Good.” I rumble, closing my eye to return to my slumber. It appears that I have company for a time, once more. “So, how are things these days?” I ask. The now familiar landscape of the farm surrounds us. I know not why he chose such scenery, but I must admit that it is somewhat pleasant. “Better, actually.” He nods. “Some are finally starting to come along. A smart kid turned up, and I’ve been working towards him taking over one of the things I was having to manage, so the work has eased up a little. You?” I shrug my mountainous shoulders. “A civilisation has cropped up around me, with me as their protector. Who could have thought?” I chuckle. “Curious creatures, Kobolds. Is this something you predicted would happen?” He smiles. “I wondered if it might. It’s practically their nature to seek out and live alongside dragons, and you’re the biggest one there is. You’re probably like a giant beacon to their instincts.” “Speaking of giant, is this going to become a problem?” I ask, referencing my own now behemothic size. “We have about half a million years of breathing room before it really starts to affect things, I figure.” He shrugs. “Don’t worry. If it gets to that, we’ll figure out a suitable solution.” I nod slowly. “I’ve noticed things are starting to move faster. Magic, technology, individual strength…” “I know.” He nods in agreement. “They’ll start coming more often from now on too, both the good and the bad. Makes me glad you found Ruvel – here, nobody can listen in on our conversations.” “Is that important?” I question. “It could be.” He smiles. “So much has changed.” Ruvel sighs. “Bricks, glass, metal, bows, swords… Even simple farming equipment has improved so much from how it was in my life.” “Time passes, and there is change.” I rumble. “Such is the way of things.” He nods, smiling wryly. “Even you – I thought you were huge when I met you, but this is getting ridiculous. How does anyone speak to a being of this sheer size?” “I have excellent hearing, and can speak softly, if I must.” I shrug. “But still you have a point; it is difficult. In reality nothing can be done, but perhaps here…” Closing my eyes, I focus. Two legs. Two arms. No tail, no wings. No scales. Hair. That is my desire. I open my eyes to Ruvel’s shocked face. “You can do that?” He asks incredulously. “Indeed.” I smile, putting a hand to my head to neaten my hair. “Have you never been something other than human in your many years of dreaming? In a dream, there is no impossible, only that which you believe is so. A human can become a dragon, and a dragon, a human.” “Damn, I want to try that.” He laughs, concentrating. A moment later, I look up to see a dragon staring at me. “You’ve gotten quite good at this.” I note proudly. “You barely need the idea to be able to accomplish it.” “I’m still not as good as you, cheater.” His voice rumbles in the air around me. “I’ve been around longer, little one.” I shake my head. “Some of these things, I’ve been doing long before you were born. I just hadn’t thought to use them in such a way.” “Maybe, but I reckon if you weren’t around, I might have been the one in your position.” He stretches, getting a feel for the different body. “Perhaps.” I reply, shrugging. “But that does make me wonder… If it might be possible for you even now.” He pauses. “You know I was just joking, right? There’s no way – I mean, I’m dead.” “And yet here you are… I’ll ask him next time I visit.” I decide. I sigh very, very softly, so as not to decimate the landscape in front of my mouth. Time has passed, and the land has sunken under my weight. Most of my body is now underground, and a river is even running over my tail, courtesy of an earthquake a while ago. However, that is no issue. I could simply uncoil myself, take a step, and I would be out of this valley. No, the issue is that I ignored a small itch on my tail for far too long. Normally, I would think such a thing is inconsequential. Normally, an itch is an itch. Normally, people don’t start building cities on my tail. Of course, they didn’t stop there. Now there are cities spread all over my tail and lower back. I may have been covered in practically kilometres of dust and dirt over the millennia, but surely someone had to have noticed it looked a little odd? Now I’m stuck. If I were to move, all of the cities would collapse, killing everyone in them. …Oh well, I suppose I’ll just go to sleep again, then. jinxs2011 I hope you enjoyed this side story. Writing it was a bit like stepping through a mine field in some senses. So many spoilers I had to try and avoid, so if some things seem weird or vague, that's probably why. Or maybe it's a mistake, could be either honestly. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki links.

jinxs2011 So. If memory serves me right, last chapter I said something along the lines of 'I should be less busy now so I'll be able to write more'. Obviously, it didn't work like that. I'm guessing this is going to be a longer one, so: TL;DR for those who don't want to/aren't going to read the probable wall of text after this. No, I'm not dead, No, I'm not stopping writing, I have the next chapter written already and I'm going to post it next week. Now, the explanation. It's been a touch over five months now since the last chapter, so I think you all deserve one. First off, I'd like to say thanks to the people who wrote comments asking what was happening with the novel. I really appreciate that people were still thinking about the novel and looking forward to what was next, even after so much time had passed. And the same to all the people on the discord, who were continually supportive and not angry or demanding even though by this point I might have expected some of them to be. To put it as bluntly and honestly as I can, I fell into depression. Before I continue, I would like to be clear that I don't say this looking for pity, compassion or condolences. I am saying this solely so that you can understand why things are as they are, and so that you aren't let down time after time from false hopes. With that being said, I'll return to what I was saying. I fell into depression. In all likelihood, I have suffered from depression to some degree or another for quite a long time, but it was only recently (shortly after the previous chapter) that it became more acute and I was formally diagnosed. I can't pretend to know how depression affects other people, but for me at least, what that has meant is pervasive melancholy and extreme lack of motivation, for everything. It's not because my enjoyment of writing has decreased - it hasn't - or that I've been struggling to work out where the story should go next, and how. People from the discord will likely agree with me when I say that I actually write fairly quickly (relative to how it may appear from releases), sometimes as much as a couple thousand words in a single day. The problem is that those days are few and far in between. The chapter was sitting at only a few hundred words for completion since the start of november, for instance, and only today have I finally had the motivation to complete it. And it's not just my motivation for writing that's suffered. Reading, gaming, talking to other people, work, everything's hard. So... Yeah. I don't think this is the first time this has happened, actually. It's at least the second. Last one was a bit over a three and a half years ago. Wasn't in a great place, emotionally and mentally speaking. From memory, I felt like I had only ever taken from the world, and that there was nothing I would ever have to give back. Then, on a whim, I started to write something. I had been told a few times that I would be good at it, and I finally decided I'd give it a go. Well, I don't think that one got past the second page. I believe it was because I couldn't think of a name for the city? But more than that, I think I realised that all I had was a concept, an idea. I didn't have any of the details I needed to turn that idea into a world, a story. A while after that, I started writing another story. I was happier with that one. Had it a bit more fleshed out, a rough outline of what the actual story would be, the world, and so on. And, well, I was familiar with royalroad. I'm sure everyone here can relate when I say I was sick of potentially great stories that I was reading suddenly just stopping forever. And it felt like nobody would ever write the stories I really wanted to read. Well, one way or another I started posting it. Wasn't very popular. Still isn't, although it's a lot better than it used to be. At some point, I don't know if it was before or after I started posting that, I had a bit of an epiphany. If nobody was going to write the story I wanted to read, then I may as well write it myself. Something was better than nothing, after all. As well as that story, I started writing another. Half as a joke - the classic reborn into another world that's been done a thousand times, but without the strong-from-the-start OP stats. Without the legendary skills. Without excalibur just hanging from his hip, or the world's foremost swordsman to teach him. Without being born as royalty, or a dragon, or even a human. Why exactly should he be so lucky, so fortunate? It would be much more realistic (although really, realism is always a bit much of an ask in a fantasy world) if he had nothing, and he was something stupid and ridiculous like a fork. Obviously that plan had to change a little because I couldn't figure out how to have a story around a sentient fork that could do literally nothing, so I had to go with the ability steal sort of thing that I really didn't want to do originally, but it was the only way I could really figure it. Anyway, I started posting that one too. To my surprise and chagrin, it quickly grew in popularity, considerably more than my other novel. Eventually, I got over my annoyance that my 'joke' novel was doing significantly better than my 'actual' novel, and started thinking something along the lines of, 'well, damn. That means I have to actually figure out a storyline for this thing.' I'm not entirely sure why I'm writing out what's practically the story's autobiography here but whatever I'll continue. I think I have a point to this. Maybe. Eh, long story short, I thought through a bunch of things that I was initially like 'eh, doesn't matter how it happened or if it makes sense' for and figured out ways for things to make sense without having to edit too much of what I'd already written (although I ended up having to do a fair amount of that at times, too) and started writing it as an actual story. And it got more popular. And basically I became happy that so many people thought well of my work and my depression lessened and I was quite motivated for a time. So anyway, I really do enjoy writing this novel and discussing it, so I'm not about to stop. I just want people to know that, currently, I find it difficult to find motivation to start writing, and so, yes, chapters may be slow. On a more positive note, I'm going to start seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist or one of those 'ist's, and hopefully that should help. I'm also going to try and get into the habit of writing every day, don't know how successful I'll be, but people in the discord that's now your assignment: instead of checking progress every few days, ask me if I've written anything that day. Almost forgot, because it was such a large wait and because this chapter felt a bit short (not word count but... felt like it?), I decided that I'd write a second chapter, which is done and I'll be posting in a week. And I think that's about everything I wanted to say about that. So, reviews. BookTycoon Spoiler Story is awesome and great! The way how the author manipulates the plot of the story feels a little off but all in way it was a funny and forkin adventure for the readers of how a fork will work it's way up in life discovering new things along the way. I just hope the author at least control the direction of the plot better and not always shove so much content or information in one chapter that makes most readers want to drop the story but so far the author somehow mold this chaotic story into a beautiful one? Like they say with chaos comes order and the other way around. [collapse] Thanks for the positive review. Would be interested in hearing in more detail, perhaps with an example or two, about what you mean exactly so I can try and improve things. For the last part, for instance, are you referring to chapter length or just the nature of the chapter content (too many explanations instead of action, conversation or descriptions for instance)? Now, I think that's everything. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki links as per usual (Don't think the wiki's up to date to this chapter, but it should be up to date to the previous one), and I hope you enjoy the chapter and in general just have a good day. Chapter 44: Answers Finding Joe isn’t too difficult – I just have to wait for one of the classes we’re both in - advanced water creation magic, to be specific. It was between that or alteration, and chances were I’d need both – water is everywhere, but I can’t be sure which is more mana-efficient between gathering water from the atmosphere around me or just making it. Anyway, I go up to him at the end of class. As per usual, he’s sitting there looking at my hovering form, as if he’d already known I was going to talk to him. “I have questions.” I state simply. Joe shrugs, getting up. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t. Best we talk in private, though. Follow me.” I follow him as he leaves the classroom. Thing is, as paranoid as I am and as strange as Joe is, he’s had plenty of opportunities before to harm, capture, or do whatever else to me. He hasn’t. I’m not entirely sure that he’s a friend, but I’m fairly sure he doesn’t have any bad intentions. That, or he’s just mad, and completely unpredictable. But as far as I can tell, he’s not. He’s odd, but it’s weird odd, not crazy odd. To my surprise, he leads me to the dorms, to a single person room. A bit more expensive than my shared room, but still quite simple living. “What, did you think I slept in an alley in the city or something?” Joe shakes his head. After an awkward pause I reluctantly admit, “Well, kind of, yes.” “Well… The thought did tempt me.” His eyes shift to the side momentarily before he diverts the topic. “But you’re here to ask questions, not admire the décor. Ask away.” “First of all, I need to know how I can trust your information. You’re almost always vague or indirect when you say things, and it’s usually things that are impossible to confirm.” I start, bluntly. “If you like, I can also say things like, ‘the grass is green’ and ‘the sky is blue’.” He offers unhelpfully in a tone as if he is being helpful. I groan, “How do you get your information, then?” Joe looks at me for a long moment, then shakes his head, sighing. “Fine. I’ll throw you a bit of a bone. In the most basic of senses, I know some people who know a lot of things. We talk sometimes, and some of that knowledge is occasionally exchanged. Thus, I know a bit about many different things, both that are happening and have already happened.” “Alright, that’s better than nothing.” I concede. “But you also seem to know about the future.” He frowns. “I don’t know about THE future.” He says, stressing the word. “THE future, technically speaking, doesn’t exist.” “Imagine time is like a tree: a single root, branching out more and more as it ascends. Each point at which it branches is an instant in time, all things that are.” Joe continues. “Now imagine that there’s an ant or something on the tree, climbing up it – the ant is you, by the way, or me, depending on your perspective. It’s simplicity itself to know where the ant is: just look at where the ant is.” “Sure.” I reply. “Assuming you can see the ant.” “Indeed, and speaking realistically that is actually a big assumption.” Joe nods. “But we’re speaking hypothetically here. So we know where the ant is, and it’s not much more difficult to figure out where the ant was, we just track back down the branches from the ant towards the root of the tree. That is to say, for the ant, there is only one possible present, and one possible past. But to know where the ant will be?” “It could go up any of the branches.” I say, understanding where he is going with this. “Maybe you could get lucky at the first branch and guess right, but at the next, or the one after… The chances are against you.” “Exactly.” Joe exclaims. “The future is infinite. That is to say, even if somebody found a method to look up that tree from where they currently were and look at one of the branches above, that future may never come to pass for them. So no, I don’t know all of what will be. I know some of what may be.” Pondering that for a moment, I accept it as fairly believable. “Alright, I can understand that. For now, I think I can accept that you’re at least somewhat believable.” “I’m hurt,” Joe says in mock sadness, holding his hand to his chest, “I’ve never spoken anything but the truth to you.” “Forgive me if I don’t take the… Eccentric… old man at face value.” Is my dry reply. He shrugs. “So… What’s going on?” I ask, finally. He sighs. “Assuming you mean with the academy and the kidnapping, that’d be level eighty.” Exasperated, I ask, “Why is it always eighty and ninety? Why can’t it be something a little lower?” “Because you technically surpass most of the lower milestones.” Joe states, much to my surprise. “But I’m only level…” I trail off in confusion. “Wait, so there’s some other criteria you didn’t mention?” “Sure.” He shrugs. “But levels are easier, much easier. You have enough money, you can practically buy your way to level fifty or so. Past that point it gets a lot harder, sure, but it’s still easier than the alternative.” “Which is...?” I prompt. “Skill proficiency. Although they’re not exactly the hardest to advance in, the rarest or very powerful, you do still have a few skills at master. Combined with your actual level, I figure that puts you around level fifty-five, level sixty for what you’re qualified to know.” He muses, scratching his chin. “Wait, how do you know about my skills and level?” I ask with alarm. Like 90% of my current combat strategy relies on my opponents not understanding what I can do, if there’s a way for them to see my status I’ll be at a severe disadvantage. “Ah, well…” His eyes shift awkwardly, “It’s not really something you’re supposed to be able to know about yet… It’s a pretty well-kept secret, you know. Suffice to say, there’s a title. And don’t worry – the kind of people that can get the title aren’t the kind of people you’ll ever be fighting. Not unless everything really goes to hell, figuratively speaking.” I mentally breath a sigh of relief. “Have I ever met someone with this title? Apart from you, I mean.” “Met?” He considers. “Just once, I think. Kleio has it. Apart from that, you’ve probably seen a few here and there.” “Kleio? Huh.” I muse. “Wait, then when I was called up to her office when I enrolled…” “Yeah, she was confirming everything that she had heard about you and checking your titles and skills for anything suspicious.” Joe shrugs. “Huh. I thought she just had some sort of skill to determine intentions, but – wait, I’m getting side-tracked.” I break off my current train of thought as it occurs to me, returning to my original objective. “Isn’t there anything you can tell me about what’s happening? Is the whole thing with those kidnappers really over, what were they after?” “Wait, that’s all you wanted to know?” Joe responds with a chuckle, shaking his head at himself. “And here I was trying to be all secretive. Nah, it’s not over. Course not, they’re not giving up so easily. As for what they’re after, knowledge is and always has been the academy’s most precious resource.” “The library. That’s what they’re going for.” I think for a moment. “It’s probably the most defended place in the academy, and I doubt I can see anything more than the surface layer. It’s divided into sections – I’ve heard students have access to the first three, no matter how long they’ve been here. Rumour has it that only teachers can access the fourth. They would’ve tried to infiltrate via a student first, it would be stupid not to. So either the infiltration was unsuccessful, or what they want is deeper than section 3. Or they got impatient, I guess.” I add as an afterthought, less talking to Joe at this point than speaking my thoughts aloud. “It would be much more difficult to plant a teacher in the academy. An institution this important, they must vet their staff thoroughly.” My train of thought continues to run, new information falling into place with previous thoughts and other information formerly considered unrelated. “Theoretically, it’s possible given enough time, skilled agents and resources. From the facilities and means I saw when we got kidnapped, they have the latter two at least. They were clearly well prepared. Well-funded, too, if that wasn’t even their main facility… Wait.” Well-funded. Skilled. Probable insider information. Probable many years invested into this. And yet they were taken by surprise by the academy response? Sure, Simon’s grandfather was the one to destroy them, but our teacher seemed certain that the academy could deal with them, even after seeing what they were capable of, and Simon’s grandfather seemed to similarly think that he wasn’t particularly required to be there. Doesn’t add up. Either they’re a bunch of idiots or something else was at play. Something… Bigger? “How old is the Academy?” I ask, running on a wild theory. Joe tilts his head. “About two and a half millennia, give or take a few decades.” “And it’s been here the whole time? Not destroyed, taken over, anything like that?” I ask another question running in a similar vein. “Nothing like that, stood strong the whole time. Not for lack of trying on some people’s part.” One of Joe’s eyebrows raises. “You know, there should be some history book you could read for this.” “No, can’t break my chain of thought.” I rebut. “And it’s always been at the forefront in terms of magic?” “Pretty much.” Joe confirms, his second eyebrow joining the first. “Impossible.” His eyebrows hike further up his forehead with my blatant rejection. “With magic, knowledge is power. With power comes the envy of others. With enough power, enough envy, comes conflict. This is an educational institution. It might be a fortress magically, but in terms of getting inside, any sufficiently determined and skilled enemy could do so and compromise the defences. The very fact that it’s never happened strongly suggests the existence of a higher power protecting the academy. One that can’t be contested. A god.” “Well–” Joe starts, but my train of thought hasn’t yet reached the last station. “They were overly confident despite knowingly having lesser forces. Assuming my former assumption is correct, it follows that there was a god on their side as well. But for there to have been a god assisting them, that god must have thought themselves capable of opposing the god protecting the academy, and yet there was no interference from them when their forces were being decimated?” I continue. “Uh…” Joe raises a finger. “Unless they weren’t expecting opposition in the first place?” My voice powers forward, ignoring Joe’s objection. “Perhaps they were more powerful than the god protecting the academy, but the god protecting the academy had an unexpected ally? Or they expected the academy’s god to not notice? The academy’s god was elsewhere, distracted, preoccupied in some way or another? But unbeknownst to the opposing god, the academy’s god had asked an ally to protect the academy in their absence?” Joe just stares at me. “Or something like that. Impossible to say which.” I finish. “What… The fuck.” Joe swears. Thunder rumbles down from the sky through the window despite the clouds there being perfectly white and puffy. Jabbing a finger in the general direction of the sky, Joe exclaims, “Oh, piss off. I barely gave him anything! Cat’s out of the bag now, he’s well within his rights to figure stuff out if he wants to be such a smart aleck.” A spark of electricity jolts down from the stone of the window to zap the offending fingertip. Joe waves his finger in shock. “Cheeky bugger.” He shakes his head and turns back to me. “It’s official: I suck at keeping secrets. Now get out of here before I let something else slip. Never should have suggested this game.” Joe shoos me out the door and slams it behind me. …I was mostly bluffing to make him get angry at the sheer inaccuracy of my words and correct me out of pure annoyance, but okay. Okaaay. Gods. This means… I don’t know what this means. Back on Earth, if you were to talk about a god, you’d picture some almighty, mysterious being. Indescribable. Unfathomable. And as far as most people are concerned, far-off. Not having much, or any, impact in one’s life that couldn’t be attributed to something else: luck, happenstance. I’ve known for a while now that the beings that the people in these worlds call ‘gods’ aren’t like that. They’re powerful, sure, though exactly how powerful I haven’t the slightest idea. Mysterious, sure. Far-off, maybe – who knows exactly where the gods reside. But there is never any argument over whether they exist or not. On Earth, someone might say, ‘I believe the god of this religion exists,’ and another will likely refute their claim. Here, it is accepted as common sense that the gods exist. All of them. Full stop. No question. No argument. It just is. I’ve also known for a while that the gods are paying some sort of attention to these worlds. Their priests and paladins act as their arms and legs, carrying out their will on the worlds. And, sometimes, I don’t know how often, the gods speak to at least their priests, probably their paladins too. What I didn’t realise is that the gods themselves are also acting in the worlds. How much, how often, I don’t know. Hard to know anything about beings known as gods besides what they want to be known. But it makes me wonder: has this second life of mine been moulded by the gods, beyond just my creation? How many of the times when I got ‘lucky’ were really due to luck? Me dropping directly on a robot and gaining just the trait I needed to break free of insanity? Ferdinand’s party just happening to notice the hole I’d made, in a cave in the middle of nowhere? Me killing the spider matriarch? Getting summoned by Dreyer? All of the skills and traits that I’ve accumulated to this point… The gods went so far as to bring me back from death. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that they might be interested in my new life for some reason. Maybe that’s what Joe is: an agent of the gods, tasked to watch me for when they’re busy with something else. It’s clear at this point that he has at least some link to a god or gods. Whether he’s a priest, paladin, or something else… Well, it would explain some of he strange abilities he’s shown, and how he got into the academy – if he is an agent of a god or gods that are friendly with the god of this academy, it would be simple for them to arrange his enrolment. Then again, I’ve met and seen priests and paladins. They had mana. He doesn’t. Unless it’s a quirk of the specific god he follows… He’s something different again. Or maybe he’s some weird species that just doesn’t have mana, or their bodies block out things like mana sight. I mean, he looks human, but who knows? There’s plenty of ways to change your appearance, and there are some races that don’t look too different from humans. Well, whatever and whoever he is, it looks like I’ll have to look into the gods soon. Doubt I’ll find anything relevant to myself, but it won’t hurt to learn some common knowledge about them. But moving back to current events - If gods are involved, doesn’t that mean that… There’s nothing I can do? I mean, regardless of what our side or the other does, whichever of the gods comes out on top can just sweep away any resistance. …Things like these are the reason I generally prefer to stay unnoticed. Just another person in the background. The less people think about me, the better. My heart goes out to the visionaries, the heroes, those who spend their lives bettering other’s. Because I know the world needs people like them. And because I know that I could never do what they do. Not because I wasn’t strong enough, or smart enough. It may sound a bit boastful, but I think I was born with a pretty good body – I’m talking about my old life, of course – and I was always pretty quick to learn. If I put my mind to it, I probably could’ve been successful in many different careers, careers where I could’ve made a positive difference on the world. There was only one reason why that never happened – well, maybe not just one reason. But it was certainly one of the largest ones: fear. I feared what would happen if it turned out that actually, I wasn’t good enough. What if I stepped up to the plate, but I failed, and I had taken the place of someone better who could’ve succeeded? What if people ended up hating me for my failures? What if I ended up hating myself? I feared what would happen if I tried to do something good, but I got steamrolled by some company trying to make some quick bucks on someone’s misfortune. I never had been optimistic; I knew that people were capable of doing some very dark things. I don’t expect it, but I’m aware of the possibility. Even if people didn’t directly try to stop what I was doing, too many people are willing to turn a blind eye if the alternative is to their deficit… To my shame, myself included. And what I think I feared most of all, was that no matter how hard I tried, no matter what I did, it wouldn’t make a difference. I had seen people, intelligent, brilliant people, who warned of things to come, displaying facts, lengthy analysis, studies, simply… Ignored. Nobody cared that people were starving to death, ravaged by drought or disease. Nobody cared that slavery still thrived in the world. Nobody cared about businesses selling absurd amounts of information about people to who knows where. Nobody cared that politicians and other big names commit serious crimes and simply get away with it. Nobody cared that the number of species going extinct was only increasing year by year, because of us. Nobody cared that the world was burning. Nobody cared. Or at least, not enough people or not the right people cared to make a difference. I knew, from a young age, that I wasn’t in control of my life, and probably never would be. It was the leaders of the country I was in, the big businesses. They made the laws. They could influence the public’s opinion on what was right and what was wrong, if they wanted to. Twist morals, beliefs. And heck, even the ordinary people around me. If I were walking down the street, and someone passing me suddenly pulled out a knife and stabbed me, there would simply have been nothing I could do. It’s like they say, ignorance is bliss. I saw the world; I’m not arrogant enough to say I saw and knew everything that was going wrong, but I saw enough to know that there was a lot more going wrong than was being done to rectify it. And it scared me. A whole lot. So, I avoided attention from anyone, big or small. The methods I used… I don’t know if I could put a name to all of them, whether I even knew about all the things I did. A human in fear can do extraordinary things. Sometimes stupid things, too, to be fair. But also, extraordinary. I never made any conscious decision, never really thought about it, to be honest. But by the time I realised it, my footsteps grew soft. Later in life, I found it difficult when trying to approach someone, because I had to consciously try and make noise, so as not to startle them when they finally noticed me standing right beside them. I never spoke louder than I needed to. If you were to ask even my mother to give an example of a time I shouted, I doubt she would remember one. I could count those occasions on one hand – could count them on my tines, actually. My clothes – no pictures, no logos. Plain, unpatterned. Soft fabrics that wouldn’t rustle or make noise. You would think it would make it easy to buy clothes, but it’s surprisingly difficult to find good shirts that are just… Grey. Or blue. But nothing too bright. I never made gestures while speaking, and always thought at least twice about what I was saying before opening my mouth – especially about whether doing so was necessary in the first place. I always waited for others to give their opinions before voicing mine – and if mine conflicted, then, generally speaking, I kept my mouth shut. If I was in a public space, my face was almost always neutral, with no particular expression. People who didn’t know me very well probably thought I was practically emotionless. Some days, I wished they were right. Leadership roles I avoided like the plague, although somehow they still found their way to me. I learned that it was best to pre-empt the role from defaulting to me by recommending someone else, particularly if I could give reasons why they were a good idea. Nobody likes it if you give reasons why you aren’t a good idea. They take them as excuses, as you trying to shirk the responsibility. And well, yes, I was, but there was no reason to lower their impression of me. Better for them to think that I acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of others. Anything public I also stayed away from. Social media, even discussion boards – I was a ghost, sometimes observing, but, for the most part, unobserved. In a word, I was plain, from my looks to my actions. Not handsome, not ugly. Nothing to stand out. Nothing to notice. Perhaps it was fitting, then, that in my new life I was a fork. The most common of household utensils. Nobody would notice if they had one extra, or one less than usual. I would’ve continued to live my life as I had before death. I had, pretty much, up until now. But now I know, for better or for worse. There are beings out there, with power beyond my understanding, that have shaped this new life. That may continue to shape it. And I don’t trust that their intentions are good. Or even if they were – it’s my life. It’s my path. I want to be able to dictate the direction of that path myself. There’s no way to hide anymore. Hell, Joe was practically here waiting for me, when even I didn’t know beforehand that I was coming to this world. I need knowledge. Of the gods, of their intentions for me. I need power, enough that they can’t ignore me, if need be. …Then again, that was pretty much my plan originally. The stakes are just higher. Sometimes, I wish that I could forget things. I detest not knowing things, but sometimes that knowledge turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing. Geralds status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6419.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 5.38% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.35%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 84.26% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 24.83% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.39% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 73.93% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.31% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.62% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 37.19% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells. Formation casting (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 68.06% - You have a firm grasp of casting magic through formations. Slight increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 24.67% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells. Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 31.10% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of light magic, including creation and illusion. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 23.12% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 14.16% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 42.42% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic. Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 23.84% -  You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic. Ignitae language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 8.04% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Metallurgy (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 92.75% - You have decent theoretical knowledge of metals and alloys, but lack practical experience. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 59.11% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. Water magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 19.09% - You have a good grasp of water magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting water magic. Darkness magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.94% - You have a good grasp of darkness magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting darkness magic. Summoning magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 96.72% - You have a basic grasp of summoning magic. Aquan language – Written (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive), 64.32% - You have a good vocabulary and can understand most things written in this language, although in some cases it may take some time. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 Don't think there's an awful lot to say here. Hope my depression isn't bleeding out too much into the chapter contents, although I know it is a bit. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki links. Hope you enjoyed.

With Dreyer having his meal and the conversation momentarily ceased, I finally get the chance to take a look around at the place. His house is… Less a house than it is a well-built hut. It consists of nothing more than a single room furnished with a table, a couple chairs, a bed, a bookshelf – here’s hoping I get the opportunity to peruse its contents extensively – and a cupboard. Just outside the singular window is a small pile of assorted implements – tridents, pitchforks, three bladed swords and a singular tuning fork. Everything in the pile could, if one squints a bit and keeps a very open mind, be defined as a fork. Other than that, there is just a sturdy door, padlocked shut, some crystals embedded in the floor and… An arch up against one of the walls. “Is that a portal?” I ask, starting up the telepathic link again. “Wah!” Dreyer jumps out of his chair in shock. “Oh. Could you give me a bit of warning next time? Your voice just comes out of nowhere! It’s a bit creepy…” “Sorry.” I apologise. I suppose it would be quite startling. “How about this: I fly up in front of you when I want to talk. Is that alright?” He nods. “Okay. Now, what was it you asked again?” “Is that a portal? On the wall, I mean?” I ask again. He looks over at it. “That’s right. It’s inactive, though. I deactivated it for the trip across. First rule of portals: don’t put a portal through a portal. Someone always ends up dead. Usually you.” That sounds fun. “Why? What happens?” “Well, a portal is basically a carefully managed twist in the fabric of space.” Dreyer explains after a moment. “Put one through another, and it becomes horribly complicated and messy. Space breaks. Everything around the break… Poof.” “Sounds deadly.” I say lightly, immediately adding ‘portalception’ to my list of things to never do. “So, where’s it go?” “Arbadak.” He says a name that sounds like some foreign board game, or perhaps a foreign sweet. “The center of all magical learning, and my home world.” Oh? “I suppose that that would be a very good place to learn magic?” I ask with interest. “Yes. The best.” He states. There is a moment of silence. “Oh. You meant you want to learn magic there.” He finally realises. “Well, if you have enough talent, you might be able to get a scholarship.” “I’m probably talented. I don’t know. Does having high intelligence and wisdom stats help?” I ask questioningly. “Yep.” Dreyer replies. “But that’s besides the point. First thing’s first, I’m getting out of Hell. Anything else can come after that.” “Right, sounds good.” I agree. “…So, how long will it take to get back enough mana for that?” I ask. Dreyer scratches his head, scooping another handful of nuts in his mouth. “Hard to say. Assuming I need to keep summoning food and water… Two months?” “Two months!?” I exclaim in disbelief. “It only takes me just over three hours to fill my mana pool from empty, and that’s with the ‘foreign mana’ debuff nearly halving it!” “Well, I put all my stats into intelligence, so of course it’s going to take a while.” Dreyer folds his furry arms. “And I have to fill up all the mana crystals – even with my stats, it’s impossible to transport a whole house with my mana pool alone.” “You transport the entire house between worlds!?” I gasp. He nods. “Of course. I don’t know how to build a house, so what else am I going to do? Pitch a tent?” He laughs. “I’m not an animal.” I refrain from mentioning that he looks exactly like a giant animal. “Wait, I forgot.” Dreyer hits his forehead lightly with his palm. “I’ll have to adjust the amount of mana going into the formation to account for the extra person going through – make that two months and a few days.” “Can’t I fill up the mana crystals for you?” I ask. “That would speed this up.” “No, having someone else’s mana in the formation would make it difficult to control.” Dreyer replies. “It’s best not to risk it.” I sigh in resignation. “So, what do we do in the meantime?” “Talk. I suppose I’ll look through my spell books, see if there’s anything that can help you. Maybe explore a little.” He muses. In other words, more sitting around doing nothing for me. Fork. Dreyer flips onto the last page of the last spell book on the last shelf of his bookshelf, snapping the book shut a moment later. It has taken him a few days to read through them all, and with each one my hope dwindled slightly. “Looks like you’re out of luck this time.” Dreyer sighs. “I do have one spell that could be modified to suit your purposes, but it’s just too advanced – to learn it, I’d have to go through and teach you a several dozen other things first. And with you not being able to see writing, I don’t think I’d be able to even if I wanted to try.” “Don’t worry about it.” I say, resigned. “Still, thanks for taking the time to look through all those books.” “It was about time I read back through them, anyway.” He replies, waving it off. “Now, it’s about time I do some exploring of this god-forsaken place…” “Mind if I come with?” I ask, happy to do something other than sitting around. “Sure.” He replies, slipping gloves on his paws, both front and hind. From what I can see, his paws are somewhat more developed than an ordinary squirrel’s with fully opposable thumbs, but still retaining the pads and claws. Opening the door, Dreyer steps outside and winces slightly. “The ground is hot!” He exclaims as I fly through the open door. “Will you be alright?” I ask. “I’ll be fine.” He says, shifting slightly from paw to paw as he gets used to the temperature. “Not nearly as bad as the time I was at Ignis – the elemental world of fire.” I pause at that. “How on earth do you survive in a world of fire?” “You don’t, normally.” Dreyer replies. “I was lucky enough to come across some friendly fire elementals who were willing to siphon off the heat around my house until I managed to get out of there. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to siphon off all the heat, and I had to have extensive repairs done in the world after.” He says wryly, before remarking, “Gosh, it really is dark, isn’t it?” “I can’t tell.” Without living beings to use as reference, I’m completely unable to tell the time of day. “If it’s night, maybe we should wait until morning?” I suggest. “According to my research, Hell doesn’t have day, just night and dark.” Dreyer explains. “The moon… There it is, the moon provides a little bit of light. After it goes beyond the horizon, there’s not even that… just pure darkness.” “The more I learn about this place, the more I want to leave.” I groan. I had seen demons using the terms before, but I thought ‘dark’ and ‘night’ were referring to the same thing. Apparently not. Dreyer gets down on all fours and starts dashing across the ground at a decent pace, with me following closely behind. “So, you know a bit about this place?” I ask, curious. “A bit. I res – WAH!” Dreyer ploughs into a boulder. “Ow. Ow. Ow… I… try and research places I could end up in, especially the bad ones. I knew I would end up here eventually…” He says, a thin trail of blood seeping from his head. “You alright?” I ask, slightly concerned. He waves a paw. “Fine. Just… try not to distract me when I’m running, okay?” “Alright.” I’m keeping up the telepathic link between us so that we can talk at any time. Of course, that means some extra drain on my psi given that I’m also using telekinesis to fly, but since the distance between us is fairly small, it still isn’t putting my consumption over my regeneration. The landscape around us isn’t much different from where I was before Dreyer summoned me – bleak, barren and sheltering minimal life. Dreyer pads in steady, gradually expanding circles around his house, familiarising himself with the area. As I follow him around, getting a bit of exercise so to speak, I notice some people appearing on the edge of my vision. To be more specific, it’s a few demons chasing after what looks like a kid. The kid looks like an elf, and he also looks like he’s in terrible shape, dressed in little more than torn rags and sporting several large wounds. Noticing that they are heading roughly towards the house, I warn Dreyer. “Hey Dreyer, can you fight? We have demons incoming.” “Of course I can. Where are they coming from?” Dreyer replies, standing up and looking around cautiously. “Coming towards the house from… A bit to your right, about one and a half kilometres away.” I estimate. “Chasing a child, as well.” “A child? Those beasts!” Dreyer says angrily, running off towards them. Well… I’m honestly sceptical that the kid is much better than the demons after all I’ve seen so far in Hell, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. We reach within a stone’s throw of them just in time to witness them plunging a spear into the boy’s back. ‘No!’ Dreyer shouts. Incredibly, the boy doesn’t fall and just keeps on running, the spear tearing from his flesh under the scowling visage of the demon holding it. ‘Hey, furfuck! Come to help your friend?’ He shouts, noticing us. ‘Come over here so I can make some fu-hrrk!’ The demon collapses forwards, an arrow protruding from the back of his head. Dreyer raises a hand, plucking an arrow from thin air and setting it to the string of the bow that had appeared only moments earlier. Drawing back the string, Dreyer releases and the arrow jumps forwards – into a tiny portal that emerges in front of him. The portal’s twin appears over the head of one of the remaining two demons, who has turned around to see who shot the first one. He is soon sporting a stylish new headpiece. Seeing the demise of his accomplices, the last demon turns and runs. But honestly… what use is there in running when your opponent is a space wizard? A third arrow quickly finds its mark, and the final demon collapses to the ground. Tossing the bow aside, Dreyer rushes towards the boy, who collapsed to the ground upon witnessing the death of his pursuers. Stooping down beside him, there is a brief glimmer of light above Dreyer’s hand before it sparks into nothingness. “I don’t have enough mana to summon potions! Can you do anything?” He asks, panicking at the sight of the boy spilling blood from numerous wounds. “Probably not, but I can take a look…” I look closer at the boy, both at the exterior and interior of his body, inspecting his very bones and organs… Or what’s left of them. “Impossible. This should be impossible!” I exclaim in disbelief. “What’s wrong?” Dreyer asks with dread. “What’s wrong? His spine is broken in three separate places, his legs in seven, his lungs are holier than swiss cheese and his heart was accurately shish-kabobbed by that spear earlier!” I report, unable to believe my eyes – not that I have any. Dreyer sighs. “He’s dead, then.” If I had a head, I would be shaking it. “That’s what’s so impossible – he’s still alive!” That’s right, he’s alive. His lungs are still pumping and his heart is still beating. Even though they don’t seem to be doing anything, they just keep going without showing any indication of stopping. “What!?” Dreyer gasps. “But how?” “Beats me.” I admit helplessly. “But I think it’s best not to touch him. Might disrupt whatever it is that’s keeping him alive.” “I think that’s best…” Dreyer agrees. “But we can’t just leave him here.” “There’s nothing we can do. I don’t see that we have much of a choice.” I reply. Dreyer looks like he’s about to argue the point when the boy opens his eyes. Glancing over the big ball of fur in front of him, the boy’s eyebrows narrow slightly, but he says nothing and just gets up off the ground… that looks unnatural. And painful. His bones are broken, but are acting as if they aren’t, keeping in alignment and everything. …That probably means they’ll heal up better, right? I think I remember something along those lines. Ignoring Dreyer, he walks over to the corpses of the demons and picks up a spear. Without so much as a glance at us, he starts walking away. I can see him muttering under his breath, ‘Kill them… I have to… find a way… Kill them all…’ That kid has problems. “Well, I think that’s that. How about we go back to your house now?” “That sounds good…” Dreyer sighs. “Remind me how long it’ll take, again?” I ask, as we start travelling back. “I just used all my mana, so we’re back at the beginning.” “…” The days pass by as slowly as ever. I spend my time as per usual, slowly increasing skill proficiency and getting some more flying experience. Occasionally, I perform my duties as the only fork in the house. Dreyer spends his time reading through his tomes, sleeping or eating. Every now and again, he infuses mana into one of the crystals in the floor, making them glow ever brighter in my sight. Days turn into weeks, and a lone demon happens to spot the house. Not wanting to stay in Hell any longer than I have to, I decide to face him myself. With a quick combination of my natural forky stealth, a ki blast, magic edge and power stab, I fork him up good. Weeks turn into months, and the number on the ‘age’ section of my status ticks from 11 to 12… A whole year. I never expected to have my first birthday in Hell. It’s quite dreary, one might even go so far as to call it hellish. I think I’ll make it a goal to have my second birthday anywhere but Hell. Actually, make that any birthday. Eventually, my age ticks to 13 months. With the day of departure drawing near, I check over my skills, satisfied that my constant training has paid off. Power stab has advanced to… advanced… Decreasing cooldown to 4 minutes and increasing the multiplier to 1.2 times. Not exactly a startling increase, but every bit counts. Still, physical attacks are not my preferred course of action, so with any luck I won’t have significant use for this in the future. Magic edge has also reached advanced, bringing with it greater control over the skill… I mean, using all my mana on it is powerful, but I really don’t want to use all my mana for something like that. Now, for the more interesting and useful ones: mana control has increased to advanced – I don’t need to explain that, do I? Form manipulation – self has finally reached expert, meaning that I can transform quicker and more smoothly than ever, and at a lower cost. Heck, I can actually form an edge with some sharpness to it now! Or make my tines pointy… And last but most probably the greatest of all of these is meditation! It has crossed the threshold of master proficiency, bringing with it great gains! Well, the increase isn’t as large as from basic to advanced, but it’s still significant – my mana and psi regeneration are now multiplied by 3, while my ki regeneration is multiplied by 25. What’s more is that the meditation state now has a calming effect and makes me slightly more resistant to mind affecting or altering effects. With that and the ol’ ‘structured sanity’ trait, my mind should be pretty well protected. On top of all that, my ki pool is now completely full. The last few days seem to crawl by at a snail’s pace, my anticipation of finally leaving this place making the hours drag on endlessly. But finally – finally! – the last mana crystal gains the same bright glow as all the others, and Dreyer says that the formation is ready. “Now I just need to fill up my own mana pool again, and we’re good to go.”  Dreyer says with satisfaction when I ask him when he’ll be starting up the spell. …You mean there’s still another few days!? A few long days later… “Alright, let’s get out of here!” Dreyer exclaims. “Oh, and please don’t interrupt me. That could be bad.” I sever the telepathic link just to be sure. Sitting down in the center of the floor, Dreyer lays his paws on the center of the formation. A slight amount of mana slips from his body into the formation, radiating through lines that were barely visible before. When those faint threads of mana reach the glowing mana crystals, the formation suddenly floods with light, the threads of mana quickly turning to the thickness of ropes. A moment later, a portal appears just below the house. Then, in a bizarre turn of events, the house appears to start sinking. I almost contact Dreyer in panic but decide to trust that everything is happening as it’s supposed to. His expression doesn’t seem to have… I can’t read his expressions, actually. Hm. Dreyer, and the furniture in the house, start sinking as well. To me, who can’t see beyond the portal, it appears as if Dreyer is just half a giant squirrel sticking out of the swirling mass of mana that is the portal. After a few moments, the table I’m on slips below the surface of the portal, taking me with it. As it does, a system window appears, but I ignore it for now. Now on the other side, I can see what’s actually happening. The house, and by extension us, is on flat ground, and we are not sinking into it. Thank god… I should really find out more about the gods, who they are, what they do, that sort of thing. It’s probably important. Anyway, back to matters at hand. The portal on this side is above us and slowly ascending, with more and more of the house being revealed as it goes. After another ten or so seconds, the portal rises over the peak of the house, stops, and shrinks quickly into nothingness. Dreyer stands up and looks around. ‘Alright, everything seems to have come through fine… Gerald, it’s done, you can talk again!’ “That was… A unique experience.” I say, re-establishing the telepathic connection between us. “What world are we in now?” “Well, let’s have a look, shall we?” Dreyer opens the door and steps outside. “Hey, a forest! Now this is my type of world.” …Now this is a strange type of world. There’s the forest, which extends beyond the limits of my vision, and that’s fine. It’s just a big forest, right? Wrong. The trees are moving. Not all of them, and not fast, but the trees are moving around. Actually, there seems to be a notable exception – the trees around us aren’t moving at all. “Some of the trees are moving.” I note to Dreyer. “Just outside this ring of trees. Don’t suppose you know anything about them?” He peers around but is unable to see anything. “Do they have trunk-like legs?” “Not really. They more crawl through the ground with their roots.” I reply, taking another look at one of them. “No clue then.” Dreyer shrugs. “Still, we don’t seem to have anything attacking us just yet, so it’s already a better landing that some of the other times.” …Maybe I should mass produce that book I’m planning to write, hand it out to schools or something. Dreyer steps back inside to rest up for a while after transporting us across worlds – he tells me it’s a strenuous ordeal. Since nothing is happening, I take a look at that window I missed. You are entering a world without the system. Help function will be limited. Experience values and skill proficiencies will not update until you re-enter the system. You will still be able to view your status, but any change to your abilities may cause the values displayed to be incorrect. It is recommended that you do not spend any available status points. I do a double-take. I’m outside the system, just by moving to another world? I suppose it does make sense that it doesn’t exist everywhere, it didn’t exist on Earth, after all. Just to be sure, I ask Dreyer about it. “This world is outside the system?” “Huh? Yeah, it is.” He replies absently. “It’s pretty rare, but there are a few worlds without it. Not sure why. It can be annoying, with the numbers in your status getting mixed up so easily, but I’ve learned to live without it.” Interesting… The day passes without incident, despite Dreyer jinxing us earlier. (POV ???) I watch the foreigners through the night. The squirrel beastman – I haven’t seen one in quite a while – simply sleeps. The small one does not, seeming content to watch and train through the night. He is quite unusual, even to me. He has the form of a fork, and yet the spirit of a human. The unusual combination reminds me of an old friend, one I have not seen since… Shortly after The Darkness. But that was my choice. Stay here. Watch over my people, so that history never repeats itself. However long it takes. The night passes without incident, but they are not so fortunate in the morning. One of my people, riding an ash that is young and capricious enough to still be roaming, happens to come close enough to the foreigners that the ash freezes up. Not having had visitors for a long time, my people have forgotten the trees’ ancient instincts upon encountering people they don’t know: pretend to be a ‘normal’ tree, lest they be felled by axe or fire. So, it is understandable that she is perplexed about the ash suddenly stopping. Descending from amongst its branches, she strikes off into the forest, asking the forest to guide her path. Of course, the trees around her are playing possum, so none of them are able to answer her request, and she ends up walking straight towards the house. She is shocked by its appearance, and when she becomes close enough to see what it is made from, horrified. Her scream startles the beastman, who has just left the house to greet her. His attempts to calm her down are met with no success, and it quickly becomes obvious that it will come to blows if nothing is done. Sighing, I step out of the forest and place my hand on her shoulder. “Calm yourself.” I remove my hand again as she whirls around, the anger in her eyes quickly changing to awe and respect. “M-my lord! But… the… this thing! It’s made of…” She trails off, her voice quickly regaining an angry edge. Looking to the beastman, I say, “I apologise for her behaviour. For so long have my people known only the forest that they have forgotten that there were once trees without will or intelligence – and still are, in other worlds.” “No harm done.” He replies amiably. “I’m Dreyer. And you two are…?” I turn back towards the now considerably calmer woman. “Remain nearby while they stay here, to prevent any further misunderstandings. And teach them the way of the forest.” “Yes, my lord.” She bows. Shaking my head softly, I step back into the forest. (POV Gerald) “If he hadn’t come along, I don’t know what would have happened.” Dreyer sighs with relief. “But he was a tad rude.” “Who?” I reply, confused by the whole situation. Dreyer tilts his head. “The satyr man that came in and calmed down that satyr woman. Didn’t you see him?” “No…” I reply slowly. “No, I didn’t.” Great. We have another invisible man. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6265.08/7200 [+530] Gender: None Age: 14 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.5 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.9 Durability: 18.5/18.5 Mana: 1090/1090 Mana regen: 10.90/min (5.73) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.45/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 1.09% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 31.32% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 13.75%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 48.92% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 63.86% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 51.30% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 72.26% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 67.14% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 50 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.25 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.09% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. [collapse]

(POV Gerald) The fortress devolves into chaos, with demons and imps fleeing in fear from their former leader. Most of them are leaving the fortress in its entirety, leaving only a few either locked in cages, hiding or not realising what’s going on. Makes me wonder whether I should absorb a few in the confusion. I’ve already seen plenty of evidence that these are terrible people: violence at the drop of a hat, constant deception, no respect for their fellows, they were about to invade the Empire and potentially kill my friends… So I pick one nearby that’s on his own, and lie in wait on the ground in the direction he’s running. When he moves over me, I’ll absorb his legs, he’ll fall down, I’ll absorb the rest of him… He runs without changing direction, running directly over me. I start absorbing in every direction that’s not towards myself or downwards, expecting him to fall towards me. His legs do get absorbed, but before he can fall, I get pulled upwards – at quite the speed, too. In less than a second, I’ve absorbed the demon clean in half and am hurtling into the air, whizzing in random directions. Lvl 13 Demon absorbed Experience gained: 485 Durability recovered: 8.6 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.01% Skills gained: Flattery (Advanced), Deception (Advanced) Traits gained: none   Lvl 13 Demon killed Experience gained: 485 I turn off absorb. My upward motion slows, and after a few seconds, reverses directions. Why didn’t I realise this before!? Of course! Absorbing the air above myself results in a vacuum, which sucks everything in its surrounding to fill the gap – including me. Normally, with me using absorb in all directions, the net velocity is still towards the ground due to gravity, but with me only using it upwards, it results in me getting sucked upwards! If I pair this with telekinesis, I’ll probably be able to get to absurd speeds without much effort at all. I gotta try this out… in a moment. I absorb the rest of the demon and check what I got from it. Flattery and deception? …I’m not going to absorb any more demons. Their skills are terrible. I feel embarrassed just by those skills existing on my status. So, this new way of movement… I start absorbing the air above me again, sending me flying into the air again. Like last time, I’m getting flipped constantly and moving in random directions. The influence of my irregular shape, no doubt. Maybe if I was a more regular shape… wait, with my mana regen decreased, can I sustain the cost of form manipulation anymore? …After a few calculations I determine that while I can no longer stay in any form indefinitely, I can stay in another form for almost eight hours, so it barely matters anyway. Forming myself into a small disc with a little bit of thickness – a shape I assume is best for omni-directional movement in an environment with gravity – I try again. This time, there is only a little bit of wobble, something I believe I’ll have to learn to deal with until I can raise the proficiency of form manipulation to the point that I can make perfect shapes. I shoot almost directly upwards at great speeds. I slowly tone down the speed of my absorption until I hang in the air, neither falling nor rising. As I sit there, the ground just visible far below me, I briefly consider going into space. Without the need to breath, and having a body made out of quite a tough metal, I should be able to survive out there, right? But then again, why should I? It’s space. There’d be nothing there for me to see or do, just… emptiness. I suppose if I manage to regain proper sight someday, it might be an interesting thing to do. But for today, I think I’ll stick to intra-planetary flight. For a while, I spend my time getting used to this new method of movement. Compared to telekinesis, movement via absorb-induced vacuums requires much more finesse. Moving with telekinesis is like holding yourself up with an invisible hand; completely straightforward. On the other hand, this is controlling myself by creating pulls in various directions, and I have to carefully manage it so that the pull is neither many times greater than I need it to be, nor too small. Still, after a few hours of practice I manage to get a hang of simple movement. You won’t be seeing me doing loop-de-loops, but I can at least change directions at will and somewhat reliably control my speed. After I’ve determined that I have adequate control, I change back to my original form and resume using telekinesis to move. Using telekinesis allows for low to medium speeds indefinitely, while this new technique allows me to move at low to very high speeds for approximately eight hours. I don’t have anywhere to go, so I’m in no rush, therefore telekinesis. Deciding to check on the fortress one last time, I descend to the ground and travel back towards it. I find it nearly abandoned, with only the leader and a few frightined survivors still inhabiting it. The demon leader appears to have calmed down, as rather than killing his followers and destroying his fortress, he is sitting back in his room, head in hands. The fortress itself paints a sorry picture: due to all the walls he destroyed, small sections of it have collapsed. He avoided only a few areas, judging by the trail of destruction: the fortress walls, his own room, and the treasury. Looks like there are a few interesting things in there, but unforktunately I have no means of carrying or using them. So, seeing that all is well and there’s nothing left to do, I leave the place for the last tine. …Where did I come from, where do I go… Hm. I pick a random direction – not the one I went in to run away from the magic – and start flying in it. Honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m in the middle of nowhere, without a clue if there’s even anything in the direction I’m going, hoping that, against all odds, there’s a clue on how to get back to Odwia somewhere. …Huh. Almost feels like I’m 18 again, scrabbling to get a job and with no clue what the fork I was doing with my life. I often wondered if the people who designed the Australian education system are stupid, because it puts so much emphasis on skills that you never use again, but never teaches you how to do things THAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO DO TO CONTINUE LIVING ON THE CONTINENT. You know, things that you’re legally obligated to do? Writing a resume? Finding a job? Taxes? Voting? Nope, knowing how to write essays about terribly boring books is obviously more important than all that. It feels like… You turn eighteen, and then everyone just assumes you know all these things. How to manage a bank account. How to iron clothes, how to shave… little but important things that people somehow think you already know, presumably by some form of psycho-osmosis. …Why am I getting so emotional? I don’t even need to worry about any of that anymore. I suppose this bleak landscape just brings out the worst in me. It’s not all empty, you know. There are occasional buildings, although most of them are ruins. Plants too, although they are sparse and often hidden in cracks and the like. I’ve even seen a plant growing at the bottom of a pool of liquid I’m now certain is lava: I saw a tiny, creepy insect fly over it and have its wings instantly disintegrate. How a plant can grow in the doubly impossible conditions of extreme heat and extremely heavy liquid rock suffocating it is beyond me, but it’s there, so it must be possible. Somehow. The first thing I see are the fields. Growing in them are strange plants… I’ve seen their like a few times as I travelled, but never paid much attention to them. Most of the fields are dedicated to growing a single type of plant – it has a long, thick stalk that widens at about waist height and forms a sort of inverted bell shape. That bell is hollow and filled with some sort of liquid; not lava this time, I don’t think. Demons roam these fields with ladles and buckets, collecting the liquid from these plants. In true Hell fashion, however, even these plants seem to be out to kill. Hidden under the upper lip of the bell are wickedly sharp teeth, and boy are they effective. I see one demon get just a little bit lax as he dips in the ladle, and next thing he knows, he’s holding onto a worthless handle as the plant swallows the fragments of its head. The ladles are made of metal; I can tell by the smoothness. Having lost his ladle, the demon curses and kicks the plant, which just lightly sways. Spitting into it, he trudges off towards the storehouse to fetch another ladle. The demons refer to these as Jawbulbs and share a sort of love/hate relationship with them. They collect the liquid from the bulbs and drink it, but clearly nobody wants to be on collection duty. …It also tastes terrible, apparently. As I get close enough to see the city itself, I breathe a mental sigh of disappointment. I had hoped that this place might have some hint of civility, but no. No, it doesn’t. It’s exactly the same as the fortress, just on a larger scale. Oh, there are guards, shops, houses… But instead of being disciplined upholders of the law, the guards taunt the workers as they pass by and demand payment every time they go through the gates, seemingly basing the amount solely on how much they dislike the worker in question. Rather than bargaining at shops, demons threaten, cajole, bribe or blackmail their way into cheaper deals. Guards often pop by to collect ‘taxes’ (read: bribes) and mess up the shop if the reply isn’t to their liking. I watch as a demon breaks into someone’s home, murders the occupant, steals everything and then casually slips a pouch of gold to a passing guard as he walks out. The guard accepts the money and continues on his way. The reigning group is no better; talk among the town tells me that daggers in the night and poisoned food are so common that someone gets replaced every other day. It’s hard to figure out the exacts, though; the people seem to switch freely between English and another language I’m not at all familiar with. Nevertheless, without any better alternative I set myself down outside the walls of the city to watch and listen. This world is actually called Hell, by the way. I’ve seen it referred to as such by several demons. Talk about Odwia is scarce. The demons talk about it in a similar way to how people back on Earth talk about Antarctica: on one hand we know it exists, but on the other hand we know we’re probably never going to go there. Still, from their words they seem to view Odwia as a paradise that they wish they could take for themselves. Well, seeing this Hell, who could blame them for thinking so highly of Odwia? Perhaps the strangest thing, though, is this one guy standing near the entrance to the city. ‘Hello, would you like to become one with our lord and saviour?’ He asks to every passing demon, imp and creature. The line, and even the way he says it, is eerily similar to that man that was near the entrance of Port Acktown. Unlike everyone else in the city, that particular demon is never bothered by anyone. In fact, others seem to give him a wide berth… Several days pass, by my reckoning, without so much as a peep about portals or any other form of instant transportation between worlds. And to say that I’m sick of watching these demons is an understatement. A severe understatement. It’s like they simply don’t understand how to be kind, or even have common courtesy. …Maybe they don’t. Apart from the watching, I’ve spent my days laying inconspicuously on the ground, practicing either form manipulation or telekinesis in endless cycles of drain, meditate repeat. That, of course, has also been training meditation at the same time. Due to the location, I didn’t want to do anything too showy with telekinesis, so I either tested the limits of my control my lifting motes of dust from the ground, or the limits of my psychic brawn by pushing against the city walls. Unsurprisingly, that hasn’t made so much as a mark on the walls. None of them have advanced a proficiency level, but they’re increasing. Slowly. I wonder if I should wander around some more, try and find a different city. Maybe I’ll have better luck somewhere else. After another day of looking at the city, I quickly decide that I’ve had enough. I need a break from witnessing rampant murder, theft, slavery and any other crime you could care to name. So I lift myself off the ground and leave, without anyone knowing I was there in the first place. As I’m leisurely flying across the surface of Hell, I come across a rather massive pool of lava. It’s so large, in fact, that when I’m floating above the middle of it, I can’t see land in any direction. Just to be safe, I’m flying at a considerable height over this thing. I’m not going to risk it when I know neither the melting point of mithril nor the current temperature of the lava to compare. I highly doubt that I wouldn’t melt if I fell into that stuff. The surface of this lava lake suddenly starts to distort and bulge upwards. Seeing this, I increase my altitude. It continues to bulge upwards, in what would probably look like a massive bubble of lava from the outside. Except unlike a bubble, it’s completely filled with lava. I increase my altitude. It continues to expand until it’s upwards of 100m tall, and about 20m wide. I increase my altitude by quiiiiite a bit. Arms split off from the main trunk and reach down towards the lava, grabbing a molten gob of it… That’s it, vacuum movement engaged! A gob of mana flies through the air behind me as I speed up, quickly leaving the lake of lava – and its inhabitant – far behind. This place… Is not tourist-friendly. Later, after I’ve calmed down from the giant lava monster encounter, I am again flying slowly through the air. This would be pleasant… If the landscape below me wasn’t cracked, desolate and filled with innumerable ways to die. From thin air, mana appears and encapsulates me. Before I can react, it has already dissipated. And I’m in another place. In someone’s hands. How who where why? ‘Oh! This one looks just fine. Clean…’ It raises me to its nose and sniffs. ‘No stench of blood, either. Finally, I get something that isn’t a weapon. I should have known using ‘fork’ as the condition was a bad idea. Especially in Hell.’ I say ‘it’ not because it’s an object or non-gendered being, but because it’s so… poofy. It’s a little difficult to see. But that’s… Yeah, ok, should be male. His bushy tail twitches, and then he suddenly stands tall. ‘Food! I’m not going to be able to get any good food here! I’ll have to summon it from another world again…’ The human-sized squirrel mutters to himself sadly. …He’s talking like he’s not from Hell. And if he knows how to get here, maybe he knows how to leave, too. Here we go again. I initiate a telepathic link with the squirrel. “Hello.” “Wah!”  Dropping me, a long dagger appears in the squirrel’s hand from nowhere. “Someone’s in my head… Who are you!? Where are you!? Since I’m asking, what are you!?” Wow. Um. “Calm down, please. I’m friendly.” “If you’re friendly, then where are you!?” Accuses the squirrel. “Well, nobody else I’ve seen in Hell has been friendly, so I’m just… taking precautions.” I lie. I’m actually right next to his foot… But he doesn’t need to know that yet. “Oh… Is it that bad? I’ve heard about it, but then again, I’ve never met anyone who’s actually been here before, so…” He trails off. “Then, why take the risk with me?” “You don’t look like you’re from around here. Neither am I, but I don’t have a way to get back. I heard you talking and thought you might.” I explain, seeing that he seems to be reasonable. “Yes-no-kinda?” He says uncertainly. “If I’ve been to the world before, I can go back, but otherwise it’s up to luck. Which world are you from?” “Odwia.” I hold my metaphorical breath. “Odwia? Heard of it, heard of it. Who hasn’t heard of it?” He says rhetorically. “Haven’t been there, unfortunately. Still, we can try our luck.” “Wait, you’re still willing to help me? Don’t you have something you wanted to do here?” I ask in disbelief. “Here? No. It’s like I said before, it’s up to luck which world I go to. With my luck, it’s a wonder that I haven’t wound up in Hell before now.” He muses. “This place is hot, I doubt there’s any good food or water, and the residents have a reputation of being violent and evil. Who would want to go here?” “I will have to wait until my mana regenerates, however.” He continues glumly. “We’re both stuck here until then. So, are you going to show yourself, or are we just going to keep talking awkwardly like this until we’re ready to go?” “Yes-no-kinda. Seems my luck is a little better than yours, see. I’m Gerald. The only living fork in existence.” I say dryly. “Living fork? Wait… fork? OH!” He exclaims, looking down at me. “Yep. That’s me.” I lift myself off the ground and onto the table in front of us. He shakes his head in amazement. “I knew that took way too much mana for it to just be because of the mithril. Right, right. Introductions. I’m Dreyer, a Squirrel Beastman space-based randomising summoning mage.” “That is… A considerably long title.” I note. “It is, but I rarely use it. It’s not a good idea to tell every person you meet your specialities, so I normally just go by Dreyer.” Dreyer shrugs. “Rather than that, I’m more interested in you. How do you see, hear… do anything?” “Unconventional skills.” I explain. “Mana sight lets me see to a certain degree, lip-reading allows me to follow conversations, telepathy allows me to talk – as I’m doing right now – as well as a few others for movement and so on.” Dreyer shudders slightly. “That sounds…” “Pretty horrible compared to normal people, yes. I’ve been hoping to learn magic at some point that I can use to replace the missing senses, but so far I’ve had no such luck.” I sigh. “Don’t suppose you’d be able to teach me?” Shaking his head, Dreyer replies, “I don’t know the sort of magic that could help you with that. I could look through my spell books, but I wouldn’t be too hopeful.” “Could you at least teach me some basics? Common knowledge sort of stuff?” I ask pleadingly. Pulling out the chair, he sits down. “I can do that much. What do you know about magic already?” “Magic is split up into creation, destruction, restoration, alteration, summoning and illusion?” I reply hesitantly. “I’ll take it you know next to nothing, then.” Dreyer leans back in his chair. “What you said is… Partially correct. Any spell can be split into three parts: let’s call them method, execution and objective. Or, how you are casting the spell, what type of spell you are casting and what you are trying to do with the spell. The objective part can be split up into those six categories you mentioned earlier - although there are countless sub-categories as well. They speak for themselves, I think.” He begins. Scratching his head, he continues. “There are significantly fewer methods, although there is still some. The most common ones are chanting, formations and imagination, although I wouldn’t recommend the last.” “Why?” I ask, surprised. “It sounds quite useful.” “It’s incredibly versatile, yes.” Dreyer answers, putting his feet up onto the table. “But it’s also incredibly mana inefficient, and spells can easily be disrupted if the caster is distracted even slightly.” “I see.” I say, taken aback. “That is a major disadvantage.” Dreyer begins rocking back and forth on his chair’s back legs. “Chanting… Well, you could probably consider it to be a subcategory of imagination, if you wanted to. The chant helps you focus, and since most magicians have a different chant for each spell, recanting it also helps you to recall how you did it the last times, which can both speed up the spell casting and make it more effic- WAH!” Dreyer’s chair falls over, and he falls onto the ground. Rubbing his back, he gets back up, sets the chair back in place and sits back down on it. “Formations,” He continues, as if nothing had happened, “Are the quickest, most mana-efficient and reliable method you can use… After you’ve set them up, that is. While you’re making them, they’re the most complicated, unforgiving of mistakes and difficult to invent on the fly.” “Right… And they’re what you use?” I guess. His reply is half happiness, half sigh. “Yep.” “So what about execution?” He shrugs. “Can be pretty much anything. One of the elements, something abstract like space, motion –” “Time?” I interrupt. Dreyer’s tail whips nervously. “No! If you value your life, stay away from time magic. Nobody has ever come out of an attempt without something terribly, terribly wrong with them.” Dreyer shivers, then gets up from the chair. “I think that’s enough for now.” He walks over to a cupboard and selects a plate. A complex formation briefly flashes on the plate, and when he sets it down it’s heavily laden with an assortment of nuts. “Want some?” He asks. “Can’t eat.” I remind him. “Oh.” His cheeks are already bulging. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 5735.08/7200 [+970] Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.5 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.9 Durability: 18.5/18.5 Mana: 1090/1090 Mana regen: 10.90/min (5.73) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.45/min Ki: 22437/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.16% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.43% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 28.04% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 41.03%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 68.90% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 57.39% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 27.46% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.00% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. [collapse]

(POV Lily) After the priests use what little mana they have remaining to heal any life-threatening wounds and we patch up the rest with bandages, we retrace our steps towards the entrance. We are all tired enough to drop where we stand, but it won’t be good for any of us if the Lich had set up this place to self-destruct after its death. So we limp towards the entrance. Fortunately, it appears that the lights in this place have their own power source, as flames still flicker within them. When we reach the entry room, I see bones strewn about the floor… and three people lying motionless. My heart jumps into my throat, but I shove it back down, forcing myself to remain calm and logical. Removing a gauntlet, I kneel and feel for the pulse of Alex, who is closest to me. I feel it a moment later, pulsing at a steady pace beneath his skin. His eyes crack open as I’m about to move to the next person. “Oh... we won?” He croaks. “Yes. Are you alright? How are Marco and Ferdinand?” I ask. “They were in bad shape when I fell unconscious… Don’t worry about me… just exhausted.” His eyelids drift down and up as he struggles to stay awake. “Thank you.” I look over to the others, already being tended to by the priests. A dim light flickers around their hands as they carefully heal them, likely using up mana as soon as it regenerates. Two priests are healing Marco while only one is healing Ferdinand, so I go over to help him. A series of wounds are evident across his arms, legs and torso, some of them deep and some of them barely parting the skin. A thin carapace of dried blood encrusts most of his chest, his shirt barely more than a few strips of tattered cloth. Similarly to the priest, I begin running my hands over his wounds and channelling wisps of holy magic to heal them. Naturally, I target the deeper wounds and those that are still bleeding first. While we may have been able to do this in minutes in our normal states, we have very little to work with right now. It takes us almost ten minutes just to seal up the worrying wounds on his front, and we are just rolling him over to see if there are any wounds on his back when he lets out a rather high-pitched yelp, jolting suddenly under my hands. His voice turns into a hiss of pain a moment later as his exertion aggravates some of his wounds, causing a few drops of blood to start trickling down his abs. “Calm down, Ferdinand. You’re safe, it’s over.” I reassure him. “How are you feeling?” “I… alright, I think. It’s just…” He trails off slightly. My eyebrows furrow in concern. “Is there something we didn’t notice?” “No… My sides are just really… really sensitive. I think someone poked me there…” He groans. …Oops. That may have been me. He twists his head, trying to see behind him. After a moment, he gives up. “Is Marco alright? He used this… I forget, what Alex called it.” “I am not dead. Thanks to you, yes?” Another voice flows across the floor, Marco apparently now conscious and craning his neck on the ground to try and get a good view. A smile breaks out on Ferdinand’s face. “You have Alex to thank for that… I just held the door.” Marco begins to smile, too. “What did I say? A simple task.” Ferdinand’s smile widens. “Simple. Yes. All it took was… all three of us almost dying. Practically child’s play.” Marco begins to chuckle, and Ferdinand does too. Then they begin to laugh heartily. I frown. At this rate, they… Both of them start coughing blood. …That will happen. I sigh, beginning to heal Ferdinand again. When his breathing steadies again, Ferdinand starts to speak – although considerably more muted than before. “I’m glad you’re alive.” “As am I…” He trails off. One of the priests around him checks his pulse. “He’s fainted again, but he should be fine.” “So… what now?” Ferdinand asks, now looking at me. “Your wounds should be stable, so it’s about time we have a rest. We shall construct stretchers to carry you up –” He pushes himself into a sitting position, wincing. “You can’t get up, your body is still in a bad condition!” I try to get him to lie back down, but he waves me off. “Thanks, but I’m fine. I can walk.” He insists, getting to his feet. Swaying slightly, he walks over to his bag and rifles through it, taking out a spare shirt and slipping it on. Slinging the bag over his shoulders, his shoulders sag visibly beneath the weight. But he doesn’t fall. Looking around the floor, he finds and picks up his sword, shakily putting it into its sheath. “Alright, let’s go.” He says, moving through the doorway and starting to climb the stairs, kicking bones and weapons out of his way as he goes. I shake my head. With no choice, I start following him up; if he falls now and there isn’t anybody to catch him, he’ll probably die. He staggers with every step, but he stubbornly continues on. Luc catches up to me a moment later. “Good job back there.” I tell him, keeping a watchful eye on Ferdinand’s back. He shakes his head. “I didn’t beat the Lich.” I raise an eyebrow. “No need to be humble, Luc.” “No, I really didn’t. It was this…” He reaches into a pouch and pulls out… a fork? “I threw this thing at the Lich, and next thing I know I’m holding its phylactery.” “That is…” “It sounds crazy, I know.” He says, looking just as confused as I feel. “It has to be some sort of magic item, but I haven’t been able to get any reaction from it since then… And who would make a fork into a magic item?” “Perhaps it is a single-use item? Where did you find it?” I ask, nudging a stray breastplate to the side with my foot as I continue to climb. “That’s the thing… Ferdinand gave it to me just before all of this started. There aren’t many wizards in the Empire, and those that there are aren’t anywhere close to the level that would be needed to create something that can do what I saw it do…” “Ferdinand?” I pause. “Well he is an adventurer. They do find some odd things, every now and again.” Luc looks at Ferdinand, and his face freezes. “Is that… I think he’s awakened his fighting spirit.” “Are you sure?” I ask in shock. I look at Ferdinand’s back, but am unable to see whatever Luc saw. “Fairly. His legs have been shaking the whole way up, but he hasn’t fallen once.” Luc looks back down the staircase. “We’re halfway up. Anyone with those kinds of injuries without fighting spirit would have collapsed by now.” “And you are sure he did not have it before?” I ask. “With the amount of sparring we did?” He smiles. “Pretty sure. I might not have it myself, but I’ve fought against some people who do.” “Strange… I wonder what caused it?” I muse, then we continue upwards in silence. When we reach the top, I suck in a breath involuntarily. The ground is littered with bones, weapons and armour, sad remnants of the undead army. Kicking some bones aside, Ferdinand clears a small space and sits down.  Clearing a space ourselves, we sit down in front of him. “Ferdinand, did you awaken fighting spirit during the battle?” “Fighting spirit?” Ferdinand says, unsure. “I don’t know… It all became a blur after some point. Let me check my status…” His eyes focus on some point in the air. Then they get wider. And wider. And wider. “Okay. Okay.” He says, a foolish grin spreading across his face. “Yes, yes I did.” He says finally. “Along with three levels, a title and three skills.” My eyebrows raise in surprise. “Congratulations!” “You must have killed heaps of skeletons to get that much experience…” Luc makes a face as if he’s just remembered something. He takes out the fork again and hands it Ferdinand. “Here you go. Helped me out of quite the pinch… what is it, by the way?” Ferdinand’s face quickly turns guarded. Then he pauses, and it slackens slightly. “Oh?” he mutters in surprise. “Oh.” He groans, then starts to get up again. “Come on,” he beckons to us, “I’ll tell you about it, but I’d rather the others not hear.” Luc and I look at each other, shrug and get up ourselves. I quickly inform the priests that we’ll be elsewhere for a short while, and we then follow Ferdinand as he traipses across the field of bones. He leads us a bit of a distance away and over a hillock, now completely blocked from the view of camp. “Sorry for all the secrecy.” He groans, sitting down on the grass again. “He’d rather as few people knows about him as possible.” “He?” I ask. Who is he talking about? “Yeah, he… fine, fine.” He holds out the fork on the palm of his hand as if offering it to us. I’m not quite sure what he wants us to do… oh. The fork in his hand shifts in shape, morphing into a tiny metallic figure which waves at us. It floats off of Ferdinand’s hand and just hovers in the air. Ferdinand retracts his hand and smiles. “You know, I never thought I would be on the other end of this conversation. Lily, Luc, meet Gerald. He already knows you.” The little metal man reaches up and scratches its head abashedly. “What… is he? Some sort of intelligent golem?” I ask, astounded. “No, his previous form is his real one.” Ferdinand shakes his head. “This is the first time I’ve seen him like this, actually. He tells me his race is called ‘living fork’, and that he’s the only one of his kind.” “Living… fork?” Luc says in disbelief. “I know, right?” Ferdinand says, throwing his hands in the air. “That was exactly my reaction! But as crazy as it sounds, it’s true.” “Can he talk?” I ask. ‘I can indeed. Hello.’ A voice sounds in my mind, startling me. “He ca-” Ferdinand starts, but I interrupt him. “There’s a voice in my head!” “Yes, that’ll be him. He’s psychic… among other things.” Ferdinand reassures me. ‘Hello?’ I think hesitantly. ‘Hello Lily. I’m Gerald. Ferdinand already said it, but sorry about this bother. I have a bit of paranoia left over from a time when I wasn’t quite as capable as I am now.’ ‘That’s alright.’ I reply automatically. ‘A Living fork?’ ‘Yes, well… It was quite the shock at first, but I’ve gotten used to it. It’s not so bad, as long as I have someone to chat to every now and again… Not being able to sleep, I have a bit too much time on my hands. Metaphorically speaking.’ He replies lightly. Something occurs to me, so I ask him about it. ‘You don’t have eyes, or ears, or… anything. How do you see, or hear?’ ‘Oh, I can’t hear anything yet. I just lip-read to figure out what people are saying. As for sight, I have mana sight. Useful little skill, that is. Lets me see a fair distance, underground too. That’s how Ferdinand was able to direct you to the entrance and to the Lich, of course.’ Gerald remarks. ‘I told him.’ That explains how he always found the cats so quickly… ‘I think that’s all the questions I have.’ I say. ‘Excellent, my psi is just dipping below half. Do you think the two of you can keep me a secret from the others?’ He asks. I think for a moment. ‘It should not be a problem.’ ‘Great. Well, goodbye.’ He says, and then his voice vanishes entirely. Pulling my attention back to the scene before me, I find Ferdinand and Luc chatting, with Luc still wearing an expression of confusion and disbelief. Shortly after, we return to the secret entrance, where everyone is sitting or lying on the grass in a small area cleared of bones or weapons. One of the priests is just returning from where our horses are tethered. Taking off my armour, I lay down in the grass and take a deep breath, smelling the flowers. If we had fought out here, things would have been very different. Unfortunately, they rarely let us have the advantage. But none of us died, and what injuries we do have are not permanent. Perhaps this is the best outcome, even if it was more difficult than it could have been. We just rest for a while, letting our reserves of stamina and mana slowly creep towards full again. After approximately twenty minutes, we have a drink and a bite to eat, before we head back down, into the bowels of the Lich’s lair. Our job now will be to strip the place of anything useful, destroy anything dangerous and then leave. “Alright everyone, it has not yet collapsed, so it is unlikely that it ever will. Spread out, map the underground and bring anything useful or valuable back to the surface. If you find anything that looks dangerous, call me or Luc.” I say to the others.  “Understood?” ““Understood.”” They reply and descend the stairs, apart from Marco, who is still in too delicate a condition to be doing much. I spend the next few hours cataloguing the various items that are brought up. Most of them are mundane but useful items – low grade mana crystals, for instance, which we find in abundance – but there are occasional pieces of interest. Some of these, upon closer inspection, conceal nefarious enchantments beneath seemingly beneficial ones – a ring that replenishes mana at the expense of health, for example – but a scarce few are genuine articles. “You’ll want to see this. I didn’t read much, but it looks important.” One of the priests hands me a few pages, bound with string. Raising an eyebrow, I look at the first page and start to read. If you are reading this, then you have recently killed me. The first line reads. Strange. He predicted his death and wrote a note to his killers? In any other circumstance, your hands would now be rotting and you would slowly die as the curse I would have infused into these pages took effect. I look at my hands. Nothing unusual is happening. Fortunately for you, there just so happens to be somebody in the world I hate more than you. Some ten months ago, I was visiting a one of the nearby cities to stock up on supplies – most foodstuffs do not fare well around death energy, as you no doubt know. I was somewhat less powerful then than I am now, so when the guards set upon me in a surprise attack, I, away from my ideal battlefield and bereft of time to summon any assistance, was summarily captured. Of course, their prisons were entirely devoid of the facilities required to keep me imprisoned, so my only concern at the time was if they were going to immediately execute me. Instead, they brought me before him. He did something to me – some sort of psychic ability, I believe. Since then, I have conducted much research on psychic abilities, but without much success. Documents on them are annoyingly rare. Still, through observation and personal experience, I have been able to discern a few aspects of this ability: Firstly, he must be able to see whoever he uses his power upon. Secondly, whomever he uses his power upon cannot disobey his orders… however… Thirdly, if he does not word his orders carefully, the controlled individual can exploit loopholes. I have been very careful to hide this last fact, as I do not believe he knows of it himself. For instance, he ordered me not to communicate any details regarding him to others unless ordered otherwise. These notes were never given to anyone. But I am now dead, and here it lies, in your hands. Perhaps you think to yourself that this matter does not concern you, paladin. But it does. Oh, but it does. You see, I am not the only person he commanded using this ability. There are others. Among them are a monster and… a demon. Interested now, oh holy knight of the gods? Still, you did kill me… I won’t make it easy for you. I wrote a diary from the day I was controlled up to about a month and a half ago, detailing his identity, the identity of any others he controls that I know of, and everything I have observed of their capabilities. That diary is currently buried beneath the center of a hedge out the front of an old mansion. The location of that mansion is marked on the attached map, but it’s not that simple. Inside that mansion is one of the people he controls, and he is able to detect when anyone comes within a certain range of the mansion – whether by his own skills or a magic item, I’m not sure. The hedge is most definitely within that area. He will most definitely try to kill you. Good luck! Sighing deeply, I flip over to the map. My work never ends. The marked location is in-between Liensport and Anstown. Back across the Empire it is, then… I can only pray that the temples will let their paladins and priests follow me a while longer. Ferdinand appears from the staircase and walks over to me. “I’ve finished exploring one branch. Here’s the map I drew of it – although it didn’t turn out well at all. I’ve never done anything like this before.” He says, handing me a sheet of paper with lines criss-crossing over the surface. “Don’t worry about it.” I reply distractedly. “What’s that?” He asks. “A note by the Lich, claiming that he was under the control of someone and that a demon is also under their control. Apparently, all the details about them are in a diary he hid near an old mansion, but there is also someone guarding it.” I sigh. “At least he left a map.” He frowns. “That sounds awfully familiar. Can I see the map?” I hand it to him. After a moment, he nods. “Yep, I’ve been there before.” “So, this is false? There was nobody there?” I ask. He shakes his head. “No, there was someone there alright. He tried to kill me -  I barely managed to get away, even with a friend helping me.” He must be referring to Gerald, as I haven’t seen that Joe fellow do anything helpful. “It should be true, then.” I nod. “Probably…” He says, then pauses. His eyes light up as if he’s had a great idea, but he doesn’t say anything. “What are you…” I begin to say, but I get interrupted by Gerald talking in my head again. ‘Hello again.’ He says. ‘So, you’re looking for a diary of some sort, hidden at that mansion somewhere?’ ‘Yes, why?’ I respond. He ignores my question and asks his own. ‘Any clue as to its exact location?’ ‘The note says beneath a hedge-’ I start. ‘Yep, it’s there alright. Book in a little box, only a few centimetres below the surface. You’re welcome, cya.’ Having said that, he breaks the connection. “He can see that far?” I ask in amazement. “No, but he does have a perfect memory.” Ferdinand smiles. “So it was there when we were there?” “Apparently so.” I nod in affirmation. “I suppose you’ll be wanting me to tell you what I know about the person guarding the mansion?” He asks. “Ye-” I take another look at his face and notice the way he’s holding himself – slack face, frequent blinking, and I remember the way he was walking looked as if he was carrying a boulder. He must be deeply exhausted. “You can do that later. Go have a rest.” He doesn’t complain. “Okay.” He promptly takes out a blanket, lies down and falls asleep. One of the priests walks up the stairs and notices him. “Why does he get to sleep? I want to sleep, but you don’t see me dragging my feet.” He complains. “He sleeps, for he fought an endless tide of skeletons by himself and is now tired to his bones.” Chastises Marco from where he is sitting. The priest pauses. “Makes sense.” He shrugs, moving off again. A bit later, I gather everyone around. “Alright everyone, we did a good job down there today. We defeated the Lich and made sure nothing here is going to hurt anyone ever again.” I begin, drawing some proud smiles. “But there is some bad news.” Their smiles waver. “We’ve chanced upon some evidence of demon activity in the Empire.” Frowns replace smiles, and I hear a few gasps of shock. “And we need to go to a place near Liensport, where there may be somebody who will try to kill us.” A few of them grimace. “Luckily,” I continue brightly, “we have someone who just so happens to have fought this person before. Ferdinand, please tell us everything you know about this person.” “Alright.” He steps forwards, and everyone focuses their gazes on him. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 3922.08/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 960/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 485/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 10596/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.34% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.95% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 24.64%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 20.13% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 45.12% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 6.38% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 32 Experience: 1546.48/7200 [+18838.5] Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 48.1 [+2] Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 40.7 [+3] Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 48.4 [+10]   Health: 436/484  [+100/100] Health regen: 2.904/hour [+0.6] Stamina: 407/407 [+30/30] Stamina regen: 4.07/min [+0.3] Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Fighting spirit: 0   Unspent stat points: 0 [-15]   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Battleborn – Whether your battles end in victory or defeat, you will never give up. Increased resistance to mental influences, increased grip strength, pain reduction. Stat unlock: Fighting spirit. Skills Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.93% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.33% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.61% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.59% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry – Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry – Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword – Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 25.48% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.30% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Power slash (Basic) (High Common, Active) 21.37% - Multiplies the speed and power of a slash by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 14.63% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Battle focus (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 48.36% - Allows you to enter a state of intense concentration when in combat. Slightly decreases likelihood of being startled by unexpected events, loosing track of an enemy and not seeing attacks. Strength +0.5, Dexterity +0.5, Endurance +0.5, Intelligence +0.5, Wisdom +0.5, Luck +0.5, Charisma +0.5 when in this state. Battle cry (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 6.74% - Roar loudly, your voice echoing over the battlefield with a possibility of startling and/or causing fear in enemies. Reduced effect if used repeatedly on the same enemy. Requires: >30 Fighting spirit. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Stamina cost: 30. Mapping (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.31% - You tried to draw a map. Emphasis on tried. Well, at least you tried. Armour – Shield – Heater Shield (Basic) (High Common, Passive) 2.83% - You have a small amount of experience using a heater shield. +1 Endurance when using a heater shield. [collapse]

jinxs2011 Alrighty, here again with a new chapter. I don't think it's been that long since the last one... *checks dates* Oh. A month. Didn't feel that long. I swear every year gets shorter... Anyway. The results of last chapter's poll (On RR) are in... People are pretty divided. It's almost an even 50-50 split. Since this is the case, I'm taking the advice of a couple of the people on my discord: I'll be using the double horizontal line, but only for important transitions. For now, I'll be doing it when switching character perspectives (although there's not a lot of that happening right now) and at the end of the chapter. Just in case people have forgotten (it seems fairly easy to miss), you can view Gerald's status at the bottom of every chapter. I am, probably, hopefully, I think, less busy now. So, if all goes well, I should be able to actively be writing chapters in my spare time. This should mean more frequent chapters, I hope. I guess we'll see. With that said, I plan to spend some time updating the wiki (link below) before the next chapter, so don't expect them to start rapid-firing out of my keyboard. As an additional note to my readers here on the Hub of Scribbles, I do post a message on my profile every time I release a chapter for one of my novels, so if you can't check the latest releases often enough or have trouble keeping track of just what was that last chapter number you read or whatever else, you can follow me and you'll get a notification when the next chapter comes out. That being said, I do it for both my novels, so fair warning there if you don't read my other novel. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki And with that all said and done, I hope you enjoy the chapter! Chapter 39: A Light Unseen, The Fork Is Keen The others react to the elven girl’s presence with surprise, but Lamar seems particularly shocked. He seems to take a half step back almost instinctively, and when I turn myself to look at him, his dark face is paling considerably. When I turn back, I recall something I’d read in one of the books in the first section of the library, and realise why. The elven girl’s hair is blue, indicating that she is a high elf: elven royalty. As an elf, dying one’s hair blue is equivalent to impersonating royalty, and in some cases could be punishable by death, so there is little to no possibility that that is the case here. “Y-your highness!” Lamar stammers. “If, if us being here dis-displeases you, th-then we can leave!” She sighs, then speaks with a somewhat resigned, but formal tone. “No, you may remain here until you wish to depart.” “Ah, thank you, your highness.” Lamar replies, bowing. He then immediately drags Iueia and spark along with him as far away from her on the mountain peak as he could manage, with me floating along behind him. “Woah, woah!” Iueai exclaims. “What’s wrong, why were you speaking all funny?” “She’s royalty!” Lamar replies, shock still evident in his voice. “You say the wrong thing around them, you can get in a lot of trouble.” “Really? Why?” Iueia asks. Lamar shrugs awkwardly. “I don’t really know, that’s just what my dad told me.” “Her being royalty means that she’s related to a king or queen.” I explain. “Kings and Queens are the rulers of kingdoms, which means they have vast amounts of military, economic and political power. Their relatives often command some portion of that power, as well, so angering one can literally ruin your life.” “Hey, hey, are we okay here, then?” Spark asks agitatedly. “Should be.” I say, not completely sure. “She said we could stay. But it might be best if we don’t stay too long, either way.” Because of what had happened, it has turned into a rather tense situation rather than a relaxing outing. It isn’t exactly like we are alone, either. The mountain is actually surrounded by a couple dozen people, both flying and on the ground. They had just all been so far apart that I hadn’t realised they might be related, earlier. They’re keeping a careful eye on us, and even at that distance I don’t doubt they have a method to attack from where they are. Makes sense for royalty to have an escort, I guess, but it doesn’t exactly help me relax. She herself isn’t paying much attention to us. Instead, she just looks out at the scenery and gazes at the clouds, silently. The others eat quickly and without much conversation, we head back to the academy. I had never thought there might be political figures at the academy, but now that I think about it, it makes sense. Wehttam is apparently one of the best, or possibly the best magic academy. It’s probably a symbol of status for nobles to have their kids accepted here. Suppose I’ll have to watch out for that. Getting caught up in politics is the last thing I want to happen. My last class is advanced mana control. Interestingly, Mr Thurston is again teaching the class. It picks up pretty much where the previous class had left off, activating dummy magic formations, to get used to the timing and control techniques needed to activate actual magic. To be frank, this was pretty much the only part I found useful last term. The movement and manipulation of mana, I have down. Meditation? Too easy. Hopefully, this term should be a bit better. “Changing the brightness of your magic is a matter of how much mana you use, quite simple. But if we add just a little bit extra to the formation…” Mrs Zita writes another few words on the formation before infusing it with mana, producing a bluish light. “We can change the colour!” “Is it possible to have a single light spell that has variable colour? For instance, changing the light from blue to red, without casting a separate spell?” I ask. “Of course!” Mrs Zita beams. “Plenty of illusionists use spells that have multiple colours that the caster can change at will.” Interesting. “Fire, as you cast it normally, can be very dangerous.” The draconian teacher explains. “Which is why temperature control is one of the first things I teach. The first thing you have to understand is that magical fire isn’t like normal fire. Normal fire, if it somehow gets cold, will go out, but magical fire will burn no matter what its temperature is.” “Your assignment for next week will be to create a spell that forms rock in a specific shape: a cube with a square hole through the middle. If you have difficulty with this, there are relevant texts in the library.” I float just above the ground in one of the training rooms in the duelling grounds. These places were designed for students to test spells in, and so are quite sturdy - and private. Once inside, you can push a button which causes stone to grow from the walls and close the entrance, or open it again. There seems to be some sort of soundproofing, too, so nothing in here gets outside, or vice versa. They’re generally quite full during the day, particularly as it starts to get towards the end of term, but during the night there’s usually some free spots. Not a great deal of students from nocturnal races, after all. Scuffing out a word with a small cloth I brought with me, I replace it with another using a small piece of chalk. Chalk is an abysmal mana conductor, but it works just fine for quick tests. Carefully, I guide my mana through the formation, moving it in the specific manners required by each part of the spell.  I’d done a similar process almost half a dozen times, each followed by minor edits to the formation as it didn’t do quite what I needed. Hopefully, this time it’ll work. A white light shines from the formation - a good first sign. At the very least, my last fix hadn’t broken what was working before. I tweak the flow of mana, and the light turns a light blue - very good. The drain on my mana isn’t too significant, so I take it a bit slow. The light changes through the colour spectrum, shifting gradually from blue, to green, to yellow… And then vanishing from my vision entirely. I double check everything. The mana flow is fine, the lines of the formation are solid and unbroken, and I can even see mana radiating faintly above the formation. It’s hard to tell for sure, especially when I have no equipment, but… I think it worked. Well, that opens up some interesting possibilities, doesn’t it? But that’s for another day. Right now, I simply don’t have the means. “Your grasp of Terran has improved substantially.” Jald nods ever so slightly. “Good job.” I think I see the barest hint of a smile on his face… Or maybe it’s just my imagination. You know, I always thought it would be interesting to learn a second language, but I never actually put in the effort to learn one. I know a smattering of words and phrases from various languages from books and movies, but even in school I was never particularly invested in language classes. Never expected that the language I eventually ended up learning would be the language of the earth itself. Not that I’ve mastered it, mind you. I’m still only a bit over midway through advanced in the spoken skill, with written a bit further ahead, and I often fumble a word or phrase every few sentences. Think I’ll aim to get the skills to expert before I stop actively learning Terran. Maybe pick another language to learn. It’s maybe halfway through term now, and if there’s one thing I’ve realised, it’s that four subjects is too little. I have plenty of time to do the work for all my classes, learn a language, read miscellaneous texts and still have free time on the side. Next term, I think I’ll do six subjects, instead. ‘...The most common method used to formulate more complex spells is with subformations. These would consist of extra formations that in most cases partially overlaps the primary formations, altering the effects of the spell or casting an entirely separate spell. The benefits of casting a separate spell in this manner are that the order, timing and sometimes positioning of the sub-spells can be controlled with a much greater degree of accuracy than when cast separately. However, the likelihood of clashes and complications increases exponentially with the quantity of these component formations, along with the complexity of casting the spell. The highest number of formations in a single spell (including the primary formation) on record is eleven - and even the master who formulated it had some difficulty casting it...’ There’s always something interesting to learn about magic theory. My guess is that this’ll only really be a thing in the more advanced classes - it sounds difficult to put into practice. Alas, my reading must be cut short. There is a teacher coming through the library, and his intent is most malicious, the worst nightmare of library dwellers like myself. It’s time for the athletics carnival. Athletics carnivals are a pain in the tines, but you know what’s more annoying than an athletics carnival? An athletics carnival with compulsory attendance. You know what’s even more annoying than that? An athletics carnival with compulsory attendance and participation. Well, at least they don’t make you participate in events that you physically can’t do, and you only have to do one thing in a given category, so I don’t have to do many events. Not exactly like I can lift weights, throw things or run. I’ll still have to do the flying race, though. I wait in the line for my year group - they group us in years rather than terms for this - bored out of my tiny metal brain. Nothing to do, nothing to see, just slowly drifting forwards as the line progresses. Can’t even review one of the books I’ve read for fear that I’ll drift forward while I’m distracted and bump into the person in front of me, pointy end first. Not that I’m particularly pointy. Speaking of the person in front of me, he’s an abnormally tall and lanky boy with hair that almost looks golden. Oddly enough, his hair is sticking to his head with sweat, as if he’d just finished running a marathon. After what feels like a small eternity, the person in front of me is at the front of the line… And the teacher marking us off and recording the activities picks now, of all times, to try and start a conversation. “Hey, you’re the kid of the speed demons, right?” The teacher asks the person in front of me. “That’s right.” The boy smiles. “Name’s Auden.” “Ah, I thought so. Don’t see many people with your build - or that hair.” The teacher nods. “Alright, I’ll sign you up for all of the races…” The teacher’s pencil... Wait, there are pencils here? I just assumed for some reason that there wouldn’t be. I need to get one. I need to get ten. Pencils are the superior writing implement, no matter how much my teachers in primary school tried to convince me otherwise. Probably don’t have erasers, which is a bit of a bummer, but bread works just fine, too. “...No, I would really rather not participate in every single foot race event. Just put me down for the hundred meter.” The lanky boy is saying. “Well, if you’re sure…” The teacher says dubiously, marking down his selection and finally, finally getting to me. One tedious conversation spent persuading the teacher that I’m incapable of doing the majority of the activities later, I’m able to just get out onto the field. The whole thing is held on the open grasslands to the east of the academy. There are a few pools here that weren’t here yesterday - that’s magic for you - although the larger water-based events are hosted in the sea, a bit further east. Sounds dangerous, but when you realise that half the participants are mostly some combination of sea-dwelling races and water wizards, it suddenly doesn’t seem too bad. Magic is allowed in all the events, of course, be stupid if it wasn’t. But only magic that affects yourself: buffs, minor manipulation of the surroundings, movement magic, that sort of thing. Even things like magic tools and potions can be used, so long as the student can prove that they were the one to create it. Already having located Iueia, Lamar and Spark when I was in the line, I head towards them. “I’m fast for a fairy,” Spark says with some agitation, “but there’s a harpy in our year. How do I race against a harpy? It’s stupid!” “Think there’s a cheetah beastwoman in our year as well.” Lamar scratches his head. “They’re fast, too.” “They might have an advantage now, but in later years it’ll be magical skill that will determine who wins.” I interject. “Gerald!” Iueia exclaims. “You’re here!” “Yep, I’m here.” I reply, drifting down to lie on the grass. “Not fond of this sort of event, but it’ll be interesting to see what the more senior students are capable of.” “Yeah, that’ll be so cool!” Iueia says, eyes sparkling. “I bet they can all fly, and go really, really fast.” “Maybe they can.” I agree. There are all the usual events, and then some. Weightlifting, archery - they even have an area frozen over for ice-related events. Because of the size of our year, they have to break it into multiple groups for some of the events. Others, such as flying or swimming, don’t have as many participants, so it’s not a problem there. I watch a few of my year’s foot race events, and as I guessed, very few people are capable of using magic to assist them in the run. There are a few races in particular I take note of. The one that elven princess is in, for one. Didn’t do particularly well, but not too badly, either. After she reaches the end, there are a bunch of guys and a few girls of a range of ages waiting there to shower her with praise. She calmly and politely thanks them and makes some light conversation, but maybe because of my unique standpoint and perspective, I get the impression that she’s… I don’t know, distant? Lonely? It feels like that she’s only making the conversation because it’s polite, that she doesn’t actually enjoy their attention. Or heck, maybe that’s just just royal training to allow her to appear impartial. What do I know? There’s another race that has that guy that was in front of me in line, Auden, in it. A few teachers gather round, seemingly expecting a spectacle, but when the signal sounds, instead of running the guy starts walking down the track, instantly outstripped by every other person in the race. A few of the teachers sigh, walking away in disappointment. After his slow walk to the end of the track, he leaves the track with his head held high despite the disappointed and scornful looks from his fellow students and teachers alike, wiping the sweat off his brow as he goes. I almost miss Joe’s race, mainly because it’s difficult for me to see him. He takes the race even less seriously than Auden, and nonchalantly strolls down the track at his own pace. In fact, such a thing doesn’t appear to be too uncommon. Another race has a person walking down the track, shielding his eyes from the sun and blinking furiously - wait, that’s Raymond. I’m amazed someone actually managed to pull him out of the library. Wait, isn’t he in one of the senior years? What’s he doing in this race? Oh. He’s not actually part of the race, he just accidentally wandered onto the track, blinded by the sun. One of the teachers quickly dashes onto the track and guides him away from the race. Raymond genuinely looks to be in pain from the light, so I fly over. “Hey Raymond. If it’s a bit bright, couldn’t you make a spell that reduces the intensity of light  coming towards your eyes?” I assume he knows light magic. “Now there’s an idea.” He replies in a conversational tone, belying how his face is scrunched up. He closes his eyes completely for a few seconds, thinking. A small formation forms on his hand shortly after, and a dark rectangle forms in front of his face. “There. Now I just need to adjust it…” The rectangle darkens until it’s almost completely black. He sighs with relief. “Much better. I think they need to turn the lights in the library up a bit, going outside is almost blinding.” “The lights are pretty bright in most areas.” I reply in concern. “You should get out in the sun some more. Your eyesight seems like it could be deteriorating.” “Eh, there’s spells for that.” Waving it off, he asks, “So, are you going to participate seriously?” “Is there a particular reason I should?” I respond dubiously. “Not really, just asking.” Raymond shrugs. “It’s supposed to ‘rile up the competitive spirit’ or something like that. Doesn’t matter to me. There’s special rewards if you manage to beat the records, but some of them have stood for centuries or even longer. As if that’s going to happen.” “Yeah, sounds pretty pointless to me. Well, see you around.” I say. “Seeya.” He waves. I wobble a little in the turbulence as the avian and flying people in my year take to the skies. They beat their wings and straighten their bodies to eke out every last bit of speed possible. On the other hand, I, the odd fork out, slowly putter along at my own little pace. I don’t particularly care what people might say. For all they know, this is my top speed. I’ve only really gone any faster in front of Dreyer and Lamar, after all. Even then, that was far from my top speed. Heck, I don’t even know my top speed. Regardless, I’ll be happy to get back to normal school life once this is over. This is the race I’ve been waiting for. Past third year, competing is optional. There aren’t many students above that year in the first place, so they start to merge years together for the events. This one is the years six and up mixed one kilometer race, meaning that participants can race via land, sea, air, or some combination of the three. It’s held along the coastline, on the beach. Despite how many years the race is open to - I hear there are even a few students that have been studying here over a decade - there are only four competitors. A merman, idly treading water - or is it flipping water? - as he waits for the race to start. What looks like a mole beastwoman, squinting around with her tiny eyes, and a pale elf hopping slightly from one foot to the other. The last contestant is, I think, a turtle or tortoise beastkin. Beastkin are the descendants of beastmen and other races, and tend to have a more human appearance while still retaining some of their animalistic features. For instance, this man has an unusually long neck, largish eyes and a thin shell, but mostly humanoid stature, colouration, and even hair. ...He also appears to be wearing bulky roller blades, a rather weighty-looking backpack of some description and holding what looks vaguely like a remote control with a few buttons on it. Before long, the race starts, and the competitors shoot off like speeding bullets. The merman and the mole woman dip underwater and underground respectively, instantly shielding them from sight from practically everyone but me. Of the two above ground, the elf instantly takes the lead, dashing forwards in what would look like a normal sprint if not for the speed of it. Despite his speed, or rather because of it, something seems off to me. It takes me a moment to pick it - his footsteps aren’t kicking up any sand, or even leaving a mark on them. The turtle beastkin, although left behind, gradually accelerates as the wheels of his skates spin up, evidently powered by some form of magic or enchantment. They don’t sink into the sand either, but they do leave behind paths of hardened ground, reinforcing the ground beneath him as he goes so as to improve grip. Below the earth, the mole woman is digging speedily through the earth at a pace that, while fast, would not be enough to compare to the others… If not for the fact that the earth that she is digging through is moving around her, pushing and carrying her forward at a rate of knots. In the sea, the merman is using a similar tactic, creating a fast water current that speeds his pace. He is just barely behind the elf, and at the moment it seems to mostly be between him and the elf contending for first place, although the others aren’t far behind. Back on land, the elf lifts his leg and steps down on empty air. But instead of falling, he steps off of the air, and again, and again, until he’s literally running on air. A closer look reveals that there’s actually some sort of platform that appears under his feet every time he steps, giving him something to push off of. In fact, these platforms aren’t parallel to the ground, but at a bit of an angle, allowing him to put more force into every step and increasing his speed as a result. Seeing this, the turtle beastkin sighs and pushes one of the buttons on his remote. Immediately, a piece of metal snakes up his neck to the back of his skull, and hatches open up on the back of his backpack and skates. Despite there being little more indication than a slight blue glow of mana, a moment later his speed increases prodigiously, even allowing to start catching up to the elf running above him. ‘Is the race even worth this much?’ I see him mutter to himself. Worth… Oh, of course. There’s a betting pool. Why wouldn’t there be? The merman, apparently able to see the elf’s actions from underwater, also reacts and magically parts the water in front of him, creating a void. With the water to the sides being held back, the only water able to fill the void is the water from his direction, which rushes in with greater speed, taking him with it. He does this repeatedly, looking vaguely uncomfortable as he does so. Even the mole beastwoman appears to have realised something is afoot, because she reaches into her pocket with one hand and flings half a dozen small rocks into the ground around her, imbuing each with a fair amount of mana as she does so. The earth and rock around each stone gathers and forms into rough approximations of humanoid figures. They turn to her almost in unison, the pocket of earth still carrying them all along. “Make us faster.” She instructs quickly. The rocky figures kneel and plant their arms into the earth. The ground around her increases to over double its former speed, faster than any of the others. ...However, she reacted too slow. By the time she is about to catch up, the race is already over. “Jonathan wins, 16.386 seconds!” The turtle beastkin won, by just a fraction of a second. Speeding past the finish line, he pushes a button on his remote, and the boosters deactivate and retract into their housings. After pushing another button, the wheels of his roller blades stop receiving power and slowly roll to a stop. He lets out a heavy sigh, but out of the four of them it seems like he used the least mana, almost none at all. Must have had some type of mana storage that he used to power it all. Regardless, I’m pretty satisfied with what I saw today. Elemental manipulation, summoning, some sort of creation magic, maybe barriers? And enchanted equipment. That’s definitely something I’ll be interested in learning all about... Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6314.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 21 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 3.35% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.13% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 16.01%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 83.26% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.23% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.49% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.35% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 50.31% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.30% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.59% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Earth magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 37.94% - You have a basic grasp of earth magic. Formation casting (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 45.08% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic through formations. Creation magic (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 29.76% - You have a basic grasp of creation magic. Light magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 41.28% - You have a basic grasp of light magic. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.36% - You have a superficial grasp of casting magic vocally. Terran language – Spoken (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 54.66% - You have a large vocabulary despite your inexperience, and while you still have difficulty pronouncing some words, speaking simple sentences and phrases is no longer beyond you. Terran language – Written (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 68.15% - You have a large vocabulary despite your inexperience, and can recognise most individually written words. Given enough time, you can grasp the meaning of most of the things you read. Fire magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 42.39% - You have a superficial grasp of fire magic. Destruction magic (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 23.50% -  You have a superficial grasp of destruction magic. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 Well, there's the chapter, I hope you enjoyed. With this, all but one of the characters I've had planned for the academy have been introduced. I look forward to delving further into the interactions between them, Gerald, and others. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki

(POV Ferdinand) Two horses trot along a flat dirt road. It seems a painfully slow pace to be travelling at when there could be people dying every moment. “Can’t we go any faster?” I ask anxiously. “If we were to go any faster the horses would run out of stamina all too quickly, especially since we are riding double. Trust me, this is the best pace for travelling.” Luc replies calmly. Horseshoes continue to crunch against soil in an endless rhythm, somehow making the silence even more prominent. I briefly ponder if there’s anything I can say to break the silence, but most of the things I think of would be inappropriate, given the situation. Mentioning the queer behaviour of the skeletons is a possibility, but I doubt it’s anything important. If the necromancer wants to divide up his forces and make it easier for us to kill them, he can go right ahead, I say. We arrive at a village a couple of hours later, and the sun is starting to get low. It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to make it back to the city before nightfall, I think absent-mindedly, before focusing on the problem at hand: skeletons. Dismounting from the horse, I draw my sword. ‘Forty-five, including the ones in the fields… again with the weirdness. Also, two of the skeletons here have armour and weapons.’ Informs Gerald. My eyes narrow. Unfortunately, that isn’t all. Mixed in with the normal, pale white skeletons are black skeletons. Now, I don’t know much about skeletons, but I am fairly sure that the white ones are the weakest of the bunch. Therefore, these black ones must be stronger. But with a couple of paladins by my side, they won’t be a threat! I charge into battle, but Lily and Luc overtake me before I’m even half-way to the group of skeletons that are turning to face us. From atop her horse, Lily raises a gauntleted hand towards them. A holy light springs forth from her hand, and the skeletons it shines upon have their flames extinguished, regardless of colour. Luc mimics her action, and another group of skeletons fall apart where they stand, although a smaller number than when Lily attacked. …At this rate, there won’t be much for me to do. I continue charging, but by the time I reach them, Lily and Luc have already cleaved through them, leaving only a single black skeleton! They head deeper into the village, leaving this one for me. Upon spotting me, the dark flames in its eyes blaze sinisterly. It opens its jaws wide as if trying to shout or scream, but no sound comes out. Then, to my shock, it starts to run towards me. I barely parry its first blow, again finding myself startled by its speed and power. Until now, skeletons could be described with two words: tenacious, slow. But this one moves almost as fast as a regular human, and just as strong. Of course, that still isn’t as strong or fast as I am, so after the first few blows I become accustomed to the difference and start to retaliate. With a kick I shatter its leg, sending it tumbling to the ground, and with another step I stomp on its head, shattering it. Much stronger than the normal skeleton, but still weak on its own. Skull fragments crumble under my boot as I run further into the village. Everywhere I go, all I see are piles of bones. I hear sounds of combat from up ahead, so I hurry along, reaching them just in time to witness the last armoured undead get beheaded. Lily sheathes her immaculate blade. Perhaps the only benefit to fighting undead is that you don’t have to clean your weapon afterward. “Let us split up and see if we can find another of those cats.” Leaving her horse to graze on the grass by the roadside, Lily picks a direction and begins searching, with Luc doing the same. ‘Inside the house over to your right, the one with the broken window. It’s under the bed.’ Meanwhile, I had a helpful fork supplying me with its exact location. Striding over to the house, I step over the fallen door through the entrance and follow Gerald’s directions to find the bedroom. Peeking under the bed, I see a pair of feline eyes looking back at me. Stretching out an arm, I try to grab it, but the cat hisses and claws my hand. I wince at the pain and try again, this time managing to pull it from beneath the bed, still flailing its limbs and try to inflict whatever damage it can. Awkwardly trying to hold it in such a way that it can’t scratch or bite me, I hurry out of the building and call out, “I found it!” …Well, Gerald found it, but he doesn’t want other people to know about him, so what else can I say? And I did find it. Gerald just found it first. Lily and Luc promptly return, and I deposit the unruly cat in her hands, where it is unable to do any harm. She closes her eyes in concentration, but soon opens them again as the cat falls limp in her hands. “Again! If we were able to catch him when he is sleeping, then I would have more time…” she trails off in frustration. “So what now?” I ask. “Clean up the skeletons in the fields?” Lily shakes her head. “That is what I shall be doing. Meanwhile, the horses will be resting, and you will start your training with Luc.” At first, I’m faintly disappointed that she won’t be teaching me herself, but that feeling is replaced shortly by excitement. With this training, I should be able to become at least somewhat more powerful, right? “Come, let us find a more suitable area to train in.” Luc beckons me over, and we find ourselves an empty paddock, the animals formerly residing here having long since fled. He looks around and nods, drawing his sword. “Alright, first let us have a brief spar. I need to find out your current level of skill and style of fighting if I am to train you.” Drawing my own sword, I say, “I reached advanced proficiency recently, if that helps.” He shakes his head and swings towards me, his sword little more than a gleam of silver, faster than I can react to. I try to block, but I am barely able to raise my sword half-way before his sword stops just short of my forehead, making my whole body break out in sweat. “It does not. Two men can have the same proficiency in a skill, yet entirely different methods of using it. The only way for me to truly understand how you fight is to fight you.” He says, lifting his sword away from my face and taking a step back. “Again.” This time he lets me attack and calmly parries every one of my slashes, his green eyes steadily tracking my movements as I endlessly try to breach his defences. “Enough.” Luc says eventually, sheathing his sword. “I think I have a clear enough picture of how you fight, now.” Hands trembling, I lower my sword and try to steady my breathing. Now that I’m not fighting, I notice Joe sitting on the fence nearby, a stalk of wheat wiggling about in his mouth as he chews on it. Where did he even get that; aren’t all the crops here dead? “Not terrible for someone who has obviously never been trained, but not great, either. However, that just means you have much room for improvement. Let us start… with the basics.” Luc grabs my hands, shifting them slightly on the hilt of my sword. “At least part of the reason why you are so tired right now is because your grip and stance are sloppy.” He explains. “You aren’t exerting as much strength as you could where it matters and are exerting too much where it doesn’t. There are many other problems with your style of fighting, but we’ll start with that…” (POV Gerald) Hello, I’m bored. ‘Hello Bored, I’m insert-name-here’, I hear you say? Haha. But seriously, not much happening for me, lately. A bit of recon here, some chatting there, and the rest of my days are silence. I’m half tempted to notify those paladins of my existence just so I have freedom to move about again. Plus, there are a whole bunch of questions I would be interested in asking someone a bit more knowledgeable than Ferdinand. But anyway, all I can do is the usual training – minus some of the more showy skills, for obvious reasons – and watch what’s happening. Ferdinand’s currently getting a bit of training, which is nice to see. I’m watching that closely, for future reference. Never know when I might get a skill that allows me to assume a human form, after all. Although, given my stats I’d be more fit to be a wizard. Then again, with the strength and dex enhancing traits I have, perhaps melee combat would be the way to go… I’d really rather use magic, but it will depend on whether I can find something with a good trait. Intelligence and wisdom… all I can think of in terms of intelligent animals are dolphins, and for wisdom I’m drawing a complete blank. I mean, they say owls are wise, but are they really? Then, what about monsters? I can think of plenty of ‘intelligent’ monsters, but that generally means they are of a similar level of intelligence as a human. I need something particularly intelligent or wise. Mind flayers come to mind. I didn’t get it last time, but maybe if I come across another, evil one in the future? Dragons are often depicted as intelligent, and wise too. But… I don’t think killing a dragon is currently within the range of my capabilities. …Not much else I can think of, but what to do? After all that time playing it before, I pretty much hate minesweeper now. I suppose the only thing I can do is meditate. Meditate the days away… Patience. Telling myself to be patient seems almost like an insult, after how long I’ve waited… Days and villages go by, a constant life of travelling, fighting and training… for them. Guys, reckon we can switch places for a bit? “Almost sixty in this village, with four of the armoured ones. Looks like we managed to get to this one in time, some of the villagers are still fighting.” As always, I inform Ferdinand of the movements within the village as soon as we get in range. “Ugh, scratch that, the last one just got mobbed. Well, at least this time we’ll be able to recover their bodies.” Every single time, there hasn’t been a single corpse in the village, as if the villagers had just vanished and been replaced by skeletons. …Except that would mean there would be way more skeletons in each village. By now, I am quite curious what exactly that necromancer is doing, so I am keeping a close eye – so to speak – on the events currently happening. The skeletons are carrying the bodies to the center of the village, where the usual cat is watching them. Once they are all there… A huge mass of mana appears in the village, the suddenness of which temporarily blinds me. Seconds later, It disappears – and along with it all of the bodies and the skeletons carrying them. Eh? Did they just teleport or something? I’m so shocked and confused that I miss most of what Lily is saying about summoning magic. Right, makes sense. By now, I reckon I can say ‘because magic’ to anything that I don’t understand. Alright, whatever, moving on. Ignoring what just happened, the rest is as usual: run into the village, re-kill all of the undead, find the cat, cat dies, move on to the next village. Some adventurers turn up now and again to help, which is something, but the army is still conspicuous in its absence. By now, anyone with half a brain in this empire should be able to see that the necromancer has some ties to people in the top echelons of society. But then again, some of the nobles and city lords seem to have less than half a brain. How on earth has this Empire held itself together when most of the people of importance are blithering idiots who, when not sleeping, are either spending money extravagantly, losing themselves in debauchery or yelling at some unlucky chap in the street because their face looks funny? Honestly, I hope the rest of the world isn’t like this. (POV Ferdinand) Crackling, the fire spits out a spark which curves through the air, landing only to wink out a moment later. I roll my stiff shoulders; the rigorous training of the past week has been taking its toll on my body. Gerald is lying somewhere in my pack as usual, probably bored out of his mind, as he so often tells me. Like me, Lily and Luc are seated around the fire, sipping at bowls of vegetable stew. Their God apparently restricts them from eating meat unless they have to. Personally, I enjoy a good steak, but this isn’t half bad either. Like every other night, both of them have taken off their armour and are instead dressed in simple tunics and leggings. Like this, I can hardly liken them to their usual appearances – armoured holy knights that will dominate the battlefield or heal the wounded wherever they appear. Finished gulping down the stew, I set the wooden bowl down to one side; it will be cleaned before we leave in the morning. Stomach full, a question comes to mind that I can’t help but voice: “You two are very strong, so how is it that I’d not heard of you before we met?” Luc lifts his gaze from the fire. “We come from the far north, so it is no surprise that you never heard of us.” He looks over at Lily, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Besides, even we did not know of each other before this. It was only when I was upon the Empire’s borders that I heard our lord’s voice telling me where to find Lily, and that she would be leading the mission here.” My eyebrows raise involuntarily. “You get along well for two people who barely know each other.” “Why would we not?” Luc shrugs. “We serve the same God, after all, and Lily is such an accomplished wizard that it’s hard for me not to be in awe of her.” “While I appreciate the sentiment, I am only proficient in a few miscellaneous magical skills, and cannot claim to be anything more than average in other areas.” Lily leans forward, warming her hand over the fire. “Rather, your skill with the sword is much more impressive. It approaches that of the old masters where I live.” Luc smiles slightly. “My sword master says that he’s nearly out of things to teach me. Soon, I’ll only be able to rely on myself to improve further… How about you, Ferdinand? What are you good at?” Taken by surprise, I say the first thing that comes to mind. “Farming. Farming was the only thing I was ever good at.” “Why did you never go back to farming, then?” Luc asks curiously. I’d never thought about it before, so I take a moment to think before answering. “I suppose I saw too many people who needed help, and not enough people who were helping them. If I went back to farming, that would mean more people wouldn’t be able to get that help.” “How noble. You might do well as a paladin yourself.” Lily says, then turns to – was Joe sitting there this whole time? That guy is so quiet that it’s hard to notice him, I swear. “And how about you, Joe?” I don’t expect him to answer, but to my surprise, he does. “Actually, I’m a farmer too.” Pulling a straw hat from behind his back, he places it on his head. “It’s hard work, y’know? Figured I’d take a short break. After all this ends it’s back to the farm for me.” ‘Call me sceptical, but I don’t believe him.’ Says Gerald. ‘You could hear what he’s saying?” I ask. ‘Nah, he’s writing it on the ground.’ I look, and his finger is indeed on the ground. It is still right now, but I know from experience that it can go at incredible speeds. I go back to the original topic. ‘But does it mean anything if he is lying?’ ‘No.’ Gerald sighs. ‘It doesn’t. Or rather, it would make less sense if he is telling the truth… but either way, we know too little about him to determine anything. Even friend or foe… although from his actions so far, it’s neither. Really, there’s no point in thinking too much about it.’ …I never did. “How close are you to finding the necromancer’s location?” Luc asks Lily in the meantime. Lily takes out a map and looks at it. “Very. The directions I am able to find with every one of those cat familiars are quite inexact, but if I can do it one, maybe two more times, I should be able to narrow it down to one area.” Furrowing his brows, Luc asks, “And if he has not been staying in one area?” “It would make this more difficult, but in that case there should be larger deviations in the directions, and a pattern we could follow.” She answers. “Then it looks to be a big day tomorrow. We should get some rest.” A dim, pale light shines down on the world as Teroc glowers down, alone in his own piece of the sky. One ghostly pale hand resting lightly on the rails of the balcony, a young man looks up at the sky and shivers. Turning around, he walks back into the room, pulling the gilded doors closed behind him. He glances briefly at the large bed, with its silken sheets twisted into knotted clumps at the foot, and walks instead to his desk. He sits down. With a practiced motion, he reaches under the desk and presses a concealed button. His other hand enters a number combination, and a slight ‘click’ notifies him that the secret compartment is unlocked. Apparently, the man thinks that even this is not enough security, because the book he slips from the compartment is itself padlocked. Taking the key from where it hangs around his neck, he unlocks it. Glancing fearfully about the room one last time, he opens the book and flips through to an empty page. Taking up the magical pen on his desk, he begins to write. Night 257. Questions surround me no matter what answers I give, and those who should be loyal hounds bay for my blood without regard for what I feed them. I fear that soon all my plans will unravel and with them so too will the noose be tied for my demise… Oh, how I wish that I could simply leave this all behind. But archers lay in wait to fill me with arrows, daggers lurk in the night and soon enough my own soldiers will march against me. Only here am I safe, and yet even here my ‘protectors’ will tear me limb from limb if I so much as utter the wrong word. What a fool I was, what a fool I am! If only I had never been brought here! If only I had run when I still could! Too late. Too late. I still cannot sleep. A tear glistens against his pale skin as he once again locks the book, places it in the compartment and resets the mechanism. Head in hands, he weeps. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 2799.08/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 960/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 485/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 9837/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.34% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.94% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.95% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 24.63%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 20.08% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 45.10% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 6.37% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 28 Experience: 5109.48/5700 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 44.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 35.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 38.4   Health: 384/384 Health regen: 2.304/hour Stamina: 357/357 Stamina regen: 3.57/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.93% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.33% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.61% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.59% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry – Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry – Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword – Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 23.17% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.29% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Power slash (Basic) (High Common, Active) 13.86% - Multiplies the speed and power of a slash by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 7.39% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 [collapse]

(POV Ferdinand) I am running. Without a direction or destination, my only goal is to get away from the man trying to kill me. I can barely tell where I am going because of the fear filling my mind, but I don’t trip or stumble as I run. I don’t know where Gerald is, whether I’m being followed or not… So it’s a big relief when Gerald’s voice sounds in my head again. ‘Change direction. He’s following, but I don’t think he knows where you are.’ He says tersely. Not a moment later, he pops out of the ground in front of me and flies into my pack. Not even looking back or stopping, I turn right and continue running. Over hills, around cliffs, my feet keep pounding a steady beat against the bare earth below. Earth turns gradually to grass, grass turns to sand, and sand turns to lapping water – I’ve actually run as far as the ocean without noticing. Just as I’m about to turn again and run along the shore, I hear Gerald speaking again. ‘Hey. Hey, you can stop now. You could have stopped ages ago, he’s long gone. Can you even hear me? I’ve been saying this for a while now…’ He says, irritated. Stopping, I suddenly feel exhausted and sit down on the sand. It’s as if my body had forgotten to get tired while running, and it’s just now catching up. I take deep breaths to steady my racing heart. The air feels like it’s burning my insides, and it reminds me that I still have a stab wound in my side. Shrugging my pack off my back, I open it and search through the contents until I find a small vial. It’s a healing potion. I keep one in reserve, in case I get serious wounds while away from a city. I pop off the cork and drink most of the contents, a red liquid that bears a strange resemblance to blood. Thankfully, the taste doesn’t share the same similarity, instead tasting like a very strong tea. The rest I pour onto the wound, wincing in pain as the potion irritates my injuries. I watch for a moment as the wound stops seeping blood and starts closing at a visible rate. ‘You sure he’s gone?’ I ask, my mind now calm enough to talk. He responds a moment later, sounding relieved. ‘Quite sure. You okay?’ ‘Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Just a bit tired.’ I say, still struggling to catch my breath. ‘What happened after I left?’ ‘We fought briefly, if you can call that a fight.’ Gerald sighs. ‘It was more me charging at him at increasingly fast speeds until I just used a whole bunch of ki to blow him away. Wasn’t able to do much damage to him, regrettably.’ I’m just glad we both managed to get out of that with all our limbs intact. ‘Did you manage to find out who he was?’ ‘Better. I found out what he was.’ He says happily, then his voice turns grim. ‘A Doppelganger, at level 48.’ A Doppelganger? “What’s a Doppleganger?’ ‘Not too sure myself. From what I remember, if you see someone who looks exactly like you, then they’re your doppelganger. It’s supposed to be bad luck or something.’ Gerald says uncertainly. ‘But level 48?’ I say in shock. ‘His stats must be way higher than mine.’ ‘Let me just math for a moment…’ He says. Math? ‘His stat total is at least 123 points higher than yours.’ What? ‘How can you know that? Can you read other people’s statuses now?’ ‘Nah. But if you get 2.5 stat points the first ten levels, 3 the next ten and 4 the next ten, my guess would be that the next ten give you 5.5, then 7.5. Knowing that, it’s simple multiplication and addition to see that you’ve gotten a total of 87 stat points from levelling, and he’s gotten 210.’ He states, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Are you done talking yet?” Someone says from behind me. My slowly relaxing mind goes into full alert again, and I scramble to my feet, looking warily behind me. Standing there with a carefree smile on his face is that same grimy old man from earlier. Seeing that he doesn’t seem to have any bad intentions, I relax a bit. “Who are you? Why are you following me?” “No need to be so tense, I just want to chat. Have a seat.” He says, sitting down in the sand and patting the sand in front of him. I don’t sit. “Or don’t, that’s fine too. But aren’t your legs a bit tired after all that running?” I sit. ‘Are you talking to yourself, or is it someone invisible again?’ Gerald asks. “Someone invisible.” The grimy old man says. “Not in the conventional sense, though. Gerald just can’t see me because I have no mana.”  How did he… He knows about Gerald, as well? What? Wait… “I remember you! You’re that fortune-teller from way back in…” I try to remember exactly what that city was called. “Fiso City.” He supplies. “Honestly Ferdinand, you stayed there almost a year, and you still don’t know the name of it?” “How do you know about us?” I ask, thoroughly confused. “One second…” He starts writing rapidly in the sand, his finger a blur as it moves. “Can’t leave Gerald out of this, can we?” He finishes writing a few lines, wipes the sand clean, and starts writing again. “To answer your question, you already know I can see the future. It’s much easier to see the past, or even the present. Of course I know about you and Gerald.” I’m not sure if that’s how it works… But then again, I’m not sure it isn’t. “Who are you?” I ask. Everything about him is so strange. Knowing about things that should be impossible for anyone to know, being unharmed from a strike of someone at almost level 50… He thinks about it for a second, then smiles. “You can call me Joe. As for the reason I’m following you, it’s to ask if I can follow you around on your adventures.” …What? “Don’t worry, I won’t be a bother. I can take care of my own meals and accommodation, and I won’t get in the way in fights.” His finger continues to dash across the sand as he says this, although I don’t see him glance down even once. I frown. “I’m not having a stranger following me around for no reason.” He shrugs. “All right then.” I look at him for a few seconds longer, but he doesn’t do or say anything else besides look at me steadily. Shrugging myself, I get up and dust the sand off my pants. Grabbing my pack, I start walking along the shore towards Liensport city. ‘Well, that was strange.’ Says Gerald. ‘Yes, it certainly was…’ I trail off as I looked over my shoulder. The gri… Joe, was still following me. I stop and turn around to face him. “What are you doing?” He scratches his head. “Well, see, when I asked you if I could follow along, I was just being polite. I’m following you regardless.” He says, smiling abashedly. For a moment, I’m lost for words. The way he acts is so abnormal that I don’t quite know how to treat him, and this is coming from a guy who has a talking fork as a friend. I can’t help but remember how the doppelganger’s spear slipped right through him, and how he was right behind me after I ran as fast as I could until the ocean. And thinking about it, he wasn’t even out of breath. He probably wouldn’t be a hindrance in combat like that, and with skills like those, it shouldn’t be hard for him to provide food for himself. “Alright.” I concede reluctantly. “You can follow me, but take a bath first, would you?” Joe freezes. “Damn.” He swears, looking down at himself. “All that time, and not a single bath. No wonder people weren’t eager to get their fortunes told!” He looks back at me. “Just a minute, please.” And then he sprints into the water, until I can’t see him anymore. …Times like these, I start to wish I was still a farmer. (POV Gerald) Welp, that was more than a mite strange. Writing in the sand by an invisible hand, detailing the other half of Ferdinand’s conversation, and there isn’t even a depression in the sand where I presume the owner of that hand was sitting. Nor footprints. Nothing, really. If not for the writing, I might’ve thought that Ferdinand had gone a bit loopy. And now we seem to have another member in the party. Yay. Still, I think I can metaphorically breathe a sigh of relief now that we aren’t walking towards almost certain death. …Is that a death flag? Maybe? Eh, we should be fine. I suppose we should be considering whether it’s safe to return to Liensport or not. After all, the doppelganger knows what Ferdinand looks like. But then again, there’s that Harry guy. The doppelganger said he knows who our informant was, so he’s definitely in danger. We can’t just leave him to be killed, so we should at least alert him before moving on to another city. Conversing with Ferdinand, he quite agrees, and is understandably eager to get away from anywhere the doppelganger may be able to track him down. It doesn’t take us long to get back to the city, since all we have to do was follow the coast. It’s a strange feeling, returning to a place where everyone was nonchalantly going about their daily lives when we’ve just returned from a legitimately life-threatening situation. Repeating our actions from last time, I communicate with Harry, telling him to get out of the area for a while and briefly explaining why. Then we leave again, as quickly as we came. (POV Harry) The day after the voice first spoke in my head, it speaks again. ‘Sorry about this, but you may have a level 48 doppelganger coming to kill you. He’s the one who killed Richard, and he said that he knew who provided his location to us, so you should probably disappear for a while.’ He said. Not what I was expecting of the day when I woke up this morning. ‘And he let you leave?’ I ask sceptically. The man I met yesterday didn’t look anywhere near strong enough to face off against a level 48. ‘We managed to run away, since we couldn’t do much damage to him. He covered himself in some sort of red armour, apparently. Oops, been speaking too-’ The voice stopped. …Really? I met – didn’t even meet you, I only ever heard your voice – yesterday, and you expect me to believe that I have someone coming to kill me? Hah! It’s more likely that this is a ploy from someone aiming for my position. It wouldn’t be hard to incriminate me if I suddenly disappear. People would have their suspicions, but if I don’t turn up to dispute it, they might just shrug and give it to him. Still, by that same notion, it’s likely they would have hired an assassin to tail me as I went into hiding and make me truly disappear for good. I’m not suited for combating stealthy opponents, especially since I haven’t seen much combat in the last few years. How could I find, and ideally kill, an assassin before it kills me? Unfortunately, I doubt I can enlist the help of a wizard. We have so few and they’re all overworked as it is… …No choice but to draw him out, huh? That said, it would be suicide to do so thoughtlessly. If I’m to do this, it will be on my terms. First, a place. I seem to remember… Thumbing through the mountains of files stored neatly in cabinets behind my desk, I select the one I’m looking for. This one is new, I got it only yesterday. Looking at it, I read through the details: tonnes of supplies had been moved from a particular warehouse near the docks. In other words, it is now empty, and it will be another few days before it is filled up by another shipment again. A large, open space was perfect for my needs. Now for equipment. It would seem strange if I were to go around at work wearing my combat gear, so I wait for the end of the day before I head to the armory. Taking a small, intricate key from a pocket within my coat, I unlock my personal storage chest. I unstrap the rapier from my side. It’s an ornamental piece, and doesn’t even have an edge, so I would hesitate to even call it a weapon. The rapier in the chest, however, is a true blade, crafted from the rare metal: mithril. Unsheathing it partially, I test its edge with my thumb. A thin line of blood wells from a paper-thin cut, making me smile despite the pain. Truly an exquisite piece of work, sharp as the day it was first honed to a razor edge and without the faintest trace of rust or wear. I put the blade to one side and lift my armour from the chest. Brown with faint lines of gold, it is of fairly simple design, but despite looking similar to leather armour, it can deflect arrows and blades alike with relative ease as it is in fact made from the leather of a wyvern. Stripping off my coat, I don the armour over my soft undershirt, rolling my shoulders as the familiar weight settles over them. The only item remaining inside the chest is a small pouch, which I attach to my belt. A bag of holding, as expensive as it is useful. Through some strange wizardry that I don’t understand in the slightest, it is somehow able to contain a volume about three times what it appears to be, while completely eliminating the weight of those items. This one contains a collection of useful potions, some money and a few other items that should be helpful. I leave the building and head for the warehouse, sticking to busy streets to dissuade potential assassins. Of course, it very well may be that there are no assassins, but in that case, I’ll just be a bit late for dinner. No harm done. Perhaps I could even make use of this opportunity to do some light training, and get myself back into practice. There are a couple of guards patrolling the place, but not nearly as many as there would be if the place was loaded with goods. After a few minutes of observing their movements, I take advantage of a gap and slipped inside. Shutting the door silently behind me – bless oiled hinges – a large, open space greets my eyes. I briefly glance around the rafters, just in case anyone is there, and walk to the middle of the space. The only sound is that of my own footsteps, vastly different to the bustling noise of the headquarters. Reaching the centre, I take a deep breath and settle myself into a state similar to the ‘vigilance’ skill that sentries and guards often possess, but rather than focusing on eyesight, it focuses on hearing: ‘hearken’. Through it, I can hear the footsteps of the guards outside, still on patrol. The gentle lap of water against the piers. A breath of wind subtly breezing along. Barely a minute later, I hear a body hit the ground, and then another. My hand tightens around the hilt of my rapier and draws it silently from the sheath. The door swings open. A bloody spear head precedes the entrance of its wielder as he steps inside. My eyes narrow. There is this sense of… familiarity about him that I can’t quite place. I take a second, more careful look at him, and a name almost forgotten over the years floats to the forefront of my mind. “Rodney?” I involuntarily utter in my shock. He looks different, but that can be attributed to age… But then again, he’s dead. He can’t be here… and that leads my mind to other possibilities. He must have been why Richard came here. Demons, he said… He would be concerned about demons, but not enough to come out of retirement for it. He would have just sent a message back here, and wash his hands of the matter. However, if his son was involved, it would all make sense. But how? My mind flickered back to earlier today. ‘level 48 doppelganger’, the voice had said, and it suddenly seems much more plausible than it had earlier. And if so, I am in trouble. “A doppelganger, is it?” I say, hoping to buy time. His face twitches slightly, before he reigned it back into an impassive mask. “You know, I used to enjoy talking to people before killing them. Seeing their fear, their pain.” He says quietly. “Then I lost my arm.” I glance to his side and see the empty sleeve. I’d been so focused on his face that I hadn’t even noticed. Without another word, a red mist explodes forth from his body, bringing with it a primal fear. My throat tightens, and my mouth draws itself into a grim line, but it isn’t because of the fear. It’s because I recognise the mist. Only the most brutal killers, the ones who truly enjoyed the pain they cause, can wield it, and it is as dangerous as it is rare. Even as my mind is coldly recalling information on it, my hand is transporting potion after potion to my mouth, and my legs were rapidly shifting me backwards to gain distance. Within a few seconds, the mist settles around his body and spear in the shape of armour, making my blood run cold. He must have killed several hundred people to be able to physically manifest his killing intent, perhaps more than a thousand. I can’t even begin to guess, because I have never seen it before, only ever heard of it. It looks as if escaping this battle alive will be no easy feat. Calming my nerves, I raise my sword, rouse my fighting spirit and leap into combat, flinging an orange vial ahead of me. (POV Gerald) How do you evade pursuers? In all honesty, it’s as easy as breathing, if they don’t have tracking skills. Just head cross country, disappear into a forest or something, and hey presto! As far as civilisation is concerned, you don’t exist anymore. Well, in this world at least. Back on Earth, search parties and things would be organised… but you catch my drift. Unfortunately, Ferdinand has this strange attachment to having good food, shelter, beds etc. So, we have to figure out a way to confuse any people that could be tracking us. Fortunately, we don’t have a set destination, so we can go any number of directions. For now, we are heading north and west, heading across the land to a place called Tikse city. It’s not linked directly by roads to Liensport, so any trackers shouldn’t assume we’d go there. Of course, if they have magical means of tracking us, we’re screwed. Always look on the bright side of life, right? We should be fine. From what I’ve seen, there aren’t many wizards in the cities I’ve seen so far, so it’s unlikely for there to be one with that particular ability to be chasing us. And it might be just the Doppelganger following us. Or it might be nobody. I mean, I haven’t seen anyone. There probably isn’t. With Ferdinand’s experience and my skills, travelling over the countryside is a breeze. I find a wild animal when we need food, one of us kills it and Ferdinand cooks it. I keep watch at night, Ferdinand keeps our course and we keep each other company with idle conversation. Apparently the person following us – the invisible one – is this old man type character, and he’s quite strange, according to Ferdinand. He’s never seen Joe eat or sleep. Instead, Joe often just looks up at the sky all night. Ferdinand tells me that when he wakes up, Joe is usually in the same position as he was when Ferdinand last saw him the previous night. I really don’t like it. I can’t see him, which means I won’t be able to notice or stop him if he ever does something. Still, Ferdinand says he’s a good person when he’s not doing weird things, so I can give him the benefit of the doubt – for now. A couple days later, I see something emerging on the edge of my vision. It’s a village… and it’s currently inhabited by skeletons. Again!? Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 2643.13/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 960/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 485/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 4866/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.30% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.94% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.92% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 23.73%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 12.36% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 39.14% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 6.37% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.38% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 28 Experience: 2146.43/5700 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 44.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 35.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 38.4   Health: 384/384 Health regen: 2.304/hour Stamina: 357/357 Stamina regen: 3.57/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.66% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.59% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.59% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 1.14% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.28% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. [collapse]

(POV Ferdinand) In these past couple of weeks, a lot of strange things have happened. Most of them relating to Gerald. At the start, he was just a telepathic fork who could see mana, and that was strange enough. But then as things went on, it just got weirder. He became able to attract and repel monsters, became poisonous, able to repair himself, use ki and who knows what else. But after a while, I had finally resigned myself to the fact that I simply couldn’t use normal logic on him. So, when his… body, as it were, started distorting and changing shape, I wasn’t that shocked. …Maybe a little. In fact, I was more surprised that the dagger he turned into was blunt and slightly misshapen. I suppose even Gerald can’t master new abilities instantly. Well, it was a more… normal… weapon than a fork, at least. Even if the usability has barely increased. On another note, I’d levelled up from that combat. Killing things above your level really does wonders. A shame it’s a completely unreliable method. It’s only because of that freakishly powerful skill Gerald has that he can do it reliably. Honestly, doesn’t that skill have any limitations? Range seems to be the only real limit it has. …I wish I had a skill like that… A short while after the slime died, Gerald told me that the fight is over – actually over, this time. I still have no clue why I couldn’t see anything happening before, but with any luck, we should be heading back to land now. I walk over the staircase and started to climb it. The next moment, the ground beneath me tilts, and I trip up the stairs. Ouch… This time, I hold onto the railing as I climb the stairs. When I reach the deck, I am instantly jostled by someone moving past me. Looking around, I saw everyone is doing something, carrying something, fixing something… Snaking my way through the flurry of activity, I make it to the helm, where Richard usually is when not fishing. Or fighting. He is tying something to the leg of a bird, which he then throws up into the air. It flies away. Noticing me, he says, “Just a messenger bird. Some people need to know about what happened here, and birds fly faster than we sail.” “What happened? After the beginning of the battle, I couldn’t see anything happening.” I ask. Richard nods. “One of their mages must have cast a spell to prevent surveillance. There are some magicians who watch the oceans from afar, so only those with similar spells can escape detection.” He turns his head, and I follow suit, the burning hull of the other ship greeting my eyes. “As for who they were,” he continues, “They were demons and monsters. Smart ones, not your everyday beasts. We weren’t able to find out what they were after, but I doubt these few will be the end of it.” Richard looks back at me and claps me on the back. “But you don’t need to bother yourself over that. Once we finish cleaning up the ship again, we’ll be heading back to shore.” I’m left standing there, more confused than when it all started. (POV Gerald) (SKIPPABLE INFO) Now that we’ve been here for, what, 10 months? I suppose I should have the stats explained, courtesy of the help function. Name, race, gender, age, level and experience speak for themselves, so I’ll not go into that. Allegiance is much what it sounds like; it lists all the organisations and factions you consider yourself as being a part of. Fame is more interesting. Let me just get up the entry for reference… Okay, so for every 100 people who know about you and view you positively, it is increased by one, and for every 100 people who view you negatively, it is decreased by one. Seems like it isn’t a very reliable way of determining whether someone is good or bad. Say you have this really nice guy, but he pissed off this massive dark organisation, and so they set up an internal bounty for him. Boom, you have -50 fame. Although… If, in this situation, you didn’t know about it, wouldn’t the sudden negative fame boost be a pretty big indicator to GTFO of there? I take back my negative comment. Strength represents the amount of force you can exert. Of course, it means nothing to a being like me who has no muscles or other way to exert force. Still, physical stats like these really bring up some questions in a realistic situation. Say you’re human. Does increasing the strength stat affect appearance? Do you become more buff? And is that number a flat measurement of strength that is equal for every muscle in your body, or more a multiplier of their base strength? Dexterity is a useful stat for anyone in combat situations, I think. If Strength improves your muscles, dexterity improves your control over them, and your body in general. On top of that, it increases your motion perception and thought speed. Well, even if you have perfect control over your body, there’s no use if your body is weak, so it’s not like DEX is the prime stat or something. Still, I imagine it would be incredibly important for any job that requires precision – craftsmen, snipers, scribes, acrobats, and so on. Intelligence increases calculation speed, as well as the ability to think outside of common sense and question the norm. It also improves information retention – memory. Not that it affects me. If intelligence tells you how to build a railgun, wisdom tells you that you didn’t even need a pistol to kill that slime. It reduces superfluous actions and improves decision making ability. Almost like a mental version of dexterity. It also increases your self-control, which is always nice. Charisma enhances empathy and acting talent, as well as subtly improving your appearance based on your own preferences. …I’m guessing that this is within reasonable bounds, like, you can’t grow horns or something, but… this is a system after all, who knows if that was included as a feature or not? Hardness. Simply a number relating to the required force to do a certain amount of damage on an object. Any increases or decreases of this stat, outside of changes in material, do not affect density or appearance. Durability, a measure of how much damage an object can take before ceasing to function as that object. And luck. Now this stat - and I quote – “Increases luck.” Now what the heck’s that supposed to mean? Ah well. The rest of the stats; mana, psi, ki… well, it’s not hard to guess. Just measures of your maximum capacity of those energies, as well as your current amount. Regen, well, it’s in the name, right? And a brief recap on other things. Skills – I don’t know if there’s a rank below uncommon, because I’ve never gotten one. Teehee? From what I can tell, it goes; maybe something below uncommon, uncommon, rare, unique, with each being broken up further into low, mid and high. Proficiencies go from basic, advanced, expert, master, something above master probably? Traits – I’m not really sure about these. I’ve got minute, minor, small, average, moderate, large, huge. I think that’s the order, but I could be wrong. Also, I’ve got a +1 attached to one of them. What’s with that? (END OF SKIPPABLE INFO) After all that kerfuffle ended, the ship turned around and started heading back to port.  In the meantine, I amuse myself by familiarising myself with the appearances of the many members of crew. Walking around, climbing the rigging, sleeping… This doesn’t feel strange at all. Nope, totally normal. You know, getting mana sight to expert proficiency has had some unexpected effects. Case and point, that man over there. I can see through his body, to some of his internal organs. Lungs, stomach, a couple others. The hollow ones, I guess. Rather off-putting. Well, I’ll get used to it eventually. Ignoring that, though, the trip is a peaceful one. I watch people chatting, wishing for the umpteenth time that I can hear what they are saying. Then I realise: I may not be able to hear what they are saying, but maybe I can see what they are saying. Time for this fork to learn how to lip-read. (POV Richard) The voyage back home is without incident. We must have used up a year’s worth of bad luck in the last few days; if anything more happens, the world’s gone mad. I see Ferdinand off at the docks, laughing as he stumbles around for a few moments. After I organise everything on the ship, I step down the gangplank onto the pier. My strength drains away, thoughts moving slower as if through taffy. An ache pulses dully in my lower back. It feels as if I have aged ten years in ten seconds. This… is the worst part of sailing for me, I think. The landing. The loss of vitality, of youthfulness. This is how I am, on land. …Old. And this… is why I go fishing so much. With my Blessing of the seas skill, I can feel young again, at sea. With a sigh, I step slowly towards my house. It wasn’t always like this… Cradling my newborn child, I gazed down at him lovingly. Hearing a hoarse whisper behind me, I crouch down beside my wife, placing him gently in her tired arms. As she held him, I saw in her eyes a love so deep and pure that my heart could not help but skip a beat. Still exhausted from the labour, she spoke softly, “He’s a boy… His father should name him.” I had been thinking of a name for weeks, months even, but her words had still turned my mind into a mess as I frantically tried to remember them. Harold? No! Richard? That’s a good name… wait, no, that’s mine. After about a minute of looking like I was carefully thinking, but really being in a panicked frenzy of thought, I finally managed to remember the name. “How about Rodney?” I said softly. She mulled it over for a moment, then said, “Rodney… I like it. You know, I half thought you might name him something ridiculous, like Richard Jr.” “I would never do something like that!” I protested, as a drop of sweat ran down the back of my neck. For a while, we just sat there in silence, watching the adorably cute sleeping face of our baby boy. “Father, father you’re back!” A small figure took a running leap into my arms, laughing as I spun him around in a tight hug. Setting Rodney down, it took him a moment to recover his breath. “Father, when will you take me with you on one of your trips?” he asked hopefully, sending a wave of sadness through me. I had wished I could be home more often, but at that time, pirates were coming out of the woodworks. Smugglers and slave ships seem to have increased recently, as well. Something must be happening… Discarding my rampant thoughts, I looked at his expectant gaze and smiled. “When you become strong enough to defend yourself, Rodney. The sea is not a safe place, and you are only eight years old.” Crestfallen, he looked sadly at his feet. “But…” I continued, making him perk up adorably, “If you train hard enough, I might be able to arrange something for your tenth birthday.” His face dropped again. “But father, that’s nearly two years!” I ran my rough hand through his sand coloured hair and pulled him into another hug. “Yes, son, it is. But if you train every day, it won’t seem so long. Besides, if we were both gone all the time, your mother would be sad.” He nodded a bit uncertainly. “Okay father, I’ll try my best!” “That’s my boy!” I said, setting him back on his feet again. “Now, how about we both go and give your mother a big hug?” Smiling, he nodded, and we ran off laughing into the house. I had watched as Rodney fought to the death with a pirate. No longer a child, he stood only a bit shorter than the rest of us at the age of fifteen, and the muscles on his arms bulged visibly as he swung his spear to parry a slash from the pirate’s cutlass. Even if I hadn’t been home much throughout his childhood, I could tell from his technique that he hadn’t slacked off on training. Smooth and clean, the movements were instinctive to him, able to execute them flawlessly with barely a thought. I had felt a surge of pride as I saw him narrowly dodge a cut to his stomach. Truly, he was a better son than I deserved. …There was one thing holding him back, however. He had never been in a real fight. Hence why I arranged that. The pirate was from a small-time crew of twenty, barely worth our time. We left only one alive, and promised him safety if he could defeat my son. And then, despite the fact that the pirate couldn’t even touch him, Rodney’s counter-attacks were lacklustre, slowing down dramatically as they neared his opponent. “Just imagine him as a training dummy, Rodney! He’s about as skilled as one, after all!” I encouraged him. A small smile flitted across his otherwise tense face, and I saw him relax slightly. Visibly frustrated, the pirate sent a strong thrust towards Rodney. But without a proper stance, such an action can leave you terrible off balance and vulnerable to a counter-attack, if it does not succeed. And so it did, as Rodney avoided the blow with a swift movement. Simultaneously, he spun his spear, whacking the butt end into the sword hand of the pirate. With a brief exclamation of pain and shock, the pirate dropped his sword, and in the next moment, the blade of Rodney’s spear gleamed at the pirate’s throat. I let out a sigh. So, he couldn’t finish it after all? Sternly but gently, I said, “Kill him, Rodney.” “But he’s unarmed, father!” He said, head turning to me. His grip on the spear relaxed slightly, and the tip lowered a few centimetres. The pirate’s eyes gleamed. “An unarmed man who is just about to wrench your spear from your hands and kill you with it, yes.” I admonished. Startled, he looked back to the pirate, whose hands have stopped inches away from the haft of his spear. Rodney grimaced. Resolving himself, he gritted his teeth and thrusts forward, eyes closing slightly to prevent himself from seeing it. It won’t work, you’ll just feel the sensation of the spear piercing his body even more… The lifeless body of the pirate slumped to the floor at the same time as Rodney drops his spear, staring numbly at his hands. “Good job Rodney.” We’d have to correct that habit of closing his eyes at some point, but years of experience with rookies have told me that wasn’t the time. I was shuffling through the reports in front of me, analysing them for possible deeper meaning as I sat at my desk in our family’s mansion. My days in the navy hadn’t been without their benefits. There was a knock on the door. “Come in.” I said. The door swung lightly open, and I looked up at my visitor. Standing there was Rodney. Strangely, he was in plain clothing that day. Usually you wouldn’t see him without his navy colours, but I suppose we had been home for a few weeks. He looked around, stiffly said, “Sorry, wrong room” and turned around to walk out. A thought crossed my mind, and I voiced it to Rodney. “You’re almost twenty-five now, perhaps you should think about starting your own family soon.” He stopped and briefly turned his head back. “I’ll keep that in mind” he said, then left as quickly as he came, shutting the door behind him. How strange. Shaking my head, I resumed my work. Judging by the timepiece on my desk, it was about twenty minutes later that I heard the scream. Naturally, I couldn’t ignore something like that, so I had rushed to the source of the scream. At the time, I didn’t even notice that it was Rodney’s room I had rushed into. My heart had felt as if it had fallen into the depths of the ocean at that moment. It still feels heavy whenever I remember it. A maid was frantically trying to stop the flow of blood coming from Rodney’s chest with her hands, as he lay on the bed. Unsuccessfully. She was in a state of hysteria as I had pushed her aside. Looking back, it must have been the first time the poor girl had witnessed such a brutal death. I had checked him over myself, and my blood ran cold that day. Dead. I hazily remember shouting at the guards to find whoever had done it. My wife’s wail of sadness as she saw what had happened. We must have sat there for hours hugging each other and sobbing. The guards never found anything. And I had seen not a trace of anything that could have been related to his death since then. Until now. (POV Gerald) I’ve mentioned this befork, but I can see a lot more now with my expert mana sight. And now that we’re back in the city, I’m noticing a lot more things. For starters, not everyone is human. There are a lot of furred bipedal beings that I’m guessing – bit of a stretch, I know – are beast men and women of some sort. Some scaled, tailed people with clawed feet, probably lizardmen. A scarce few elves. Well, I think so. They have the pointy ears and fair features, at least. Another thing I’m noticing is… I really can see almost everything. And right now, I am once again extremely glad for having no hormones affecting my mental state, if you know what I mean. Then there’s a few people in chains or cages. Yeah, slavery is a thing here. Somehow, that makes me a little pissed. Of course, exactly how bad it is for slaves depends entirely on the sorts of laws that may or may not exist to protect them, and the personalities of their masters, but overall it’s just not okay. And the last thing… Damn, can I see everything. And what I’m seeing is making me legitimately contemplate turning off mana sight. Men not controlling their desires in the alleyways, theft in the streets, a murder at the docks, a group underground that is currently beating up people… It’s maddening that they’re just blatantly doing that sort of thing, out in the open. I mean, yeah, they’re not exactly out in the open, and doing it in secret is arguably worse… But with this sort of thing happening 24/7, I’m going to be angry, all the freaking time! What’s worse is that I can’t do diddly squat! The ‘voice in your head’ thing might work in a situation like before, but if a voice just pops up in a guard’s head, saying ‘there’s some criminals in x direction’, they’re just going to think their mind is making random things up! And it’s not like Ferdinand is strong enough to do it himself… Yet. So all I can do is ignore it and train this self form manipulation. I was kind of wondering what the level above master is, but that’ll have to wait. And now, the ‘fork changes into various strange shapes’ show. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 29 Experience: 3841.03/6000 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 46.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 46.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.2 Durability: 16.8/16.8 Mana: 920/920 Mana regen: 9.30/min Psi: 465/465 Psi regen: 4.60/min Ki: 4045/3022 (30225) Ki regen: 3.02 (30.22)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 18.23% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/toggled) 0.02% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.86% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 9.10% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, Passive) 13.63% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.27% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.10% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.24% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 97.51%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2, Ki generated at 15 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 3.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 20 points. Form manipulation – Self (Basic) (High Rare, Active) 23.86% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 5 mana/second while changing form, costs 10 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 24 Experience 4016.83/4500 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 38.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 30.4   Health: 304/304 Health regen: 1.824/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 46.11% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.01% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.08% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 93.10% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 27.01% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 23.67% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.05% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 65.41% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 26.41% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 89.23% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minutely increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +0.5 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 29.01% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse]

It’s slow progress, what with him carrying someone. How is he going to deal with that, anyway? The person could wake up at any time, and they will most definitely panic at being slung over someone’s shoulder. Even if they don’t, we’ll get questioned by the city guards. Carrying an unconscious person… not a good look. Okay, I’m stumped. We could set the person down and wake them up, but that would be super awkward too. Hey, solution! Dump them somewhere within sight of the city. Yep, perfect plan. I activate telepathy and start chatting. “Yo Ferdinand? What you gonna do with that guy on your back?” “She’s a woman, actually.” Ferdinand corrects me. “And what do you mean?” “No wonder you didn’t want to leave her behind… Ahem, you can’t just go into the city with an unconscious woman slung over your shoulder, can you?” I ask. I watched his hand shoot forwards into a spectacular, yet completely silent, facepalm. “You didn’t think about that, huh?” I ask rhetorically. “No… It’ll be fine if I just wake her up, right?” He asks. “Sure, if you’re happy to have an extended conversation about how you did not steal her possessions and/or do dirty things with her unconscious body.” I say sarcastically. He does a brilliant attempt at a telepathic sigh. “No. I assume, then, that you have another plan?” “Hardly a plan.” I say, “Just leave her somewhere within eyesight of the city.” Ferdinand asks, “What if she doesn’t wake up, or gets attacked by monsters?” “You said it yourself, monsters are rare here. I can only see… about four weak-looking ones right now. As for her not waking up, let me check something for a moment.” I say. Telepathy info, please. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 0.00% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Wis*Int/5m, huh. That’s… 361m. At maximum distance, 180.5 Psi/sec usage. Current max Psi at 420, that’s a bit over 2 seconds. This could work. “Okay, I can wake her up from three hundred metres away. Probably.” I say confidently. “How far is three hundred metres?” Ferdinand asks. “We can figure that out when we’re close enough to the city." I answer. "Now, I need to be saving up my Psi for this, so I’ll be silent until we get there.” “Okay. Bye, then.” He says. I hadn’t thought of it like that, but I suppose that’s accurate. I mean, we’re physically close, but communication is impossible, so it may as well be goodbye, huh? So, my plan is to telepathically yell at her, from 300m away. At a distance of three hundred metres, we shouldn’t be anything more than a dot on the horizon. …Is that right? It’s been so long since I had human sight, I hardly remember how distance works. Ten months…  Has it really been that long? Thinking back, hardly anything at all happened during that time. It’s really a miracle that I held on for so long, isn’t it? Why do I keep thinking like this? Come on man, it’s all gotten so much better. You’ve got a friend you can talk to, you’re helping him out, getting stronger…ish. After that, I just watch the road, as it were. For reference, we have travelled a couple of hours or so outside of town. I have no idea how far that translates to in distance, but it was surely a fair way. Some indeterminate period of time later, the city is on the edge of my vision. “Give me a signal when you can see the city, okay?” “I could see it for a while now.” He replies. “Oh, okay. Put her down somewhere, then.” I say, cutting off the link. The dude must be tired, hauling her all this way. He lowers the gal to the ground, then I see him scratching his head. Oh, right, the signal thing. “What’s up?” I ask. “Are we really just leaving her here like this?” He asks hesitantly.  “Yeah, I’ll wake her up once we’re far enough, don’t worry. Plus, I can see everything within the range of my mana sight skill, and there are no monsters anywhere near here right now.” I reassure him. And so we head off towards the city. It’s about now I realise that no, 361 is not half of 903. Uh… Oops. Was planning to do it once we were halfway between her and the city, but (duh) that’d be 450 metres away. Whatever, how far are we from her? About a third of the way from her to city? Yep, that’s about good. I create a telepathic link with her and start sending obnoxiously loud alarm sounds through. What, you thought I can only transmit real words? Nah, words are just a combination of sounds after all. And if I can transmit ordered packets of sound, I can transmit disordered packets of sound. Mentally. With no actual sound being generated on either end. This psychic stuff is weird. It gives me a bit of amusement watching her bolt upright and look wildly around. That thought makes me pause. When was the last time I had felt amused? Since I’d gotten to this world, everything has been a chore, if anything was happening at all. Meal after meal, ball of mana after ball of mana, communicating with small animal after animal… I didn’t do it for fun, to while away the hours, or even because I had to. No, I could have sat there on the floor of that cave forever, without doing a thing, slowly drifting into insanity forever. I did it, because I thought it might make things better for me, eventually. Perhaps it will. Perhaps it has. Perhaps it won’t. But things aren’t likely to get better if I do nothing. Or rather, they definitely won’t. Sometimes you have friends, family, someone that will help you, make things better, even if you do nothing. I don’t. I have Ferdinand, but our relationship is tenuous at best. If I stop communicating with him, helping him, he might just throw me away. …Actually, given what I know of him, he might try to help me anyway. But why should I risk that? Besides, how pathetic would that be, for me to rely completely on him without doing anything at all. Aaaaaand we’re already in the city. I really need to get rid of that side-tracking habit. I mean, it was a bit of a defensive mechanism from back then to prevent me from going insane, but I need to focus on the present now. There I go again! Sheesh! So, right now we’re in a big-ish building with lots of people in it. This’d be one of them adventurer guilds, right? Or something like that, at least. I kinda want to figure out what’s going on here, but I don’t want to distract him. Wait, people aren’t looking at him right now. Let’s give him some advice! “If they ask you anything about the spider, just say you were too busy running away! Works every time.” “Not now. Busy!” He replies shortly. That brings back bad memories. ‘There’s a time and place for everything, but not now.’ The amount of times that message appeared on my screen made me want to stop playing that game. For a while, it’s just people moving around, then he finally leaves the place. “So, what’s happening?” I ask. “Well, the other members of the party got here way before us, and they told the guild all about what happened. Naturally, they couldn’t just believe what they were saying, so they sent out a few scouts. They should be back in a few hours, then we’ll see what happens.” Sounds riveting. “In the meantime?” “Not sure. Relax a bit, train a bit. Normal things.” He replies. Sounds boring. Just like my life. Ohhh, sick burn. To myself. Stop being depressing, self! Nothing much interesting happening, huh. Suppose I’ll talk to rats some. “Oy, tiny mammal thing. Rats and mice are mammals, right? You see that food you’re about to eat? Highly poisonous. Yep, you’ll keel over dead in mere moments if you eat that stuff. Better not.” The rat completely ignores me and begins to eat it. A few moments later it begins to twitch, then falls on its back, dead. What did I tell you? I tried to warn you about the rat poison, but noooo, the voice in your head obviously knows nothing. It has nothing at all to do with how animals don’t understand English, nope, that’s ridiculous. Hey, could I manipulate animals to do my bidding like the pied piper with telepathy? That might not be too far-fetched. Maybe. Well, let’s try it out. … Or maybe not, I’m out of Psi. Later, then. In the meantime… Uh, what do I do? Are there any other 99 bottles of beer on the wall-esque songs? Infinitely long songs… ‘I got a song that’ll get on your nerves’? There’s no-one to annoy… Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. What if… In the middle of battle, I use telepathy on the enemy and start singing that. That would totally throw them off! This telepathy is great! It would also… piss them off, but hey, if they’re trying to kill us, who cares? Although, it would probably only be useful against humans. But, if we assume a melee battle, that would probably have the enemy within a range of two metres at all times, at a cost of 1 Psi/sec, that would be four hundred and twenty seconds, or seven minutes. Mentally yelling at someone for seven minutes… that could make a difference. And better yet, I don’t have to worry about my voice getting tired, because I don’t have vocal chords! Uh, but what do I do in the meantime. I has no google! GOOOGLE! NOOOOooooo! What will I do!? Another boring day of alternating telepathy and looking around blankly, I suppose. It takes around 98 seconds to regen my psi now. Wait, no, it’s in minutes. An hour 38 mins. That’s even longer than before! But, if I leave a good 50 psi in the pool at all times, it’s only an hour twenty-five minutes. …That’s STILL longer than before! Well, at least it leaves me with much more use time. It really does look like I’ll have to go back to the bottle song… Waaaait a sec. The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah. The ants go marching one by one… The next day he goes back to the same building as before. A bit later, he walks out with a group of people. “So, what’s happening?” I ask. “Well, they found the corpse. No surprise there, it was huge. They questioned us some more, but you were right. That excuse does work well. Out of consideration for the unusual circumstances, we won’t be considered as have failed the commission. That is, as long as we still complete it.” He explains. “So, you’re going out again?” “Yes… As long as we don’t have terrible luck, we shouldn’t run into something like that again.” “Yeah, I don’t think we’ll be lucky enough for that to work a second time.” I say wryly. The trip there is completely uneventful, unlike last time. Thank God for that. I don’t know if I’d have coped if that thing was defined as normal. Well, now that you have the play-by-play of our trip here, we can go on. It’s a pretty small village. It has a few paddocks, a few farms, a smattering of buildings around the place. They look pretty simple. Only a couple of rooms in each, a fireplace, chimney, that sort of stuff. As for the villagers… They’re fighting a bunch of beasts in one of the paddocks, the livestock huddled in a corner away from the conflict. The beasts look like some sort of canine, but that could mean anything from dog to wolf to hyena to dingo. And we, we are on the other side of the village. If I were to notify Ferdinand now, it would look unnatural to the others. So, what can I do? Just the usual: ab-so-lute-ly no-thing. Can any of my skills help? Absorb, nope. Telepathy, nope, the fight is out of my range. Mana sight, not more than it currently is. Body of deadly poison, poison resistance, nope, nope. Self-repair, almost forgot I had that skill. Doesn’t help me here, though. So, I can only watch as the group searches through the village a bit, before finally noticing something and rushing off in the direction of the fight. The farmers, although likely rippling with muscle from their life of hard labour, have no armour or effective weapons. Armed with hoes, pitchforks, shovels and other farming instruments, they have a tough fight on their hands with a group of eight villagers against a pack of twenty odd beasts. In the time it takes for the group to get to the scene, one farmer had fallen to the ground, unmoving. With a flash of white, an arrow of white flies at the beasts, striking one dead. Interesting. Since I could see the entirety of the arrow, as well as its bright white colour, as opposed to the dim white of normal materials, I assume that was magic. Nice. Wish I could do that. I would be the greatest magical fork the world has ever seen! Hey, don’t talk back to me. Just because I would be the only magical fork the world has ever seen doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be amazing! Ahem. I really wish I could say more about the combat, but apart from the magic, I can’t see much of what is happening, in terms of the movements of weapons. I can see the beasts’ attacks, of course, but sometimes they stop dead in the air in front of someone, or be knocked aside mid-charge by some invisible force. It’s very disconcerting. I would go on… But you’ve heard it all before. The few remaining beasts flee, jumping over the wooden fence and running off into the woods. Why are there woods everywhere? Well, I suppose it’s not a bad thing, I mean, we need to breathe, right? Oh wait, I don’t. Is the request finished with that? Let’s check. Trees, trees, more trees, what’s that tall bushy thing? Ah, just another tree. Newsflash, lots of trees in local forest. Birds, birds, bees’ nest, ugh… Wait, I can’t get stung anymore, yay! More birds, looks like a few deer, a few roaming boars, nothing farmers can’t deal with. Great. Of course, I wouldn’t have told Ferdinand their precise location if there were any. I’d just recommend that he suggest that they do a brief search of the forest, just in case. Can’t be too careful, in cases like these. Actually you can, but I think I’ve gone into that too. That’d be the whole sit in the one spot doing nothing forever gig. Hey, now that I have self-repair and am able to repair any damage taken, whether from force or degradation of the materials I’m composed of, doesn’t that make me functionally immortal? Huh. Humans lusted after immortality for so many generations, turns out all you need to do is be a fork. Let’s ignore the various other things I needed to do to achieve this pseudo-immortality. It’s purely due to me being a fork, yep. So, is it over? It looks like it’s over. “Is it over?” “Yeah, no thanks to you. Why didn’t you tell me that was happening?” He sounds angry. “I thought it would be too suspicious if you went straight to the combat, so I didn’t tell you.” I try to explain. “Someone died because we didn’t get there fast enough, Gerald.” “You’re right about that. Perhaps If I had told you, you would have been able to save him. But what if that lead to me being exposed? We could both die, and then we wouldn’t be able to save anyone.” I reason. “And how would someone noticing a battle a bit earlier than others lead to somebody thinking ‘He must have a telepathic sentient fork on him! I should kill him for it!’? I could just say I heard something in the direction of the fight, and we should check it out, and nobody would think it strange!” He says angrily. …He’s right. Perhaps I was being too careful, even while thinking I could be more careful. How ironic. I suppose I was just afraid I would suddenly die, like last time. Should I explain that? No, it would sound like an excuse. It always sounds like an excuse, at least, they always take it like that. Why do people have to be that way? Why do they assume the worst, and ignore almost anything you say? Why? …Nevertheless, I should say something. And if I can’t explain, there’s only one thing I can say, even if it means nothing to people. Again, why? They all tell us to say it when we do something wrong, and turn around and say we don’t mean it when we do say it. “I’m sorry. I should have at least told you about it.” “As long as you’re aware of it, it’s alright.” He says. Is this guy seriously okay with that? That’s way too lenient. I met you a couple days ago, you know? I know I saved your life and all, but still. Forget being a knight, with that attitude you could be a monk or a priest. “Thank you.” And I mean it, y’know? I did mess up. Sure, it could have caused suspicion. But it was unlikely. And even if it did, what are the chances that someone would remember that suspicion when we got back, and tell it to others? And the chance that someone would listen to the weak suspicion ‘he heard something I didn’t, and I can hear real good.’? Altogether, the chances are lower than Tartarus. I was being paranoid. But what do you expect? I’m a being that can’t move, hear, speak or see properly. Of course I’ll be afraid of being discovered. Ahem. I suppose I should get back to watching the surroundings. Looks like we’re almost on our way again. This has been an eventful few days. I made a friend, killed a giant spider, got some skills, levelled a bunch… I hope it stays like this for a good while. Ah, for my sake and yours, here’s my full status. I haven’t gained EXP coz of the whole poison thing. Eh? Who am I referring to as ‘you’? Why, that’s me. Not insane. Got the title. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 27 Experience: 4308.26/5400 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 5.0 (50.0) Intelligence: 43.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 42.0 Charisma: 5.0 Luck: 10.1 Hardness: 24.6 Durability: 16.2/16.2 Mana: 860/860 Mana regen: 8.40/min Psi: 420/420 Psi regen: 4.30/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 12.67% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Advanced) (High Rare, Passive/toggled) 30.12% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/2m. Their forms are now more distinct, but still blurred. Self-repair (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 3.33% - By expending an energy type, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 10 mana: 0.1 durability Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 0.13% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, passive) 0.00% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. [collapse] 1From this chapter on there will be Gerald's status at the bottom of the chapter in a spoiler. This status is always as of the end of the chapter.

jinxs2011 Well, It's been a while, again. No, I'm not dead, yes, I'm still writing. If you want more info just go to the discord, honestly. I'm almost always on there. There's duck pics and memes about there not being a chapter 48 (suck it, there is now). Regardless, Hope you enjoy. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki. Chapter 48: IR Fork I check a couple of things on my fancy new doodat, then swap it out for my old eye. Activating it, I check between my current vision and my memory of my vision previously, finding no major differences. “Alright, baseline test succeeded. Let’s see the alternate mode.” I say to myself. This was more of a just in case test – currently, it was almost functionally and structurally identical to the previous one. There shouldn’t have been a way for it to not work. But ‘should be good’ assumptions are sometimes quite wrong, so it’s always better just to check.  “What are you muttering to yourself about?” Faida looks over curiously from where she sits. Once again, I’m at the mountaintop to test this. “Testing out a new eye.” I reply, flicking the switch and activating it again. The world before it is outlined very roughly, and I look towards Faida to check. “Hah! It works. Just as expected.” Faida raises a regal eyebrow. “Had you not already made yourself an eye? Did you make a better one?” “Well, yes and no. The normal vision part of it is actually identical to the other one, more or less. But I added new functionality based on a little theory I had – and it worked! Here, it’s easier to just show you.” I float the eye over to her. “Works just like any other magic tool. The part it ‘sees’ out of is that little bit at the front.” Faida looks at the little ball in front of her. “It is not… dangerous, is it?” “Not in the slightest. Might hurt if someone tosses it at you hard enough, but apart from that, no.” I reply. “Although, it hasn’t been tested on anyone but me. I suppose there’s a small possibility of some unknown negative effect. You could have the guard just behind those rocks test it, if you prefer.” Faida jumps in surprise, and a man steps out from behind the rocks. “You knew I was here? When did you notice?” “When I was partway to the mountain.” I say honestly. The man flinches. “Weren’t you supposed to be blind?” “There’s many different ways of seeing, you know. Mine has trouble with colour and intricate details. It also has a radius of nearly two kilometres.” I don’t fail to notice that this man wasn’t one of her guards when I talked about my sight. “Not nice to know someone’s gathering information on me, but I guess it’s to be expected given current company. Good luck to the people doing that, I could count the number of people who know about me outside this world on one hand – If I had hands.” The surprise on his face is evident, but he recomposes himself after a few moments. “I see. Well, perhaps it is fortunate that I have an opportunity to talk to you myself. What are your intentions with lady Faida?” “What is this, an interrogation?” I sigh. “Whatever floats your boat. Don’t have any particular intentions. Occasional conversation, maybe. Relationships with important people can get complicated, you know.” “Do you have any ties with factions, organisations or individuals that are at odds with lady Faida, her father or their kingdom?” He continues. “No. I’m a loner. I don’t have ‘ties’ with anyone.” If I could roll my eyes, I would. “Look, let’s just make this easy. I have nothing against anyone you work for. I don’t know that anyone I know does either. I’m not involved in any plans against any of them to my knowledge, or any plans at all. I’m just at the academy to learn magic, and I’m on this mountain specifically because it’s easily accessible, remote and has a good view. That good enough for you?” He chuckles and stoops down to pick up the eye that I had lowered to the ground during the conversation. “Yes, that will do. For what it’s worth, I apologise for the interrogation. As one assigned to be a guard for lady Faida, it is my duty to be suspicious of anyone that approaches her.” Inspecting the tool for a moment, he closes his eyes and activates it. “It seems perfectly harmless, indeed.” The man tilts his head curiously. “I’m not sure I’ve seen something with a similar effect outside of potions. Something like this from someone who is, though I may risk offense by saying this, a novice artificer, is impressive. I don’t suppose you would be interested in working for lady Faida’s family in the future?” Faida blinks in surprise, and I fall silent. Honestly, it would be a big help. I’ve been paying attention to any information about her and her family ever since we started being in frequent contact, and they’re a pretty big deal. The kingdom they’re from is historically ruled by high elves, and was originally an elven kingdom. But over time, wars, alliances, treaties and the like, it grew to encompass a variety of races. To be blunt, it’s one of the greatest powers in this world. Now, Faida’s family isn’t in the direct line of succession. But they aren’t far off, either, and that’s saying something. Funds for the academy wouldn’t be a problem anymore, and I wouldn’t have to worry about some noble kid taking offense to me and annoying me for the rest of my time here. I would probably be able to acquire rarer resources through them too, stuff that I could use not just for future magic tools but potentially to absorb for my own gain. If there’s one problem with it, though… It’s that I’m not staying here. “That’s a very tempting offer.” I reply. “And I’m flattered that you made it. But unfortunately, I have circumstances that make it so I can’t accept in good conscience. Specifically, I plan to find my way back to the world of Odwia once I finish my studies here. I’ve got a friend over there who’s probably worried about me.” He nods understandingly. “I see. Well, if you want, we would be interested in buying some of these from you, or the underlying formation – only if you’re willing, and for a reasonable price, of course. I imagine these would be quite useful for night guards.” “May I have a look at what has you so interested?” Faida inquires, extending her hand for the tool. “Ah, of course, my lady.” The man says, handing it to her. “It is my personal belief that any inventor has to take into account how their invention may be used before selling it.” I say, almost feeling awkward now for repeatedly rejecting him. “It probably would be very useful for night guards, as you said. But it would also be an excellent tool for assassins and thieves. I don’t want that on my conscience.” “We would never sell it to those types of people!” Faida protests, looking around curiously through the tool. “If it were that simple, smuggling and circulation of goods illegally wouldn’t be a problem.” I say bluntly. “Where there’s money and power, there’s corruption. They’d filter out into undesired hands eventually, trust me. It’s just how people are.” I pause. “That being said, I’d be happy to sell you anything I produce that doesn’t share those risks. I don’t have anything currently besides my original version of the eye, but I should be able to figure something out.” “I understand. I’ll be looking forwards to seeing what you come up with, then.” He nods. I turn my attention to Faida. “So, what do you think of my eye, Faida?” “It is… Almost like I am seeing another world. But it isn’t. Such a strange thing.” She says with wonder. “Hm.” I grunt in agreement. “Wonder what it would look like to see the whole spectrum.” “Spectrum?” “Eh, too complicated to explain. Anyway, think I’ll head back now. If I could have my eye back?” I ask, to which Faida holds it out to me. The man looks down the mountain, already unable to see anything of the flying fork. “What an odd fellow. Oddly honest, too.” “Do you think he knows how to lip-read?” Faida looks into the sliver of sun still visible on the horizon contemplatively. “Pardon?” He turns to face her. “Lip-reading. He said he could see everything within a near two kilometre radius. Do you think he can read the lips of anyone in that area?” She asks. He blinks. “I don’t know. Possibly. It’s hard to say when we know so little about how his sight works.” “So he could be reading our lips even now…” Faida mutters. “I think he knew that you are a priest. You said it yourself – he was being oddly honest.” “Perhaps. It didn’t feel like I was talking to someone young. Normally people would get frightened and flustered if they felt they were being interrogated. He… Well, you were there. It felt more like I was negotiating with a businessman than making an offer to a talented youth.” The priest shakes his head in disbelief. “Rather than that.” Faida waves the topic away. “How honest was he being, exactly?” “Completely.” He replies simply. “It’s difficult for me to believe, myself. Although now that I think about it, he never mentioned his thoughts about you, specifically.” “At the very least, however, he has no plans against me or my father.” Faida muses. “Indeed.” “Well, It’s something. Thanks for your assistance.” He was a priest!? Just kidding. Of course I knew he was a priest. That or so incredibly naïve to think that he’d get actual answers from those sorts of questions. From what I know, priests and paladins often are given the ‘detect lie’ skill, among others. He didn’t seem like the fighting type, so I assumed priest, not that it would’ve made much difference. That being said, I don’t generally lie to people in the first place, but it did make the initial conversation swifter. Anyway, magic tools that I could make for cash… It’s harder to come up with something than I thought. There are some things I could reproduce from earth with my current magical knowledge, but the problem is, there’s mostly easier ways to do them. A ‘light stone’ is one of the simplest and cheapest tools there are, completely making light bulbs obsolete – not that I could make a lightbulb without a tonne of experimentation. Stoves – fire magic. On and off, no risk of explosion, some more advanced ones even have heat dials. Even something as relatively complex as a fridge is replaced by simple ice magic. Maybe I could sell magic tools like that back in the Empire where there was significantly less magical knowledge, but not here. Maybe I’ll be able to do well enough with just my prosthetic sense magic tools once I develop them. I already have solid leads on talking and hearing. Even touch maybe. No clue on taste or smell, though. Haven’t the foggiest idea of how they work, outside of ‘chemistry’. Not exactly much to go on. Speaking, hearing, sight… You know, maybe I do have some ideas. I could make a megaphone pretty easily. Not using how it works on earth, using magic, I mean. Basically just gotta enhance the sound waves that go in, maybe a dial for magnitude, simple. And a telescope that allows you to easily change magnification, that sounds useful. Recorded music… Yeah, maybe that’s a bit too complicated for me right now. Wait, when it comes to stuff I learned from science class experiments, there was that too, right? That… That might just be doable. Not now, but if I take that class next semester, maybe. I don’t think there’s anything comparable right now, so it should be able to sell easily. Well, for now I have enough ideas to think about and work on. Plus, I should still refine my eye design further. Not in regard to the electromagnetic spectrum; infrared is probably the most practical addition from there. While it’d be cool to be able to see from microwave to gamma, what use would there really be in that? No, rather than that I’d much prefer to enhance its acuity and detail in visible light. Despite the success of my prototype, I don’t rest on my laurels, and keep researching magic and working on new tools. When I’m not in class, I’m almost always in one of two places: the library and the workshop. The only time I don’t work is when I enjoy myself with my friends, both for their sake and mine. Working 24/7 is stressful, after all. Taking a break can help me come back to work with a fresh mind, and it’s not just once or twice that I make a small breakthrough because of it. During artificing classes, I only half pay attention, more focused on working out formations for my own projects than learning. Frankly speaking, I’m ahead of the class in most aspects, so I don’t see a need to pay much mind. Even if I do, I can just check back through my memories. Normally this wouldn’t be the case, as I mostly research from the library subjects I’m not taking so as not to waste time, but it can’t be helped. Artificing is something necessary and important for me as the best method for me to regain my senses. Outside places with a culture in magic like this, it’ll also become an easy method of making money. Money isn’t something I’ve ever particularly cared about, but it’s sometimes necessary, so it’s better to know methods of making it wherever I go. Now that I’m thinking about it, material goods aren’t the only things I can sell. My information gathering ability is quite high. After all, any conversation that happens anywhere near me, I know the contents of, more or less. Written or encrypted methods not as much, but even that might change when mana sight advances to the next proficiency level. Food for thought. “Hey, hey! Stop that!” Spark complains, bobbing around like a drunken bumblebee on a swirl of wind magic above Lamar’s hand, the latter lazily twirling a finger as he smirks at the trapped fairy. Spark continues complaining, unable to muster enough strength to break out of the air currents. “You know I can blind you, right!? I’ll do it! I really… Gonna barf…” With a chuckle, Lamar eases up, letting Spark harmlessly fall onto his hand, where the little guy promptly vomits. “Eugh. Thought you were bluffing.” Lamar switches the dizzy fairy to his other hand and wipes the sick on the grass. “I think you went a bit too far.” Iueia says, concerned. “Didn’t mean to hurt him or anything.” Lamar mutters, inspecting the fairy cradled in his hand carefully. “You right, Spark?” “Just- just gimme a minute…” Spark drapes an arm over the edge of Lamar’s hand, drooping towards the ground. “You’re absolutely fine, aren’t you?” I ask dryly. “Apart from this taste in my mouth, ugh.” Spark’s face twists, before freezing. “I mean, no, I’m terrible. Woe is me. How could you do such a terrible thing?” Lamar smiles slightly, rubbing Spark’s noggin with a fingertip. “I’m glad. Sorry. Went too far.” Spark bats away Lamar’s finger. “Well, if you’re saying such a sincere apology, then it would be rude of me not to accept it… If you let me ride on your head for the rest of the time we have out.” “Alright, but if you vomit up there, you’re cleaning it.” Lamar warns, placing him on top of his own head. “And don’t pull on my hair.” “No problem, no problem!” Spark exclaims cheerily, already having bounced back from his earlier unhappiness. Meanwhile, having made sure that the two had reconciled, Iueia is looking around the courtyard to find a good place for us to sit. Using an arrow of mana, I point towards a particular table. “How ‘bout there?” Iueia looks in the indicated direction. “Isn’t that… Doesn’t she like, not like you?” “That’s in the past, mostly.” I reply. “Besides, she looks down, and you guys are good at cheering people up. I’m sure she won’t mind the company.” “We are?” Iueia questions. I chuckle internally. Yeah, you are, kid. We make our way over to the table. “Mind if we join you?” Joyce, having been staring into nothing for the past twenty minutes or so, finally looks up and notices our presence. “…Sure.” She mutters, looking away again. “I don’t think I share any classes with you, right? What’s your name?” Spark asks curiously. Joyce looks in the direction of the voice and stares at Lamar blankly. “Aren’t you in my intermediate water alteration class?” Lamar wordlessly points to the top of his head. Spark is lying on his stomach with his head propped up on his hands, idly kicking his legs in the soft bed of hair. He waves enthusiastically. Joyce blinks. “Uh, Joyce. You are?” “Spark!” He exclaims, magically making himself glow. “He’s taking every opportunity to do that ever since he learned how.” Lamar comments dryly. “No weird magic on my head, please.” “Don’t tempt me.” Spark teases. Lamar rolls his eyes silently. He knows as well as I do that Spark could hardly be dissuaded from his antics, but he wouldn’t take them too far, either. Iueia speaks up, “So, what are you doing out here all alone?” The same words that would sound like a threat coming from most any other guy to a lone woman seem perfectly innocuous from him. “Just waiting for my mana to regenerate.” Joyce sighs. “Wasted it all testing bogus formations, now I can’t work on anything until I can test stuff again.” “Have you tried meditating? Should speed it up at least a bit.” I suggest. “Yeah, it does. Meditating is just… I can’t do it for more than like, thirty minutes.” She sighs again. “Thirty minutes!?” Spark exclaims. “My record’s like, five at best!” “Yeah, that’s just because you’re hyper.” Lamar says bluntly. “Nobody else has a problem doubling or tripling that amount if they wanted to.” “Really?” Spark asks, looking devastated. Iueia looks the other way, guiltily saying, “He’s not wrong.” “Damn it.” Spark clenches his tiny fist. “I’m gonna aim for six minutes next time. You’ll all see.” “Yep, yep.” I agree absently. “So, the best solution is simply to level up and allocate some stats into intelligence and wisdom.” Joyce smiles self-deprecatingly. “It would fix most of my problems, yeah. But I don’t have any money to spare to hire adventurers to help me level up, and I’m nowhere near confident enough in my magic to do it myself.” Accurately speaking, from what I’ve seen of her, she should be capable of killing some monsters, if she had to. Conversely speaking, though, it would be something that she would have to risk her life to do. And, well. They’re basically kids from my perspective. Expecting that of them would just be too cruel. “My mum and dad gave me some money, but paying for levelling would take, like, all of it.” Spark agrees to my surprise. “Even I can’t make that decision without thinking it through… Maybe I can write and get them to send me more money…” “Same here. I won’t be able to contact dad ‘til he gets back, so I can’t even do that.” Lamar shrugs. Iueia smiles wryly. “I’m basically here on the scholarship alone. Even if I wanted to pay, I couldn’t.” At this point I’m more than slightly taken aback. “Wait, all of you? Why has nobody mentioned this before?” “Why would I mention not having money?” Spark looks at me blankly. I facepalm internally. He’s not wrong. Well, it’s been a while. Looks like it’s time to create party again. What would you like to name your party? Let’s go with… ‘Levelling party’. Basic, uncreative, but to the point and functional. Now to invite them all. Everyone’s gaze unfocuses for a moment as they receive the message, and Lamar raises a questioning eyebrow in my direction. “Seriously, you guys. If you needed to level up, you should have mentioned it earlier.” I chide. “I don’t mean to boast but… my skillset is practically ideal for finding and killing bunches of low to mid-level monsters.” “You’re sure you’re not boasting?” Joyce mutters. “Show Joyce level.” I reply simply. “Well, even if you don’t trust me, you lose nothing from joining the party.” “I guess not.” Joyce agrees, once she gets over the shock. “No wonder you were so composed when we got kidnapped… But, why are you even letting me join?” “It’d be really rude of me to invite everyone except you right in front of your face, wouldn’t it?” I reason. “If it bothers you, just think of it as me doing some charity work.” Once everyone joins the party, I adjust the experience distribution to 24% each for them, and 4% for me. “Anyway, since this was a bit of a snap decision and I haven’t really done this before, I’m not sure how long it might take to level you all up. I’m going fine on all my classes though, so I should have a good amount of free time to work with.” I explain to the group. While the group is getting all thankful and excitedly discussing and imagining their levelled-up selves, I start to think about the details of what I’ll be doing. There’re a few things I’ll have to work out, after all. Depending on the monster, I probably won’t be absorbing the bodies. If there’s one with particularly unique aspects, absolutely, but I’m long past the time where I have to take every opportunity for traits and skills. Rather than that, I’d probably get more out of selling them. And that means I have to think about transportation. Oh, and I’ll probably have to register at the adventurer’s guild, too. Geralds Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6419.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Skilled – An individual with many different skills. You may now rearrange the skills in your status. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.18% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 7.18% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original.   WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Mana control (Master) (Mid Rare, Passive) 3.26% - Your practice with magic has led to an incredible familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 500 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.05 mana. You are capable of controlling ambient mana within wis*0.01m Mana sense (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 24.16% - You have gained familiarity with sensing the presence and flow of mana in the world around you. Accuracy decreases significantly with distance. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.44%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Formation casting (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 19.78% - You have an excellent grasp of casting magic through formations. Small increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 25.18% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 43.20% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells. Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 29.83% - You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic. Summoning magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 10.35% - You have a good grasp of summoning magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting summoning magic. Illusion magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 24.60% - You have a good grasp of illusion magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting illusion magic. Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 83.47% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of light magic, including creation and illusion. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic. Darkness magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 32.16% - You have a good grasp of darkness magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting darkness magic. Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 51.32% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic. Water magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 42.54% - You have a good grasp of water magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting water magic. Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 49.15% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells. Wind magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 17.56% - You have a good grasp of wind magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting wind magic. Force magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 16.37% - You have a good grasp of force magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting wind magic. Artificing (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 28.48% - You have a good grasp on the craft of designing and building magic tools. Slight increase in the ability to recognise the use of unfamiliar magic tools. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.63% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.31% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 14.19% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Ignitae language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 8.51% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Aquan language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 1.07% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Aerus language – Written (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive), 48.78% - You have a good vocabulary and can understand most things written in this language, although in some cases it may take some time. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 29.17% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Metallurgy (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 16.74% - You have decent knowledge of common metals and alloys. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 59.11% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 90.61% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Multitasking (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.14% - You are excellent at doing multiple things at once. Average increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, average decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki.

(POV Gerald) While Ferdinand is still lamenting unintentionally offending a woman – in his distress he still hasn’t realised that it’s hardly his fault, and the villagers also addressed her as a man – the villagers have started work on making the buildings liveable again. Some of the buildings are far beyond the scope of a quick fix – case in point, the building we were in earlier, now nearly as holy as that woman – but others would likely be fine with a few boards nailed in various places. Of course, it would hardly be a permanent solution, but with the state they’re in there’s no easy solution. The buildings in this village are built of wood, most of which has rotted. Although it’s not quite so severe that they will collapse within a day or two – at least, I think so. I’m no engineer, after all – but they will all have to be replaced eventually. And that repair effork highlights yet another problem. That is, even the spare building supplies that were stocked in the village aren’t any good. Their next thought is cutting down a tree to obtain the wood for repairs. …That doesn’t go so well, either. The axes in the village are coated in rust, but a quick touch up with a whetstone fixes that right up. Unforktunately for them, the trees in and around the village have suffered the same fate as the processed wood. Still, the villagers are hardly daunted as a team of them move out to find, fell and haul back an undamaged tree from a nearby thicket. As all this was going on, the woman is circling through the village, gradually purifying the dark energy that has engulfed the village. The feeling I get from the place slowly changes from ‘ghost town’ to ‘old town’, a small yet marked difference. And in a remote corner of the village, two of the villagers are looking suspiciously at a small cat that is loitering on top of a slightly crumbled rock wall. “That thing gives me the creeps… Should we kill it?” Says the first man. The second man replies, “No! It’s bad enough that we’re standing here talking near a black bat, who knows what sort of bad luck you’ll get if you kill it.” Black bat? That doesn’t seem right… they must be talking about the cat. Wait, why is a cat here, anyway? This village was full of undead just a short while ago… I check back through my memories to see when it came in, and it was there since before we got here. The skeletons just seemed to ignore it. Now if that’s not suspicious, I’m not a fork. I mean, technically I’m a living fork, but potayto potahto. I do a quick telepathic link with Ferdinand. “I’m going out for a bit, be right back.” “Sure.” He replies distractedly. Nobody except Ferdinand had kept hanging out here, so I am clear for take-off. A careful application of telekinesis opens the top of the bag I’m in, and another has me floating through the air. My psi is draining away like water from Henry’s bucket as it was, so I move quickly through the air towards the area of the village the cat is in. I lower myself to a stop on the roof of a nearby house; being a fork, it isn’t difficult to find a place to balance myself. Since I am going to kill a cat, a mostly defenceless small animal, I may as well train a bit while doing it. I created a magic missile in the same needle form as earlier, and manually control it towards the cat, looping it over and behind to avoid detection. Then I send it speeding at the back of the cat’s neck. Just as it’s about to hit, the cat bobs its head down to lick at its paws, and the needle goes speeding just overhead. …Alright then, let’s try this again. Looping it back around, I send it from the side, again at the neck. Again, the cat avoids it in the nick of time by falling sideways off the wall onto the ground. Are you serious? I loop the missile back around AGAIN, and this time it hit home. Lvl 2 Cat killed Experience gained: 0.75 …It was just a cat, huh? But then why wasn’t it attacked? Whatever, let’s just absorb the corpse, get a bit more experience. I move quickly over to the corpse and absorb it. Lvl 2 Cat absorbed Experience gained: 15 Durability recovered: 3.8 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.01% Skills gained: Nine lives (Static) Traits gained: none Well doesn’t that sound interesting? Haven’t seen that ‘static’ before. Let’s take a look-see, shall we? Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 That’s actually awesome. No wonder the cat kept avoiding my attacks, it was this skill! …Let’s hope I never need this skill. Wait, what if it was my own attack that backfired? Would it activate then? AOEs? Poison? This really has a lot of potential loopholes. Still, not like I’m going to test it. I flew back over to Ferdinand and reinserted myself into his pack. “Alright, done.” I say telepathically. “Why did you feel the need to go kill a cat?” Ferdinand responds a second later, confused. I explain the circumstances. “That certainly is strange.” He agrees. “Still, it was just a cat.” “It was…” I admit. “So, what now?” Ferdinand pauses for a moment. “Same as before. The people here should be able to handle themselves, so it’s time we continue searching.” And so, we head back on the road. In a forgotten place, an obscure location not far from the edge between Empire territory and the vast wilderness, there lies a meadow, abundant with colourful flowers and roses. If you find a map that includes this location, there will be no name marked upon it, nothing to indicate that it is anything special or unusual. But it was not always so. Before the Empire, before it was just scattered territories, and before the kingdom that those territories split from… Indeed, even before that. Hundreds, thousands of years ago this very meadow was on the very border between two great civilisations. However, their relationship was not a kind one. War after war was waged, battle upon battle was fought at this very place. Tens of thousands, or perhaps even more than a hundred thousand people had perished on this battlefield alone, their corpses left lying on the ground with no comrades left to bring them home or bury them. As is the way of the world, those battles, and the civilisations that fought them were forgotten, and the bones were laid to rest by nature itself, buried deep, deep within the soil. And it is within this natural burial ground that a dreaded necromancer has made his gruesome lair. It is the place where he trains, gathers strength, creates undead, plans… The rooms and hallways have been dug by undead hands and left mostly as they are, the walls generally composed of dark earth with various bones jutting out here and there. Skulls are embedded in the ceiling at regular intervals, the ghostly white flames within them glowing through eye and nose cavities, as well as between the teeth and hanging jawbone in a particularly macabre method of illumination that somehow makes shadows seem even darker and more sinister than without them. In one of the many rooms of widespread function, the walls are lined with mirrors, each of which has a neat line of text beneath them. The text describes a location, and it is a view from that location that can be seen within that respective mirror. The locations range from large cities to small towns to rural villages to empty plains. The necromancer has eyes in everywhere that matters, and some places that don’t. One of the mirrors is dark, reflecting nothing but the light from the skull-lamps and the room around it. The necromancer walks in, every part of his body – save for his hands, which are wrinkled and mottled with age – hidden within the folds of a long, dark cloak. This cloak does not look grand or impressive. In fact, it looks very old, with tattered edges. But this cloak had been taken from the sealed tomb of a lich who had died long ago and is imbued with enchantments most foul. The staff he holds as he walks looked like burnt wood and seems more likely to collapse under any amount of weight than to be relied on as a staff. But it too is not as it seems. There was once a tree on which no leaves grew, yet it did not die. Upon this tree once hung the diseased, the cursed and the scorned, left there to die in suffering. Their blood, their pain, their very hatred seeped into the soil, and the tree fed on it, becoming something strange, something twisted and dark. Then, as if to prove that there could be no tree more evil in all the lands, it was scorched by lightning, and the necromancer fashioned his staff out of its cursed wood. The necromancer sweeps the room with his gaze, briefly glancing at each and every mirror before finally coming to rest on that one dark mirror. He taps its surface with one long fingernail, as if expecting that it will cause it to resume normal function. It doesn’t. Beneath the hood of his cloak, the necromancer’s eyelids slide shut as he focuses. Necromancers have a magical connection with their raised undead, through which they can give orders and, depending on the undead, sometimes more. The necromancer is searching for the skeletons which were in that village. After all, he has hundreds of undead; it can be difficult to find a particular undead unless their strength stands out, and it can be even more difficult to tell whether one has died. After a while he opens his eyes. “So, the skeletons there perished? It hardly matters, but I do wonder who did it?” He smiles coldly at his own words. “Adventurers, followers of one of the gods, wandering monsters, or perhaps even the villagers themselves… No use thinking about it. Still, my familiar was killed as well, even if it may have been just a coincidence. I’d best avoid that area for a time.” He chuckles darkly, taking a long scroll from within a pouch at his waist and unfurling it on the table. Once completely unrolled, the scroll spans the entire length and width of the table, even with the table’s extensive size. It is a detailed map of the entire empire, with roads, cities, villages and even dangerous areas marked upon it. There are twenty-three cities including the capitol, and over a hundred villages of varying sizes. Almost half of them are circled. “After all,” He says happily, “There are more than enough villages to go around…” Taking out a piece of charcoal, he looks aside to check the exact village, and crosses out the village circled in that location. Then his hand idly wanders around the map as he thinks. “This place should be fine.” He circles a village. The very same village that Ferdinand had rescued from monsters, barely a few weeks ago. (POV Gerald) We rest for the night at Vercombe city, or more accurately, Ferdinand does. I lie there in his bag, awake as always, witnessing the night and all the dark deeds that came with it. I think that anyone, if they saw this sort of thing every day and night, would try to do something to stop it. Probably even some of the people who are doing them, or so I’d like to think. The average criminal couldn’t be so insane as to enjoy being unable to stop witnessing murders, theft, torture… Especially if, like me, they could see those very same people going calmly and happily about their daily lives beforehand, getting to know them more intimately than almost anyone else they know. Unfortunately, many of the crimes in this city seem to be connected to the city lord himself, so unless I am able to stop them all myself, I won’t be able to do anything. All I can do is hide myself in meditation, a state that I find unusually difficult to reach tonight. I force myself to leave that cocoon of false comfort frequently throughout the night to train in self form manipulation and glide around the room with telekinesis until my mana and psi drain back to zero. Each time is another reminder of the many people in pain around me that I can do nothing about. At one point, I turn off mana sight, trying to shut it all out. It doesn’t help. It’s like… walking past an alleyway where you hear someone getting beat up. Even if you look away, even if you can’t hear it anymore, you are stuck with the knowledge that you didn’t do anything. Couldn’t do anything. Somehow, not being able to do anything hurts more than choosing not to do anything. But the night does pass eventually, and we leave for the next city in the morning. Because we need to get stronger, and quickly, I consult briefly with Ferdinand and having obtained his permission, attract monsters to us every now and again. Sometimes they are killed by other travellers who happen to be near us at the time, but for the most part we defeat them ourselves. When there isn’t anyone in sight, I am able to come out and fight myself, but those occasions are rare. There are always caravans transporting goods between towns, carriages transporting people, farmers with their carts, adventurers, travellers… Especially in the morning. Still, we manage to kill quite the number, and I manage to absorb a few as well, getting enough experience to get me to level 30. Another decad down, another increase in difficulty levelling up. The stat points are obviously an even split between intelligence and wisdom. And along with the exp comes a few skills and traits… Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 0.00% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Got this one from a bicorn boar. My first skill with no cost, just a cooldown. Doesn’t do all that much right now, but even a 10% increase can do a lot if your stab is strong to begin with, and I can imagine that it will get much stronger at higher levels, and with a lower cooldown. Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. It’s… a completely useless one. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. This one was from a bear. And it started at advanced. If I’m right, that means that the bear had the skill at one level above that - expert. Bear haz skillz. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Another stat increase trait for a stat I don’t use. I don’t suppose I could get ‘owl’s wisdom’ or something? But that was it for the traits and skills. The majority of them don’t have much use for me, but I see some potential in power stab, after training it. Speaking of… I try to get Ferdinand to communicate to me with telepathy every now and again, but I can tell that his heart isn’t in it… literally. With his inexperience communicating with emotions instead of words, his lack of enthusiasm is laid bare for me to see, and I eventually stop reminding him. It’s his choice to make, after all. Days pass, some spent out under the sky and some in an inn. Throughout it all, I am constantly improving my skills and getting stronger, but I can see that that isn’t the case for Ferdinand. He is getting a bit stronger, but it’s mostly from the increase in stats after his two level ups. And it seems to me that getting and training skills is a much better way of getting stronger than levelling up is, at least right now. Frustratingly, though, I haven’t the foggiest on how he can get skills. He is a fighter, after all. You can manipulate mana, but you can’t exactly manipulate your fist, can you? What am I supposed to get him to do, run around really quickly or swing his sword really hard? As if. I’ll have to find him some sort of teacher. Problem is, though, the longer we take here, the harder it will be to pick up any clues on Richard. Then again, nothing we can do if we’re dead… I suppose we’ll just see what happens when we get there. If we don’t find anything, then I’ll find him a teacher, and if we do find something… well, it depends on what we find. Anyway, no point fretting over it right now. Let’s just go over what I’ve improved recently. Firstly, I’ve gotten magic missile to advanced proficiency. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 32.81% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Experimenting with manipulating the missiles into different forms and controlling their flight rather than having them fire in a straight line really paid dividends, with the proficiency really shooting up. And not only that, it netted me another skill: Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 89.01% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Of course, just seeing that skill description made me realise that I’d been focusing too much on maximising power and not enough on precision. Obviously, a 0.5 mana magic missile isn’t going to do any damage, but surely having the ability to control minute amounts of mana is a useful one. Next is telekinesis. Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 0.07% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. There is barely any change in the description, but I have noticed the decrease in psi consumption, which is always welcomed. My revelation in the mana department led me to try similar tactics with psi, with unfortunately little success. And last but most definitely least, lip reading got to advanced. Meh. Still, it has helped a bit. I’ve still been trying to help out in every city we pass, but I’ve not had much success. At this point, I consider them being sceptical a positive response. Blunt refusals are the norm, and one even had guards search his entire building for me… unsuccessfully. And then there was one I couldn’t contact using telepathy at all, for whatever reason. So… that’s that. Anyway, about a week after reaching Vercombe city, we make it to Liensport city, the headquarters of the Empire’s navy. The Empire? What, is old darth himself going to be sitting on the throne? Next thing you know, someone’s going to be saying, ‘that’s no moon’. Not that I can see the moon. If there is one. Ya never know, it’s an alien planet. For all I know, the grass is purple and the water’s a bright red. But back to the task at hand, Ferdinand busies himself going through that list he has, and I busy myself by watching random people talk. By doing this, I get a pretty clear picture of the situation of the Empire over the last week. There is a lot to go through… rumours, idle conversation, people making reports, but I have had ample time to sort through it all. The history of the Empire is simple. It was once a collection of small, independently governed territories, some containing a few cities and a few only containing one. Wars and temporary alliances were common between these territories, and as a whole, the area was in a state of constant turmoil and decline for around half a century. Then, some hundred and thirty years ago, a small territory rose up and used a small team of elite warriors and magicians to infiltrate and kidnap the influential figures of one city after another. They were subsequently forced to recognise the sovereignty of that state, which eventually came to be known as the Empire. The morality of their method of conquest is quietly questioned by some, but no historian refutes that it has led to a period of growth and prosperity for the region. In more recent news, the current Emperor – whose name is neither Palpatine nor Sidious, happily – recently adopted a son and proclaimed him his heir. Naturally, this is the product of much consternation for those who want to ‘keep the bloodline pure’, but it is mostly accepted, as the Emperor only has a single child, who is female. What is it with medieval culture and not seeing females as suitable rulers? Although, I have heard of a place further abroad that is ruled by a queen… But the cause of concern for most people in power is that the new prince isn’t some little-known bastard child of a lesser noble, or even some orphan picked off the streets. In fact, nobody seems to know where he’s from at all… Somewhere in the impassably mountainous region between Port Acktown and Liensport… The wind pushes itself between the mountains, shrieking angrily towards the treacherous valleys below. So tall and sheer are these mountains that snow can be seen glistening white upon their lofty peaks, and little more than a few hardy clumps of greenery decorate their walls. About two thirds up a cliff side, a grimy man in worn clothing hangs by one hand from the rock, his sandals dangling precariously from his feet. The rock in his grasp shifts ominously, ready to come loose at the slightest provocation. “The… fastest route… is to go in… a straight line…!” He puffs, heaving himself upward and reaching out his other arm to grab hold of another rock above him, even as his previous handhold breaks loose, smashing loudly as it rapidly vanishes into the abyss below. “And even… if it’s not the… fastest, it’s definitely… the most fun!” He pulls himself up again, and with only a few more motions reached a miniscule outcropping. Turning himself about, he deftly plants his backside there, pausing to take a brief rest as his legs swing over empty air. “You know, that was great.” He says to the wind. The wind continues to do its thing, irrespective of grimy old men speaking to it. “I haven’t been in jail for a long time either. I almost wish it had been for more than just the night, but then again, I didn’t technically do anything more than cause public unrest.” “Speaking of, maybe I should stop laughing randomly in other people’s presence… Nah.” The grimy old man stands on the outcropping with only the heels of his feet on ‘solid’ ground, and cackles loudly as a flock of monstrous birds swoop down to attack him. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 2211.93/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 960/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 485/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 4557/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 26.03% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.27% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.86% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.82% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.06% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.00% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 20.86%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 20.77%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 6.07% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 33.23% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 0.07% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 32.81% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 89.01% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 0.00% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 28 Experience: 1885.18/5700 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 44.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 35.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 38.4   Health: 384/384 Health regen: 2.304/hour Stamina: 183/357 Stamina regen: 3.57/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.94% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.57% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.20% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.45% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.53% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 1.11% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.28% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. [collapse]

(POV Ferdinand) The next day when I head down to the guild, I can’t help but notice people are giving me strange looks. I can’t imagine why, unless the guild has somehow discovered I was involved in the death of the spider matriarch? But that’s impossible, surely. There was nobody around, and I didn’t say anything suspicious… Ignoring them, I glance over the request board, and notice an ooze subjugation quest. With the amount of oozes that attacked me the last few days, this should be easy money. Walking to the counter, I’m about to ask to register for the quest when the female staff there cuts me off. “So, are you?” It completely throws me. If it’s about the spider matriarch, wouldn’t it be more of a ‘was it you’ question? If it isn’t about that, what is it about? “Am I what?” “Cursed.” Okay… what? “Why would I be cursed?” She raises her eyebrows as if I’m the one saying something strange. “The last few days, we received reports that monsters near the city were moving one by one in the same direction. When we investigated, we saw you surrounded by the corpses of those same monsters. Do you have a skill or item on you that allows you to attract monsters?” So, it was only happening to me? How strange… “No, I don’t know why all those monsters attacked me.” She nods. “Then, I’m sorry to say you’ll have to leave this city. We can’t risk strong monsters being attracted to this city.” But I’m not cursed… am I? I’ve hardly done anything meriting the curse of any god, right? …Oh come on, it can’t be because of the spider matriarch, right? …Right? “Can I at least take an escort mission to another city?” She nods. “Go ahead. And you may only return to this city in the future if you find evidence that you are not cursed.” I head back to the request board. Since I had been planning on staying in this city a little longer, I hadn’t paid any attention to the escort quests. Escort quests, in my humble opinion, are great. It means you don’t have to travel alone, you have someone with a map, and a fighting force of reasonable size. All things you should have when travelling. Now, let’s see… Mehston, too far. Huktor, monsters too powerful… Port Acktown, eh? That should do. “Can I register for the escort quest to Port Acktown?” She looks down at some documents in front of her, writing something on one of them. “Done. It leaves this afternoon, west gate. If you don’t go with them the guards will forcefully evict you from the city.” My days are going well, aren’t they? It seems to be a trend now, really. First the spider matriarch, then all those monsters attacking me, and now this. I should collect my things from the inn, I suppose. (POV Gerald) You know, this minesweeper is starting to get on my nerves. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been going well, only to have an entire area enclosed by a circle of mines, or stuck at the start with a small rectangle of ones and twos? Too many. But anyway. We seem to be going somewhere. Hm. “Hey, what is happening this time?” I ask Ferdinand. “I’m being forced to move cities because the guild thinks I’m cursed.” He replies glumly. That’s bad, right? That sounds bad. “Cursed? Surely you would be able to see that on the status somewhere?” “Normally, yes.” He replies. “But if you were cursed by a god, or a goddess, they can make you unable to see it, if they want to.” Gods? And goddesses? Well I’ll be. Note to self: Ask him more about this subject later. “So, if nobody can see it… how do they know you’re cursed?” “They don’t. But apparently, most of the monsters in the area were being attracted to me somehow over the past few days. It would sure explain how a few dozen monsters attacked me in an area where monsters are supposed to be rare.” He sighs. Wait, that was me, wasn’t it? …That was totally me. Uh, I definitely screwed up. I got the guy kicked out of the city. He’ll be pissed if I tell him. Problem is, he’ll be way more pissed if I don’t tell him and he finds out later. Damn, what should I do? “Oh well, I suppose I was getting too attached to that city anyway. About time I moved.” He says in resignation. Okay, not as bad now. Still bad. So, I tell him. What’s the worst-case scenario? Let’s see… He can’t touch me, because acid and poison, but what if he swung his sword at me? I think I could absorb it, but what if he used magic edge? My skill can absorb ambient mana, but what if it’s controlled by someone else? It doesn’t specify. But, it does specify things like that everywhere else, so I should be able to. He can’t take any offensive action, then. Worst he could do is drop me. Which would be an annoyance, sure. But with my level of telepathy, I could sort something out, eventually. Now, best case scenario: He gets angry, yells at me a bit, but ultimately forgives me. Putting it like that makes it seem an obvious choice. Well, here goes nothing! “Uh… Ferdinand? I don’t think you’re cursed… the monsters getting attracted to you was my doing. I was practicing telepathy, and I had thought at the time that it would be good for both of us if more monsters came. I should have asked first. I’m sorry.” Come to think of it, didn’t I say something similar last time? Crap. “…You know what, I’m just going to ignore you doing this, again, and be thankful that I’m not actually cursed.” He sighs again, this time half in relief and half out of frustration. Thank G- Actually, I still don’t know anything about the gods, better hold off on that. I wonder if it’s capitol G God or if it’s just a title or something. “And wait, you can attract monsters? Then can you repel them as well?” He asks curiously. “Sure, it’s even more reliable than attracting, but why would you want to?” I reply. “Because my leg is still injured and I want an easy trip.” He states. “Oh yeah, there was that.” I realise to some surprise. “I forget about those things sometimes, since I have a skill which allows me to repair myself. Thinking back, certain things have become much easier since I became a fork.” “You really should pay more attention to those sorts of things, if you want to interact with other people in the future.” I can hear some exasperation in his… voice? What do you call it when neither of us are speaking? Voice. Yeah, let’s just keep it simple. Is this telepathy skill slowly allowing us to use more complex tones? Yay higher proficiency. “Yeah. If only I could get a memory skill, it would be much easier… wait, I don’t have a brain, so how am I remembering and forgetting things? Am I forgetting things?” I reach an epiphany mid-sentence. Looking through my memories, I can see them all with extreme clarity, playing them back like a movie in my… mind… for want of a better word. Crazy. “Turns out I can’t forget things.” I say with some excitement. “So, that happened. I don’t suppose you know of any monsters with skills that could allow me to move? Something like levitation, flight, telekinesis…” “You get weirder by the day, you know that? By. The. Day.” He emphasises. “Movement, huh? I know a few with those abilities… A few types of elementals levitate or fly, but they’re extremely rare, and powerful. I don’t know much about psychic abilities, sadly, so I can’t help you there.” Recalling what he had mentioned earlier on, I say, “Oh well. Now, what’s this about gods and goddesses? I don’t think we had them back in my world.” “They’re beings of unimaginable power. Each of them rules over a certain aspect of the world, which they know everything about, are unrivalled within…” He says in awe. “…and there are a lot of them, so I won’t bore you with their names. I don’t know even half of them myself.” Well, I suppose that technically, earth had a huge host of gods and goddesses as well… if one first assumes that all the religions’ gods/goddesses are real. “Huh. Well, I’ll go on to… repelling all the monsters that wander near us?” “That would be great.” He confirms. Note to self: definitely ask next time I arbitrarily decide to do something that will affect Ferdinand. Now, monsters, monsters… One, two, three… three. Only three monsters within seven hundred and eighty meters? No wonder they say that they’re rare in this area. How on earth do people level up in this area? It’s not earth anymore, is it. I should ask at some point what this planet is called. If it is a planet. Who knows when there’s magic involved. Not to mention psychic powers. And whatever else there is in this crazy world. Oh, one of those bicorn boars is wandering towards us. “Scary things this way, food that way, shoo! Shoo! Big scary… what eats pigs? Uh, a lion could eat pigs, right? Big scary lion this way!” Yep, I’m a genius. It’s working wonderfully. Thing about attracting them is you can only really use the promise of food. If you make them afraid of something, they might just ignore you and keep running, or panic and desperately attack you. Or, I think that’s how it is, not like I’ve tested it. I may be stupid sometimes, but I’m not that stupid. But if you just want them gone, what do you care about it rampaging? And of course, if you make it think there’s also food in the opposite direction, why wouldn’t they dash over there? Of course, it might ignore the food in its panic, but one of them will surely work. Mana’s back up to full, maim myself, heal, maim myself, heal. Up to 79.83%, getting really close. In the meantime… tap. Tap. Tap… (POV Ferdinand) It’s very relaxing, just walking along and appreciating the views around me. As we get further away from Idiro city, the flat grasslands and plains turn into rolling hills sparsely dotted with trees. Without my worries about being cursed weighing me down, I feel as light and carefree as a wind elemental. There has been a lot of time to think, with all this travelling, and after some contemplation, I have truly come to terms with being forced to leave the city. I went there because I had heard the monsters there were weak, but it was even more ridiculously quiet than I’d thought. There were some days where I would spend all day looking for monsters and wouldn’t find them, or all I found was a few rats. Thinking back, staying there for as long as I did has caused my level to stay the same for almost a year. Only a tiny amount of experience for so long… In a way, the horde of monsters yesterday was the shock I needed to break out of my rut. My injury has even healed over the duration of the journey, turning my slight limp into a comfortable walk. Honestly, I’m not sure anything could- ‘That’s a jinx as well!’ Gerald suddenly interrupts my train of thought. Wha- how- ‘Are you psychic? Oh wait, I guess you are.’ ‘My jinx senses were tingling.’ He says triumphantly. ‘What in the world are jinx senses!?’ I retort. ‘A joke!’ He quips. ‘I just popped in saying that because I was getting bored. Speaking of the world, what is this one called?’ Let’s see, I think it was… ‘Odwia, why?’ ‘Just curious. I don’t know much about this world, after all. And what’s with the system? We didn’t have that back in my world.’ How strange… wait, his world didn’t have the system? Then, ‘How did you survive the monsters?’ ‘No monsters on my world.’ He replies. ‘Find out how strong you are?’ I ask. ‘Eh, trial and error.’ He explains. ‘We mostly based physical ability on how much you can lift, how fast you can run, those sorts of things.’ ‘See how much health you have?’ ‘We had some people who were trained to be able to see how healthy you were.’ So some people had the ability to see health, even without the system… how strange. Could they see stamina too? Not that it matters, because I’ll never go there. ‘So, the system?’ He asks again. I think for a moment, before realising I know next to nothing about the status outside the obvious. ‘How should I know anything about it? From what I’ve heard, people have always had access to their status and skills.’ ‘And you all just take it for granted?’ He asks in disbelief. ‘I mean, the system makes you stronger the more you kill things. That promotes conflict, whether that be causing a farmer to turn to banditry or an extra incentive for war. Generally, I tend to be sceptical about things that like people to kill other people.’ The concept strikes me, causing my footsteps to falter for a moment. Now that I think about it, the system does cause conflict… how strange. ‘But surely it isn’t anything to worry about? After all, everything’s been fine for years.’ I reason. Gerald doesn’t respond for a second. ‘…Ferdinand. If I ever become able to write, the first thing I’ll write will be called one hundred and one horrific jinxes you should never, EVER say.’ ‘What? Did I say something again?’ His obsession with these things is unusual. ‘Oh, you just increased the chances of a worldwide catastrophe happening in the near future, nothing big.’ He says with a false nonchalance. Unfortunately, I don’t quite understand what he said. ‘Cat as trophy? What does that mean, everyone gets cat trophies? That’s just stupid.’ ‘Words with similar meanings include, but are not limited to: disaster, calamity, cataclysm.’ He says dryly. ‘…I’ll take the cat trophy, thanks.’ I immediately eat my words. ‘Just try not to say things like that in the future… Else my heart won’t be able to… I don’t have a heart anymore, do I? We’ll both die, probably. I’d rather not die.’ He says, before wryly adding, ‘Again.’ Wow, he really takes those jinks things seriously. I really hope it’s just him overreacting. What did he say it was? Worldwide cat-as-trophy? That sounds bad. Aw, he ruined my good mood, darn it. Now I’m not going to enjoy this trip as much. (POV Gerald) Note to self, importance: Maximum. Prioritise learning abilities that could allow self to write. Impending doom possible otherwise. Write Ferdinand book on what not to say at earliest opportunity. He unknowingly says things like that quite often, doesn’t he? Heck, I’d believe in that curse if I didn’t know better. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. Exhaustively tutor him? Ain’t nobody got time for that. Wait, I do… should I? Nah… It shouldn’t be that serious. (POV Ferdinand) The smell of salt grows heavier in the wind as we come ever closer to the shore. I take a deep breath through my nose. Ah, the scent of the ocean. Why did I ever leave the coast? A nagging voice in the back of my head starts listing the various reasons, but I ignore it. I won’t be staying long enough for those to be a problem, anyway. Perhaps a month, then a move onto another city. Still, I should take some care not to repeat past mistakes. The wheels of the cart trundle along, a low and continuous crunch against the dirt road, accompanied by the haphazard footfalls of the other escorts, punctuated by the heavier steps of the mule pulling the cart. It tosses its head to shoo a lingering fly, plodding on slowly but unceasingly at the behest of its driver. Thankfully the weather is calm today, all clear skies with the occasional drifting cloud. A vast contrast to the sky only a couple of days ago. Still, clear skies today doesn’t mean warm waters tomorrow. As a former farmer, I pay great attention to the weather, a habit formed over many years. The walls of the port slowly increase in size and stature from little more than haze in the horizon to a towering, fortified construction sprawling out along the coast in front of us. What with the complete lack of monsters or bandit attacks, this has been the easiest and most comfortable escort mission I’ve ever done. And I’ll get paid for it, too. Walking under the open gates, I take in the sights around me. The smell of fish assails my nostrils; you can’t get away from that here. Still, there are much more pleasant aromas drifting around as well. By the side of the road, a street vendor roasts some small fish on a portable grill. They are gradually replaced as passers-by buy one for an easy meal, the smile on the old man’s face slowly growing along with the weight of his purse. Well, I have been walking all day, may as well get me some grub. Walking over, I wave a hand at him. “Hello Richard, how are you these days?” His face crinkles as he squints at me. I do hope he hasn’t forgotten about me, it has been over a year, after all. But then his face cracks into a smile again, bringing me some relief. “Ah yes, very well, thank you! I almost didn’t recognise you! You’ve let your hair grow out recently, I see… terribly sorry, what was your name again? All those tumbles I took in my youth are catching up to me now, I’m afraid…” So, he did forget. But that’s hardly a surprise. “Ferdinand, sir. I helped you out once when your catch was too heavy for you to carry.” It was enormous, I could barely see him underneath the towering mass of fish and nets. His expression becomes pensive as he struggles to recall the memory. “Yes… yes, I remember now. Ferdinand,” He pauses for a moment, mulling it over. “When was it that you left the port, I, I can’t seem to quite remember.” “Over a year and a half ago, sir.” He shakes his head in amazement. “A year and a half… has it really been so long? Yes, yes, I suppose it has. Strange how short the years feel now.” His eyes wander off into the horizon, lost in memory. “I remember that they used to stretch on forever, when I was a lad. Now… Now it seems like every time I stop to think; another month has passed…” His words trail off. I cough lightly, and his gaze snaps back to me. “But you don’t want to hear me ramble, do you? Here, have a fish. Careful, it’s hot!” “Thank you, sir.” I give him a few coins in exchange for the skewered fish, blowing lightly on it. “Good to see you again, sir. I plan to stay in the port for at least a few weeks, so don’t hesitate to ask if you need any help.” He smiled and waves me away. “No need, my mind may be starting to fail me, but my body is still strong as an ox!” To my amusement he flexes, but the muscles that show through his top are no joke. He may look like this now, but if half the stories he’s told me are true, he’s spent more years steering ships through troubled waters and fending off sea monsters than I’ve spent alive. Now, to find an inn to stay at for the night… (POV Gerald) *tap* *tap* *tap tap tap tap* Damn. You know things are going to be bad elsewhere when a massive area is revealed at the start of a game of minesweeper. Stop screwing me over, RNG! 84.03% proficiency… getting there. In other news… Gaming – Minesweeper (Advanced) (Low rare, passive) 97.28% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 276 losses, you are way better at this than most other people.   I think I might reach the next proficiency level in this first… My sense of tension is completely gone now… Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 27 Experience: 4821.28/5400 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 5.0 (50.0) Intelligence: 43.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 43.0 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 24.6 Durability: 16.2/16.2 Mana: 860/860 Mana regen: 8.60/min Psi: 430/430 Psi regen: 4.30/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 14.57% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Advanced) (High Rare, Passive/toggled) 37.62% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/2m. Their forms are now more distinct, but still blurred. Self-repair (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 84.03% - By expending an energy type, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 8 mana: 0.1 durability Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 0.71% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, Passive) 7.31% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.28% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.10% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Advanced) (Low rare, passive) 97.28% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 276 losses, you are way better at this than most other people.   [collapse] 1Believe me, this status is going to get annoyingly long. Unfortunately I can't do here what I did in RRL, which is put each of skills, traits and titles in spoilers inside the main spoiler. This is slightly worse than RRL's UI. Wonder if Tony could put in a feature so I could make tables default to certain settings rather than having to go through and individually edit each one. Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 21 Experience 1281.58/3600 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 34.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 22.4   Health: 224/224 Health regen: 1.344/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 46.11% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.01% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 17.28% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 92.30% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.05% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 64.11% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 23.22% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.28% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.29% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minutely increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +0.5 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 27.13% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse]

(POV Ferdinand) I watch as Richard looks through the eyeglass at the ship on the horizon. As he drops it in shock, turns and roars at his crew to pursue it. He turns to me, almost as an afterthought, and apologises. “I’m sorry this happened while you are on board, lad. But it’s likely there’s going to be a fight in a bit. Best if you stay below decks for a while.” I stand rooted in place for a second, then slowly turn to walk to my bunk in the ship. This was just a normal fishing trip a minute ago, why did it have to turn into a battle again? I look out from one of the thick windows in the hull as we drift over the waves, going far faster than we had been before. The ship on horizon increases in size as we move towards it, every wave our ship crests bringing us one step closer to combat. ‘So, why are we heading towards another ship? I thought this was a fishing trip?’ Gerald’s voice pops into my mind suddenly, his light-hearted voice only worsening my grim mood. ‘I don’t know’ I say sadly, ‘but it looks like we’ll be fighting it. Or rather, the others will.’ ‘Oh.’ He said, then says nothing for a short while, making me wonder if he is still there. Then his voice comes back, and it is considerably more serious. ‘You might want to know that many of the things on that ship aren’t humanoids, then?’ ‘They aren’t human…oids?’ ‘They don’t look anything like a human. Lots of things with more than two arms or legs, or both. A few blobs, a few tiny things… And that’s not even counting all the tails and horns I’m seeing here. Heck, there’s only one thing on that ship that looks normal.’ If that’s the case… ‘If that’s the case, Richard needs to know immediately!’ I get up from the window, quickly moving towards the stairs to the deck. Gerald’s voice comes again as I go. ‘Woah there, how are you going to explain knowing this?’ He has a point, but I can’t just not warn a friend about something like this. I struggle for a moment to think up a suitable solution, then realise that I don’t have to. ‘If they all die because they don’t know this, we will die along with them. What point would caution have then?’ ‘You’re right, but stop anyway. I’ll tell him with telepathy. That way, at least, he won’t know where to start looking.’ It’s a reasonable suggestion, and besides. Gerald knows more than I could tell them. He speaks again. ‘He’s the one at the steering wheel, right?’ ‘Right.’ I think back. Then he is gone again, leaving me to wonder what I should do now. I go back to the window, peering through it at the approaching ship. It’s close enough now that I can see the sails and rigging. Strangely, I can’t see any figures moving about. It’s as if it’s a ghost ship. I shiver at the thought. That wasn’t one of those jinxes, was it? ‘Alright, I’m done. He was surprisingly talkative, for someone so angry.’ Gerald’s voice comes out of nowhere again. I’ll never get used to that. ‘Angry?’ I think in reply. Why would he be angry? ‘Yeah, angry. Not at me, but I could feel it from him as he talked. He was incredibly angry… and even more sad. You have any idea why that would be?’ How strange. I thought this is just some pirate ship, but now it looks like it might be something else. ‘No, he was perfectly fine before that ship showed up. I’ve no clue why he would be like that.’ Distracted, I look out the window. And see the first cannonball come speeding towards me. (POV Gerald) Now, first thing I should mention… This ship is forking awesome. Whatever it’s made of, it has a LOT of mana in it. Not only that, there are some badass spell formations all over the hull. How do I know that they’re spell formations? I dunno, they’re magic and they’re circles and have all this neat cursive script n’ stuff. Not much else they could be. Then that cannonball sped towards Ferdinand. I must admit, I freaked out a bit there. I could protect myself from that, but anybody else is way outside my abilities. So, I was pretty darn glad when the ball just bounced off the window. I think Ferdinand almost fainted. Don’t blame him, we both thought he was dead meat there. And honestly, there was pretty much nadda I could contribute to this combat besides that bit of info I gave the captain of the ship. Which suuuucks! I really need to get some long-range attacks. Like, y’know, some magic. Or perhaps some magic. Magic might be nice too. Just give me magic already, will ya? Looks like combat has broken out now. I mean, duh, cannons have been fired already. But now people are jumping from deck to deck, whacking each other with their weapons – which I can actually see this time. Yay. Must be made of mithril or something. Still, at the speeds they are going, I can’t even see their fights. Perhaps I should distribute a few more points into dexterity? Eh, another level is still a bit off. I enjoyed what little I could see, however. In fact, I was so engrossed that I barely noticed Ferdinand wandering up the stairs. “Are you suicidal?” I ask him. “What? No.” He sounds confused. “Then why are you wandering into a battlefield that’s probably entirely populated with people that are at higher levels than you?” I ask. “The battle is finished, right?” Now he sounds even more confused, which makes me confused. “No, everyone’s still fighting.”  “I can’t hear anything, or see anything out the window.” He says uncertainly. I sigh internally. “And I can see everything. They’re still fighting.” Talking about fighting… “You should get away from the stairs. Like, now.” He’s confused, but he backs up quick enough. Something is dripping down the stairs, falling into a puddle below them. Now, normally I would think this is just blood or water, but that stuff doesn’t have this concentration of mana. Also, they don’t stick together like some sort of slime. Apparently, Ferdinand here still hasn’t noticed anything, so I tell him that there’s an enemy a few meters in front of him. That makes him get out his weapon real fast. “It’s some sort of slime, a sword isn’t going to cut it. Literally.” I tell him, unintentionally making a pun half-way through. “All right, I’ll try throwing you at it again then…” Now he’s getting it! The puddle below the stairs wobbles and draws itself up into a vaguely human shape, walking through the stairs as if they aren’t even there. Then Ferdinand hurls me right at its head. Nice shot, man. Sadly, the slime just reforms its head to leave a massive gap in my path of travel. Crap. I land on the floor boards behind it, and it starts walking towards Ferdinand. I suppose he’s currently trying to slash at it, but it just keeps changing its shape, the blade completely unable to touch it. I think. Meanwhile, here I am on the floor, trying to get a hang of moving around with ki blasts. Even a small amount of ki, say 5, can make me move around a small amount. I try increasing my next attempt by a small amount. All of a sudden, I’m speeding towards the slime, sinking slowly into its head. I can feel the strange, viscous substance that its body is made up of moulding around me, exerting a light pressure. This is weird. I must have really surprised the thing, because it takes a second before it starts trying to dissolve me. Being mithril, I’m quite resistant against acid, but it’s still doing some damage. Then, I flip on absorb, and the thing’s head disappears. Y’know, I only remembered recently, but my absorb skill’s range scales with INT and WIS. As it is right now, my range is sitting at a neat 19 and a half centimetres. What this meant is that, provided I am in the center of it, I can absorb a whole basketball in one go. Not that I will ever do that. But now that I’m in mid-air, good ol’ gravity comes along to help me out, and I start falling. As I fall, I continue absorbing the gelatinous… stuff that the body of this peculiar creature is composed of. When nearing the floor, I hurriedly retract the absorption skill from below me. I don’t want to leave some strange hole in the ship. When I hit the deck, I can just imagine the light ‘clink’ sound I’m making, and the expression on Ferdinand’s face. There is a bit of goo splattered around the floor, remnants outside my range of absorption. But it’s definitely dead. And… Holy crap. I got something awesome. Wait, multiple awesomes! LVL 34 Mimic slime killed Experience gained: 252.5   Fluid of LVL 34 Mimic slime absorbed Experience gained: 5050 Durability recovered: 0.31 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.21%, Mana sight 62.38% (Exceeds 100%, reduced to 43.29%) Skills gained: Mana sight (Expert), form manipulation - Self (Basic) Traits gained: None   Level up! You are now level 29 4 Stat points gained Well stick me in cereal and call me a spoon, I think it’s my lucky day. Finally, through the use of form manipulation – self, I can transform myself into the true master race of cutlery – a spork. HAHAHAha…ha… Maybe not. But perhaps even more useful is the upgrade to mana sight. 3. 2. 1. The world explodes into HD. Now that’s what I’m talking about! It’s no substitute for true colour vision, but I can now see with approximately the vision of someone who is completely colour blind. Can a person be completely colour blind? Eh, you know what I mean. That being said, I can finally look at people’s faces. A whole heap of other things too, but faces are important. So, I take a glance over at Ferdinand, who is currently looking at me with eyes and mouth open wide. Hey… is it just me, or is he actually… I know this may sound weird, being a genderless sentient fork who sexually identifies as a straight male, but I think he may be reasonably… handsome? Eh, since when have I cared about other people’s looks anyway. Another thing I notice is that I can now see tiny specks of mana drifting around in the air. I can see individual drops of water, the grain of wood… and hey, I can see Ferdinand’s sword now. Oh, how I missed this clarity. More importantly, with these four stat points, my WIS and INT are sitting at a nice even 45. Sweet. Now, details of these skills, you say? Don’t mind if I do. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/toggled) 0.00% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Let me see here… 1.12km. Okay then. Feeling a bit overwhelmed at that number, I just open up the next one. Form manipulation – Self (Basic) (High Rare, Active) 0.00% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 5 mana/second while changing form, costs 10 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Yeah, let me just manipulate my brain to make it bigger – How stupid do you think I am!? I don’t have a brain, though. Let’s take this baby for a test drive, shall we? Activating the skill, I strive to mould myself into my desired form. It’s unlike anything I have ever felt before – but just the sensation of being able to just move something after so long gives me an inexplicable sense of bliss. It isn’t like stretching an arm or a leg, and I can’t exactly feel it, per se. No, it’s more like my existence itself is stretching. Like, if you close your eyes and put your hand near your face, you can still tell how far away it is. That, is stretching, and boy does it feel strange. I only have three good minutes of this in me, so I try to hurry it up. It isn’t very successful. It feels as if I’m moving treacle – it’s moving, but it’s not fast. Still, treacle speed is better than solid metal speed. And eventually, I transfork into… a slightly misshapen knife with a thin blade. There isn’t much of me, after all. Underweight is an understatement. Not much I can change into. Still, just looking at this ability is enough to kick my imagination into hyperdrive. But things like that are best left for later. At the current consumption of this skill, coupled with my regeneration, I’m losing 1 mana a minute. With the 300-odd mana I lost just there, that gives me 10 hours. I think that should suffice for a battle or two. (POV Richard) My harpoon embeds itself into the black heart of another demon, its infernal wail cut short as it starts coughing blood. The coughs shortly turns to mad laughter as it grabs the length of my harpoon, pulling itself closer to me as its red eyes glow with rage. “You think I didn’t know you had two hearts, foul one?” I say, one hand dropping to my waist and retrieving the knife I keep there, before stabbing it up into the other side of its chest. It draws one final pained breath, uttering its last words. “I… Curse… you…” Black blood streamed from the deep wounds upon its body, writhing towards me and imprinting evil patterns on my skin. I feel my strength and stamina being sapped away… before it returns in a surge. A golden ring on my hand glints slightly as I fall through the air towards the deck of the enemy ship. I knew buying this ring of weak curse immunity would pay off one day! …But I never expected it to be here. Demons and monsters, this close to human lands? Are those young fools slacking off on the patrols again? Bloody idiots. Don’t they know that even if there hasn’t been an incident in a decade, it doesn’t mean there won’t be one tomorrow! Landing heavily on the deck, the boards break beneath my feet, for the second time this battle. There was one enemy that managed to slip through to our ship, so I went back, but it was already taken care of before I got there. So I came straight back, nailing a passing demon as I went. Half a dozen enemies surround me, already closing in and swinging weapons. Before they can get close to me, I lift my head to the sky and let loose a roar that blasts across the battlefield, even causing the surface of the water to churn. It sounds as if the waves and beasts of the sea themselves are roaring with me. Voice of the Ocean! Fighting spirit + 10 Demon and monster alike are sent stumbling back – and those are just the ones at the opposite end of this ship. The ones near me have collapsed with ears leaking blood, if they have them. Meanwhile, my men have received a boost in fighting spirit and strength for a short time. With ease, I dispatch those around me, and stride off deeper into the ship. Who dares use the face of my son? WHO DARES BLASPHEME HIS MEMORY? Fighting spirit + 20 That bastard had fled below decks as soon as combat started, and nobody had seen him since. I’m about to make sure nobody sees him ever again. Striding through the corridors, I feel for the locations of enemies below me. Rarely am I so enraged that I can use this skill, sense hostiles. It allows me to feel the position of anything that wishes me, or those in a party with me, harm within 100 metres. I use it to find him. He’s the only enemy left below decks now. This position should be… the hold. With the amount of ships I’ve been on, it doesn’t take me long to find it. I step cautiously – sense hostiles can’t detect traps. When I enter, I can’t help but gag for a moment at the smell. Bloody monsters. Fighting spirit + 20 The hold is littered with corpses of various races. At a glance, I can spot humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, lizardmen… the list goes on. Not one of the corpses are intact. I begin stepping in-between broken limbs and limp bodies. Avoiding the pools of blood is impossible, and my boots are gradually bathed in gore as I walk. A red glow comes from ahead. An archway of twisted bodies has been erected on a pile of corpses, and demonic runes are scrawled across their skin. An ominous portal twists darkly within the arch. In front of it stands the one with the face of my son, standing on the blank face of a dead man as he looks at me, smiling gently. Seeing my son’s face again, his smile… In any other place it would bring a tear to my eye. Here, surrounded by death and cruelty, it just brings a chill to my spine. “Hello again.” It said. “it’s been a long time. However, I’m afraid…” He turns around, walking towards the portal. “I really must be leaving now.” It waves a hand in farewell. Fighting spirit +20 My vision shakes, washed red in fury. Without a word, I hurl my harpoon at him. But in a whirl, the portal, and him with it, is gone. My harpoon pierces through the hull of the ship and out into the water, slicing a trail of waves as it speeds off into the distance. It comes back held in the mouth of a sea dragon. Gripping the edges of the hole I tear into the hull, I wrenching open a path with a mighty crack. Taking my weapon back, I sit upon the scaly torso of the dragon. “Let’s go back, Nevu.” Despite being just a child, it’s more than strong enough to carry me along as it slithers along the surface of the water. Behind us, the hole I left from flickered with flames, which spreads slowly but surely along the ship. It’s all I could do to lay their troubled souls to rest. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 29 Experience: 3841.03/6000 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 46.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 46.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.2 Durability: 16.8/16.8 Mana: 920/920 Mana regen: 9.30/min Psi: 465/465 Psi regen: 4.60/min Ki: 2790/3022 (30225) Ki regen: 3.02 (30.22)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 18.23% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/toggled) 0.00% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.86% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 7.43% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, Passive) 13.63% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.27% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.10% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.24% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 88.31%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2, Ki generated at 15 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 3.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 20 points. Form manipulation – Self (Basic) (High Rare, Active) 2.46% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 5 mana/second while changing form, costs 10 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 24 Experience 4016.83/4500 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 38.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 30.4   Health: 304/304 Health regen: 1.824/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 46.11% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.01% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.08% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 93.10% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 27.01% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 23.67% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.05% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 65.41% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 26.41% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 89.23% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minutely increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +0.5 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 29.01% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse]

Meanwhile, back at the entrance… Marco pants heavily, but his arms never stop moving as they continue to wield sword and shield against the skeletons. He appears mostly unharmed, but exhaustion is clearly starting to take a toll. Streams of sweat run down Ferdinand’s brow as he fights, stinging his eyes and causing him to blink repeatedly. But he has no time to wipe it away as the never-ending tide of skeletons press down upon them. Alex is working to move the bones and fallen weapons around them away and into another room so that they don’t trip over while fighting. Yawning, Joe digs around in his ear with a pinkie, inspects the result and wipes the earwax off on his pants. After a while, the approaching tide start to have more and more black skeletons among them, until they are the only ones approaching. With even more pressure on them now, Marco begins to falteringly chant. Although he hears it, Ferdinand doesn’t even spare him a glance – he has no leeway to look away from the combat, and he can barely see anyway with all the sweat dripping into his eyes. “…Your will… my, shield… protect… until the last breath. Final Bulwark.” A giant image of a shield appears, blocking the stairway completely. The skeletons beyond it immediately begin to batter against it. Decapitating the skeleton in front of him, Ferdinand wipes the sweat from his eyes and breathes a sigh of relief. Panting, he asks Marco, “How long can you hold that?” Marco stands unmoving with both arms raising his shield, sword discarded on the floor. His lips barely move as he tries to speak, but no sound comes out. Ferdinand frowns. ‘Gerald was right, I should have trained telepathy up to advanced. Then I would be able to talk with him.’ He thinks regretfully. “I, I think I’ve read about this spell before.” Says Alex, still ferrying skulls, pelvises and all manner of other bones across the room. “Final bulwark, yes. It’s particular to the paladins of Oodral, of course… Requires a shield for use, uses mana, stamina and… and health to power it…” he falters, a couple of femurs tumbling from his arms. “Cannot be cancelled or interrupted once cast, except by the user reaching one health. Results, almost without exception, in the caster’s death.” He gulps. “Well, you’ll just have to heal him as soon as it stops then.” Ferdinand leans against a wall to catch his breath. “I can try. But one health… he could die at any moment, even without anything attacking him. It’ll be up to his luck and will to live whether he survives or not. And either way you’ll need to take over the whole defence. I’m afraid that I’m more capable with a book than a battle-axe, so to speak.” Alex shrugs, dropping the bones to the floor with a clatter. He looks down at them sadly. “It’s going to take weeks to give all these a proper burial. If we don’t end up joining them, that is.” Ferdinand shakes his head, again wiping off his forehead. “Marco was right. We can’t think like that. We just have to keep fighting.” The holy sanctuary fades, and Alex shrugs. “I’m running low on mana, and I’ll be needing some to heal Marco. But why are you fighting? Us priests and paladins… well, it’s pretty much our duty. But you don’t seem to be particularly pious, so why are you here, risking your life in some nameless place?” “I just want to help protect people.” Alex raises an eyebrow. “My detect lie skill tells me you’re telling the truth. My experience as a priest tells me it isn’t the whole truth.” “Do we really have to do this now?” Ferdinand frowns. “…No, I suppose not.” Sighs Alex. He spends the next few minutes in silence ferrying more bones across the room until the doorway is completely clear of them, keeping an eye on the shield blocking the stairway at all times. Ferdinand takes a sip of water from a flask and sets it down next to his backpack along the wall. He dries his hands on his shirt, his breathing gradually slowing to just above normal levels. Crack. They look at the cracks starting to web across the surface of the shield, their faces tightening. Both of them had secretly harboured the hope that the necromancer would be defeated by the time the shield falls. The shield shatters a moment later, and Marco falls backwards with blood spurting from his mouth, shield falling to the floor to lie next to his sword. Ferdinand scoops it up and stands in the middle of the doorway while Alex shifts Marco away, hands infusing him with healing magic all the while. (POV Ferdinand) I slip my arm into the handle of the shield and brace myself. The shield helps me to block off the skeletons on one side while I focus on fighting the ones on the other side. One, two, four, seven, twelve, twenty… I stop counting, already used to dismissing the windows as soon as they pop up. I almost missed my level up earlier because of how used I am to it, but luckily, I just managed. I remember feeling very thankful that the menu could be used hands-free back then. It’s unbelievable that I’m closing in on level thirty now. It was only a short while ago that I was only at level 18, and now here I am. I shake away my loose thoughts and concentrate on the fight. Slash, dismiss, slash, dismiss, slash… I slowly feel my left arm growing heavy. The shield feels awkward, and the strap is digging into my arm painfully. I should have known that I can’t just pick up a shield and be able to use it effectively. Slipping my arm from the handle, I drop it behind me, all the while fending off the myriad black skeletons in front of me. I’m going to have nightmares of this if I survive today. I shake my left hand to lessen the pain a little bit, and place it on the hilt of the sword, wielding it in a two-handed grip. Slash, slash, slash. Bones clatter upon the steps, shattered spines and scattered limbs. Slash, slash, slash. The dim light flickers ominously, sending an army of hollow shadows multitudes larger than the actual one dancing across the walls. Slash, slash, slash. That annoying drip of sweat has come back, and I can barely see anything in my left eye. But even the blurred figures I see with it are enough to combat their simple attacks. Slash, slash. Slash. I blink my left eye furiously, but that only seems to make it worse. I give up and decide to just stop blinking altogether. After a short while, tears seem to cover my eyes, relieving some of the pain. Slash. Slash. Slash. Skill gained: Battle focus (Basic) Allows you to enter a state of intense concentration when in combat. Slightly decreases likelihood of being startled by unexpected events, losing track of an enemy and not seeing attacks. Strength +0.5, Dexterity +0.5, Endurance +0.5, Intelligence +0.5, Wisdom +0.5, Luck +0.5, Charisma +0.5 when in this state. Dismiss. Slash. Slash. Slash. They keep on coming, no matter how many I cut down. Both my eyes are stinging with sweat, I can only see indistinct forms. My arms are sore, my hands are shaking… I can barely breathe. Slash... Slash... Slash... My grip is slipping, and it feels like the sword will drop from my hands at any moment. I can hardly think. Why… am I fighting, again? Title evolved: Undead bane -> Undead Slaughterer Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Dismiss. Slash… Slash… Slash… Right… I thought I could be like one of those knights in shining armour from the stories. Hah… She’s the one with the shining armour… And she’s stronger, smarter… Beautiful… How could I ever hope to rescue her? …Slash… …Slash… …Slash… …She’s taking a long time to beat him… She’s having trouble? But then… If these skeletons get through, she… I can hold on for another few seconds, surely? I tighten my grip, take a deep breath, try and blink away some of the sweat and fight on through the pain of all the wounds I had been taking. It might just be my imagination, but it feels like my sword just got a little bit lighter, their weapons just a bit… slower. Slash… Slash… Slash… That wasn’t too hard, right? Another ten seconds? Slash… Slash. Slash. …Are they getting weaker? I feel like they’re getting weaker. I think I can hold them at least another twenty seconds. Slash. Slash. Slash. Is this a joke? Why are they so easy now? Where did all that pain go? I… I can go another minute at this rate, minimum! Slash, Slash, Slash. “COME AT ME, YOU UNDEAD BASTARDS!” Trait gained: Battleborn Whether your battles end in victory or defeat, you will never give up. Increased resistance to mental influences, increased grip strength, pain reduction. Stat unlock: Fighting spirit.   Skill gained: Battle cry (Basic) Roar loudly, your voice echoing over the battlefield with a possibility of startling and/or causing fear in enemies. Reduced effect if used repeatedly on the same enemy. Requires: >30 Fighting spirit. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Stamina cost: 30.   Fighting spirit + 30 I find myself grinning as I cut down skeleton after skeleton. I dismiss the notifications without reading them; they don’t matter. The only thing that matters is that not a single skeleton gets past me. So when armoured skeletons start pouring down the stairs, I just tighten my grip, square my shoulders and glare at them. Going back some ten minutes… The distance between the sword of judgement and the skeleton Warlord is less than half a meter, and the sword is moving slightly faster than an arrow in flight. Such a distance at such a speed – it will take less than a hundredth of a second. And yet, in that miniscule moment, the skeleton Warlord manages to interpose its weapon into the path of the sword of judgement. Death energy billows up its bare, skeletal arms and onto its weapon, struggling to push it back. For a second, the holy magic and death energy are at an impasse: the holy magic constantly purifying the oncoming rush of death energy, and the death energy surging forth seemingly endlessly. Snap! A large shard falls to the floor, formerly the upper half of the skeleton Warlord’s massive claymore. Despite in the dim light, its silvery blue colour is clear; even a blade forged of mithril was unable to withstand the power of the sword of judgement. Staggering backwards a step, falling to one knee as the glowing blade within its chest clashes with the death energy within its body. The dark flames within its eyes start to dim. Grasping the hilt of the magical blade with both hands despite the death energy around them recoiling at the sword’s mere presence, the Warlord pulls it out and throws it away, the blade dissipating into motes of light. Turning to the Lich, the skeleton Warlord speaks. “The first time you summon me in years, and it’s to be your meat shield? Damn wizards.” The Lich doesn’t reply, so the Warlord just rolls its shoulders and turns around. “Now, who’s the fucker that nearly offed me. Again.” It says, glaring at the group of paladins and priests who are still within the glowing sphere. Looking between them, it quickly assesses them. “Weak, weak, weak weak weak… You two aren’t bad… so it’s her.” It says, referring to Lily who is wobbling slightly where she stands. The spell almost drained her of every last drop of mana in her body at once, and as a result she is experiencing some physical exhaustion. It walks forwards, the generals moving out of its way as it approaches. It halts just in front of the sanctuary. “You aren’t hoping this can stop me, are you?” The skeleton Warlord rasps, pushing its skull into the glowing barrier. “Because it won’t.” Ding! The skeleton warlord blocks Luc’s blade with its own. Despite having lost its top, the blade is still of a considerable length. “That’s more like it!” Luc and the Warlord begin to fight, and the generals similarly resume their assault. Barely two seconds later, the Lich begins to chant, but the Warlord rotates its skull to interrupt it. “Don’t you dare buff me! I didn’t come back from the dead after millennia to easily overpower every enemy I face! I came back to fight real battles!” The Lich looks at the Warlord coldly. “You are mine, and you shall do as I please.” “Oh? And what the hell are you going to do if I don’t? Take away my un-life? You don’t have the guts.” Mocks the Warlord. “Without me here, you’ll die in seconds. My fight, my rules.” After a moment of silence, the Lich speaks again. “And what if he defeats you?” “Then I die again.” The skeleton Warlord states simply. “True warriors accept the possibility of death. The only reason I died with regrets last time was because it wasn’t even a fight – it was an assassination.” “Fine.” The Lich practically spits the word. The skeleton Warlord shifts its skull back to its normal position. “Let’s get this started again, shall we?” The jagged edge of his sword hacks down at Luc. Ducking to the side, Luc parries the blow by pushing it away with his own. From there he attempts a slash towards the skeleton. With a twist of its wrist, the Warlord blocks and attempts his own cut. Parry, thrust, dodge, cut, block, riposte, slash, hack… The two exchange a flurry of blows. Luc is fatigued and unable to fight at his highest capacity – but the situation is precisely the same for the Warlord. Deprived of much of his death energy from the earlier sword of judgment, it has perhaps half the speed and power that it would ordinarily enjoy. Of course, it still had the endless stamina of the undead – an advantage that Luc is uncomfortably aware of. If his opponent this time were a human of the same calibre, he is confident that he could defeat it, but as it is, it may only be a matter of time before he himself falls if he can’t pull something off. Breaking its weapon is nothing but a pipe dream, despite its apparent fragility – every one of Luc’s blows had been infused with either the Power slash or Power stab skills, to no effect. Blinding it somehow? Impossible. Break its stance? Possible, since skeletons are comparatively light. Even while planning his next move, Luc makes no change in expression, no small movement that could give it away… his eyes don’t shift from the Warlord’s upper body as he drops to the ground and sweeps his leg towards the Warlord’s. His foot meets nothing but air, and the next moment Luc rolls away to avoid the Warlord’s weapon stabbing down towards him. Regaining his feet in an instant, Luc looks warily towards the Warlord. “First thing I did when I got this body was familiarise myself with its weaknesses… and strengths.” Utters the Warlord, surging forwards once more. Luc prepares himself for another assault, but the Warlord instead darts around him like a swallow, slicing into his armour with the casual finesse of a master before jumping back to evade the blade whistling towards it in retaliation. Subtly shifting muscles to ascertain the extent of the damage, Luc winces. The cut is narrow, but nearly to the bone. There are severed muscles and tendons, no doubt, and the pain is intense, to say the least. Still, one knows their own body best, and Luc is a paladin. A soft glow begins to emanate from the wound, and it slowly starts to heal. In the meantime, however, Luc is at a severe disadvantage – the wound on his back severely limits his range of movements and the strength he can exert. He shifts into the defensive, using his shield more than his sword as he stalls for time – even while realising that the delay will similarly benefit his enemy. A voice floats into his head. ‘Use the fork, Luc!’ Whether it’s from delirium or memory he isn’t sure, but at the moment he’s grasping at straws - Lily is out of mana, the priests are probably running low by now and there is visible exhaustion on the faces of the other paladins, even if he ignores his own predicament. ‘At worst, it might distract him for a moment.’ He thinks, pulling the fork out of the pouch and hurling it at the Lich. Heavily doubting the potential lethality of even a high-velocity fork, but nevertheless concluding that it could in fact be a strangely shaped magical item, the Warlord attempts to slice it out of the air in an extraordinary display of hand-eye co-ordination… but the fork appears to shift in mid-air, evading the blade. ‘Do my eyes deceive me?’ Wonder both Luc and the Warlord, before Luc’s eyes widen, and the dark flame behind the Warlord’s eye sockets flickers slightly in shock. Still hurtling through the air, the fork stops its flipping and straightens out, morphing into an arrow-like form and greatly increasing in velocity. Unable to react in time, the Lich stares in dumb disbelief as it shoots through the air towards it, over the heads of the skeletal soldiers… and then suddenly dips downwards, tearing through the Lich’s cloak and away again, the front of it now bulging strangely. Speeding above the skeletons, just out of reach, it returns to hover before Luc. Uncertainly, he reaches out, and under his dumbfounded gaze its bulbous tip retracts, revealing a curious artefact that rolls onto his palm. Spherical in shape, it appears to be made of mithril – although the metal has an odd reddish tint to it. It feels hollow, and Luc senses something wholly unholy dwelling within it. “The Lich’s phylactery!” He breathes, then ducks under the skeleton Warlord’s sweeping blade. “STOP HIM!” The Lich shouts in rage, every skeleton in the room turning and running towards Luc. The Lich himself starts to chant, but as soon as he begins his voice changes to a scream of pain. In Luc’s hand lies the phylactery, now wreathed in holy magic. Although the mithril casing is incredibly sturdy and would be nigh impossible for them to breach by ordinary means, Luc is a paladin. While others would have to break the container, he can attack the soul within directly, saturated with death energy as it is. Of course, doing this is no easy feat – even more so when attempting it while also dodging and blocking the attacks of a highly skilled and powerful undead. But now that he doesn’t have to defeat the Warlord, he doesn’t bother attacking whatsoever, focusing solely and entirely on defence and running away from the crowd of undead solely and entirely focused on killing him. So hellbent are they on killing him that they completely ignore the other paladins and priests, who now come up behind them and attack them from the rear. Mere seconds pass before the Lich lets out its last scream. The other skeletons stop moving, the dark flames within them fading until they too fall. The skeleton Warlord looks at Luc, sword loosely held in one hand, and speaks his final words: “Fucking… Wizards…” And then the room falls silent. “Well, it could have been worse.” Sighs one of the priests. He looks towards Lily. “Can we please, please have a rest before we start looking through this place? Preferably outside?” Lily smiles tiredly. “Of course. I think we’ve earned a little break.” ‘A ‘little’ break?’ The priest smiles stiffly. ‘Well, it could have been worse.’ Going back some ten minutes… again… (POV Gerald) When he finished that ritual/whatever-it-was, I knew something was up. It wasn’t just the large amounts of death energy hanging around him, or the fact that the amount of mana he had jumped hugely… it was the fact that a similar amount of death energy was condensed within a ball-like object. So when Luc accuses the necromancer of giving up his humanity, gears start to turn. Necromancer? Weird ritual thing? Giving up humanity? He just became a Lich, didn’t he? And if that was so, then that ball must be his phylactery. He… or it, I suppose… didn’t have time to hide it away after the ritual, so it just slipped it into a pocket in its cloak. A right shame, that. If it had hidden it, I would’ve been able to fetch it or direct them to it easy as blinking, without any of this fighting. Speaking of fighting, there is a lot of it. Over here, over there, every-freaking-where. Let me just express my relief that we are inside and not outside. There are a lot of skeletons out there. A LOT. Anywho, Luc gets into a fight with a big skeleton dude, and he doesn’t appear to be faring too well. They’ll probably die if I don’t do anything, huh? ‘Use the fork, Luc!’ I speak into his mind using my best wise old man voice. He tosses me, and WOAH THERE, engaging evasive manoeuvres. Ahem. After dodging that skeleton dude’s broken blade, I use ye olde form manipulation to change myself into a more flight-worthy shape – forks aren’t exactly the most aerodynamic things. I give myself a bit of a boost with a small ki blast and the absorb vacuum trick – try to hit me now, skeletons! …Yes, yes I am flying way out of their reach. There’s a problem – as I approach the Lich, I’m starting to take damage from absorbing the death energy. Absorbing the dude is a no-go, then – not that I want to. Phylactery it is. I swoop down and utilise a bit of tricky form manipulation to encapsulate the phylactery – ow, ow, ow. I’m taking damage just from holding this thing. Let’s just get it back to Luc, let him deal with it. Plopping down on his hand, I pop the thing out and repair myself. Job done. A bit of a shame I don’t get any exp from this, but hey – Ferdinand’s got me covered there. Nearly 1000 exp came in from his side, and that’s only 5% of the total! Dude earned dang near 20k! Well, I’m glad that’s over. …Oops. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 3922.08/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 891/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 442/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 10442/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.34% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.95% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 24.64%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 20.09% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 45.12% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 6.38% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] 1I don't remember if I started doing this this chapter or before, but numbers in square brackets on the statuses down here indicate changes since the previous chapter. I don't do proficiencies simply because it would take too long. Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 32 [+3] Experience: 1546.48/7200 [+18838.5] Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 46.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 37.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 38.4   Health: 217/384 [-159] Health regen: 2.304/hour Stamina: 0/377 [-273] Stamina regen: 3.77/min Mana: 0/81 [-81] Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Fighting spirit: 0   Unspent stat points: 15 [+15]   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Battleborn – Whether your battles end in victory or defeat, you will never give up. Increased resistance to mental influences, increased grip strength, pain reduction. Stat unlock: Fighting spirit. Skills Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.93% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.33% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.61% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.59% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry – Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry – Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword – Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 25.48% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.30% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Power slash (Basic) (High Common, Active) 21.37% - Multiplies the speed and power of a slash by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 14.63% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Battle focus (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 48.36% - Allows you to enter a state of intense concentration when in combat. Slightly decreases likelihood of being startled by unexpected events, loosing track of an enemy and not seeing attacks. Strength +0.5, Dexterity +0.5, Endurance +0.5, Intelligence +0.5, Wisdom +0.5, Luck +0.5, Charisma +0.5 when in this state. Battle cry (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 6.74% - Roar loudly, your voice echoing over the battlefield with a possibility of startling and/or causing fear in enemies. Reduced effect if used repeatedly on the same enemy. Requires: >30 Fighting spirit. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Stamina cost: 30. Armour – Shield – Heater Shield (Basic) (High Common, Passive) 2.83% - You have a small amount of experience using a heater shield. +1 Endurance when using a heater shield. [collapse]

Foreign mana. Mana regeneration reduced by (100-Wisdom)% Unaffected if Wisdom is equal to or greater than 100.   Malevolent mana. Effects of light, holy and good related magic reduced by 50%, costs increased by 50%. Effects of darkness, corrupt and evil related magic increased by 50%, costs reduced by 50%. Things just keep getting worse. I’m getting a sneaking suspicion that this maybe isn’t a pleasant place. While I don’t think the second will affect me, not having any proper magic, the first reduces my mana regeneration by almost half to 5.4/minute. After dismissing the notification, I take a look around, dropping quickly into a corner of the room. It doesn’t appear that anyone has noticed my passage through the portal, so I take stock of where I am now. From the messages, I can tell that I’m not just in another place – I’m in another world. Again. At least I didn’t die again, although given the circumstances that possibility still exists. I was in a lavish palace a moment ago, but this is clearly a fortress. The walls have a different mana density to walls I’ve seen in the past, so they probably aren’t made of normal stone, although that doesn’t mean much to me. Almost a dozen portals stand in the middle of the room I’m in. That’s… Not a good sign. The people within it are demons, although there are also small, ugly beings with wings that are acting similarly to slaves to the demons, grovelling and doing the dirty work of the demons. I see one of the demons call them ‘imps’. As for the particular demon who had preceded me through the portal, he is hurrying through hallways, demons bowing their heads as he passes. But their subservient appearances vanish like smoke after he passes, a few even scowling at him behind his back. Upon taking another look around, I see that the behaviour isn’t specific to him: none of the demons appear to like or respect their superiors… Or anyone else, in fact. Beyond a thin veneer of courtesy, all the demons seem to abhor each other. Strange. I didn’t think a group of people that hate each other could co-exist. …Unless they’re forced to? Food for thought. ‘My lord, something unexpected has occurred. The pawn has been killed by paladins.’ The demon bows and scrapes. ‘Paladins?’ The second demon spits in disgust. His clothes look like they’ve been nicked from the late prince’s wardrobe. Probably were, too; almost all the demons here are wearing clothing identical to what I’ve seen in cities around the Empire. ‘Disconnect the portal to the palace. Begin the invasion immediately through the others.’ The first demon looks startled. ‘But we aren-” Glaring, the demon in fancy clothes punches the other demon in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground. ‘I only kept you here because your magic allowed the possibility of crossing to Odwia. But the portals are constructed now. Give me one reason I shouldn’t just kill you.’ He sneers. ‘Because,’ gasps the demon mage from the floor, ‘when I created the portals, I bound them to my life force. Kill me, and they will immediately lose all function.’ The richly dressed demon snorts. ‘A compelling reason.’ He turns, waving his arm to dismiss the demon mage. ‘Disobey me again, and I will kill you regardless.’ The demon mage gets up. ‘I will need some sacrifices.’ ‘The prison is as full as ever.’ I think this is my cue to do something. But since it’s a fair distance between there and here, I think I’ll quickly pop back over. As I start using telekinesis to levitate, I find that it feels more strenuous than normal – is the gravity larger, here? Discarding the thought for now, I move through the portal and the scenery shifts back to that of the palace basement. Everyone’s still alive – good. I start a telepathic link with Ferdinand. “Hey. I’m still alive. Unfortunately, there’s going to be a demon invasion unless I shut down the portals from the other side, so this is goodbye as far as I can tell.” He responds as soon as I stop talking. “Isn’t there any other-” “Nope.” I interrupt him, speaking with forced bravado. “I’m pretty sure the portal leads to another world, so I doubt I’ll be able to get back. But who knows, it’s me we’re talking about after all. Maybe, someday. Anyway, I’m a bit tight on time here, they’re about to cut this portal off to stop the paladins from interfering. On the plus side, I shouldn’t have much trouble getting out of there. So, goodbye Ferdinand. It’s been fun.” “Goodbye Gerald. Than-” He begins, but I cut him off again. “Hey, no sappiness. See ya!” I cut off the link and pop back through the portal. He’s almost to the portal room, so I don’t have much time to act. Thankfully, combining absorb and telekinesis means that destroying inanimate objects is child’s play for me. Slicing through the bases of the portal archways one by one quick as blinking, they fall to the floor and break into several pieces, the vortexes of mana within them dispersing and slowly returning to normality. With that, the demons are cut off from invading – and I’m cut off from going back. Just as I escape through the walls and into an adjacent room the demon mage sprints into the portal room, no doubt disturbed by the sounds the portals made as I destroyed them. He immediately calls for the guards and orders everyone to be on high alert for an intruder. Fat lot of good that’ll do them. Nobody suspects the fork. Nobody. Ever. And if they do, they should see a psychiatrist. Quickly returning to the richly dressed demon’s room, the demon mage grovels pitifully. ‘My lord… the portals have been… destroyed. There is an intruder in the fortress.’ The goblet in the richly dressed demon’s hand deforms and crumples as he clenches his fist. Seeing it, the demon mage gulps. ‘We will find them immediately, my lord. And I can rebuild the portals. I just need… time.’ ‘How long?’ ‘Perhaps two weeks, perhaps less…’ Drops of sweat roll down the demon mage’s forehead. ‘You have three days.’ ‘Bu- Yes, my lord.’ The demon halts his protest as quickly as he starts it, no doubt remembering his earlier conversation. So he can rebuild it… We can’t have that, now can we? After collecting things from several places around the fortress, the demon mage returns to the portal room and starts tinkering away. The guards continue to move around the fortress, checking every nook and cranny, including the room I’m in. Nobody even glances at me, although they do find the hole I made in the wall to get here. After the guards leave the room I tunnel back into the wall through the same hole and move up the wall until I reach the roof. Then I tunnel along the roof until I’m above the demon mage. For some reason, he’s smiling to himself as he works. I don’t think that’ll last long. Dropping down directly onto him, I absorb my way through his neck. Flesh of Lvl 37 Demon absorbed Experience gained: 213 Durability recovered: 2.35 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.01% Skills gained: None Traits gained: Curse resistance (Minor)   lvl 37 Demon killed Experience gained: 6310   Level up! You are now level 33 5.5 stat points gained Hey, another le- A dark mana rises from the corpse and rushes towards me. I try to absorb it, but as I do, I can feel my durability decreasing, so I stop and try to escape through the walls. But wherever I go, it follows without stopping or slowing, no matter how many twists and turns I make. So, I leave the castle and head out in a random direction. Maybe if I go far enough from the origin of this magic – the demon’s corpse – it will fade away. My slim, sleek body line allows me to pass through the air with little resistance, letting me to maintain a greater speed than the evil mana behind me while keeping Psi expenditure below my regeneration rate – although only just. Actually, I still haven’t used the stat points from that level up. 5.5, huh? I don’t like the 30’s. They don’t let you distribute stat points evenly into two stats without going to two decimal places. And I ain’t going there. One DP is far enough for me! 2.5 to Int, 2.5 to Wis, 0.5 to Dex. It may be tracking me, but it isn’t very fast. I can literally do this all day – all week, if I have to. It should run out of mana eventually. Or perhaps it has a limited range? One eye on the spell following, I have a look at the landscape, getting an idea of what sort of world this is. The ground is cracked and barren, not a blade of grass or any other plant softening its surface as far as the eye can see. The only liquid around is something slow-flowing and thick I don’t recognise, but if I were to venture a guess based on what I’ve seen so far, I’d say it’s lava. Thank god that I can’t feel heat… or should I thank the gods? Meh, I don’t know enough about them to care. Up ahead I see trees jutting out of the ground like skeletal hands, without even a single leaf on their branches. What’s this place called, the forest of death? Nope, not going there. I take a right turn at the forest, and soon enough run into a broken tower, shambling forms roaming mindlessly up and down its broken staircases. I give it a wide berth. Hey, this place looks nice. A clean building lies ahead, bearing a symbol that makes me think it’s some kind of shrine. Inside are a group of people – they look human, too, though after fighting a doppelganger that doesn’t mean much to me – praying to some god or other. ‘Now, let us drink of the blood of the heretics.’ One says solemnly. Goodbye. Behind me, the spell putters out and dissipates. Took it long enough. Whew… What do we do now? …Oh, right, he’s on another planet. That makes communication somewhat difficult. Well, first of all I should probably double-check that they aren’t able to reconstruct those portals. Turning around, I head back the way I came, although in much less of a hurry this time. The demon mage said weeks, the angry demon said days, I think I can spare a few minutes. As I levitate across the desolate landscape, I come across a large dog. I look at the dog. The dog looks at me. The dog opens its mouth, and I take 0.2 damage to my durability. I absorb the dog’s face. It dies, and I absorb the rest of it. Lvl 18 Hellhound absorbed Experience gained: 1035 Durability recovered: 13.8 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 1.1) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.01% Skills gained: Traits gained: Heat resistance (Minor)   Lvl 18 Hellhound killed Experience gained: 1035   Holy moley, I’ve almost levelled up again. Without 95% of my exp going to Ferdinand and absorb effectively letting me double my experience gains, it’s shooting upwards. Sadly, I don’t come across any other monsters I can kill for that last iddy bitty bit of exp I need to level up… Well, almost 3000 exp, but y’know. …It feels strange. Not too long ago, I was stuck on the floor of a cave, hoping desperately that something with a useful skill or trait would walk my way. Levelling up wasn’t my primary concern, but even then, the hundreds of exp I needed felt like they would take ages to accumulate. But look at me now. I can move on my own, see just over a literal mile in every direction and hold my own in combat, albeit in an unconventional way. Among other things. I’ve really come a long way, haven’t I? Metaphorically and literally speaking. A year ago, just an ordinary university student living on my lonesome, on Earth. A few months ago, a helpless fork living on my lonesome in a cave, on Odwia. Now, an awesome fork… living on my lonesome, in – literally - Hell. …If I say it like that, I haven’t come very far at all, have I? And I still have so far to go… Let me just check my list of priorities. Find a way to regain human form and/or human senses while in fork form. (High priority) Well, I’ve technically made progress. I have the skill that can do all of that. Shame I can’t use it, and probably won’t be able to for a long, long time. Find out how I died. (Low priority) I still haven’t found anything about that. A bit hard, when I’m not even on the same planet. Find and obtain skills or traits that could allow me to write. Write Ferdinand a book about death flags and the like. Possible name: (at least) 101 things you should definitely never ever say and when you should especially not say them. (Maximum priority) Hey, I remember this one. Well, I think I’ll downgrade it to medium priority. Even if I manage to get a skill that would allow me to write, it’s not like I can lug a book around until I next see him. Jelly beans. (High priority) …What? When did this get on there? Let’s see, let’s see… When I was six? Seriously? I remember now... I was at this kid’s party, and I went over to get some sweets, but all the jelly beans were already gone. I remember bugging my mum to get me some for weeks afterwards, but she never relented. Probably for the best, they’re filled with sugar. Anyway, let’s wipe this off… Although, I would like some jelly beans… Let’s just change it to lowest priority. Obtain skills and traits that will allow me to better defend myself. (Maximum priority) It’s going fairly well on this front. I wouldn’t say it’s such an urgent thing anymore, but I would still like some more diversity and flexibility in my abilities. Let’s see, I think I need a healing skill or spell, something that lets me cure poison for others… Others may be able to carry some sort of antidote or cure potion, but that’s not really an option for me. A couple of buffs might be nice. A way to carry other people when flying. Some sort of skill or spell I can control in flight and use to attack from a super long distance… Paired with mana sight, that would be deadly. I have stealth mostly covered, as well as scouting, and traps aren’t really a problem. Maybe some crowd control abilities? Even a simple ‘slow’ would be incredibly useful in all sorts of situations. Obtain traits that multiply my Intelligence and Wisdom. (High Priority) Man, would these be useful. If I had a times two multiplier on even one of them, that would send my mana sight range from 1.69km to over 3km. If I managed to get a times 10, that’d be 16.97km. If I got both times 10, that’d be one hundred and sixty fricken nine kilometres. RADIUS. That would let me see, like, almost half of Tasmania if I stood in the middle of it. I just calculated the volume of a sphere that large. It’s over 20 million kilometres cubed. Imagine having the visual acuity necessary to snipe someone from a few cities over. …Of course, the changing wind patterns along the way, various obstacles and bullet drop would make that literally impossible, but that’s beside the point. Learn magic. (Medium priority) Mm. I’d love to. Problem is, I have no clue how. I’m sure some of these demons know magic, but even if one was willing to teach me, I don’t think I’d be willing to learn the type of magic they’d be teaching. …And that’s the end of the list. Oh, I should probably add: Find a way to get back to Odwia. Similar method could probably be used to return to Earth. But do I really want to return to Earth? Odwia at least is a must; it’s way better than this place. But Earth? I didn’t really have many friends. The small network I had at school kind of drifted to near non-existence after it finished, with both me and them not terribly interested in putting in the effort to keep it going. And my family… Well, they must think I’m dead. If I go back, only to leave for Odwia again, that would only bring more pain and worry to them than I already have. It’d be like stabbing someone with a knife, leaving it in for a while then taking it out and applying a bandage, only to slam it back in again a bit later. I suppose I could stay there. Without any… bodily functions, I wouldn’t need money, and it’s not like the law takes into account living forks; I’m pretty sure that even if people knew about me, according to the system I wouldn’t exist. So no need to worry about things like voting, either. I could live out my life in peace and quiet, like I’ve always wanted. …Except. Except I couldn’t. I couldn’t just sit there doing nothing for years on end; I’d go mad. Again. I could take up a hobby. But my form restricts me severely. And even then… Well… Come on Gerald, admit it already. You’ve known this for far too long to be avoiding it still; especially now, when there’s very little to do. …I’m immortal, aren’t I? I’m made of metal, mithril even. I doubt mithril rusts or corrodes, but even if it does, I could just absorb the damaged bits of myself and self-repair them back. I don’t have any organs or anything that can degrade over time. So, I’m immortal. …I remember when I was much younger, I heard about an ancient Chinese emperor or someone similar that ate mercury pills, hoping they would grant him immortality. Instead, they killed him. We laughed at that. I don’t know about the others, but I wasn’t just laughing at the irony of ingesting a poison and thinking it will grant you longer life. I was laughing because I couldn’t imagine why anyone would even want immortality. I never saw the allure of it. Oh, I’ve heard all the stories of people searching for the recipe to the mythical philosopher’s stone or turning to darker means in attempts to indefinitely prolong their lives, but it just never made sense to me. What do you do with infinity? ‘If you had all the time in the world, what would you do?’ I’ve heard the question before. My answer would always be the same. I’d see my dreams realised. I’d learn more about what few things interest me, perhaps teach a few others the same. But that would only last me two centuries, max. I can’t imagine what I’d do with a millennia, let alone a million years. Why would anyone want the misery of being unable to make substantial emotional connections to others, because you know that if you do, you’ll have to watch them die? You’d have to watch everyone you know and love die. Again. And again. And again. If I were able to gain any superpower or supernatural ability, immortality would be one of my absolute last picks, right down there with the ability to destroy the planet I’m standing on by blinking and the ability to kill anything I look at. Heck, I’d probably choose them over immortality. I’d just cut off my eyelids. Can’t blink if you have no eyelids. Or blind myself, can’t look at anything if you’re blind. Then I’d just have a short miserable life, rather than a long miserable life. And yet here I am. The powers that be chose… Me. I’ll have to watch Ferdinand die. And Marco. I liked Marco. Unless… I can find a way to make Ferdinand immortal too… But… no. That would just be consigning him to the same hell as me. It would be horribly selfish of me to make him suffer through pain just to lessen my own. …I could kill myself. No… I couldn’t do that either. Then I’d be making him watch me die. And worse, a suicide. That would be just as selfish. I could vanish and kill myself. And what? Make him think I abandoned him? He’d get over it. What if he didn’t? …At least I wouldn’t have to suffer. Is it worth causing pain to another to reduce your own? Even if the pain caused is less than that reduction? ………I don’t know… I… I don’t feel like it should be. Then again, it can’t be as bad as it sounds. If I’m immortal, there must be others. If I can make a few immortal friends, it might not be so bad. But how do you find an immortal? They won’t be in plain view. Live in the same place for a thousand years, and people are going to notice that there’s something different about you. That means that immortals are probably more likely to either roam around… or live in seclusion. People who roam… Adventurers, wandering mercenaries and warrior, explorers, travellers. People who live in seclusion… Monks. People who want to be left alone. Adventurers… why does it always come back to adventurers? I don’t even want to become an adventurer. All that fame, all that attention… What’s the point? It’d just be painful. I shake myself out of my downwards spiralling contemplation as the fortress appears on the edge of my vision. The demons within it are still frantically searching for their ‘intruder’. I already left, y’know? Ooowwww, that’s gotta hurt. The head honcho demon is killing everyone he sets eyes on in rage, pounding skulls and chests into a pulp with his bare fists and feet, uncaring whether they are imps or demons. …I take it that there’s no replacement for that demon mage. He punches through a wall and screams in anger and pain as his fist bleeds. I think my work here is done. 1Since Ferdinand is literally on another planet from what the main viewpoint is following, continuing to put his status here would be pointless, as well as a potential spoiler. From here to an unknown point in the future, it'll just be Gerald. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 [+1] Experience: 4765.08/7600 [+8593] Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.5 [+2.5] Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) [+0.5] Wisdom: 54.5 [+2.5] Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.9 [+0.5] Durability: 18.5/18.5 [+0.5] Mana: 1090/1090 [+50] Mana regen: 10.90/min (5.73) [+0.5] Psi: 545/545 [+25] Psi regen: 5.45/min [+0.25] Ki: 18263/3542 (35425) [+162.5] Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day [+0.16] Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.85% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.41% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 28.03% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 28.47%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 53.19% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 57.31% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 14.17% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. [collapse]

(POV Gerald) As we travel towards the old mansion, I prompt Ferdinand to go chat with Lily on a few occasions. Eventually, he becomes fairly comfortable initiating and keeping casual conversation, which is nice. In regards to Lily herself, she seems to friendly enough with him, but nothing on the level that one might consider ‘romantic’ interaction. Well, these things take time… Probably. Putting aside Ferdinand’s love life, every time we go into a new city it’s another wave of cheers and celebrations. Ugghhhh... Another one of these times I am glad being a fork. Celebrations and parties? Count me out, thank you very much. Way too much noise, too many people and there’s always someone who does something so stupid you’re embarrassed to be the same species. …Although I’m not any more. Ferdinand isn’t getting much attention behind all the paladins in their fancy armour and the priests with their robes, but he’s somewhat overwhelmed each time with just that, shrinking down into the saddle and staring straight forwards. He said to me a few days ago, “You were right. This level of praise is just… Scary. Staying unknown sounds good to me now. Have you learnt how to make other people invisible yet?” Ah, that guy… I’m not a genius you know. I just have a bit of creativity and diligence. Nothing too special. On the topic of praise, most of the holy folk seem pretty humble. I must say, though, that Luc has a bit of a weird streak in this area. Apparently, he loves to boast… about other people? I’ve seen him at a pub once or twice, and all he’ll do is talk about what happened, except he downplays everything he did and exaggerates what everyone else did. So yeah, that’s a thing. After about a week of travelling, I see grass give way to bare earth and a familiarly dilapidated mansion sliding into vision. The doppelganger sits inside, eating dinner. “He’s in there.” I contact Lily directly. She nods slightly. Hello again. This tine I brought friends. I sit at my desk, eyes panning across the room without looking for anything in particular. They eventually settle on a painting, and I stare at it for a while without actually seeing anything. Am I better or worse off as I am now, compared to before? I cannot tell. I am probably going to die. Even I can tell that much, I am not that stupid. But at least – at least I got to experience life at the top for a little while. I look around again, taking in the lavish furniture, decadent ornaments and outrageously expensive artworks. Back home, it was like a living nightmare. They all scorned me, ridiculed me… hurled insults and abuse. Life was tortuous just getting through every day. Just when I thought of taking that final step, I found myself here. This place – this world, I cannot understand it. Demons and gods, monsters and magic… levels and stats, why is it so different? Well… at least it told me about my psychic powers. They were wrong, they all were. And right as well, I suppose. Which is better, here or there? Slow torture or brief paradise? This feels better, but then, knowing that it will all be gone soon enough is another kind of torture in and of itself… I hear knocking on the door, and I turn to look. “Who is it?” I call out. “It’s me, your highness.” The voice replies. I sigh and move to unlock the door. It is him. Demon, they call him. I turn the handle and pull it open, and there he is, smiling ingratiatingly. When I first met him, some eight months ago, I liked that smile. “Your highness.” He bows deeply. “Everything is going just as you planned. Within weeks, the Empire will be under your sole control.” For the first few months, I actually believed that this façade, this cunning act was authentic. Others were quick to tell me the traitorous, evil ways of demons, but I was loathe to condemn anyone merely by their race. “Yes, only a matter of time.” I say calmly. “Did you come here only to sing my praises, or is there something that requires my attention?” He fed me lies and fuelled my ambitions, whispering plans into my ears. It was only when he applauded my intelligence that I caught on. I had heard similar words uttered enough times that I recognised the sarcasm in his words, regardless of how deeply he hid it. His expression doesn’t shift in the slightest as he slightly bows his head and says, “I hear Count Brook was very vocal about his displeasure in your appointment at the ball yesterday.” He sounds sincerely angry at this, but like everything else he does, I can tell that it’s fake. I school my expression into a mask of anger. “Oh? Then he can be disposed of like the rest.” I have been acting my whole life, out of necessity rather than choice. If he wants to deceive me, then in turn I shall deceive him without mercy. He may have already manipulated me into digging my own grave, but I’ll not let him do as he pleases. …Unfortunately, I can’t just tell him to kill himself. My power does not allow it. Nor can I tell him to do something that he is aware would result in his death, such as sending him to the temple – I recently discovered that most all of the native religions hate demons. Without knowing exactly what he’s planning, all I can do is work in secret against him and limit his movements as much as I can. We smile at each other, two liars each secretly out to kill the other. (POV Ferdinand) “…You again.” The doppelganger says darkly, carefully eying the group. His gaze settles on Lily and Luc, and his eyes narrow. “Paladins of Vitus, huh? My favourite type of people to kill.” “Oh? And why is that?” Lily asks, a hint of frost in her voice. The doppelganger frowns. “Because you bastards don’t seem to get it – We monsters, don’t. Want. To. Be. Your. Friends.” He finishes through gritted teeth. Luc’s eyes narrow and he starts moving forward to attack the doppelganger, but Lily stops him. “Not yet. What better way to learn about monsters than from their own mouth?” She says to him, before turning back to the doppelganger. “Why wouldn’t you want friends? Everyone needs friends.” “Hah!” The doppelganger barks. “Don’t compare us with yourselves. Monsters don’t have friends. We don’t want friends. There is only the weak, and the strong. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you are friends with a monster. They do not love you. They fear you.” He spits. “Hm.” Lily shakes her head. “It’s a shame you think so. Call of the wild.” The last words she intones, a burst of holy magic radiating outwards. To my surprise the doppelganger just watches and smiles as it travels towards him. When it reaches him, his smile only spreads as it bounces harmlessly off. “I see you don’t recognise this spell.” Lily says, raising her sword and shield. “Oh, no.” The doppelganger denies, grinning as he twirls his spear once with his only hand. “I do.” For a moment, neither of them move. The rest of us look at each other, unsure if we should be waiting or attacking. Then I feel a low rumbling in the ground below me. I look around in confusion. The doppelganger’s smile is only growing, and Lily is also smiling slightly, although she is now also wary of whatever the doppelganger seems to have up his sleeve. Soon I can hear as well as feel the rumbling, and I finally catch sight of a dust cloud off to the east, seemingly growing in size… or coming towards us. ‘Uh, stampede!?’ Gerald says in panic. ‘Is this supposed to happen!?’ “I told you. They fear you. But they fear me more.” The doppelganger says, exploding with red mist – killing intent. The cloud of dust splits down the middle, each half veering off to either side to avoid the doppelganger – but still towards us. At this point they’re finally close enough for me to see what they are – a herd of bronze-horned bulls, their characteristic horns glinting in the light as they charge. I break out into a sweat. “Um, is that supposed to happen?” I ask fearfully. Lily looks ahead with a frown. “No.” The red mist suddenly caves inwards, revealing the familiar red armoured figure wielding its bloody spear. ‘He’s put on the armour.’ I warn Gerald, since he can’t see it. “Time… For killing.” The doppelganger says. And charges. Luc immediately darts forwards, engaging him in a melee as Lily again glows with holy magic, again sending out a burst of energy which causes the stampede to veer off even further and away from the battle. The doppelganger unleashes of burst of what I recognise as ki, knocking Luc’s shield arm to one side. At the same time, he sweeps his spear towards Luc. Luc is able to jump backwards just in time, but isn’t able to completely escape damage. As the melee resumes, I spot a small rent in his armour, and a touch of red through it. Not a moment later, A beam of light shines upon Luc, and his movements get slightly faster. The doppelganger’s head whips towards the priests, and he sends a burst of ki towards Luc. It doesn’t damage him, but it knocks him back far enough that the doppelganger is able to disengage and sprint towards the priests. I cry out in shock and start to step towards them, but before I can even make it half way, the doppelganger is thrusting his spear towards them… and a glowing barrier stops it. “Your spear will not reach them while I still live.” States Marco, a steely glint in his eyes. “Yes, this way is closed to you.” The doppelganger curses and swipes again at the shield without success before turning around to block Luc’s strike. Carefully approaching with shields raised, the other two paladins – Aidan and Resa, I think are their names – move to box the doppelganger in. …Surely I should be doing something? But there’s not really any space around him, and I think I’d just get in the way… wait. I have that battle cry skill! I try to activate it, but I can somehow feel that it won’t work. Why… then it hits me. I have to have a fighting spirit of over thirty. What am I at now… three!? Come on! Didn’t you want to avenge Richard’s death? Fight! Fighting spirit + 5 That’s not enough. Come on, fight! FIGHT! Fighting spirit + 15 More! This isn’t all I can do! Fighting spirit + 10 Battle cry! “HA!” I shout, but the doppelganger doesn’t even flinch. Right… Of course it won’t work. He’s too strong for me to affect him… Crestfallen, I watch as the paladins slowly box in the Doppelganger. With Luc, Aidan and Resa attacking him, he isn’t able to defend himself. Unfortunately, Aidan and Resa’s attacks aren’t powerful enough to pierce his armour, so the doppelganger is able to focus solely on defending against Luc’s attacks. However, the attacks are still making it more difficult for him to move, and Luc’s thrusts are piercing hole after hole into the doppelganger’s armour. But then it doesn’t have any holes? I rub my eyes. Oh. The armour is repairing itself as it gets damaged. I hope that his wounds below the armour aren’t getting healed. I can’t see how they would be. Yelling out in anger, the doppelganger releases a burst of ki, sending a fair amount of dirt flying as well as pushing back all three paladins and sending ripples across the surface of the barrier. Taking that opportunity, the doppelganger escapes the encirclement and charges straight at me. I take a step back and ready my sword, but before the doppelganger can get close to me, he is intercepted by Lily. I hear an odd screeching sound as his spear slashes across her shield, but she stops his advance. The doppelganger sends a series of quick thrusts at Lily, with such speed that it looks to me like there are multiple spears. Lily defends against them but is forced to take successive steps back as she does so. Then Luc re-joins the fight with Aidan and Resa not far behind, and the doppelganger looks even more pressured than before. Every wound he manages to inflict is healed within moments by the priests, while his own just keep accumulating underneath the armour. Soon I see actual blood seeping out of the armour, splattering onto the ground with every movement he makes. He tries the ki burst again, with even less success than the last time. As the battle goes on, the doppelganger’s movement gets slower and less varied, while the paladins keep attacking with the same ardour they had at the beginning. Finally, the doppelganger collapses to the ground, his armour melting off of his body. Not willing to take any chances, Luc plunges his sword into the doppelganger’s body. In death, the doppelganger’s face and body returns to its original appearance. Its skin changes to a waxy white, the nose flattens to little more than a thin pair of holes and his whole body shrinks in height. …Doppelgangers look unnatural. (POV Lily) ‘A bit to your left… a tad forwards… there.’ Gerald says in my head, guiding me to the location of the buried diary. Scooping out the dirt with my hands, it only takes a few handfuls of earth before I feel my fingers scrape against something harder. I dig around it, and within half a minute I have the box out and open. I take off my gauntlets, wiping the dirt from them with a cloth then temporarily tucking them under an arm as I look at the book, activating my magic detection skill. As far as I can tell, there isn’t any magic on or around it, so I deactivate my detection skill and take out the book, flipping it open to the first page. I briefly skim through the first page. It looks like it contains the information we need, so I tell the others to search the mansion while I sit down and read through it. As I leaf through page after page, the situation becomes clearer and my eyebrows become more furrowed. It answers several lingering questions I had had: The peculiar behaviour of the skeletons in the fields, for example, was because the then-necromancer had been ordered to have skeletons work in the fields. Obviously, the necromancer knew full well that it is impossible for the dead to cultivate anything living, so he did the absolute minimum he could while still obeying orders – one skeleton per field, repeatedly striking the ground with hoes. Apparently, the one controlling them knows nothing about undead aside from their ceaseless stamina, and had hoped to replace farmers with undead; a venture doomed to fail from its conception. As for their controller himself, his current identity is crown prince of the Empire. The diary states that he did this through the use of his psychic power, controlling some of the highest powers in the Empire, including the Emperor himself. In other words, the Empire is effectively under the control of this man, who is undoubtedly being influenced by the demon under his control – it’s in their nature. Unfortunately, the diary does not elucidate the origin of said ‘prince’, nor the demon’s. According to the diary, although they are all effectively the prince’s slaves, they operate separately and have minimal contact with each other. Or perhaps ‘had’ is a better word? I steadily read through the whole thing. There is little information that seems useful to us currently, apart from his appearance and current location. Snapping the book shut, I stow it away and announce our destination: the Empire’s capitol city. …Where was that, again? (POV Ferdinand) Earlier… I glance through yet another empty room, half wondering where the doppelganger stayed if all the rooms are like this. ‘Hey. The others have found everything of worth.’ Gerald says, oddly taciturn. ‘Okay.’ I start to head to the front again. ‘There’s something you’ll probably want to see.’ Says Gerald, proceeding to direct me away from the group, to the east. ‘Where are we going?’ I ask, but he ignores me. I soon notice that something is sticking out of the ground in the direction I’m walking. ‘What’s that?’ ‘You know as well as I do.’ Gerald says gravely. And I do. I walk up to it, reach out… and suddenly everything seems so real. This is where it started. And now it’s ended. I sit down in front of the lone harpoon on an empty battlefield. It’s stained with blood and soot, but it still stands. “It’s over, Richard.” I say. “The one who killed you is dead.” I let out a deep breathe and smile wryly. “I just wish I could’ve done it myself.” ‘Does it really matter?’ Gerald asks quietly. ‘Dead is dead. If all this didn’t happen, who knows when we might’ve been strong enough to beat him? And by then, who knows where he might’ve been?’ “Maybe you’re right…” I feel a tear slide down my nose and drip down to the ground as I reminisce. “You shouldn’t mourn, kid.” I turn my head. “Joe?” I say in surprise. “What?” He says, smiling sympathetically. “I said I’d offer a few wise words every now and again. I think this is a good time.” I look back at the harpoon. “Can you do that later?” “Yep.” He says, sitting down next to me. “But I’m not gonna.” I sigh in resignation. “As I was saying, you shouldn’t mourn. If there’s one thing that all life has in common, it’s death. From the day something is born, you can say with absolute certainty that it’s going to die someday.” He shrugs. “Nobody needs a crystal ball to predict that.” “What does that have to do with anything?” I say bitterly. “Of course everyone’s going to die some day. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mourn.” “If everything’s going to die, it’s only really a question of when. Death isn’t fair, as one of my friends likes to remind me. You never quite know when it’s the end.” He scratches at his neck. “In effect, the only difference between people is what they do while they’re alive.” He turns his head to look at me. “Don’t mourn his death. Celebrate his life.” Joe spreads his arms wide. “Remember who he was, not who he could have been. He was a man among men. A sailor and warrior worthy of song. A beloved husband and father. The friendly neighbourhood fisherman. And he went out fighting the man who killed his son.” He smiles warmly. “That’s a life worth celebrating, don’t you think?” I slowly nod, my lips stretching into a smile, albeit a sad one. “Wait, the doppelganger killed his son?” I ask, finally noticing what he’d said. “Hm? Yeah, of course.” Joe says. “Doppelgangers need to kill the person whose appearance they copy to retain it permanently.” I nod in understanding, looking into the distance. “I wonder if he knew…” “He had his suspicions, no doubt. But enough of that!” Joe says, pulling out a ceramic bottle from nowhere and popping the cork. He swiftly pulls out a pair of cups and starts pouring a sweet-smelling liquid into them. “It’s just fruit juice.” He confesses. “Left all my wine back home. But we can pretend.” He hands me a cup and raises his own. “To Richard!” “To Richard.” I raise my cup as well, clinking it against his. I take a deep drink. It’s good. “I think I’m getting a bit drunk already. Drunk on sadness.” “Hey, it’s alright. We all get a bit sad when we realise we’ll never see a friend again. You get to my age, you start counting how many friends you have left, rather than how many have passed away…” I see a thin film of moisture in his eyes as looks over the horizon. For a while we just sit and drink in silence. Finally, I stand up. “I’d like to make a gravestone for him.” A large, smooth rock breaks through the dirt a few meters away and floats over, thumping to the ground in front of me. ‘Here.’ Gerald says. “Let me do a little something too…” Says Joe, grabbing the harpoon and pressing it to the stone, causing it to sink slowly into the rock. When he lets go, I find to my confusion that the stone has somehow fused with the haft of the harpoon; it doesn’t budge in the slightest when I touch it. It dawns on me that I don’t have any tools to carve words into the stone. I turn awkwardly to Joe. “I don’t suppose you have a chisel or something…” ‘Use me.’ Says Gerald. Oh, right. I fetch him out, and he changes into a thin rod with one end tapering to a point. With him absorbing little bits of stone at a time, I etch some words into the stone. Then we leave, leaving behind only a harpoon pointing into the sky… Richard Husband, Father Sailor, Fighter Fisherman and Friend May his soul find peace as it drifts away. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 3922.08/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 960/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 27/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 14949/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.41% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 28.02% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 28.47%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 53.19% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 57.30% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 10.01% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 32 Experience: 1546.48/7200 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 48.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 40.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 48.4   Health: 484/484 Health regen: 2.904/hour Stamina: 407/407 Stamina regen: 4.07/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Fighting spirit: 0   Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Battleborn – Whether your battles end in victory or defeat, you will never give up. Increased resistance to mental influences, increased grip strength, pain reduction. Stat unlock: Fighting spirit. Skills Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.97% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.34% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.61% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.60% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry – Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry – Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword – Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 43.17% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 21.17% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Power slash (Basic) (High Common, Active) 21.37% - Multiplies the speed and power of a slash by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 14.63% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Battle focus (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 48.36% - Allows you to enter a state of intense concentration when in combat. Slightly decreases likelihood of being startled by unexpected events, loosing track of an enemy and not seeing attacks. Strength +0.5, Dexterity +0.5, Endurance +0.5, Intelligence +0.5, Wisdom +0.5, Luck +0.5, Charisma +0.5 when in this state. Battle cry (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 10.12% - Roar loudly, your voice echoing over the battlefield with a possibility of startling and/or causing fear in enemies. Reduced effect if used repeatedly on the same enemy. Requires: >30 Fighting spirit. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Stamina cost: 30. Armour – Shield – Heater Shield (Basic) (High Common, Passive) 2.83% - You have a small amount of experience using a heater shield. +1 Endurance when using a heater shield. Mapping (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.31% - You tried to draw a map. Emphasis on tried. Well, at least you tried. [collapse]

Well, I can now say with no qualms that I am an expert at minesweeper. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 12.98% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 304 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. And there’s another level above expert by the looks of things, so that’s cool. Meanwhile, self-repair is at 98.73%. Seriously, just one more repetition of this left and it’ll get to the next level of proficiency. Still, it won’t be long now. An hour or two is nothing to me after all this waiting. Especially now that I’ll have the surroundings to distract me. People are starting to wake up, moving around the city. And of course, I can see everything that’s currently happening in the city. If I could just see a bit finer detail, I would be able to see who did what, when. I can see things happening now… ish, but if I don’t specifically keep track of someone, I won’t be able to tell them from the rest of the city. It is quite surreal, though. It took me quite some time to realise that when somebody looks like they are doing a very weird punch that stops just short of someone’s body, causing them to fall over, that it’s actually them getting stabbed. Not being able to see metal makes things surprisingly difficult. But I can see the sea, now. It looks super weird. It’s mostly empty space to me, but there are little dots of mana at regular intervals, which bob up and down with the waves. If I were human, looking at this would make me nauseous. Then there’s all the fish, flitting here and there. A few sea monsters too, by the size of them. All in all, quite the mesmerising sight. Still, mana sight is getting around half a percent of proficiency a day, so it’ll be, like, a third of a year until that gets there. Hopefully, that will allow me to see in much greater detail. Although, by then I’ll ideally have a better way to see. Who knows? Now, on to the Ferdinand hunting show. (POV Ferdinand) Yawning, I get out of bed. I wish I could sleep for longer, I was having this awesome dream where I was riding a dragon. Still, if I sleep all the time, I’ll never get anything done. After getting dressed and having some breakfast, I head down to the adventurer’s guild. Unlike the adventurers in… what was that place called again? E…e… Etre, that was it... wait, no it’s not. Unlike the adventurers there, the ones here often look like sailors, because many of them are. At a port like this, there are many trading ships and transport vessels coming and going, all of which needed defences against monster attacks. And pirates, vessels from enemy kingdoms, mutinies… The average adventurer from the mainland simply doesn’t have the required set of skills. But adventurers at ports often specialise in such areas. And if you don’t, well, there is still the occasional land-based monster in the area, as well as some other miscellaneous requests, so it isn’t like this place is completely dominated by seafaring adventurers. As for me, I barely have my sea legs. That one time I went on a ship… my legs still quake at the mere memory of it. Mundane land quests are good. I like mundane. Not much mundane lately, it’ll be good to have some in my life again. Perhaps a few sand slimes, a giant crab or two… I might able to get a nice crab shield made with the cash I have on me. Or maybe not. That shade of red… I don’t know if I want to be carrying something that bright around with me. A nice relaxing walk on the beach. Refreshing breeze, the gentle crashing of waves… LVL 6 Sand slime killed Experience gained: 99.75 I love how you can kill these things by taking a walk, sometimes. They can be extremely annoying if you accidentally sit down on one, but otherwise are mostly harmless. Cresting a small ridge of sand, I instantly crouched low to the ground, trying to be stealthy. I just ignored the large sheet of sand crumbling away in my wake. It must be my lucky day! That giant crab doesn’t notice me at all! Now if I can just sneak up on it… Slowly… slowly… slow- LVL 6 Sand slime killed Experience gained: 99.75 WHAT ON EARTH!? …It didn’t notice? Phew. Step, and… With my mighty muscles, I shall flip this beast! haaaaAAAAHH! With a great exertion, I succeed in… almost flipping it. Never mind! With this fork of mine I shall cut through the beast’s carapace! Wait, my best cutting tool is a fork? Hah, haha… I just wanted mundane… Why can’t I have mundane any more… LVL 16 Giant crab killed Experience gained: 745.75 Now I have to lug this thing back to town… Woe is me! Panting heavily, a figure slowly traipses along the beach, hauling a massive crab behind him with a rope. A reddish orange colour, the creature has a strange hole in its underside, and a light crusting of sand covers the parts dragging along the ground. And I’m getting so exhausted that I’m thinking of myself in third person… great. This would be so much lighter if I took it apart back there, but then it would be impossible to carry… if only I had one of those bags of holding… A long time passes in silence, just the soft shifting of sand beneath my feet and the considerably louder grinding of the sand as the crab moves over it. Nothing but me, the sand, the waves, that guy over there, the sand, more sand, lots of sand, so much sand, I’ll never get the sand out of my shoes, why the sand, all this sand! LVL 5 Sand slime killed Experience gained: 71.25 I stop a moment, then continue on. Just leave me alone please… Breathing heavily, I sit next to the corpse of a giant crab near the entrance of the city. Just a bit more, and I’ll be at the guild. If not for how tasty this stuff is and how much it sells for, I wouldn’t be doing all of this. A few minutes and a lot of huffing and puffing later, I’ve dragged it back to the guild’s materials warehouse. Now to dismantle it. I could hire someone else to dismantle it, and there are a few people hanging around the warehouse for that purpose, but that will decrease my earnings a bit. So, I do it myself. After a good twenty slippery minutes going at it with a knife, cutting myself not a few times on the sharp edges of its armour, I successfully separate the flesh from the rest of the body. I sell most of it to the guild, but this chunk here is my lunch! I can’t just start a fire in the middle of town, and I don’t have a dwelling place where I can do the same, so I head out of town again. Just to the outskirts, where I gather some sticks and dry grasses from around the area and start a small fire with my flint and steel. Taking out my pot and filling it with water from a nearby stream, I set the crab meat to boil. A while later, it was done, and I have myself a delicious meal. Now that is relaxing! Standing up and stretching, I- LVL 6 Sand slime killed Experience gained: 99.75 STOP HARRASSING ME! Darn it, my good mood is instantly gone. Then I hear a voice in my head. Oh great. ‘Hey, what’s up?’ (POV Gerald) “Hey, what’s up?” I’m in a good mood right now. My self-repair skill has gotten to the next proficiency level, and with the reduced cost, I can now do three repetitions with my current mana pool. Self-repair (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 2.48% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 6 mana: 0.1 durability The exp gain has dropped severely down to 0.05% per 1 durability. This meant I will have to repair the equivalent of 2000 durability to get it to the next level, or a bit over 158 cycles of three repetitions. Which will take around 10 days. Seriously, only 10 days? To get it to the level above expert? Hacks, I call hacks. Admins, fix this exploit! Not really, please don’t, I love it, don’t. So yes, I’m in a good mood. “Not in the mood, Gerald.” He isn’t in a good mood. “Why, what’s happening?” “These sand slimes won’t let me take a break!” Yeah, I noticed that exp slowly trickling in. He was just walking around, I couldn’t even tell when he killed them. “Sounds like you need to relax. I know a few brothels in town, do you want me to direct you to them?” “What? No. How do you even know where they are?” I see all, know all. That, and it’s pretty hard to ignore all those shapes flopping away at each other in the one building. “Mana sight. Speaking of which, I saw another place which might be good for relaxing. Back where you killed that crab, there was this seaside cliff nearby, and there’s this big cave facing the ocean in it. No people or big monsters in it at all, that I could see.” “You know what, that actually sounds alright. As long as it isn’t some kind of pirate cove…” “Eh, if it is, no-one was there. And if it is and no-one is still there, you can take all their stuff safely. With my current length of vision, I can easily alert you of anyone approaching. As long as they don’t come from the ocean, then they might see you coming out. That is, if they exist at all.” “Relaxation with the slight possibility of easy treasure? Sounds good to me.” Not that I saw any treasure in there, but I can’t see metal, so there could be golden coins littering the floor for all I know. (POV Ferdinand) As if all the time I took to get from there to the city was a lie, it only takes me about twenty minutes to get there. Well, I was pulling a giant crab before. Anyhow, how am I going to get into this cave? There’s no path or anything… I suppose I’ll just have to walk around in the water, it’s shallow enough. ‘Just so you know, there’s still nobody there, and nobody in the area either.’ ‘Great, thanks.’ Pulling off my boots and socks, I hold them as I walk through the water around the edge of the cliff. Sure enough, there it was. A nice little cave, sunny and sandy. Now… The real challenge is putting my boots back on without getting sand on my feet, and ideally drying them a bit… That boulder should do. Sitting down on it, I carefully shake the water off my feet and put my boots back on. Damp, but it’ll do. I’ll have to do this again going back out. Now to get a better look at this place… Sand, sand, rocks, more sand, boulder, sand, hermit crab, HERMIT CRAB!? I scratch my head furiously, crouching low to the ground. A moment later there’s that weird feeling that means Gerald has contacted me. ‘What is it?’ ‘WHY DIDN’T YOU MENTION THE HERMIT CRAB!?’ ‘Why would I mention the hermit crab?’ ‘Why WOULDN’T you mention the hermit crab?’ ‘Are we talking about the same thing here? Small, slow, completely harmless, that hermit crab?’ ‘No, I’m talking about the small, fast, potentially deadly hermit crab.’ ‘This world is weird. Back on mine, we kept those little things as pets. Boring pets. That’s why I didn’t mention it. Besides, I could only tell it was something really small, basically looks the same as a rock to me.’ Fair enough. Still, I don’t think I can win in combat with one of these. ‘Okay, I don’t suppose you have a plan?’ ‘In fact, I do. Oh, what a plan do I have. I have wanted to use this plan all the time you’ve been hunting, but we just haven’t met an enemy… small enough. Just throw me somewhere near it. Not at it, I’ll do the rest.’ ‘Do what? You can’t move?’ ‘What need is there to move? It’ll be coming to ME.’ And with that, he severs the link. Great plan, but could you tell me a bit more detail? Like, anything? So, I just throw him and hope he knows what he’s doing? I mean, really, he should just tell me the whole plan, it isn’t that hard. Whatever, it’s his own… head… if it goes wrong. Fetching him out of a pouch, I toss him near the boulder the hermit crab is on. It doesn’t twitch. I don’t know if that’s good or bad for that plan of his. So I wait. And… nothing really happens. I wait more. Still nothing. And- Oh, something’s happening. It’s wandering down the side of the boulder it’s on… towards Gerald? Very slowly, too. Are the things I’ve heard about it lies? I’ve never seen one before, since they’re so rare. Not only that, I heard that most of the time they only move for food… And combat. Otherwise, they just sit in secluded areas… like on a rock in a secluded cave. It slowly crawls over to Gerald… Then starts crawling over him. Strange… It all happens in an instant. They make their moves almost simultaneously; one fork, one hermit crab. One moment, it’s moving on top of him. The next, it’s falling, somehow. It almost seems as if it’s sinking into his body… I didn’t think his absorb skill is that powerful. In that moment, I think it’s already over. He’s surely won with that move. But then there is a loud sound, an explosion. The ground around Gerald caves in, sending sand flying at the speed of an arrow in flight, stinging against my arms as I raise them to protect my face. And over it all, a clear Snap. When I feel the sand stop pelting my arms and am able to take a clear look, my eyes widen in shock. Where there used to be flat sand, there is now a crater, the about half as deep as I am high. The boulder that was sitting in the sand, although weathered with age, was still a sturdy rock of considerable size. Now I see it crumbling before my eyes, sheets of stone rolling off like a snake shedding its skin. At that moment- LVL 32 Hermit crab1I still don't know if anyone actually got this joke... Nobody replied when I asked. killed Experience gained: 4094.5   Level up! You are now level 22! 4 Stat points gained. Stat points can wait, where is Gerald? Looking down from the edge of the crater, I spot him at the bottom of the crater. Split into two pieces, what is left of him was warped beyond recognition. (POV Gerald) LVL 32 Hermit crab killed Experience gained: 215.5   LVL 32 Hermit crab absorbed Experience gained: 4310 Durability recovered: 0.7 Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 1.1% Skills gained: Ki blast (Basic), Meditation (Basic) Traits gained: Ki practitioner Window will close in 29s   Level up! You are now level 28! 4 Stat points gained. If I had nerves right now, I would be in serious pain. Wait, no, I think that I would be unconscious. Definitely unconscious. Perhaps killed by the shock? Durability: 2.3/16.2 Probably dead. This level of damage, converted to a human body, would be… All limbs broken, internal organs ruptured, I think. Not to mention this is after being repaired by absorb… Good thing I’m not human. Now… Oh yeah, he’s probably thinking I’m dead right now. “Hey, I’m fine, just so you know. Currently extremely glad I have no sense of pain, but fine all the same.” I get a reply instantly. He really must’ve been concerned. “That’s great… But seriously, how are you not dead?” You’re still thinking like a biological, that’s why. You have to think like a fork to become a true fork. Wait, he’s not a fork. “Because I’m a fork, not human. Humans would have bled to death right now, if they didn’t die instantly. I’m a fork, so I just got bent. Give me a few hours and I’ll have healed this right up.” “Great… But did you have to be that reckless?" “I didn’t know It was that powerful. Still, although I wouldn’t try this again, at least it ended well. Now, I need a moment to check my status if you don’t mind.” “Me too, I levelled up from that.” “Congratulations!” “Thanks.” Now, what are all these cool-sounding things I got? Let’s start from the trait. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Okay, but my body’s limits are 0. What does that give me, 1? Out of the two skills, the most interesting one is the ki blast, so let’s leave that till last. Meditation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.00%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 1.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 1.5, Ki generated at 10 times the normal rate. Are you mocking me!? You’re mocking me, aren’t you!? Stuff you too, then, status! Still, that’s wicked cool. Double regen for mana and Psi is cool enough, but why is Ki a crazy 10 times? Let’s see, status, ki, ki… Aha. That’s why. Ki regen: 2.07 (20.7)/day 20.7 a day, though? That’s not much… wait, if I convert mana to per day… almost freaking 12k!? Madness! Madness? THIS! IS! FORK! Ahem. Still, there’s a limit to how much ki I can have at one time, as well. 20750. Or 100 days. That’s a while. Ki blast (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.00%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 20 points. Boring, but what if I infused a whole load of ki into it? Hey, that’s probably what the crab did. That really did pack a pun- hey, I’m in a crater. Huh. That’s… powerful. I wonder, could I use tiny ki blasts to propel myself around? …Better not try that until I’m back to full durability. Anyway, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to play minesweeper much, if I’m using meditation to boost my growth rate. Too bad, I think I was getting somewhere with my last game… but it’s not like playing it is actually useful for anything but passing the time. With that all said and done, I’ve done what I wanted to do, so I contact Ferdinand again. “Hey, sorry about that, that really didn’t work out like I’d hoped. Still, at least nothing happened to you. That would be more difficult to repair.” It takes a few moments for him to reply, and he seems a bit absent-minded. “It’s alright. Like you said, it ended with no lasting harm done.” “What’s up? You sound distracted.” Another pause. “I’m not sure where to put my stat points. I used to focus all of my points into strength and dexterity, with a bit of a focus on endurance, but that was when I never thought I’d ever get much stronger. But now I’m getting all these levels so quickly, I’m not sure what to do.” “What’s endurance? I don’t have that one.” “It relates to your body’s toughness and stamina.” Okay, that makes it easy. “What weapon do you want to use in the future? Just a sword? Sword and shield, or perhaps a greatsword?” “Perhaps a greatsword, they look powerful.” “Then you’ll probably want to focus on strength first, endurance second and dexterity third. If you’ve already been focusing on dexterity in the past, just ignore it for a while until your endurance catches up. You’ll probably want to learn this ki stuff too, it looks pretty powerful.” “Okay… That sounds reasonable. Wait, you have ki now? What don’t you have!?” “The ability to move, hear, speak, smell, taste and touch. But apart from that, I seem to have a bit of everything.” “Um, sorry…” “Don’t worry about it, I’ve been living like this for ages now, I’m used to it. Besides, this telepathy is a big improvement to what I had before. So, what now?” “I’m going to go back to the city before something else happens.” “That’s another jinx. But… what makes you assume nothing will happen in the city?” A long pause. “Oh holy gods of mercy, kindness and peace, protect me in this grim world from the terrors that seek to destroy my daily life. I implore you that my days will return again to the past of simple hunts, without great danger and insane events occurring around me. I ask the gods of…” He continued on like that for a long time. I eventually just cut the link. Well, all in all, a successful day! Oh, the stat points. I'll chuck a bit into STR for luls. 1.5 to WIS, 1 to INT, 1.5 to STR. And with that, I have nothing to do again. Let's try out this meditation skill. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 28 Experience: 4005.53/5700 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 44.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 44.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 24.8 Durability: 2.4/16.4 Mana: 880/880 Mana regen: 8.90/min Psi: 445/445 Psi regen: 4.40/min Ki: 0/2892 (28925) Ki regen: 2.89 (28.92)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 15.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Advanced) (High Rare, Passive/toggled) 38.11% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/2m. Their forms are now more distinct, but still blurred. Self-repair (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 3.74% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 6 mana: 0.1 durability Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 1.32% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, Passive) 7.62% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.46% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.12% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 305 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.10% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Meditation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.00%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 1.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 1.5, Ki generated at 10 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.00%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 20 points. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 22 Experience 2892.33/3900 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 36.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 24.4   Health: 244/244 Health regen: 1.464/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 46.11% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.01% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 17.32% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 92.30% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 18.75% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.05% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 64.11% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 24.61% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.79% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 84.29% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minutely increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +0.5 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.09% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 27.13% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse]

(POV Ferdinand) With a scratching sound, the final line is marked upon the map. Scooping a large piece of earth up in her hands, Lily lays the newly deceased cat within the shallow grave and sprinkles the earth over it. She looks up at us. “I have the necromancer’s location. The place… doesn’t have a name, but it is near the Empire’s borders to the west.” “Excellent.” Exclaims Luc. “We should make haste towards him, lest he moves or does further damage.” I nod. Joe chews absently on a strand of wheat, seemingly uninterested. “Indeed, but we should at least inquire at the temples we pass to see if there are any other paladins or priests available to assist us.” Lily says. (POV Gerald) We pass through several cities without any trouble from bandits, and very little from monsters. They were likely intimidated by the heavily armoured paladins. Speaking of, they managed to persuade some other paladins and priests to join our motley troupe. As we go along some of them look sidelong at Ferdinand, but more of them are looking strangely at this empty spot near us I assume Joe is occupying. In total we have five paladins, four priests, an adventurer, a weirdo and a fork against a single necromancer. Usually good odds, but then again, a necromancer is a one-man army. When we finally arrive, everything looks normal. A slight breeze tumbles petals through the air peacefully. The scene is so very different from the mental image most of them must have been holding, so much that someone even mutters, ‘Are we sure this is the right place?’ “He’s got quite the compound underground, by the looks of it. The entrance is hidden about a hundred-fifty meters in front of you, and a tad to your left.” I tell Ferdinand. “But how can I say that without seeming suspicious?” He asks. Hey, I must be rubbing off on him, he’s starting to ask the right questions. “Not sure.” I reply honestly. “At least some of them can detect lies, so if you just keep saying it, they should believe you.” Ferdinand starts trying to tell everyone where the entrance is. They agree that they may as well start looking there and start walking over. The horses they leave tied to a lone tree; mounts will only be a hindrance underground. Meanwhile, I take a closer look at this compound, hidden base… thing. Evil lair. The necromancer is… there. Oh. That doesn’t look good. That doesn’t look good at all. “Might want to hurry it up a bit. The necromancer is doing some sort of magical… ritual… thing.” With a lot of corpses. At a guess, around... a thousand? The rest of the rooms in his evil lair are completely empty, not a sign of undead anywhere… unless those lanterns are undead. Could be. A feeling of pressure on my handle brings my attention back to my body. Ferdinand is taking me out of his pack. You do know that I can easily get myself out at any tim- aaand he’s handing me over to Luc. Okay, what? ‘Look, if you are having trouble with something… just use the fork, Luc.’ …Alrighty, didn’t see that one coming. He goes on to clarify that Luc should throw me at an enemy. Luc is understandably confused, but puts me away in a pouch on his belt nonetheless. That sneaky little… he knows that if I try to do anything here, I’ll expose myself. “Fine. Just remember that if you get split up from Luc, I won’t be able to help you.” I warn him. “I know.” Raising holy symbols, the priests begin to cast blessings upon everyone – me excepted, obviously. Ferdinand says that they have raised both his physical and mental stats by 5, as well as granting him some resistance to death energy, poison and rot. Not bad. We reach the entrance, and Luc draws his sword. He jabs it into the ground, piercing through into the empty space below. Nodding to himself, he starts slicing at an impressive speed, the first piece starting to fall just as he completes the last cut. Around us, the earth starts to bulge. Rather than a single, massive distortion, there are hundreds upon hundreds of small bulges starting to break the earth around them. They aren’t large, perhaps the size of a large ball… or a head. Skulls start to surface all around them, skeletal hands pulling themselves free of shallow graves to reveal a horde of skeletons. Soil trickles from between empty ribs and hanging jaws, and a few stubborn flowers cling to some of the skeletons’ pale domes. Three of the priests raise their arms in prayer and call out, ““Holy sanctuary!””. A softly glowing hemisphere expands from their position until in encompasses the entire group. Half a beat later, the last priest raises his arms and calls out “H-holy sanctuary!” in an oddly high-pitched voice, causing the sphere’s glow to get slightly brighter. As the first skeletons step foot into the sphere’s radium, the dark flames behind their eyes dim considerably, and their movements slow to a standstill. It takes practically no effort for the paladins to cut them down. Fear fills the priests’ eyes as they recognise the distinctive twanging sound from the rear of the horde; the holy sanctuary repels the undead, it has no effect against ranged attacks! One of the paladins raises his shield, shouting lowly, “Divine barrier!”. The edge of the sanctuary surrounding the group turns solid, just in time to deflect a volley of arrows. Glancing off the shield, the otherwise deadly quarrels scatter ineffectively into the horde, doing practically nothing to the skeletal undead. Walking ever towards the living, the skeletons begin to batter at the barrier. Their attacks are unable to breach it, but the bright light slowly begins to dim. “I cannot hold this for long!” Exclaims the paladin, face pained as he strains to keep up the barrier in the face of constant assault. “Everyone underground!” Shouts Lily, leading the group down the formerly hidden staircase herself. Luc follows close behind, warily looking around in case of any further ambushes. Next is Ferdinand and Joe, then the four priests – the sanctuary slowly fading behind them, leaving only the barrier itself – the other two paladins and finally the paladin that was holding up the barrier. Lit only by ominously glowing skulls and surrounded on all sides by dark earth, the group descends the stone stairs in silence until the paladin at the rear groans, “They breached my barrier.” Nobody replies, but their speed increases and their faces tense slightly. Reaching a set of doors, they open them and enter an empty room with passageways in each direction. “Which way do we go now?” Someone asks, looking down the nearly identical corridors. “Right.” Says Ferdinand hesitantly. A few people look at him suspiciously, but Lily just shrugs. “You were right last time. That said, some of us should stay behind to hold off the undead here. Marco, Alex, Ferdinand and Joe, you four should be able to fend them off using the doorway as a choke point.” Ferdinand, the barrier paladin and a pale-looking priest nod, while Joe just shrugs. Turning, Lily looks solemnly into the dim tunnel and moves quickly into it, followed closely by Luc and the remaining paladins and priests. They soon vanish out of sight and hearing. Alex the priest nervously runs his tongue along his lips to moisten them. “So, ah… I believe, in times like this, introductions are in order?” He glances up the staircase, face paling further as he sees the veritable sea of white bones nearly at the bottom. “I, ah… am Alex. I’m a priest, uh… obviously.” He fingers the holy symbol hanging from a chain on his neck. Marco glances at him before striding to the door, readying his sword and shield. “Marco, son of Marcus. I follow Oodral, God of the shield.” His voice flows smoothly into the room, clear and strong. Ferdinand, already at the door, braces himself against the fear of facing overwhelming odds. “Ferdinand, adventurer.” He says, just loud enough to be heard over the loudening din of clacking bones. “Joe!” Joe says, sticking his arm up cheerfully. “Well, nice to meet you, Marco, Ferdinand, Joe.” Alex gulps. “I, ah, hope this won’t be our last meeting.” “It will not.” States Marco, bashing the head of an approaching skeleton with his shield. “We do not need to defeat them, only to hold them off until the others defeat the necromancer. This is a simple task. Long and tiresome, yes… but simple.” Alex nods worriedly, raising his holy symbol. “Holy sanctuary.” He mutters, causing a dimly glowing hemisphere to appear in the doorway – encompassing Marco and Ferdinand, as well as a few of the skeletons nearby. “It won’t be as effective as the one earlier but, uh, I should be able to hold it there for a while… because it’s smaller.” Alex finishes lamely. Ferdinand and Marco make no response, now entirely concentrating on holding back the skeleton horde. Seeing that the two of them appear to be having little difficulty at this early point, Alex glances idly around. Spotting Joe comfortably reclining against the wall and watching the combat, he frowns. “You aren’t going to do anything?” He asks. Joe turns his head to face him. “Nah, I don’t fight.” Alex’s frown deepens. “Then why are you here in the first place?” “To watch things like this.” Joe points at the two defending the doorway, small piles of bones beginning to pile up around them. “To feel the tension of a fight, to taste the air… bleh, this air is full of death energy!” He spits onto the floor in disgust. Alex, already in a less than ideal state of mind, is completely unable to handle Joe’s strangeness at this moment. ‘…I’ll just concentrate on the fighting.’ He decides. Meanwhile, the other group is navigating their way through the tunnels. They pass by several rooms – ones filled with papers, some with various magical items, a room full of mirrors… giving them little more than a cursory glance, the paladins and priests hurry on by. No doubt, the contents of the rooms are important, but right now finding and defeating the necromancer is top priority; the contents of the rooms won’t be going anywhere, after all. There will be time to carefully search through everything here later. “Are we sure this is the right way?” Lily doesn’t waste any time stopping; a second spent here is another second that the entrance has to be defended. “Can you not feel the density of death energy increasing? This is the correct path, I am sure of it.” The paladin doesn’t respond. Now that she mentions it, he can feel the death energy increasing… and by no small degree either. He barely needs to use a detection skill to feel the malignant energy prickling against his skin, sapping at his stamina. All of them can feel it. They are close. Turning another corner, they see the tunnel opening up into a massive chamber, inside which… Their eyes widen in shock that quickly turns to anger as they take in the scene in front of them. Hundreds of dried up bodies lie in piles in several circles around the room, channels leading from them to a massive stone basin in the floor… both are empty, save the cloaked man standing in the center of the basin. “What manner of foul ritual is this?” Mutters one of the priests involuntarily. The cloaked man turns, and one of the paladins shudder. The man’s eyes are pitch black, and his face is a whitish colour, as if completely devoid of blood. “Free at last.” It sighs, but its face shows no emotion. “Free from what? Your humanity?” Accuses Luc. Eyeing Luc coldly, the Lich states expressionlessly, “It doesn’t matter.” Its lack of tone makes it difficult to tell what it is referring to. “I am in a good mood right now, so your deaths will be swift and painless.” Its dark eyes glint malevolently. “You will all make excellent undead.” Before anyone can make a move, it raises its dark staff and quickly chants, “By the dark contracts I call to thee – mass summon undead.” With a brief flash of light, a battalion of skeletons clad in rusty, corroded armour appear in front of the Lich. “Holy smite!” With a word, a holy light flies out and strikes one of the skeletons. It falls to the ground with a clatter, vanquished with that single blow. Completely ignoring the skeletons, Luc leaps over them to attack the Lich directly. Wielding its staff in a startling display of both physical and martial prowess, the Lich parries Luc’s attacks while retreating, chanting rapidly as it does so: “Damned soldiers, never stop; never falter. Death march.” Chips fly from the Lich’s staff as it continues to parry Luc’s blows, and it appears to be losing ground fast. But just as Luc is about to overwhelm the Lich, three of the undead surround him, and he is forced to switch his focus to them. Cladding his blade in a holy aura, Luc deftly slips away from their attacks. Shifting his footing, he twists, sword silently cutting through the air and beheading all three of the undead. With barely a pause in his movements, he again lunges after the Lich. “Strong… you aren’t from around here. This will be an excellent opportunity to familiarise myself with my new body’s peculiarities…” The Lich steps frantically backwards, then looks up as it seems to realise something. “Death march… I almost forgot that I can use these spells on myself, now that I too am undead.” Its movements quicken considerably, and it manages to break away from Luc, duck around a pile of bodies and slip into the midst of its undead soldiers. Grimacing, Luc prepares to cut his way through to the Lich when a voice rings out over the din of clashing weapons. “Luc! They managed to surround us! Some assistance would be appreciated!” Before Lily finishes shouting, Luc is already slashing his way through the perimeter. “How did they manage to get around you?” He asks Lily, glancing around before resuming his assault on the skeletons. The priests appear unharmed, but the other paladins have traces of blood trickling down unmarred skin – evidence of a wound that had recently been healed. “They suddenly sped up, caught us off guard.” Explains Lily, felling another skeleton with another bolt of holy magic. “Cover for me a bit.” She jumps back and starts to chant, not waiting for a response. Shaking his head in resignation, Luc dashes off again to decimate the rest of the skeletons surrounding them while the others hold off the few at the front. Like a line of dominoes, sets of armour fall to the ground one by one, subtle cuts evident in thinner portions of armour or straight through the metal when his or their position made it inconvenient to target their weak points. Having eliminated the encirclement, Luc looks up, expecting to see a severely smaller group of skeletons now guarding the Lich that he could potentially charge straight through. Instead he sees another group of skeletons appearing around the Lich. There are only eleven of them, but they appear considerably more formidable than the skeletons they had seen before. If the first group of skeletons the Lich summoned were soldiers, then these are the generals. Clad in suits of steel armour that are without exception covered in nicks and scratches, but are nevertheless in good condition, they have the quiet confidence in their bearing that is present in only the veterans of many battles. Despite being undead, they almost feel alive as they simultaneously focus glares on the wary paladins and priests through the eye-slits in their visors. Leaving the soldiers behind, the skeleton generals advance in unison, quickly splitting into three different groups; one which moves directly towards the paladins and two that move off at an angle to attack their flanks. One of the paladins fires a holy bolt at the approaching skeletons. As it is about to hit, the skeleton tilts its body with contemptuous ease. The bolt flies straight into the gap created, hitting one of the skeleton soldiers behind it. Eying the paladin in question mockingly, the skeleton general continues to advance unimpeded. Incensed, the paladin begins casting bolts rapidly, but the skeleton generals duck and weave around them effortlessly, and they end up splashing against the skeletons or walls behind. Noticing that his efforts had only been a waste of mana, the paladin frowns in frustration and instead imbues holy magic into his sword. Behind him, the three priests hurriedly cast another holy sanctuary, the perimeter expanding to encompass them and the four paladins just as the skeletons are about to reach them. Grinding to a halt, the skeleton generals look warily at the softly glowing hemisphere. Instinct tells them that touching it will bring them harm, and yet within it are their enemies. One of them reaches out and dips a finger into it experimentally, whipping it out a moment later as it feels the holy magic purifying the death energy in its finger. Its eyes dim ever so slightly as the death energy within it redistributes itself to clad the finger once again. Another skeleton reaches out with its sword. Unlike the skeletons themselves, their armour and weaponry are not part of them, and thus the sword is unaffected by the holy magic. When they see that their weapons can enter without anything happening, their hesitation disappears, and they begin to attack again, although they are careful not to let any part of their body enter within the radius of the spell. While all the paladins and priests are within the perimeter of the spell, the priests are unable to sustain too large a radius, and thus the skeletons are able to reach the paladins with their weapons. Of course, a smaller area also means that it is easier to defend, but the paladins are incredibly hard pressed to defend themselves, especially when Lily is still chanting. Wounds begin to appear on the paladins’ limbs despite their shields, the skeletons piercing their weapons into any and every hole in their defences. The only exception is Luc himself, fending off three and sometimes four at once without a single injury to show for it thus far. Still, he appears to be fighting at the very limits of his abilities; eyes restlessly darting about, trying to see everything at once while his sword appears to have a life of its own, twisting and parrying relentlessly. If not for the sanctuary, and if not for the fact that Lily and the priests are just outside the reach of the skeletons, the seven of them would likely have been overwhelmed in moments under the undead onslaught. But the paladins and priests are tiring, slowly running out of mana, and the skeleton generals are not. At this rate, it is only a matter of time before they run out of mana and fall. It is at this point that, unbeknownst to each other because of the noise of combat, both Lily and the Lich finish their chanting.  “…Correct injustice, sever evil from this world. Sword of Judgement!” Shouts Lily. Raising a gauntlet, she curls her fingers, leaving a single index to point at the Lich standing sheltered within the skeletons. “…Wherever you step, death shall follow. Summon Undead Warlord!” Intones the Lich, lifting the splintered remains of its staff. A golden sword appears in the air in front of Lily’s finger and begins to shoot towards the Lich at high speed. Noticing the situation, one of the skeleton generals throws itself into the path of the sword, but the sword pierces straight through into its armour, breaks through the bones behind it and out through the back with little reduction in speed or alteration to its course. Now the only things standing between it and the Lich itself are the remaining skeleton soldiers, which promptly pile themselves into a wall of bone and metal. That too has a thin hole cut straight through it. And that’s when the undead Warlord appears. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 2930.58/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 960/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 485/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 10454/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.34% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.94% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.95% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 24.64%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 20.08% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 45.12% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 6.37% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 29 Experience: 1907.98/6000 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 46.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 37.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 38.4   Health: 376/384 Health regen: 2.304/hour Stamina: 273/377 Stamina regen: 3.77/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Skills Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.93% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.33% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.61% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.59% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry – Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry – Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword – Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 25.48% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.30% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Power slash (Basic) (High Common, Active) 21.37% - Multiplies the speed and power of a slash by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 14.63% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 [collapse]

A metallic, whitish blue fork flips madly into the air. After a few moments, gravity takes hold, and it begins falling once again. With a slight ‘poof’ of moving air, an unseen force pushes it back up, causing it to dance on the wind again. It falls again… rises again. Falls again… rises… barely half a centimetre before starting to fall again. The element of randomness to this ki blast makes it incredibly difficult to do accurate movements with it. Especially since it requires so little to move me, so a difference of five points, let alone twenty, is a large increase in power. But increasing the proficiency to rectify that problem requires me to use it, so here I am, flipping away. Still, movement is a pleasant new experience. Even if it is a bit randomised. Ki blast (Basic) has evolved into Ki blast (Advanced) due to 100% proficiency Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 0.0%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. …Better, but I want zero variation! I can’t trust RNG! Well, back to it, I suppose. …I seem to be stuck. I really should have guessed that I might fall tines-first. Let’s see… How about 20 ki? I activate the skill again, and I’m propelled out of the hole and into the air again. And then… My tines neatly slip back into the earth. Well alrighty then! I check my status briefly. Good timing, my mana is back to maximum. Activating form manipulation – self, I first bend most of my body flat to the ground, then draw my tines out of the ground. After that, I form myself into a ball. A very small, wonky ball, but a ball nonetheless. Ha! Let’s see me get stuck into the ground like this! …I fall into a crevice. Well, whatever. With the simultineous utilisation of a ki blast and absorb, I cut a path back to the surface, and another ki blast horizontally puts me out of the way of both hole and crevice. Ki blasts in mid-air aren’t as effective motion-wise as ones from a solid surface, but they still work, albeit to a lesser degree. I am currently around two kilometres out from the city. There’s nobody within my range of vision, and at this distance, it would be stranger if somebody does notice me than if they don’t. I am very small after all, and seeing something with a size measured in centimetres from a distance of over a kilometre would require some pretty serious visual acuity, not to mention luck. Well, it’s not like people with abilities like that won’t exist in a world like this. I mean, look at me! Just 10 months old and I can do all this! Alright, I may be a bit of a bad example, but you get my drift. There are always anomalies. Ferdinand is off hunting nearby. I worry a bit when he doesn’t have me to make sure he doesn’t get KO’ed by some powerful monster that walks along, but there’s none of them around here. Besides, it’s not good for him to rely overly on my protection. Not that I won’t rush over if something serious happens, of course. I wonder, now that I can move, should I do some hunting of my own? Days pass by with us leisurely training and hunting. It almost seems as if all the crazy events of the past week or two were a dream. Until… (POV Richard) I walk down a familiar hallway, old memories swirling to the surface of my mind through the thick haze of age. Despite all the friends and triumphs I had had here, my countenance is grim and unchanging. I have come back to headquarters of the Empire’s navy for one purpose, and one purpose only: to find whatever it was that I saw that day. It is doubtful they would have any intelligence on it precisely, but… I think back to the piles of corpses I saw in the hold of that ship. That many people don’t go missing without people noticing. After asking a few old buddies, it turns out that the current head of the information department in the navy is a past student of mine. Stepping up to his office, I rap my knuckles on the door. I hear someone within the room getting up and walking to the door. It opens a moment later. He looks at me quizzically for a second, then his eyes widen in recognition and he snaps to attention, saluting. When I finally manage to recall his name, I open my mouth. “I’m an Admiral no longer, Harry. You don’t have to salute me.” He relaxes, smiling abashedly. “It’s reflex by now… I can’t exactly stop doing it, sir. But rather than that, why have you come back?” I sigh, and explain the bare minimum. “When I was fishing the other week, I came across another ship. It was filled with demons, monsters and… corpses.” Harry tenses, looking furtively down the corridor. Seeing the complete lack of other people, he sighs briefly in relief and beckons me inside. I step in, and he quickly closes the door behind me. I frown. “Why all the secrecy?” Harry sits down at the neatly arranged desk, hurriedly taking out a few documents. “If I’m right… This could involve some very powerful people. Do you remember that old abandoned mansion out west?” I think for a moment, then just give up. “No.” He frowns. “The Sylgrave family mansion, thought to be haunted for almost a century… Anyway, someone recently bought up the land and paid for priests to come out and purify the whole place. A couple of months later, our contacts in the underworld tell us the same person has bought up almost the whole slave supply.” How bizarre… something like that would take a hefty chunk out of anyone’s coffers. Gulping, he says, “That’s the only thing we know that could account for such a large number of people going missing.” “Give me a map that shows where that mansion is.” I say flatly. He hesitates, then takes a piece of paper out of the drawer of his desk, handing it to me. “If anyone asks, I didn’t say anything.” He says, in a similar tone. “Sure.” It shows enough detail of the surrounding area for me to find it, so I stand and turn to leave. “Sir.” I turn back to him. He sits there opening and closing his mouth for a few seconds, but doesn’t say anything. Finally, Harry gathers himself and says, “Just… be careful, sir.” With a slight nod, I leave. After Richard leaves, Harry closes the door behind him and slowly sinks into his chair. He looks down at his hands. They are trembling violently. He tries grasping the desk, taking a swig from a flask of wine. Nothing works. “They never told me it would be you…” he mumbles, holding his head in his hands. For the first time in his life, Harry finds himself wishing he had disobeyed orders. “Damn it!” He swears, rushing up to the door and opening it again; but Richard has already left. Closing the door, he quietly takes out his flask again, taking several long drinks from it. In all likelihood, he won’t be able to sleep tonight. Shuffling some papers around, he looks at a document hidden under all the rest. Orders from the top brass, not that you would know: the page is unmarked and unsigned. It was strange when he first saw it, and stranger still when he looks at it now. It states simply, that if anyone were to come to him, inquiring of missing people, demons, monsters or monitored vessels, he must describe to them the points outlined; namely, that of the old mansion being bought and purified recently, and the purchase of large sums of slaves by the same person. He must then provide them with the map attached, and should thereafter in no manner disclose this information to any other party. The situation outlined by the orders is ridiculous in and of itself. After all, if someone wanted information, would they not ask one of his many subordinates first? Not just anyone could walk in the door to his office unannounced. In fact, only his superiors and a few old friends could… The realisation strikes him heavier than a whale. It wasn’t just that Richard happened to be the one asking. No, the entire situation was created so that he would be the only one who could ask… Following that path of thought to its conclusion makes him break out in a cold sweat. Harry quaffs more wine from his flask, emptying it completely. He definitely isn’t getting any sleep tonight. Meanwhile, Richard is overlooking the land from the top of a rocky cliff, comparing the prominent landscape features to the map. Having reconfirmed the direction he has to take, he makes his way down the cliff again. In his younger days, he might have just jumped down. But his age is catching up to him, and wasting energy now would be simply foolish. Normally, even walking around would cause a dull pain to radiate from his bones. But not today. His fighting spirit has been steadily increasing since the moment he left the navy headquarters, and it causes the pain to become meaningless, forgotten amidst the anticipation of battle. So, he walks. And walks. For hours he walks, stopping only to check the map, eat and drink. When the run-down mansion is finally in sight, the sun has already begun to set on the horizon, and night is swiftly approaching. Caution struggles internally against the thrill of fighting spirit coursing through him, as well as the intense desire to find out precisely who, or what, it was that had taken on the appearance of his late son. Caution prevails. There are many beings of evil that grow in strength at night, and he already knows demons are involved. On land, he is already bereft of the advantages provided to him at sea. Why disadvantage himself further? Richard settles himself down on a stone, keeping a vigil watch on the property. If anything escapes during the night, he doesn’t know if he will be able to forgive himself. Not when he is so close. The last vestiges of the sun slip over the horizon, and the world is blanketed with darkness once more. Stars speckle the night sky, interrupted occasionally by dark clouds. A common sight for any of this world’s denizens, no doubt. But were Gerald able to see this, he would be startled – and very, very confused. For where earth’s night sky has innumerable stars of all different colours and brightness populating it, Odwia’s skyline is vastly different. While there are still many stars in the sky, they number in the hundreds, not thousands. But stranger still is that every star has the same colour, the same size, and the vast majority of them have the same brightness, with some few numbering in the lower tens outclassing the splendour of the rest by an order of magnitude. But perhaps strangest of all is that each star, if one looks closely enough, has a specific shape. Indeed, there is one shaped like a sword, another like a bow, yet another like an anvil. Nevertheless, Richard does not seem astounded by the irregular vista, remaining on the lookout unblinkingly. Time wears on beneath his patient gaze, and fatigue begins to tug at him gently, enticing Richard into a sweet sleep. Only the steady burn of fighting spirit coursing through him even now keeps him awake. Teroc, ponderously tracing his way across the sky, eventually reaches the peak of his orbit. It is at this moment that Richard’s eyes gleam, standing almost instantly while his hand shoots towards the harpoon holstered on his back. A silhouette exits from the dilapidated mansion’s front entrance, walking leisurely towards Richard. One hand still on his harpoon, the other moves towards a pouch at his side, drawing from it a vial of translucent colourless liquid. Without taking his eyes from the advancing figure, he pops the cork and downs the contents in a single gulp. After a moment, Richard’s eyes begin to glow so softly that it would be impossible to notice in daylight. In the darkness, however, they emit a mystical brightness. Any alchemist worth their salts can concoct a night vision potion – provided they have the ingredients – but the huge demand by adventurers, guards, thieves and many others keeps the price high nonetheless. If you can’t see in the dark, such things are indispensable. Richard’s eyes sharpen, focusing on the figure. It’s him again. His body is concealed by a voluminous cloak, but the face is unmistakable. Richard hates everything about this situation. He is going in completely blind – metaphorically speaking. He doesn’t know his enemy’s fighting capabilities, he doesn’t know if they have allies in hiding – hell, he doesn’t know what his enemies are. The ground is completely bare, without a single blade of grass covering its baldness. The dry ground grates against his boots as he calmly takes a stance, taking care that his every muscle and tendon are exactly as they should be. It is silent. Completely, unnaturally so. The only sound for miles around are the slowly approaching footsteps of the imposter and the steady breaths of Richard as he composes himself for the inevitable conflict. A small circle of dust is stained a dark brown with a sound softer than that of a feather landing. The spot is joined by another, just a step away. Then another. Then thousands, as the rain begin in earnest. Richard doesn’t flinch at the moisture coursing down his body. If anything, he welcomes its touch as an old friend. Water holds no secrets to the long-time man of the sea, and it does not hinder him in the slightest. The two grow closer. Two hundred metres. Then one hundred. Eighty. Fifty. Thirty. Twenty. Again, Richard’s hand shoots down to his pouch, then forward, sending four shapes streaking out towards his opponent. With a flash and a series of dings, the imposter skilfully deflects the projectiles, a spear held relaxedly in his hands. “Is that how you treated your son? How terrible.” He drawls, his voice smothered heavily by the roaring downpour. Richard hears it clear as day. He says softly, “What are you?”, as much a question as it is a probe of his opponent’s abilities. The imposter raises his hands to shoulder height either side of him, shrugging and shaking his head as his spear lolls dangerously in his grip. “Now that would be telling… suffice to say, I’m not your son.” He looked Richard in the eye, smiling. “But you wouldn’t believe me even if I said I was, would you?” Richard doesn’t reply, but neither does he break eye contact. His hand moves yet again to his pouch. “This again?” the imposter laughs as he readies himself for combat. Richard tosses out another string of blades. “So slo-” With a slight tremble, Richard disappears from where he was standing, momentarily leaving a space void of rain. He reappears behind the imposter, sending a flurry of stabs towards him. Almost contemptuously, the imposter deflects each strike with a twirl of his own spear, smiling gloatingly as he brushes the last one aside. An instant later, his smile freezes and he quickly dodges to the side. Frowning, he picks out a dagger from where it is lodged on his back. “Clever… but it won’t do you any good.” Shedding his cloak, he reveals a set of black leathery armour that hugs his body. Flames flicker in and out of existence all along the surface of it, creating a constant hiss as it contests against the rain. “Do you like it? I personally killed the nightmare this was made from…” Then they are at it again, whirling in a storm of thrusts and slashes. Their feet, moving almost as fast as their weapons, send water flying from the puddles on the ground as they shuffle about, each trying to get an advantage over the other. Richard’s eyes widen slightly, then become even more determined as he utilises a heavy kick to blow the imposter backwards. He is unharmed, but he skids backwards over a dozen metres on the slippery soil. In the meantime, Richard quickly accesses his pouch again, drawing from it vial after vial of coloured liquid, each of which he downs with careful haste. Some he drinks simultaneously, tossing the empty vials aside. Potions of strength, swiftness, toughness, mental clarity, wisdom, even luck. And rarer, more expensive ones. Resist curse, resist poison, increase recovery, stamina recovery, restore stamina… He barely downs the last one when the imposter darts in with another attack. Tossing the last few vials at his face, he shatters them with a backhand strike, sending glassy shrapnel flying. Leaning to one side to avoid the cloud of projectiles, the imposter stabs towards Richard’s stomach, but a hurried twist of the harpoon by Richard deflects it. But not enough. The sharp spearhead pierces through the air towards Richard’s side, but after cutting through his clothes, it skids across into empty air. Caught in Richard’s shirt, the spear tears a gaping hole in the coarse fabric as it returns to his side, revealing a scaly armour beneath it. “Do you like it?” Richard grins savagely. “I personally killed the giant sea serpent this was made from…” The imposter curses. “Bastard, how about we get serious now?” Richard’s eyes narrow. “Gladly. Try not to die too quickly, if you can.” Both jumping back from the melee, both of Richard’s hands dip into his pouch while the imposter tenses, a bloody aura leaking from his body and condensing upon his weapon, painting it crimson. The imposter leaps back into battle soon after, and Richard’s hands return from the pouch, now garbed in a pair of scaled gloves. Spreading his hands to the sky, ten glints of light fly out. The airborne harpoon tilts in mid-air, shooting towards the imposter. He slams it away, but it curves back around. Eyes widening in desperation, the impostor jumps backwards in a graceful arc, landing on his hands and flipping backwards again onto his feet. The harpoon embeds itself in the ground, a wire uncoiling from its haft. “You’re bloody joking.” Ten wires arc towards him through the air, cutting off all paths of escape. Gritting his teeth, the imposter emits a burst of ki, blasting the wires backwards. But a moment later, they correct their courses once more, streaming towards him uncannily. Unable to repeat the burst so quickly, all he can do is dash to one side, warding off what few he can with his spear. The imposter feels a light impact, as if something hit his armour. Then he suddenly feels as if he is hit with a hammer, and something digs through his armour and into his skin. Yanking it out, he looks incredulously at it for a moment. A fishing hook? Then the hook slips through his grasp, flying at his face. Hurriedly, he lets go of the sharp wire now slicing across his armoured palm and dodges to the best of his ability. The hook misses him but turns yet again to hook into the back of his neck. Another impact leaves it embedded there, causing the imposter to gasp for breath before again creating a burst of ki which expels it from his body and repels the other nine wires almost upon him. Desperate to close the gap, the imposter sprints towards him. Strangely, although he has not moved a step, Richard is breathing heavily as he manipulates the wires streaming from his fingertips to twist in the air again and form a wall of wires in front of him. Eager to decrease Richard’s fighting ability, the imposter slashes at a wire with his blood-red spear. That particular wire suddenly loses its mysterious flight capabilities, falling to the ground and rendering his strike completely ineffective. The remaining wires close in on his position yet again, him seeming completely helpless before their impossible range of movement. Just as they are about to latch on to the imposter and slice him into ribbons, hundreds of bones rise from the ground to create a barrier in front of him. A moment later, a horde of skeletons emerge from the mud behind Richard. Wielding nothing but rusted swords, they are of little danger individually, but in numbers they can be a threat to those much stronger than them. Suddenly forced to split his attention between two directions, the effective battle power Richard can exert in either direction is less than half the strength he could originally. One hand points forward, one back, and the wires whip around the horde of skeletons, scattering thousands of bone fragments to the wind and covering the ground there in white. On the other side, the imposter is fending off the five wires attacking him as he moves slowly towards Richard. A series of bone spears flies towards Richard. His attention on so many different things, Richard is barely able to avoid the bolts, and for a moment his wires start falling from the air before they again lash towards his many opponents. Within the skeleton army, two dark shapes rise from the ground. Snorting, steam rises from the nostrils of two dark horses, the stench of death surrounding them despite their apparent life. Upon each of them is seated an armoured warrior, wielding in one hand a large sword and the other holding aloft their severed heads. They charge towards Richard without a care for whether it is mud or their fellow skeletons that is crushed beneath their hooves. Pressured more with every passing second, he has no choice but to take a risk. With an explosion of steam and air, one wire slashes out with blinding speed towards the skeletal foes. Bisecting every skeleton in its path, the wire swiftly reaches the two dullahans. The first raises its blade in an attempt to block, but the wire cuts straight through the sword, the dullahan itself and its steed in one fell motion, before continuing on to the next dullahan. It also raises its blade, and this time it looks as if it is successful – the wire cuts through half of the width of the weapon, then moves no further. But in another rush of motion, the wire starts moving again, cutting though the second dullahan as well. Richard’s mouth curves into an exhausted smile. Then his face freezes, and he looks clumsily down to see the spear protruding from his stomach. His face distorts in pain. Roaring, he clenches his teeth, making perhaps his final movement. Still impaled by the spear, he reaches down to his pouch – and upends it completely. Clothes, food and various items spill out of the opening endlessly without any regard for the laws of space. Potions also fall out, tens upon tens of potions kept for a rainy day. With his final breath, Richard steps on the vials, crushing them and causing their contents to mix uncontrollably. “Oh…” The imposter doesn’t even wait to finish his words before rushing backwards as the alchemical mix starts pulsing with light, exploding in a massive green fireball. After the initial detonation, the fire keeps burning on the ground, unrelenting even under the heavy rain and without fuel to feed the blaze. The imposter slowly gets up from the mud where he was thrown by the blast. His face is a horrific mess of burnt flesh, and even some parts of his armour don’t escape unscathed. Taking off his armour piece by piece, he reaches into his garments, fetching a vial of red liquid. Downing it, he grimaces as the liquid traces across the scorched flesh of his lips and throat. His lesser wounds heal, and he stops bleeding, but his face is still torturously painful. He downs another, then, having used up all his healing potions, yells out. “Old man, do you have any healing potions on you!?” “Of course not. Don’t you know they only hurt the undead?” The voice comes from a cloaked figure wielding a tall wooden staff that looks as if it has been burned black. “And why the hell didn’t you help more!?” The imposter screams. The cloaked man says amiably, “Every skeleton that dies is a terrible loss to me, you know. It will take a while to train some new dullahans.” The imposter sneers at the cloaked man, the expression almost the stuff of nightmares due to the partially formed, partially burned skin on his face. “Yeah right. You just wanted me to die, so you could take all the credit!” The cloaked man chuckles happily as the pouring rain washed away the last vestiges of blood and ash, and all that is left of the battlefield is a single harpoon stuck in the ground. (POV Gerald) Until one day, two weeks after the events on the ship, one of the members of Richard’s crew bumps into Ferdinand as he makes his way through the city. They start chatting, and eventually he breaks the bad news. Their ship’s crew has a few magic casters, and one of them had given the captain a notebook before he left. The notebook was magically linked to his own, so they could exchange messages across great distances. The notebook had spontaneously turned to ash the other day, which means that Richard… “I suppose that you’ll want to find out who did this?” I ask Ferdinand telepathically. He looks somewhat despondent, but I can tell that he’ll be able to come back from this. “Yes, yes I will. He was an old friend of mine, and a much higher level than me… I can’t imagine who could have…” He pauses for a moment. “But even if we could find who did it, there’s nothing we could do.” I shrug internally. “Perhaps. Or perhaps not. I think it’s time to get serious in my training.” “Training all day, every day isn’t serious!?!” He retorts. Indeed. It’s time to stop treating this system like a game’s. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 29 Experience: 4078.78/6000 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 46.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 46.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.2 Durability: 16.8/16.8 Mana: 920/920 Mana regen: 9.30/min Psi: 465/465 Psi regen: 4.60/min Ki: 73/3022 (30225) Ki regen: 3.02 (30.22)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 19.93% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/toggled) 0.15% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.86% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 14.12% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, Passive) 83.13% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 77.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 8.16%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 20.77%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 4.86% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 89.26% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Sometimes inaccurate, but you can piece the gist of things together. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 25 Experience 4034.08/4800 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 39.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 33.4   Health: 334/334 Health regen: 2.004/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.46% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.81% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.48% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 94.01% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 29.84% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.51% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 67.36% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.10% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.70% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 37.08% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse]

“Beep, beep, beep…” Dang, he won’t even get the joke, will he? Bad thing about being in another world is that I can’t use any of the jokes or references I know, because they use modern terminology. I probably can’t even use doctor, doctor jokes. It depends how advanced they are, I suppose. I mean, when you think fantasy and magic, you think sort of medieval era, but it might not be. And doctors in the medieval era - from what I hear - weren’t very effective, to say the least. So, back to training telepathy while he sleeps, since there’s nothing better to do… I wonder… Can I use absorb on myself? Wait, if I could, that would be damn OP. OP as all heck. Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘How does the ability to eat yourself make you OP? Are you crazy?” I may or may not be crazy, but think back to the abilities I have. Mana sight, absorb, telepathy, body of deadly poison… And self-repair. That’s right, self-repair. My one and ONLY skill that consumes mana. Which heals me. And if I can use absorb on myself, and heal myself, then… my proficiency for both skills will go up, and I’ll have a use for mana! Finally. So, let’s try this baby out! Absorb! Metal of lvl 27 Living Fork absorbed Durability recovered: -4.2 Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.01% Titles gained: Ouroboros Window will close in 29s ...Huh, it actually worked. I didn’t expect it to, but hey, I’ll exploit this glitch to the high heavens! So, that title? Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Hey, if eating myself makes me stronger, I’ll do it. Don’t call me weird. It’s not like I’m eating my own leg or something. I can barely tell the difference from before I took a few centimetres off my handle. And what do you mean, Wis – 1 +2? Is it insulting my intelligence? I think it’s insulting my intelligence. Let’s just take another look at my status – Woah, not the whole thing, I really need to remember to close tabs. Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 27 Experience: 4308.26/5400 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 5.0 (50.0) Intelligence: 43.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 43.0 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 24.6 Durability: 12.0/14.2 Mana: 860/860 Mana regen: 8.60/min Psi: 430/430 Psi regen: 4.30/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Traits Skills Neato, that evened out my wisdom stat. Y’know, thinking about it, I need regen more than max pool. But then again, Psi regen is INT and Mana regen is WIS, so… I’d just do the same thing as always, unless I focus on one. And I want that telepathy. But I would really like to be able to repair myself cheaper and increase absorb proficiency. And in the end, absorb is my base, what I rely on. So I should focus on WIS next time, so that I can do the self-harm repair cycle more often. Speaking of, let’s take another look at that, since I haven’t used it in ages. Self-repair (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 3.33% - By expending an energy type, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 10 mana: 0.1 durability So 4.2 durability is 420 mana. Hey, that’s almost half my max mana. What the heck is with all these coincidences? Well then, let’s start blazing through my mana pile, shall we? Self-repair: gained 4.2 durability   Metal of lvl 27 Living Fork absorbed Durability recovered: -4.2 Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.01% Window will close in 29s   Self-repair: gained 4.2 durability Aaaaand it’s gone. Proficiency is at? Self-repair (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 11.73% - By expending an energy type, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 10 mana: 0.1 durability Back to training telepathy for like, 20 seconds, and then like, and hour and a half wait until my mana and psi regenerate again. This new training reduces my free time by about… five seconds? It’s great and all that I can train so quickly, but this is just ridiculous. If it takes so much mana and psi to level these skills, I don’t want more skills that use them right now. …But, I do really want some offensive magic. Is there anything I can do to pass the time? Hey status, you got any games installed? Games Minesweeper Checkers It took me this long to think about asking for this? A whole ten months? I am dumb. You got minesweeper? Aw hells yeah! Minesweeper all night! Damn, this version has custom up to 10,000 width and height, and 40,000,000 mines max. This solves all my problems. Hallelujah! Insanity creeps upon me no more! This is what I spend my time on from now on. RNG don’t fail me now! No, dammit! Two spaces, and either could be a mine, but not both! Not a single clue telling me which one it is! Screw it, guessing it! *click* *boom* *boom* An hour later, I finish watching every single mine on that page explode. All 50 million of them. I got up to 100 mines flagged. I could have kept going elsewhere, but I would have had to go back to it eventually, so better fail sooner than later. And start again! *click* *click* *click* Oh, he’s up. Can I minimise this window? Pause, please. It worked? Whoever made the UI for this status system was thorough. “Good morning. Assuming the reason you woke up wasn’t to go for a midnight piss.” He replies blearily a moment later. “Huh? Oh, good morning. Do you really have to say something the moment I wake up?” “Not at all!” I answer happily. “But I do anyway, because it’s either conversation with you or minesweeper, and conversation sounds much more interesting after hours of mind-numbing games.” “Mine… Sweeper? Something to do with a maid?” He asks uncertainly. “You don’t know about it? Huh. Just ask the status for games, and click the minesweeper one. It has nothing to do with a maid.” I explain. “Oh, okay… What in the world do you do with all these blue squares?” I explain the rules. A moment later, he tells me he’s died already. Not cut out for this sort of thing, eh? Strange, I thought minesweeper is fairly easy… Well, on with the day! I do wonder if there’s anything I can do to help Ferdinand get a bit stronger? The stronger he is, the stronger things he can kill, the stronger things I can eat, the stronger skills I get! On average that is. I don’t doubt that strong people also have trashy skills. What is there… … … …Does a party system exist? Create a party? Yes No Sure. Would you like to name your party? Yes No Sure. What name would you like? Uhhhh… heckin dope masters? No, that’s stupid. Le societe de dank meme? Let’s just forget that was something I came up with… The fork is mightier than the sword. Not bad. Yeah, I’ll go with that. Would you like to invite anyone to your party, ‘The fork is mightier than the sword’? One mo, status. “Hey Ferdinand, you know about the party system, right?” I ask him. “Of course.” He replies. “Why?” “Can you be in multiple?” I ask. “Sure, but your exp gain will get split so many ways it’s not worth it.” Invite that dude right there to the party. “… I’m not sure what to say to this…” “Yes?” I prompt. “Fine…” He replies. Ferdinand, lvl 18 has joined the party, ‘The fork is mightier than the sword’. “So what’s this about?” He asks. “One moment…” I say. Are party options a thing? They are indeed. Party options Experience sharing options Gerald (Party leader): 75% Ferdinand (Party member): 25% Titles gained (Excluding racial and unique titles) shared: Yes Promote member to party leader (You will lose party leader status) Ferdinand (Party member) First of all, can I glitch this? Change his exp gain to 100%... Mine went down to 0. 1000%? Down to 100%. Well, set mine to 5% and his to 95%. “Okay, you probably got a notification or something, but I set the experience sharing to be ninety-five percent to you and five to me.” I explain. “But why?” He asks. “Because right now, I don’t need experience. More stat points don’t make me much stronger at all. I need skills, and skill proficiency. To do that, you need to be stronger, and the best way to do that is to… basically throw me at things to kill them. You get all the exp, and I get to absorb things.” I say. “Okay, but how are we going to do that? You’re still poisonous, right? How am I going to be able to wield you safely?” A good question. “I’ve had a few ideas about that, but I’m still not entirely sure. Simplest way is probably to wrap my handle in a bit of cloth, tie it there, then just avoid touching the business end.” “And no poison will… seep through?” He asks hesitantly. I double check the skill description. “Shouldn’t do. And even if it does, it won’t kill you.” “How reassuring.” He says. “Now let’s hurry it up, I can’t wait to get a bunch of useless skills I’ll never use or look at again, in all likelihood.” What was happening before this conversation? Oh yeah, he was just waking up. Welp, onto adventure! In the immediate vicinity of this city, of course. And so, here are my gains for the past few days. Three bicorn boars, at levels 13, 15 and 16, netting me a total of 97.25 experience. No skills or traits. One level 11 wild gazelle, 16.75 exp. Gave me an interesting, but ultimately useless skill, aptly named ‘flee’. It increases dexterity by 1.5 times over, but only when running away from something. It cancels if any offensive action is taken. Maybe one day, physical stat related skills, maybe one day…  Twelve rabid rats, all level 5 apart from one level 6 and one level 4. A pitiful 45.25 exp. What’s worse, they gave me the trait ‘Flea-bitten (Minor)’ that makes me attract fleas. I wonder what level fleas are, and if they can give me any exp? And then a whopping twenty-three oozes, eight level 7, three level 8, four level 9, two level 10, five level 11, and one level 13. And all that still only gets me 263.5 exp. Got one trait here that is useful, ‘Physical damage reduction (minute)’, and a skill that is not so useful, ‘body of weak acid’. So now, I am not only highly poisonous, I also slowly - excruciatingly slowly – dissolve soft substances that come into contact with me. I am the only fork in this world that has better use as a weapon then as cutlery. But then again, do I really want to be put in people’s mouths? Probably not. What’s worse, saliva and half-eaten food or blood and guts? …I can’t even decide. Well, that’s another use of absorb, I guess, removing strange substances from my surface. That exp gain really is abysmal though, now that I only get 5% of it. 422.75 exp all up, a mere 7.8% of the exp I need to level up. But at least I got a single useful trait… Then there’s the experience I got from absorbing some of the flesh of the monsters. Around 90.27 exp. And it might be a bit obvious, but that number of monsters attacking in this area would normally be absurd. Normally, they don’t have a certain fork telepathically directing them. I’m getting good at this, and with my sight now having a range of 871m – a boost of a hundred meters with that few stat points, my god – and a telepathy range of almost 350m, it wasn’t hard to draw in a few extra monsters and keep the others away while he’s occupied. I may have gone too far, though. He took a bit of damage. Shame he doesn’t have self-repair. Another thing of note is that my self-repair skill has skyrocketed in proficiency, and it’s now advanced. It just made it slightly more efficient, taking 8 mana instead of 10, but thanks to that I can do it once every hour twenty minutes instead of once every hour forty minutes. And that again has increased the rate at which I gain proficiency, even if the proficiency gain per 4.2 durability repaired has reduced from 4.2% to 1.05%. Which makes it be a bit less overall, but still making good progress! I want to see what’s beyond advanced. I could just ask Ferdinand? Come on, where’s the fun in that? And in circumstances like these, I need some fun. …The minesweeper is good, though. But perhaps the best, or at least most exciting, gain was a neat little skill called ‘magic edge’. That’s right. MAGIC edge. I can finally use magic! Okay, it’s very basic and still pretty much useless, but magic guys, magic! Ferdinand used it a couple times, and when I asked about it, he taught it to me. After studying the fluctuations of his mana a bit, I managed to figure out how to move my own. Yay magic! (POV Ferdinand) Throw! Miss. Pick up, throw, miss. Pick up, thro- MISS! Turns out, it’s much easier to hit a target with a thrown fork when your target is bigger than the city gates than it is to hit animals that are running around wildly. Grasping the cloth-wrapped handle of the highly lethal fork, I toss it again. Hey, it hit this time! It… is just the handle that hit it… It glances in disdain at me for a brief moment before it resumes grazing. Why you little-! ‘Not to sound rude, but maybe you should just use your sword. It’s not like the things have to be alive for me to absorb them, after all.’ Gerald interjects. Somewhat frustrated, I ask, ‘Then why are we doing this in the first place!?’ ‘Dunno. Training?’ He replies blandly. ‘I mean, if something strong comes again, throwing me at it will have a much better chance of working than going up to it and stabbing me into it.’ ‘You mean something I could be doing when I’m not in combat?’ I ask. ‘Yeah, that sounds about right.’ Grabbing him between thumb and forefinger, I flick him downwards at the ground, and draw the weapon I can properly use. My sword. Swinging it down at the gazelle, I catch it in the shoulder, tearing a deep gash and causing it to collapse to the ground, the injured limb uselessly twitching as it thrashes around in an attempt to become upright once more and run away. Before, it had thought so little of me that it didn’t even run away as I hit everything in the vicinity with the fork - except for the gazelle itself - for a solid ten minutes. Damn gazelle! I’ll show you who’s the weak one! “Hah!” Plunging my sword into its chest, I end its pain. A glance and a thought dismisses the window describing my experience gain. I wasn’t an expert swordsman by any definition, least of all the status’. I wasn’t even at the advanced level, which was a milestone for all professions and skills that meant you were no longer a novice. In other words, I’m still a novice at the sword, but I’m getting there. Perhaps eventually, I’ll get to the expert level. But that will take a long, long time. Getting from the basic to advanced level alone for most skills takes years of practice in it. Getting to expert usually takes at least a decade of experience. At least, it did for me getting to expert in farming. That sure was a happy day. My parents specially bought some meat from a local hunter and cooked it over low flame… The very memory of how tender and tasty that meat was would make me salivate, if it wasn’t such a bitter memory for me, now. A tear escapes my eye -I instantly become alert at the sound of snuffling coming from nearby. Glancing left and right, it doesn’t take me long to spot a beast slowly trotting towards me. Above its large snout, a long, straight horn jutted, and above that, another. A bicorn boar! Cursing softly under my breath, then reflexively apologising to my late mother, I hold my sword at the ready in anticipation of the imminent combat. Bicorn boars were known rookie killers. Their sharp horns and considerable bulk make for a deadly charge, and they were surprisingly fast on their feet for a creature with so much fat lining its belly. I had killed them before, but it had been a long time since I’d last gone solo, and I was still getting used to not having anyone laying down covering fire, magic spells or taking the brunt of the assault. The easiest way to finish this combat would be a pre-emptive strike. Kicking off, I run at the boar, startling it. I recognise the sounds that it is currently making as warnings, and the boar glares at me as it scrapes at the dirt and lowers its meaty head. Preparation for a charge that could be very painful for me. Tensing, I wait until the last second to leap aside. Lucky for me I have some experience against boars from the times they attacked the farm animals, and I knew they can’t turn quickly. It should just brush past – Gah! Turns out I’ve underestimated the monster. The thing’s horns are long enough that a tilt of its head was enough to put me in the way of harm, and the tip traced a line across my upper leg. I’ll need to treat that later, but right now, I’m killing the dang thing. As it struggles to loop around to charge at me, my mana floods onto my sword, forming a glowing edge over the edge of my blade. I can only maintain this skill for a few seconds, so I charge and slash down at its side, leaving a brilliant afterglow behind the sword and slashing halfway through the boar’s torso. A window comes up, confirming the boar’s death. Quickly sitting down, I take a moment to catch my breath. Because of that move on my wounded leg, it is now throbbing with pain, and I’ve lost a bit of blood. Worse, I am now completely out of mana and feeling a bit lightheaded, not a condition you want to be in under threat of roaming monsters. Grimacing against the pain, I take off my pack and search through it. My fingers pause briefly over a bottle of red liquid before passing over and grabbing a bottle of cheap alcohol. Nasty stuff, but useful sometimes. Like now. Pulling down my pants and gritting my teeth, I pour the booze on my open wound, washing it clean but increasing the pain tenfold, drawing a hiss of pain from me. Searching again through my pack, I pick out a clean strip of cloth and wrap it tightly around the wound. A reddish colour starts to replace the pale grey. I tie it off. Should be fine as long as I don’t put too much weight on it. I start to reseal the alcohol, then stop and take a swig. Bleh! Yep, terrible. Hopefully, it will take a bit of the edge off. Any adventurer worth his salt has supplies for treating wounds, or at least someone in the party does. Pulling up my pants again, I stand a bit unsteadily and start looking for the fork. I find it standing perfectly straight, tines down. Really? The only time I hit something right is when I wasn’t trying. Irritated, I pick it up, put it in my pack and start walking back to town. Can’t fight like this. But wait, it can’t stop there, that would be too easy, wouldn’t it? After the gazelle, a boar, after the boar, there are rats. Strangely, they come one after the other instead of all at once, but that is better for me. Rats are only a pain in groups, since they are weak individually. And because they are coming at me one by one, I can focus on the single rat and swipe at it calmly. In a very awkward underarm swing. Quite like using a broom, really. Well, not quite. The hilt of my sword isn’t that long. By the time they are all dead, I am even more tired than before. Scratching my head, I resume my walk towards town. ‘Hey, what’s up?’ Gerald asks. ‘What sort of question is that? The sky, of course.’ I reply in confusion. ‘Can’t see it, but that’s not what I meant. ‘What’s up’ is similar to ‘how are you’ where I’m from.’ He explains. ‘Oh. Pretty bad then. Got injured in my leg, constantly attacked by monsters in an area where monsters are rare, pretty much couldn’t get worse.’ I sigh. Gerald doesn’t respond for a moment. ‘…I see I have much to teach you. Now you see Ferdinand, you shouldn’t have said that. You never, ever, EVER say that something couldn’t get worse. It’s a serious jinx.’ ‘Jinx? What’s that?’ I ask. ‘It’s basically when you say, using definite terms like can’t or won’t, that something is or isn’t going to happen, mostly when you say something positive is going to happen or something negative isn’t. It’s serious bad luck, man, trust me.’ He says seriously. ‘Usually when someone says, ‘it can’t get any worse’, it starts to rain, monsters attack or someone dies. Or all of them happen. Usually all of them.’ Taken aback slightly, I reply, ‘Okay… My luck stat is pretty high, though, so shouldn’t we be safe?’ ‘Oh, so that’s what rain looks like to me. Huh. It looks like light is falling from the sky… How beautiful.’ He says. Eh? Holding out my arms, I don’t feel anything. There are some dark clouds but… ‘It’s not raining, is it?’ I ask. ‘My vision goes up over eight hundred meters. Give it a few seconds. Three, two, one, aaaaand impact.’ My face which is still facing the sky is moistened as drops of water fall upon it. Now I really feel miserable. ‘Well, it c–‘ I start, before Gerald interrupts me. ‘Oi! What’d you JUST learn?’ I try again. ‘At least there aren-’ Gerald interrupts me again. ‘Also bad!’ ‘What CAN I say, then?’ ‘Usually someone says to the person who jinxed it originally, ‘you just had to say it, didn’t you?’, and then there wouldn’t be conversation. Um, ‘I shouldn’t have said that, should I?’ works, I think.’ He says, sounding slightly unsure himself. ‘Your world was very weird.’ I say. ‘Or is it just you?’ ‘Both.’ He replies. Ha ha. Well, let’s get back to town before I get drenched… Too late. At least this rain makes it hard for monsters to smell me. I somehow manage to get back to town without collapsing into the mud. Trudging into my room in the inn while dripping with water, I collapse into my chair. Could I be any wetter, even if I were to take a bath? I doubt it. The only thing I can do is change into my spare set of clothes, so that’s what I do. My bandage is sopping wet, so I change that too. The wet, bloody bandage was useless to me. I’ll burn it when wood is flammable again. Now that it’s just me wet and not my clothes as well, I should get some food. Limping down to the front door, I look out. Pelting down. Just Great. ‘Shouldn’t you be grabbing an umbrella?’ Gerald asks. ‘Umbrella? What’s that?’ I ask in reply. ‘You don’t have umbrellas? How do you stay dry when it’s raining?’ I say sadly, ‘We don’t…’ And with that, I stride out into the rain to find something hot to eat. …Maybe I shouldn’t have changed. I didn’t believe it was possible. But it is. The next couple of days are even worse. Do you know how hard it is to fight on muddy ground? Very. Pretty much everyone except mages rely on good footing. Without good footing, I’m not able to put as much strength into my swings as I could normally, and dodging is a far-away dream. Running, you say? What, are you crazy as my fork? …That sounded considerably crazy. But you’re more likely to faceplant than to build up any speed. What else was bad about those days? Oozes. Oozes everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I spot one grazing on a tree. I roll over a rotted tree trunk, there is an ooze under it. I think I drank part of an ooze when I stop at a stream to drink, because it tastes funny and I have stomach pains for hours afterwards. Then there are all the oozes that are just milling about in the mud. Normally, you just give them a few good stomps and they’ll fall apart, but with all the mud and my bad leg, that is somewhat difficult. I still manage to kill quite a few, even so. At least the rain had stopped overnight, and the monsters seem to be just as impeded by the difficult terrain as I am. The bicorn boars slip onto their sides when they attempt to charge me. It’s so pitiful that I start wondering whether I should kill them or not. They are just monsters, I suppose. And easy experience is too good to give up. Then there are the rats… Even filthier than usual. There isn’t a farmer out there who doesn’t detest rats, I think. The rotten things gnaw their way into bags of grain and produce, spilling them all over the floor and spoiling them… I don’t hesitate to put them down. Gerald asks me to poke him through some dead monsters. The flesh around him just… vanishes. Is there anything he can do that isn’t weird? And as a result of all this, here I am. Having levelled up three times in as many days. Is the difference in experience gain really this high when you aren’t in a party? To guarantee my safety, since heading out from home I always made a point to be in a party of at least four people. And… I, as an adventurer, didn’t have a specialty. I can’t block enemy attacks, I can’t attack from range, I can’t cast magic, I don’t know how to detect or set traps… Most of the time, this led to me being a glorified baggage carrier, with a very low experience share in the party. But three levels, so fast? That’s crazy. I’m… I’m over level 20 now. I’ll get much more stats per level, and I’ll get much stronger! Now to allocate my stats… I have 10, so I’ll put 2 in endurance to make me a bit tougher, and split the rest between dexterity and strength. As I allocate the points, I can feel my muscles and skin growing tougher, sturdier, and faster. My sword had never felt heavy in my hand, probably because of all the long hours spent hacking at the ground in my childhood, but now it felt light. Too light, perhaps. Shifting my feet into a simple stance, I do a few practice swings, creating a satisfying hiss as my blade cuts through the air. It’s louder than before I levelled up, I think. But it just doesn’t feel as… satisfying. It almost felt like when I was a kid, swinging around a stick. It made the sound, you could hit things with it, but it never felt like a weapon. Maybe I should focus more on dexterity until I can afford a better weapon. Looking down at myself, dried mud is clinging to my clothes, hair, almost everywhere. I really need to change that bandage again. It would not be pleasant if the wound were to fester. The thing has nearly solidified into a single chunk of mud and cloth, and I have to use a knife to cut it loose. The flesh underneath thankfully had no signs of strange colours or smells, and is starting to develop a scab. But it won’t be safe until the scab had fully formed, so I take out yet another stretch of clean cloth and tie it around. I’m nearly out, so I’ll have to buy some more soon. Changing into my newly “washed” set of clothes that is now dry, I fall into bed. Maybe I should just take it easy for a few days, to let those crazy monsters calm down a bit. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 27 Experience: 4821.28/5400 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 5.0 (50.0) Intelligence: 43.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 43.0 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 24.6 Durability: 12.0/16.2 Mana: 860/860 Mana regen: 8.60/min Psi: 430/430 Psi regen: 4.30/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 14.57% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Advanced) (High Rare, Passive/toggled) 37.22% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/2m. Their forms are now more distinct, but still blurred. Self-repair (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 44.13% - By expending an energy type, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 8 mana: 0.1 durability Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 0.23% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, Passive) 7.31% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.28% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.10% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 21 Experience 1281.58/3600 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 34.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 22.4   Health: 209/224 Health regen: 1.344/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 46.11% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.01% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 17.28% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 92.30% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.05% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 64.11% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 23.22% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.28% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.29% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minutely increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +0.5 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 27.13% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse]

It’s very confusing to use at first. I can’t figure out how to choose my target of communication, for one. After several attempts of mentally shouting, “telepathy, I want to talk to the squirrel!”, I find that simply focusing on their low-res representation on my vision ‘connects’ me to them mentally. And then things are very confusing for the both of us. I feel the animal’s curiosity and hunger for a moment before my emotions bleed uncontrollably across the connection, and the feelings I receive turn to confusion and fear. The connection ends a few moments later as it speeds away, leaving me with a half-consumed psi pool. But I keep trying with any animal I can see that’s within 15 metres of me, getting used to the ability over time. Of course, there are times when my psi run out, many of them. Going at the rate of 1.2 a min, it takes 1 hour 44 minutes to fully renew itself. Hey, wait, can’t I use that as a way of keeping time? Thank God, I can finally track time. Even if it’s a really annoying method that isn’t exact because of gaps in timekeeping when using telepathy. I keep training my telepathy for a few days or so. Checking the skill later, it has only gained a few percent of proficiency. However long this takes, I will talk to someone again! I’m very glad nobody heard that. On another note, we have moved out of the forest. It’s strange to realise that the only landscapes I’ve seen in this world are that of trees and a cave. Some nice open plains, so I see. Or rather, nice for anyone but me. There’s long grass everywhere. Did I mention my vision is a bit blurry? If I don’t focus on the grass, it looks like my group is buried to their waist, wading through the ground. Very disconcerting. Quite an amusing image, actually. I think I’ll try and remember that, have a good laugh at it later. When I’m not in a perpetual state of semi-depression, that is. Depression aside, there’s a mouse scuttling past the person whose bag I’m in. A perfect practice target for telepathy. Hello, mouse, you are suddenly feeling happy. No, this is not suspicious at all. Continue staying in place, the very large scary people are not dangerous at all. Indeed, happy fun times. Moving away? Sad depressing times. Yes, you move back this way. Good mouse. Aaaaand it’s gone. Out of psi. Hey, the ground is undulating weirdly. Never mind, that’s the grass blowing in the wind. So, what do I do in the hour twenty minutes I’m waiting for my psi to regenerate? Why, I’m so glad you asked! Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer… A couple of weeks later I have a good thirty-two percent proficiency. Why am I talking to myself? Because I’m terribly bored, of course. An hour twenty of inactivity then about a minute of activity, rinse and repeat. That means I spend most of my time doing nothing. I got to eat some more of the id ooze, which boosted the proficiency a bit, which is nice. I’m only grinding this proficiency because I have to, after all. If I were human, or even an animal, I wouldn’t be spending so much time on it. Hopefully I’ll be able to evolve the skill in about a month or two. The fields of grass are in the past now, thankfully - they made me dizzy. Not literally because I can’t get dizzy, but well, you know. A month later and we have reached civilisation. Hooray. I’ve gotten a bigger range of food to eat since we got here, and that’s good, but still nothing gained but exp. I levelled up again, actually. Just dumped the points evenly into wisdom and intelligence – they’re the only ones I really use. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 6 Experience: 298.88/700 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 1.0 (10.0) Intelligence: 14.0 Dexterity: 1.0 Wisdom: 13.0 Charisma: 3.0 Luck: 10.1 Hardness: 18.8 Durability: 10.4/10.4 Mana: 280/280 Mana regen: 2.60/min Psi: 130/130 Psi regen: 1.4/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Traits Skills What can I say, I’m the smartest fork in existence. Unless there is a fork somewhere possessed by a genius. But barring that, smartest fork. I think they had a bit of a fight over who would get me. Hey, now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve been washed in a very long time. Have they been… eating from a fork that has been held by cave-dwelling midgets, stabbed into people, sat on the ground for who knows how long and was found in some old ruin? Ugh… Wait, I’ve been using absorb, so aren’t I perfectly clean? But they don’t know that. Ugh… *hurls*. Just kidding. I can’t hurl. Not that I miss that part of being human. …Seriously, a monologue after ’99 bottles of beer’, and still an hour twenty hasn’t passed? I suppose it could be worse. What if there were no animals in the city. What could I do then? Hey, what if I was dropped down a toilet? Not going there, not thinking about it. Hang a mo. Are we heading towards the food stalls? I think we are. Looks like he’s hungry. I’m not, but I’ll eat anyway if he is. Assuming the person I’m with is a he. Ya never know. Especially when you can’t tell one person from another. Wonder what this stuff is. Flesh of lvl 18 Mind flayer absorbed Experience gained: 31.48 Durability recovered: 2.31 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0.0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.01%, Telepathy 40.01% Skills gained: none Traits gained: none Window will close in 18s Well that moves up my schedule. A lot. I really need to start thinking about what to say. I know I’ve had a month to think already, but what can I say? Procrastination is my finest asset. Now, let’s take a look at how we’re doing with our proficiency… Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 97.89% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. The windows changed colour, you say? Well, I remembered I could change it. And you may have noticed that I somewhat dislike my current state of monochrome vision. And so, I thought to myself, ‘if I can’t see colour in the world, why not just for the windows?’. And there you have it. Why blue? Yeah, I dunno either. Seemed fitting. Wait, why? In games, aren’t status windows usually some sort of brown, grey, black or transparent? Why is blue fitting? …Well, whatever. Those are dull. Blue it is. Reminds me of the ocean. Good ol’ ocean. Nearly killed me a few times, but hey, that’s in his job description. So, let’s see what should I say? Should I tell them I’m their fork and that I can get more powerful depending on what they feed me? No, no, definitely not. Shouldn’t even tell them that I’m a fork. Hey, who’d believe that anyway. ‘Hey, you. Yes, this isn’t you talking to yourself. I’m your fork. Feed me.’ See? He’d think he’s goin’ bonkers. Or there’s a demon or evil spirit or something talking to him. Hmmm… Maybe I can pretend to be a ghost that’s haunting him? But what if he just goes to a priest to get ‘me’ exorcised? Wait, an amnesiac ghost. A friendly amnesiac ghost. That might work. Might fail terribly as well, but better than the straight ‘I’m a fork’ attempt. But what if he still tries to exorcise me? That won’t really work, will it? What if I pretend to be something else? Does he have a little squirrel statue? No. Wait, I got an idea. Similar to amnesiac ghost, but not. It’s… I don’t know how to describe it, dang. I suppose you’ll have to wait and see. Wait, who is this ‘you’ I’m referring to? I hope I’m not going insane again. Well, time for some telepathy training. And there’s a rat, right behind the food stalls. Yep. Note to self: never eat from food stalls. Well, just a couple percentage left. That should take a few days at most. Now, come over here, rat. There’s something scary in the opposite direction! Run towards me… Ah. It got stomped on. Another rat, then. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 0.00% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. I can talk! Ish. It’s a hell of a lot better than before, at least. Now, to talk – with small animals, of course. Gotta test first. ‘Oy you, rat! Um… muffins!’ I really didn’t think that through. It completely ignored me. Well, it can’t understand speech after all. I suppose I’ll have to find a good time to talk with this person. At night should be best, yeah? I’m getting a bit nervous about this. -That night- Should I? When should I? Is now a good time? It’s probably a good time, right? What if there’ll be a better time? Now that it’s come to it, can I muster up the courage to do this? I mean, it was forced, but I haven’t talked to anyone for a long time. Oh, come on fork, channel Labeouf! Just do it! Target, initiate telepathy… “Hello? Can you understand me?” “Hm? Is someone there?” The voice resounded in my mind, sounding as if I was thinking in another person's voice. Not that I was doing that... I hope. I try again. “Yes, can you hear me?” “Yes, but who are you? Where are you?” The voice comes again. Initiation of conversation: Success! Continue conversation! “You can hear me, then? Yay! I didn’t even know if this was working properly. Um, sorry. I don’t know.” “You don’t know?” The voice asks. Initiate lying! “I don’t know who I am, or how I got here. Or where here is.” “What do you know about yourself?” He asks. Mix in some true parts! “I have mana sight. So I can see you. But I can’t hear, or feel, and I couldn’t talk for a long time. Can you talk with me, please?” “Sure… But where are you speaking to me from?” I think he bought it… maybe? But just in case... “Telepathy. The reason you’re the first person I spoke to is that I only recently trained it to the level where I could transmit thoughts. As for where exactly I am, it doesn’t matter. I can’t seem to affect the physical plane at all, and I’m invisible. To be blunt, I’m directly in front of you. Telepathy is cheaper in psi if I’m closer to the target after all.” Amusingly, I see him bolt upright and stare ahead of him for a little while before talking again. Of course, I’m still in his pack, but he doesn’t know that. And the pack is leaning against the bed, so being close to him isn’t a lie. “So, what are you usually doing, if you can’t talk or hear?” He asks. Well, for better or worse, we seem to be onto casual conversation. I shouldn't have to lie any more. “Watching. It’s all I can do, really. It’s somewhat boring because I can’t tell people apart, but It’s all that keeps me sane. The status window says I’m 10 months old, and I only became able to use telepathy yesterday. What about you?” I’m eager to know… well, anything, really. Anything to make time pass easier. His voice continues sounding in my head, just as I presume mine is sounding in his. “Me? Just your average traveller. I go wherever I think I’ll find money. Not that I ever find much, but it’s enough to live by.” “So, what’s your name?” I ask. “Ferdinand. I think my parents hoped for me to become a knight, because what village boy has a name like Ferdinand? How about you, what’s your name?” Oops, I forgot to think up a name. “I don’t have a name. Even the status window just says ‘none’.” I say “Maybe your name is ‘none’?” Ferdinand says. That's a name and a half he's got there. Sounds foreign. Wait, everything's foreign here. I'm lucky we speak the same language. “No thanks. Could you think of something a bit better?” “Village boy, remember. We don’t do creativity, we do practicality. Are you male or female, anyway?” He asks. “Genderless, but I would prefer a male name than a female one, if it comes to that.” I used to be a guy, so I may as well have a male name here too. He lists out a bunch of names that couldn’t sound more boring if he tried. “How about Gerald, or Harold, Roy, John, Jack, Alex, Bob, Bill, Donald or something like that?” But it doesn't matter that much to me, so I pick out what sounds best to me. “Those sound pretty average and common. Whatever. I’ll go with Gerald.” “Hey, I tried my best you know?” Remembering something, I check my status. “Oh, by the way, my Psi is almost gone so-“ “…” Well that was the most fun I’ve had in this life, depressingly. I’ll just talk with him again when he gets up. Wonder if he’ll think it was a hallucination or something? One way to find out. But in the meantime, beer doesn’t count itself. 13297 bo- Ah, he’s getting up. I could have trained telepathy more during the night, and maybe I should have. At the same time, though, I needed to have enough to talk to him in the morning. And proficiency gain decreases drastically after reaching the advanced level of a skill. Will a single night make a difference? Perhaps. I start up telepathy again. “Good morning. Or so I assume, I can’t tell the difference between night and day.” “So it wasn’t a dream…” He says. He stretches a bit, and continues to speak. “Yeah, it’s morning. First light, to be exact. Although, I’m surprised you know about that, didn’t you say you have no memories?” Improvise! “No, just that I didn’t know who I am or how I got here. I know some random pieces of what I assume is common knowledge for people here. Things about time, the cycle of day and night, the feeling of the wind blowing… I wish I had a sense of touch.” “That’s harsh. Knowing pleasure but being unable to reach it.” Ferdinand says. “Do you reckon I could follow you around? I can see through obstacles and such with mana sight, so I can tell you if you’re about to be ambushed and such.” I ask. A bit misleading, since he can't really get rid of me unless I tell him my true identity, but I should at least ask. “That doesn’t sound half bad, but what do you get out of it?” He sounds a bit suspicious. “Someone to talk to. A sense of fulfillment from helping someone. A sense of pride from accomplishing something. Perhaps the first friend I’ll ever have. Sounds like a fair trade to me.” I say, and this time I’m perfectly honest. He looks like he’s thinking about it. Now would be a good time to mention that not all thoughts are transmitted via telepathy, only the ones you intend to transmit. Which is why I haven’t accidentally shouted out, ‘actually, I’m a fork’. I was very relieved when I noticed this. After all, do you have total control over your thoughts? No! You always have the occasional stray thoughts that you yourself think are very strange or even disturbing. Meanwhile… “Sure, just try not to distract me when I’m around others or in combat.” He says, finally. “Can do.” I agree. “Only emergency communications in such circumstances. So what’s on the agenda for today?” “Agenda? What’s that?” He asks. Right, education level here is a bit lower than back home, clearly. “What do you plan to do today.” I clarify. “Find work, what else? Oh, and go to the local smithy to get my equipment repaired.” And so, we headed out, with him aware of my existence for the first time. Watching him walk down the street, content in the knowledge that there is at least one being out there that knows I exist. Strangely, he stops in the middle of the street, looking to one side. There’s nothing there. “Something up? Why’d you suddenly stop?” I ask curiously. “Just a fortune teller.” He says. “Probably a fake, but you never know.” I look again. Nadda. “I don’t see anybody. Either the person there has no mana in his body, or you’re seeing an illusion. Either way, get out of there.” “What? You can’t see him? Everyone has mana, it’s everywhere, you can’t not have it. Maybe there’s something to him after all?” He says, confused. “A highly suspicious man with no mana? Get out of there.” I can't have him die now! I just met the dude! “Come on, we’re on a main street, plenty of people. Besides, I can protect myself.” He says. Fair point. “Fine, but don’t blame me if something goes wrong.” I say. And so, I watch him sit down in an empty alleyway for a while. I keep the telepathic link open, just in case. Not that I’ll be able to help much if something does happen. After a few minutes, he gets up and walks back into the flow of people in the street. Don’t be so sudden, I might lose track of you. Not really, I’m in his bag. Not in any way hopeful, I ask him about what happened. “So? Anything meaningful?” He sounds disappointed. “Typical sham talk. He prattled on about how difficult fortune telling was, something about the very act of telling someone their future altering it drastically to a separate future, or something like that. Only good thing was he didn’t ask for money.” More detail, bored dude here. “Yeah, but did he actually tell you anything?” “A single cryptic line about how ‘you are what you eat’, and how my future would depend on that.” “Well that’s… strange.” I concur. It’s a coincidence, right? But then again, first a ‘fortune-teller’ I can’t see, then him saying something which I can only interpret as a reference to the butterfly effect, then something that sounds suspiciously close to describing my absorb skill… That’s a LOT of coincidence. Now, I should still keep it a secret, right? As long as nobody knows about my true form, nothing deadly should occur to me, at least. So, where’s the blacksmith?

1As of the posting of the previous chapter (when it was posted, at least), this novel is the novel with the most chapters on this site, as well as the novel with the most words. Got in early! Teehee. (POV Ferdinand) Seeing a village in the distance, I adjust my course towards it. Not too long after, Gerald’s voice pops into my head again. ‘Might want to speed up a bit,’ he says, ‘there’s skeletons in this village as well.’ Again? It was only slightly over a week since the last time, and it couldn’t be that I just so happen to find the only two skeleton infested villages, can it? What in the world is the army doing, letting some necromancer run rampant in the villages like this? These thoughts cross my mind for a few moments, before I discard them and focus on the more pressing matters at hand. I start running towards the village, but I don’t draw my sword yet. It will only get in my way when I’m running. It only takes me a few minutes of running to make my way there. As I arrive at the edge of the outlying fields, I’m greeted with a very odd sight: in each of the fields on either side of me, there is a single skeleton wielding a hoe. I rub my eyes, but the sight doesn’t change. They are still repeatedly lifting their hoes and striking the same place on the ground, doing nothing more than deepening a line in the dirt. ‘I saw this earlier, but is this… Normal, skeleton behaviour?’ Gerald asks, sounding about as confused as I feel. Completely unable to figure out any reason why they might be doing such actions, I say, ‘I don’t know much about skeletons… but I’m going to guess: no. No, it is not normal.’ ‘Okay then… Kill them anyway?’ I draw my sword. ‘Kill them anyway.’ Vaulting over the fence surrounding the field on my right, I move towards the skeleton there. As I approach, it stops its strange actions and starts acting as I would expect a skeleton to act: by attacking anything living near it. In this case, me. The skeleton lifts its hoe and swings it at me. I dodge. It may be a farming tool, but it can still deal quite some damage. After the tool passes harmlessly in front of me, I dart in and break off one of its arms with my sword, causing the hoe to drop to the ground. After that I make short work of it. I didn’t even break a sweat from that, and vaulting over the fences and into the other field, I move to take out the other skeleton. If anything, that one is easier than the first. Quickly jumping at it just as it strikes the ground once more, it can’t pull it up in time before I take off its skull in one fell slash. Vaulting back over the fence once more, I walk along the path and further into the village. As I get closer the sky started to dim slightly, and I took the opportunity to ask Gerald for more info on the village. ‘Looks like about thirty in the village itself… But there seems to be a skeleton in every field, as well. About ten of them that I can see, but there should be fields I can’t see. Nobody living except us, unfortunately.’ Which means that the villagers are either dead or had escaped… Speaking of dead villagers, where were the corpses in that last village? Hadn’t quite a few of the villagers died in the escape? And yet there were no corpses… had they been turned into skeletons? It’s unlikely for me to figure anything out, even if I consider it further, so I throw the matter to the back of my mind and venture into the main area of the village. As I enter, skeletons turn their skulls creepily towards me and brandish their rusted weapons, moving in to attack. They creep out from buildings, the spaces in between buildings, the town square… Taking a deep breath, I ready my own weapon. There may not be as many here as there were last time, but there is only me facing them this time. Taking out a single skeleton is a simple task. One, maybe two solid hits is all it takes. But with a horde of them, you have to be wary of attacks coming from multiple directions, make sure they don’t surround you and at the same time get an attack in every now and again. I make my way into the space between two buildings, which is small enough to restrict the approaching skeletons to come two at a time. Doing this makes it much easier, and I make short work of seven skeletons before Gerald alerts me to some starting to loop around to the other end. Escaping before they surround me, I find another gap, repeating the process until the skeletons in the village are nothing but scattered bones, and I’m quite exhausted. I sit in the town square, half wondering whether the well would be safe to drink from, or if it, like much of the plant life around me, had also been poisoned by the death energy. Better not to risk it, but the thought makes me wonder how those villagers are doing. Just as I start to catch my breath, Gerald pops into my head again. ‘That elven woman with the armour and horse is coming here. And it looks like she’s brought a friend.’ He says. ‘Thanks. Is the other person a paladin as well?’ I ask in curiosity. ‘Paladin? Well, they’re wearing similar armour and weapons, so… probably?’ Gerald says hesitantly. ‘Alright.’ Not wishing to repeat my mistake from last time, I ask one more question. ‘Is the new one a man or a woman?’ ‘Man. Actually, he looks even younger than you, so I don’t know if he would be old enou-’ He cuts himself off and asks a question. ‘What age do people become termed as ‘man and woman’ rather than ‘boy and girl’?’ I think about it briefly. ‘I couldn’t say about places outside the Empire, but here it’s about 16.’ ‘Ah, thanks. He’s probably a bit older than 16. See, why I asked is because where I’m from it’s 18, and I knew about some places where it was as high as 21.’ He explains. Interesting. But does it really matter all that much? It’s just a way of calling someone, after all. Taking a swig from my water bottle, I run my tongue over my dry lips and continue to sit where I am. I have no doubt that they will soon be here. As far as I know, most gods detest the undead, so they won’t pass up the chance to destroy some. And sure enough, a few minutes later I can see the two paladins on their steeds trotting down the street towards me. Standing up, I sling my backpack over my shoulders and watch them draw close. Because of the similarity in the design of their armour, I can hardly tell the two apart. Dismounting from their steeds, they walk towards me, stopping a couple of meters away. The one on the right asks suspiciously, “Who are you? What are you doing here?” Since he doesn’t sound like the paladin I met last time, I assume this one is the man. I’m about to reply when the other paladin pushes up her visor, revealing a face that… all I can say is that the elven reputation of beauty is in no way exaggerated. Her eyes remind me of the fields in spring, when they are covered in a carpet of vibrant green. “You are that adventurer who was helping the villagers reclaim their village from skeletons, are you not? Why are you here?” She asks. “I was travelling and saw this village in the distance, so I went towards it. Then I found all the skeletons here, so I started to clean them out.” I shrug slightly. “I don’t suppose you know where all the people who lived here are?” I ask. She frowns. “As far as we can tell, they unfortunately perished in the initial attack. And who is that behind you?” My head whips around, and I see Joe standing there, smiling and waving. Since when was he there!? I’m not sure what to say about him. “That’s Joe. I’m not all too sure why he follows me around, but he’s a good person as far as I can tell.” “Because I was bored, obviously.” Says the now significantly less grimy old man Joe. “Figured I’d find someone interesting and tag along in their adventures.” “Then why me?” I ask him, bewildered. “Oh come on. With all the things you’ve encountered in the past month or two alone, you’re asking that?” Joe says, raising his eyebrows. He begins to count them off on his fingers. “First you discover an ancient ruin that’s still fully operational, survive an encounter with THE spider matriarch, befriend one of the former top brass in the Empire’s navy, survive an encounter with his murderer, kill the- wait, that one hasn’t happened yet. But you get the gist.” What was he about to say? The lady paladin looks a bit confused but addresses me again. “Would you be willing to assist in defeating the necromancer who did this? If he’s sending out this many skeletons to each village he attacks, I’m afraid he may have several hundreds to defend himself, as well as more powerful undead. We may not be able to handle them all ourselves.” “But surely, with our holy magic being the bane of the undead, we should be able to defeat the necromancer with relative ease?” The male paladin asks the other. She turns her head to face him. “Luc, would you like your eventual death to be because of your stubborn refusal to accept help?” “No…” Luc replies, taken aback. “Remember that while we help others, we are not to be above receiving help from others.” She reprimands, then turns her head back to me. “So, are you interested?” I smile wryly and shake my head. “I would be happy to, but I don’t think that I’m strong or skilled enough to be able to fight against a weak necromancer, let alone a strong one. Last time I tried something like that I nearly died.” Her eyebrows furrow. “How about if we train you as we travel?” ‘Accept her offer.’ Gerald says suddenly. …I was about to. “Then I will gladly join you.” I agree happily. “But why would you trust a random adventurer like me?” Although the question is addressed to the female paladin, it is Luc who answers. “Because we paladins have skills that can detect lies and intentions. And you haven’t spoken a single falsehood or had a single impure intention during this whole conversation.” I pause. Well, that would explain it. “And how about you, Joe? Will you also come with us?” She asks. I glance at him, and he shrugs nonchalantly. “Sure. I’ll have to give you forewarning, though – I don’t fight. I won’t get in the way, and I’ll keep up with you travelling, but the most I can offer is a few wise words every now and again.” For some reason she just nods and accepts this. Maybe, like me, she realised the futility of arguing against a guy who doesn’t care about your opinion. Well, at least he’s honest about it. Luc flips up his visor, revealing a face similarly graced by elven beauty, and offers a gauntleted hand. I shake it. It feels strange – I’ve never shaken the hands of someone wearing metal armour before. “My name is Luc. I pray we get along well on our future journeys.” Luc says warmly.  She offers her hand as well, and when I shake it, it feels startlingly different from his, despite the gauntlets being so similar. While his grip was firm and strong, hers is somehow gentle and yet in no way weak. “My name is Lily.” She says with a small smile, and then asks, “And yours is?”, finally reminding me that after all this I still hadn’t introduced myself. “I’m Ferdinand.” As I look at the two paladins, I can’t help but notice a black cat slinking across the edge of the town square. I don’t think anything of it at first, until I remember Gerald telling me about a cat in the last skeleton-infested village we visited. Lily catches my odd gaze and turns around. When she sees the cat, she turns back and shrugs slightly. “Just a cat.” “Why,” I say slowly, asking the very same question that Gerald asked me not so long ago, “is there a cat in an area full of undead that hate anything living?” Lily’s eyes widen, and quickly catches the small furry feline. “Why didn’t we notice this sooner?” She mumbles, looking intently at the cat she is holding in one gauntleted hand. “Enslavement magic, observation magic… Now that I think about it, there must have been one of these in every village we visited. The necromancer has been watching us this entire time!” She exclaims in frustration. “Are you able to track where the magic is coming from?” Asks Luc seriously. “Perhaps, if…” The cat falls limp in her hand, causing her face to darken slightly. “The Necromancer killed it and cut off their connection to it before I was able to get anything more than a rough direction. South-West.” Luc asks, “Do we head in that direction, then?” Lily narrows her eyes for a moment, thinking. “No. We will find some more of these skeleton villages, purify them, and find some more of these cats. Then I shall be able to pinpoint the necromancer’s location.” With that said and done, Lily and Luc roam around the village for a few minutes, purifying the death energy that lingers in the area. After this, the pair of paladins re-mount their steeds, and Lily pulled me up to sit behind her. “Grip with your knees – but not too hard, or you could hurt him.” She advised. “And put your arms around my waist.” Slightly dumbfounded, I awkwardly do as she said, gripping the horse’s flanks with my knees and… wrapping my arms around her (heavily armoured) waist. In a brief moment of clarity, I adjust my sheath so that it won’t poke into the horse while we’re riding. I may not have ridden a horse before, but I know enough about them to know that irritating them is something you do not want to do. After that, I must have fallen into some sort of a daze, because the next thing I know we’re already trotting along the road. In my defence, this is the first time I have been so close to a woman… even if she is wearing a suit of armour. Twisting my head to look around a tad, I’m taken aback at just how far from the ground I am. I mean, I have no problem with heights, but it is a very strange sensation to see – and feel – yourself moving along while your feet dangle off the ground. The distinctive smell of the horse tickles my nostrils, and I catch sight of Joe behind us – Not on Luc’s horse, as I had assumed, but jogging along with a relaxed smile on his face, looking around and taking in the view. He sees me looking at him, and waves to me. …Right, okay. “Try not to move around too much, please.” Says Lily, making me turn my head back to the front and adjust my posture slightly. For a while, I just take in the sights. For once, other people are moving out of our way on the road, instead of me moving out of theirs. Reaching the city doesn’t take more than an hour, much faster than it would have on foot. Although I suppose that with my recent increases in endurance and dexterity, I should be able to jog quite a distance. “How do we find out about which villages have been attacked?” I ask. Without turning her head, Lily nods towards the large building we are moving towards. “The local temples are among the first to know about things such as these. We only left here a few hours ago, but perhaps they have learned of something new in the meantime.” I nod in understanding, before realising that she can’t see it. “That makes sense. By the way, which God or Goddess are you two the paladins of? I must confess that I’m not overly familiar with the signs of most gods.” “We are devotees of the elven god Vitus, he who represents harmony and survival.” She replies. “And who do you follow?” Who do I follow? It must have been years since I last prayed. The last time must have been…  when my parents sent me away. I try and remember which God it was that we worshipped. “…Adeodatus.” “The God of farming?” Lily says, a hint of surprise in her voice. “I would have expected Kamal, God of swords, or perhaps Orzora, Goddess of strength, due to you being an adventurer.” “I used to be a farmer.” I explain quietly. “There was a famine, and my parents sent me away with a sword and the rest of the food. After that, I became an adventurer… the God of farming didn’t seem to fit me anymore, but as I said, I don’t know much about the other Gods.” “I’m sorry for your loss.” Lily says softly. The horses plod on through the streets. Neither of us speak for a few moments. “The priests here will be glad to tell you about their Deity, if you wish to change who you follow. Just… keep in mind that you do not need to follow a Deity that relates to your chosen profession. You should choose one whose ideology and beliefs mirror yours.” She explains. “Thanks.” We reach the temple shortly, and we dismount from the horses. A young boy takes hold of both pairs of reigns, guiding the horses to a stable off to one side of the temple. We walk inside. Inside is a massive, multi-tiered circular area, every tier lined with shrines bearing the symbols of a different Deity. Some have priests tending to them, while others stand largely abandoned. People mill about, offering prayers or tributes. The windows are covered with some sort of coloured glass, depicting various scenes. The enormity and majesty of the building makes me feel tiny, insignificant in comparison to the hundreds of Deities represented in this place. Humbled, I quietly walk around, asking a few questions to the priests here and there. There are a lot of gods to go through, too many to go through in a week, let alone the hour or so I wandered around, but I managed to go through quite a few. I even visited the shrine of Adeodatus. Some deities have similar beliefs and ideals, while some of them are quite… unique? But now that I think about it, all of them could be loosely termed as ‘good’, or at least can’t be described as ‘evil’. Are there no evil Gods? Or are they just not represented here? ‘You know, religion here is very different to how religion was in my home world.’ Gerald says suddenly. ‘Really? In what way?’ I ask him. ‘Well,’ he begins, ‘for one thing, every religion was in this sort of silent holy war. They all believed that they were the true religion, and were all thus trying to spread to as many people as possible, while simultaneously telling people why the other religions were false, and trying to pick holes in their beliefs and such.’ Confused, I ask, ‘True religion?’ ‘Yeah, the one religion that was ‘right’. See, every religion claimed that their God had created the world and everything on it, and there could only be one God who had created everything, right? If you had so many religions in one place like there is here, talking about their beliefs so openly, there would be arguments everywhere – hell, there’d probably be riots.’ All I can say is: ‘Wow.’ ‘That reminds me: which one of these Gods created this world? Or is it all of them?’ He asks. I have no idea, so I ask a priest nearby. “Who created the world?” A voice behind me says “Crap.” Who would speak so vulgarly in a temple? The priest in front of me, a bald man dressed in white, frowns in confusion. “I’m afraid I don’t know, child. If you wait a moment, I will ask my God, and perhaps He will gift us with the answer you seek.” He bows down at the shrine behind him, lips moving soundlessly as he prays. Finally, he stands up and sighs. “I’m afraid he hasn’t – wait…” He breaks off, seemingly listening to an unheard voice with an expression of rapture. A tear glistens at the corner of his eye as he says in awe, “My God has told me that the world existed before even the Gods…” ‘Well, there you have it.’ I tell Gerald. ‘…Alright. That was convenient.’ He says strangely. What more does he want, a God personally answered his question! At that moment, an armoured hand grabs my wrist and starts pulling me along towards the exit. I have a moment of panic before I recognise the person dragging me along. “Luc? What’s happening?” I ask, regaining my balance and swiftly walking alongside him. He releases my wrist. “We need to go, NOW.” He urges me, hurrying along at a pace that feels entirely inappropriate in this holy place. In a matter of seconds, we are outside and back on the horses. I’m not sure whether to be relieved that I’m behind Luc because I won’t be distracted by being so close to a woman, or disappointed that I’m not behind Lily because I won’t be behind a woman… …I think Gerald has affected me. Why else would I be thinking of something so useless in a serious situation? “What happened?” I ask as we trot through town. When Luc replies, his voice is thick with worry. “Skeletons are attacking almost every village that the priests here know about.” Alarmed, I ask, “What about the army? Adventurers? Surely they are doing something?” “We did not want to waste the time it would have taken to find that out. However, it would be ridiculous if they were not assisting.” Lily answers, a similar tone in her voice. That’s true. …But then again, why didn’t they help with the last two villages we saved? Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 2658.08/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 960/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 485/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 4898/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.30% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.94% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.93% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 23.74%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 12.36% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 39.16% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 6.37% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.38% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 28 Experience: 2430.48/5700 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 44.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 35.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 38.4   Health: 384/384 Health regen: 2.304/hour Stamina: 357/357 Stamina regen: 3.57/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.66% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.59% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.59% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry – Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry – Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword – Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 1.15% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.28% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. [collapse]

So. A long time has passed. Of course, since there’s no time function or clock I don’t know how long, but it was probably a long time. I have been used for about 40-odd meals, so that’s 13-ish days if I was being used for 3 a day. Unless forks aren’t used for breakfast, in which case it may be 20 days. Nothing exciting has happened. I’ve diligently been eating food, so why haven’t I gotten something new? It wasn’t kidding when it said there was only a chance for it to happen. Since I’m not sure if overstuffing myself with mana can make me explode or something, I stopped eating mana, apart from the small amounts I am apparently eating with meals according to the skill description. So, I’ve spent 13-20+ days watching white balls float around with nothing but a few messages saying, ‘you got nothing from doing this! Good job!’ What’s that you’re asking? Can I do magic now? No. I can only presume it’s because I have no control skill, but I can’t move mana, inside or outside my body. Imagine you got a pool of, I dunno… not water coz it’s essential to life and mana isn’t… hmm, how about lemonade. Yeah, you got this pool of lemonade, and you wanna drink some. But you got no cup, mug, not even a bowl or bucket. What? Use your hands you say? Screw you racist pricks, I got no hands, don’t judge. Anyway, you can’t drink the lemonade. Can’t do a thing with it. So, no magic. What’s that? Did I forget about experience? I should have levelled up by now? Yeah, I did. Twice. Got 2.5 status points per level. Yeah, you can get pretty precise with your point allocation. Interestingly, I can put points in Durability and hardness, as well as the more generic ones. Being the weird fork that I am, I unhesitantly put points in to even my stats to round numbers, leaving me with 3.6 points, which annoyed me, so I dumped 1.1 into hardness, 1 into durability, 1 into Cha and .5 into wisdom. Unfortunately, I am unable to increase luck, so it looks like it’s going to be stuck like that forever. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 2 Experience: 15.52/300 Gender: None Age: 5 weeks (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 0.0 Intelligence: 11.0 Dexterity: 0.0 Wisdom: 7.5 Charisma: 3.0 Luck: 5.1 Hardness: 15.1 Durability: 6.0/6.0 Mana: 110/110 Mana regen: 0.75/min Titles Traits Skills Round numbers also makes the maths for finding out how far my vision is much easier! I mean, I could’ve done it easy before, if I had pen and paper so I don’t forget numbers, but – oh wait! – I’m a fork and couldn’t hold a pen if I had one. But now! 11x7.5 is… 77 + 55/10 = 77 + 5.5 = 82.5 then divide by 5 and hey presto, it’s 16.5m. Now that you, and I, and who am I talking to, wait, I’m thinking, because I can’t talk, Because I Have No Mouth, BECAUSE I’M A FORK! Am bored again, let’s stop this insane internal monologue. Fluid of… absorbed   Flesh of… absorbed   Flesh of… absorbed   … absorbed   … … Fluid of lvl 10 slime absorbed Experience gained: 13.78 Durability recovered: 1.53 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.4%, Mana sight 3.2% (Exceeds 100%, reduced to 2.1%) Skills gained: Mana sight (Advanced) Traits gained: None Window will close in 29s Pain blossoms in my head and blackness overcomes me. Just kidding, I don’t have a head, and the blackness is what happened when I toggled the mana sight skill off. I wanted to be able to control it this time just in case there was pain again. Which, in retrospect, may not have been the best of ideas. Mana sight (Advanced) (High Rare, Passive/toggled) 0.00% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/2m. Their forms are now more distinct, but still blurred. I stare, figuratively speaking, at the button which activates my mana sight, literally speaking. I mean, I can activate and deactivate it by willing it, but I can also do it from the skill list. Which I am now staring at while I try to persuade myself it won’t hurt that much. It doesn’t work. I think of just closing my eyes and jabbing at the skill to activate it, before remembering: I have neither eyes nor fingers with which to jab. So I grit my tines and… give up. What are you looking at me like that for? Hey, you telling me that you can knowingly walk into something which you are fairly sure will replicate the most painful experience of your lives? You are one of three, no four things: 1. Lying to yourself, 2. You have crazy willpower, 3. You have never experienced pain greater than a chipped nail or, 4. You are stupid. I’m not going to simply activate mana sight when- A twinge of pain jolts me from my crazed monologue as my vision once again blooms with light. And this time, it isn’t just little white balls. But, of course, I am too busy rejoicing the distinct lack of pain in comparison to the previous time to take note of this. Once I finish celebrating and wipe the tears I don’t have from the eyes I don’t have with the fingers I don’t have, I, uh, look around? You can’t really call it ‘looking around’ when you have a permanent sphere of vision. But lo and behold that sphere is now a dome! Yesiree, and I’m not sad about it at all! Why? Well, that’s because I can SEE THE GROUND! Yes, you heard me, I can see the earth (presumably) beneath me! How you ask? Mana! There is mana dang near everywhere! In the ground! Still some floatin’ around like some sorta magic wind currents! Trees! Wait, trees? I’m outside? Huh. Didn’t expect that. But the biggest shock comes when I finally look a bit ‘closer to home’, so to speak. After all, directly next to the center of my vision, me -who is by the way seemingly floating off the ground a meter or so, don’t ask me why, I’d probably know if I could levitate – is… A humanoid figure outlined by the white glow of mana! Yeah, thinking about it, not so surprising. Actually, back to that floating part, why am I doing that? And why is this person not caring about the fork levitating a constant distance from his back? Uhhh…. What? Looking closer - and yes, I can look closer - I can just barely see a thin stretch of mana above and below me. Looking again, I can also see mana faintly in the shape of various objects. I can vaguely make out the shape of… a squirrel? The heck? Well, it isn’t moving, and looking again, I can see it is standing on a circular… thing. Hey, I can do shape but not material, got it? I won’t even be able to tell between this person and a statue of him if he is standing still. Assuming the material of the statue contains mana. Back to the squirrel! It’s still a squirrel. I’m guessing it’s a wood carving or figurine or something. Unless it’s stuffed and glued onto that stand. Can’t tell the difference. That may be awkward in the future. Just imagine, “Nice statue of a bald dude” “That’s a criminal, he was impaled.” “Oh.” Yeah. Not that I can talk. I would say I’m working on that, but I’m just as likely to get teleportation as speech from this lottery. Or maybe not. So, back to the humanoid. And I say humanoid because, again, I can only see vague shape. So I probably won’t be able to tell this person from any other person. Well, this is an improvement, I guess. At least I can see the general gist of what’s happening around me. Talking of which, I think we - as in I, the fork and he, the humanoid - are currently moving through a forest. By which I mean he/she/it is moving through a forest with me in their backpack. Hey hey, I should be able to keep track of time now, if I just count it as a day every time this dude sleeps, right? That’s kinda nice. What’s he doing now? Looking around, I can see a group of four small humanoids. Which, given my lack of high definition, could mean they are human children, gnomes, dwarves, goblins, halflings or simply short people. Of course, half of those assume this is a fantasy world, but hey, there’s mana, a system thing and I’m a sentient fork. There should at least be dwarves n’ goblins, yeah? So, what’ll they do? I see, turn around and walk away. That’s cool, I totally wasn’t anticipating my first view of live combat in either life. Albeit in 144p.

(POV Ferdinand) There isn’t much to talk about when it comes to my life. I grew up in a small village, the son of farmers. My friends were cows and sheep, and the fields my playground. An extraordinarily simple life, some would say. And yet it was satisfying, knowing that you would always have food on the table, things to do, and people who cared for you. I can say with confidence that those years were the happiest of my life. I felt safe, content with my life. There were monster attacks occasionally, but there was a retired adventurer who lived in the village that protected us. For twenty years, I lived in bliss. But it ended all of a sudden when the famine struck. Our herd grew sick and more dropped by the day. The crops withered and blew away. In the course of a single month, our entire livelihood had disappeared. And we weren’t the only ones affected. The village grew quiet as people left, or died of hunger and disease. I helped bury the coffins of men I had grown up with, known my entire life. The only reason we survived that long was a dwindling supply of grain we had stored. I remember when a travelling merchant came to our village. Everyone flocked to him, holding their entire lives’ savings… But he had already sold all his food in the previous village. He was chased out of the village by a mob of people who weren’t much more than skin and bones. Shortly after that, my parents gave me a sword. They must have bought it from the merchant, because it was brand new. Then they sent me away with the rest of the food and money. So how in the world did I end up a wandering adventurer, accompanied by a talking fork? Why me? I’m not anything special, even after a few years of this I’m only at level eighteen! Look at my status, just look at it! Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 18 Experience 317.10/2600 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 30.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 30.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 20.4   Health: 204/204 Health regen: 2.04/min Stamina: 307/307 Stamina regen: 3.07/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 46.11% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.01% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 17.28% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 92.30% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 64.11% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 23.22% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry-Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry-Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 76.89% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minutely increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +0.5 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 13.28% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. That’s right, my only acquired title is insect bane. Insect bane! It’s practically useless! And my best skill is only Low uncommon! Skills go from Common, uncommon, rare, to unique, with each being further divided into low, mid and high, and my best is only four steps from the bottom. It is still useful, even so. I have had a few times where that has saved my life, even if it has left me drained of mana for hours afterwards. But I’m almost jealous of Gerald. That ability he talked about has to be at least a rare, maybe a unique. The gods are fair, I suppose. Gerald couldn’t do anything but use that ability in the beginning, from what I understand. A unique ability in exchange for my entire body and all my senses? No thanks. Thinking of what Gerald has lost makes me appreciate sights like this even more. Surrounding the path in a sea are uncountable flowers, in a sea of colours shifting with the wind. As we walk along, I breathe in deeply through my nose, smelling the sweet scent the flowers gave off. What is even better about this place is that the mix of aromas offends the sensitive noses of wolves, so it’s extremely rare to be attacked by monsters here. Gerald’s voice sounds in my mind. ‘Twelve small four legged creatures heading towards us from your right.’ ‘Okay, thanks.’ I reply. But of course, we get attacked anyway. Looking over the shoulder of the man walking next to me, I see them approaching, barely visible above the flowers. Sighing, I alert the rest of the party. “Cats approaching from the right.” “Ooh, cats? Where? I love cats!” Exclaims Mary, the mage. What’s to like about cats? They’re smelly, attack you if you get close and steal food. Metal rasps around me as everyone draws their weapons. I draw my own, and we spread out into a line to face the incoming cats. Even Luke, the archer of the group, has drawn a blade. Accurate as he is, with such small and fast-moving targets, and at such a close range, he has no chance of hitting them. “Why are we attacking them? They’re so cute!” Mary protests. I beg to differ. Fur matted with mud, scars forming a network of lighter fur across their bodies, they are indeed the opposite of cute. They hiss loudly as they streak towards us. Tony tries to explain to her. “We aren’t attacking them, Mary, they’re attacking us! Get out a weapon, it’ll be hard to hit with magic.” As he finished talking, they are upon us. A brief fight consisting of many scratches and quite a few missed sword swings later, and we have some dead cats. And a sad mage. “But why did they attack us?” Tony sighs. “They’re animals. We wandered into their territory or they were running away from something. Doesn’t really matter.” She lapses into silence. It really is a bit awkward, walking alongside someone you saved the life of, but they don’t know a thing. I still want to tell her, really. But although Gerald may be too careful, what he says makes sense… sometimes. I still wonder if he’s mad, despite what he says. I mean, there isn’t a title for being sane. Wait, there isn’t, right? It is a smooth trip back to the city after that. We show our adventurer’s licences to the guards and each pay a copper coin. Since adventurers, in a way, help protect the city by killing nearby monsters, we get a discount on the entrance fee. After getting into the city, we head straight for the adventurer’s guild. Handing the proof of completion that the villagers had given us to the receptionist, we receive our pay; ten silvers. It’s an even split of two silvers per party member, and then we head our separate ways. Our party was only temporary. They asked me to join them because they weren’t sure if they could take monsters that can threaten a village with only four people. They needn’t have bothered, it seems, and they probably regret missing out on a bit of money. As I look at my newly earned wealth, I frown. Ten silvers. It isn’t much to city folk, but for farmers in a small village, requesting this probably cost half their savings. Maybe less, if they shared the cost and considering that the guild pays a portion for such requests, but still, it’s a large cost. In the end, the adventurer’s guild isn’t a charity. They won’t pay the whole quest reward. But there isn’t anything I can do to help, not now at least. Wandering over to the request board, I have a look at it. It is unlikely there will be anything new since this morning, but I should at least check it. It hasn’t changed. It is mostly repeatable requests, the type that anyone could do any amount of times. These are generally simple, such as hunt a certain number of a monster, or collect a certain number of herbs from an area which monsters roam in. Alchemists always need herbs, and monsters need to be as few as possible to increase the safety of farmers and merchants travelling to the city with their wares. Leaving the adventurer’s guild, I look at the sky to see how late it is. The sun shines blue on the horizon as its bottom edge slinks slowly below the edge of the world. Glancing further up, Teroc looks back down at me with a perpetual sneer. Almost night, then. May as well get some food and go to sleep. Eating a simple, but filling meal at an eatery, I head to bed. Another tiring day passed. …And then Gerald starts talking again. ‘Hey, just to break a flag or two, if anyone ever claims to have killed that spider matriarch, you just ignore them. If pressed, just say what everyone else is saying, even if it isn’t true.’ ‘And you’re sure that you aren’t crazy? What have flags got to do with somebody lying about killing the spider matriarch? Was that what it was called?’ I reply. ‘Eh, don’t worry about it, just saying it just in case. The flags thing is a term from my past life, so don’t mind it not making sense.’ He says. ‘You completely ignored the crazy question.’ I point out. ‘Yes, it was called the spider matriarch.’ He replies. ‘Sounds like it was important in the spider world. Do Arachne exist in this world? Hope we don’t get chased by spider ladies, or spider men for that matter.’ ‘Yes, but you’re ignoring it again!’ I press. ‘Hah, just joking with ya. I’m not crazy. I won’t refute weird or strange, but I’m not crazy. Well, goodnight.’ ‘Oi!’ A steady ‘beep, beep, beep’ rings out in my head before disappearing entirely. His idea of a joke, I’m sure. It might be funnier if I actually understood what those beeps were. Or maybe not. Who knows with that guy.

Lucky for me, I don’t need to know, since I’m a hitchhiker. Ferdinand navigates the busy streets of the city until he finds the place he’s looking for. I figure I can train and be practical at the same time, so I keep up a telepathic link with him until I get below thirty psi, then wait for it to refill before doing it again. Not that I say anything. Y’know, thinking about it, we need to talk about some sort of signal. I mean, keeping some for emergencies is all well and good, but what if he needs to urgently ask me something? He wouldn’t be able to do anything but wait for me to say something. Meanwhile, Ferdinand deposits his equipment with the blacksmith, and walks out again. “How long will the repair take?” I ask, mostly for something to say. “A few hours. A blacksmith always has work to do, after all. Nearly everyone has a weapon or two, even if they don’t have armour, and all that equipment has to get repaired regularly. Not to mention making new equipment for sale.” He says. “Hey Ferdinand, I’ve been thinking, I’m keeping a small amount of psi that I don’t usually use, in case of emergencies, but I got to thinking, what if you need to talk to me when we aren’t connected?” “What, you thinking some sort of signal I can do to tell you I want to talk? Like what?” He asks. I dunno. “Dunno.” “What’s dunno?” He asks, confused. “It’s short for don’t know.” I explain. “Oh. How about when I scratch my head?” He proposes. “Sure, but what about when you actually need to scratch your head?” I say sceptically. “It doesn’t cost you much psi for a few seconds to confirm whether I actually need to talk, right?” He has a point there, and it's not like I have anything better to do. “True. We’ll go with that then.” If I can remember it, that is. And if I’m not doing anything else that distracts me. “So what now?” I ask. “Food.” He says. Makes sense, it is morning... “I wish I could eat…” “Sorry.” He says awkwardly. “Don’t worry about it.” I'm used to it, after all.  I can kinda eat, but I can’t taste. Right now, I would be happy if I could taste water. Well, it is what it is. We walk out the open gate. Well, I’m… Is there some sort of adjective for this situation? This explanation is getting repetitive. Anyway, he’s joined up with another few people to hunt some monsters that are getting close to a nearby village. By the sound of it, a common occurrence. The same old ground, same old grass, same old figures walking along. That’s what it looks like to me. Speaking of mana sight, it’s slowly gathering proficiency, at about thirty percent. I suppose that’s because I always have it on. I imagine that even if say, a human, had mana sight, they would rarely use it, because it would overlay on top of their normal vision, and make them a bit queasy and confused. They… can’t turn off their sight, can they? If they could do things like that… If they were fighting an enemy with sound based attacks, couldn’t they just turn off their hearing? That would be strange. But then again, it would be annoying if I got some sort of light-based vision and couldn’t turn it off. I would still like to use mana sight, after all. Travelling seems very boring. Honestly, all the journeys I’ve been on so far have looked the same to me. But again, that’s due to my vision. Hey, that’s not boring. A spider. Wait, how can I see it so easily? How big is… HOW IS IT THAT BIG! “Big spider nearby!” I shout into Ferdinand’s head. “Where? How big?” He asks. “Look to your right!” I shout again. (POV Ferdinand) I look to my right and instinctively shiver. Its leg hairs are thicker than my sword! Dear god, why is something like this so close to the city? I have to alert the others! “Prepare for battle, giant spider to the right!” The archer starts speaking, then is at a loss for words as he looks to his right. “What, just a giant…” The scout looks casually over, then starts bolting in the opposite direction, shouting behind him. “ FUCK FIGHTING, I’M RUNNING!” The mage looks over and falls over sideways in a dead faint. “Damn, she’s fainted, we can’t fight even if we wanted to anymore, just run!” The last member of the party is a bit better, but he, too starts to run, and I call after him. “What about her!?” “Forget her!” He calls back without turning. I can’t just let someone die like that! But, I might die too! What do I do? This is no time for hesitation, damn it! Hoisting the limp body of the woman over my shoulder, I start running in the opposite direction of that monstrosity. It was a good distance away, but who knows if it saw us! Boom. Boom. Boom boom boom boom… Echoing rapidly in the distance alongside the sharp sounds of snapping branches, I hear it getting closer. What do I do!? What can I do!? At that moment, Gerald’s voice popped into my head. ‘It’s getting closer, fast. How’s your throwing arm?’ ‘Throwing arm? Not bad, but how does that help me!?’ I think back, still furiously running away. ‘You’ll have to do everything I say if you want to live.’ He says. Like he can do anything, he can’t touch anything! Besides, I don’t trust the thing one bit. ‘Why should I trust you?’ I think back anyway. Unlike me, he’s irritatingly calm. ‘You’ll die if you don’t, now cut the chat, put that person down and open up your pack!’ I don’t really have a choice, do I? I drop her on the ground and sling my pack off my back. As I do so, he talks again. ‘This will sound crazy, but take out that mithril fork you found in that strange ruin!’ ‘That does sound crazy! Hey, how did you know I found it in a ruin? It was mithril?’ I think back. Although I said that, my hands were frantically searching through the bag as the sounds grew louder and louder. ‘Explain later, just get it out! And this will sound even crazier, but when you find it, I need you to chuck it at the head of that spider as hard and accurate as you can!’ He says quickly. ‘That is crazy! You are crazy! And I’m crazy for listening to you!’ ‘No, I’m not, I even have a title saying how sane I am!’ What is he even talking about! Ah, there it is! Grabbing the damn fork, I get up again and put my arm above my head in preparation to toss the thing. Looking forwards again, I can see the monster rushing towards me. Don’t they say the bigger ones are slower!? Who said that, I want to punch him! Its eyes are the size of my head! Taller than the trees, I can now see its legs weaving around the trees, not minding the branches its torso is ripping past and shaving the tops of the trees off. This should be close enough, right. Don’t mess this up! “Dear Gods, please let this work!” Shouting out a prayer, I throw the fork at it with all my strength. Feverishly I watch it whirling through the air towards the spider, my body covered in cold sweat and my heart beating louder than the drums in my village’s festivals. My eyes strain as it flies out of sight, the wall of dark hairiness that is the gigantic spider covering most of the scenery in front of me. I brace myself for death. Then it stops. That can’t have worked… right? Why would throwing a fork at it stop it? Then, it falls over. Its legs curl, looking like the skeleton of some long-dead behemoth. …It actually died. How did it die!? His voice pops into my head again, sounding a little distracted. ‘I know you want an explanation, and that’s fine, but first, do you have a piece of cloth or something like that?’ ‘I always carry a few pieces of scrap cloth to repair my clothes with, will that do?’ I ask, still unable to believe what just happened. ‘Should do fine. Now find a long stick.’ He says. A stick? Why does he only ask strange things? Looking around, I find one that could almost be a walking stick. Not hard when you’re near a bunch of trees. Gerald’s voice sounds in my head again. ‘Now again, this will sound strange. The fork you just threw at the spider is currently underneath its head. Can you use that stick to get it out from underneath it? Some sort of liquid is dripping down from the spider’s head, and it’s probably poisonous, so try not to get close to that.’ ‘It IS strange!’ I shout mentally back at him. ‘But you saved my life, so I can retrieve the fork.’ I edge closer to the body, wary of any movement. When I reach the corpse, I look under the head of the thing. The spider is so large that its head is a short way off the ground, so I can see the fork, and the clear liquid dripping down onto it. I’m not stupid enough to think that’s water. Grasping the stick, I use it to scrape the fork along the ground until it’s well away from the head. ‘Don’t touch it, it’s poisonous! Use the piece of cloth to pick it up and wrap it in. And probably don’t put it near food.’ Of course it’s poisonous, poison was just dripping on it. Taking out a scrap of cloth, I use it to pick up the fork, then wrap it around it carefully, then tie it up with a piece of twine. ‘Okay, now, EXPLAIN!’ (POV Gerald) Well this will be fun, if only for his reaction. That was one hell of a level up, though. Don’t have time to look now, sadly. “Okay, I’ll explain, but bear with me, because this will be the craziest thing you’ll ever hear in your entire life.” “That’s a bold claim. Well, get on with it.” He says. “Well, you know how I said that I didn’t remember anything? Sorry, I lied.” I admit. “Okay, still not crazy…” He says, taking it much better than I thought. “I just couldn’t trust you. I’m not really sure I can, even now, but whatever.” I say, continuing. “I wasn’t lying when I said my status screen said I was eight months old, but that’s not the whole truth. I used to be human.” “Okay, getting stranger, but still not really crazy. People die and turn into vengeful ghosts occasionally.” They do? This place is weird. “That’s not me. For starters, the place I lived doesn’t seem to be in this world.” “How can you be so sure?” He asks. “No mana, no monsters, nobody carries weapons, there aren’t rats running around the food stalls.” I explain. “Anyway, I died in that world, and I seem to have been reincarnated into this world.” But he seems more caught on my first sentence. “There are rats running around the food stalls!?” “…Seriously?” “What’s reincarnation?” He asks. I sigh internally. “Reincarnation is a concept from my previous world, no clue if it’s in this one. I wasn’t lying when I said you were the first I had talked to. The concept is that after you die, the deeds you did in that life would be judged, your memories would be wiped clean and depending on how good you were, you would be reborn as another being. Murderers and thieves and such would be reborn as insects or something, while saints and those who donate to charities would be reborn in a human body full of potential.” Ferdinand says, “Okay, I think I get it. So how about you?” “I wasn’t the best of people, but I didn’t do anything bad. I have no clue what I did to warrant this.” I say. “What do you mean? What were you reborn as?” He asks curiously. “This is the crazy part. You’re holding me.” “What? I’m not holding anyone?” Ferdinand says, confused. “No, I’m that fork you’re holding.” “What? I’m not holding anyone?” Ferdinand says, confused. Oh great, Ferdinand.exe has stopped responding. Let’s try turning it off and on again. “The spider woke up.” He shot a good meter into the air as he frantically looked back at the spider. Understandably, facing towards the corpse of a gigantic spider while resting is not good for your mental health. “No it didn’t! Why!? Why would you say that!?” He shouts. “You were repeating yourself.” I explain. “What?” “After I said that I’m the fork you’re holding, you just kept repeating yourself.” I repeat. “You can’t be serious.” He says. I assume he means the fork, not the repetition, because that would be scary if actually… “Deadly serious. And I can prove it. I have a skill that lets me absorb substances at a very short distance away from my surface. It’s what I used to kill the spider.” I explain. “The fork could be enchanted to do that.” He argues. “Fine.” I say. “You remember that prophecy you got before, what was it, ‘you are what you eat’?” “Yeah, what about it?” He says. “The other effect of the absorb skill is that I have a small chance of gaining traits and skills from what I absorb.” I explain. “In other words, I get stronger depending on what I eat. Strangely similar, right?” “How do I know you aren’t just making all this up?” He asks suspiciously. Man was this taking a while. My psi could only hold out for this long because he’s holding me, and the distance between us is almost zero. “I talked about the ruin where you found me, right? That should be proof enough. I got my mana sight skill from an ooze, my telepathy from an id ooze variant, one of the ones you killed and were eating, by the way, and another boost to my telepathy skill from when you ate those mind flayer tentacles.” “Why would I eat mind flayer tentacles?” Ferdinand protests. “That’s disgusting, they’re people too you know!” “That is disgusting.” I agree. I don’t want to eat people. “You did eat it though, just a few days ago at a food stall on the street.” “Wait, you mean that fresh octopus he was selling was actually…” He asks, dreading the answer. “Yep.” “Let me just vomit a bit…” He trails off. He vomits a bit. After cleaning himself up a bit, he starts talking to me again. “Say I believe you. What then?” “Nothing, really.” I say. “I’m poisonous now, so you can’t use me to eat, but you can still throw me at monsters, when nobody else is around, of course.” “Why when nobody else is around?” Ferdinand asks. “I can’t move. Therefore, those who know about me effectively control what I do.” I explain. “I would rather be unknown. To be honest, I only talked to you because I was worried I would go insane again.” “What do you mean, again?” He asks. Well, if you really want to know… “Do you remember the hole in the cave that let you find the ruin that I was in? I was in that cave for at least five months, with not a single other being. Imagine staring at an unmoving picture for five months. I went insane, recklessly used absorb on the ground, tunnelled down and luckily managed to land on top of one of those robots in the ruin, which gave me a trait that got me out of the insanity.” “You are weird. Very weird.” He says. “Yes, very. Now if we are finished here, I’m going to go take a look at what I got for killing that spider.” “Sure…” Finally. The anticipation was killing me that whole conversation, just remembering those windows that came up… Brain matter of lvl 83 Spider Matriarch absorbed Experience gained: 213.26 Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.4% Skills gained: Body of deadly poison (Basic) Traits gained: Poison Resistance (Huge)   Lvl 83 Spider Matriarch killed Experience gained: 57570   Level up! You are now level 27! 68 stat points gained. Yeah. Should it have been that easy? 1Test footnote. Putting this in here because I know what you're going to say - people have already said it on RRL - 'he's so OP, he can kill something that's lvl 83 when he wasn't even a quarter of it's level!' ...Not really. The absorb skill can only absorb mana and matter. If it's any other type of energy (There are quite a few others, not to mention RL ones like heat, electricity, radiation) the skill won't be able to absorb it. A barrier of another energy, no matter how thin, would stop it. Anyone at high level would have be capable of doing this. The spider didn't because it thought the fork being thrown at it was about as deadly as a snowball would be against a dragon. I mean seriously, that’s, what, twenty-one levels? By getting thrown at something? I know I have absorb and all, but shouldn’t there be some sort of counter to that? Wait, there is I think. I can only absorb mana and matter, so if someone uses another type of energy to attack me, I can’t do anything about it. Sixty-eight stat points! Such an increase! Let’s just have a look at my status… Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 27 Experience: 4308.26/5400 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 1.0 (10.0) Intelligence: 14.0 Dexterity: 1.0 Wisdom: 13.0 Charisma: 3.0 Luck: 10.1 Hardness: 17.8 Durability: 10.4/10.4 Mana: 280/280 Mana regen: 2.60/min Psi: 113/130 Psi regen: 1.40/min Unspent stat points: 68   Titles Traits Skills O.o The exp to level up really shot up… So much I can do with these! Okay, first, Dex, Str and Cha. I know I don’t use them, but… I hate having them at one. How about I increase them to five each? That leaves me with 58. Half that is 29. Dump half in Int, half in Wis. Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 27 Experience: 4308.26/5400 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 5.0 (50.0) Intelligence: 43.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 42.0 Charisma: 5.0 Luck: 10.1 Hardness: 24.6 Durability: 16.2/16.2 Mana: 860/860 Mana regen: 8.40/min Psi: 407/420 Psi regen: 4.30/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Traits Skills …Funny how my effective strength is above my magical stats. That skill is OP. Shame I can’t put that strength to use. Putting that aside… I wish I had a magic skill. That mana pool is absurd. And my psi! I can talk for ages now! Really though, this is ridiculous! Look at my stats! Look at them! Compare them to before! The difference is crazy, right!? And yet, I still have the exact same combat potential… Why, Damnit. Well, let’s see that new skill and trait, I only got a brief glance earlier… Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, passive) 0.00% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency.   Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Does this even help me? I’m made of metal, I can’t BE poisoned. And how the heck is there ‘Poison coursing throughout my entire body’? Again, solid metal. I can’t even be used as a fork like this! Although, thinking about it, that isn’t such a bad thing. As long as I’m still with Ferdinand, that is. Anyone else would throw me away after getting poisoned, right? Hm. I’ve looked at everything, I think, so back to what’s happening. Oh, he’s carrying that unconscious person again. Surely that just decreases his chances of surviving? Not that I mind him helping people, but can he protect others and himself at the same time? Wait, is this even a dangerous area? “Hey, is this area known to have dangerous monsters?” I ask Ferdinand telepathically. He responds a few moments later. “As long as you don’t attract the attention of monster packs, even an ordinary person could get through this area if they are careful. Why?” Oh, never mind then, totally fine. “So that spider wasn’t normal?” I ask. “If that spider was normal, there wouldn’t be anything except monsters living on this world.” He says grimly. I try to lighten the mood a bit, “Nah, I’m sure there would be a few who could survive. Desperation can motivate people to do amazing things, you know.” “Maybe, but desperation can be bad too.” He counters. “Oh sure, there’s plenty of people who make terrible decisions because they’re desperate.” I admit. “Anyway, we should probably keep quiet about killing it.” “Really? Why, haven’t we done something amazing?” He asks. “We sure have. Which is why we should stay quiet about it. If people think you killed something strong, they might think you have some rare item that let you do it. If you something that is worth anything, there will be people wanting to take that from you. And the tactic of throwing a fork at them won’t work on a human, you know. They’ll dodge it.” I say dryly. “When you put it like that, there’s not much I can say…” Says Ferdinand. “One of the best ways to avoid strong enemies is to make them think you aren’t worth their time, you know? Being low-key isn’t such a bad thing.” I reassure. “Anyway, onto other matters, I’m poisonous for the foreseeable future due to a passive skill I just got. Best be careful about that. Oh, and now what do we do?” “We should probably go back to town. The group will have to share the fee for failing the commission, and I suppose that the other members will get there before us and report about the spider.” He says in resignation. “Okay then.” Now let’s see… how far can I see? 43*42=43*40+43*2=1720+86=1806, 1806/2=903… Nine hundred and three metres? Wait, that can’t be right. Let me do that calculation again… It’s right. I can now see almost a kilometre. Seriously? Seriously. That’s OP as well! If I could move, the things I could do…

What really sucks is that I won’t even be able to tell what I’m eating, so I won’t be able to filter out potentially bad stuff. My life is now a lotto draw, except I don’t know if the jackpot even exists. Or any other prize. And they might repossess my house if I’m unlucky. Well, enough of the bad metaphors, time for work! …I forgot I’m a fork. I can only wait. Looking closer, the first requirement of me having a better life is to first be used as an eating utensil… I’d be bawling my eyes out with depression… if I weren’t a fork. A pinching feeling interrupts me. Never have I been excited to feel so helplessly pressed in between what I assume are some fingers. Maybe I could absorb their hand? …Even if I could, I doubt someone would keep what seems to be a demonic fork. Wait, will I be able to control it to only activate at the tip of the fork? Where is my ‘head’ anyway? Probably the opposite end to where I’m being held, I suppose. Well, I’ll just try and focus on whatever I get embedded in. Here it comes! The sick disgusting feeling washes over me again, the disgusting juices running all around my body. I feel the pressure on my tines as they try to slide into… whatever it is I’m being used to eat. Sliding in, with a brief burst of immaturity, I shout internally: Fork powers activate! Absorb! I focus on the desire to pull the surrounding material into me, but slowly. I feel the fluids encasing me disappear gradually, and the pressure around me lessens slightly before disappearing abruptly. What? I can’t have consumed it all, that quickly, can I? Wait, before I panic, wouldn’t whatever I was embedded in fall off if I consumed the matter around my tines, which were the things attaching me to it? That must be it. I hope. I turn my attention to the two windows that had appeared before me, unbeknownst to me. Fluid of lvl 4 Ooze absorbed Experience gained: 5.32 Durability recovered: 0.02 Skill proficiency increased: None Skills gained: Mana sight (Basic) Traits gained: None Closure of this window will enact the aforementioned changes. Window will automatically close in 17s (local time)   Flesh of lvl 9 Bronze-horned bull absorbed Experience gained: 12.74 Durability recovered: 1.33 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0.18) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.5% Skills gained: None Traits gained: None Window will close in 18s Ignoring everything else, my vision was nailed to a single word. ‘Sight’. Since becoming a fork, the only thing I could see was darkness, then after a while, the windows. If I could see, it would change everything. I wouldn’t be left to wallow in misery after meals! At least, probably not… not as much. Staring at that single word, fixated on the simple possibility, the windows in front of me winked out of existence. A moment of nonplussed disbelief is interrupted by the sudden feeling of my brain exploding. An inaudible screech of pain sounds from me. Of course, as a fork, I have no brain, but the feeling is so similar I assume it to be so. Although, this nonchalant monologue was simply my thoughts as I reminisced that moment, later. Back then, I was still screaming in pain as my vision bloomed into being abruptly. It was very disappointing to the me back then, of course, after I had sufficiently recuperated from the pain. What greets my vision now is the same old darkness, but it is no longer a single colour. Tiny white spheres drift around, some in large groups, others drifting around on their lonesome. After spending a while overcoming my great disappointment and concurrent despair, I sadly conclude that I should have a better look at that new ability. I think it was a skill? I forgot everything else on the window once I saw the hope of sight. Sighing, I open my Status for a better look. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 0 Experience: 21.06/100 Gender: None Age: 8 days (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 0.0 Intelligence: 10.3 Dexterity: 0.0 Wisdom: 6.7 Charisma: 0.3 Luck: 5.1 Hardness: 13.8 Durability: 4.8/4.8 Titles Traits Skills My experience went up, and my durability is filled. I can heal and grow stronger by eating? I would call this a cheat, but I don’t have any of the five senses. Which limits me severely. Skills. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 0 Experience: 21.06/100 Gender: None Age: 8 days (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 0.0 Intelligence: 10.3 Dexterity: 0.0 Wisdom: 6.7 Charisma: 0.3 Luck: 5.1 Hardness: 13.8 Durability: 4.8/4.8 Titles Traits Skills* Absorb (Basic) (Racial, High Rare) 0.5% – Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Basic) (Mid Rare, Passive/toggled) – You are able to see the largest congregations of mana around you within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/5m indistinctly. Well that explains it, I guess. The white spheres must be mana. I focus my mind on pulling the nearest sphere towards me. Nothing happens. Maybe I would need some sort of mana control skill to do that? Hey, my absorb skill said it could absorb mana, didn’t it? I wonder what that would give me? Focusing on pulling only the mana towards me, I activate the skill, but nothing happens. I suppose it did say it had to be in contact with my body for it to work, didn’t it? Hey, doesn’t that mean I didn’t really need to be careful about my absorption speed? Being cautious is better, though. I am but a flimsy fork you know... I should really check those Traits out now. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 0 Experience: 21.06/100 Gender: None Age: 8 days (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 0.0 Intelligence: 10.3 Dexterity: 0.0 Wisdom: 6.7 Charisma: 0.3 Luck: 5.1 Hardness: 13.8 Durability: 4.8/4.8 Titles Traits* Wooden (Ash) – You are made of wood, and are moderately susceptible to fire, insects and rot. Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Skills Wooden fork, huh? So, is there any way I could be more vulnerable? The racial fame thing sounds cool and all, but I can’t reproduce even if I wanted to. I’m a fork after all. Well, at least nobody will notice me. Ever. *Cries* Just kidding, I’m a fork. No tear ducts. And thus, as I have nothing better to do, I begin observation of the little floating balls, hoping for one of them to contact my body. Interestingly, my field of vision seems to be a full 360-degree sphere. I suppose having no sensory organs has a bit of payoff. Totally not worth it though. Floating balls~ floaty white balls~ I’m really bored~ hey, is that ball drifting towards me? No, it swerved away. But! One that was just drifting passed me suddenly swerved towards me! Get ready! Absorb! Mana Conglomerate absorbed Experience gained: 5 Durability recovered: 1 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 1% Skills gained: None Traits gained: None Window will close in 29s Awwww… talk about a big lead up to nothing. Well. Waiting again. Thus, time passes. Meals come and go. Mana drifts and is occasionally absorbed… 6935 forks leaning on the wall… 6935 forks… take one down, throw on the ground, 6934 forks leaning on the wall… And this is how I pass the time. I have no biological functions, and am thus incapable of sleeping. I started at 10000 just a little while ago, and I’m already this far along. I’ve absorbed all the mana that’s come in contact with me - nothing better to do, after all. Even so, there have barely been a dozen and the proficiency of absorb I’m getting from them is decreasing. You’d think I’d have absorbed more mana, but remember, it has to come in contact with me. Even if it floats 1mm away from me, I can’t do a thing to it. Oy, what’s that weird ball of mana doing? Crazily moving in a spiral towards me? Is that going to hit me? Thanks. For. The. Meal! Absorb. Mana Conglomerate absorbed Experience gained: 5 Durability recovered: 1 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.6% Skills gained: None Traits gained: None Window will close in 29s Trait developed Mana touched (Minor) – You have consumed mana repeatedly, and it has thus permeated through your body, changing it in some ways. Were you made of flesh and not wood, you would have instead contracted a deadly disease. Lucky you. Stat unlocked: Mana – The source of most magic systems. Stat: Intelligence +0.5, Hardness +0.2, Durability +0.2, Charisma +1 Window will close in 29s Viva la Magic! What does that even mean anyway? Oh well, I got magic. Well, mana, anyway, and that means magic, right? Amusingly, at the centre of my vision is now a fork-shaped accumulation of mana. Yeah, I can see myself. How? How do I even see at all? Don’t question the anatomy of a fork, you’ll just get confused.

jinxs2011 Ah, writing these notes out takes so long... I just don't feel up to that this time around. Sorry for no update, join the discord if you want that I guess. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Chapter 47: Of Gods And A Fork Sunday. It’s almost fitting that I’m doing this today, although I don’t think the day has the same meaning here as it did on Earth… Well, what little meaning it has these days. In front of me is the temple. It’s a large, decorated building without being over the top. In every pillar, arch and window you can see the work and care that went into the construction. And, most likely, the money. The front area is a place of worship, with many shrines dedicated to each god, most of them tended to by a dedicated member of the clergy. Behind that are some rooms were other clergymen are tending to a few injured or ill people. Behind that there are small rooms, presumably where some of the clergy stay, and then a small training area where some paladins and young men and women are sparring and practising magic. I float in through the open doors and move towards an unoccupied altar, one bearing the symbol of a mountain. The priest raises an eyebrow as he sees me approach, obviously unaccustomed to flying cutlery. “This is an unusual sight – someone coming through a remote magic tool?” “You can think of it like that if you like. I have some questions about gods in general, do you have some time?” I ask. He nods. “Of course, ask away. I’m here to help.” “I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about the gods, so I’ll start with something simple.” I admit. “All these shrines in here, is there one here for every god?” “All the good ones, so to speak, and most of the more neutral gods; those that might not get along with the other gods exactly but don’t do any harm.” The priest nods. “The darker, less friendly gods don’t have a place here.” “Right.” I say in understanding. “So, who decides who gets to have a shrine and who doesn’t?” “Well, the gods themselves I suppose.” The priest muses. “I’ve heard that any priest or devotee wanting to build a new temple gets handed a list from their god. If there were to be one missing, well, who would want to be the one who has to answer to a scorned god? But I’ve not heard of anything like that actually happening before, so who can say?” “What sort of idiot would want to piss off a god?” I ask rhetorically. “Anyway, someone told me that the stars each represent the gods. Is that all of them, or sort of the same situation?” “Much the same.” He nods. “But of course, those are built by the gods themselves instead of us.” “The sun and moon?” I continue the line of questions. The priest strokes his chin. “I don’t know if any god in particular created those… I have heard among the other priests, although I can’t say for sure whether it is said literally or symbolically, that the sun is the meeting place of the gods.” I take a moment to take in what he’s told me and think about what I should ask next. Nothing much concrete so far, but in a sense I hadn’t expected anything of the sort. “Alright, so going away from the sky, gods have… aspects?” I try and find the right words. “Things they represent or something like that? I’ve heard of a god of death, shields, farming…” “That’s right. Most gods have a single skill, thing, or even ideal that they represent. Sometimes they even overlap, like the gods of combat. Other gods have multiple.” The priest gestures to the altar beside him. “Stigunder, the god I follow, is the god of adventure and exploration. Of venturing into the unknown. He’s often popular with, well, adventurers and explorers.” “And are gods with more… Aspects, more powerful?” I ask. His smile turns awkward. “Well, who could say which gods are more or less powerful other than they themselves? It’s not as if anyone has ever seen two gods fighting.” “You don’t know anything at all?” I say with some disappointment. He scratches his cheek in embarrassment. “Well, I… It’s not something that’s considered in good form to ask about. But if you must know, then very well. When people talk about ‘powerful’ gods, they are usually referring to one of the older gods, with one of the widest domains. For example…” The priest points across the room to another altar. “Do you see that altar, the one with the symbol of a dagger? That is the altar of the god of death. People often pray to him at funerals, the anniversary of a loved one’s death, after wars, sometimes even just when one of the livestock is sickly. Which, put together, is very often. Hermenegild is probably one of the oldest and most powerful gods.” “Older gods? What do you mean, ‘older’?” I ask, confused. “I don’t know, it’s just how the gods refer to other gods sometimes.” He shrugs. “Maybe they just came into being earlier than the other gods. Death is a fact of life, after all, always has been. More so than the domains of many other gods. Before magic, before war, before exploration and fishing and farming, there was life, and there was death.” I ask some more questions, but while the priest provides quite a bit of information about their god’s ideals and personality, as to specifics of the whats, wheres, whys and hows of the gods, he’s almost as clueless as me. “I think that’s about all the questions I have.” I conclude finally. “Thanks for standing around and answering all my questions. I think it’s helped me understand the gods a bit better.” “You’re welcome. I hope you come again, though I would appreciate if next time your questions were a bit simpler.” The priest admits. My apologies, sir, but sometimes questions burn within me, and you were one of the few that could answer them. …I leave that reply unsaid, and head over to the altar of the god of death that he had referred to earlier. This will be a long shot, to say the least, but at least the question of whether there will be any reply will stop lingering in my head. “Do you mind telling your god, ‘The fork asks why?’” I ask the priest in front of the altar. He sighs. “Alright, but I should let you know that he hardly replies to anyone, let alone the millionth person wanting to know why a loved one has passed.” He closes his eyes, and a good minute passes in silence. “Nothing.” He shrugs finally. “No worries.” I say. “Thanks for trying.” With everything I had wanted to do done, I leave the temple and return to the academy. I create a small flame and snuff it out. Create it again, and snuff it out again. Create, destroy. On, off. I’m more doing it out of habit while I’m thinking than for any particular reason. Forming magic formations has almost become second nature at this point. Things are going well, I think. I’m getting close to getting the Aerus language to expert, my last base elemental language. Development of the next version of my eye is progressing gradually, and my understanding of several schools of magic increases by the day. And yet…   Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.47% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana.   Mana control is still stagnating. It’s increasing, but incredibly slowly. I know Master proficiency exists, and even that there’s something beyond that, but at this rate it’ll practically take decades or more. In my expert mana control class, I recently learned mana sense and had hoped that it might be that push I needed.   Mana sense (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 13.32% - You have gained familiarity with sensing the presence and flow of mana in the world around you. Accuracy decreases significantly with distance.   No dice. It’s certainly something different, a more instinctive than literal perception of mana, but it hasn’t changed anything. I’m missing something. I know it, I can feel it… I just don’t know what. My mind turns in circles, going over everything I’ve ever seen or heard about magic and mana, from magic missile to portals. I consider the latter for a while, intrigued about the meaning or method behind the twisting door in space, but fail to learn or perceive anything new from them. I sigh internally. I feel like hitting my head against a wall right now, but I don’t think it would do much to either me or the wall. Staring dumbly at the fire, I let my thoughts wander; I don’t feel like doing anything in particular right now. The flames swirl, flicker and bob, sway and waver, my mana trickling slowly away. It dances in the heat as I look at it, through it, without seeing it. Not paying much attention at all to this most ordinary of magical flames. “Oh. I’m an idiot.” I mutter in realisation as I refocus my vision on the fire, simultaneously scanning through some of my memories.   Mana control (Expert) has evolved into Mana control (Master) due to 100% proficiency Mana control (Master) (Mid Rare, Passive) - Your practice with magic has led to an incredible familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 500 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.05 mana. You are capable of controlling ambient mana within wis*0.01m Although a bolt of triumph shoots through me at the message, I’m more disappointed in myself that it took this long. I have excellent understanding and control of mana, yes. But only in a vacuum, so to speak. Ironically the reason it took me so long was that I focused too much on mana itself. I know how mana congregates and splits apart, how it flows in the air, which materials it flows through with difficulty or ease… But I hadn’t spared a single thought before now as to how it might be impacted by other forms of energy. Does the mana conductivity of a material increase if it is heated? Does it decrease? What about if electricity is flowing through the material? What about if radiation is present? Sound waves? Ki? Psi? How do they all interact? It’s as if a dam of possibilities has broken open upon me. Whereas before I had no clue how to further my understanding of mana, now it feels as if there is too much, so many possibilities and questions to explore that my mind is overwhelmed. I laugh aloud, possibly traumatising my roommates from the shock. Excitement and glee floods my mind as I consider where to go next. It really is true what they say, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. Understanding how mana interacts with different forms of energy will also deepen my understanding of those energies simultaneously. And rather conveniently, I’m uniquely capable of performing such experiments, possessing the ability to utilise mana, psi and ki by myself. I can use fire magic, and there are resources available for me to learn ice and lightning magic as well. I don’t doubt that there are some forms of energy I can’t control – divine energy, for one – or even know about, but for now I have plenty to consider. I won’t need to wonder how to improve in mana control for quite a while, I think. Mana control is the cornerstone of all magic, so this improvement… it’s not insignificant. I’ll be able to form and activate formations faster, and control them better with less effort. And this new ability as well, before I would attract nearby mana passively, even actively through meditation. But now I can directly control ambient mana within half a metre of my body. Can I interfere with other’s spellcasting in this area? Form spells with ambient mana, perhaps? I’ll have to see. Knowledge enough to explore for lifetimes… Can anyone truly discover it all? “Are you not going to say something?” The high elf Faida asks. Having been immersed in watching the sunset, the question causes me some confusion. “Is there something to be said?” “Usually by now you would have asked me a favour or tried to buy me with gifts.” She says, sighing. “Or to sweet talk me, or… Well, something.” “Your life sure sounds like fun.” I muse sarcastically. “I hope you have some friends and family you can trust to speak to about things, or that’s a disaster waiting to happen.” She looks strangely at me for a moment. “And what of you? Normally rumours of one such as you would spread like wildfire – and yet they are few and far between. Do you speak to no-one of yourself?” There’s a moment of silence, and I sigh. “No, not really. I try sometimes but it’s always been hard for me to trust people. No fault of theirs, my head’s just never been screwed on right.” “Nobody? Surely there must be someone you confide in, a family member or close friend?” She asks with some surprise. “Ah yes, forks are well known for their large families. I remember well the time my sister the tea fork danced with my cousin, the splade. Such a scandal.” I say sarcastically. “No, the only person like that would be Ferdinand. Adventurer friend of mine, we were separated somewhat abruptly.” “Do you mind if I ask what happened?” She says curiously. “Sure.” I reply easily. “We were working together with some paladins and priests – there was a necromancer who was basically being mind-controlled and one thing led to another. Turned out there was a demon involved, and I realised there was a portal to hell in the castle. Said demon had just left through it, and I was worried there were other portals, so I followed it through to destroy them. Obviously, that left me stuck in hell.” “Hell? That is to say, the fabled land of hellfire, demons and death? Then, how did you escape that place?” She asks, surprised. “Luck, pretty much. Didn’t know anything about hell going into it, other than that there are demons there, and it’s a bad place. Once I was there, I had no clue how to get out. Thinking back, I really should have just killed the demon that created the portals then destroyed the last one from outside of hell.” I sigh. “I wandered around for a little while, stuck near a demon city for a bit hoping to hear of a way to leave… Nothing. Then, well, do you know about Dreyer?” “Dreyer…” Faida muses. “The space magic teacher that’s in and out of the academy sometimes?” “That’s the one. When he’s not here, he travels to different worlds.” I explain. “He had the misfortune of being in hell at the time, too. Guess he didn’t have anything to eat with, so he tried to summon a fork. Everything from there was pretty straightforward.” Her eyebrows furrow. “Of all things, and all places, what are the chances of such a thing occurring?” “What are the chances that you were born as a royal instead of one of the quadrillions of insects that crawl on and under the earth?” I reply simply. “Stuff like that happens sometimes. You can only thank your lucky stars when it works in your favour.” Looking out over the moonlit ocean atop the lonely mountaintop, Faida speaks a name. “Savoy?” Tilting her head upwards to look at the sky, she watches as a dot quickly grows in size to the form of a man landing softly nearby with a gentle gust of wind. With a deep bow, he asks, “Lady Faida, is there anything you needed?” Nodding slightly, she replies, “Is it possible to confirm if there is any truth to anything he has said?” “His grace, your father, already ordered us to investigate him, actually.” Savoy inclines his head, causing Faida to let out a small sigh. “We couldn’t find out much about him, unusually. And before his enrolment at the academy, nothing at all. We were actually able to confirm that when he enrolled he was accompanied by the master space mage, Dreyer. It’s impossible for us to confirm if he came from hell before that, but I think it is possible, even likely, that he came from another world.” Faida nods thoughtfully. “It does lend some credence to his words, at least. Thank you for your good work as always, Savoy.” Savoy bows. “Always a pleasure, Lady Faida. In addition – a thought, if I may?” At Faida’s nod, he continues, “With his grace’s permission, we could include a truth seer among the ground team. While I doubt his grace would be eager to spare one to join my team permanently, short-term assignment ought not to be a problem.” Faida nods slowly. “Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea. You have my permission to contact father about this.” Bowing once again, Savoy launches into the air. “It would be nice to know that someone isn’t lying to get close to me, for once.” Faida mutters, looking gloomily at the moon. “Ah, it is finished. My masterpiece!” I exclaim. “Oh, you’re finally done with that eye tool thingimajig?” One of my roommates comes over. “What? Of course not.” I reply in the negative. “But you just said-” “I was being theatrical! Moment ruined now. Many thanks.” I huff. He scratches his head. “Uh…” “Kidding. Relax. Anyway, yeah I’ve finished the design for my second prototype for my artificial eye magic tool. Theoretically, it should work.” I say happily. He walks over and looks at the blueprints for a moment before shaking his head. “So what’s the difference between this and the first one? You said something about waves of light, but I don’t get it at all.” “Well, if I had to explain it simply… This isn’t exactly correct, but compared to the previous eye I made, the one I’m currently using, this new one will have a toggle on it. As well as normal vision, I’ll be able to switch on heat vision.” I explain with relish. “Heat vision?” He tilts his head. “So, you’ll be able to see heat? Can’t quite picture what that’d be like. What sort of uses would it have?” “It’ll be like anything with any heat is a light source. The hotter, the brighter. I’d be able to tell roughly how hot something is without having to touch it – not that that I’d be able to tell from that, but you know what I mean.” I say facetiously. “It means I’ll be able to see people in the dark, even if they’re wearing clothes that would make them hard to see. Even if someone’s invisible, depending on how it’s done, I’ll be able to see straight through it.” “Seriously? Just like that, you can see through invisibility?” He gasps. “As I said, depends how it’s done.” I verbally shrug. “If the person who developed the spell is aware of it, it’s an easy fix. Even some animals have the same ability, you know. Fact of the matter is that no method of stealth is perfect, no shield can’t be bypassed. You just gotta manage what you can.” He rolls his eyes. “You say that, but not everyone is here to learn how to fight.” “Perhaps not, but personally I think everyone should learn at least some basics, something they can use defensively or offensively.” I say. “Even if you don’t go looking for fights, some will come looking for you eventually. And if that happens, you don’t want to be a fish out of water.” “Maybe.” “Anyway, I gotta get started on actually making this now. Seeya later.” “Seeya.” A string of curses greets me as I enter the workshop. “God damn, why does this thing have to be so fucking complicated? I mean, I know why, but fuck this is ridiculous!” The guy bangs his fist on the bench in frustration. “Uh… You right there mate?” I can’t help but say, noting that he’s the only person in the workshop at the moment. Clearly not expecting anyone to be here, he jumps in shock. “Uh… Yeah, fine, fine. Just harder than I was expecting… y’know? Really need to figure this thing out soon.” “Want me to take a look?” I offer. “A second pair of eyes could offer a new perspective.” “Ah – no, no, that’s fine.” He stammers, flustered. He seems to think for a moment, then says, “Need to get it done on my own. If the professor thinks I cheated I’d be in a whole lot of trouble, right?” “Right…” I agree, somewhat perplexed. “Machite, put the stuff down on this bench, thanks.” I start work on the magic eye mk 2, but I can’t help but pay a bit of attention to the frustrated artificer behind me. The guy just weirded me out a bit. I get being so engrossed in your work that you don’t pay attention to the world around you, but his excuse for not letting me help him was… questionable at best. Sure, you don’t want to get caught cheating, but there’s no harm in getting a second opinion or a bit of advice. Still, I can’t afford to spare much attention to the guy. I want to make sure I don’t make any mistakes here. To say that I’m a bit excited for this to work… Would probably be an understatement. In fact, so long as this works it means I’ll be able to try and sell the one I’m currently using, and start getting a welcome bit of income. Money makes the world go round… Well, perhaps not literally, but it is important. Geralds Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6419.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Skilled – An individual with many different skills. You may now rearrange the skills in your status. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.18% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 6.93% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original.   WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Mana control (Master) (Mid Rare, Passive) 2.53% - Your practice with magic has led to an incredible familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 500 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.05 mana. You are capable of controlling ambient mana within wis*0.01m Mana sense (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 15.52% - You have gained familiarity with sensing the presence and flow of mana in the world around you. Accuracy decreases significantly with distance. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.41%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Formation casting (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 13.38% - You have an excellent grasp of casting magic through formations. Small increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 25.18% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 40.12% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells. Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 26.72% - You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic. Summoning magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.16% - You have a good grasp of summoning magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting summoning magic. Illusion magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 16.43% - You have a good grasp of illusion magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting illusion magic. Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 67.73% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of light magic, including creation and illusion. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic. Darkness magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 23.24% - You have a good grasp of darkness magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting darkness magic. Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 47.52% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic. Water magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 32.63% - You have a good grasp of water magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting water magic. Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 41.79% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells. Wind magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 5.14% - You have a good grasp of wind magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting wind magic. Force magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.34% - You have a good grasp of force magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting wind magic. Artificing (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 23.15% - You have a good grasp on the craft of designing and building magic tools. Slight increase in the ability to recognise the use of unfamiliar magic tools. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.63% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.31% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 14.19% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Ignitae language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 8.51% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Aquan language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 1.07% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Aerus language – Written (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive), 23.84% - You have a good vocabulary and can understand most things written in this language, although in some cases it may take some time. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 26.68% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Metallurgy (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.32% - You have decent knowledge of common metals and alloys. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 59.11% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 89.28% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 99.25% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 Hope you enjoyed. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki.

So. Sitting in these ruins. Well, more lying, really. Well, can one really lie down if one cannot stand in the first place? Either way, I am currently in a horizontal position on the floor. And, of course, I can’t move. Thus, I am deep underground and unless I can somehow resurrect and control this robot I’m inside the head of, I’m not going anywhere. Yeah… that’s not happening. Anyway, let’s get out of this robot. My absorb skill evolved, so I can absorb things… 15mm, or 1.5 cm away from me. Better than 0. May as well absorb as much of this thing as I can, so I start by absorbing the metal around me in a hemisphere upwards. Well, to be exact, it’s less spherical and more fork shaped-ish. After all, if 1.2cm lines were drawn from every point of a fork - pardon the pun - in every direction, there would be gaps and bumps in the shape produced. Well, after absorbing the material above me, I absorb the stuff below until I hit the ground. Well well well, looks like the luck is already paying off. Or is it because I absorbed much more of something that usual? Maybe both. Mithril alloy absorbed Experience gained: 50 Durability recovered: 10 (exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.1% Skills gained: None Traits gained: Magic Metal (Overwrites trait – Wooden) Hmm. Let’s see what this one does. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 5 Experience: 473.27/600 Gender: None Age: 8 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 1.0 (10.0) Intelligence: 12.0 Dexterity: 1.0 Wisdom: 12.5 Charisma: 3.0 Luck: 10.1 Hardness: 18.4 Durability: 10.0/10.0 Mana: 240/240 Mana regen: 2.50/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Traits* Wooden (Ash) – You are made of wood, and are moderately susceptible to fire, insects and rot. Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Skills Well, that’s not OP at all. Well, it would be, if I could move and use magic. And that structured sanity… obtaining that must be what broke me out of my insanity. If I hadn’t hit this robot… I might have kept absorbing the ground in my insanity, until I burst into flame from the heat when I got close to the mantle. Hey, that’s actually a method of suicide that might work? Better not risk it. After all, in a world of magic, there might not be a mantle. Gravity might be constant throughout depth because magic or something, and then what would I do? Stuck at the core, unable to do anything but constantly absorb earth. Could I eventually consume the entire planet doing that? Better not try. Moving on from that, what do I do now? Well, I suppose what I always do, eat things that touch me and watch swirly balls of mana. And how far can I see now, you might ask? 75m in all directions. Not too shabby. Of course, it would be better if my vision wasn’t like that of a colour-blind old man’s, but you take what you can get. But speaking of my sight, with that 75m of vision, I can see the surface, and a bit above… I think. I can’t actually see the boundaries of my vision unless there is something with mana there. Otherwise, there is no difference between the blackness inside my vision and the blackness outside of it. In fact, this is quite like what I imagine being in deep space would be like. A black abyss of space surrounding me in all directions, interrupted only by the myriad specks of light above and beneath me, like the countless stars, coupled with the feeling of helplessness as I am unable to move by my own will. Well, it was more like space at the start, when I couldn’t even see the ground. The day moves on, presumably, though I can’t tell any difference. Another robot comes along and picks up the unmoving chassis around me. What does it look like? I dunno, it’s a block of white to me. I just know it’s a bot because of the notifications. Well, this is interesting. There’s some people up on the surface. A group of 5. Oh hey, they found the cave. And they found my fork shaped hole down to here. Yeah, that must look real weird. They’re looking at it. Would be great if they came down here. Yeah. Hey, they’re dropping something down! Hey, wait – Ow. Not that I can feel pain, that’s just a leftover instinct from my last life. So, it’s some sort of stick thing. Maybe a torch? Flare? I dunno, I can’t see light, just looks like a stick. They kind of take turns looking down. I’d say, ‘just jump down please’, but the hole is tiny. And I can’t talk. Aww, they’re leaving… And they’re back! With shovels! Probably. Again, they look like long sticks to me. But they are making movements like a shovel, and the earth is being moved like a shovel. Maybe metals don’t have mana in them? Can confirm, the sticks are shovels. They’ve been coated in - presumably - dirt, so I can see them. Where are they up to? About half way down. It’s a pretty wide hole, and they’re using a bucket -likely wooden, since I can see it - on a rope to haul out the dirt, and they climb out using that same rope. Wonder if they’ll pick me up? One thing I didn’t factor into my expectations: They were digging down directly above me, which of course means that when they get through the ceiling some collapses on me. I’m now buried in dirt. They aren’t looking this way? They aren’t. Absorb. I now have a very strange area free of dirt around me. Unnatural? What are you talking about, just pick up the fork. They noticed me. I think. They’re looking in my general direction, at least. They are walking towards me. Oh, the excitement! One picked me up! And put me in his bag, but hey, you take what you can get, I’m outta here! One of those bots is coming, hope they don’t die. That would really suck. The brightness of one of them dims slightly as his mana rushes towards his palm, forming into a ball which shoots towards the approaching robot. It barely slows, but it gives the others time to draw their weapons. Not that I can see them. They dash around it, flanking it on three sides from a short distance away. The last guy? Baggage carrier. Surrounded, you’d think that would be it, right? I mean, special mithril alloy and all, but it was half their size! But no. Two of them attack from opposite sides, something which anything organic would have a great deal of trouble with. But this is a robot. It beautifully stops the two attacks, which I can’t see, with its two arms. The person behind it attacks with this timing, believing it to be completely open. He is mistaken. The upper body of the robot spins 180 degrees, flinging the weapons still in contact with its arms to either side as it moves them to parry the attack. Is it a difficult enemy for them? I don’t know, probably? Is it impossible? Nope. The three jump back as the mage tosses a ball of highly compressed mana, which proceeds to land upon and expand to engulf the robot. It looks no different, other than its mana having dimmed a little, but its movements become erratic and illogical. It is swiftly beaten down with some precise jabs. I think. Again, can’t see their weapons. Hip, Hip, Hooray and all that, but there’s another 5 speeding down the corridor connected to this one you know? Apparently hearing something, one of them looks in that direction, opens their mouth (shouting, I suppose?) and points in that direction. The others looked just in time to see the robots round the corner. Sparing no time at all, the group rush up the rope. With me in their bag. Finally! So here we are, floor of the cave. The five who picked me up are sitting on the ground, probably resting or talking. The bag man takes me out of his pack. They all sit around staring at me. Hey now, don’t look at me like that, I’m getting flashbacks to the goblin. You aren’t going to just chuck me away, now are you? Oh, back in the bag. Good enough for me. Up another rope and, hello surface! It’s been a while! Thinking back, I’ve spent more time in that cave then up here. How depressing. But! That’s all over now. I’m back on the surface again, and I ain’t goin’ back. Well, not unless I possess the means to leave myself. Or if someone just chucks me down there, but let’s not think about that. Hey, it looks like we’re setting off. Hope we’re going somewhere with good food. Let’s see, I need light-based sight, vibration-based hearing, smell and taste, well I don’t really NEED them, but they’d be good… a sense of pain? Might be better to avoid it. I mean it’s great for biologicals, but as a fork, I won’t be subject to diseases, poisons and the like, so I shouldn’t need it. Other than that, I need to be able to talk. Whether that’s with a mouth, some sort of vibration magic or telepathy, I really want to be able to talk again. You have no idea how lonely I feel like this. In my past life, I wasn’t exactly a social butterfly either. I never took the initiative to talk, but even so, think about it: you always have some sort of human contact, right? Whether that’s commenting on some person’s live stream, arguing against a troll, there’s always some sort of conversation every once in a while. But here… even if I was surrounded by a million people, I wouldn’t be able to communicate with a single one, even if I wanted to. It’s the difference between choosing solitude and being forced into it. It’s stifling, to say the least. Dang, I’d be crying right now… if I had tear ducts. Moving on, what’s happening on the outside world? More travelling, huh? Let’s take a look around. Trees, trees, dirt, more trees, more dirt, squirrel, trees, squirrels in trees, I think those are rabbits, some blobs, antelopes, trees, dirt, boulders… fun stuff. Hm? Something strange mixed in with the previous sentence you say? What are the blobs you say? Ah yes, the blobs. The blobs? What ARE the blobs? Well I suppose they could be misshapen rocks… They’re changing shape weirdly, so no. I suppose they could be the slimes I’ve eaten so much of. Seriously, what is with that? Isn’t the whole thing of slimes that they’re highly acidic? You’d die, you know? Your stomach would dissolve, and… Things would happen? Like, would it just eat away at your body, or wouldn’t it flow down the… existing passages, dissolving as they go? The only reason I’m able to think about this without cringing is that I don’t have those organs anymore. So, let’s just assume they’re slimes for now. The slimes are slowly… What would you call the movement of a sentient gel-like substance? Sliming? Oozing? Rolling? Let’s go with ooze, ooze is a cool word. You don’t often get the oo sound in words, and you don’t get a z often either. Ooze. Back to the slimes, they’re oozing along the ground in the forest in random directions about 20m away. Can they not see us? Well, seeing how I got mana sight from them, they probably see using that too? And I can’t imagine that they would have high INT and WIS, so maybe they can only see a few meters? Wait, if those stats are around, say, 3 apiece, and they only had the basic skill, they couldn’t be able to see more than two meters. Slimes are more blind than bats! Whacky. Well, they are conveniently, or inconveniently depending on your view, 20m away, but directly in our current direction of travel, so there’ll be more combat. I don’t suppose I’ll be used as a weapon, will I? Oh well. Speaking of that, if somebody uses me to kill something, who gets the EXP? Does it go to me, the being that directly impacted the enemy, or the person holding me who provided the force required? Would it be different to what would happen if someone slammed somebody into someone else, thereby killing them? What would happen if the person being slammed died? Would the person doing the slamming or the person being slammed into get the EXP? Oh, they’ve already killed the slimes. Looks like I got distracted. Oops. Oh well, it wasn’t like I wanted to see it for anything other than its entertainment value… what are they doing with the dead slimes? They’re putting them into containers… are you planning to eat that later? No processing or anything? I wonder if they’re high on something? Given my luck, they probably are. And they’ll probably end up killed by something, and me end up on the forest floor. Better than the cave floor I suppose, much more wildlife and chance of people coming by. I do hope I can get some movement or hearing skill or trait soon. I can’t expect to get them from normal animals, because their senses are related to their biology and thus as a fork without any such biological capabilities, it is unlikely that I would be able to acquire them. So how can a being without sensory organs see, hear and speak? Umm… magic? Is there anything else? I really don’t know enough about this world… Looks like it’s meal time. Ugh, what are you doing, slathering that slime all over the meat. Hey, do they already have forks? I hope not. Look at me! I’m much prettier than your forks! Use me! Yes! One of them is searching the bag I’m in! No, what are you doing, you just moved that in front of me, I was right on the top! You’ve literally checked everywhere EXCEPT where I am, how is that even possible? FINALLY! He finds me and takes me from the bag. Looks like he’s showing off his new fork. Well, I do have exceptionally high charisma for a fork. Assuming my starting 0.3 is standard, and that is indeed what charisma does… But if it is, this fork is absolutely fabulous compared to its past self. Did that sound gay? Oh well, I’m genderless so I can’t be gay! Yay for not having to worry about sounding sexist or homosexual!  Although, I’m a fork, so nobody would expect me to have a sexual orientation? Do I have a sexual orientation? Wait, I don’t have those pheromone things, so doesn’t that mean that I am attracted to neither gender? Wait, I’m a fork, why am I worrying about sexual orientation when it would make zero difference in my life? Wait, isn’t it meal time? I almost forgot to eat! Grey ooze and elk meat, huh? Wait, wasn’t hunting deer a royal thing, and other people doing it was poaching? Are elks deer, or just similar species? Are these guys poachers? Is there royalty here? Wait, forget that guff, I’m in another world, common sense from the previous one isn’t useful here. Level seven and ten respectively, no skills or traits, the ooze gave me 0.04% proficiency for mana sight. I suppose if the oozes/slimes have basic mana sight, I might be getting less proficiency because mine is at a higher level? I really need to stop getting side-tracked. Oh wait, no I don’t, I have nothing else to pass the time with. I really wish I could move. It looks like they’re sleeping now. How fun for me. Of course, they are taking turns keeping watch, we are in a world with monsters after all. And I’m assuming that bundle of sticks is a fire. If only I could see light… Can some monsters attack please? Can something happen? Ideally, I would like a very small and high level monster to fall directly into the pack on top of me. That’d be great. Please? Of course not. If luck was a currency, I’d have spent all mine landing on that robot while digging, while insane. Seriously, what are the chances of there being some sort of ancient ruin directly below that cave, and there being a robot directly below where I was digging? Probably miniscule. If that’s commonplace in this world, this world is crazy. So, what will I use to pass the time tonight? How bout I just count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… … 7326, 7327, 7328, Oh look, they’re getting up. Morning huh? Well, that’s assuming they aren’t nocturnal. Well, doesn’t matter whether they are or not to me, I don’t sleep at all. Wish I had something practical to do while there’s nothing happening. Y’know, some form of training, or a book. If I could train, I would be much more efficient than biologicals, the whole ‘don’t need to sleep, eat or take breaks’ thing. Hey, do they have breakfast? I want them to have breakfast. And I want it to require a fork. Have I thought this before? I’m getting a slight déjà vu vibe here. It looks like they indeed have breakfast here. Of course, it may not be called breakfast here. We might not even speak the same language. Are there skills for language? Well, I don’t have one for English, so I suppose not. Hey, here’s an interesting question: If there were language skills, would it be recognised as ‘English’ or something else like ‘American’ because most of the people who speak the language are from there? Are they? Now I wish I had google again. Or if the people here have the same language, would it be called English or something else? I wish my reincarnation came with an auto-translate function. You know why I know I don’t? No skill for it. Now, back to food. More elk meat and, what’s this? Variant grey ooze, id ooze? That’s cool and all, but could you give me a skill? Variants sound like they would have good skills. So, one of those oozes they killed earlier was a variant? I wonder if they noticed. I hope they have more of that, I want rare skills. But at the same time, stop eating it, acid is bad for you. Except for, you know, the weak acid in your saliva and the acid already present in your stomach. This forest is large. We’ve travelled for maybe half a day, and still no end to the trees. Hey, I hope we aren’t going in circles. They know where they’re going, right? How sucky would that be, them dying of lack of food or water because they can’t find the way out of the forest? And then I’d be on the forest floor again. Hey, if I fell tines down on a big rock and was careful with my absorb, could I become the fork in the stone? Oh yeah, fun fact about my vision? It’s centred on me. What I mean, precisely, is that its rotation is fixed to mine. I’m currently vertical in this backpack, so to my right is the ground, and these people look like ninjas casually walking up a cliff face. In other words, when I’m dropped, or the person carrying this bag turns around, my vision rapidly spins. Truly a vomit-inducing experience, were I still human. It’s confusing, too. Imagine looking up, and you’re looking at the ground. Well, you can do that if you are upside-down as a human too… But in my case the blood doesn’t rush to my head and I don’t have those ear canal things to track balance, so I have to visually confirm that I am the wrong way up, rather than instinctively knowing. A meal? Sure. Can I haz skills? Yes? Excellent. Wait, yes? Fluid of lvl 12 Grey ooze variant: id ooze absorbed Experience gained: 27.62 Durability recovered: 2.03 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0.0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.1% Skills gained: Telepathy (basic) Traits gained: Psychic Window will close in 18s Well, well, well, this is interesting. can I finally talk now? Let’s take a look. Status, skills, traits. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 5 Experience: 515.37/600 Gender: None Age: 8 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 1.0 (10.0) Intelligence: 12.0 Dexterity: 1.0 Wisdom: 12.5 Charisma: 3.0 Luck: 10.1 Hardness: 18.4 Durability: 10.0/10.0 Mana: 240/240 Mana regen: 2.50/min Psi: 125/125 Psi regen: 1.2/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Traits* Wooden (Ash) – You are made of wood, and are moderately susceptible to fire, insects and rot. Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the previous rate. Your passive mana absorption is now equal to wisdom/5/min instead of wisdom/10/min. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 0.6% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Advanced) (High Rare, Passive/toggled) 0.75% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/2m. Their forms are now more distinct, but still blurred. Self-repair (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 3.26% - By expending an energy type, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 10 mana: 0.1 durability Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 0.00% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions.   So I can’t talk yet. Damn. Well, at least this gives me something to train in. It would probably be best to practice on small animals and the like, right? Wouldn’t want to accidentally cause a stampede of boars or something if I accidentally transmitted fear to them, right? Or freak out the people carrying me with unexplainably fluctuating emotions. I hope I’m not this unbelievably chatty and distracted when I get to talk to them. Speaking, or rather, thinking, of that, I should start thinking about what I should, or should not, say to them…

jinxs2011 Hello everyone, here's another chapter. Not much news, I don't think. I've edited a couple grammatical errors out... Actually, that was on RRL. Imma just go do that... Done. I've also changed the term 'semester' to 'term' as someone rightly mentioned that semester refers to a half-year. I got told by tony that spoilers in spoilers now work, but it appears that spoilers in tables in spoilers do not, and neither do tables in spoilers in tables in spoilers. Alas, the status table still cannot be as compact as it is on RRL. Hope you all enjoy. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki Chapter 35: Excitine First Day (POV Gerald) “Alright, is there anyone whose name I didn’t call?” The teacher calls out. “No? Well then, as you’ll all be learning together for the next few months, I’ll give you ten minutes to get to know each other before you start.” In the seat next to mine, Iueia’s eyes sparkle, and he immediately turns and asks, “Gerald, where are you from?” “I’m sorry, I think I’ve seen someone I know, and I really need to talk with them right now.” I say, trying not to let how shaken I am show in my voice. “I’ll talk to you a bit later.” He nods, a bit sadly, but before long turns and looks around to find someone to talk to. Most of the people in the room are just talking in pairs, some not at all. There is a wide berth around Joe, as everyone actively avoids the much older man. As I fly over the class towards him, several people point and whisper, an act rendered completely pointless by my mana sight. Ignoring them, I hover in front of Joe, who just raises an eyebrow at me. “Are you stalking me?” I ask bluntly. His other eyebrow raises, and he considers my question for a moment. “Technically? Yes.” He admits casually. “But I also thought it was high time for me to learn magic. Getting a bit on in my years, you see.” Hearing him as I can now, I can tell that he doesn’t have any particular fixation or even attraction towards me. It’s like he’s just decided to start following us around on a whim. Not that it means I’ll trust him more because of it. If I had a head, I would be shaking it. “Why? Weren’t you following Ferdinand?” “Oh, sure.” Joe says, scratching the back of his ear. “He’s an interesting guy, and I’ll be following his life closely. Right now, though, he’s entered one of those boring periods - he’s gone with Lily to join the temples. With his levels and perseverance, it won’t take long for him to become a squire, and even a knight. During that time will just be training, training, training. Boring enough to do, let alone watch.” “A knight, not a paladin?” I note, internally glad that they managed to get out of the situation safely. “A paladin? Hah!” Joe laughs. “Kid hasn’t even sorted out what god he’ll pray to. No chance of him becoming a paladin before that.” Makes sense. He seems to be in a talkative mood, so I figure that I’ll try to find out more about him. It’s the only way I can be surer of his motives. “How did you even make it in here? You don’t have mana.” “Some questions,” He chuckles, “you just aren’t ready to hear the answers to.” “Right…” I say sceptically. “And how’d you get to this planet? Or am I ‘not ready’ for that one, either?” “Other questions…” He considers, stroking his beard. “You can find the answers to quite easily by yourself. The library here is quite comprehensive, you know.” “Then what will you tell me?” I ask, slightly irritated. “Tell you what.” Joe leans back on the chair, putting it onto two legs. “We’ll play a game. Duration infinite. You ask me something, anytime, anywhere, and I’ll either tell you the answer, if I know it, or tell you my requirement for telling you the answer. For reference, your earlier question… You need to be level ninety if you want me to answer that.” “Who are you?” I ask. “Speaking of-” “Level ninety.” He interrupts, smiling. “But you’ll figure it out before then.” “...Speaking of level ninety as if it’s a walk in the park. Even I know it’s incredibly difficult to get to that level, and I’m not even two years old.” I continue. “Eh, not my problem.” He shrugs. “You’re the one asking.” “Fine.” I state, controlling my irritation. “You told fortunes back in Fiso city. What’s mine?” He raises his arms and shrugs in mock defeat. “Left my crystal ball back in the city. I’m not going to be telling fortunes for a while without it.” “Can’t you just get another one?” I ask, sighing. His gaze sharpens as he looks at me. “I’ll tell you something for free: you’ll find no second one like it, no matter how far you roam. That sucker is completely unique, our greatest creation since…” He starts, stopping himself mid-sentence. “Anyway, you’ll find it at some point. And when you do… Try not to make the same mistake as the person who finds it before you, won’t you?” “Right, sure… I’ll keep it in mind.” I say blandly. As if I’ll ever come across that specific crystal ball with how wide the worlds are. And even if I do, I won’t recognise it. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some sleeping to attend to.” Joe says, already folding his arms on the desk. “I already know the basics, so this first term will be a royal bore.” Joe lays his head on his arms and closes his eyes. It seems as if he won’t answer any more questions, so I drift back over the class to my seat. “Gerald!” Iueia notices me almost immediately and introduces me to the elvish boy he was talking with, in the seat behind his. “Lamar, this is Gerald. He’s a fork.” “A fork?” Lamar looks at me. “A fork.” I agree. “Nice to meet you, Lamar.” Lamar nods absently. “I’ve seen a lot of different people, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone like you.” “People rarely have.” I agree. “Alright, settle down, everyone.” The teacher speaks loudly, causing conversations to slow and quiet down as most of the class turns to look at him. “I’ll be starting the lesson now.” “My name is Mr Telen, and I will be your teacher of basic magical theory for your first term.” Mr Telen begins. “And I’m afraid most of you will be quite disappointed to hear that you won’t be learning any actual magic this term - from me or any of your other teachers.” Dang. “But what you learn this term are the roots from which all other topics you will learn in the future will sprout from.” Mr Telen says seriously. “So it is important that you learn these subjects well.” Fair enough. Mr Telen strides to the blackboard and with a piece of chalk writes in large letters, ‘MANA’. “Let’s start with mana. Mana is everywhere: in the trees, the rocks, the very ground beneath us… Everyone and everything have mana in them, whether just a little, or a lot.” By that definition you have a walking impossibility drowsing off in the corner of your classroom, teach. Undaunted by my mental interjection, Mr Telen continues. “Taking mana from objects is hard, and generally damaging to the object itself. It’s much easier to take mana from the air around us. The mana in Arbadak is much denser than in other worlds, and this…” “So you’re from another world?” Iueia asks excitedly. “What’s it like there?” We are on break in between lessons, and Iueia has pulled me and Lamar off to a grassy courtyard to chat. I briefly think over my experiences in Odwia. Fork, went insane, robot ruin, giant spider, hermit crab, necromancer, doppelganger, prince, demon… Yeah, none of that’s child friendly. “It’s not as nice as Arbadak. More crime, more… Strife. Not as much technology, either. At least where I was.” “Oh.” Iueia is understandably taken aback. “Well, I’m from a small village far to the west. My parents said I have magical talent, so they brought me here to be trained. One day, I’m going to go back, and I’m going to be able to make sure that none of the sheep or cows or people in my village are going to get sick ever again! How about you, where are you from, Lamar?” “Dolond. It’s a port city to the south. My dad is a sailor, a ship wizard. He tried to teach me how he does it, but I couldn’t understand him, so he sent me here to learn instead. I want to be able to work with my dad, and sail all around the world.” “That sounds really cool!” Iueia exclaims. “What about you, Gerald, why did you come here?” A large part of me is just worried about my continued existence in this world. Another part of me is worried about Ferdinand, Lily, Luc… Even Marco. A third part is in constant wonder and excitement of the world around me. And that last tiny part of me just wants to go home. It wasn’t much, but my apartment, back on Earth… I felt comfortable there. Safe. Until I died, of course. Turns out nowhere is truly safe. Of course, I couldn’t exactly say any of that. “To learn magic. To be able to protect myself and my friends. There’s nothing particularly special about why I came here.” “That’s okay.” Iueia says. “Now I’m hungry.” For a moment I’m confused as to how my reasons for being here are related to him being hungry, but then he pulls a carrot out of his pocket and starts munching. Fair enough, he was just hungry. “Good day, my name is Mrs Felt, and I will be your teacher for basic magical safety, or as I like to call it, 101 ways to not blow yourself up.” Her beak opens slightly as a clucking chuckle escapes it. “The stories tell of powerful wizards and sorcerers who can throw fireballs and call down lightning to strike their enemies. What most people don’t realise is just how easy it can be for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to have that very same fireball spell explode in their hands.” That does sound like a serious problem. Hey, do I have an inherent advantage here because I’m relatively more durable than my classmates? I mean, even if a fireball went off directly on me, it probably wouldn’t do much damage. Mrs Felt struts across the front of the classroom, her head bobbing forward a second behind each step as if it was perpetually trying to keep up with her lower body. “Student safety is of utmost importance here at Wehttam Academy, so it’s my job to make sure all of you know how to safely research and practice magic. For the most part, so long as you keep your head on your shoulders and use some common sense you should be fine - but as they say, better safe than sorry.” She turns and begins to strut back across the room, a stray breeze ruffling her glossy black plumage as she goes. “Rule one of magic: If you don’t know what it does and how it does it, best not to disturb it. Lots of ways things can go wrong if you cast a spell the wrong way or touch an item that someone didn’t want touched. Cautious first, curious second, I always say.” “Mrs Felt’s a chicken!” Iueia bursts out once we return to the courtyard in our second break, unable to contain himself. Fortunately, Iueia isn’t being derogatory but literal. Mrs Felt is, indeed, a chicken lady. “There’s so many strange people! I could just sit here all day looking around at everyone, and I don’t think I’d ever get bored.” Lamar shrugs. “I see lots of different people all the time. It’s not that exciting.” Iueia deflates slightly. “Your dad’s a sailor, right Lamar?” I say. “You’ve probably seen a lot of different people because of that, but they’re all still new to us.” Lamar tilts his head slightly. “I guess so.” “What do we have next?” Iueia asks, already flicking onto another train of thought. I briefly flick my mind back to the timetable. “Mana techniques.” “Wonder what the teacher’ll be like.” Iueia muses curiously. “Control!” The man up the front narrows his eyes. He didn’t introduce himself; his name was already on the board by the time we came in: Mr Thurston. “Every wizard worth his salt knows that control is the key!” Mr Thurston places his hands on his desk and looks around at us. “What use is the most powerful spell, the largest store of mana, when you don’t have the precision to direct it properly? None at all! I will teach you that control, control enough that you never have to be afraid of a spell going awry, or your mana slipping from your direction.” Control? As in mana control? Think I’m pretty good there. Still, maybe with some professional direction, I’ll be able to boost it up to master. That would be neat. “Still, I understand that many of you are young.” He says, toning down the intensity. “We’ll start at the beginning. Could everyone please control a small portion of their mana and project it outside of their bodies, holding it in front of you. If anyone does not know how to do this, raise your hand.” Hey, something practical. With practiced ease, I pull out a small amount of mana – about a single point worth of mana – and let it rest in front of me. Simple enough that I could practically do it in my sleep, if I slept, that is. Nobody in the room puts their hands up, and everyone is able to project their mana in front of them without much difficulty. I turn around and see that even Joe seems to have done so. I quickly review the memory of a few moments ago – it appears as if the mana came into existence out of thin air. Can he just… Cloak mana from my sight, somehow? Mr Thurston begins to walk across the front of the classroom, inspecting his student’s efforts, but pauses in front of my desk. “I have been made aware that you already have some proficiency in this subject.” He says calmly. “Be aware that I still expect you to put just as much effort into improving your skill as anyone else in this class.” “Yes, sir.” I reply, unable to find much else to say. He nods and continues to inspect the class. Upon finishing around of the classroom, he moves back to the front. “Good. Everyone seems to be able to do this well enough. Now, move them in a circle. No need to move them fast, do it at your own pace…” Just as we are about to leave at the end of the lesson, Mr Thurston calls out, “Gerald, a moment?” I stop and turn myself around. Iueia turns around and looks at me curiously. “Go ahead. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I tell him, before heading back in the teacher’s direction. Everyone filters out rather quickly, eager to head homewards after their first day of lessons. Soon the class is empty. “Gerald, I have been told your mana control is at expert proficiency. Is this correct?” He asks. “It is, sir. Is that a problem?” I reply tentatively. He shakes his head. “No, it’s not a problem. But everyone else in the class is at a much lower level. I doubt the lessons right now will be of much benefit to you, and I do not think I will have the time during classes to teach you separately.” “Alright.” I say with some disappointment. “What should I do, then?” Mr Thurston scratches his hairless chin. “Take a look in the library. Access is considerably restricted to first term students, but you should be able to find something on mana control.” “Thank you, sir.” I acknowledge. “Well then, have a good evening.” He says, motioning towards the door. “And you, sir.” I reply, beginning to float towards the door. “So, how was your first day?” Dreyer asks, munching on a handful of cashews. I think about it for a moment. “Interesting. Hard to tell much from the first day, but I think I’ll learn a lot here. Made a couple of friends, too, so that’s an added bonus.” “You?” Dreyer stops munching for a moment. “I would’ve thought you would remain silent and inconspicuous the entire time, not making contact with your peers for a couple months at least.” “He insisted.” I laugh. “They’re good guys. One of them wants to become his town’s healer, and the other one wants to become some sort of weather wizard so he can work with his dad.” “It’s a good idea to make as many friends as you can, you know.” He stretches his legs beneath the table. “They manage to learn there long enough, and they’re going to be the next generation of powerful wizards. It’s not just if you want companions to fight with, either. Many of the world’s leading enchanters and artificers won’t take requests from just anyone. But if you manage to befriend someone like that before they become famous, you’ve got a much better chance of being able to.” Idly creating a blob of mana, I begin to twist it into various shapes. “I know. But I’ve never been good at making friends. It either seems to happen naturally – like it did today – or not at all.” I respond, unconcerned. Dreyer shrugs. “Just keep it in mind.” Manipulating the mana, I form it into the shape of a roaring dragon. Wonder when I’ll see a real one? “By the way, my mana techniques teacher recommended that I look in the library for books on mana control, since I’m ahead of what the class is teaching. Is there anything I need to know before I go?” “The library?” Dreyer says. “Let’s see… Basic rules are that there’s no magic allowed in the library, or violence of any kind. You can’t be loud or disruptive, and books can’t be taken out of the library, although notes are fine… You won’t be able to borrow books until you’re second year… Oh, and you’ll need to get a library card. Actually, speaking of cards…” Dreyer gets up from the table and walks back through the portal to Arbadak. He comes back a minute later and places a small blue card on the table. “This is the money from your scholarship. Put a bit of mana in it, and it’ll register it.” They have cards? Sheesh. I break a horn off my dragon and send it onto the card, where it gets sucked in. After a moment, the number ‘2000’ appears glowing on the surface, then slowly fades away. “How do I use this?” I ask. “Right. One moment.” Dreyer goes back through the portal and quickly returns with another card. “You hold your card over another,” He says, doing so, “and put a bit of mana in it. The card will come up with numbers so you can enter the amount you wish to transfer, which you activate with mana.” A thread of mana touches the number ‘1’ on his card, then the ‘Ok’ button, and the number on his card decreases by one, and my card briefly shows its new balance of 2001. “Is this safe?” I ask, replicating his actions to return the single Rho he gave me. “Safe as they can make it, pretty much.” He nods. “Once activated with someone’s mana, a card can only by operated by that person. Anyone can put money in, but only they can take it out. Plus, it has a magic cancelling feature, so it can’t be tampered with.” This does sound useful, but still… “Wouldn’t something like that have a limit? Couldn’t someone powerful enough force their way through?” “Sure they could.” Dreyer shrugs nonchalantly. “But they’d probably just end up destroying the card instead. And anyone with sufficient knowledge, power and control to successfully tamper with something like this probably have the means to earn money much more easily. Even I could make a tonne of money, if I really wanted to.” “Really? How?” I ask, surprised. “I’ve been to a few dozen worlds. I could set up a service to transport people across worlds fairly easily.” He explains. “You might not realise it, but there’s actually very few people capable of space magic as advanced as I am, maybe two or three I know of in all of Arbadak. One of those is actually one of the richest people in the world. He and his family are pretty much the sole producers of bags of holding. Anyway, what I’m saying is that the services I could provide practically don’t exist. I could charge exorbitant prices and nobody would bat an eyelid.” Interestine. Dreyer’s magic is that unique? “So why not? Surely it would be useful having a lot of money?” “I travel across worlds all the time, and almost none of them have a common currency.” He shrugs. “Too much currency in any of them just weighs me down. Besides, I have enough as it is, and I have better things to do.” “Makes sense, I guess.” I respond. I was never much of a spender, myself. Chances are, given I don’t have any living costs, this scholarship money will just end up sitting in the card all term. “Do you know if the library is open right now?” “It’s always open.” Dreyer responds. Makes sense, I guess. There are quite a few people living in dormitories here, after all, so keeping facilities open makes some sense. I wonder if any of the students are of nocturnal races? Of course, I can’t see in the dormitories. Like many of the other sections of the school, that area is blocked off to my vision. Same with the library. “Still,” Dreyer continues, “I don’t know if you’ll manage to find anything. I doubt there’s much useful available to first term students.” “May as well have a look. After all, I have all the time in the world…” I reply absently. I travel down the corridors to where the library is. It’s late afternoon, so there aren’t as many people around, but there’s still quite a few. Floating along, I reach the entrance, an open arch flanked on either side by floor-to-ceiling gargoyles – and the ceilings here are quite tall. As I pass through the arch, I note that the gargoyles’ eyes are following as I go, quite literally. It’s very clear to me that they aren’t just decorative. Upon entering, I immediately see a front desk, staffed by what looks like a bat man. Seeing me, he raises an eyebrow. “No remote magic tools in the library.” “No, I’m a new student.” I reply. His other eyebrow raises, and he pulls a book from under the desk. “Name, then? The races of students are included in here, so I’ll know if you’re lying.” Excellent, then. “I’m Gerald.” “G, g…” He leafs through a couple pages. “Ah, here we are. Gerald, Gerald… Gerald, living fork. Well, colour me surprised. You are a new student. Sorry about that, not every day you see a… Living fork.” “No problem.” I reply. “I wanted to see if I could find a book on mana control, and I was told I should get a library card?” “Indeed you should, as they are required to enter the library proper.” He says mildly, taking a card from beneath the table and writing my name and race on it. “Put a bit of mana in it.” He says, holding it out to me. Recognising this now as being similar to the Rho card earlier, I put a bit of mana into it, and it faintly glows for a moment. “There we go, it’s done. Use it by holding it up to the door and putting some mana in it. This will only allow you to enter the first section of the library, and frankly speaking there isn’t all that much in there.” He says bluntly. “A precaution, you understand. Now, some general rules: Don’t damage anything, don’t take anything out of the library that you didn’t bring in in the first place, no magic, no fire, water or anything else that could damage the books, keep it quiet, and no magical tools unless they have been specifically exempted…” He looks carefully at me. “Which yours have been. If you need any more specific rules, we have lists posted around the library. If you have any questions, you direct them to me or one of the other librarians – we have name tags.” He taps on the rectangular metal tag pinned to his robe, reading: Mr Leyche, Senior Librarian. “Thank you.” I say, taking the card with telekinesis. His eyebrows hike a little higher up his forehead. I float to the door and touch the card to the door with a bit of mana. I hear a click as it unlocks and swings open. After I move through, it shuts behind me and locks again. In front of me are several tall bookshelves filled to capacity, and an area with tables and chairs. Well then, let’s see what there is to learn. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6314.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 17 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.5 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.9 Durability: 18.5/18.5 Mana: 1090/1090 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.45/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 1.82% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.12% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.27% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 15.23%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 71.60% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 68.15% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.49% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 88.28% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 38.12% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.21% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.57% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. [collapse]

jinxs2011 Novel Discord, Novel Wiki Imma do most of this in spoilers, because I'm predicting this one might be a bit long, but this little bit I won't. Apologies, it doesn't appear that you can put spoilers inside author's notes. Now, you might be thinking, 'This is an April fool's chapter, isn't it? Is it even worth reading?' And to that I say that this chapter is 100% readable, canon and non-silly. Now you're thinking, 'Then what the heck even makes this an April fool's chapter?' And to that I say the April fool's part is that it's not part of the main storyline, in a place you don't know with characters you don't know. 'That's a bit of a weak April fool's joke, isn't it?' Pretty much. But that's your own fault. Last year I did something for april fool's (before scribble hub), I basically did a normal chapter but used word replace to replace several things with alternate or food-related words. I don't think it was too hard to figure out what the original words were, one guy even posted a fixed chapter as a comment (i didn't check how accurate it was but i'm going to assume it was). Yet I got a bunch of angry comments (obviously not everyone was bad, and thank you to the people who were chill with it) that pretty much made me never want to do anything for April fool's ever again. But then I did, but I was like, I did so little and they were angry, so wtf can I do? So here we have it. This chapter is super long (11278 words), so settle yourself down for a bit of extended reading. It's also readable without any knowledge of the main storyline, so don't feel any need to go back over any old chapters. Minor gore warning. 99% written on a mobile phone warning (has been edited, but not thoroughly). Current situation with writing Now, last time I said I would be busy with other things and I wouldn't be able to write much for a while. And that was true... Until I realised April fool's was coming up -_- Honestly, I've been super lazy with the stuff I should be doing, which was most of the reason I said I wouldn't be writing much... to try and relieve any pressure to write to get me to do more of said stuff. It didn't work, but I still need the time, so it'll still be pretty much the same. That being said, I can't do that stuff while travelling (I travel alot), but I can write while travelling, which is how I wrote this entire chapter, while travelling. This will probably mean a decrease in grammar quality. Dunno how fast it'll be. Doing this does mean i'll be using google docs to work in, which is a bit annoying because of various things. Acknowledgements (reviews etc) I haven't done this on scribble hub before, but on RRL I usually thank people for their reviews and reply to them, if they have questions or the like. So i'm going to do it here too. I'll be going by date. For context, the first review was in late december last year, back when (i believe) this website was still in the testing phase, and this novel was one of the first ones posted. Evil_Ginger: A good way to start off this website, I must say. It is very cliched and tends to deviate from whatever plot the author has planned, but it is similar to my own style so I can relate. The main character (s) is (are) kind of dense, so no romance as of yet, but there doesn't need to be any in these kinds of stories. Just read about the goofy things a magical and animate fork can do. If you have trouble trying to envision how this fork does anything, imagine something from a cartoon, or Fantasia style, with the dancing broomsticks or something. It tries to be serious, can be a little emotional, and the humor can be a little stale, but I think that comes from how the author tries to have us understand the System more. There is a lot of jargon and it doesn't really get explained in a comfortable way, meaning it can be hard for beginners to the trope, but to those who read this style, (blue tables, I gotta say) it kind of doesn't even need to be explained at this point. As a forerunner to this website, I think it should serve as a tribute to RRL LitRPGs and get the ball rolling for our dear little ScribbleHub. First off, I want to thank you for the review. I would like to think my novel isn't cliched, but I think it's difficult to escape cliches completely. I would like to note that early, when I started writing this novel, I had no particular plot in mind. This is pretty evident for the first 10 chapters or so. I completely agree about your opinion on romance. Personally I don't think I'd be good at writing that sort of thing, and there's no particular need for it in my story. I also agree that the jargon doesn't get explained particularly well, but in writing the story I mostly assumed that the people reading it would, like me, have read litRPGs in the past, and know how it all works. If not, it might well be quite confusing and off-putting at the start, but I think it shouldn't be too unintuitive. LordJoyde: This is forkin' blyatiful. Sorry, not sorry. Shameless 5 stars~. Why, thank you. Reneday: Well kinda cliche but the author knows on how to pique the interest of his/her readers. And yes it's slow paced but I'm sure you guys would still love reading this novelsAnd those fork puns I don't really know on why I'm laughing at them  Tyvm. fairly slow-paced, yes. The fork jokes have petered out a bit, but I am forktunate to have people who enjoy them nonetheless. Reweed: It's really funny and quite entertaining so I would definitely recommend it. I'm glad someone finds me funny... I can't do blob emotes in chapter. @Tony! (Yes I know that doesn't work here, but whatever, it's not actually anything big enough to go really bother Tony...) Anyway, :). P.S. Interesting name. That would make a dope novel, I think. Lovely: HAIL THE CRAZY FORK FORKING FORK FOR KING AZ09XO: Better beyond what I ever imagined, with consistent character development and relatively on track plot. It clearly has the potential to reach the #1 spot here on Scribble Hub, if more people were willing to rate this. Well, I can dream. Sadly, I think my slow release rate disqualifies me from being a contender for the top spot~ I was number 2 for a little while, though! ...I mean, it was before the website was officially released and there was only a handful of other novels up, but ANYWAY, thank you! My other novel I know, right? 'What? This guy has another novel?' Yeah, I do. It's nowhere near as popular as this one, for a few reasons that I'm pretty sure can't really be 'fixed'. I mean, this one has quite the novelty factor going for it, but even without it my other novel is way behind. One consequence of this is that most of my ideas and creativity go towards fork this life. In other words, I have almost constant writer's block when working on my other novel. That makes chapters slow, and by consequence delays chapters of this novel. One or two people have recommended that I simply drop it, but I really don't want to for various reasons. One of them is that while it is relatively unpopular, there are still people who read it, and I don't want to disappoint them. The other... Well, a couple of people have already guessed parts, but I'm going to keep it ambiguous until this novel finishes. So, basically, I'm forging on. I probably won't end up making it as long as I was originally going to, but I'm not really sure where to go with it in the immediate future.   I hope you enjoy. Side Story 1: Hermenegild There were a people who lived deep underground, far from the touch of sunlight, the wind and the rain. When they first entered those depths, many generations before, they were halflings, short and gentle folk who could be mistaken for human children from a distance. Now, with milky white skin and overly large eyes, their surface-dwelling cousins referred to them as deep halflings - not from fear, but merely from recognition of the fact that the two peoples were no longer the same. Among them were two enchanters of exceptional skill, even for the deep halflings. As these things often happened, the two, man and woman, developed feelings for one another, married, and had a child. The couple named him Hermenegild, which meant ‘immense treasure’, for they felt he was considerably more valuable to them than even their significant wealth. Before long, it became apparent that he was extraordinary. Hermenegild’s tiny, pale hand held a piece of charcoal, drawing patterns on the cave floor half-seen from his parents’ notes. The cave was poorly lit, so it was with some difficulty that he crudely drew what parts of it he could remember. Standing up to view his work, his gaze was drawn to a particular pattern, more complete than the others. Sitting back down in front of it, he again put his charcoal to use, joining incomplete lines together. He didn’t understand enough at the time to know exactly why he drew those lines as he did, but the pattern had a high degree of symmetry, something his young mind had evidently picked up on and used to deduce the complete pattern. Even though the pattern was completed, Hermenegild still felt that something was missing. He felt something shift within him, and he instinctively guided the feeling towards the pattern on the ground, causing it to emit a dim light. That day he simultaneously completed his first enchantment and used mana for the first time. By the time his parents found him, Hermenegild, buoyed by his first success, had somehow managed to complete another pattern, and was watching in rapture a tiny wisp of flame twisting above it. He was barely a year old. At four years of age, Hermenegild enchanted tools to have greater strength and durability, showing no sign of the crudeness of his first attempts. His parents would catalyse his enchantments with their own mana, significantly stronger in the arcane arts as they were. They were hesitant at first to teach him at so young an age, but he seemed to have little interest in anything else and he had such a voracious appetite for knowledge that they almost felt it was wrong not to. That appetite, two experienced and knowledgeable teachers and an almost supernatural talent for the craft meant that he advanced extremely quickly. Another four years passed, and Hermenegild did not relax in his studies. Seeking knowledge not contained within his own community, he spent time learning from the gnomes and even one of the more friendly factions of the drow (albeit under heavy guard). By the time he returned home, he had touched upon nearly every branch and variation of magic. He had not yet had the time to venture too deeply into them, but he had learned enough to be useful. At this point his enchanting knowledge and skill was almost equal to that of his parents, and his knowledge of magic as a whole even surpassed them. Another two years passed, and Hermenegild’s skill had again increased, but not at the same breakneck pace as before. His parents, fearing for his social life, had pushed him to join in more with the community, which he had previously been ignoring in favour of his studies. They introduced him to the blacksmith who supplied them with tools, the baker, the seamsters, the farmers and a dozen other people of various professions. Thereafter, whenever the family was running low on anything, Hermenegild would be the one to go and purchase more and bring it home. At first, he resented the distraction. Why, all the time spent fetching materials or food was time he could have been using to study enchanting, and therefore time wasted. But then he noticed a few things. For starters, the other boys his age were very happy doing… Whatever it was they were doing with that sphere. He was sure it wasn’t enchanting - his parents would have mentioned if there were such a strange method, or he would have come across some record of it. Interest piqued, he inquired as to the objective of their apparent sphere-kicking and was quickly drafted into the game. He was absolutely terrible at it, but that didn’t stop him. The next day he returned wearing enchanted equipment which enhanced his speed and strength. For the first half hour he kept stumbling over himself even worse than the previous day, over judging how much strength he needed to put into movements because of the sudden increase. After he got used to it… Well, despite his newfound physical advantage, the other boys were still considerably more skilled at the game, and out-manoeuvred him at every turn. He soon decided that as enchantments could not give him a conclusive advantage, he would just have to practice instead. After that, he would go down there nearly every day. His parents were quite delighted. He also found that freshly baked bread released a tantalisingly delicious smell that led almost without exception to him purchasing a loaf for himself - and when he couldn’t finish it himself, the other boys - to eat. Through this he made another discovery - the baker’s daughter was really quite pretty. Of course, being young, the attempts he made to impress her more often led to him embarrassing himself, but he always managed to at least make her laugh, and that was reason enough for him to keep trying. The deep halflings were not unlike their surface-dwelling cousins in their distaste for conflict, but unlike the halflings, so secluded and away from the rest of the world, the deep halflings were not alone underground, and their neighbours did not always have the best of intentions. There were the arachne, beings that were part man, part spider, powerful and more than willing to kill and eat anything and anyone that crossed their path. Still, apart from what was dubbed ‘silk season’ by the seamsters and ‘hell season’ by everyone else, they kept to their own parts of the underground. More dangerous were the drow, dark cousins of surface-dwelling elves that preferred not to be likened to their ‘lesser’ relatives. Sly and ambitious, the only thing that stopped them from warring with other races more than they already did was internal conflict between drow factions. In order to protect themselves from the drow, the deep halflings allied themselves with the last prominent race in their section of the underground: the gnomes. The gnomes had been down there for a long time before the halflings, and had had to survive on their own against the physically superior drow and arachne. They did this with a fusion of magic and scientific technologies, creating weapons and equipment which would grant great fighting power to whomever used them. In return for the use of the deep halflings’ enchanting prowess, the gnomes would defend them in their times of need. Three years later, Hermenegild was thirteen, and the best enchanter among the deep halflings by a considerable margin, designing and creating marvels of enchanting which awed the other enchanters in the town. He still went out with the other boys to play, visited the bakery and tried to make the baker’s daughter smile and laugh, but at the same time his works were in high demand among the halflings and gnomes alike. Things were going well, to say the least. ...Of course, if things continued that way it wouldn’t be much of a story, and the world today might be a very different place. Hermenegild’s parents woke him from sleep one night with grim expressions and brought him along to the town hall. As they walked, he idly wondered what the toll of the bell echoing through the caves meant. It wasn’t just them and the town head there, either. Before long, nearly everyone worthy of note in the town was there - the butcher, the baker, the seamsters, the head of the guard - who defended the town against more mundane threats like monsters or a stray arachne - to mention a few. Every one of them were at least a decade older than himself, so Hermenegild was feeling very out of place, standing there in silence as the town head checked that everyone who was meant to be there, was. Finally, he sighed. “Everyone’s here, so I’ll get started. Ceris, who was gathering intelligence among the drow, sent us a message.” He held up a notebook. Hermenegild recognised it as one of a pair, enchanted with sympathetic magic to mimic what was written in its twin, and vice versa. A simple enough enchantment and very useful, although weaker enchantments would have debilitating limitations on range. “The drow are planning to mount another attack on us.” The town head said. A few people gasped, although the head of the guard was unfazed. “What’s the problem? We got intel early this time. Contact the gnomes, and they should have plenty of time to prepare a defence.” A few people nodded, Hermenegild included. It was hell season, so the drow would have to wait until it ended to mount their assault. At least, that’s what the history books Hermenegild had read said. There hadn’t been an attack in his lifetime. “Unfortunately, the situation is worse than you think.” The town head shook his head. “Ceris says they have some way to avoid the arachne. We don’t have a couple of months, we have a week, at best. And the gnomes can’t help us.” The room became deathly quiet. “You mean… We’re on our own?” The head guard asked, his face paling to an almost ghostly white. The town head nodded tiredly. “How many fighting men do we have?” “Eleven.” The head of the guard gulped. “I was there at the last battle with the drow. Our boys won’t be able to defeat a drow in single combat, even with enchanted equipment. And there’ll be hundreds of them.” There was no sign of surprise in the town head’s face. He had been told exactly what he expected to hear. “If anyone has any suggestions, I’m open to hearing them.” “We could collapse the entrance tunnels and caves.” Someone suggested bleakly. “I doubt it will do much more than delay them, but at this point I’ll take what I can get. Anything else?” He asked again. “Could we enchant the area they go through to go up in flames when they go over it?” Someone else asked dubiously. They looked to Hermenegild and his parents. Hermenegild was still in shock over what was happening, so his parents answered. “It could be done, yes. But it would require quite a bit of mana… We would probably only be able to activate it a few times, and only if everyone were to supply mana to it.” “Better than nothing.” The town head sighed. “Make it happen.” A few other methods were discussed, but none of them were able to come up with anything powerful or ingenious enough to save them. Hermenegild and his parents returned to their home with gloomy faces. After arriving, they sat at the table, none of them feeling like returning to sleep after what they had learned. After a minute of silence, Hermenegild asked quietly, “Are we going to die? All of us?” His parents didn’t say anything, their silence telling him what he didn’t want to hear. “I’m going to go to the workshop. See if I can think of anything.” His parents watched him leave, still silent. “Can you think of anything?” The father asked his wife. “Because I’m drawing a blank.” She shook her head. “Nothing.” He nodded sadly. “Do you think he’ll be able to think of anything?” “If he can’t, then I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do.” She replied, looking towards the workshop. He sighed, something that was all too common that night. “We should get some rest. We have that enchantment to do in the morning.” In the morning, Hermenegild’s bed was still empty, so his parents went to the workshop to check on him. They found him sitting on a chair sobbing into his arms with stacks of paper and tomes strewn about the desk in front of him. Immediately, they went to embrace him. “It’s alright…” His mother comforted him. “We have some time, you’ll think of something.” “I already have.” Hermenegild sobs. “But it’s hardly any better than letting the drow kill us.” He waved at the paper in front of him, an intricate lattice of designs and formulas. His parents look at the paper, and then at each other. Apart from a few of the components, they couldn’t understand what it did or how it worked whatsoever. “What does it do?” His father asked. “It’s based loosely on drow magic, but I improved the design significantly, so it’s much more efficient than anything they could create.” He explained, a little bit of light returning to his eyes before they dimmed again. “It… If you put it on a weapon, and use it to... To stab someone in the heart and activate the enchantment, then it will… Drain the victim’s strength and channel it into the user.” His mother shook her head. “A temporary enhancement, even if it stacked, wouldn’t be enough to overcome an army.” “It’s permanent.” Hermenegild said hoarsely. “And you still don’t understand. I modified the enchantment so that it will have greater effect if the victim is willing.” “Willing? But the drow…” Puzzled his mother. His father’s face hardened. “Not the drow.” Hermenegild nodded. “The only way I could possibly conceive of us winning was for someone to use this to… Kill some of the townsfolk and create a warrior capable of fighting an army by himself.” “What!?” His mother gasped, before seeming to cool down abruptly. “How… How many people would it take?” “I don’t know!” Hermenegild cried in distress. “A quarter of us, a half, maybe even the whole town wouldn’t be enough! Like I said, it’s almost better to just let them kill us all.” “Calm down, Hermen.” His father soothed him. “Have some rest, then try and think of something else. We’ll inform the town head that we have this… At least as a last resort. This isn’t a decision we can make ourselves.” “Alright…” Hermenegild got up and traipsed out to his room. “We may not have a choice but to use it, if he doesn’t come up with something better.” The town head said after hearing their explanation. “We’ve lost contact with Ceris - the notebook melted into acrid goop early this morning. See me again at the end of the day. If there’s nothing new, I’ll put it to a vote.” Hermenegild’s parents, along with the other enchanters, made good progress during the day enchanting the ground of the cave the drow would have to cross to enter the town. They returned home in the evening to find Hermenegild in the workshop with dozens of balled up papers strewn around the floor. Hearing their footsteps, he turned his head towards them. “Nothing.” He croaked. “I wasn’t able to come up with anything else.” His parents embraced him, murmuring meaningless assurances. After a while his father stood up. “Come on. We need to let the town head know. He’s going to put it to a vote, whether we should use that enchantment or not.” “Nothing?” The town head asked. “Nothing.” Hermenegild’s father replied. The town head sighed heavily and signed to a man waiting just nearby. Moments later a bell began to toll, different to the one the previous night. This one called a congregation of not just the town’s most prominent members, but of its entire population. It took almost an hour for them to congregate, a milling crowd of perhaps a thousand people with a constant whisper of conversation audible throughout it. The town head stood at the front at a raised podium. Once he was satisfied everyone was there, the town head began to speak, raising a cone enchanted to amplify sound that passed through it to his mouth. “Thank you, everyone, for coming. Most of you are already aware, but the drow will be mounting an assault on the town within a matter of days.” The statement was met by silence. “The drow,” he continued, “have discovered some means of travelling during hell season, an ability that our allies, the gnomes, do not possess themselves. For this fight, we are alone.” Some people began to sob. “Naturally, we are doing what we can to prepare defences, but to be perfectly honest… We can delay them, we can hurt them, but we don’t have even the slightest hope of beating them.” More sobs. “Young Hermenegild has… Come up with something that… You know what, he can probably explain it a great deal better than me.” The town head said, beckoning to Hermenegild. Hermenegild was completely taken aback; he had not been told about this! “What do I say!?” He whispered furiously to his parents. “Just… Tell them why nothing else would work, then tell them what it does. After that, it’s up to them.” His mother whispered back. Hermenegild nodded and headed up to the podium. The town head handed the speaker cone to him and stepped down from the podium. Hermenegild looked at it numbly, his mind panicked from having the gazes of everyone he knew fixed on him, all at once. He knew its workings. Heck, he might have been the one who enchanted this particular one. He checked the rim for the signature he engraved in every tool he made; instead, he found his mother’s. A small smile flickered onto his face for the first time that day, and his mind calmed. He stepped up to the podium, raised the cone and began to speak. “Initially, I thought of creating a weapon, ranged, easy to use but deadly. I found the design to be feasible. If everyone in town had one of those weapons, it would be impossible for the drow to breach our defences.” The townspeople began to look excited, but their faces fell at his next words. “I scrapped that idea. With the time and resources we have, we would only be able to make one or two dozen, not enough to make a significant difference.” A few of the other enchanters in the crowd nodded. Even the simplest enchantments took time, and there simply wasn’t enough of it. “Then I thought of designing a single weapon, powerful enough to destroy their entire army. I discarded that idea part way through the design process for the same reasons. It would be too complex to complete within the time we have.” By now, the townspeople were listening silently. It was clear to them already that whatever he ended his speech on, it wouldn’t be a miracle solution. “Armour, equipment - the same. If we were to try something as large scale as collapsing a cave on top of their army, it would also take too long to prepare, and after all that they would be likely to notice it and find a way to circumvent it.” Hermenegild looked at the town, and a sea of glum faces stared back at him. “I was on the verge of frustration when I had the worst best idea I’ve ever had: create a warrior capable of defeating the entire drow army by himself.” A few people gasped in surprise, but most of them were sceptical. “Naturally, it’s not that easy to make someone that powerful. There’s always a price. Normally it would just be in the materials or mana, but in this case it’s a lot worse. I took a drow sacrificial ritual, simplified it, improved it and miniaturised it, adding a few extra restrictions to reduce the normally exorbitant mana cost…” Several hundred people’s eyes glazed over. “I wish I had never created it. Personally, I hope it never sees the light of day.” Hermenegild took a deep breath. “The enchantment, placed upon a suitable weapon, allows one to permanently absorb the strength of anyone they killed with it, should the victim be willing. The drow… Won’t be willing. The only way to create a warrior strong enough is that some of us, perhaps many of us, are sacrificed.” Hermenegild hung his head. The town head stepped up with a second speaker cone. “I’m going to put whether we use this enchantment or not to a vote, but before that, I’d like to ask a few questions for clarification. How much strength is transferred?” Hermenegild shook his head. “I can’t be sure. It’s never been tested, and I have no practical experience in this. Theoretically it could be as much as twenty, twenty-two percent, but realistically it may be less.” “How many might have to be… Sacrificed?” The town head gulped. “I don’t know.” Hermenegild admitted. “At least a few hundred, perhaps more. It might not be enough even if all of us are sacrificed.” The town head nodded stiffly. “Alright, I think everybody has heard everything they want to know. Before we vote, I’m just going to say my part. I know this isn’t a good solution, not by a longshot, but it’s the only one we’ve got. This gives us a chance to survive.” “Now, if you agree with using this, please move to my right,” the town head motions with his free hand, “otherwise to my left.” There was a great shuffle as people moved to their preferred side. Once everything settled down, the results were clear: they would use the enchantment. “It seems the people have decided. Hermenegild, get onto creating that weapon as fast as possible. Everyone else, get some sleep. I’ll call another meeting when it’s ready.” Hermenegild and his parents were just about to enter the house to start work when someone caught up with them. “Town head said you could use this.” He said, handing them a dark bluish-grey dagger of a length that would be a bit long for a halfling but short for a human. The shape of the knife itself was nondescript; it was something that any weaponsmith would make hundreds of during their lifetime. “It’s of gnome make, one of their experimental alloys. They say it’s even tougher than mithril, and still conducts mana just as well.” They took the dagger and thanked him. Inside the workshop, Hermenegild’s father took a sword - steel, also made by the gnomes - and slashed it down, edge on edge, onto the dagger. The sword came out with a deep notch in its edge while the dagger had nary a scratch. “It’s quality stuff, alright.” Hermenegild’s father nodded. “We’ll have to use our best tools.” The three of them spent the whole night and the better part of the next day etching the design onto the blade. Not only was the hardness of the blade making the work much tougher than normal, but Hermenegild’s design was incredibly intricate, and the whole thing had to fit onto the blade of the dagger. Add onto that the pressure of the entire town depending on them, and the effort involved was incredible. They worked through a magnifying glass of similar quality to a jeweller’s loupe, their hands moving with as much careful precision as a surgeon’s. Wiping the sweat from their brows was a constant occurrence, and even a single small mistake would render their efforts thus far worthless… But eventually it was completed successfully. Breathing heavy sighs of relief, they etched a thin line down from the design to the handle of the dagger - it would be through this that the user would supply mana to the enchantment. Once this was done, they went to work with files and sandpaper, smoothing down the rough edges of their etching and readying it for the next step, which was to pour a highly mana conductive substance into the pattern and leave it to set. Then they had to sand down any spillage and make it level with the surface of the blade… All in all, it was a long and arduous process. Finally, it was done. This was an enchantment that had to be activated, rather than one that was permanently active, so Hermenegild’s father picked up the dagger and ran his mana through it to test it. He frowned, and ran it through again. Nothing. Hermenegild looked at the etched pattern for what felt like the hundredth time, then compared it to his original design. They were completely identical, without mistake or blemish. He pored over the design once again, and broke out into a cold sweat. He had made a mistake. Moreover, it wasn’t a small one. It was a great, big, catastrophic mistake. To fully understand the enormity of this mistake, one must know some basic facts about enchantments. Namely, enchantments were designed in such a way that anyone could use them. Anyone. Even the enchantments that had to be activated were designed in such a way that all you had to do was put enough mana in and it would work. In his frustration, stress and lack of sleep when designing it, Hermenegild had forgotten this single, crucial element of enchanting… He had, as he said, simplified and improved it, but it was still, in essence, a spell formation. “I forgot to include a mana guidance component.” Hermenegild breathed. “What!?” Both of his parents yelped. “It… It should still work. Let me see…” Hermenegild picked up the dagger and began to infuse it with his mana, guiding it through the patterns in a particular order and with certain timings. After a few moments, the dagger began to radiate a dull black aura. “It’s alright… I, I can teach them how to cast it. It should be fine…” To incorporate mana guidance, as an enchantment of this type should have, would require him to redesign the enchantment from the ground up and repeat the entire process again. It had taken around two days in total to design and produce it the first time, but they were completely burnt out, not to mention there wasn’t a second dagger of comparable quality for them to use. Even with the benefit of already being familiar with the design elements, it would take them at least another two days to make another. And it wasn’t as if sacrificing possible hundreds of people and acclimatising to the explosive increase of power that would entail would take only an instant, either. They would need as much time as they could get. “I hope so,” His father said worriedly, “otherwise the only one able to use this dagger will be you, Hermen.” “I… I, I,” Hermenegild stuttered, unable to process the thought, “I need to go teach them now. No time. No time.” Hermenegild snatched up the dagger and ran out the door. His parents hurried after him. “You what?” The town head gasped as Hermenegild explained what had happened. “And you want to teach the person using it how to use the magic instead? But… The head guard is terrible at magic.” “Isn’t there anyone else? One of the other guards?” Hermenegild asked desperately. “Maybe.” The town head said, motioning someone over and saying to them, “Bring the head guard, quick.” A few minutes later, the head guard came running along. “What’s the matter?” He asked. “Besides everything?” The town head replied with a sigh, before quickly explaining the situation. “Is there anyone among the guard who has any skill in magic?” “There’s one. I’ll bring him.” The head guard dashed off again, shortly returning with another man. “Alright Hermenegild, you have two hours to teach him. After that we’ll have no choice but for you to do it instead.” The town head warned. Hermenegild shuddered. “Yes. I’ll need some paper and charcoal for writing.” “You’ll get it shortly.” Hermenegild quickly explained things to the guard, who began to tremble. Once the supplies he asked for arrived, Hermenegild quickly sketched up the enchantment’s design - at this point it was practically seared into his memory - and began to explain how it worked and, more importantly, how to activate it properly. It quickly became apparent to him that the guard had little of his own knowledge of magic, despite appearing to be more than twice his age. As time passed, Hermenegild’s hands began to shake, and he even began to cry. It was obvious that it wouldn’t be this guard who would be using the dagger to sacrifice the people of the town and then defend it against the drow, but him, and it terrified him to no end. Still, he pressed on teaching. Not because he hoped it would succeed, but because it gave him something to distract himself from the inevitable truth. When an hour passed and the town head came to check on progress, Hermenegild had managed to calm down somewhat. “I’m confident he can activate two of the components of the enchantment sufficiently well.” Hermenegild reported. The town head paused. “How many are there?” “Thirteen.” Hermenegild grimaced. “...So, it’s up to you.” The town head sighed. “Yes.” Hermenegild replied sadly. The town head shook his head. “I’m sorry it came to this, Hermenegild. It shouldn’t be on you to bear the weight of the town. It should be on us.” “It’s not your fault.” Hermenegild bowed his head. “It’s not anyone’s fault. Nothing more we could do.” The town head looked to the roof of the cave, and Hermenegild was shocked to see tears flowing down his face. “I’m going to call for volunteers. You should… Prepare yourself.” The town head returned carrying an elderly man. He laid the man carefully on the ground and beckoned Hermenegild over. The man was severely emaciated, appearing to be little more than a sack of skin stretched over a skeleton. “Are… Are you sure?” Hermenegild asked. A fit of coughing wracked the man, his mouth dribbling blood as he gasped for air. He nodded weakly and, with great difficulty, moved a hand to tap at a gap between two ribs: the place where his heart was. Hermenegild steadied his shaking hands and grasped the dagger. He began to lower it before his heart skipped a beat and he broke out into a cold sweat; in the heat of the moment he had almost forgotten to activate the spell. Doing so, he lowered the dagger, plunging it into the elderly man’s chest with disturbing ease. The elderly man sucked in a deep breath and his eyes opened wide. Hermenegild faintly felt something rush into him, and a flash of white crossed his vision for a brief instant, so brief that he thought he had imagined it. He could tell that his physical strength, and even his mana, had increased, not by a substantial amount, but at least by a noticeable amount. “Did it work?” The town head asked with bated breath. “Yes… I think so.” Hermenegild replied absentmindedly, staring down at the now deceased elderly man, the dagger still embedded in his chest. The town head breathed a sigh of relief. “First piece of good news I’ve had all day.” He motioned to someone. “Start sending in the volunteers, and get people ready to bury the bodies.” Hermenegild pulled the knife free from the corpse and looked at the blood in a daze. The town head clapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump a bit. “Keep yourself together, Hermenegild. We’ve only just started.” Hermenegild abruptly leaned over and regurgitated the contents of his stomach onto the ground. The first dozen or so were halflings too old or sick to live much longer. Then there were another couple dozen with disabilities - lost limbs, senses - who feared they would be useless in the coming ordeal, and wanted to make a difference in perhaps the only way they could. Widows. Widowers. Even a few orphans, understanding the enormity of the situation, came to sacrifice themselves in hopes of saving the town. Hermenegild took their lives and strength one by one with tears streaming down his face. Each time he felt the increase in strength less and less, not because they weren’t having as much affect but because the amount he was gaining was less and less each time in comparison to what he already had. Every time he saw that flash of white, lingering just a little bit longer every time, now too long to be dismissed as just a trick of the light or his imagination. The volunteers stopped after around eighty were sacrificed. “Is it enough?” The town head asked. Hermenegild stared down at his hands, stained completely red by the blood they had been covered in time and time again. They felt… Different. Stronger, tougher, yes, but they no longer felt like his hands. He realised that his entire body felt different. Strange, alien, as if it wasn’t his body at all. Lifting the dagger, he tapped its point onto the ground - or at least, that’s what he tried to do - and it got driven into the hard stone a couple of centimetres. He knew that it was something impossible for him to do with his full strength just a short while ago, and here he was doing it with a casual move. But he didn’t feel excited, or proud. Just numb. Numb and sad. Pushing harder, it drove in another couple of centimetres before he hit something hard and couldn’t get any further. He pulled it out and looked up at the town head. “I don’t think it is…” He looked back down to his hands, but heard the town head walk away very clearly with his newly enhanced senses. The bell for a town meeting soon tolled again. Hermenegild heard the town head speaking to the town in the distance, informing them that if nobody else were to volunteer, he would have to start picking people. Shortly after this, another group of volunteers came towards him. These people were mostly parents. Some of them he knew only by face, but some of them he knew by name, and knew quite well. He shuddered and looked away. Every time, he tried to be as careful and do as little damage as he could, but with so little experience in his strength and it constantly increasing, he often failed, crushing chests and rupturing organs whenever he used just a bit too much force. The bodies were carried away silently to be buried, every time, and he wept to see the damage he had wrought on the bodies of people he knew and loved. When it was over, the town head again asked, “Is it enough?” Hermenegild simply replied, “Get me a sword.” After a moment of hesitation, the town head had someone fetch a sword, and presented it to Hermenegild. Very, very carefully, Hermenegild drew the edge of the blade over his skin, opening a shallow wound. He shed more tears, but not because of the pain. “It’s not enough.” More came, this time picked at random from among the townsfolk. Of course, children were excluded, along with their parents, if it could be helped. Hermenegild got stronger and stronger, and the flashes of white stayed longer and longer, until eventually he opened his eyes and it didn’t go away. He looked around and saw another world - or so it seemed. The townsfolk were there, dimly shining white, and so were the caves, barely visible but there all the same. The area around Hermenegild himself shone bright white, wisps of otherworldly light slowly fading away in every direction. This world had no name, for no living being had ever set eyes on it before… But Hermenegild recognised it for what it was: the world of spirits, of souls. A world that only the dead realised they occupied. Hermenegild was shocked by the realisation, but calmed down when he realised he could see the world of the living as he had before - he was still alive. The two worlds were superimposed over each other in his vision, as if looking through glass to see the world beyond but also seeing the world behind in its reflection. The next in line stepped forth and once again, with a word of apology, Hermenegild plunged the dagger into their heart. A small part of him was intrigued to see that the dagger still had its black aura in the spirit world, but that interest was quickly wiped away as he observed what happened next. The dagger tore a hole in the woman’s spirit. Some of her substance was channelled through the blade into Hermenegild himself, some of it drifted into the air as if blood from a wound, and the rest - Hermenegild felt an enormous presence appear before him, so great that it seemed to encompass the entire world. He fell backward and stared as the being took the hand of the spirit, its wounds sealing up in an instant. The being paused, and turned its head to regard Hermenegild silently. Hermenegild looked back at it, torrents of sweat rolling down his body. It seemed to contemplate something, but then shook its head. Opening its mouth, it spoke three simple words that reverberated within Hermenegild’s very soul: “See you soon.” Then it was gone, along with the woman’s spirit. Hermenegild let out a sharp breath, only then realising he had been holding it. He waved away the concerned town head. “I’m fine. It… I’m fine. Keep going.” They continued, with Hermenegild testing his arm with the sword every now and again. Each time it was a little harder for him to break the skin and the wound healed just a little faster. He kept an eye out, but the being did not return. The spirits of the people that he sacrificed, however, would simply disappear after a moment. He was worried about where they had gone and what was happening to them, but he already had too much to worry about with the living without worrying for the dead, too. Finally, he pressed the sword to his arm once more, and instead of cutting his skin, the edge of the sword blunted. Bracing himself, he held the sword by the middle of the blade and drove it into his stomach. The sword bowed, and the tip snapped off. “It’s enough…” Hermenegild sighed in relief. The ground around him was coated in blood, and so was he, drenched in blood practically from head to toe. The relieved townsfolk who were next in line were dismissed. The town head hesitantly approached Hermenegild. “Are… You, okay?” “No.” He replied, looking to the ceiling of the cave. The light enchantments were dimmed to almost pitch blackness - night, the same as it had been when they started. “That took less time than I expected. How, how many did I…” He couldn’t complete the sentence. “It took the whole day, Hermenegild.” The town head replied. “Don’t you remember? It got quicker towards the end, but at the start we always had to wait for you to regain your mana.” “I’m trying not to remember. How many?” He repeated. The town head’s eyes were haunted. “About… About four hundred and twenty.” He finished in little more than a whisper, but Hermenegild could hear him as clear as day. Hermenegild slammed his fist onto the ground, smashing the stone and causing cracks to radiate outwards for almost a meter. “How did this happen?” He cried. “Four days, it only took four days for all our lives to descend into madness!” “Yes. And you’re the only hope we have of surviving.” The town head replied. “So please, please… Pull yourself together.” Hermenegild’s face screwed up, and for a moment the town head thought he was about to get hit. Instead, Hermenegild just stared at his hands, speechless. The town head was suddenly reminded that despite everything that had happened in the past few days, despite everything that he did, he was still just a kid. Moving slowly towards Hermenegild, the town head attempted to embrace him. “Don’t.” Hermenegild said, still staring at his hands. “I can’t control my strength. I make one wrong move and you could be pulverised.” The town head stopped, and carefully stepped back. “How much time do we have? I need to familiarise myself with this strength.” Hermenegild said. Fishing out a notebook from his pocket, the town head opened it and flipped it to the latest entry. “They’re breaking through the cave-ins as we speak. We have a couple of hours at best.” “It’s enough. It has to be enough.” Hermenegild said. “I’m going to the experiment caves to train until they come. Send someone for me… Or just toll the bell. I’ll hear it.” “Alright. Good luck, Hermenegild.” The experiment caves were empty caves, intended to be used when someone was developing new magic or enchantments that had the potential to be dangerous. They weren’t used particularly often. That day Hermenegild used them as his training grounds. He sought to find the limits of his power and to control it. He was unsuccessful on both accounts. First, he tested his speed, simply by attempting to run as fast as he could to the other end of the cave. In just a couple of seconds he crashed headlong into the stone wall of the cave at the other end, an oddly delayed ‘boom’ echoing throughout the cave from what seemed to be behind him. Fearing for his life, Hermenegild checked himself over but found only a few scrapes which were already closing up. He next attempted to test his strength by punching the wall as hard as he could. His fist became embedded into the rock, and the cave shuddered ominously around him, fragments of rock falling from the cave ceiling. He then thought to attempt to test his magical strength, but quickly realised that because he formerly had only the mana of an average deep halfling, his knowledge of magic was focused on being as efficient and effective with as little mana as possible - he didn’t know any powerful, mana-heavy spells! After that, he figured he would tone the test down a little and try and get a handle on his speed. There was about half an hour where he repetitively crashed into walls. It was as if Hermenegild only had two speeds: walk and goodbye. As what little time he had left wore on, Hermenegild began to feel an uncomfortable sensation, but different from anything he had ever felt before. It was like an itch, but not, and everywhere, but nowhere. He could not determine what it was or what was causing it, and it worried him. Then the bells rang. Hermenegild ran as fast as he could, crashing into things at every corner. In just over minute he was at the entrance to the town, a string of buildings with the imprint of a young halfling in them laid out behind him. On his belt was the enchanted dagger, sheathed, and in his hand was a mithril great sword longer than he was tall. The gnomes had sent it over to be enchanted just before hell season, but Hermenegild hadn’t managed it in time, so it had just sat there waiting for time to pass so it could be delivered. It was originally intended to be used by gnomish mechanical warriors, but he figured he was strong enough to use it himself. There were a few narrow misses on the way over there where he nearly killed himself with it, and now he wasn’t so sure. He saw many of the town’s remaining men and some of the women standing around fearfully wearing a variety of arms and armour behind a makeshift wooden palisade. With his extremely sharp ocular capacity, he instantly spotted the town head and the head guard standing atop the single lookout tower. Hermenegild sighed. How was he going to make his way through the crowd? He’d be more likely to send someone flying by accident. But as soon as he approached, the crowd quickly split before him. He was confused, but them remembered that he was still covered in blood. After slowly walking through the crowd, he very slowly and carefully climbed up the ladder. “How is it looking?” He asked grimly, seeing exactly what was happening at the other end of the huge cave but unable to understand much of what was happening besides the fact that there were a lot of them. “They’re not even bothering to form into battle formations.” The head guard grimaced. “They know they have us outmatched.” The town head shook his head. “We have the ground over there enchanted with fire and it’s charged with mana. There’s not as many uses in it as we expected because of… Well, we’re just waiting until they get as many people as possible on it before we let loose.” “Are you strong enough to pick up the slack after that, Hermenegild?” The head guard asked. “Strong enough?” Hermenegild responded. “Definitely. But I don’t have any control over that strength. It’s all or nothing. I’m barely able to stand on this tower without collapsing it by accident.” “No need to hold back against them.” The head guard with a smile, before stiffening. “...But could you please go back down to the ground?” He shrugged and stepped off the edge, falling to the ground flat on his face. He stood up without a scratch on him. “Ow.” He muttered, more out of reflex than actual pain. For about a minute he stood there just listening to the sounds of the approaching army. “NOW!” The town head yelled out. A few seconds later, Hermenegild saw light blossom on the ceiling on the far side of the cavern and heard screaming. The people around him rejoiced, but only Hermenegild could hear the town head mutter, “Crap.” A moment later the town head yelled out, “Turn it off and open the gate! Hermenegild, it’s your turn!” “Don’t bother opening the gate.” Said Hermenegild. “Just stand back.” Taking a step forward, he bent his knees and jumped clear over the wall. He faintly heard the town head behind him whispering, “Good luck.” Then he crashed into the roof and fell to the ground in a heap, once again barely avoiding skewering himself on his sword. He got up and quickly dusted himself off. This time he heard the town head reassuring everyone that he was alright. He looked ahead and grimaced. The fire hadn’t obliterated a large swathe of their troops as he had imagined. Many of them had significant burns, but it was apparent that most of them had managed to escape the area of the fire and put themselves out. The sight of the hundreds of angry drow charging towards him terrified him. The thought that he had to defeat every single one of them made him want to crawl back into bed. But he was their only hope. Their one chance for survival. He had the power. He had to do it. So, he gritted his teeth, held the sword tightly with both hands and charged. At his speed, the scenery would be little more than a nauseating blur to most people. Hermenegild saw everything clearly, but even that didn’t let him stop in time. He bowled into half a dozen drow and only barely managed to keep himself upright. Steadying himself, he slashed in a wide horizontal arc and cleaved three drow in half. The other drow surrounding him looked on in shock and horror. Then one of them splashed acid magic onto his face. Hermenegild screamed in pain. His skin was largely unaffected, but the stuff had gotten into his eyes, and was burning its way through everything it could. He was blind in moments. The drow seemed almost surprised that this extremely powerful halfling was disabled so easily. Almost contemptuously, one of them thrust his spear at Hermenegild. Clutching at his eyes, Hermenegild stepped to one side, and the spear missed. The drow, confused, thrust his spear again. This time, Hermenegild caught it, snapped off the tip and thrust it back towards the drow, hard. Impaled on the blunt end of his own weapon, the drow spent his last moments staring uncomprehendingly at the Hermenegild’s half-melted eyes. Hermenegild was now blind, yes. But it was not through his eyes that he could see spirits, and so it was that while the mortal world fell away from his eyes, he could see the world beyond clearer than ever. A sight that could not be tricked or deceived, that only saw things as they truly were. He reached for his sword, dropped when he was splashed with acid, only to find that it had been stolen by one of the drow. “Not so tough without your fancy weapon, huh?” The drow taunted. Hermenegild glared with ruined eyes at the man and pushed off the ground with one foot. He caught hold of the man as he rocketed past. The man was already dead from whiplash, but Hermenegild didn’t realise or didn’t care, and ripped the man’s head off, tossing both it and the man’s torso heavily into the midst of the army below. Still in mid-air, Hermenegild winced. His sword was now lost somewhere among the drow behind him. It would be practically impossible to find it and get it back. He could use the dagger, but it wasn’t a very effective weapon, and losing that to the drow could very well be the worst possible outcome. Not that they could use it. It was designed to be most effective on willing participants. Conversely, on unwilling participants it would show almost no effect, perhaps siphoning a tenth or even a hundredth of a percent of the victim’s strength. This was part of the reason Hermenegild didn’t use it as a weapon. He fell back into the midst of the drow. Now without a weapon, Hermenegild simply tore, ripped and punched anything within range, dyeing himself even further red. What few attacks he could dodge, he dodged, and the rest he simply let land on his body. Even he himself, using a weapon superior to theirs and strength far beyond theirs, could not pierce his skin, so what could they possibly do? As it turned out, quite a bit. One would think that the drow would avoid actions that could hurt their own, but they ignored the fates of the drow in the immediate vicinity of Hermenegild as they poured torrents of magic down onto him. Fire, ice, acid and poison fell on and all around him. As he expected, they were unable to pierce his skin, but the smoke made him cough and then everything went into his mouth, his nose, his eyes and ears. He wanted to scream from the pain, but he couldn’t breathe. He jumped, finding momentary relief as blood, poison and acid streamed from his body. Shaking his head, he coughed, trying to get it all out of him. Moments later he retched, vomiting out the contents of his stomach. The resulting acrid spray killed several drow and wounded several others. Despite still being in immense pain, Hermenegild calmed down somewhat after he did this, and looked towards the entrance the drow were coming from. There were still more streaming through the narrow entrance. The moment he landed, he was again bombarded with magic, but this time there weren’t any drow around him to get caught up in it. Cursing, Hermenegild took a deep breath and closed his eyes. If even his sight was stronger than it used to be, then perhaps he could hold his breath for longer, too. He could. Hermenegild felt almost no need to take in another breath. This left only his nose and ears exposed. His nose wasn’t a particular problem so long as he wasn’t breathing through it, as in general things could only get into it from below, and the drow were decidedly taller than him. His ears, however, were an issue. He had no way of covering them, and turning his head to avoid the magic simply wasn’t a choice when it came from every direction. So, in absence of a better choice, Hermenegild simply ploughed into the drow army, charging at random and punching through anyone in his way. His speed made him almost impossible to target, so apart from the occasional lucky shot he was rarely hit. Feeling an odd breeze, he looked down. To nobody’s surprise but his, his clothes were nowhere near as durable as he was and had disintegrated into nothingness almost before the battle had started. He was clothed only in his own blood and the blood of his enemies. “No…” He gasped, almost catching a blast of acid again. Even his belt had disintegrated - the belt that had his dagger on it. Now it too was lost somewhere amidst the chaos. He shook his head. It wasn’t the time for idle thoughts. He could look for it after the battle. Shooting off into the drow once again, he resumed his slaughter. Time passed. Five minutes, perhaps? Hermenegild couldn’t tell. He had killed tens of drow, perhaps over a hundred. His eyes had regrown, but he kept them closed to protect them from the sprays of acid, fire and poison that still occasionally came his way. Despite his exertions this far, he wasn’t feeling any particular fatigue, so he was starting to feel good about his chances. Then he heard some screams in the distance that sounded decidedly un-drow like. He jumped up into the air to get a better view, and his heart grew cold. While he had killed more than a hundred, there were hundreds more, and not all of them were focusing on him. A significant portion of the drow army had broken off and was assaulting the meagre halfling defences to devastating effect. Hermenegild suddenly felt that he wasn’t falling fast enough, but there was nothing he could do to speed up. He was forced to watch for those handful of seconds as the wooden palisade burned and the watchtower toppled to the ground. Thankfully, his sharp eyesight allowed him to discern that there was nobody in the tower when it fell. Once he landed, Hermenegild charged straight through the drow back towards town. It took him several seconds to reach the fallen palisade, but those seconds felt the longest of his life. By the time he reached them, there were already a few dozen small bodies lying on the cold stone. Hermenegild went berserk, killing every drow he laid eyes on… But there was only one of him, and hundreds of them. Every time he went to save someone, it was like putting out a fire by scooping water with his hands. Put out fire in one place, and it would be blazing in ten others. Go to put out another fire, and the fire you just put out catches ablaze again. Despite his best efforts, it didn’t take the drow long to decimate the defenders. The head guard fell early, only just managing to kill the drow he was fighting in exchange for his own life. The town head coughed up mouthfuls of blood as acid ate a hole in his chest. The baker’s stocky arms overpowered by a battle-hardened drow that grinned as he moved onto his next victim. Hermenegild’s own parents, bedazzled with enough enchanted items to make a king weep but without skill or experience enough to use them, assailed by a pack of greedy drow who then picked at their corpses and fought over the spoils. Once practically everyone Hermenegild knew was dead, the drow turned towards the gate to town. Seeing this, Hermenegild dashed forward and stood in front of the gate to defend it. But the gate was large, and Hermenegild was quite small. He could not defend it by himself, and it soon collapsed under the drow bombardment. Though he tore apart every drow within reach, his reach was not long, and the drow avoided him like the plague. They streamed through to the town itself, and there was simply nothing he could do about it. He slumped to the ground in despair. A few drow attempted to use this opportunity to kill him, but passed by in fear when they found that all their attacks were ineffectual. Hermenegild wept as he heard the screams of the women and children still in town as they died, one by one. Then, worse, came silence. Standing up, Hermenegild wiped tears and blood off his face; there was no longer any reason for him to stay there. He would… What would he do? He looked at one of the drow, and the drow shrieked in horror, frantically fleeing from his gaze. An idea started to sprout in his head. He may not be able to stop the drow, but they weren’t able to stop him, either. Just as they walked in and destroyed his home with impunity, so too could he do the same to them. Thinking of getting a better view of the situation, Hermenegild jumped high into the air again. The drow had stopped coming out of the tunnel, and the majority of their army was around where he was. The rest were probably in the town. After landing, he started walking towards the exit. The drow parted before him, too afraid of him to risk him attacking them, if he wasn’t already. Most of them, at least. One of them jeered, said something about Hermenegild’s mother, or something. He wasn’t exactly sure because he caved in the man’s chest before he finished his sentence. Hermenegild felt like his heart was beating extraordinarily loudly, and had that strange feeling gotten stronger? He didn’t care. Not now, when everything he knew had just been destroyed. He ignored it. Before long, he reached the tunnel. He paused. It didn’t look like he remembered it, it was much smaller. The drow must have only cleared out just enough for them to pass through. Hermenegild could almost reach both sides of the tunnel when he stretched out his arms… He smiled darkly and sat in the entrance of the tunnel, facing back towards the drow army. It took a few hours for the drow to collect everything, but after a couple of hours the drow army, laden with gold and all manner of enchanted items, came back to the tunnel to leave while talking excitedly of their new riches. One of the drow in front looked forwards and froze. He nudged his neighbours frantically. “Bloody devil!” Everyone around him froze, and soon the entire front of the army was silently staring at Hermenegild. He waved. “Nice day, isn’t it?” He said innocently. None of the drow smiled. “I just thought I’d remind you that this is the only exit. And if you want to make another way out, then…” He shrugged. “It’d be a shame if it caved in, or you happened on one of the natural gas pockets around here, wouldn’t it?” “...Can you please move?” One of the drow asked awkwardly. Hermenegild shrugged. “Can you bring all my people back to life?” He held up a hand to stop their response. “Don’t bother answering that, they’re gone. It was rhetorical.” He could almost swear his heart was beating more loudly, now. It was like someone hammering a drum inside his chest. That strange feeling was almost infuriating in how it demanded his attention. “Well, come on then. Is the big drow army scared of a single halfling kid?” Hermenegild had had enough of waiting. A wave of magic poured towards him, but he simply opened his arms, closed his eyes and accepted it. Standing in the entrance to the tunnel, even his ears were protected. He had nothing to fear from them. And so it was: the magic ate into the very stone around him, but it was barely able to cause a few transient scratches on his skin. “Maybe weapons would work better?” He laughed. “Has one of you found my sword? That thing might even be able to hurt me a bit!” Naturally, he wasn’t just exposing a way to harm himself on a whim. As soon as he spotted the drow wielding his sword, he would dash out, slay the man and take it back. The man holding it did not appear immediately, but the drow, seeing how wholly ineffective their magic was, began to attack Hermenegild in waves. It was simple enough for him to withstand their attacks, then grab their outstretched weapons or arms. At that point, they were practically already dead. His grip was crushing; the only way they possibly had to escape would be to sever their own limbs, and few were so decisive. He would pull them towards him then break their neck or punch in their chest, then hurl the body back into the crowd of drow to further incite them. And so, the bloodbath began. This went on for a while, perhaps another hour. Piles of bodies had accumulated and been moved several times during the course of the slaughter. Then, eventually, the drow broke up and fled in all directions, now possessing a fraction of their original numbers. Hermenegild stood in the entrance of the tunnel, blood dripping from his hands and a vague look of confusion on his face. He couldn’t understand why they had run. There was no point to it. There was nowhere for them to go. At the same time, he couldn’t go after them or risk some of them escaping. But he could wait. Even after ignoring his parents’ words and not sleeping since it all began, on top of not eating for the past day or two, he didn’t feel tired, or hungry. But should he wait? He was going to destroy the drow city at some point, right? Why not now? He nodded to himself and waited for the drow to escape from his line of sight - there was no harm in making them think he would wait, after all - and turned around. Then his arms, legs, every single joint and muscle in his body, simultaneously locked up. He splashed to the ground in pools of blood. To his horror, he couldn’t even breathe. The heartbeat that had been pounding in his chest for the past hour was getting ominously quieter and slower. Hermenegild reached for his magic, but found that after a moment it, too stopped responding to him. His sense of smell, previously almost overwhelmed by the stench of death, was gone. His hearing, which just moments ago could detect the subtle sounds of blood running over the stone - gone. Even his eyes were quickly dimming. All that was left was that overwhelming, omni-present feeling of discomfort… And his view of the other side. Surrounding him and all throughout the cave were countless fragments of spirits, remnants of over a thousand deaths, many of them at his own hand. Hermenegild ‘looked’ at himself for the first time. His spirit was almost blindingly bright, but at the same time its surface was undulating wildly. It seemed like it would break apart at any moment. ‘Of course.’ Hermenegild thought. ‘How could it be possible for someone to gain so much power so quickly without repercussion? I only wish I could have more time, so that I could destroy them. Bring justice for my people.’ His spirit’s undulations continued to accelerate. Even thinking was beginning to become hard. ‘Then again, I killed almost as many of my people as they did, and hundreds of theirs besides. Ironic that the one with the most blood on their hands ended up being me. A halfling enchanter. A boy. So many dead. So much… Death…’ The undulations of his spirit accelerated and amplified to an extreme peak for a single moment. Then it exploded into innumerable tiny fragments of spirit. A true death, without any hope of resurrection or reincarnation. He was only thirteen. Webs stretched across the dark corners and edges of the caves and tunnels that were once part of the halfling town. It had only been just over a week, but already the arachne were starting to claim the place as their own. A few groups of drow scoured the battlefield for any valuables that might have been dropped during the conflict. Even though they knew they were safe, they still habitually avoided the pale webs. One group, finished filling their bags, started to leave. As they reached the entrance to the tunnel, one of them kicks at a corpse covered in a carapace of solidified blood. Some of it cracks and flakes off, but the body doesn’t move. “Why hasn’t someone gotten rid of this thing? Creeps me the hell out.” “Nobody wants to touch it. That’s the bloody devil.” Another one murmured. The first drow looks at it askance. “It’s just a corpse. What, are you scared?” The others shuffle restlessly. “You weren’t there.” One of them shakes his head. “That thing tore us apart like wet paper. Swords, magic… Nothing worked. We could only run and hope it didn’t catch us.” “How the hell did you manage to kill it, then?” The first drow scoffed. “We didn’t. Nobody knows how it died. Hell, some of us aren’t sure it even is dead. Why do you think there’s so few people here?” “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me this earlier!?” The first drow moved away from the corpse. “Look, I don’t want to think about it. You find anything good out there?” “Now that you mention it…” The first drow’s frown turned into a smile in an instant. He pulled out a small dagger from his pack. “This thing seems to be made out of some strange metal. It’s harder than steel. Should be worth a fair amount.” “Enchanted?” One asked, noting the intricate designs along the blade. “It looks like it, but I think it’s just decoration. Nothing happens when I put mana into it.” He said with a sigh. “It’s a damn shame. Why put so much effort into a useless engraving… Guys?” The faces of his companions paled in an instant. One of them fainted, and the others immediately turned and sprinted into the tunnel as if their lives depended on it. He turned around fearfully, and briefly felt a crushing grip on his leg before his life faded. Above his dead body stood Hermenegild, his eyes glowing a ghostly white, as if to match the colour of his skin. His body was clean, completely stripped of the layers of blood that had covered it, and he stared in wonder at his own two hands. For he was very much alive. When last he checked, he died. Before he had time to contemplate further, a figure stepped forth from the darkness… jinxs2011 Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. P.S. I LOST THE GAME

jinxs2011 POLL QUESTION - Would you like it if I did the same every april fool's (for the forseeable future) as I did this last one? (side story about unknown character in unknown locations and possibly unknown times) Hello again, and as always, apologies for the wait! I'm a little less busy for now, so that might mean the next chapter will be faster? I'm not entirely sure. There's a poll up there, which I'd really like to see the results of. I have a bunch of characters floating around, with backstories for most of them, but the problem is that (at least in my experience) people's childhoods/life story doesn't really come up in casual conversation, so it's hard for me to naturally slot it in. A side story solves that problem. Now, onto another subject. As usual, I've made some errors. One that I noticed in editing this chap is that the mana sight skill didn't increase in proficiency over time in a consistent manner over the past 5 or so chaps. I have remedied this, meaning his proficiency in the skill has increased (as of the end of last chapter) by 0.6% or so. Also sswanlake on the discord server (dunno if they have a different name here) rightly noted that as Gerald and Ferdinand were in a party with title sharing on at the time that Ferdinand got the undead slaughterer skill, so should have Gerald. I have fixed this also, adding the title into his status in the last 10 chapters. This was a pain. Note that I did not put any mention of it in chapter, this is because I am lazy.  I have recieved three reviews over the last month. First, DrMonotone's - Thank you very much for the review. I agree, I too dislike stories in which everything goes wrong for the protagonist - unless it is well explained. This also holds true for the opposite, protagonists for which everything goes right. It can be quite annoying for me, which is why I try to make it so that my characters have a mix of good luck and bad luck. A notable exception for my dislike of characters such as these are gag characters, such as neville and saitama. Luke Scheffe - Yes. This review is quite accurate. I cannot disagree with anything said in this review. Well, some people might argue the 'unique' element, but some people would also argue every story basically boils down into one of seven or so different stories, so we'll just say it is. wdc543 - Thank you. I like to think it is well written, but as anything, it's a learning process.  Now, I believe that is everything I have to say. I will update the wiki another day. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki I hope you enjoy the chapter. Chapter 36: Term One: Forkin’ Done Now that I’m in the library itself, I can see what’s around me with mana sight, although only in this section of the library. Almost instantly I see a poster listing the various rules of the library, including that you couldn’t bring a lower year student with you through the doors, something not mentioned by Mr Leyche. There is only one student other than me in this section of the library, a young man with messy, oily brown hair and severely wrinkled robes, his attention occupied completely by the book in front of him. I began to peruse the titles of the books, trying to find one relevant to mana control. After about ten minutes of searching, I give up. I’m not able to find anything in particular, and anyway, many of these titles are too interesting to pass up a read. I pick one out - ‘A brief overview of Odwia’ - and carry it over to a table using telekinesis to read it. I position myself above the book, and carefully turn the first page. Skipping the author’s introduction, I get straight into the juice of it. ‘Odwia is unlike other known worlds. It does not focus on any known concept, energy or weaponry, as so many others seem to. While most of its inhabitants speak common-’ Why is that, by the way? I’m on another forking planet, for Pete’s sake, so why is everyone still speaking English? It’s not like interplanetary colonisation is a thing here. ‘- Odwia displays a variety of languages, cultures and people of power far beyond that of any other. Even the gods themselves appear to pay more attention to it than other worlds.’ It goes on to briefly describe the various important countries and kingdoms on Odwia. The empire doesn’t even get a mention. Too small, I guess. ‘There are too many unique locations to even mention - floating islands, underwater cities, endless deserts - but there is one worthy of particular mention, the most famous and feared location, perhaps across all the worlds. It is commonly known by two different names: ‘The plain of worlds’ and ‘The eternal battlefield’. It is said that there are naturally occurring portals to every world in existence hidden throughout the plain. Alas, few have been found and fewer still are safe to pass through, for the simple reason that there are portals to both heaven and hell there.’ Heaven, Hell… Did whoever named these places read the bible… Or did the bible get it from them? ‘Their war has raged since times forgotten, and by all accounts neither side is likely to stop. Many seeking fame and fortune have fought there, on either side, and many have fallen, some recorded being as powerful as the level 80 range.’ Well, that sounds like a place that I never want to go to… But it may have a way back to Earth… After reading through it, I carry the book back to the shelf and look for another to read. A book on the system catches my interest. ‘How, why and when it came to be is unknown…’ Well, that’s useless. I skim through several pages, but there is only one section of particular interest. ‘Although there are no recorded instances of such an occurrence, it has been hypothesised that the maximum level, if such a thing exists, is 100. However, it is doubtful if such a hypothesis will ever be confirmed. As one advances further in level, one will cease to receive experience from enemies more than a certain level below them, initially thirty levels below but decreasing to ten or, some unconfirmed reports say, five levels below at the highest known levels. To even find an individual in the eighty level range is prohibitively difficult, and to find someone in the nineties is almost impossible. Because they are almost mythical, individuals in the nineties level range are sometimes known as ‘legends’, sometimes in scepticism, sometimes in awe.’ Not seeing anything else of use forthcoming, I slot that book back away, too. Perhaps ‘A brief inspection of known powers’ would be more my speed. A brief inspection of known powers, indeed - according to the table of contents, ninety percent of the book’s contents are on mana. ‘Mana is the foundation of all magic. Its uses are numerous, limited only by its wielder’s skill, knowledge, power and imagination. Present in anyone and everything. Even untaught, an individual will be able to use mana to some degree.’ Well, that’s not biased at all. ‘Ki is a rarer power, but masters of the art say that it can be awoken in anyone, given enough time and effort spent on doing so. It allows users to perform extraordinary physical feats; those experienced in the arts can simply shrug off weaker weapons and magic. Nevertheless, it takes decades to become proficient in its use, and while it can be consumed quickly, replenishing ki takes a long time.’ Interesting… Something to take another look at in the future, to be sure. It may take decades, but I have the time. ‘Psi. The power of the mind, in its purest form. Quite rare, and in many cases difficult to notice. Users specialise in affecting the mental states of themselves and others, as well as silent communication. Battles between psychics are often imperceptible to the naked eye, but no less deadly for it.’ Someday, I’m sure, I’ll find out how to use psi more effectively. With my stats being mostly distributed between intelligence and wisdom, I’m almost as specced towards psi as I am towards mana. It’d be a waste not to use it. ‘Fighting spirit is unlike mana and ki in that it is not a power that dwells naturally within the body, and it cannot be consumed or produced. It is more a reflection of a warrior’s state of mind. Here I say warrior because fighting spirit most often arises in warriors, if at all. It has been described by many words: determination, perseverance, rage. Ultimately, it is simply the willingness to fight, no matter the cost to oneself. Individuals with fighting spirit can often fight through injury and fatigue, exert greater strength than others, are resistant to mental manipulation and can, to some lesser extent, inspire these qualities in others.’ Let’s be honest here: I’m not getting fighting spirit. If it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t feel pain, there’s no way I would be able to run into combat and injure myself so fearlessly. ‘Killing intent. Rather than the will to fight, this is the will to kill. Wielders, without exception, kill for the sake of killing. Observed effects include inspiring unnatural fear and weakness in targets, condensing weapons and, in only the truly depraved, creating bloody warriors to fight for them.’ Yeah, no. ‘Divine power. The power of the gods. The limits of its uses, if there are any, are unknown. The most devout priests and paladins have some access to this power, allowing them to accomplish what can best be described as miracles.’ I wish. Divine power get equals easy mode. No chance of that happening, I don’t think. The last overview gives me pause, and makes me feel like the world, already fantastical in nature, just got weirder. ‘Superpowers. So rare and unique that they defy proper classification, and not much information is known about them. It is known, however, that every superpower has some weakness or caveat. Perhaps the user tires at an extremely fast rate while using it, or it can only be used once in a blue moon.’ Huh. I wonder if I can gain superpowers through absorb? And how rare are they, exactly? Questions, questions, questions, the more I answer, the more I have. In hopes of some more satisfying answers, I read on. We are introduced to our final teacher and class for the term the next day. Miss Kate, magic casting techniques. When I first looked in the room, I thought someone had let their pet python escape, but it was just that the teacher is a lamia. It scared quite a few of the others, so that was somewhat amusing to watch. It appears as if this class will be about the various techniques used to cast magic, and figuring out which will be best for each of us to use. ...Well, we haven’t gotten into the meat of things yet, but I’m guessing that I’ll be doing formations. It just sounds the most logical to me. The more conceptual something is, the more difficult it is for me to learn, in general. After the second day of classes is over, I head back to the library. So many books, so little time. Well, perhaps not, but the superficial information we have been learning so far is far from enough to quench my interest for the arcane. In fact, I make it a habit to head to the library at the end of the day and read, practically until classes start the next day. Between that and Dreyer’s own classes starting up, we rarely see each other for more than a couple dozen minutes a day. At the end of the week of classes, I am, as per usual, perusing the shelves at the library for another book of interest, I hear a voice behind me. “Do you have a particularly severe teacher, or something?” I turn. “Sorry?” The speaker is that same young man who was in here on the first day. He’s always been in here before me and is still here when I leave. It’s almost as if the guy lives in here. “You’ve been in here every night, reading. Nobody does that, not in their first term. If magic didn’t keep this place clean, there would be a solid inch of dust everywhere in this section.” He gestures to the spotless shelves from where he sits, a small stack of books piled on the table in front of him. “So, do you have a particularly severe teacher?” “Nothing like that. One of my teachers thought I should look in here for some help in mana control, so I guess that was the original cause for my coming here.” I muse. “But there were just too many interesting things to read. Couldn’t help myself.” “Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself.” He shrugs. “Didn’t think there’d be anything here but guff, perhaps a few entry level texts, but there’s a surprising amount of general knowledge here. You like to read?” “Used to be pretty much all I did in my spare time.” I reply. “Helped settle me down somewhat when things went pear-shaped.” “Pear?” He raises an eyebrow curiously. Right, I guess they don’t have it here. “It’s a sweet fruit, has a curvy shape.” He nods. “Yeah, life seems to have a habit of throwing curve balls. Books distract, you learn and have fun at the same time. What’s not to like?” “I know, right?” I agree. “By the way, do you live in the library or something? I’ve never seen you leave.” “Yeah, I do.” He replies. “Technically, I’m a junior librarian, so I have a small room off the main complex of the library. It’s quite convenient. I do leave occasionally, though. Gotta eat.” “Nice.” I say appreciatively. “You’ve been at the academy a while, then?” “I guess you could say that.” He shrugs. “Eight, nearly nine years. I’ve been here longer than some of the teachers.” He glances slightly at his pile of books, and I take that to mean he wants to get back to reading. “Well, nice to meet you. I’m Gerald, by the way.” “Raymond.” He waves in response, already turning his head back to the book open in front of him. The term progresses slowly but surely. Apart from the veritable trove of information in the library, classes do teach a few interesting things as well - for example the existence of certain languages, written and spoken, through which magic can be more easily cast. That is to say, casting magic through chanting is not just another form of imagination magic… Although it can be that as well… Magic is weird. So, you can cast magic through language by using it as inspiration or as a medium. Anyway, what this means is that I’ll almost definitely want to learn one of these magical languages - since common is just about as un-magical as it gets, apparently. One problem: the first section of the library doesn’t have any books on these languages. So, it looks like I’ll have to wait until second term to start on that. In what little time I’m not spending in the library, in classes or chatting with Dreyer, I do earnestly try to improve my mana control, but I make very little progress. The proficiency gain is barely noticeable, and it makes me think that I’m missing something in the way I practice, but I have no clue what that might be. I’ve tried controlling as much mana as I can, as little as I can, contorting, compressing and spreading it in every shape my tiny metal mind can imagine. No noticeable improvement. So I put it to the back of my mind, for now. I immerse myself in learning what I can, conversing with my few new friends and a whole lot of reading. The calmness, the sheer regularity of the academic life and the familiarity of it all almost lulls me into a sense that the world is a safe place. That I could learn here forever, and nothing bad would ever happen. I want it to be true. Some part of me wishes that I could believe it to be true. But I can’t. I think back and I remember, in vivid panoramic detail, those farmers risking their lives to reclaim their homes. The casual crimes rife throughout the cities, their perpetrators walking free and with peace of mind. The devastation the demons and denizens of hell visit upon each other. That part of the world isn’t about to go away just because I found a nice place. And even if the academy seems safe now… No place ever is. Not after I died in my own home, from some flash of light. No. Even now, I have to do my best to get stronger. I’m not comfortable with others being able to decide my destiny on a mere whim. On Earth, even reaching the top of the food chain wasn’t enough to guarantee you safety or security. But here, it’s different. People are even more powerful, and so am I. I don’t care about being the strongest. I’m not some saint or hero who aspires to fix all the world’s problems - as if that were possible. But I’m not going to let this life end like my last one: alone, helpless and with the largest achievement to my name being a high score in a crappy, obscure video game. I don’t know what I’ll do. But whatever I choose to do, I first need the ability to protect that lifestyle. Right now, magic is the best way to do that, despite a slow start. So I pay attention in the lessons, even when it gets boring. I listen, and remember. It helps that I don’t slowly nod off when things get dreary. Then, of course, comes the assignments, and I realise that I need to figure out a way to write, and fast. Getting supplies isn’t difficult. The academy has a store with most of the basic supplies, so it’s just a matter of utilising my card for the first time. The paper and ink themselves aren’t particularly expensive, but I have to spend a bit more to get it delivered, because I can’t really carry anything more than myself and the card. Once at Dreyer’s office, he helps me carry it through the portal to his house - I made sure to pick a time he wasn’t teaching any classes and would be available. From there, it’s just me, a sheaf of paper and a jar of ink, all sitting on the table. I review my options. I could use self manipulation, writing with ink on one of my tines as if with a finger. It wouldn’t be too difficult to write like that, but the problem is that I wouldn’t have a good view of what I would be writing, and that might make me prone to mistakes. A similar problem would exist if I were to wield myself telekinetically as a pen, and it might even be harder to write. Or… I could probably just directly lift and apply ink with telekinesis. A little bit of ink barely weighs anything, so it shouldn’t be a problem to keep myself aloft while controlling it, in terms of psi consumption. Since it seemed the least likely to present me with significant problems, I decide to test it out. Sending out a tendril of psi, I attempt to lift a little bit of ink from the jar… Only for it to drip back in. Concentrating, I shape my psi into a miniature dish and dip it in before lifting it up. No dice. Clearly, my psi isn’t watertight. I try again, focusing on keeping my psi as a single, continuous membrane upon which droplets of ink could sit. This time, a globule of ink remains suspended in the air, held by an invisible force. Success! But now how was I to apply it? I couldn’t exactly just splash it all down onto the page, after all. Then came an idea: if I could make my psi watertight, then could I make it airtight? It takes me several tries, but after finally getting the right shape, I lower my psychic contraption into the ink… Then lift up another portion. Like magic, the ink gets sucked upwards, leaving me with a thin tube of ink. Now, it’s not visible, but what I’ve done is adapted a needleless dropper, like the type you might use to measure medicine, into a psychic construct: I push the plunger down the tube to expel the air, then draw it back up to create a small suction force, drawing in the ink. Now I can easily and carefully apply the ink… Aaaand that’s a page ruined. One moment of lost concentration and all I have is an ink blot. Good thing I thought something like this might happen and separated the pages. Well, there’s still some space on the page I can use to practice. It takes me a few hours of practice and some minor alterations to my psychic ‘pen’ - mainly creating a sharper nib and narrowing the ink tube - until I manage to get the image steady enough and the ink output at the right rate to attempt writing. Then I encounter more problems: not enough pressure on the page, too much pressure, not being able to sync up my writing speed with my ink output rate, and so on. I practice for a few more hours with some improvement, but it still doesn’t look much better than a child’s scrawls. ...To be honest, my writing wasn’t exactly pretty in my past life, either. Unreadable, by some people’s standards, not that it mattered. Digital documents were the superior medium, anyway. It’s going slowly, but I’m not worried. I have more than a week until this stuff is due. “...Spin the rods of mana clockwise, moving them in a counter-clockwise spiral motion in front of you…” “...Proper pronunciation is key. Repeat after me: Three bees on wee trees did see twee peas…” “...And then it exploded. Let me tell you, he was not expecting that, soot in his hair for weeks…” “...The proper classification and identification of magic is a subject to minor debate to this day, although most agree that there is no perfect solution…” The term nears its end before I can blink… Literally. I still haven’t tried testing out the doppelganger skill. Quite a lot of it was the teachers hammering home the same information over and over in different ways. I guess they were really making sure we know the basics. Well, Mrs Felt was an exception. Half the time she was just telling stories and jokes. Actually, now that I think about it, most of those stories involved someone messing up their magic… Maybe she wasn’t so off-topic, after all. Of course, I’ve figured out my writing problems… Well, mostly. I still end up with an ink splatter every now and again if I get distracted by something, and my handwriting still isn’t stellar. But it’s workable. Results start coming in. I do well, naturally. If it’s just theory and memory, that’s my area of expertise. We’ll have to see how I go when it comes to the practical aspects of magic. Finally, the term ends, and the academy grows quieter. It doesn’t close, but many of the students don’t stay during the break period. I do. Where else would I go? Most of the time I spend in the library. Raymond isn’t there - he stopped showing up around halfway through the term. Said he’d finished reading everything of interest in the first section of the library, and was going back to the other sections. I get the feeling. There are only a few bookcases worth of books in this section, and I’ve read through most of them. Most of the ones left aren’t very interesting or informative. Still, there’s not a whole lot to do besides reading and practicing mana control, so here I am. I spend some time over the break discussing with Dreyer what units I should do next term. He’s given me a fair idea as to what options I’ll have, so I think I know what I’ll do, but the final decision will have to be made on the day, when I have all the options in front of me. Before too long a letter comes, saying that I have passed my first term and will be welcomed back for a second. On top of that, due to my exceptional results, my scholarship would continue, meaning that my fees for the units I take this term will be waived. Accompanying the letter is a card with another two thousand Rho on it. Nice. I register my mana and transfer the cash into my original card, which I’ve barely dipped into in the first place. The rest of the break I spend reading, at least until the auditorium gets busy with new students. At that point, I start mentally going back through my memories of all of my lessons of the previous term, making sure it’s all nice and fresh in my mind for the new term. Besides, maybe I’ll notice something I missed. It happens quite often, actually. I have a huge visual range, but my mind can’t go fast enough to catch all the details it sees. There might be a few dozen people talking at once in my area, but I might only be able to follow one conversation, for instance. Still, it’s all there in memory, so going over it can reveal new information. Doing all that takes quite some time. Before I know it, it’s time for the new term, and everyone is lining up for the assembly. It looks like maybe an eighth of the people who enrolled at the same time as me have dropped out, for whatever reasons, and in front of us are a fresh new cohort. Although there aren’t any announcements that pique my interest, I at least recognise a few more of the staff members and teachers. After it all finished, we are all led off to choose our classes. I notice the older years heading off in a different direction - they must choose their classes elsewhere. We ourselves are led to a very large room that looks like it might normally be a workshop of some kind, and then the teachers there start handing everyone lists of all the possible classes we can take. I end up having to hold it in front of me with telekinesis, as all the benches and tables immediately get swooped up. The list is more extensive than I had realised. Most every class is a ‘basic’ level class, with the exception of advanced mana control. Still, I want to start with some simpler, more straightforward things before I try something like artificing or alchemy. And even though I spent most of last term reading to pass the time, I think I’m going to go with just four classes, just in case they’re more demanding than I expect. Besides, I should have more access in the library this term, so there should be much more interesting things for me to read. Let’s see… If I’m starting with the basics, then of course I’m going with this one. This one should be good, too, and this… Now that I think about it, doesn’t this have way more applications than just the typical ones? Just thinking about it scares me. And last of all… May as well do this. Should let me do the next level next term. Might be helpful later on. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6314.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 20 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 2.84% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.13% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.29% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 307 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 15.72%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 79.16% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 13.78% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.49% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.31% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 47.86% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.28% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.59% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Happy that I managed to get this done today. If you need to catch up on fork facts (note: This website does not in fact contain a fact or facts about forks), remind yourself of a character or want to know more about something, visit the wiki. If you want updates on chapter progress, to chat with me or fellow readers about the novel or you just want to bug me, join the discord. Links below. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki

Dreyer looks at the satyr woman, who appears to be struggling with a mix of emotions. ‘Would you like to come inside?’ ‘No!’ She shouts reflexively, before calming down and explaining herself. ‘No. I’m sorry, even if the lord has said it’s alright, seeing something made…’ She gulps. ‘Made of wood, I – I just can’t.’ ‘It’s alright.’ Dreyer says reassuringly, stepping away from the house. ‘Should we talk here, or would you rather it be out of sight?’ ‘Yes, that would be great. Can you climb?’ She asks. Dreyer smiles, flagging his tail. ‘I am a squirrel.’ The two of them walk over to a nearby tree, and within seconds both of them have climbed up into its leafy canopy. Sitting on the thick boughs, they look remarkably unperturbed that their legs are hanging over empty space. I stealthily leave the house and float over to the tree, setting myself to rest among its roots, just in case. At this distance, Dreyer is just inside the range at which my telepathy wouldn’t take more psi than I regenerate. Letting out a deep sigh, the satyr woman instantly looks more relaxed. ‘Sorry. It was all just so much, so fast… I was just wandering around the forest like every other day, then I found your house, then the lord himself came…’ ‘I can give you some time, if you’d like?’ Dreyer suggests. ‘No, I’ll be alright.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘The lord asked me to teach you the way of the forest, and he’s right. If nobody does, you could end up dead or lost forever within the forest.’ Dreyer frowns. ‘That doesn’t sound good. Let’s get started, then.’ A moment later he asks me, “You’re still listening, right?” “Always.” I reply. ‘The trees are alive, as smart as you or me, talking in a language we can’t hear or understand. The entire forest, talking to each other.’ She gestures widely. ‘Many of them like to move around, which means that it’s absolutely impossible to find your way around if you rely on your memory.’ Dreyer cocks his head. ‘How do you find your way around, then?’ He asks. ‘You ask the forest.’ She replies. ‘The trees know where everything is. They’ll open up a path for you, or, if you’re particularly lucky, there might be one willing to take you there.’ ‘Seems straightforward enough.’ Dreyer nods. ‘But why are they so helpful?’ It’s her turn to look confused. ‘Now that you mention it, I’m not sure… There is this old legend that we satyrs are the keepers and protectors of the forest, perhaps that has something to do with it?’ ‘Protectors? What are you protecting the forest from?’ Dreyer asks. She grows even more confused. ‘I… don’t know. There shouldn’t be anything that is a danger to the forest.’ ‘Maybe you protect the forest from people from other worlds. Not all of them are as friendly as me.’ Dreyer muses. ‘Maybe…’ She nods thoughtfully. ‘Anyway, it’s the same if you need food. Ask, and you’ll be guided to a tree nearby that has ripe fruit or nuts, or a place where there are some vegetables that have finished growing.’ ‘Sounds like most of your needs are taken care of.’ Dreyer notes. ‘Most, but not all.’ She warns. ‘It isn’t just us satyrs who dwell in the forest. There are many animals and beasts here as well, and not all of them friendly. The forest will try and keep you clear of them, but if they have your scent there’s rarely anything the forest can do to help – I hope you know how to fight.’ Her clothing, clearly made from furs and animal hides, punctuate just how real that danger is. ‘No worries there.’ Dreyer shrugs. ‘I travel a lot, and I’ve gotten into my fare share of trouble in the past. I can take care of myself just fine. Is there anything else I should know?’ ‘Don’t harm the forest. Other than that, no… Maybe.’ She says thoughtfully. ‘There are some old ways, passed down in stories. We don’t know what they mean, exactly, but they might mean something to you, since you’re from another world.’ ‘Maybe.’ Agrees Dreyer. ‘What are they?’ ‘Carry no axe and start no fire.’ She recites. Dreyer nods. ‘Makes sense. An axe is a weapon or a tool, mostly used to cut down trees -’ She shudders. ‘- and fire… is well, fire. It’s hard to describe…’ “Do you know how to describe fire?” Dreyer asks me. “I could give you the technical description, but I doubt that would clarify anything.” I reply dryly. “Describing fire to someone who has never seen it before… Well, that would be like trying to describe colour to a blind man.” “Hey, that’s a great way of putting it!” Dreyer exclaims. …Was it? ‘Describing fire to someone who has never seen it is like trying to describe colour to a blind man.’ Dreyer repeats. ‘But fire is… really bad for trees.’ ‘Alright?’ She scratches her head slightly. ‘Well, that’s enough talking. I should show you how to do it. You hungry?’ ‘Definitely.’ Dreyer nods. ‘Follow me.’ She says, quickly climbing down the tree again, with Dreyer close behind. ‘Hello, can you please lead us to some food?’ She says to some trees, before telling Dreyer, ‘You have to be polite. The forest remembers everything, so if you’re rude you’ll be paying for it for a long, long time. I still get macadamias every now and again.’ ‘That’s a tough nut to crack.’ Dreyer nods. I follow behind them at a distance as they walk through the trees. Around them and even me, the trees shift and move slightly, opening a path for them to walk on. ‘My name’s Dreyer, by the way. I forgot to properly introduce myself before.’ Dreyer rubs his head wryly. ‘So did I.’ She shakes her head. ‘My name is Sithury. Nice to meet you.’ Almonds rain down on them from above. Sithury turns to the trees and thanks them before starting to gather the nuts. “So, what now?” I ask. Sithury has finished teaching Dreyer everything he needs to know to live in this area, and has left him to rest in the boughs of one of the trees nearby. Dreyer crunches through a mouthful of almonds. “This world seems safe enough. A bit unusual, but that’s not a bad thing. I’ll need to charge the formation back up in case of emergencies, first of all.” “And after that?” “I’d like to stay here for a while, learn more about this world.” Dreyer muses. “But now that I’ve been here once, I can get back if I need to. We can keep world jumping to find your home world, if it’s urgent. Is it urgent?” He asks. I think about it for a moment before answering. “The only people I know in that world should be safe, as far as I know. And I don’t particularly have anything I need to do there. So… No, it’s not.” “Then I can fire up the portal. We’ll see if you can get a scholarship, and I’ll be able to visit some of my friends in the academy.” Dreyer says. “Sounds good.” I reply. “Will it take long to gather the mana for the portal?” “Not too long, a couple days at most.” Dreyer reassures me. “It’s much smaller than what I need to do to transport my house, after all.” “Great. But we still have to wait until you fill up the formation for the house?” I ask. “Yep.” He agrees. All in all, this isn’t a terrible place to be. A fair sight better than Hell, that’s for certain. It’s quite… Quiet. Ironic for me to say, but it is. There aren’t any sinister plots threatening to destroy the country, no evil personages out for our lives… Just a few wolves and a bear, so far. Hidden among the trees there might be a million small animals and insects, but it’s all fairly peaceful. Perhaps a tad boring, but boring is good, every now and again. Besides, if I really wanted to, I could probably pass plenty of time just watching the wildlife scurry about. Sithury is still hanging around, keeping to the orders of her invisible lord. Lucky, too; another satyr came by and practically attacked us on sight before she stopped him. Dreyer seems keen to learn as much as he can about this world and the people in it, and often has conversations with Sithury, but doesn’t always get the answers he wants. He’s not been able to find out the name of this world, or what there is outside the forest – she doesn’t even seem to understand the concept of there being something outside the forest at all. But regardless, the days pass by. Perhaps because of the absence of brutality and death in my surroundings, I feel more relaxed than I can remember being in a long time. For once I don’t have responsibilities and expectations weighing me down. I’m completely capable of taking care of myself and don’t have to worry about things such as food, shelter, or even building a family. Being biologically incapable of reproduction and no longer having the hormones which cause men to become attracted to women are such convenient excuses for not getting a girlfriend. And all this lets me do what I really want to do. Well, first I’ll have to learn a bit of magic to be able to interact with the world through mediums other than absorb, telepathy or telekinesis, but after that I’ll be able to pursue whatever magic interests me. Admittedly, that all hinges on being admitted and gaining a scholarship, so during these days I focus on my few magical skills: magic missile and mana control. Whether it’s forkfully compressing mana into a dense point, controlling the individual movements of multiple separate bits of mana or forming the mana into various shapes, I do it all day, every day. Most of the time this doesn’t actually require large quantities of mana at once – smaller amounts are often just as difficult to control – so I am able to do this literally 24/7. By the end of the first month, I am able to make an approximately 1:100 almost exact scale model of Dreyer, in mana, and control three separate magic missiles in individual flight paths. By the second, my Dreyer model looks exactly the same (to me) as the real thing, and I can even mimic his movements with a fair degree of realism. Keeping track of multiple magic missiles at once is harder than it sounds, and I’m still only able to manage four. But of those four, I can make each pair rotate in opposite directions, have them fly in formations or in different directions. By the end of the third, I’ve also made a scale model of Sithury, and the two models mimic their real-life counterpart’s actions exactly – under my control, of course. I can control 5 magic missiles, or create a single one compressed to an extent that… Well, I imagine it can do some damage, but my only viable target here is dirt, since doing it against the trees would see us booted off this world faster than you can say ‘oops’. There are only a few days left to wait now. Dreyer soon fills up the last of the mana crystals, and then before I know it, the day comes. Fetching a chest from beneath his bed, Dreyer opens it and retrieves a fine robe. Closing the chest and pushing it back under the bed, Dreyer dons the robe, explaining, “My fur covers everything up, so there’s usually no problem, but the academy has a dress code. Can be annoying, but it’s necessary.” I look at the robe, then at myself. “I… Won’t have to wear that, will I?” “You shouldn’t have to. I don’t think you could wear anything, even if they wanted you to.” Dreyer’s tail flags in amusement.  “Good.” I sigh. “Alright, let’s get going.” Dreyer says. “Ah! Almost forgot!” He quickly dashes outside and informs Sithury about what was happening. I don’t think she understood much of it, but she at least got the general idea. Coming back in, Dreyer locks the door behind him and walks up to the portal frame. He channels his mana into the frame carefully, activating it. After a few seconds, the space within it twists and settles into the usual swirling mass of mana. “Right, we’re good.” Dreyer says, shaking his paws slightly. Walking over to the table, he picks me up and strides through the portal. The scenery changes instantly from a forest to that of a bustling city, and one starkly different from those in the Empire: cleaner, busier and more magical by many degrees. Contact with the system re-established. Updating status.   Experience gained: 48.92   Skills have increased in proficiency.   Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 90.13% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot.   Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 87.92% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana.   Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 32.48% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once.   Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles.   Foreign mana. Mana regeneration reduced by (100-Wisdom)% Unaffected if Wisdom is equal to or greater than 100.   Abundant mana. Effects of all magic increased by 10%, costs reduced by 10%. Mana regeneration doubled. Master in Tic-Tac-Toe, huh? Didn’t expect it to be that high this quickly. I suppose it’s to be expected, Tic-Tac-Toe is an incredibly simple game once you make even a slight analysis of it. As for when I played it? I did take some breaks while training. Talking wasn’t always an option, and minesweeper, well… The way I play it, it takes way too long. So I figured, why not play Tic-Tac-Toe? Much quicker. Now, Tic-Tac-Toe isn’t in the games menu, but minesweeper’s a grid, so I just used a three by three area with flags for o’s and question marks for x’s. It’s good that all my training paid dividends, even if not all of it was actually intended as such. And that ‘abundant mana’ bonus puts my regeneration up to… slightly higher than my usual, even with the ‘foreign mana’ debuff. Forktastic! “It’s good to be back.” Dreyer sighs. “It’s an impressive place.” I agree. “My office?” Dreyer asks quizzically. “It’s nothing much.” “No, the city.” I say. “The amount of crime I can see is much lower than other cities I’ve visited, practically non-existent. Cleaner and more advanced too, not to mention the sheer diversity… I’m just counting the ones I can see, and I’ve already tallied up over fifty different species.” “Glad to hear it’s going as well as always.” Dreyer smiles. “As I said, Arbadak is the center of all magical learning, and this academy is the best there is, even here. People come from all over, even different worlds. And with the number of mages, wizards, sorcerers and so on here, it’s practically impossible to commit a crime without being noticed, even if it looks like nobody’s watching.” I look to my immediate vicinity. Much like Dreyer’s house on the other side of the portal, the room is scarcely furnished. Rather than an office, this room looks to be for residential purposes, while another, larger room off through a door looks to be the actual office. Unlocking the door with a wave of his paw, Dreyer walks through and looks at the pile of papers and letters on his desk in dismay. “I suppose things do build up when you’re out exploring the worlds for a few years…” He sighs, sitting down and looking at one of the things on his desk. “Good news is that we’re in the enrolment period right now.” Dreyer says. “Wasn’t sure we would be. It’s hard to keep track of the date when some worlds have longer or shorter days. Chances were good though, we take in new students four times a year.” “Alright, what now?” I ask, excited and not a little nervous. “Now we go enrol you.” Dreyer unlocks the main door and enters the corridor outside it, closing and relocking the door before he sets off. He walks for quite a while before arriving at a large auditorium packed with several lines of people. ‘Dreyer? Hey, you’re back! How’re you going?’ One of the people heading the lines, likely a teacher, calls out to Dreyer, much to the annoyance of the person he was supposed to be enrolling. He appears almost human, if not for the short layer of hair all over his body, a protruding jawline, flat nose and waving tail. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that he’s some type of monkey beastman. Dreyer hurries over. ‘Well, considering my luck this time around. Ended up visiting both Ignis and Hell. How about you, Aussen?’ Aussen winces. ‘No wonder your fur seems a bit darker. Happy to hear you’re still kicking, even after all that. I’m doing fine, but what brings you ‘round these parts?’ ‘I could say the same to you.’ Notes Dreyer. ‘Shouldn’t you be off trying to figure out how to turn your spit into diamonds?’ ‘Figured that one out ages ago, thanks.’ Aussen waves a hand exaggeratedly. ‘Accidentally spilt hot coffee on the dean’s robe. It’s only for a day, but gods, is this boring. And you didn’t answer my question.’ ‘Helping a friend enrol.’ Dreyer shrugs. ‘Oh? Want me to do it now?’ Aussen looks around. ‘Or are they not here yet?’ ‘I’ll wait in line.’ Dreyer says, to the relief of the person still waiting to enrol. ‘Your loss.’ Aussen shrugs, turning back to the person in front of him. Dreyer heads to the back of the queue, and the line starts slowly crawling along again. After perhaps an hour of waiting, we reach the front. ‘Are they still not here? I can’t hold everyone up for long, even if it’s you, you know.’ Aussen says, scratching his armpit. Dreyer presents me. Aussen looks at me. ‘If this is a joke, I don’t get it.’ Sighing mentally, I manipulate myself into a mini-man and wave at him. ‘Alright, not a joke.’ Aussen eyes me curiously. ‘If you don’t mind me asking, what are you?’ ‘A living fork, if you can believe it.’ Dreyer says. ‘He can only talk with telepathy, unfortunately.’ Aussen’s eyebrows hike up his forehead. ‘Now Dreyer, I’m not saying you’re lying, but I can’t take you at face value for something like this. If an enrolment form goes to the higher ups with a race like that written on it, without proof… I’ll be a laughing stock.’ ‘But you saw he was a fork just a second ago.’ Dreyer frowns. ‘You know something like that could be faked.’ Aussen shakes his head. ‘Look, only way I’ll be comfortable writing it down on the form is if it shows me its status. There’s no faking that.’ “My whole status?” I ask him, reaching out telepathically. I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with that. ‘You weren’t kidding about the telepathy.’ Aussen’s nods. ‘Not the whole thing. Just your race.’ “How do I do that?” I ask. Showing him my race isn’t a problem, after all. ‘Ah, it’s: show Aussen race.’ Aussen says. Show Aussen race. ‘No kidding…’ Aussen shakes his head in disbelief. ‘Alright, let’s do this. Name?’ “Gerald.” I say.  ‘Age?’ He asks. …Yeah, I’ll have to use that show command again. No way he’ll believe I’m… 17 months old. I should be a freaking baby by normal logic! Show Aussen age. ’17, okay… wait, months? You sure you’re old enough for this?’ Aussen asks, confused. “I got reincarnated into this body. My actual age is closer to twenty-four years old.” I say, not expecting him to believe a word of it. ‘Whatever, it’s your choice either way.’ Aussen shakes his head. ‘Gender?’ Show Aussen gender.  ‘Makes sense, I guess. Any prior experience with magic?’ …Show Aussen mana control, magic missile. ‘Alright, that’s a bit out of the ordinary. Anything else?’ He asks. “No. Those are my only magic related skills, unless you count magic edge or mana sight.” I reply. ‘Could you show me that last one?’ He asks. Show Aussen mana sight. ‘Sheesh, wish I had that skill. Alright, that’s about it. Any disabilities… Can you move on your own?’ He asks. “I can move perfectly fine. Other than that, well. Other than mana sight I can’t see, other than telepathy I can’t speak, I can’t hear, smell, taste or feel.” ‘That is a problem.’ Aussen scratches his chin. ‘Not one that can’t be solved, though. Well, that’s all, I think.’ ‘Do you think he can get a scholarship?’ Dreyer asks. ‘He doesn’t exactly have any money.’ ‘A scholarship?’ Aussen barks with laughter. ‘Even if his skills didn’t qualify him, his age would by technicality. The amount of talent required to be displayed to receive a scholarship is proportional to age – since he’s not even two years old, he exceeds that threshold by a considerable amount.’ “There’s no minimum age to enrol?” I ask. ‘Nope. We accept all races, and some mature much earlier than others. Besides, what would be the point of enrolling a kid? They’d just get expelled when they don’t pass their first semester courses.’ Aussen explains. “So, what now?” I ask. Aussen shrugs. ‘You wait until the enrolment period is over, then a message will be delivered to your residence… Which is where, by the way?’ ‘Just deliver it to my office. The world I travelled to last is quite nice, so we’re living there.’ Dreyer says. ‘Woodland?’ Aussen asks. ‘Without end.’ Dreyer agrees. Aussen smiles. ‘Man, you lucked out. It’s alright if I come over sometime?’ ‘Always.’ Dreyer smiles back, and they shake hands. ‘Well, see you again when all this is done.’ ‘Don’t remind me.’ Aussen groans, turning back to the barely diminished line behind us. “I think that went well.” I say to Dreyer as he walks away. “It did.” He replies. “Should only be a few days before we hear some news.” “Am I going to be all right without proper sight? I mean, you can only go so far in teaching without writing things down.” I worry. Dreyer shakes his head. “You’ll soon realise that many things that seemed impossible before are easily fixed, here. If you manage to get the scholarship – and it sounds like you will – there won’t be any issues.” How forktunate. It seems that it has, as always, come to another wait. But that’s alright, I can wait. I have the patience of a fork, after all. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6314.0/7600 [+48.92] Gender: None Age: 17 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.5 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.9 Durability: 18.5/18.5 Mana: 1090/1090 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.45/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 1.81% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.07% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.27% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 15.21%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 71.54% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 64.31% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 90.13% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 87.92% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 32.48% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. [collapse] Announcement This is the last of the chapters I have already written, so new chapters won't be coming anywhere near as fast as they have been so far. Also, if you're interested, I have a Fork This Life! discord channel here: https://discord.gg/qRPP5mH and a Fork This Life wiki here: https://fork-this-life.wikia.com/wiki/Fork_This_Life!_Wiki

(POV Gerald) There are quite a few interesting places in this city. The docks, of course, have many boats moored: fleets of fishing vessels, hordes of merchant transport ships and veritable tides of galleys, caravels and carracks, the names of which I only know from the conversations of sailors. A theatre, currently housing the enactment of a play as scores of well-dressed men and women watched on, oohing and aahing in appreciation as the actors build the story in a crescendo of excitement, intrigue and the ever-present element of romance. Tents and stalls set in a sprawling network, crowds milling about as vendors called out their wares and professing their quality, regardless of the truth of their claims. Jugglers, magicians – the sleight of hand kind, mostly – and clowns attract their own small crowds as they perform, periodically emptying their hats and buckets quietly into a concealed purse so nobody notices how much they are truly earning. Bars and taverns slowly filling and growing more raucous as the day wears on, men emptying their pockets and their stomachs with equal frequency as they laugh and cry over games of chance, games of skill and exaggerated stories shared between friends and strangers alike. Then there are those too busy working to be enjoying those: The blacksmiths, pounding metal with their hammers even after the sun has set; the jewellers, inspecting, cutting and polishing precious gems; the guards, watchful and cautious as they patrol the walls and streets of the city. Carpenters, masons, architects, laborers, judges, historians, mercenaries, soldiers, adventurers, travellers, tourists, citizens and more, too many to recount. But perhaps the most interesting places are the last two. The headquarters of the navy, with its many people organising the protection of the Empire’s waters, as well as the wealth of information to be processed, resources to be organised and moved and political machinations that come with it all. And the most interesting is the mage tower that overlooks the whole city, standing tall and covered with various magical patterns. At first, I thought I might be able to use my mana sight to look inside and lip-read people to learn magic, but it is not to be. Much of the studying and learning that is being done inside the tower is from magical tomes, and while my mana sight is now at expert level, I still can’t tell the difference between ink and page. The conversation is little better. Most of the topics being debated are too advanced for me to take anything from – it’s like a kid learning basic addition, multiplication etc listening into the conversation between high school students learning advanced algebra and trigonometry. To me, it’s as if they’re speaking an alien language, even if I know what the words mean individually. Still, there are a few things I learned. For instance, the mains schools of magic were known as: Creation, Destruction, Restoration, Alteration, Summoning and Illusion. Not that I know what those mean, outside of the obvious interpretations of the names themselves. After realising the futility of it, I focus my attention elsewhere. Ferdinand is still going through his list, apparently without success so far. I wait for a while, and eventually Ferdinand stops looking for people and starts looking for an inn. I spend this night much as I had the previous ones: meditation, telekinesis and form manipulation – self. The next morning, Ferdinand resumes where he left off, and I (when not training) observe the townsfolk out of boredom. Three days pass quickly by, with Ferdinand running out of names – and hope. But finally, when he finds the second from last person on the list, we get our lead. “Richard? I saw him recently, yes. Must have been… a week or two ago. What? He’s dead? How terrible… Well, I’ll tell you what little I know. Richard came to me to see if I knew anyone in the information department of the navy that was fairly high up and discreet. Richard hadn’t been around these parts for years, see, so he didn’t know who was still around and who wasn’t.” Hoo boy, this one’s a storyteller. “Why, yes, said I, and so do you. See, he had a few students way back in his heyday, and one of them just happens to have gotten promoted to head of the department of information. So, I says, you remember little Harry? And he says yes, and I says that he’s the head of information now, and he says well I’ll be darned, that’s perfect, thanks me and heads off.” Ferdinand thanks him and starts to head off. The old man calls after him. “Lad, you do know that if Richard couldn’t handle it, you got no chance, right? Let it be. What’s the point of trying to avenge him if you just get yourself killed too?” But Ferdinand is already through the door. He does have a good point, you know? I Initiate a telepathic link with Ferdinand. “So, a guy named Harry, huh? At least we managed to find something.” “Yes, but how am I going talk to him? It’s not like I can just walk into the headquarters of the Empire’s navy.” He says in frustration. “No, but I can.” I remind him. “Just drop me off somewhere nearby.” He smiles. “Alright, let me just ask for directions.” “Turn left at the next intersection. After walking down the street for a hundred meters, turn right. Your destination will then be on your left.” I say. Seeing his speechlessness, I ask, “What, did you think I was doing nothing while you were looking for people? I’ve already found this Harry guy, you know.” “You really do have powerful skills, don’t you?” He says. “In some circumstances, yes.” I admit. “In others, I’m useless. After all, I can’t even move without psi or ki, or fight without mana.” Ferdinand drops me to the ground at the entrance of an alleyway nearby to the headquarters. In a motion now familiar to me, I tunnel through the ground towards it. I’m just reaching the edge of the property when things go wrong. The earth around me compacts and solidifies, encasing me in a solid block that starts to rise to the surface. Caught completely off guard, it takes me a second to realise what’s happening, and the block is almost above ground by the time I come to my senses and absorb my way through the bottom of it, and further down into the earth below. I angle myself down and away from the area as I make my escape, and then return to the surface once I deem myself far enough away. Well, that was unexpected. These people have measures against underground infiltrators? Sheesh. …It looks like I have to use an alternate method. Flying is obviously out, so I will just have to use telepathy from further away. I take a look at the place, and figure out that the closest I can get to him, without actually being on the area of the headquarters, is about 30 meters away. At that distance, I have half a minute or so of talking. That’s not going to be enough, is it? Still, I should give it a try first before resorting to more dangerous ways. But for now, I contact Ferdinand and instruct him where to find me. After a short time of waiting, he walks into the alleyway and picks me up, stowing me in his backpack again. “They have some sort of magic protecting the place, so I wasn’t able to find anything.” I admit. Ferdinand frowns. “What do we do now, then?” “Well, I should be able to communicate with him from outside, but the time I get to talk will be much shorter. And we’ll have to wait… about twenty minutes, so I can get my psi back up to full before doing it.” I explain. “Okay.” A brief period of meditation later, I’m back to full psi and back underground. This time I’m only just under the surface to avoid being seen, as I am currently under a busy street. I find my target and initiate telepathy, briefly sighing with relief when it works. I had wondered if they might have defences against this sort of thing too, but apparently not. “Hello. Do you know how Richard died?” I say, trying to keep it concise. “Who…” Harry starts to ask, before stopping himself. “He died, then?” “Yes, and I’m trying to find out who did it. Meet me at the ‘tipsy sailor’ tonight if you can, I can’t keep this up for much longer.” I say, naming one of the bars in the city. “…I’ll be there.” He says, just before I run out of psi. Alright. Let’s see what the night holds for us, shall we? (POV Harry) The voice confirms the suspicion that have been growing in my mind ever since the day I saw Richard. If he was still alive, I would have heard something, but I never did. My sleeps only became more restless as time went on, to the point where my wife started asking me whether something was wrong. But I couldn’t tell her. I love her, but she just isn’t any good at keeping secrets… Ironic, considering my job… I can hardly trust some psychic who didn’t talk to me for even a minute, but I… don’t think I’ll be able to forgive myself if I don’t go. The ‘tipsy sailor’ isn’t a bar I’ve been to before, but if I can’t find something as simple as this, I may as well resign. Stepping out of the flickering glow of street lamps and into the noisy interior, I scan the people inside, trying to figure out exactly who I’m supposed to be meeting. ‘The table in the corner.’ The voice speaks into my mind again. ‘Which corner?’ I ask back, hoping he is still there. ‘In front and to your left.’ He says. Which is rather odd, because the person there isn’t even looking at me. But I walk over and sit down. If things go south, I am more than capable of getting myself out. Sailing isn’t the only thing Richard taught me. The person opposite me is young, but there is a certain ruggedness to him which you don’t often see in city folk. That, and the sword at his belt, tell me that he is a warrior by trade. Mercenary or adventurer? “Hello. You are Harry? Richard’s student?” He says. Definitely an adventurer. His eyes aren’t cold enough to be a mercenary. “Yes. And you are?” I ask inquisitively. “I’m…” He pauses. “A friend of Richard’s. I’m trying to find out how he died, and avenge him, if possible.” The voice already said as such earlier… It’s likely that the voice and the person in front of me are two separate people. Not that it makes much difference. I pull out a map from my breast pocket and unfold it. “This is where he went, but other than that I don’t know anything.” I say, pointing at the marked location on the map. He picks it up and stows it in his backpack. “Thanks. Are you sure you don’t know anything else?” “Well, you’ll probably die if you go there. Richard did, what makes you think you’ll be any different?” I say. “If the person who killed Richard is too strong for me, then I’ll wait until I become stronger and find him again. But I can’t do anything if I don’t know who it is in the first place.” With that, he gets up and leaves. Shrugging, I get up and start to leave myself. Behind me, the bartender calls out, “You could have at least bought something if you’re going to use this as a meeting place!” Well, maybe just one. I sit back down and order a whiskey. The bartender smiles and pours me a mug. As I slowly drink it, I listen in to the conversations between other people at the bar. Perhaps I can use this opportunity to hear the latest rumours. One man at the bar is telling a story to his friend. “-but have you heard of the white whirlwind? No? Then let me tell you all about him. I heard this from some sailor that came on a ship from this foreign kingdom over the sea, see. So there’s this war going on between this kingdom and this other place… I don’t know all the details, but there’s this mercenary-” “Get to the point, will you?” Says his friend impatiently. “I’m getting there, don’t interrupt! So this mercenary, he doesn’t wear armour, he just wears this pure white clothing-” He says, before his friend interrupts again. “But that’s stupid. He’d be dead in a second!” His friend says, clearly not believing a word of it. “That’s the point. He goes into battle with just a spear, and he cuts through the enemy line quicker than blinking, but not a drop of blood gets on him! That’s why they call him the white whirlwind, see?” He finishes triumphantly. His friend frowns. “Sounds like you’re trying to pull a fast one on me.” The conversation after that degrades into a petty squabble and, disappointed at the lack of useful information, I finish my drink and leave for home. (POV Ferdinand) The next morning, we set off again. This time is unlike the others, as we are travelling across open land rather than on roads. There aren’t any roads or paths leading to the place we’re going to, which is a bit odd… It’s west and a bit north from Liensport, and north and a bit east from the city we were in before that. In other words, we’ve already gone past it on the way to Liensport. I wish we’d known earlier. Reaching a rocky hill, I climb it and take out the map, using the high vantage point to check the landscape against the features drawn on it. After adjusting my course slightly, I climb back down the mountain and continue on my way. Despite the soft grass folding under the tough soles of my boots, the pleasant breeze drifting coolly by and the calls of birds as they flew in flocks overhead, my heart is heavy as I walk. I do not deny the possibility, even the likelihood that my opponent this time – whoever he may be – is much stronger than I am. But with Gerald’s help, I should be able to at least run away, or even defeat him. But then again, maybe he is stronger than I thought. After all, not knowing how strong Richard was, I can’t guess well at how strong someone who defeated him might be. A level in the forties? …The fifties? It is so far away from where I am at that I don’t even know how strong someone of that level might be. How high can stats be at that level? What skills might they have? I don’t know. Stuck in a state somewhere between anger and fear, resolve and indecisiveness, I wrestle with my thoughts as my feet continue to plod across the land. Before I can decide whether or not I want this fight, my legs have already decided for me: I look up from the ground, and there, not far in the distance stands… what could be called a mansion, if you stretch the meaning of the word. The white paint is peeling so badly that it’s visible from where I stand, what might have once been two neat hedge rows now overtake the path between them in a mass of unkempt greenery, and even the path itself has faded away into nothingness, replaced by bare, rugged earth. This is a place that I wouldn’t feel comfortable being in at night. And there is no going back now. Or perhaps there is. ‘can’t I just… turn around?’ A small voice whispers in my head. But then Gerald speaks, shattering that guilty hope. ‘One person in the mansion. He knows you’re here, and he’s coming out.’ Okay. Okay, I may be panicking a bit here, calm down, calm down… ‘Get me out and touch me to the end of your sword.’ Gerald says. Alright, I don’t get it but okay. I fetch the fork from my pack, unsheathe my sword and touch Gerald to the end of it. His shape starts distorting, and soon the end of my blade is covered in a thin layer of mithril. ‘This should give me the opportunity for a few surprise attacks.’ He explains. The door to the mansion opens, and a man walks out. He is wearing loose clothing, suitable for fighting, and holds a spear by his side with one hand as he walks directly towards me. He stops about ten meters away. “Who are you? I wasn’t told to expect you.” ‘NOBODY EXPECTS THE FORKISH INQUISITION!’ Shouts Gerald rather suddenly in my head, startling me somewhat. “And who are you?” I counter. “Are you the person who killed Richard?” His mouth stretches into a cruel smile. “Well lookee here, sounds like we have a rat running around somewhere. And I think I know who it is…” He says sinisterly. “But to answer your question: Yes, yes I am. What’re you going to do about it?” I raise my sword in response. “You know you’re gonna die, right?” He asks, lazily twirling his spear with one hand. “Oh, shut up.” I run at him, swinging my sword down at his arrogant head. He leans to one side, and my sword passes alongside his arm… however, the swing was the opposite of harmless. A forearm drops to the ground, severed from his body by Gerald’s absorb ability. Taking a few startled steps back, he stares at me in astonishment and anger, blood spurting out of the place on his torso where his arm used to be. “You know…” He says slowly from between gritted teeth. A red mist explodes from his body in torrents, forming a dense cloud around his body that reeks of blood. Something about it makes me utterly terrified. The bloody cloud contracts, forming a thin layer of glossy red liquid around him and his spear. It dulls, solidifying into a set of simple yet intimidating blood-red armour and spear. “I was going to give you a quick death. Now… I won’t give you the pleasure.” Shifting one leg backwards, his bloody boots dig into the dirt. He vanishes before my eyes, only a small cloud of dust left in his wake. The next thing I noticed, his spear is piercing into my side, and starting to cut its way back out. I slice towards his spear. It is a move born of desperation and the blind belief that Gerald’s absorb skill would be able to cut through the red layer and deprive him of his only weapon. Reality didn’t prove to be so forgiving of my decision. My sword hits the haft of his spear and bounces off without doing any damage, jarring my hand and even creating a small chip on the edge of my sword. His spear, on the other hand, doesn’t have so much as a scratch. ‘I couldn’t absorb it, he did something, what do you see!?’ Asks Gerald telepathically, in a panic. I take a few steps backwards, putting one hand to my side. It comes back with blood on it, but not as much as I’d imagined from the searing pain now coming from there. The man appeared to be examining his spear, so I figure I have time to respond. ‘He covered his spear and himself with some red… liquid… thing.’ Gerald responds immediately. ‘Run, now. If he’s covered in it, I can’t do anything.’ Like a fool, I stand still, as if rooted in place. “I thought maybe you were faking being a weakling to get a cheap shot off on me, but it looks like I was wrong.” He says, putting a finger to the blood on the tip of his spear. Trailing that finger down the haft of his spear, he draws a trail of glistening crimson on the already red surface. As he does this, his helmeted head was bowed towards his spear, as if ignoring me. “You’re actually a weakling, aren’t you?” He says, barely suppressing laughter. “And, I let that weakling take my arm!” He breaks out into laughter, then stops abruptly. “I’LL KILL YOU SLOWLY, BASTARD!” ‘RUN!’ Gerald screams in my head, shocking me out of my stupor. Just as I am about to start running, and the crimson man looks as if he is preparing to skin me alive, a grimy man with tattered clothing that looks vaguely familiar steps in between us. “Hello again!” He says brightly. My mouth gapes open for a second, then I desperately try to warn him. “Watch out!”  He turns around casually, then a spear sprouts from his back. My eyes widen in horror. He turns around again, and says with a toothy smile splattered with colours so dense it’s almost more terrifying than the man behind him, “Sorry, am I interrupting something? Let me just move to the side, pretend I don’t exist.” Having said this, he walks calmly to one side, the spear sliding out of his body without leaving a trace, even on his clothing. …What was that? What… Right, running! I turn and start running in the opposite direction to him, sheathing my sword in the process. It barely did any good in the fight, and it would only hinder me while running. Gerald slips off the end, turning into a small spike which then turns around and moved in the opposite direction. ‘I’ll meet back up with you at the city. You aren’t going anywhere unless someone buys you time, after all.’ He says, then cuts off the link. I almost stop, but I keep running. All I can do now is hope that both of us can get out of this alive. (POV Gerald) I do not think I will enjoy this experience. Not at all. With my current psi reserves, I have maybe twenty minutes of flight via telekinesis, maybe less. Current ki reserves… almost 6000. I have no clue how much I can release in one blast before it kills me. Before now, forty was about the most I’d used in one go. Well, no time like the present. While he’s still confused, I fire a ki blast with one hundred ki behind me, shooting towards him faster than I’ve ever moved before. He deflects me with a single swipe of his spear, sending me spiralling through the air. Regaining control of myself again, I fire two hundred ki behind me. The ambient mana in the air behind me shoots away, creating an area devoid of mana, and I shoot forwards at an even faster speed than before. He deflects me again, seemingly without much effort. “What is this thing?” I see him say. Can’t say the same about you, I saw what that window said when I absorbed your arm. I know what you are, now. That shockwave of air gives me an idea, an idea that I can’t believe I didn’t have before. Straightening myself out again, I activate absorb at maximum radius, and fire three hundred ki behind me. The flat end of the spike that is me bends slightly, but I correct it with a thought as I speed through the air at almost twice the speed as before. What am I absorbing? The air around me. What am I travelling through, then? A vacuum. With no air resistance, my speed won’t decrease, and I’m able to move much faster. This time he only manages to deflect me at the very last second. Five hundred. I even activate power stab. I crumple into a shape close to a bullet after impact, but from the other end. I’m not able to straighten myself out, and my speed is barely higher than my last try. This time I hit him, but whatever that stuff is, it stops me dead in my tracks with little more than a slight stumble on his part. I’ll have to try something else, and quick. Before he can react, I transform into a sphere to better withstand what was ahead. I move again to be in contact with his... whatever it is. One... One thousand. You have lost 8.3 durability We shoot in opposite directions for quite a distance. Perhaps fifty meters, perhaps nearly a hundred. Distance is difficult to get a grasp on when your range of vision expands fairly often. From the looks of him, he’s taken some damage from this… is that a broken rib? Well, either way, it’s nowhere near as simple to fix as my damage. Self-repair: gained 8.3 durability It may have instantly taken almost half my mana, but it’s totally worth it. Alright, Ferdinand looks to have gotten a suitable distance away… Tunnel after him? Yeah. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 2629.38/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 545/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 274/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 3631/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.81% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.29% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.94% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.86% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.06% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.00% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 22.39%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 9.18% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 38.62% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 3.35% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 32.81% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 89.01% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 48.39% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 28 Experience: 1885.18/5700 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 44.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 35.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 38.4   Health: 311/384 Health regen: 2.304/hour Stamina: 309/357 Stamina regen: 3.57/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.98% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.57% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.20% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.45% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.53% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 1.13% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.28% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 12.36% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. [collapse]

(POV Gerald) “I’ll be going out for a bit. Back in a minute.” I tell Ferdinand telepathically as the group moves out again. “Okay.” He replies, and I slip out of the top of his pack and onto the ground. Mounted as they are, I am quickly left behind. When I’m sure that they’re too far to see me, I pick myself off the ground with telekinesis and hover back towards the mansion. Apologies, mr. doppelganger, but your body is just too juicy for me to pass up. He, it – whatever – is buried in an unmarked, shallow grave around the back of the mansion. It’s not like there’s any love lost between the late doppelganger and our group, but apparently paladins have enough decency that they won’t let even their enemies be devoured by wild animals. So, they buried him. And now here I am. Devouring corpses is morally questionable in the first place, but when it comes to people’s corpses, the line is very obviously and completely crossed. Unforktunately for me, I’m too paranoid being in a world like this not to cross a few lines. When I can’t even tell what tomorrow will bring… Still, I have standards. I have to have standards. Else I risk becoming something truly inhuman. Only enemies. And hopefully someday, I’ll become strong enough that I can say no sentient beings, either. Perhaps I have already reached the point of no return. But my choices are to cross a few lines or run. Run and hide from the world until I’m strong and confident enough to face it. I don’t want to abandon Ferdinand. I don’t know if he’s strong enough to survive, what with the Empire being in such a turbulent situation. With the paladins there, he should be safe enough, but there’s too many things I don’t know, don’t understand. Demons: where did they come from? Are there more of them? Sentient monsters – heck, monsters in general. Politics. Damn it, even when I’m in another world I’m getting pissed off by the people in power. I burrow through the shallow layer of earth above the body. I’ve stopped getting notifications when I absorb earth. I wonder why? I absorb the doppelganger’s entire body, bit by bit. Lvl 48 Doppelganger absorbed Experience gained: 12650 Durability recovered: 46.38 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.01% Skills gained: Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced), Doppelganger (Static) Traits gained: Bloodthirsty (Error. Trait contrary to user personality profile. Erasing.)   Level up! You are now level 32 11 Stat points gained Two levels at once? Not half bad. Now, let’s see… I want my Int and Wis to be equal again, but the points won’t let me without being annoyingly exact… Well, I’ve needed to put a few points in Dex for a while now, get me a bit better motion perception. Fortunately, I have that trait which doubles my effective Dex stat, so I don’t have to put many in. How about 3.5? Makes that one a bit uneven, but I care less about that than Int and Wis. Then 4 into Int and 3.5 into Wis, putting them both at 52. This puts my radius of vision up to just above 1.5km. Now, as to the other things I gained. I’m kinda glad I didn’t gain a trait called ‘bloodthirsty’, but now I’m left wondering what it did. Also, that can happen? It doesn’t fit my personality, so I can’t get it? Huh. Anyway, who cares about that spear skill. I can’t use a spear. Wait, would the effects apply if I turned into a spear somehow or other? Questions for later. Now, the skill I’m actually interested in. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Upon designating a target of this skill (physical contact is required, target must be a living being), you shall take on the physical appearance of that target. After doing so, you have 24 hours (local time) to kill your target. If successful, you will be given the choice of permanently retaining the appearance of the target, gaining the target’s memories and skills - although the skills obtained shall be one proficiency level lower than the proficiency level the target formerly had the skill at – or gaining the ability to switch between your original and the target’s appearance at a cost relative to the difference between the two forms. If unsuccessful, you will regain your original appearance. Furthermore, this skill will be permanently erased with no possibility of obtaining it again, regardless of what method is used. …Well. This is a skill and a half. And it poses a difficult dilemma. Become human again – or another humanoid race, the option’s there – permanently, giving up my not inconsiderable advantages of stealth, perfect memory, doubled mana pool and regen – I doubt a ‘material’ trait will affect a human - not being influenced by hormones and emotions as well as lacking the need to sleep, eat and drink. I will, however, gain some additional skills and memories. Or take a risk and gain the ability to switch between two forms, being able to utilise the advantages of both, despite not gaining any additional skills and memories. Also, the ‘cost’ mentioned is rather vague. It’ll probably be mana - these things usually are - but it’s hard to tell. Well, let’s see: I don’t actually fancy getting somebody else’s memories, mine are fine as they are, thanks. The skills would be nice, depending on the target. Although, it would be quite difficult finding a person that is both ‘evil’ enough to warrant me killing them and has skills that complement my own. That’s quite a few points against going permanent human. How about choosing the switch ability? I lose out on the opportunity to gain some new skills reliably. And that cost will probably be quite large – there aren’t really any similarities between a human and a fork. But then again, there aren’t really any downsides to choosing this option, even if the cost is too high for me to use, whereas permanently becoming a human – there are just too many downsides. Of course, choosing the switch may be passing up the chance to regain normal movement, sight, hearing, speech, taste and everything else – things which I have dearly missed. But I’m confident that even without this skill, I’ll find a way to get them back some day. The switch choice it is, then. …Of course, I still have to find a suitable person, first. With my business here done, I head back towards the others. Sadly, it would be much harder to slip back into Ferdinand’s pack while they’re on the move than it was to slip out, so I travel parallel to them for a while, letting Ferdinand know of my situation through telepathy. One might think that I’d run out of psi eventually, but in actual fact I regenerate more psi than I use to keep myself aloft – which is around 4 psi per minute – and keep myself moving at the same pace as the horses. I do this until everyone stops for a break; after that it’s as simple as calling Ferdinand over to pick me up off the ground. After that, I’m able to relax and watch the scenery pass by as we head towards the capitol. ‘I am Lily, paladin of Vitus. Those behind me are also paladins and priests of various gods and goddesses. We seek an audience with the prince.’ I watch Lily as she negotiates with the gatekeepers to get us inside. From where we are, the entire palace is already in my sight. Now, if I just had some sort of magic projectile I could guide, I’d hardly even need to go inside. …Well, I doubt a palace would be without any means of magical protection, so it’s all the same, really. The guard hesitates. ‘The prince isn’t accepting visitors… But with your unique identities, I think I should at least send a man to inquire for you.’ ‘Thank you.’ Lily nods in appreciation as the guard rings a small hand bell, causing a messenger to come running. Unfortunately, he jots the message down on a piece of paper that he hands to the messenger, rather than telling him, so I don’t know what message he’s actually sending. But from what I can read of his body language, he doesn’t seem hostile. A tad wary, maybe – but he’s a guard for the royal palace. It’s his job to be wary. While we wait for the messenger to return – well, I’m tracking his progress so that I can easily identify the prince as well, but apart from that – I take a closer look at the place. It’s excessively lavish, as one might expect from the palace of a country called ‘the Empire’. I can see a man wearing gaudy clothing pacing in a large bedroom, with a crown resting lightly in a padded box on a desk; the emperor, I assume. …And in a room beneath the palace, a man with horns and a pointed tail. Welp, there’s our demon. The sheer volume of hidden passageways is rather off-putting. Even the emperor’s room has two: one leading to another bedroom nearby, and the other spiralling down through the walls, underground into a passageway that extends so far that it goes clean out of my vision. The uses of both are blatantly obvious once seen, but without my particular set of skills both of them would be extremely well hidden. Hm, well it looks like something is happening. The messenger has finished talking to a young man that I’m tentatively going to assume is the prince, and now both are moving off in separate directions. The messenger is heading back to us, and the prince is heading to… let’s see, either the kitchens or a large room furnished with plush chairs. I’m going to guess the latter. Then again, he could just be peckish. …He isn’t. The messenger shortly returns, informing us that the prince is willing to see us. ‘Very well then, I’ll have to ask that you leave your bags and weapons here for the duration of your visit.’ The guard says, then glances behind us to the horses. ‘I’ll have a few stable boys come over and take care of your steeds as well.’ Seeing him say that, I stealthily creep out of Ferdinand’s pack and slip into his coin pouch with some help from form manipulation. He looks over the paladins’ armour carefully. ‘The armour will be fine, but the helmets will have to come off. And make sure to be careful in the hallways. If you damage something you’ll have to pay for it. The messenger here will take you where you need to go. And I don’t think I need to say it, but please don’t wander around. There are guards everywhere.’ ‘Thank you, we will be sure to take care.’ Says Lily. The guard just nods stoically in reply, and we filter through the gate, across the lawn and into the palace itself, following the measured footsteps of the messenger. A few short corridors later, the messenger knocks on a door. On the other side of the door, the prince says, ‘come in.’ (POV Ferdinand) As the door closes behind us, my first impression is that he’s younger than I imagined. Younger than me, even. Then the paleness, eerily similar to the stories of vampires I was told as a child. But I can’t see the characteristic fangs when he smiles, so I put my suspicions aside. “Welcome.” He says, smiling. “Take a seat, and we can discuss the reason for your visit here.” He gestures to the lavish furniture from where he sits. …Is that for sitting? It looks more like a decoration. Nobody takes him up on the offer, however, and his smile falters slightly. “We have found evidence that suggests that you are conspiring with a demon and were at least partly responsible for the actions of a necromancer, which caused widespread death and destruction.” Lily states succinctly. The prince’s smile turns into a frown. “That is a rather serious accusation. I am not conspiring - and nor have I ever conspired - with demons or necromancers. However, I am interested in hearing what evidence led you to this conclusion.” “The personal diary of that same necromancer.” Lily says, before adding, “and one of my companions tells me that there is a demon in the basement of this building at this very moment.” It must’ve been Gerald. I didn’t notice anyone else talking to Lily, and that’s something Gerald could easily notice. The prince’s face trembles, and his lips twist into a sad smile. “You’re right.” He admits, and everyone suddenly tenses, myself included. “I never meant for things to happen this way,” he continues, “but since you know, I’ll have to ask you to act like this never happened.” …That’s not what I expected. “We aren’t so easily swayed. You will face judgement.” Luc exclaims, moving forwards to grab him. With a smile that seems more like he’s crying, the prince looks at Luc and says: “Stop.” As if yanked back with a rope, Luc stops moving with arm outstretched. I see the muscles in his neck rippling, but he doesn’t move even a single step further. Everyone suddenly bursts into motion, trying to grab the prince. The glow of magic emanates from Lily’s hand as she stretches it towards the prince, priming magic to take him down. Marco deploys a magical shield, and everyone else just rushes towards him. But with a single sweep of his eyes, and another uttered word, “Stop”, everyone stops moving. Everyone… except me. I don’t stop to think why. I just move. Slipping in between various paladins, priests and pieces of furniture, I reach out to grab the prince. “Stop. Stop! Why isn’t it…” The prince scrambles over the back of his chair and towards the door as his skill continues not to work on me. But I am considerably faster than him, and he is completely unable to resist as I grab his arm, hauling him back towards me. …What do I do now? “Release them.” I say sternly. “No, no no – get him away from me!” He suddenly addresses the others, and they start moving again, but for some reason I’m not optimistic about my situation. Should I - I feel a slight tug from my belt, and then there’s a naked man in front of me, thankfully facing away from me. As suddenly as he appeared, he disappears. Noticing something, I look down at the prince’s chest. The prince looks down at his own chest. Everyone stops their motions to attack me to look at him. There’s a massive hole there. (POV Prince) I look down at my chest and see the gaping hole. For a seemingly endless moment, I fail to realise the meaning of the hole as blood starts to drip in torrents over my luxurious clothing. Then it hits me: I am dead. Suddenly feeling rather faint, my legs collapse and I begin to topple… slowly, ever so slowly. Somehow, it doesn’t feel all that bad. Perhaps this is not such a bad turn of events after all. I made a mess of just about everything, didn’t I? Now somebody who actually knows what they are doing can step in and fix things up. Still, a few months in the life of a prince… it was not terrible. With all the snide remarks people made about my future prospects, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that not one person expected me to get this far. Not that it was by my own virtues, of course. It was an absurd combination of panic, luck and… magic. Funny thing, magic. Back on Psukhes, people would laugh at you if you believed in it. And yet, things people did every day back home would be called magic over here more often than it would be recognised for its true nature – psychic abilities. Everyone had them. Everyone. Could be something as small as being able to lift a pencil without touching it, or causing a slight breeze at will, but everyone had at least one psychic ability. …Everyone but me, that is. None of the psychiatrists could understand why I didn’t. ‘By all rights, by everything we can see, you should have one’, they said. Well, as it turns out, I did. Two, in fact. But neither of them could show their effects. The first, a form of hypnosis, is utterly powerless against any other psychic, no matter how weak their powers. The second allows me to understand any form of spoken language… I did not know there were other languages. Of course, I was relentlessly tormented by everyone else because of this. Classmates, teachers, even passers-by… everyone knew me. Even my parents gave up on me. I was on the edge of despair, trying to decide whether continuing under the pain or taking the plunge was a better decision… When I was summoned here. Another world. Odwia. I had looked at the people around me. Thinking back, I felt something pass between me and them – undoubtedly an unconscious use of my psychic ability – and when I, in my confusion and panic, thinking that they had kidnapped me, shouted “wait”, I was astonished to find that they did so. They were equally astonished. And not a small bit angry. I panicked more. Everything snowballed. At first, I thought I could use my ability to get myself a life of luxury. But there were so many things I couldn’t understand. Demons… I thought they were just people who had been strangely affected by their psychic powers. It was not unheard of back on Psukhes. When I heard skeletons described as undying, untiring soldiers, I thought they would be the perfect work force. Magic, gods and goddesses, politics… I could not understand anything. So instead of making things better, I just made everything worse. The demon was doing who knows what behind my back, always managing to find some way to weasel around my orders… And with my own weakness, I had to stay locked inside the palace at all times. Although I could likely deal with an attacker at close range, a single arrow would be sufficient to take away my life. I wonder, what would I have chosen back then, had I not been summoned? No… I don’t even need to wonder. I would have chosen to die. Perhaps that would have been better. If none of this had happened. But either way. No matter what I did. No matter what I chose. I was destined to die. I open my eyes, one last time. Take in the glamourous room from my position on the floor. And let darkness envelop me. (POV Gerald) Flesh of Lvl 1 Human absorbed Experience gained: 0 Durability recovered: 3.2 (Exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 0) Skill proficiency increased: None Skills gained: Psychic translation (Static) Traits gained: None   Target killed. Your choice? Permanently retain the appearance of a human male, gain the target’s memories and skills  (skills obtained shall be one proficiency level lower than the proficiency level the target formerly had the skill at) Gain the ability to switch between your original and Human male appearance at a cost relative to the difference between the two forms. Option 2. Error. Calculated cost exceeds predicted maximum mana regeneration for this user. Requesting Administrator assistance. Please wait. Well, this is new. I look at the window for a few seconds, but nothing happens, so I look around me. Everyone is trying to figure out what happened. In the confusion, I slip back into Ferdinand’s belt pouch. Guards quickly enter the room. Everyone gets ready to fight, but the guards actually don’t attack. They just send out a messenger and stand guard at the doors. “Hey. You alright?” I ask Ferdinand. “That was you, wasn’t it? You killed him?” He asks quietly. “Yes. I did.” I admit. “I wish I didn’t have to, but it looked like it was you or him that was going to die there, and I wasn’t about to watch you die.” “…Are you alright?” His question takes me by surprise. “I… Maybe. I think so.” I say. “One of the good things about being me is that I don’t get overwhelmed by emotions. There’s some panic, some horror, but it doesn’t affect me much.” “Hmm. So, you can turn into a human now?” He asks suddenly. I groan. “Pending confirmation, but it’s not hopeful.” Something underground catches my attention. A certain demon walking through a swirling mass of mana. A portal. “Hey, you should be strong enough to survive, especially if you keep following these guys, won’t you?” I ask him, slipping out of the pouch and onto the floor again. “Um, probably, yeah. Wait, why?” He replies suspiciously. “Demon just went through a portal. Chasing him now. No time to get you through all the guards and explain to everyone, I don’t think. We may be separated for a while.” I explain, already absorbing my way through the floor. Then the next floor. Then the next, leaving a curiously shaped hole behind me, until I reach the basement. Bracing myself mentally, I fly into the portal. As I do, a couple messages greet me. Party leader is in a separate world to party member ‘Ferdinand’. ‘Ferdinand’ is automatically kicked from the party ‘The fork is mightier than the sword’, and will be unable to re-join until he is in the same world as the party leader. Crap. Skill ‘Doppelganger (Static)’ use cost set to 1000 mana/minute. The difference in form is too big, this is all I can do. You’ll get there one day. Good luck. Double crap. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 32 Experience: 3372.08/7200 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 52.0 Dexterity: 8.5 (17.0) Wisdom: 52.0 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.4 Durability: 18.0/18.0 Mana: 1040/1040 Mana regen: 10.40/min Psi: 520/520 Psi regen: 5.20/min Ki: 18263/3380 (33800) Ki regen: 3.38 (33.80)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.41% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 28.02% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 28.47%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 53.19% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 57.30% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 10.01% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 32 Experience: 1546.48/7200 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 48.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 40.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 48.4   Health: 484/484 Health regen: 2.904/hour Stamina: 407/407 Stamina regen: 4.07/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Fighting spirit: 0   Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Battleborn – Whether your battles end in victory or defeat, you will never give up. Increased resistance to mental influences, increased grip strength, pain reduction. Stat unlock: Fighting spirit. Skills Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.97% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.34% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.61% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.60% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry – Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry – Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword – Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 43.17% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 21.17% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Power slash (Basic) (High Common, Active) 21.37% - Multiplies the speed and power of a slash by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 14.63% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Battle focus (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 48.36% - Allows you to enter a state of intense concentration when in combat. Slightly decreases likelihood of being startled by unexpected events, loosing track of an enemy and not seeing attacks. Strength +0.5, Dexterity +0.5, Endurance +0.5, Intelligence +0.5, Wisdom +0.5, Luck +0.5, Charisma +0.5 when in this state. Battle cry (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 10.12% - Roar loudly, your voice echoing over the battlefield with a possibility of startling and/or causing fear in enemies. Reduced effect if used repeatedly on the same enemy. Requires: >30 Fighting spirit. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Stamina cost: 30. Armour – Shield – Heater Shield (Basic) (High Common, Passive) 2.83% - You have a small amount of experience using a heater shield. +1 Endurance when using a heater shield. Mapping (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.31% - You tried to draw a map. Emphasis on tried. Well, at least you tried. [collapse]

Well. Remember those short people? The next day - well, in the period of time after he slept once and before he slept another time - they come back. With another twenty or so other shorties. They are all wielding… well, they are probably clubs. You know, the whole not being able to differentiate between different materials thing. Could be… I dunno, wads of cloth. Yeah, that’s a bit of a stretch, they’re clubs. And to combat this, the dude I was attached to weirdly gropes around his waist, then clasps his hands in front of him. He’s praying? That’s weird. I mean, not the praying thing, but the fact that he’s doing it while surrounded by 20 midgets with clubs. Anyway, combat commences, and it looks really weird on my end. He (or she) sort of flails his clasped hands towards the short people, then the closest one just falls. Well, that’s what happens for the first two. Then he gets surrounded by clubs and gets downed fairly quickly. What does this mean for me? The backpack gets ripped off his back and searched. The squirrel, still inanimate, gets tossed, along with a few other things. I get taken. Not sure if that’s good or bad. Maybe they think a fork is a better weapon than a club? Or they use forks… that sounds racist. I hope they use forks. It takes a surprisingly short amount of time to get back to their base. It is basically a cave system with some shabby-looking buildings in it. They enter through a large crack in the ground, climb down a ladder and enter, presenting the epic loot to their leader. I have no idea what anyone is saying, if anything, but I end up being given to another of the short people. Can I call them midgets? Is that socially acceptable? Hey, what am I saying, I’m no longer part of society, it doesn’t matter. A little later it is meal time, and thank the heavens, I am being used as forks are intended. Thus I am able to absorb some food. …It would have been better if I hadn’t. Putting it mildly, they weren’t dragging the guy I was with before to imprison him. Worse yet, I didn’t even get a skill or trait. I would vomit at this turn of events normally, but I have no stomach to vomit from. At this point my internal grimacing is interrupted by tall people entering the caves. How can I tell, you ask? I must again remind you that I can see anything around me (that contains mana) within the radius of the skill, which last I checked is 41.25m. Not much on paper, but a decent distance nonetheless, since I can see through walls and all. I assume some sort of alarm is raised, because all the midgets start moving animatedly at the same time. I, who is being used to eat a meal, is still being clutched in one hand of a midget running towards the cave entrance. The midgets congregate in a central area, then split up into groups going into various passages. I, or rather the midget holding me, is in a group going into a side passage. From what I can see, this tunnel ends in a bit of a concealed opening above the tall peoples’ heads. Ambush huh? It seems these shorties have got some intelligence then. After all, short people are by nature bad in close combat - being light, having less muscle mass and being unable to reach their opponents are severe handicaps. In the meantime, my group of midgets have reached the concealed exit and are waiting there, probably for the other group - who are just reaching another concealed exit on the opposite side of us. After seeing each other, both groups jump down at the tall people below. Regarding the tall people, there are five of them, one advancing with a large stick held high. Why does everyone use clubs? Midgets fall from the ceiling, and I am raised high as the one holding me prepares to slam down. I won’t break, will I? The answer to that is a resounding ‘yes’ accompanied with what I expected to be pain, but is in fact just a sense of wrongness in part of my body as one of my tines breaks off, now embedded in the flesh of one of the tall people. Calling up my status, my durability has dropped down to 3.2. If this keeps up, I won’t last the battle. As the last, first and only option available to me in such cases, I activate absorb in the hopes that I can regain some of my lost wood. A brief but considerably frantic battle later, I have not only not managed to regain said durability but managed to lose a further 1.7 durability and another tine, leaving me with a handle, a solitary tine and only 1.5 durability. I am not in any way happy about this. The only thing I’ve gained from this combat is a bit of exp and absorb proficiency. The midget holding onto me takes a single glance at my broken state before throwing me away as he turns to loot the downed tall folk. Well, ain’t that just peachy. Dust and dirt accumulates on top of me as time passes. I absorb it. A window comes up, telling me that I gained no skills or traits, no proficiency, and the durability gained is 0.00. Excellent. Days, and weeks, pass judging by the amount of times they’ve slept. Dust accumulates, is absorbed, and accumulates again countless times. As I peruse my status screen for the umpteenth time in my boredom, I notice my durability has gone up by 0.01. I would celebrate this minor improvement, but going by how long it took for me to go to 1.51 from 1.5, it’s going to take me, hm, 3.49 times, let’s say three weeks equals, 9 +1.2 + 0.27 = 10.47 weeks. Wait, no, that’s 349 times. So that’s 1047 weeks. 52 weeks in a year, ish, so that’s, 520 + 520 = 1040, about 20 years. No thanks. Is what I want to say, but I literally have no choice but to tough it out. Huh? Commit suicide you say? If only it was so easy. You try to strangle yourself with no limbs, no throat and no need to breathe. I literally have no control over my own life or death. And therefore, if I can’t kill myself, I am forced to struggle towards better life, am I not? I absorb a little of the ground beneath me, but It causes me to sink slightly. Wouldn’t want that. After all, a potential rescuer has to be able to notice me. Not that they would in this state. Absorbing the ground gets me 0.03 more durability, but it still doesn’t do much. I would absorb some mana conglomerates, but they don’t seem to be as common down here. Just dust, dirt and damp. A midget steps on me at one point. I absorb a bit off the bottom of his foot, but he probably just thought he stood on my point, and kicked me away. That gets me another 0.03. now at 1.57. Whoopee. Mice scurry around the cave, and insects crawl along the ground and ceiling. Months have passed, and I’m barely closer to the completion of my goal, at only 1.72. I’ve absorbed a few insects that have crawled over me, but have gotten very small durability return, negligible experience and proficiency returns, and no skills or traits. Oh, barring that one. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Yay, my strength is now multiplied by 10! That increases it to, let me check, 0! 10x0 is 0! I mean, it’s a great skill and all, but I got no strength in the first place! Useless! In other news, next to my strength of 0.0, there is now, in brackets, another 0.0. What fun. I assume that is my stat after being affected by skills and traits. Got that one from an ant. Yeah, goes to show, doesn’t it? You can get good skills and traits from anything. It’s only been another few weeks, but I’m now unable to have any semblance of accurate measurement of time. The reason? The midgets got eradicated by tall people. I almost miss their constant activity. Now I only have insects, arachnids and small marsupials to keep me company. Pro tip: they ain’t good company. Well, at least they occasionally walk over me and let me absorb them. Mental diary, day 274: I don’t know how many days have passed. I don’t know how many insects I’ve eaten. What I do know, is that spider is Harold, those mice are George, Margaret, Sally and Popo, and that that one is Dolores. I don’t like Dolores. She’s a prude. Title gained: Insane Congratulations, you’ve lost your marbles. Or maybe you’ve found them. Who knows? Not you. You’re too busy conversing with the mice. Strangely, things have a way of working out for the mad. Stat gained: Luck +3, Wisdom -5, Dexterity +1, Strength +1 HAH! Luck rhymes with duck. Classic. Skill gained: Self-repair (Basic) You’ve been repaired so many times that you’ve figured out how to do it yourself. By expending an energy type, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: mana. Exchange ratio: 10 mana: 0.1 durability Hey, since when couldn’t I regrow limbs? Let’s do it right now! Self-repair: gained 1.1 durability Hey, my tines grew back! Let’s dig a hole! Diggy diggy hole, I’m digging a hole! Wheeeeee! Core processor of lvl 20 logic_bot_v3.2a absorbed Experience gained: 20.0 Durability recovered: 3 (exceeds maximum durability, reducing to 1.3) Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.5% (exceeds 100%, reducing to 0.2%) Skills gained: None Traits gained: Structured Sanity   Hey, what just happened? Where in the blue blazes am I? Why am I sitting inside what looks to be a robot? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS! …Moving on, let’s check the status. Wait, what are those windows. lvl 20 logic_bot_v3.2a killed Experience gained: 1325.0 Skill proficiency increased: Absorb 0.5% (exceeds 100%, reducing to 0.2%     Title: Insane has been altered to: Clinically sane Benefits from previous title are replaced by this title. You have experienced what most people fear and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. Stat gained: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Trait gained: Steady mind (minor) (redundant due to Structured Sanity trait)   Level up! You are now level 5 7.5 stat points gained   Absorb (Basic) has evolved into Absorb (Advanced) due to 100% proficiency Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. I was insane? Well that’s… fun. Let’s bring up the status before anything else happens. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 5 Experience: 473.27/600 Gender: None Age: 8 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 0.5 (5.0) Intelligence: 12.0 Dexterity: 0.5 Wisdom: 8.5 Charisma: 3.0 Luck: 10.1 Hardness: 15.1 Durability: 6.0/6.0 Mana: 30/120 Mana regen: 0.85/min Unspent stat points: 7.5   Titles Traits Skills Evening my strength, dex, hardness and wisdom puts me down 2.4 points to 5.1. Durability is basically my health, so let’s dump 1.6 in there, and that leaves me with 3.5 to put in wisdom. Status Name: None Race: Living Fork Level: 5 Experience: 473.27/600 Gender: None Age: 8 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 1.0 (10.0) Intelligence: 12.0 Dexterity: 1.0 Wisdom: 12.5 Charisma: 3.0 Luck: 10.1 Hardness: 16.0 Durability: 7.6/7.6 Mana: 30/120 Mana regen: 1.25/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Traits Skills Hopefully I can get out of this mess somehow…

jinxs2011 Thanks to the people of my server who reminded me that it's already been a week when I completely forgot. No wall of text this time; It has only been a week. Regardless, I hope you enjoy. Novel Discord and Novel Wiki links. Chapter 45: Duplicity Uncomfortable. In a word, that’s how I would describe living every day knowing that someone I don’t know, somewhere I don’t know, for reasons I don’t know, is watching me. I’m used to being the one doing the watching. Being able to see everyone and everything gives me a sense of security, a knowledge that I can’t be taken by surprise. 1.7 kilometres. That’s the approximate radius of my vision. It’s no small amount, far too large for me to consciously keep track of everything, and yet for the first time in a long while, it suddenly feels insufficient. Even so, I know that even if it were ten, a hundred times larger, it still wouldn’t be able to catch sight of the gods. In other words, I can’t do anything except try my best to ignore it. Well, there are some things that I’d like to try. I can’t be sure how well they’ll work, but I have high hopes. Things work differently here than back on Earth, but not that differently. As far as I can figure, science still applies. Even the first law of thermodynamics: ‘energy cannot be created nor destroyed.’ At its most basic level, a mage takes in mana from their surroundings, then shapes it to their will in the form of a spell. That is to say, some of the mana is ‘converted’ into whatever is needed to achieve the spell. The rest dissipates back into the air. I don’t have the knowledge or the means, but at the surface level, mana also appears to follow this law. As for Psi, Ki, and other such things, I don’t know enough about them to tell, but I’d guess that it’d be the same for them. A part of me wonders if they have anything to do with the theoretical ‘dark matter’, that mysterious stuff which supposedly makes up around 80% of the universe’s mass. But then again, I don’t know nearly enough to postulate about it. Back to my original line of thought, there are quite a few ways I can think of to use my knowledge – limited though it may be compared to a modern scientist’s standards – to create quite a few interesting spells. I’ve done some tinkering – some of them should be plausible. The single limiting factor thus far was that their complexity made managing them practically impossible. That is to say, if I were to create a tool that did some of that for me and the rest of it for me, I can do it. To be specific… Priority one (modified): Find a way to regain human senses while in fork form. Priority one subsection A: Develop a tool to gain superhuman sight. The me of yesteryear grasped at the slim possibility that one day I might get the right skill or trait to regain true colour vision. The me of today knows that I can do it, and not only that, I can go even further beyond. Biologically speaking, I’m not human anymore. I’m not confined by the same limitations – probably. I can interpret things that the human brain can’t, because I don’t have a human brain. I don’t think I have a brain at all, really. No clue how that works. The human eye is capable of seeing a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum, interpreted by humans as ‘light’, with colours ranging from red to violet. However… That is nowhere near the limit of the spectrum. ‘Visible’ EMR wavelengths on the bottom and top of the range vary by only roughly 300 nanometres. Above that it goes up to gamma rays, which have a wavelength about a million times smaller, and below it goes down to radio waves, which have wavelengths over a billion times larger. The numbers there aren’t exact, but it gives you a bit of an idea. Fundamentally, all EMR is the same thing, just with different wavelengths and amounts of energy. Things are complex scientifically – different wavelengths interact differently with different materials differently, meaning they can’t be measured or produced in the same way. With magic, it’s (theoretically) simpler. Of course, that’s not to say that I can just produce gamma rays willy nilly. Similarly to how small their wavelengths are comparatively to light, a gamma ray has about a million times more energy than light. I do not have that much mana. But detecting EMR, and emitting long wavelength/low frequency EMR? I should be able to do that. Theoretically. And no, I can’t make lasers. Of course I can’t. Well, not yet. The thing is, all those novels, anime, games that make it out to mean light magic = lasers, well they’re stupid. Think about it: if lasers were as simple as concentrating a bunch of light into the same spot, a kid could do it with a high-powered torch and a magnifying glass. No, lasers are much more complex. Again, light is EMR, waves of electromagnetic radiation. Now, think of a standard sine wave. It goes from a peak of one to a low of negative one, the pattern repeated every two pi. Alright, now put another sine wave there, but move it over one pi units. Add the two waves together, you get a flat line. That there’s basic interference, and it’s what’s happening all over the place in a normal light source, except instead of two waves there’s like two million and they’re all different units out of phase and sometimes you get spikes and sometimes you get nada. A laser is what happens if, instead of all those two million waves being slightly separated, or slightly different frequencies or amplitudes or this, that and the other, they’re all exactly the same. Right on top of each other. Again, they add together, basically giving you one wave with the same frequency as before, but much, much larger amplitude. I think. I’m not exactly a physicist here, I’m just remembering something I read on Wikipedia out of curiosity this one time. Anyway, doing that is complicated. Very complicated. I’m not sure how I’d try to go about it. So no, no lasers. Regardless, I spend much of my free time these days tinkering, using everything that I’ve learned so far, trying to make a new eye. One that’s mine, not just a borrowed tool. One that I know intrinsically, inside and out. How it ticks, how to fix it or recreate it, if need be. And the thought comes to mind, naturally, of materials. The academy has something of a store for such things, naturally – various metals, inks, materials and miscellanea. But my funds are limited, and I can’t afford to experiment with more than trace amounts of rarer, better materials. But… I’m made of mithril, right? And I have self-repair, so couldn’t I just… shave pieces of myself off and regenerate them? Or, at least, that was the thought that led me here. The plan was to cut off a small piece of myself using absorb, it would drop to the table I’m hovering above, I self-repair, see what happens. Only, the piece I cut off didn’t fall. It stays, hovering in the air, just like me. The sight is so far removed from my expectation, my belief, my utter certainty that it would fall to the ground – as all things without an upwards force applied should – that it takes me a few seconds to comprehend the reality. Once I do, my mind races, trying to understand what was causing this oddity. But once again, the unexpected whacks me over the metaphorical head with a cricket bat. A telepathic link forms. “What was it they used to say?” It, he, I says to me. “Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness? Always thought that was ridiculous, but considering the circumstances I might reconsider.” “We have a title that proves otherwise.” I reply, scarcely able to believe what my senses, what logic was now telling me: there are two of me. “Wait, we do still have the title, right?” There’s a momentary pause while we both check. “You saw too, right?” I say after a moment. “It’s not just our body that split.” “Yeah… And not just the stats, skill proficiency too, it’s not what I remember.” I reply. Everything was decreased. “I… We should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. There’s always a price.” “It was a stupid idea. We’re lucky it didn’t go even worse. What if… What if the split had caused us to lose our sanity, or worse, our sapience?” “Not a thought I want to entertain. Regardless, it doesn’t matter. That didn’t happen, and this did. The question is, what now? I mean, the stats and skill proficiencies are a blow, but it’s not like we can’t go on as is.” “No, we can’t. Or at least, I can’t. I think… You have most of the body, and most of the stats, too. As is, I’m practically helpless.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah. I can tell, now. It wasn’t as clear when we were levelling up. Too gradual? But now it’s all gone, in an instant? It’s so much harder to think. To… understand, compared to just a minute ago. I, I can’t stand it. I don’t want to go back there. To the beginning. To be forced to climb up again. Not after I got so far.” “Okay. Alright, we try to fix this. But, hm. Maybe… Back then, when we were doing the absorb and repair loop, we didn’t have this problem. We lost a part of our body, but not our power or skill. There shouldn’t be a difference, except instead of absorbing the whole piece off, it was separated. I think if I absorb you and repair, we should go back to normal.” “Are you sure?” “I’m never sure, you know that.” “Ironic, considering that we’re often right. But yeah, I know. Still… Who can I trust, if not myself?” “Do you? Trust me, I mean.” A slight pause. “I guess if this works, then yeah, I do.” “Well then. Here goes nothing.” The act of absorption requires no thought. It is… like a limb, a muscle. It’s deliberate, but if you were to ask me how it felt to use, to control, I would have no answer. It’s a part of me now. It’s simply something I can do. The other me vanishes, and I repair myself. Opening my status with no small amount of trepidation, I check whether I was right or had just made a terrible mistake. Everything is normal. Back to the way it was, as if nothing had ever happened. As far as anyone could know, nothing has. But I doubt that I will ever forget the mistake that made me two. I remember it now, both of my perspectives in that brief time. We – I – were the same being. But such a simple thing as a stat and skill decrease cast me into darkness. I made it here through luck, skill and effort. All of a sudden, a large portion of that was invalidated. It wasn’t that I thought that I couldn’t do it again, rather, I knew I could. It was the thought that even if I did, I might be cast down again. How? Why? It wasn’t a rational thought, but it quickly burrowed into my mind. I’ve always been a fearful person. Afraid that people would want to hurt me, afraid of disappointing my family… Afraid of what I might do if one day I finally snapped from the pressure and anxiety. Sometimes I wonder if there’s anything I don’t fear. I struggle to find examples. I was afraid of me, too. Both of me. But then, I am dangerous. I don’t pretend to be a saint because I know I’m not. I’m sick, in more ways than one. Some days I have dark thoughts, thoughts to lash out at the people who hurt me, those who made me this way, even when I know that they never meant for this. Some days I dearly want to. But whenever those dark flames burn in my heart, a single thought always chills the rage: that after I cause all that destruction, ruin those relationships forever, that my heart would calm for a moment, just long enough for me to look back and see what I’d done. I think that would break me. Thoroughly. I’m no saint - but I’m much less a monster. It’s similar for everyone, I think. Compassion and rationality holding back the worst parts of ourselves on our darkest days. I like to hope that I’m wrong about that, that most people are better than me. I can hope. I have to hope. Even if what I see every day tries to prove me wrong. Measured, deliberate movements. The path is held firmly in my mind as I carefully follow it. A single, slight mistake, while perhaps not causing me to need to start over, would reduce efficiency and efficacy. I set myself down for a moment, refocusing before continuing to etch a formation into the piece of iron using absorb. Enchantments, loosely speaking, come in three variants. The first is when a spell with a permanent effect is cast upon something. This usually means a change in shape, appearance or a simple increase of durability. In other words, alteration magic. The second is self-sufficient enchantments. They utilise mana-gathering formations to power themselves and work autonomously. Naturally, the amount of mana available to the enchantment is limited both by the density of ambient mana and how effective the formation is at gathering it. As a general consequence, the more mana an enchantment of this type requires, the larger it has to be physically to gather that mana. The third is user-activated enchantments. In simple terms, they’re just normal spells, but designed with an additional mana guidance subformation that does all the complex steps of spellcasting. All the user has to do is put enough mana in for it to work – no knowledge of magic needed whatsoever. On the other hand, creating these types of enchantments requires thorough knowledge of the intricacies of the magic involved. Behind every working enchantment there’s a lot of time spent researching, developing and experimenting, and even if you were to ask two different people to make the same enchantment, the end results would probably be different. So when I say that I’m crafting myself a new eye, by no means do I suggest that it’s a simple task. I spent weeks drafting the formations and the plans for the device itself, testing things before finally starting work on making it, a bit of time spent every day in one of the artificing workshops. There’s a lot of tools here that I just physically can’t use, but the space and the environment is still good for the work. There’s a half-dozen other people in the room, but it’s still pretty quiet. Everyone is too focused on their work to be thinking about anyone else, working on one project or another. Tools, mostly, devices made to make a task easier, or do something that just can’t be done mundanely. Other stuff I don’t recognise, mostly because it’s too complex for me. That turtle from the athletics carnival is working on something or other, altering it rather than making something new, I think. Another guy is pulling at his hair over some kind of card-shaped… Thing. I turn my attention back to my own project. Theoretically, I’ve already done most of the work. After I finish this part, there’ll just be assembly, then I’ll need to test and adjust things. Or something could just not work the way I expect it to and I’ll have to start over. It’s a genuine possibility. Pretty much what happened with my actual basic artificing assignment, although I partially attribute that to spending most of my time on this rather than checking my work for that one. Still, not long now. Not long. “Sir, are you alright? Your fur seems shaggy…er than usual.” One of my classmates in my advanced darkness illusion class asks, surprising me, not with their kindness, but their perceptive ability in a dimly lit room at pretty much midnight. Most of the class are half out of it, except a few from nocturnal races. And me, obviously. Classes for most subjects usually run during the day, but elemental magic works best when the element is already present. In terms of lightness and darkness magic, that means day and night. Not to mention that our teacher is a wolf beastman, whose fur is rather unkempt at the best of times. It would be a dark day indeed – pun intended – before you saw him in formal wear, I’m sure. “Hm?” Hrolf tilts his head. “No, I’m fine.” “Oh, sorry.” The student apologises. “Unless?” Hrolf walks over to the window and pokes his head out. “Already? Guess I lost track of the days.” He walks back to the front of the class. “Well, turns out it’s because there’s a full moon. I’ve got lycanthropy, so that’s why I might look a little off tonight.” “Wait, you’re a werewolf?” A student squints in confusion. “But you’re already a wolf. And you’re not, like, going mad or anything.” Hrolf shrugs. “That’s right. Wasn’t so long ago that it was thought that wolf beastmen were immune to lycanthropy. I didn’t realise myself that I had it until years after I’d been bitten. Turns out that it just has so little effect on us that nobody ever noticed. As you say, I’m already a wolf. So some extra wolfishness doesn’t affect my mind much at all.” “Anyway, today we’re going to be talking about shadows.” Hrolf continues. Groans sound out in the room. “Yes, again. This is darkness illusion magic, what were you expecting, rainbows and fairy dust?” A few of the guys laugh as Auden puffs into the classroom, sweating. He’s almost always one of the last here, and always looks like he’s just run a marathon when he arrives. “Man, that guy’s so unfit. Bet you there’s a kilometre of flab under those robes.” One of them jokes. Auden smiles, clearly having heard the jab, but just moves over to his seat and sits down, wiping his brow. “Out of curiosity, why do you never say anything to them?” I ask. We had happened to sit next to each other on the first day, and the guy’s genuinely smart, as well as social. When the teacher asked questions, Auden and I were the ones his eyes naturally gravitated towards. Auden must’ve noticed, too, because he’s chatted with me a few times about magical theory and such. He looks sideways at me. “What about you? You know you get three times as many talking about you behind your back, right? At least.” “Yeah, but they’re only talking because they know nothing about me. Everything they say is no more than a guess, and they know it. I know it.” I reply. “As for you, they’re just plain wrong. Wonder what their faces would look like if they actually saw how fit you are under that.” Auden raises an eyebrow in surprise. “You know?” “I see much more than people think I do.” I say dryly. “You look like a professional runner, which I’ll be honest is a little odd, considering I’ve never seen you run. Not that it’s any of my business, of course. If you’d rather, I’ll never mention it again.” He nods slightly. “Thanks, I’d appreciate it. It’s not something I talk about lightly. As for them…” Glancing at the guys at the back of the class, he shakes his head. “I’ve got nothing to prove to them. What’d be the point in showing off, just for a little recognition? People would just start asking different questions.” “Yeah, I get what you mean.” I agree. “So, what do you think about a force barrier? Feasible? Effective?” “Not sure about that one. Wouldn’t have any effect on non-physical attacks, like heat or curses.” Auden replies, considering. “Even something physical with sufficient force behind it could break through.” “True, but that’s the case with pretty much any barrier, and any type of magic has its counters. Then again, fire magic is pretty popular.” I muse. “Not exactly the most obscure weakness. I just wish there were some better alternative to a simple rock barrier.” Auden shakes his head. “I keep telling you, stick to what force magic does best: speeding things up and slowing them down. Stopping things dead in their tracks is just too inefficient with force magic. A wall is simple and effective.” “I know, I know. And I can work with that sort of thing.” I sigh. “It just feels boring, like everyone and their mother has done it. I want to make magic that’s mine, not just an alteration of some mage three millennia ago, you know?” “Sometimes things like that are just the best way to do it.” Auden shrugs. “Not really exciting, but it does the job.” “Eh.” I grunt. “Sometimes simple is best. Sometimes people just haven’t done enough research to figure out that it’s actually a terrible way to do it.” “Alright, enough chatting, it’s time for class to begin.” The teacher calls out, and we turn our attention back to the front. With the additional skills I’ve gotten this term, I finally have fifty - exactly. Just as I had read, I earned a title because of this accomplishment. It doesn’t give me any stat bonuses or traits, but it does let me rearrange the skills in my status, so I neaten it up a bit. Roughly speaking, the order I now have my skills in is: miscellaneous magic skills like absorb, mana sight, form manipulation etc. Then casting type skills (formations and vocal), schools of magic (creation, destruction, etc), types of magic (light, dark, fire, etc), artificing, languages, psychic skills, ki skills, miscellaneous skills, trash skills. Doesn’t actually change anything, but it makes my status a little easier on the eyes, so to speak. Geralds status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6419.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Skilled – An individual with many different skills. You may now rearrange the skills in your status. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.18% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 6.49% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original.   WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.45% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.37%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Formation casting (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 91.63% - You have a firm grasp of casting magic through formations. Slight increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 23.12% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 37.57% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells. Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 26.32% - You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic. Summoning magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 99.19% - You have a basic grasp of summoning magic. Illusion magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 92.43% - You have a basic grasp of illusion magic. Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 54.32% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of light magic, including creation and illusion. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic. Darkness magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 16.02% - You have a good grasp of darkness magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting darkness magic. Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 45.87% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic. Water magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 26.58% - You have a good grasp of water magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting water magic. Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 39.63% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells. Wind magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 71.44% - You have a basic grasp of wind magic. Force magic (Basic) (High Uncommon, Passive) 57.97% - You have a basic grasp of force magic. Artificing (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.91% - You have a good grasp on the craft of designing and building magic tools. Slight increase in the ability to recognise the use of unfamiliar magic tools. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.63% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.31% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 14.19% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Ignitae language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 8.51% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Aquan language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 1.07% - You have a good vocabulary and can understand most things written in this language, although in some cases it may take some time. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 25.91% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Metallurgy (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 92.75% - You have decent theoretical knowledge of metals and alloys, but lack practical experience. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 59.11% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 87.70% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 90.38% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 Novel Discord and Novel Wiki links. Hope you enjoyed.

jinxs2011 Well, that took a bit longer than expected. Bunch of stuff happened. Apparently, I still won't be able to write chapters as frequently as I had hoped, but they will keep coming. I don't know that there's much else to say. I think I forgot to update the wiki after the previous chapter, so that's currently two chapters behind. Feel free to join the discord, whether to chat about the novel, random guff, or check on the current progress of the next chapter. But whether you join the discord or not, I hope you enjoy. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki Chapter 41: Destruction Magic Practical Assessment After the duel, people started paying more attention to me. Before, I was just the weird fork guy. People who weren’t in my classes generally assumed that I was a magic tool. Now, I’m the weird fork guy who beat three guys a term above him in a duel. Of course, the people later in their second year or third year aren’t paying attention. Even if they heard the rumours, they know it’s not actually that impressive. But in the eyes of the people in the terms around me, it is. People I pass in the hallway mutter about me, and instead of the usual, ‘the heck is that?’, it’s more of a ‘hey, that’s the guy who…’ and so on. As for how the rumours started, well, Iueia and Spark aren’t exactly the type to keep their mouth shut, and there are some people who hang around the duelling rooms to watch. You might be thinking, well, if it’s just that, then why is it worth mentioning? It wouldn’t be, usually. It’s just the rumour took time to make the rounds, and it seems to have rubbed a particular someone the wrong way. Joyce. She and I seem to have a verbal clash almost every time we cross paths, now. I don’t particularly care – it’s not as if I haven’t heard worse – but it is mildly irritating, and mildly concerning. Would be annoying if she started physically attacking me instead of just verbally. So, I’ve done some research on her. Looked through my memories, ‘listened’ in on her conversations, actions… It’s astonishing how much you can learn about someone just from that. Almost immediately, I found out that she is anxious, and then that she didn’t use to be, last term. It’s not her results, those are excellent, by most standards. But it’s obvious in her mannerisms and speech, the occasional outbursts of misplaced anger that she immediately regrets. I dug a little deeper. She’s a little rough around the edges, and has had difficulty making friends here, but appreciates the few she has, spending most of her free time with them. Turns out she actually spends a lot of time in the library. It’s just that, well, she’s not nocturnal, so we rarely see each other in there. I suppose she might think that I rarely visit the library because of that. And, well, I don’t take notes in class for obvious reasons, but I can still answer most of the teacher’s questions. It’s almost obvious that she’d get angry at me, who ‘does nothing’ and ‘breezes through on talent’. But all in all, she’s a good person, keeps to the rules. I can relate. The only problem is that anxiety and stress. She seems to be venting on me, fair enough, I can deal with that. The real problem would be if she snaps, does something on impulse. Would be bad for her, possibly me. Then again, not much I can do about what ifs. I can only deal with it when and if it comes. You know, it feels kind of odd. Joe’s not in most of my classes anymore, just my light magic and fire magic one. Seems he’s doing mostly creation and alteration elemental magic, apart from this one. Don’t know if I should be glad or concerned that I’m not seeing more of him. “My home is quite a ways away.” Iuiea remarks in response to Spark’s question. “Huh, a ways away. A ways away. That’s funny. Um, the village. It’s pretty small, so everyone knows each other. My family runs a farm, sheep and corn and stuff. It was hard work, but I kinda miss the lambs. They’re so cute and playful!” “And fluffy!” Spark waves his fists in the air. “I just want to bury myself in their fur sometimes!” Lamar raises an eyebrow at his antics. “What?” Spark grumbles. “They’re cute. We have a couple in our village, they provide enough wool for the whole place. Don’t need much when you’re small. It’s great!” “They’re smelly.” Lamar shrugs. “And messy. I don’t get what’s so cute.” “You only have experience with them on ships, right?” I ask, continuing as he shrugs the affirmative. “Confined space for days or weeks on end, any livestock would be pretty bad. They’re much better on land. Still smell a bit, though.” “You can smell?” Spark tilts his head, squinting at me. “I thought those magic tools only let you see and hear.” “Not… Really.” I reply apprehensively. “It’s complicated.” “More complicated than formations to control the wind?” Lamar asks. “You have a point, it’s not actually that complex. Just strange.” I agree, resigned. “And I suppose we have known each other for a while now… I used to be human. That’s why I know what things smell like, and how they taste. I remember.” “Wait… What?” Iueia turns his head almost completely sideways, floored by my statement. Lamar frowns, shaking his head slightly. “How does that work? People don’t just turn into another race, let alone a fork.” Show Iueia, Lamar and Spark Second life. “I died.” I answer simply. “And before you ask, I don’t know how. I was at home, then there was a flash of light, and then I was a fork. From what I’ve been able to gather, there was probably a god involved in… This.” I say, referring to, well, my entire second life. “Woah…” Spark breathes. “No wonder you’re so smart! You’re probably older than us, right?” “A bit.” I admit. “So… Which god?” Lamar asks. “Your guess is as good as mine.” I say helplessly. “Probably better. I’m not really familiar with the gods.” Probably could be if I reviewed all my memories on the temples I’ve been past and conversations between the paladins and priests back when we were fighting the necromancer, but I haven’t taken the time to do that yet. Not like it’s urgent. “First one that comes to mind is the god of death.” Lamar shrugs. “They say he’s one of the most powerful gods, and he oversees death itself. If something odd happened with your death, chances are he had something to do with it.” “That makes a lot of sense.” I answer, somewhat surprised that someone had some potentially related information. “I’ll look into that at some point, thanks Lamar.” Overall, I think this went quite well. The revelation of my origins and age didn’t alienate me from the group, and I might have even gotten a clue towards the circumstances of my death, even if only a small one. “Remember, the contract dictates that when you summon the earth elemental, you have to feed it with mana. Neglect to do this, and the contract will be voided. The elemental will not respond to another summons, and you will have to start again with a new elemental.” The teacher reminds us. We are standing at the base of the mountain, the one Iueia, Lamar, Spark and I went to last time. It’s an exciting day for the class, the day when we all try to summon our first elemental. “We worked on your summoning formations last lesson, so there should be no excuses.” The teacher states. “Pick a spot, spread out a bit and put your formations down. We’ll go one by one, just in case.” The summons go smoothly. The vast majority of the class are only able to summon low tier elementals. They’re small, can’t even maintain a humanoid shape, and are capable of only weak earth manipulation. There are a couple of people who manage to summon mid-tier elementals. Both of them aren’t as… Naive isn’t the word, maybe… not as innocent as the rest of the students. From the amount of mana they used, I can tell that they aren’t as low a level as the rest of the students. I myself did the same, summoning a mid-tier elemental. It’s not like the hulking, slightly larger than man elementals that that mole beastwoman summoned – those were probably high-tier elementals – but it’s around the same size as Iueia. A mini-man of earth and rock. When it comes to summoning elementals, there’s three main mana costs. Obviously, it takes mana to just summon them in the first place. Then there’s the ‘summoning fee’, the mana you give the summoned as payment for summoning them, as per the contract. Then there’s the ‘summoning upkeep’, a much smaller but constant amount you feed the summoned as payment for staying there. The contract itself is also a mana cost, but that’s a once-off. I’ll only have to do that again if I want to summon another, different elemental at some point. Theoretically, I might be able to summon a different type of elemental if I wanted, but the real problem wouldn’t be the summoning, it would be the contract and managing the elemental after summoning it. Each type of elemental has different characteristics and base desires. Earth elementals are the least intelligent, but also the easiest to manage. The others I don’t know too much about, and that could potentially be a problem if I were to try. It’s nice having someone to carry things for me. He’s - or rather, they’re - not very intelligent, but simple instructions like ‘wait’ or ‘carry this’ they can follow without too much confusion, particularly if I make them in Terran. Doubt they’ll be much help in a fight, but that’s fine. Just being able to carry things that are more than featherweight is a big help to me. The earth elemental follows me around to classes, carrying things for me if I need them. These sorts of things – summoned elementals and the like – are permitted at the academy, so long as they don’t cause harm or inconvenience to other students, like I can imagine a fire elemental might. They aren’t allowed in the library, though, but that’s not much of a problem. When it’s not summoned, it leaves behind a small rock, its summoning catalyst. I carry that around with me, just in case I happen to need it. “So you can’t even deign to carry your own things anymore?” Joyce mutters spitefully, brushing past my desk on the way to the door. I don’t bother to reply. Experience has told me that she won’t listen to what I say, anyway. Better not to tempt fate by antagonising her further. “Machite, please follow me.” I instruct the elemental in Terran. It is a bright morning, and my class heads out for a practical test of our fire magic. Our class of twenty is accompanied only by our teacher, who leads us further away from the academy. Some of the students are jostling each other about, joking with each other and making light of the practical assessment, whether to calm their nerves or just bravado, it’s difficult to tell. Curious, I ask the teacher, “What will be done with the corpses?” The teacher glances at me. “The few that we can salvage will be taken back to be sold.” By the sound of it, he doesn’t want us to turn them into a charred mess. I can do that. Once we arrive at… this empty area… The teacher opens a bag they had been carrying. “This will attract any nearby monsters.” The teacher states. “There shouldn’t be many, but I’ll be managing and making sure they can only come one at a time. When I call your name, you will need to step forward and kill a monster, using only fire magic.” Soon enough, various monsters – or beasts, really – emerge from the surroundings, all manner of animals from boar to bobcat congregating towards us. The other students subconsciously shuffle closer together. In contrast to their fearful reactions, the teacher is completely calm as they erect a flaming barrier around the class. Even being composed of relatively cool flames, it is enough to ward off the unintelligent beasts, but they remain pacing just outside the barrier, their eyes fixed on the bag and growling aggressively towards any other beast that ventures too close. The teacher calls out a name and a boy jumps slightly in shock and panic, his heartrate increasing significantly. The teacher gestures for everyone to step back as they erect more barriers to single out a single monster and guide it into a newly created gap in the initial barrier perimeter. “Begin.” The teacher instructs. The boy – mid teen, really – doesn’t appear too enthused, but luckily for him, neither is the bobcat opposite him. It seems torn between going for the bag and bolting out of the place with so many people and so much fire. After taking a deep breath, he recites an incantation, and a textbook fireball sallies forth from his outstretched hand, missing the bobcat but hitting the ground with enough size and heat that it dies anyway, letting out an ear-piercing shriek as it does. He covers his mouth with his hand, but that isn’t able to hide or prevent the upheaval of bile that spills onto the ground. I’m not too sure whether that’s from killing something or from the smell. I’ve never smelt what burning flesh and fur is like, and I intend to keep it that way, but I imagine it would not be pleasant. Indeed, not a few of the other students pinch their noses or cover their mouth and nose with their sleeves. The teacher, however, does not. “Fire magic is very destructive, and is effective against almost any living thing.” The teacher shakes their head. “This is one of its drawbacks. I’ve mentioned it before, but something like this has to be experienced to be understood fully. Next is…” The corpse of the bobcat, most of it burnt beyond any use, is tossed by the teacher outside the ring of fire. When it comes to my turn, the teacher starts guiding a lion in. “Are you able to handle this?” They ask. “I think so.” I reply. So long as it’s an ordinary beast, there shouldn’t be a problem killing it, but you never can tell before you try. I move to the front, and the teacher lets the lion in. It paces forwards, and I hover a bit higher, not wanting to be within easy reach if something goes wrong. It paces forwards, its gaze shifting between me and the rest of the group. A formation begins to form in front of me, and although it shouldn’t be visible, the lion seemingly reacts to it by charging towards me. But it’s not like I haven’t practiced casting before. I’m fast. Not the fastest, probably not by a long shot, but fast. Before the lion can cross even half the distance between us, my formation is completed, and a bolt of fire shoots out, faster than an arrow. The lion flinches, turning its head just enough that my shot would miss its target – well, at least if there wasn’t a guidance component in the spell. I adjust its direction, and it plunges into the lion’s eye, the heat causing it to burst as the spell continues beyond. LVL 6 Lion killed Experience gained: 105 The lion crumples to the ground, dead. “Hey, hey!” Someone stammers. “You can’t do that! That’s cheating!” “Dead is dead.” I reply simply. “I don’t hear the lion complaining.” “What Gerald did was perfectly acceptable.” States the teacher. “So long as you only use fire destruction magic, any method is valid.” A few more people take their turns, and I notice something odd. Coming in from the edge of my mana sight, I see a large group of people heading towards us from the west. And not just in our general direction, either: directly towards us. “Sir.” I say, discomfort already settling in my mind. “There’s a group of people coming towards us from the west.” “Really?” The teacher squints into the distance. “Probably adventurers. Shouldn’t be an issue.” “They’re coming directly towards us, sir.” I caution. “And sir, I have mana sight. Speaking just in terms of mana pool capacity, they’re all almost as large as yours, sir.” “Don’t worry.” He replies. “They’re just passing by on the way to the city. Nobody would attack people from the academy.” Fine. Think what you want to think. So will I. I might be paranoid, I might just be assuming the worst for no reason, but I’m also a fork, a fork who was born with almost nothing. Partly due to my paranoia, I’m not dead yet, and I plan on keeping it that way. If it’s a false alarm, happy days. I drop to the ground. If there’s two places that people rarely look, it’s right above them and right below them. The chances of someone seeing what I’m doing down here are pretty low. I absorb myself a little tunnel and worm my way out of my little harness with form manipulation. It’s useful socially, hearing, talking and reading, but in a fight, an actual fight rather than a duel, they just slow me down and make me more obvious. Still, I can’t just ditch them, they’re academy property. So I’ll just stow them shallowly underground. I can come back and get them later, no problem. A little dirt and moisture won’t damage them… I hope. They haven’t stopped moving towards us. The teacher is looking in their direction, and I can see that despite what he said, he’s getting a bit tense. Everyone in this group is wearing robes. Not unusual, as most natural fibres offer better mana conductivity than leather, iron, or steel. Following behind them are two large carts, each pulled by a horse. Both are conspicuously empty. But something else to note… Well, I may not know much about the process of creating magic tools, but from what I’ve read and basic logic, one of the most common – perhaps the most common – component in a magic tool is mana-gathering. It gathers ambient mana to use in fuelling the tool, lessening or eliminating the amount the user needs to inject. What that means is that someone like me can see that sort of thing, a slow pull of ambient mana towards an object. And these people, there’s quite the suction of mana. Chances are they have quite a few magic tools, or just a couple powerful ones. All I can do now is wait. If they do end up being friendly, an unprovoked attack would be rude, to say the least. Besides, from what I can see, the simple offensive spells I know might be wholly ineffective. They might not, too, but they probably will be, let’s be honest. They’re coming straight for us, have been for quite a distance. They knew where we would be, so it follows that they know who we are and what we’re doing. In that case, if their intentions are malicious, it would also follow that they are confident about defending themselves from fire magic. They get closer. One kilometre. Half. Two hundred meters. Everyone’s a bit uncomfortable now. They can see over two dozen robed men, but not in the Wehttam academy robes, heading straight towards them. They can also see that the teacher doesn’t know who the robed men are. That makes them nervous. One hundred meters. A dozen of them shrug something off their shoulders, a tool containing a spear, and point them towards us. Ah, crap. As soon as they start making their move, our teacher makes his as he yells, “Get down!” The barriers of fire flicker once and go out, but rather than attacking, the wild beasts flee, instinctively feeling the magnitude of mana spiralling out towards them as the teacher creates a new formation. Even as the spears take to the air, a new barrier forms, a dome of flame that causes the air to shimmer and the earth surrounding it to be stripped of all grass and other life. The few beasts unfortunate or stupid enough not to have gotten far enough away by now die instantly, the fur on their bodies drifting away as ash and their blood boiling within them. But I’m not reassured. Not at all. The trajectories of those spears… Unless there’s something seriously wrong with their brains, they weren’t aimed at us, but around us. Containment or a wide area attack seem likely. Neither bode well. I exit my little hole and thin myself to the shape of a long needle before re-entering the ground at an angle, this time creating an entry hole practically invisible to the casual observer, no bigger than the entrance of an ant’s nest. I bore deeper and deeper, tens of meters down. I doubt the effect of the spears, whatever that may be, will extend underground, but if so I don’t want to be anywhere near it. The spears land, and their positioning creates the basis for a dodecagram, a twelve-point star. Trails of light snake between the grounded spears in an instant, and then with a flash they encompass the entire area, hitting the teacher and every single student – the sole exception being me. Everyone drops to the ground, unconscious. The hearts of a few people have even stopped beating, but I can’t do anything to fix that. I have to focus on what I can do. There’s not much time, they’re already coming, and it’s essential that they don’t know about me. It’s too risky trying to take all of them on, even with the element of surprise on my side. I ascend out of my hole, keeping as close to the ground as I can, using the bodies to ensure that the approaching party has no line of sight on me. I pick a student at random, one of the ones just unconscious, and hide in one of their pockets, reverting to the form of a fork. Then I still. ‘Are they out?’ One of them asks. ‘They’re out.’ Another answers. ‘Quick, go around and restart their hearts. Make note of the ones that are only unconscious, they could be at higher levels.’ They want us alive. That’s something, I guess. Sacrificial magic? No, they would just find ordinary folk, no reason to go to the risk of targeting the academy… Unless the sacrifices need to be magically gifted. But no, chances are they’re holding us ransom. If they wanted information or magical knowledge, they would only want the teacher. The rest of us don’t really have any notable skills that they might want. Unless… Is any of the class nobility? The children of nobles are more common at the academy than most other places. But then they would only want those specific people, they wouldn’t care about the rest. So… it’s probably not money. They want something from the academy. No clue what. The robed men go around checking the student’s pulses, using a magic tool that appears to have a similar purpose to a defibrillator when they find one, stopping the erratic heartbeat before they use another tool to restart it. Then they tie their hands behind their backs and load them onto the carts. Once everyone is on the carts, they yank the spears from where they are embedded in the ground, turn around and get out of there. We travel for, I think, hours. They change direction frequently, and only stop occasionally to cast a spell on the still unconscious students. Some sort of sleep spell, from what I gather from the few things they say to each other. I can only assume it has no effect on me because I am literally unable to sleep. Eventually they reach their destination, a solitary place I can only describe as a compound. There are a few buildings of varying sizes, all surrounded by a wall which is tall but not particularly thick, probably only good for keeping the interiors away from the eyes of the casual observer. Once inside, they and other people start unloading the students (and teacher) and begin searching them, taking any weapons or magic tools that they find. But nobody suspects the fork. Nobody suspects the fork, right? Why would they suspect the fork? Please let them have been too lazy to research the students in the class. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6419.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 4.93% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.13% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.31%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 83.99% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 24.57% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.37% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 61.28% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.30% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.60% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 25.73% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells. Formation casting (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 31.06% - You have a good grasp of casting magic through formations. Slight increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 17.95% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells. Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 24.38% - You have a good grasp of light magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 23.12% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 13.23% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 30.23% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic. Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 19.46% -  You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic. Ignitae language – Written (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive), 82.35% - You have a large vocabulary despite your inexperience, and can recognise most individually written words. Given some time, you can grasp the meaning of most of the things you read. Metallurgy (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 87.24% - You have decent theoretical knowledge of metals and alloys, but lack practical experience. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 56.18% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. Water magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 86.09% - You have a basic grasp of water magic. Darkness magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 78.43% - You have a basic grasp of darkness magic. Summoning magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 62.35% - You have a basic grasp of summoning magic. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 Well, that's the chapter. I did promise that there would be more action soon, didn't I? I hope you enjoyed. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki

jinxs2011 Well, it's been quite a while but finally, I've written another chapter. I've been quite busy over the past couple of months, but thankfully, i'm now in a bit of a break, so I should be able to write much more frequently for the next while. Very much looking forward to that, so we'll see how it goes. I'm pretty sure i've mentioned it before, but if at any point you're wondering what's happening with the next chapter, how far along I am, why it's not posted yet, or you just have questions about the novel or just want to hang out, the best place to go is the Novel Discord. Also, there is a Novel Wiki if you want a quick reminder on a character, setting or plot of a particular chapter, although it is currently a few chapters out of date. With that all said and done, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Chapter 43: Questions “…Just as a reminder, for those who weren’t able to finish the assessment last week, your score will be calculated based on your average performance thus far. For those of you who had less than stellar marks before the assessment, this will mean that you need to work harder to increase your marks for the rest of the term.” The teacher concludes. It’s been about a week, and things are back to normal. Well, mostly. Even though everyone came back unharmed, it’s still a fact that we were kidnapped in the first place. Trust in the academy’s ability to protect its students, particularly for those in the class and their families, has taken a hit. Not to mention the lasting affect it’s going to have on the students involved. The advanced fire destruction class is usually one of the more energetic classes. Most of the students in it are engaged and enthusiastic about learning the course content, but since the incident, it’s been much more quiet and reserved. “How can you be so calm, after what happened?” For once, Joyce’s voice isn’t accusatory, but truly at a loss. “You’re acting like everything’s normal, but… We were kidnapped, for gods’ sake!” “Yeah, it wasn’t a great situation, and I’d rather not relive it.” I say. “But it doesn’t even rank in the top five worst situations I’ve been through.” “I don’t understand.” She says, furrowing her eyebrows. Is… Is she actually listening to what I’m saying? Well I’ll be damned. Bad saying, that. Not really fond of being damned. “Look, I don’t mind talking,” I say, “but I’d rather talk about it somewhere else.” “Fine.” She replies, after a moment of deliberation. “Is the library fine? I was going to head there to study, anyway.” “Sounds good to me.” I reply. The walk – or float, in my case – there, we spend in silence, Machite following dutifully behind me as it carries my things. I greet professor Kelby as we pass by the font desk, eliciting little more than a faint nod in response. We head through to the second section of the library, and Joyce frowns. All of the tables already have people at them. It’s part of the reason why I don’t usually come at this time of day. “Over here.” I tell Joyce, leading her to one of the tables. It’s the only one with a single person sitting at it. “Shouldn’t you at least ask if he minds first?” she asks quietly as I plop myself down on the other side of the table. “Relax, I know him.” I explain. “This is Raymond, he spends most of his time in here. He won’t bother us if we don’t bother him.” “Exactly.” He responds shortly, nodding at me before quickly becoming re-engrossed in the book in front of him. “Well, if you say so…” She sits down. “So what did you mean, us getting kidnapped wasn’t in your top five most dangerous situations or whatever? We’re only students, how could you possibly have experience with things like that?” “I get where you’re coming from. I think most people look at me and assume that’s just how it is.” I reply. “‘Look, that’s Gerald, he can fly and he’s good at magic,’ they say. Nobody ever seems to wonder why. Nobody wonders how I can fly, why I understand, why I know all the answers – well, at least most of the answers. People make assumptions, and they don’t question them, or at least they don’t question them nearly enough.” “I’m here to try and understand, Gerald, not for you to talk in circles.” Joyce shakes her head. “Fair enough.” I say. “I’ll give you an example, then: why was our class kidnapped?” “For ransom money, of course.” Joyce shrugs. “A logical answer. We had no relation to them or other value, after all, so money is a likely incentive. Except for the fact that that’s dead wrong.” I say straightforwardly. “What?” Joyce blinks. “They didn’t recognise Simon.” I explain. “Why would they recognise Simon?” Joyce asks. I explain further. “If they were in it for the money, they’d want to know who they were kidnapping. That way, they would know how much money they could expect to get from the families and friends and such.” Joyce nods. “Yes, but what does that have to do with Simon?” “He’s rich.” I state. “He’s rich?” Joyce splutters. “How could you possibly know that?” “Simple. His grandfather, the one that stepped through the portal and saved us that day, is Theodore Glynphael, creator and owner of an extremely lucrative magic tool business which, among other things, is the sole producer of bags of holding.” I say simply. “What!?” Joyce squeaks. “Keep it down, would you?” Raymond complains without looking at us. “Yeah.” I continue. “If they were after money, they would’ve known about him. Actually, if they were after money, they wouldn’t have bothered our class at all. Simon is much too dangerous a target – you saw the aftermath of what happened when his grandfather found out. Plus, reinforcements from the academy were just about to arrive. If they were after money, they would’ve gone after much easier targets.” “I… Why did I never think of that?” Joyce shakes her head at herself. “Because you didn’t ask yourself the right questions, think them through to their conclusions, and then question your conclusions as well.” I tell her. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Simon’s grandfather happens to be a different extremely powerful user of space magic who also has a plethora of magic tools at his disposal. It would be an awfully massive coincidence considering how few users of space magic are at that level of skill, but it’s theoretically possible. But anyway, enough about that. You wanted me to explain myself.” “I… Yes.” Joyce nods, a little at a loss. “Thing is, a few of your questions can be answered by answering other, very simple questions.” I say wryly. “For instance, how is a fork born?” “Forks aren’t born, they’re made by…” Joyce stops as she realises the implication. “Precisely. I came into being not knowing where I was or even what I was. To this day, my best guess is that the gods made me this way, and I haven’t the faintest as to why.” I say. “Next question. What can a fork do?” “Nothing, they aren’t alive.” Joyce replies accurately. “That’s not far off from what I had in the beginning. It’s no exaggeration to say that I’m only here today by a few strokes of luck.” I admit. “Now, back to your original question. It’s not something that you can figure out just by reasoning through, so I’ll give you a break there. The related questions to have asked yourself, however, are ‘where is he from’ and ‘what did he do before coming to the academy?’” Joyce rolls her eyes. “Where are you from, then? Across the sea?” “Odwia.” I state. “Another world. The people there aren’t as open-minded or understanding as people here – and I say that knowing that most of the people at the academy consider me a remotely controlled magic tool created by some eccentric artificer. I worked with an adventurer who I befriended, helped him fight, explore, avoid danger and so on. The guy has a big heart, but it got us into trouble often enough. Long story short, some demons wanted to invade, and I ended up going through the portal to destroy it from the other side and prevent them from rebuilding it.” “Who would believe a story like that?” Joyce shakes her head in disbelief. “I know, right?” I agree, not particularly caring if she doesn’t. “But yeah, I literally went to hell and back. Still, it was mostly luck. I’m not all that powerful myself, particularly physically. Trying to carry lots of things around myself is difficult and draining, which is why I have Machite here doing the heavy lifting. Anyway, that’s the answer to that question. But the question you really want answered, you haven’t asked yet, have you?” Joyce frowns. “What are you talking about?” Ah, if only I had arms to shrug with. “Why it is that I’m better at magic than you.” She opens her mouth to retort, but I cut her off before she says anything. “Don’t, it’s perfectly understandable. You work your hardest to learn and understand something, and then you see someone who knows more about it than you do, but you never see them doing anything at all. Of course you’d get annoyed by someone like that.” “Alright, fine.” Joyce says. “You were always such a smartass, and it annoyed the hell out of me. So what?” “Yeah, that’s pretty fair.” I admit. “I was a bit childish in my responses to you. That’s my bad. I’m not great with people.” She stares at me for a moment before sighing. “How am I supposed to stay mad with someone who keeps apologising?” “You’d be surprised at how well some people manage it.” I reply wryly. “They sound like fun.” She winces. “But fine, I was a bit jealous of how good you are at magic. How do you do it?” “There are four main reasons.” I explain. “And none of them are talent. First of all is experience. I’ve been out in the world, I’ve been in fights with necromancers, talked with paladins and toppled a false ruler. Because of that, I know that when they teach us fire destruction magic, the goal isn’t to be able to create a fireball over such and such size, and hotter than such a temperature, and then project it out with such a speed to hit such a target. It’s to defeat or kill an enemy as surely, quickly and efficiently as possible. Sometimes, that might mean a fireball. Other times, a fireball might not be quick, powerful or accurate enough, or maybe too powerful. What spell you need to use depends entirely on your opponent and the situation.” “Alright, I kind of get that, though I’m still not believing you did all that. What else?” Joyce nods. “Knowledge. I know a lot of things that you, and a lot of the other students don’t. I know why fire burns. I know why the sky is blue. I know what water is made of. I know the speed of light. Why blood is red. What happens inside your body when you get sick. And a thousand other things that I can apply and use in my magic to make it stronger and have many different effects.” I continue. “That really doesn’t help me, you know. I’m already using almost all my spare time to study.” Joyce complains. “Hey, you’re the one who asked. Kind of.” I reply. “Third is perspective. You’re focused on getting good marks, the best in your class if you can, right?” “Of course.” Joyce nods seriously. “I’m not here to play around.” “Well, this is going to sound a bit cruel to you then, but…” I say. “Marks don’t matter. Not much, at least. Of course, passing the class is important, and getting good grades is always a plus, but in a year, nobody will remember who was the top of the class this term. Nobody will care. If you go far enough, people won’t have even heard of this academy, let alone the class. What’s important is learning the tools and methods, and the spells, that will help you in the future. That should be your goal first and foremost, anything else is secondary.” “I…” She shakes her head. “Whatever. What’s the last reason?” “Quite simply, time.” I state. “I don’t need to eat, sleep, or anything else normal people do. That means I have maybe ten, twelve hours more per day to do things. And I have no family to care for, no job, nothing except the academy right now. I spend some time with my few friends during the day, which is probably why you haven’t seen me in the library, but all night while everyone else is asleep, I’m studying and practicing magic. I’m not learning things much faster than you, I just have more time.” “Oh.” Joyce blinks, looking a bit disappointed. “That makes sense. I was just hoping, y’know, that there might be some way for me to learn faster.” “No shortcut to success, I’m afraid.” I say, in the verbal equivalent to a shrug. “But if there’s one thing you take away from this, let it be perspective. I went to a school once before. Not a magic school, granted, but a school. I went in with an attitude similar to yours. I wanted to be the best in the year, I tried my hardest. It grated on my mind and my spirit. Towards the end, I hated every moment of my learning. And what did I get for it? A couple years later, I’d forgotten half the things I’d learned. I didn’t even bother mentioning my grades to other people because outside of school, nobody cared. It ended up just being one big waste of time and energy.” “I’ll think about it. Thanks for answering my questions, even if I’m not sure how much of it is true. And sorry for snapping at you all the time. I’ve been a bit stressed lately, even before that happened.” Joyce admits, standing up. “I’d better start studying again. See you again some other time.” She looks at Raymond. “You don’t mind if I keep using this table?” Raymond shrugs. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She says, half to herself. “See you.” I say as she walks away and starts looking amongst the bookshelves. As I start to ascend to leave the library, Raymond speaks without raising his head. “Interesting story. How much of it is true?” “I don’t joke around with things like that. It’s all true.” I reply. “Hm. You know, from a story like that, an individual with some imagination might be led to think you weren’t always the way you are today.” He notes without any particular inflection, almost like a… interested disinterest. “Is anyone?” I ask rhetorically. “Perhaps the greatest skill that any of us have is the ability to adapt, to change to suit our circumstances. Sometimes we change for the better, other times for the worse. I wonder occasionally what my younger self would have to say about some of the things I’ve done. Would younger me have made the same decisions, the same mistakes? I think sometimes that I was the smartest I ever was when I was just a child, and the years have only made me dumber. More knowledgeable, but dumber.” “Which is, of course, entirely related to what I said.” He responds with dry sarcasm. “Sometimes you couldn’t pry my mouth open with a crowbar – metaphorically speaking – and other times I just seem to ramble. Maybe that’s just one of the ways I adapted.” I sigh. “But I should be going. The others will be wondering where I am.” He shrugs in reply, and I make my way out, leaving him to read at his table. Surrounded by people, but somehow giving off a feeling that he was entirely separated from everyone else. After our heartfelt chat, Joyce and I become the best of buds. Well, that may just be the slightest exaggeration, but at least we aren’t swapping verbal jabs every time we pass each other. Our interactions still aren’t friendly, per se, but they are at least void of hostility. Polite exchanges, perhaps. Although I did learn some interesting and useful things in the light creation magic class, unfortunately it does appear that some of the things I wanted to learn fall under the umbrella of illusion magic. Still, it’s not the end of the world. Upon realising that I wouldn’t be learning those particular aspects of magic in the class, I turned my attention once again to the library and perused a few tomes on the subject. Illusions. The art of affecting the mind and the senses. But not just to fool, trick or beguile them. Illusion magic can also be used to enhance the senses, or to share senses with another. For example, say you are standing on the ground with a bird flying above you. You could, assuming you know how, cast a spell to see what the bird sees, and hear what it hears. The same sort of spell is used in my ‘eye’, but instead of sharing the sight of someone else, it’s what the magic tool sees. In other words, it’s the type of magic I need to learn if I want to go about replacing my lost senses at some point. At this point, though, that goal is slipping through my tines like wet spaghetti. It just isn’t very viable as a straightforward spell. To cast it in the usual manner, I would practically need to cast two spells in tandem, one to focus incoming light into the area covered by my other spell, which would be ‘reading’ that light and transferring the information to me. Not that I’m saying it’s impossible to cast two spells at once. It’s entirely possible. But ensuring that the two spells remain at a constant distance and relative angle from each other, and then again from me so I don’t get insanely disoriented, while trying to do whatever else – reading, writing, and so on – just isn’t feasible. I might be able to work out a third spell to deal with the positioning problem or work it into the other two spells somehow, but then I’d be managing either three spells at once or two complex ones. And I haven’t even started thinking about the other senses. Hearing and speaking shouldn’t be too complex once I learn magic related to air and motion – more precise and complex motion, that is – but I haven’t the foggiest how I would go about replicating taste or smell. So it seems, at least for now, that I won’t be able to get much further along that line of thought until I learn how to make magic tools. So I guess I’ll be doing basic artificing next term. Darkness magic in its simplest form, as far as I’m able to observe, seems to act like a barrier of some kind that blocks and absorbs light – and only light. It can’t be touched or interacted with in any way by anything else. Possible uses, I don’t know, blocking the light from getting to an opponent’s eyes? Obscuring something from sight? Assuming the enemy party doesn’t rely on sight, it seems absolutely useless, at least how I can use it at this point. Water magic. What’s there to say? It’s water. Can you drink it? Sure, but it’s magic after all. It’ll just disappear from your stomach once the spell stops being maintained. Practical uses? Creating bad footing, splashing people… The classic pressurised water cutter is also a possibility, I think, once I learn some more. Probably not very effective unless I can get to an incredible amount of pressure, but mixing in some fine particles as an abrasive, potentially from earth magic, could help ease that requirement a bit. Fire magic has increased my range of offensive options, of course. It’s fire. I can make walls of it to obscure vision, trap an opponent or prevent them from following. Fireballs - of course. I can make small, incredibly hot bolts of fire to pierce through opponents and quite a lot of other things. No, I haven’t tested to see if it can melt me. I’m not that stupid. Fire magic comes with its own risks, though. Magical fire can produce normal fire, and it’s difficult to control that once it starts. Of course, it’s possible, I just don’t know how to do it. That falls under alteration magic, not destruction magic, after all. As for formations, that’s more of a difficult subject. It’s more theory-based than any of my other classes, but I think I’ve learned a lot from it. For example, the formation commonly used as a base for elemental magic is a hexagram, with each point representing one of the elements. It’s simple, multi-purpose, and effective. Empty formations, as they’re called, for other types of magic range in form and function. Some may have no circle, some are based on a pentagram or decagram, others, as in the case of holy magic, may be based upon the holy symbol of a god or goddess, while still others require the formation to be composed of specific materials. Just learning some of them and understanding what types of magic they can – or rather, should – be used for will make it much easier for me to understand magic formations drawn by other mages in the future. I’ve also learned how to design more complex formations that include one or theoretically multiple subformations, although I’m going to have to do a lot of practical, methodical and careful experimentation as well as gain a deeper understanding of the methods involved to get to that point. I’ve also gotten the Ignitae language skill up to expert, so I’ve set that aside for the moment and started work on understanding the Aquan language, the elemental language of water. It’s my third elemental language, and I feel like I’m starting to see similarities between the languages. Or, rather, similar differences? It’s like… Each language is a puzzle piece. It has gaps that another language might fill, and it itself might fill a gap in another language. Whether or not that has any meaning or practical purpose I don’t know, but I think I’m learning this language a bit faster than the ones before. Despite the tumultuous event that occurred, the term once again comes to an end, and, after a short break, the new one begins. A bit of time has passed now since the whole kidnapping event, and it’s starting to recede from the forefront of people’s minds. People are starting to relax again, get back into the normal order of things. I wish that the same could be said for myself. But a part of me wonders, even as I study, even as I develop and formulate new spells, exactly what their intentions were in kidnapping us. A part of me wonders whether we have truly seen the last of them. I, as a student, am of course not privy to whatever investigations or happenings related to the matter may be occurring, but I can’t help but think that if there was no further threat, that they would have announced as such. A part of me wonders how they knew where we would be. Was it just that the same sort of thing is done every term? I mean, there are a host of spells that could be used to detect or locate our group once we were outside the academy. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that they used one. But was our kidnapping the goal, or merely a single part of a larger plan? If the latter, and assuming that plan has something to do with the academy, then they likely have informants, contacts and/or moles inside the academy. Theoretically, I could observe someone over an extended period of time. It wouldn’t be too difficult to ascertain whether they display any suspicious behaviour, at least if they did so outside areas that block my vision. But the whole student body, and perhaps the teachers too? Not a chance. I don’t have nearly the time and brainpower – so to speak - for that. I envy how others can perhaps let sleeping dogs lie. Forget about it, move on. But if there’s a chance something is going to happen, I want to be ready for it. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s surprises. Too many questions. Not enough answers. Uncertainty and doubt cloud my mind. I can’t work like this… Well I probably can, to be honest, but I don’t want to. Questionable motivations, questionable solutions. There’s no good plan, so it’s time to see if Joe really has answers, or just more questions. Geralds Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6419.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Traits strong> Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits strong> Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Traits strong> Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 5.38% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.35%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 84.26% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 24.83% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.39% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 73.93% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.31% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.62% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 37.19% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells. Formation casting (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 68.06% - You have a firm grasp of casting magic through formations. Slight increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 24.67% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells. Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 31.10% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of light magic, including creation and illusion. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 23.12% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 14.16% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 42.42% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic. Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 23.84% -  You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic. Ignitae language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive), 8.04% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Metallurgy (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 92.75% - You have decent theoretical knowledge of metals and alloys, but lack practical experience. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 59.11% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. Water magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 19.09% - You have a good grasp of water magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting water magic. Darkness magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 3.94% - You have a good grasp of darkness magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting darkness magic. Summoning magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 96.72% - You have a basic grasp of summoning magic. Aquan language – Written (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive), 64.32% - You have a good vocabulary and can understand most things written in this language, although in some cases it may take some time. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Not, perhaps, the most exciting of chapters, I admit. The conversation with Joyce took up more of the chapter than I expected, so I couldn't fit a whole lot more in. Honestly, the next chapter might be somewhat similar with Joe, but I won't know until I actually write it. At least this time around I can be fairly certain in saying that the next chapter shouldn't take anywhere near as long as this one did. But again, if you want updates on that, join the Novel Discord, Novel Wiki

(POV Gerald) And so, Ferdinand explained everything he knew about the doppelganger, apart from the matter of how he was involved in the severing of the doppelganger’s arm – that would draw unwanted questions. And all the paladins were amazed by the depth of his information… yadda yadda yadda, you get the drift. Still, there were some interesting things we got out of the conversation. Turns out the red armour stuff he used is likely to be some form of killing intent, something which apparently only mass-murderers and the like can use. It generally has an intimidating effect on opponents, but it seems this guy can do quite a bit more with it than that. Anyway. We’re on the road again, and as always, I have quite a bit of time to think. Usually I’d just be occupying it with meditation and whatever magic skills I can get away with, but I figure just having a bit of a think might be a good thing to do right now. I’ve been forking through my memories a bit, trying to see if we’ve already come across this mastermind guy without noticing it, or anyone connected to him. Unfortunately, I barely know a thing about him – or her – so it’s been a fruitless exercise. With that done – let’s dabble a bit in some philosophy. Am I a human? In a way, I feel like I should be. I was a human for some twenty-two years in my first life. But now I’m a fork. But have I changed? I suppose to answer the question of whether I’m still human, I have to determine what a human is. There’s the obvious – bipedal, opposable thumbs, considerable intellect and creativity in comparison to most other species on earth. But if you ask some biology professor or someone like that, they’ll tell you that humans only have a few percent difference in DNA to that of similar animals, and the gap isn’t huge even with dissimilar animals. Then, are humans defined by those few percent? Perhaps… But what if I look at it from a different perspective? Imagine if you have a human. And a pig. And through some miracle of technology, you swap their consciousnesses, or souls, or whatever. Now the ‘human’ body still has that same DNA, but the mind of a pig. Is it still human? No, not really. What about the pig, then? It has a ‘human’ mind. Is it still a human? Maybe. It’s certainly more human than the pig in a human body. But without the vocal chords of a human, it wouldn’t be able to communicate effectively. Without opposable thumbs, it wouldn’t be able to use tools or create, which are all defining features of human beings. So it isn’t quite a human, then. But it is more human than the pig in a human body. Then, the mind is a more significant factor than the body in determining whether something is human? What if you had something else, say an elf, that has the same morals, emotions, thoughts and beliefs that a human would have. Would they, in a way, be human? Perhaps. Perhaps it could be said that under the umbrella of ‘humanity’, there are countless ‘beings’ that aren’t quite the same, and aren’t quite different. Unique and similar, somehow. But that just brings me around to my original question: am I still human? …Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean that I should just throw away my humanity, either. I grew up learning certain ideals: killing is bad. Stealing, forcing your will on others, discrimination, are bad. And many more. I had sort of thought that I could just change to this ‘kill or be killed, no holds barred’ type of mindset, like flipping a switch. Upon further consideration, I don’t want to. It’s who I am, I can’t just throw it away. But in this world, even if I don’t want to, some compromises will have to be made. I didn’t want to kill, but I already have. Monsters, perhaps, but all the same. Still, it all depends on what I want to do. What do I want to do? Find a way to imitate human senses, for one. I figure my best bet for that is magic or psychic abilities, and magic is the more common of the two and therefore the easiest to learn. After I’ve learnt that magic… well, I’m not so sure. I suppose… I suppose I want control. Over myself, over my own life. I don’t want whatever life I build in the future to be upset by the whims of some more powerful being. But then, how do I determine how much power is enough? Level 50? That’s higher than the doppelganger. But then again, the spider matriarch was level 83, and we just came across that at random. What’s considered powerful in this world? Is 100 the limit, or is it even higher? 200? 1000? I suppose I can’t know unless I meet someone at that limit. Levelling up means killing. Monsters don’t bother me, but what if I come across bandits or the like? Not all of them will be as friendly as that last lot. I could just run away. But then, they would still be doing the same to others. I’m not about to let others to fall into misfortune because of me. If I were to take them to the nearest city, turn them over the guards… Let me just check something… The penalty for banditry in the Empire is death. The only difference then would be the hand that holds the executioner’s blade. What would be the point? Not having blood on my hands? No. The one who caused their deaths would still be me, even if another wields the blade. I’m not the kind of guy who would take relief from a single degree of separation. Then, if a situation like that arises, I will have to kill them. That could be avoided by not travelling. But, again: I don’t want to restrict others, and I don’t want to be restricted by others. I don’t think it’s possible to become strong in this world without getting blood on your hands. It just depends whose blood it is: the blood of innocents, or the blood of the guilty. Then, who decides guilt? Who decides if a person deserves to live or die? I’m certainly not the type of person to judge. Hmm… I think… I have a solution. It’s crude, but I think effective: an eye for an eye. That is, I think that what I do to others in the future should not be greater than what that person has done to others, or what they are going to do. If they haven’t killed someone innocent, and aren’t going to, I probably shouldn’t kill them. Of course, there’ll always be exceptions. Serial rapists, or thieves who steal from the poor in full knowledge that the money they have taken is everything they have. …In those cases, would it be better to hand them over to the authorities? No… there’s no guarantee that the legal system won’t be corrupt, or that they’ll manage to escape, or that the laws are shaped in such away that their crimes don’t warrant a death or life sentence. What then? They could be back on the streets eventually, and then we’re back where we started. And are there really ways to keep high level thieves, for instance, in prison? Or wizards? I doubt it. Laws are all well and good, but without a suitably strong and uncorrupted system supporting them, they’re useless. …It was all so easy back on earth, where strict vetting, training and good equipment gave law-enforkers more power than most criminals could possibly have, and all sorts of methods and laws in place to make sure crimes could be prevented efficiently… Ugh, that was way more thinking than I thought it would be for a conclusion as simple as that. Now my mind is stuck in this weird contemplation mode. Let’s go chat to Ferdinand. I start up a telepathic link with him. “Hey Ferdinand, how’s it going?” “I’m fine.” Ferdinand replies tiredly. “You don’t sound fine.” I remark. “Sounds like another sleep would do you good.” He yawns. “I’ll be fine. Nothing I can’t overcome.” “…Okay, but make sure you get some good sleep tonight. Don’t think I didn’t see how much you overexerted yourself back there. You might be able to push yourself through the pain and exhaustion, but that doesn’t always mean you should. Humans can feel pain for a reason.” I warn him, slightly concerned. “But all the stories tell of heroes pushing through the pain, overcoming their limits and growing stronger and stronger.” Argues Ferdinand. “And right now, I need to be stronger!” Hoo boy. “That’s why they’re called stories: they aren’t real.” I sigh. “As far as I know, you can push through the pain to some degree, but you always have to be careful not to go too far. If you keep pushing and your body has nothing left to give, it’ll break apart. Muscles will tear, tendons will break. Sometimes the damage is permanent.” I explain, remembering all the times I’ve heard of athletes tearing something and then being unable to continue competing. I see Ferdinand’s brows furrow and his hands clench. “But I need to get stronger!” He says, frustrated. “I know.” I reassure him. “But this isn’t the way to do it.” “How, then?” Ferdinand asks. “I don’t know.” I say honestly. “Ki would probably help, but I have no idea how you’d go about getting that. You can’t exactly use my method, after all. Apart from that… the best thing would probably be to just improve on what you have. Luc’s training is working, right?” “It is. I just wish it would work a bit faster.” He sighs again. “Rome wasn’t built in a – wait, never mind. These things take time. But rather than working yourself into an early grave, you should be asking around, trying to find out more about ki. And that fighting spirit stuff you got recently, that sounds like it could be useful.” “Maybe…” He muses thoughtfully. After that, we chat about some more pleasant topics – the weather, passing scenery… Currently, we’re en route back from the necromancer’s lair to the nearest city. Everyone else is mostly travelling in silence, likely ruminating on what has happened, and what we are going to do next. “Hey, Gerald…” Ferdinand starts tentatively. “Do you know much about women?” “I don’t know if any man can honestly claim that he understands women.” I say half-jokingly. “Why?” “I think I’m in love, and I don’t know what to do.” He says quietly. Huh. “Lily?” I ask, just to be sure. “How did you – wait, of course you notice how often I look at her.” He realises. “Yep.” I say. “Is it just me, or are you getting smarter? I must be rubbing off on you.” Obviously, I’m a good influence.  For some reason, Ferdinand isn’t so sure. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing… But what do I do?” “Well, I must admit that I was a bit of a loner in my past life, and I have zero experience in this. But!” I continue at his crestfallen expression, “It was the right idea to ask me for help. At least now that I know, I can help stop you from making potentially disastrous emotion-fuelled snap decisions. What’s your current plan?” “Well…” He starts uncertainly, “I had sort of wondered if I could somehow… impress her with my strength… but she’s much stronger than me, so…” “Nope, won’t work, even if you were.” I state. “As far as I know, every woman has slightly different things they want in a man. And if Lily was interested in strong men, she’d be paying more attention to Luc, right? Besides, I’d think that it’s less likely for strong women to be interested in strong men: after all, they don’t need anyone to protect them if something happens.” “That… makes sense. Then what do I do?” He asks again. “I’m not really sure. Still, I can think of a few things you can do that can’t hurt. Talk to her, get to know her, and tell her about yourself. Uh, but try and be… natural… about it. Hey, I know a good start: ask her to tell you more about her god. She’s a paladin, I bet she’d be thrilled to talk to you about that.” I say, in a rare stroke of genius. He sounds quite excited when he replies. “That sounds great! I’ll go do that-” “Not now. Later, when you’re not on horseback and surrounded by a bunch of other guys with nothing better to do than listen in on your conversation.” I interrupt him. “Oh… right, that makes sense…” He trails off in disappointment. Sheesh, but does this complicate things. Not only do we have the doppelganger to fight, there’s apparently some mastermind controlling him who is somehow involved with demons as well, and now Ferdinand has a crush on someone. This is starting to sound like the plot of some second-rate novel. Well, forket that. It’s not like I have some special ability after reincarnating into a foreign world… Wait a minute… ‘Your money or your life!’ A bandit screams as he sprints down the side of the hill towards us, closely followed by a bunch of his bandit buddies. Oh. I just assumed those guys were going to be smart and not attack us, like all the other bandits we passed by so far. Apparently not. A very short period of tine later, the hapless bandits are tied in a little line behind us, obediently jogging to keep up with us. Plan is to turn them over to the guards in the next city. I didn’t really think of what I’d do with the weak ones, did I? I suppose they’ll be fine just to turn over to the local law – as long as their prisons are strong enough to hold them, and their laws will give them a death or life sentence. Well, I’ll still have to do a cursory check over the place to make sure that they don’t have connections in high places or whatever. What was I talking about before? Right, demons. So, I’ve gone through my memories to see if I can find anything on demons. Surprisingly, there isn’t much of substance. They almost seem like the boogeyman, like a story mothers tell their kids to get them to behave. ‘Brush your teeth, little Timmy,’ they’ll say, ‘or the demons will come and eat your soul’ – woah that’s hardcore. Not quite like that. But anywho. Demons certainly aren’t a common problem. I’ve only been able to find out a few things: Demons are evil, but who knows, that could just be racism talking; they’re from hell – I hear it’s nice this time of year; and they have two hearts – information courtesy of the late Richard. So, pretty much nothing of substance. I just love going in blind… By the time we get to the city, night has fallen. After turning in the now exhausted bandits, reporting events to the local temples, arranging accommodation and having a quick meal, all the paladins and priests quickly go into their rooms, leaving a crestfallen Ferdinand without an opportunity to talk to Lily. Without any other choice, he too heads to bed, leaving me the only one awake as per usual. Safe from prying eyes in the confines of Ferdinand’s room, I start my usual training: form manipulation – self and telekinesis. Unlike usual, after exhausting my reserves of psi and mana, I start paying attention to the happenings of the city. Even at night, the city is active with patrolling guards, people drinking at bars, the occasional figure hurriedly moving along the streets and even the odd thief moving stealthily across the rooftops and into homes. I figure the bar is the most likely place for me to hear any rumours, especially since there aren’t many people talking in the other parts of the city. For the next few hours I just sit there and lip-read their conversations, only going back to my training when the last few drunkards amble home happily. Unfortunately, I don’t catch anything relevant to our current situation, but the information is interesting nonetheless. Everyone is still concerned about the Lich – news of his death hasn’t spread yet. Actually, rather than saying that people are concerned about the Lich, they’re more concerned about the effect his actions might have on the price of food. There seems to be a common assumption that he only targeted villages because he wasn’t strong enough to defeat the defences of a city. Eh… with what we saw, he could probably take down a city or two, if he didn’t get attacked by a group of elites like us. Anyway, people are concerned that food will grow more expensive. Uh, of course it will? I don’t know exactly how many villages were destroyed, but I think it was most of them. Rather than being concerned with the cost of food, you should be more concerned if there’ll be any food at all. What with many of the higher ups being corrupt and the supply of food dropping considerably within a short period of time, I’m betting the Empire is going to collapse soon. Now, I may not be an expert on history and city management, but I’m pretty sure the solution to the equation ‘greedy officials + severe lack of food’ is ‘riots, rebellion, famine, disease and other bad things.’ Other than that, there was a bit of talk about that new prince. Not much is known about him, apparently, since he doesn’t seem to make public appearances. Some people think he’s sick. Others think he’s not fit to rule. One weird guy who sat in the corner of a tavern seemed to be convinced that the prince doesn’t exist, and that it’s some sort of political plot. Seems you get conspiracy theorists whichever world you’re in. Well, that was pretty much a waste of time. Back to training… Once I notice other people getting up, I rouse Ferdinand. He gets his gear together and heads down to the first floor of the inn. The innkeeper and a couple of his helpers are already up, and Ferdinand orders some food. Within a few minutes, Lily comes down as well, and Luc shortly after. With all of them soon finishing their food and armed with the knowledge that most of the other priests and paladins don’t wake up early, I prod Ferdinand along, “Hey. This is a good time. Go talk to her.” “Okay. Wait… as in now, now? He asks hesitantly. “Yes, now!” I say in exasperation. “Come on, it’s not like I’m asking you to kiss the girl, just go chat with her for a bit. Try asking about her god. It’s just a chat.” “And if she doesn’t want to talk about him?” He questions nervously. Sighing, I say, “She will. But if you can’t think of anything else, you can be practical and find out some more information on fighting spirit or ki. Or demons, but that’s probably not a pleasant topic… NOW GET OUT THERE BEFORE I FORCE YOU TO WITH TELEKINESIS!” I shout. One of the many advantages of telepathy is that nobody else can hear you shouting, so I can do it in a public place without so much as a pointed glance being directed our way. Ferdinand gets up somewhat abruptly and walks over to Lily, sitting down opposite her and delivering the first line… he’s a bit nervous initially, but after that he hits the ground running and manages not to embarrass himself horribly. I carefully keep track of the conversation, just in case he stalls and needs me to supply a line – the heck is this, backseat dating? – but he performs admirably. In carrying a normal conversation. Woo. Still, gotta learn to walk before you can run. Well, nothing so far has indicated that people of her religion have to stay chaste or anything like that, so that’s a good sign. Ugh, why the heck am I thinking about this, anyway. I think I’ll just stick to giving advice… Once everyone is up, fed and able, they all go to the local temple and explain their own perspectives of the event, as well as depositing all the loot – with a few notable exceptions. What used to be the Lich’s phylactery is now a powerless lump of metal, but it apparently still holds the potential to be used again for the same purpose. Because of that, it has been decided that it’ll be melted down and the metal used for something else, but there aren’t any blacksmiths capable of working with mithril in this city, so for now it remains in Luc’s capable hands. The Lich’s death note is being held onto for obvious reasons, leaving the final object – the Lich’s Necronomicon. In and of itself, the Necronomicon isn’t dangerous. What could be dangerous is if gets into the wrong hands, and the knowledge within is used by another necromancer, or anyone, really. But at the same time, by studying the Necronomicon and understanding the methods and magic involved, the temple will be able to find and exploit potential weaknesses. Still, the danger is still present, and the local temple has said that it doesn’t have the strength to fend of the trouble that it could potentially attract. For now, it lies in Lily’s hands… Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 30 Experience: 3922.08/6400 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 48.0 Dexterity: 5.0 (10.0) Wisdom: 48.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.6 Durability: 17.2/17.2 Mana: 960/960 Mana regen: 9.70/min Psi: 485/485 Psi regen: 4.80/min Ki: 10627/3152 (31525) Ki regen: 3.15 (31.52)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 27.82% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.35% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 27.96% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.09% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.05% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 24.66%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 41.52%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 20.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 45.13% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 6.43% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Active) 36.62% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 25 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.5/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.75 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 93.39% - Your practice with magic has led to an increased familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 25 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.5 mana. Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 52.45% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 32 Experience: 1546.48/7200 [+18838.5] Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 48.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 40.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 48.4   Health: 474/484 Health regen: 2.904/hour Stamina: 407/407 Stamina regen: 4.07/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Fighting spirit: 0   Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Battleborn – Whether your battles end in victory or defeat, you will never give up. Increased resistance to mental influences, increased grip strength, pain reduction. Stat unlock: Fighting spirit. Skills Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.37% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.53% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 14.93% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.33% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.61% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.28% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.52% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.60% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.67% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.54% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry – Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. Minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry – Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword – Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 25.48% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 39.26% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 17.30% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 32.14% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Power slash (Basic) (High Common, Active) 21.37% - Multiplies the speed and power of a slash by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Power stab (Basic) (High Common, Active) 14.63% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.1. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Stamina cost: 50 Battle focus (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 48.36% - Allows you to enter a state of intense concentration when in combat. Slightly decreases likelihood of being startled by unexpected events, loosing track of an enemy and not seeing attacks. Strength +0.5, Dexterity +0.5, Endurance +0.5, Intelligence +0.5, Wisdom +0.5, Luck +0.5, Charisma +0.5 when in this state. Battle cry (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 6.74% - Roar loudly, your voice echoing over the battlefield with a possibility of startling and/or causing fear in enemies. Reduced effect if used repeatedly on the same enemy. Requires: >30 Fighting spirit. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Stamina cost: 30. Mapping (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.31% - You tried to draw a map. Emphasis on tried. Well, at least you tried. Armour – Shield – Heater Shield (Basic) (High Common, Passive) 2.83% - You have a small amount of experience using a heater shield. +1 Endurance when using a heater shield. [collapse]

(POV Gerald) At first glance, the status windows look like the menus in a game. Second and third glance too. But the thing about a game, y’see, is that everything is pre-programmed. Sure, there are AIs and all that, but even they are limited. In their speech options, the different animations, how they act… you look at them long enough, and things begin to repeat. Now, I’m not about to say that I think the people here are like AIs or something, that’d be stupid. But menus are the same way as well. All your stats have limits, upper and lower ones. There are a limited range of skills and abilities you can obtain. And titles are generally only obtained from quests or by performing special feats – they’re also pre-programmed. And the descriptions. And skills themselves are programmed to do certain things. Now, while in a game, say there’s a fireball spell and a firebolt spell. Generally, you can get one without the other, and the only relation between the two is the similar effects. Here though, everything is caused by something. It’s not just, ‘cast x skill, y mana deducted’, the mana actually goes somewhere and carries out the skill. And the descriptions… some of them almost feel tailored specifically for me. Eh, enough of that. What I’m getting at here, is that the energies: mana, psi, ki, they all go and do something when I use the telepathy skill or ki blast skill or whatever. And that’s mostly automatic. But… It doesn’t have to be. I can cancel it or direct it however I want. And if I’m doing that, doesn’t it mean I’m manipulating the energies themselves? And if I can manipulate those energies, why the heck am I restricted to the few skills I know? It’s not like the first mages got taught magic, or warriors were born with their skills. So, here I am, trying to figure out how to use my energies in a different way than my skills dictate. Right now, I’m trying to get a feel for how telepathy works, to sense how the psi moves when I use it. I can feel… almost like a link of energy between me and Ferdinand. I can control it, but anything I do just disrupts the skill. And what little I can sense is faint. Well, right now there’s only one way I can think of using psi. BRUTE FORCE FOR THE WIN! I grab some psi, and push it out, controlling it to push against the back of a wooden chair. Skill gained: Telekinesis (Basic) Through using the powerful energy of a highly developed mind like some savage barbarian, you have learned how to push things with your mind. Force generated varies with psi used. Currently very inefficient. See what I mean!? That description CAN’T be pre-written! …I should have used less psi. The chair is currently lying on the ground with a few cracks running through it. Maybe I should do the other tests in the great outdoors… Sitting, or rather lying, on the ground, I begin my tests. Now, onto ki. Ki blast just shoves a bunch of ki out of your body, then it just runs wild. Now, what if I try and control it after ejecting it? This time, I start small. 10 points of ki should do fine. I control it to rise to the surface of my body. So far, so good. Then I push it beyond, and the strain instantly magnifies twentyfold. I barely manage to keep a handle on it, but I can easily imagine that had I used much more ki, it would have run wild. After a short while, I get it in a somewhat stable state, and try and send it to attack a pebble. After floating away half a meter, it escapes my control and fizzles in a tiny burst of air. Skill gained: External Ki manipulation (Basic) Most people use Ki internally (wink wink, nudge nudge), but you have decided to use it externally, with minimal success. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. For gods’ sake… I DON’T HAVE A BODY TO DO ANYTHING WITH, STATUS WINDOWS! GET A CLUE! Hah… Calm down, me. Okay, next. What if I do a normal ki blast, but instead of just letting it go, I give it a direction to go in? Maintaining direction should be much easier than maintaining shape. I hop over to a rock and give it a go. It’s nowhere near as difficult as what I tried before, but still harder than a normal burst. The beam of ki sends the rock, and me flying in opposite directions. I check on the rock and it has a shallow hole bored into it. Nice. …No skill? That’s strange. I check through my skills, and notice the proficiency for ki blast has jumped up around 30%. So, it’s not just repetition to increase proficiency? I should have known. Now, I have a few other things I’d like to try with ki, but unfortunately, I don’t have a body, and my ki is running low as it is. Last but most anticipated, mana. Honestly, I don’t have much to go off, here. I mean, I have 3 magic skills – Absorb, self-repair and form manipulation – self, but I have no clue how exactly they work. Wait, there was that magic edge too, right? That one’s easy enough. Anyway, let’s just try the old magic missile. Skill gained: Magic missile (Basic) Congratulations, after all this time you’ve just now learnt how to use one of the most basic magical attacks in existence. Good job. Now you just have to figure out how to do it correctly. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 10 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 1 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Hey, I was busy. Playing minesweeper… Ahem. Let’s just get to training, shall we? There are a couple of skills that I’ve been neglecting: Body of deadly poison, and body of weak acid. Obviously, this is because I don’t want to be even more poisonous than I am, but as things are, I might need to be. So, I find myself the largest creature around and use ki blasts to hop over to it. Then, I embed myself in its hide with another series of ki blasts. After that, I just wait. The giant elk starts panicking, running around frantically, rolling over to try to get me off. Another burst of ki makes me dig deeper into it, and it stops rolling. After another few seconds, it starts frothing at the mouth, then stops moving altogether. I haven’t gotten a notification, so it must still be alive, just paralysed. Another few seconds, and it’s dead. I get 20.25 exp, then a further 360 from absorbing most of its body. Unfortunately, no skills. I seem to have had a run of bad luck lately. …I’m completely out of ki now, aren’t I? Ferdinand! Come pick me up! (POV Ferdinand) In the past day, I have spent most of my time finding and talking to various members of Richard’s crew. It didn’t taken me long to find out where he had gone, but why was a different matter. It wasn’t until I found the man who had been the lookout that day that I was able to figure it out. He said that before the battle, there was someone who looked a lot like Richard’s dead son standing on the deck of the other ship, and that the captain was found after the battle standing in front of a recently used portal. I must admit I had to ask him what a portal was, but after that I could mostly guess what happened. Richard must have gone to the navy headquarters looking for information… which means we must as well. Only problem is, I don’t know anyone there. So, I made the rounds again, and asked for the details of anyone he might have turned to for help. They were more than glad to help me out, and I eventually compiled a long list of names. They did warn me, however, that they couldn’t be sure if those people still lived in the city, or if they were even still alive. Still, it was a start. After all that, it was nearly dark, and I went outside of the city to where I left Gerald. For a while, I couldn’t find him. That is, until I saw him moving towards me, shaking and bobbing unsteadily in the air. So, he can fly now. Okay. Taking out a piece of old fabric, I carefully pinch the levitating cutlery within its folds. A voice pops into my head. ‘Thanks for picking me up, Ferdinand. Did you find out anything?’ ‘No problem.’ I think back. ‘I’ve found out where he was going, and a list of people he may have contacted while there. And, perhaps, the reason he left: apparently, someone who looked like his dead son was on that ship. Also, there was a portal in the hold.’ ‘Interesting… I don’t think that will help us much, though. We don’t exactly know what he looks like, after all.’ ‘True,’ I concede, ‘But any information is helpful with how little we know. How did your… ‘serious’ training go?’ ‘Let’s see here…’ He says, trailing off for a moment. ‘Three new skills, one of which is a ranged attack and the other I was just using to move around… The other won’t be useful until I train it to the advanced, perhaps expert level…’ He says that so casually that it throws me completely. ‘Do you… Have skills at expert proficiency?’ I ask tentatively. ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got a few. One of them is mostly useless, though. Speaking of proficiency, I got the skill that makes me highly poisonous and the skill that makes me slightly acidic to advanced proficiency, and guess what? I can turn them on and off now!’ He sounds very happy about this, understandably. ‘That’s good.’ I think back. His voice sounds hesitant this time. ‘There’s something I need to ask. Would you mind if I…’ Early the next morning, in a very neat and impressive building situated near the centre of port Acktown, a thin man dressed elegantly in bright colours sits at a large desk. Ceaselessly, he reads over the scores of documents and reports piled up in front of him. Some he signs, some he makes alterations to, and others he put to the side. People flit in and out of the room, taking or bringing papers. It seems a never-ending cycle; if the man looks over ten reports and signed eleven documents, a similar number will replace them within moments. This is the office of the lord of the port, and all things of importance go through him, and him alone. In a brief moment of respite from the flurry of papers, he rolls his shoulders, stretching his arms and sighing as he mutters under his breath, “I really need to find someone who can help me with this… But…” The rest he leaves unsaid. There is nobody in the governance of this city that he is completely sure he can trust. There are too many who could be spies, or bribed by… whoever. Criminals, opposing factions… it all has the same effect in the end. However, by some twist of fate or whimsy of gods, his woes are due to end that day. Suddenly, his brows tighten into a frown, and he opens his mouth slightly as if to call out. Then his face turns pensive, and after a moment’s consideration, he takes out a fresh sheet of paper and starts writing on it furiously. Names, places, descriptions, crimes, evidence… line after line of neat script printed across the page as his hand blazes back and forth, occasionally darting across to the inkwell to smear more ink across the point of his quill. Finally, he reaches the end of the sheet, and takes out another, again writing furiously. His eyes widen and continued to widen as page after page are gradually filled with text. It is possible, of course, that every word on the pages are false. However, if they aren’t… The city will likely be thrown into turmoil. The voice in his head disappears, and he begins to consider what to do. The first thing to do, he decides, would be to determine the validity of the claims. Flipping through the pages, he picks out a relatively innocent crime, and writes it on a separate slip of paper. He calls some of the city guards, and gives it to them, telling them to search the location on it. Later, they came back, reporting that they had found… well, exactly what the voice had said they would. One is hardly enough to ensure validity, however. He sends them out again and again as the day wears on, to different places, to different people, each time his eyebrows furrowing further as each and every case is a success. At this point he is thoroughly convinced that most, if not all of the claims are legitimate. And this is only what that person had seen in the past couple of weeks? He sighs heavily. It seems his work has only just begun. (POV Gerald) Utilising a combination of absorb and ki blasts, I slide through the earth from where I had been for the last while, not a metre below the man’s feet. If I wasn’t so close, I would never have been able to use telepathy for as long as I had. It wasn’t as if I could reliably get inside the place while remaining hidden, so getting below it was the next best thing. My small size ensures that the tunnels I dug have little effect on the surrounding earth, and even the entrance is barely visible. After popping myself back out of the ground, Ferdinand picks me up and we head out of the city. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to find any escort requests en route to our destination, so we are on our own this time. Not that it matters all that much. With how much I – and Ferdinand, to a lesser extent – have improved, the only things that can pose much difficulty to us are… …And I gave Ferdinand that much flak for jinxing us the last few times. “We have a large group of people blocking the road ahead, probably bandits by what they’re saying.” I alert Ferdinand. He pauses. “And how can you hear what they’re saying?” “Lip reading.” Anticipating the impending query, I explain. “It’s where you guess what people are saying based on how they move their lips.” “Alright then, any chance we can go around them?” He asks. “…Probably…” I admit reluctantly. “Why do you sound disappointed by that?” He asks suspiciously. “I sort of wanted to try out my new skills, but it doesn’t matter. Monsters are better for that sort of thing anyway.” So, we give the bandit group a wide berth, re-joining the road some distance behind them. And that is – not that. jinxes can’t be avoided that easily, apparently. One of the bandits clearly has some sort of vision enhancement skill, because he calls out to his companions and points at us walking away. I mean, really? Group of 13 chasing after one guy. Yeah, totally not overkill. Well, it might not be overkill since it’s us, but they don’t know that. Regarding the capabilities of the bandits, their lack of proper armaments speaks for itself. Barely one in four have a proper sword, and the rest are basically just holding farming implements: sickles, pitchforks, one guy even has a shovel. They have no armour to speak of. “They’re chasing us! Looks like I’ll be able to test out my new ranged attack after all…” I muse. “Don’t kill them, please.” Ferdinand says. Well, they are probably trying to kill us, but there is no time to complain. “I can aim at their legs, but that’s about all I can do.” Moving myself out of his bag with a quick use of telekinesis, I flop onto the ground and fire a single magic missile at them. Just in case it’s secretly super OP. Okay, maybe not. With me being at ground level and casting the spell near parallel to the ground, the only place it can hit is leg. And there’s a lot of leg to go around in this group. Ever heard of ‘spreading out’? Clearly not. Anyway, the small magic missile impacts on a leg, knocking it backwards slightly and leaving a shallow wound. This won’t do at all. Improvisation time! Normal magic missile, compress into needle, fire. It pierces a few centimetres into a leg, drawing blood and eliciting a cry of pain from the wounded man. Sufficient power to disable. Engaging rapid fire. I fire out a barrage of twenty magic needles at the forest of legs, causing several of them to swerve to avoid them - remember how I recommended you spread out? – into their companions, basically making almost all of them collapse in a moaning heap. Their flailing limbs send their weapons waving all over the place, doing much more damage to themselves than I did. …I didn’t expect that to happen. But it was surprisingly simple to create so many shots at once. Even turning them all into needles wasn’t too hard. The only one left standing is shovel man, completely clueless as to why all his friends have just fallen over. I wonder what Ferdinand’s gonna do now? (POV Ferdinand) Walking up to them, I can easily see that these people were farmers, now that I have a closer look. Why would farmers turn bandit? As long as you put in the work and there isn’t terrible weather, your livelihood is mostly guaranteed. Which means that either these men’s fields had been affected by plague or infestation, or something else had forced them out of the village. It happens more often than people seem to think. Farmers by and large aren’t that strong, and your average farming village may have only a few soldiers guarding it. If a strong monster comes, or even enough weak ones, a village can be quickly overwhelmed. Stopping a short distance away from the pile of people struggling to untangle themselves without hurting each other even more in the process, I call out to the only one who isn’t too preoccupied to negotiate with – a shortish man with a dirt-smeared face, awkwardly holding a shovel as if he can’t decide whether he should be hitting me with it, helping up the others or planting turnips. “Hello there. Why did you all come to attack me?” I try to keep an amiable tone, but I must admit I am less than pleased with them all chasing after us like that. It seems to relax him a bit, because he lowers his shovel. “We wasn’ gonna actually hurt ya, ye see. We was jus’ gonna scare you a bit, take a peck at ya coins n’ let ya go agin. We meant no ‘arm, honest.” His accent is so thick it takes me a few moments to understand what he is saying, but once I do I am somewhat relieved. But at the same time, he doesn’t answer my question. “That’s nice of you, but why do you need my money in the first place?” He scratches his wild mop of brown hair, scowling as he said, “Well, we got no farms no more, have we? Asked the people in town for ‘elp, but all they did was ask wot we’re gonna pay ‘em with. Pay ‘em? We put food on their table fer years, and they ‘ave the gall to ask us to pay? Bunch of ungrateful louts, I say. Ain’t nobody respects farmers these days, I tell yah.” At his words, I can’t help but think back to when the famine struck my own village. Nobody sent help for us then, either. I feel a surge of sympathy towards them, and after a moment of thought, decide to help them, if I can. If I don’t, who will? “How did you lose your farms?” I ask kindly. His face droops in sorrow. “They came in the night, they did. Got woken up by screaming, an’ I knew sommat was up. Went outside, n’ there were skeletons swarming the fields! Hardly managed to grab a shovel and fend ‘em off while the missus got away.” He shakes his head, his voice hiccupping slightly. “Some of the others didn’ do so well.” By this point in time, most of the others have managed to get themselves up, and have moved behind the shovel man to treat their wounds. “Where is your village?” He looks at me in astonishment. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 29 Experience: 4485.53/6000 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 46.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 46.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.2 Durability: 16.8/16.8 Mana: 745/920 Mana regen: 9.30/min Psi: 465/465 Psi regen: 4.60/min Ki: 73/3022 (30225) Ki regen: 3.02 (30.22)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 20.27% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.16% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.86% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 17.53% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.06% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.00% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 8.42%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 20.77%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 6.07% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 92.86% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Sometimes inaccurate, but you can piece the gist of things together. Telekinesis (Basic) (High Uncommon, Active) 3.48% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently very inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Basic) (High Common, Active) 43.79% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 10 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 1 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 26 Experience: 132.08/5100 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 41.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 35.4   Health: 354/354 Health regen: 2.124/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.46% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.86% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.54% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.18% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.41% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.51% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.66% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.53% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.70% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 37.22% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse]

(POV Ferdinand) After all that, I’m not in the mood for relaxing on the beach. I’ll probably just end up being swarmed by sand slimes – or something worse. So, I head back to the city. For the second time today. At least this time I’m not dragging along a giant crab. Another lengthy traipse across the shore later, I’m back at the city gates. Walking through them, I consider what I should do with the rest of my day. I definitely don’t feel like going out to kill monsters again, but just sitting around is a waste of the day. Back on the farm, this wasn’t a problem. Work, day in and day out. There was always something to do; too many, in fact, to do in a single day. It was painful, hard work. How I miss those days… “Hello, would you like to become one with our lord and saviour?” A voice came from my right. Without even moving my head, I say, “No thanks.” The voice came again. “If you ever change your mind, we’ll be here.” I look back. I can’t believe that same guy is still standing here. He was there when I first came to this city, saying that same line every time someone passed by. Every day. I’ve never even seen him move from there. I have no idea who he worships, but just the way he says, ‘become one’ gives me an off feeling. Still, he’s not causing any trouble, so the guards leave him alone. Frankly, I think he just creeps them out, too. Most people here just ignore him. Now… perhaps some light training will relax me? Yes, that sounds good… but after that? You know, how about I finally try out fishing. That should be relaxing. Yes, that sounds great! Feeling better already, I start whistling a tune and walk off into the city. That night, near the gates. A man totters as he walks slowly along the road, bottle in hand. A voice calls out to him. “Hello, would you like to become one with our lord and saviour?” The drunkard stops, blinking blearily as his eyes try to focus on the man standing in front of him. Slurring his words, he speaks. “Wot? Whossit?” The man stands there, eyes staring without even a flicker of movement at the drunkard. He doesn’t blink. He states again, “Hello, would you like to become one with our lord and saviour?” The drunkard scratches his head and takes another swig from his bottle, tilting his head far back and taking deep gulps. Then he looks into it and turns the bottle completely upside-down, but nary a drop spills from the opening. “Iz, isemte.” He tosses it aside. It doesn’t shatter, but clatters loudly against the paved road. The only sound, apart from that of the ever-present wind and waves. He looks back up at the man, who is still looking at him. Unblinking. “Wossat mean?” he said. The man smiles, and the drunkard smiles back. Were he sober, he would see that the man’s smile was only a movement of the mouth… almost as if it were just an imitation of a smile. “I’m glad you asked. There are two options for those who wish to join our Lord.” Here he raises one arm, sticking up two fingers. The rest of his body is completely still. “The first is the most popular. If you are not already, you will be raised to level twenty. On top of this, each of your stats will be permanently buffed by five. As payment, however, eighty percent of all experience you gain from now on will be given to our lord. And if you are ever to be in a deadly situation… You will be automatically changed to the second option.” He speaks in a pleasant, but flat voice. He starts to continue, but is interrupted by the drunkard. “Tha, thas crazy, like, wheh do I sineup?” The man continues to look at him. “Are you sure?” he says. “Yesh, yesh! Iya por fshermn, levl twenty, levl twenty… What doi haveta do?” The man’s smile grows wider, and he holds out his hand. “Just shake my hand. The buff will take effect in half an hour. As for the levels… just keep pressing yes.” The drunkard shakes his hand. A few seconds later, a message appears in front of his eyes: You have been invited to the party, ‘ ’. Do you accept? Yes No Dubiously, he hits yes. Then another one comes up. Then another, then another, another, then many, many more. Every one of them party invitations. He frantically hits ‘yes’ on all of them. Then other notifications appeared, this time for enemies killed. Then… Level up! You are now level 9! 2.5 Stat points gained.   Level up! You are now level 10! 2.5 Stat points gained.   Level up! You are now… 3.0 Stat points… Level up! You are now level 20! 3.0 Stat points gained. The man stares in shock at what he is seeing, rubs his eyes and looks again. Pinches himself, looks again. It is still there. Then more messages come flooding in. You have been kicked from the party, ‘ ’. And many more like it. Level 20, within just a few minutes. “You are one of us now. Enjoy your new strength.” Fervently, he thanks the man, then happily walks off, pondering where to put all his points. He never did find out what that second option was. (POV Gerald) You know, it has come to my attention that I’m not utilising my status as a fork sufficiently in humour. And as we all know, that’s just unforkivable. Thus, I will forkwith be adding ‘lame fork puns’ to my list of priorities. Anyway, I should stop procrastineating. It’s been seven days – well, technically six and a half - since the incident with the hermit crab. not much major happened during that time, a bit of hunting, a lot of meditation… It’s pretty much like how I am normally, except my mana sight becomes... sort of like, a background? I just stop noticing it. And I feel more focused on what I’m thinking… shame I have nothing constructive to really think of. It only took me a day to get that to advanced, and now it’s bordering on expert. Meditation (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 83.17%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2, Ki generated at 15 times the normal rate. My stored Ki is around 2.5k by now, but I haven’t gotten an opportunity to test it yet, so I’m looking forward to that… Ferdinand has been hunting on and off, of course. Unforktunately, my luck seems to have run out, because the things I’ve been getting have been mostly useless: Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease.   Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Soooo… yeah. And the amount of exp I’ve gotten is miniscule at a grand total of… 233. But, on the plus side, since I got that regeneration boost from meditation, self-repair went up a bit faster than I had previously anticipated: Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 8.85% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. So, I can repair myself with mana, psi or ki now, but since I want to stockpile Ki until it’s at max and I need Psi for telepathy, the only real boon for me right now is the slightly decreased cost. They really are being stingy with that now. And the experience gain has dropped even further to 0.01% per durability. I have nothing better to do, so the math of that, long story short, is 20 days. Okay, this is more than just a bug. This is a game-breaking bug. This is like farming iron daggers for smithing levels in Skyrim, one of those dupe glitches in Minecraft, or using the angel goat to compete against your friends getting the most points within the time limit in goat sim. Buuuuuuut, since it’s benefitting me, I don’t really care? One last thing to note about self-repair, is that slightly reduced cost allows me to do four repetitions in a cycle. How does that affect anything? It doesn’t, really. But hey, it means I can repair more in one go. In fact, I can now repair more in one go than I have durability. So that’s nice. Since what happened in the last city, I haven’t been attracting monsters. Instead, I’ve been screwing around with small animals in the city. Driving them away from food carts, wells, that sort of thing. Now that I think about it, I’m probably reducing the levels of sickness and disease in this city. You’re welcome, people who don’t know I exist. Now, I think it’s about time to utilise my epic fork psychic powers to wake up sleeping beauty over there. Judging by all the people getting up, it should be morning. (POV Ferdinand) Today is the day I get over my fear of boats. Richard is very well-known in the fishing community here, so he found out almost instantly that I have started trying my hand at fishing. In one of his rare moments of clarity, he actually recognised that his friends were talking about me, so he invited me to go fishing with him. On his galleon. He has a galleon. And a full crew, that he takes with him every time he goes fishing. Why he doesn’t just use a smaller boat, I have no clue. As I walk up the gangplank and onto the deck, I feel it rolling slowly beneath my feet, my stomach starts to churn and I begin to wonder why I agreed to this in the first place. Oh right, because I wanted to learn how to fish better. Walking up behind me, Richard claps me on the back, just as the deck shifts beneath me. I fall to the floor, where Richard looks at me in surprise. “Don’t have your sea legs yet? What have you been doing during your time here if not sailing, Frederick?” He stretches out a hand to help me, and as I grab it, I notice his grip is incredibly strong, and when he hoists me to my feet he doesn’t budge an inch even on the rolling deck, as if he were made of stone. “Ferdinand, sir. I’ve just been hunting monsters around the city, since I’m not used to being on ships.” He laughs. “It’s about time for you to get used to it then. There’s no better crew anywhere in this area, and most of them have been my shipmates for decades. You’re in the best of hands, Ferdinand. Relax and enjoy the sea, in all of its beauty.” He walks to the prow and spreads his hands, but all I see is water. It’s saltwater too, so it can’t even be drunk or used to water crops. “Not feeling it yet? You will. The seas are an entirely different world to land, with their own rules… and rulers.” Whatever that meant, this is sure to be an interesting trip. One way or another. Dozens of men, most of them with hair that is greying or even pure white, clamber about the rigging. Unfurling sails, tying ropes and whatever else sailors do with twice the vigour of men half their age. “Why do you take a galleon out just to fish?” I ask. “Surely it would be easier with a smaller vessel?” He stroked his beard with one hand and caressed the ship’s carved railing with another. “I watched this ship, the Sea Dragon, being built. I travelled across the seas on her, fought alongside her…” He turned to me. “This ship is almost as close to me as my wife used to be… I can’t move to another woman, even if it would be easier. And I can’t sail on another ship.” I can scarcely recognise him as the forgetful old man, selling fish in a stall by the side of the road. He looks alive, almost as if he’s grown a few years younger, just by being on his ship. The sea is mysterious indeed. The sailors untie mooring lines, pull up anchors, and row our way out of harbor into the sea. We are off. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must empty my stomach. Violently. A galleon bobs up and down on waters as smooth as a sheet of glass. Looking around at the sea is like looking into the sky; it seems as if one will fall for all eternity, if they fall overboard. A cloud drifts slowly across the sky, blocking the sun. A gargantuan shadow slowly shifts across the surface of the sea, providing shelter to working sailors. Meanwhile, several men sit at one end of the ship, poles held loosely. A net of strings drapes down into the water, causing tiny ripples on an otherwise smooth surface where they meet with it. The men are quiet. Still. Relaxed, but watchful as they wait for a bite. The oldest one there speaks quietly to the youngest there. “You have patience. Usually men at your age are rushing about here and there, but you seem content to sit. I like that. If a man won’t wait to live, they won’t wait to die. There’s no point in rushing when you don’t… need to move in the first place.” Exhaling deeply, Ferdinand replies, completely relaxed. “I used to be a farmer. Plants could take months to grow. If you lack patience and harvest before its time, all you would get is chaff. A farmer without patience is a poor farmer.” After that, they sit in silence. The only sounds are the occasional splash of a fish being pulled from the water, accompanied by the warm smile of its catcher. Most of the fish are caught by Richard, and very few are caught by Ferdinand. Still, the fact that he catches any at all says something about both his talent in fishing and Richard’s skill as a teacher. And it can’t be forgotten that they are in a location picked by Richard himself. With his experience and skills, picking a location rich in fish is a matter of course. As the day draws on and the buckets grow fuller, Ferdinand opens his mouth again. “Thank you for bringing me with you today, sir. I really appreciate it.” Richard smiled fondly at him. “Don’t worry about it, lad. Old men like us, we feel happy just having someone to talk to. That’s why we all go fishing together so often, right men!?” “““Yes sir!””” “Now, who caught the biggest fish!?” “““You did, sir!””” “That’s right, I did!” A shadow moves over the surface of the water again, just like any of the other times a cloud passed over the sun. But this time, Richard’s gaze suddenly grows sharp, and he throws his pole to one side, where it clacks and rolls along the edge of the deck, falling with a *plop* into the sea. Standing, he roars out, “BATTLE STATIONS! IT’S A BIG ONE!” All the sailors rush about, loading shot and powder into the cannons, fetching bows and ammunition, closing and latching doors and hatches… Meanwhile, the surface of the water near the ship bulges upwards, waves surging outwards as something enormous surfaces, complete with a glassy orb the size of a human head. “TARGET THE EYE!” Richard yelled out, preparing his own weapons. A volley of arrows fly out with impeccable accuracy, going directly towards the eye of the beast. In a motion that looks almost ponderous due to its size, it slides its eyelid shut and the arrows bounce off the rubbery flesh. A low *BOOM* echoes out, and a chunk of flesh is torn from the eyelid, the beast issuing a wailing shriek as the cannonball continues into the eye behind. “CUT ME A PATH, MEN!” Richard’s voice booms forth once more, clear even over the deafening screams of the beast. Another volley is loosed, but the difference between this and the first is akin to that between a lake and the ocean. Flying in a perfect arrowhead formation, each arrow glows with a blue light, emitting a sharp sound as they cut through the air. But they never pierce the beast. No, they never even touch it. For as they approach, the flesh of the beast distorts and tears before them, each moving and creating deep trenches in the body of the beast. They pass by the beast, continuing into the water behind it. The water parts at their behest, and they vanish into the abyss. *BOOM!* Another cannon blast rings out as the beast reels in pain, water and blood slipping from it to the sea below, creating waves and staining the area around it red. Even this cannonball glows as it powers through the air, but due to its size, it is even more eye-catching. The cannon was fired from the opposite end of the ship as the archers, but due to the angle they both hit the same area. Another, even larger furrow is carved into the flesh of the sea monster, leaving a set of cuts… and one small spot where they all intersect, leaving a particularly deep wound. “My turn.” With a savage grin, Richard grips his weapon and takes a bounding leap overboard, sending him soaring ten… no, perhaps even twenty meters over the surface of the water, leaving him directly above the beast. “HaaaAAAAHHHH!” Tensing his muscles, both weapon and wielder began to glow dimly as he stretches to his breaking point. Then, he flings it down, and the weapon disappears amidst a massive shockwave that radiates even to the surface of the water and creates a series of ripples. Were one on the ship, they would only be able to hear the final scream of the beast as it dies. Richard, however, has a perfect view of it as he falls. His harpoon bores a bloody hole until it reaches the heart of the beast, killing it. Or it would die, after that last bit of blood the heart had pumped out lost its oxygen. Which will be very soon. In the meantime, Richard spins in the air, entering a smooth dive. When he hits the water, he slips into it as smoothly as a fish, with nary a splash. Beneath the water, he swims faster than many can run, moving around as easily as a hawk on the high winds. He moves towards the slowly sinking beast, diving into the hole created by his harpoon, now filling with the last vestiges of its blood. With a titanic pull, he wrenches his weapon from the heart of the beast, and swims back to the surface. Grabbing a rope ladder, he climbs up it quickly and effortlessly. Reaching the deck, he raises his bloody harpoon high and proclaims their victory. (POV Ferdinand) When that thing fixed its gaze on me, with that glassy, emotionless eye… I honestly thought we were dead. But the way they dealt with it… They almost made it look weak. And while all of them were out there fighting, it was all I could do to keep my footing, with all the rocking this boat was doing. The amount it tilted… how did it not capsize? I wonder if, one day, I’ll be able to fight like that too? …I don’t think it’s possible… Richard walks over to me, breathing a bit heavily. “You alright there, lad? For your first sea battle, that was a doozy.” He said. “But I didn’t do anything.” I say, ashamed. “I could barely keep myself aboard.” “But you did!” He laughs. “And that’s more than most people can say, I assure you. I think you’d do well as a sailor, in fact.” I lift my head, happy at his praise yet unsure if it was really something praiseworthy. “Ow, my back, my back!” Suddenly, he bends over, thumping himself on the back with his fist. “I really am getting old, to be having trouble with a child like that…” My eyes bulged. “A child!? It was bigger than this ship!” He glanced at me. “Oh sure. Adult killer whales can grow to be twice that size. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to steer us clear of these waters before one of its parents comes along.” I follow him with my eyes, in disbelief. The sea really is a different world. That thing was even bigger than the spider matriarch, and it’s only a child. Still, I don’t expect that its level was as high. That would be insane… (POV Richard) Shifting the wheel with one hand, I glance at the notification hovering in my vision. Level forty-two, was it? It must have been very young indeed. Dismissing it, I focus back on the water. It is only here, out in the deeps, that I feel truly alive. It’s partly because of my skills, I’m sure, but even so. Just breathing in the sea breeze reminds me of better days… Days when my son stood beside me at the helm as I taught him the ropes. Days when I held his hand in the water as I taught him to swim. Days when we sat around a table in mess and ate together. If only I could reverse the timepiece… but no, that would be an insult to my comrades. An insult to their resolve, to their courage, their sacrifice. If I truly could do such a thing, I would not, could not, use it. Those times have passed, however much I wish for it not to be so. Ah, the sea. Calm and deep, welcoming and warm. Yet how terrible a mistress is she, men enter but never leave. Ships sail, never to be heard from again. Perhaps one day… But not today. However cruel she treats me, yet I just can’t leave her be… If I ever loved a woman, I loved three; my beautiful wife, Gods rest her soul; My ship, faithful companion; and the sea, hated and loved in equal measures. My hands move on their own as I stare into the depths. I let them, they never steered me wrong before, and my men would tell me if they ever did. “Captain! Ship sighted!” A holler comes down from the crow’s nest. Drawing a deep breath, I bellow back up. “Any markings?” In reply, he tosses down the spyglass. I’m not so old as to miss this. I reach out and grabbed it as it tumbles through the air. Extending it again, I follow the man’s outstretched arm and focus on the horizon. My skill telescopic vision increases my vision threefold when using a spyglass, allowing me to easily spot the vessel. I pan around, and the more I look, the more I frown. No markings on the sails, no flags, no ensigns… A completely unmarked vessel. On the open sea, that can only mean bad things for us. To be on the safe side, we should retreat to the harbour. Just as I’m about to put the spyglass down, I catch sight of a figure at the prow of the ship. Perhaps this will give a clue as to the intentions of the vessel. I twist the spyglass, increasing the magnification and allowing me to clearly see even the man’s face. The spyglass drops from my hands, clattering to the deck. I’m too shocked to care. It’s impossible. Absolutely, completely impossible. I saw his corpse, I buried it! WHY IS MY SON ON THAT SHIP? Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 28 Experience: 4238.53/5700 Gender: None Age: 10 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 44.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 44.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 24.8 Durability: 16.4/16.4 Mana: 880/880 Mana regen: 8.90/min Psi: 445/445 Psi regen: 4.40/min Ki: 2790/2892 (28925) Ki regen: 2.89 (28.92)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 18.02% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Advanced) (High Rare, Passive/toggled) 47.61% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/2m. Their forms are now more distinct, but still blurred. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.86% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 7.42% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Basic) (High rare, Passive) 13.62% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.26% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.10% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.24% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 87.28%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2, Ki generated at 15 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.00%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 20 points. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 23 Experience 3419.33/4200 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 37.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 27.4   Health: 274/274 Health regen: 1.644/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 46.11% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.01% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.08% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 93.10% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 27.01% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 23.67% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.05% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 65.41% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 26.41% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.19% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 89.21% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minutely increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +0.5 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 28.79% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. [collapse]

(POV Gerald) I have no clue what shovel man was saying in that whole conversation. Couldn’t read his lips for the life of me, so I just got Ferdinand’s side of things, which, judging by the amount shovel man’s mouth moved, is a woefully inadequate representation of the conversation. Nevertheless, I can simply ask Ferdinand what’s up in a bit. For whatever reason, we’re currently heading to the bandits’ village. The only reason I haven’t asked yet is because I’m restoring my mana to face whatever enemies I’m sure we’re going to be facing in the immediate future. It doesn’t take long… only eight minutes. At least, that’s what I calculated it to be. If I could use this skill in combat, it’d be very useful. 2.5 times mana regen is nothing to sniff at, after all. And at higher proficiency levels, that will only increase. Anyway… “So, what’s happening?” After a moment, Ferdinand replies. “We’re going to help destroy the skeletons that invaded the village where these farmers used to live in. Didn’t you follow the conversation with that lip-reading skill?” I shrug internally, which is a much less effective means of communicating emotion than shrugging externally, but is still somehow satisfying. “Couldn’t pick a word he was saying. Did he speak the same language?” “Yes, he was. Maybe it was the accent? He had a strong accent.” He said, shrugging physically. Likely out of habit, but I should probably help him get out of it, if only during mental conversation. It could draw some strange questions, after all. “Probably the accent. So, skeletons? Any more detail on them?” Thankfully, he responds in the affirmative. “From what they told me, they shouldn’t be that strong. Most of the people I talked to defeated one or two in their escape, so it’s more the numbers that are the problem.” Ferdinand winces, putting a hand to his forehead and kneading the skin there between his fingers. “That’s something, then. Anything on who, or what, sent them?” I ask. Ferdinand starts to shake his head, but stops himself a moment later. “Nothing. Either they didn’t send the skeletons there personally, or none of them noticed him. Personally, I-“ Ferdinand cuts off, putting both hands to his head. His face contorts in pain, and he stops walking. A narrow trail of blood seeps from one of his nostrils, tracing around his upper lip and down his chin to drip to the ground. “Woah man, are you alright?” I ask worriedly. I can fix myself up in an instant, but anyone else is outside of my skillset. If his health starts turning south here, there’s nothing I’ll be able to do. “Tele…pathy, hurts…” He groans mentally. While one part of me idly muses that my telepathy seems to be able to convey more inflections and tone of voice than it used to, the rest of me is shutting down the telepathic connection in a panic, drowning me in silence once again. Almost immediately, his expression starts to ease up and his nose stops bleeding. A few more seconds, and it stops as quickly as it had begun. He waves away a few concerned villagers, stating that he is fine. I want to find out what exactly happened, but I can hardly ask when my telepathy seemed to be the cause, can I? For the next while he stared blankly off into the distance as he walks, a peculiar behaviour I attribute to people viewing their status. (POV Ferdinand) Well, I never expected this. Actually, I never expected anything at all. But if I did expect something, it definitely wouldn’t be this. Trait developed: Psychic Through repeated stimulation, a seldom-used portion of your mind has awoken. Stat unlock: Psi. Stat gained: Intelligence +2.   Skill gained: Telepathy (Basic) You are now capable of communicating without a sound, without a movement, using only your thoughts. Although this skill is severely limited by distance and can only communicate emotions, this can still be a useful tool if used wisely. After a bit of thought, I realise that this doesn’t really matter. My stats are already oriented completely towards physical combat. Starting to put points into intelligence and wisdom at this point would be… stupidity. So unfortunately, telepathy is destined to be an unused skill from the moment I get it. Looking at the information of the skill brings a wry smile to my face. Only a week or two ago I was complaining how my rarest skill was just low uncommon, and now here I am with a mid rare, but it’s useless to me. The thought makes me realise that it isn’t just rarity that matters. It’s how well the skill matches your stats. There’s probably even higher ranked skills that I wouldn’t be able to use properly… But enough of that. Gerald is probably worried about me right now. I scratch my head and a moment later his voice pops into my head. ‘Hey, are you alright? What happened?’ I smile, and feeling the liquid still present on my face, finally remember to wipe off the blood. ‘Perfectly fine, thanks. Apparently awakening as a psychic is painful for humans.’ And for once, he is the one dumbfounded. I feel a brief twinge of amusement ripple through me, before he kills it with his next words. ‘Oh good, I thought it was something big. Hah, just kidding you, that’s cool. Not the pain, of course, that’s a bummer.’ Hmph. ‘I got the telepathy skill as well, but with my Intelligence stat, I can hardly use it. So, all in all, I suffered that pain for nothing.’ I sigh. ‘Maybe not.’ He says contemplatively. ‘Sure, it may not be useful as it is, but using it to drain your psi only takes a few seconds. And if those few seconds every now and again can train it up to advanced proficiency, then there’s uses for it even without much psi.’ ‘Like what?’ I ask, curious. ‘Well, say you wanted to have a conversation with someone but don’t want other people to hear. At short distances, telepathic conversation doesn’t cost much psi at all.’ He says. That’s true, but it’s barely worth it. I’d use it so rarely… His voice emanates inside my head once again, but this time his voice is less jovial. ‘We’re nearly there. I’m seeing… five, ten, fifteen… twenty-three skeletons. And that number’s still going up as I see more of the village.’ ‘Thanks. Do you have anything that could help against skeletons?’ I ask him. ‘Apart from absorb, I don’t think so. Telekinesis may be able to take out a few, but I doubt my magic missile will be able to do much as it is… And absorb is just too noticeable, unless I absorb their entire body.’ Gerald says apologetically. Sighing, I steel myself for a hard battle. Possibly too hard for me to win. But I have confidence that, like before, if I was in any real peril Gerald would ignore his fears and help me win. ‘Well, even if I can’t help directly, with me here, nobody will be able to sneak up on you.’ Says Gerald, sorry that he can’t offer more. Smiling, I say, ‘Don’t worry so much. I’ll be fine.’ We continue walking along the path, and true to his word the village is soon in sight. ‘Final count: sixty-seven. No sign of any leader, irregular skeletons… I don’t suppose I can persuade you not to do this?’ Gerald says, sounding slightly hopeful. ‘No chance.’ I say. ‘If we don’t help them, they’re just going to slowly starve or be put in jail. I can’t let that happen if I can prevent it.’ ‘Ah well. Let’s get this over with.’ We reach the outskirts of the village a minute later. It feels like the sun has dimmed a bit, but when I look up, it’s shining as brightly as ever. The village looks like it has suffered under the reign of the undead, the grass an unhealthy brown and the buildings looking like they have been abandoned for years, not just a week or two. Bare trees dot the village, as if their very leaves have forsaken them in the presence of the undead. An unearthly silence makes it feel as if there isn’t a single thing living in the village, not even insects. A few of the shambling skeletons turn their heads eerily towards us, a dark flame burning behind their pale eye sockets. Just looking at them gives me a feeling of disgust, of… wrongness. The farmer with the shovel lifts it above his head and shouted, “Alright lads, we’ve made it! Adventurer boy ‘ere is gonna ‘elp us bash in some skelly skulls, so let’s take back our village! Our livelihoods!” ““YEAH!!”” The rest of them shouted, raising their own weapons. So he is their leader? Why does he have a shovel then? I shrug, slowly drawing my blade. The fourteen of us, plus a fork, charge into the village. The three skeletons near us are our first targets. Withered grass slips between the dry, waxen feet of the undead as they brandish weapons filthy with rust and neglect towards us, their unholy gazes radiating malice. Their bones click unnaturally as they move haltingly towards us, propelled by some dark magic far beyond our understanding. Despite our currently overwhelming advantage in numbers, I see a few expressions distorting in barely repressed fear at the grim sight. I grimace. It looks as if I’ll have to use these few as an example to keep morale up. Make it look easy. I hope it is, for all our sakes. Stepping towards them, I hold the handle of my sword with both hands and angle it towards them, ready to attack or defend if need be. Thankfully, they are slow… and not very smart. Instead of coming towards me together, they are moving towards us from slightly different directions and each are different distances from me. As a result of this, it could be said that this was three one-on-one fights rather than one three-on-one fight. What seems like a simple rearrangement of numbers on paper means a large difference in reality. Of course, this is only true if I can defeat them quickly enough. Otherwise, I will quickly find myself facing all three as the others catch up. Gritting my teeth, I strike towards the first of the abominations. My blade shatters through the bones of its arm, and further into its hollow ribcage. …This might be easier than I thought. Then I notice its rusty sword, grasped in its other hand, swinging towards me without regard for the massive injuries on its person. Panicking slightly, I swing my weapon to intercept the skeleton’s. Turns out I needn’t have worried so much, as it has barely more strength behind it than a child. Or is it because my strength has increased lately? Its weapon thrown to one side, I sweep its head from its shoulders. The dark fire in its eyes dims and disappears, leaving behind only shattered bones that fall to the ground in a pile. The next is only a step behind the first, crushing the remains of its predecessor beneath its feet as it moves towards me with a toothy grin. Eager to test the bounds of my strength, I kick a booted foot towards its leg, snapping the thick bone in twain. The skeleton collapses to the ground, unable to keep balance on only one foot. I almost start to get ready to fight the third skeleton when I see the skeleton below me turn its fleshless grin up towards me again and lift its sword off the ground. It starts flailing the weapon around, almost posing more difficulty to me than before because of the low angle. Still, it isn’t difficult for me to trap its blade with mine and crush its skull beneath my boot, obliterating its ghastly smile forever. Raising my sword to block the downwards swing of the third skeleton, I readjust my footing so as not to slip on the loose bones now beneath me before I decapitate this one as well. I take a deep breathe to recuperate from that flurry of motion and turn around. Before me is a small crowd of gobsmacked villagers. “See? Killing them isn’t that hard. We’ll have this place cleared by sunset.” I say, struggling to keep my breathing even and my voice stable as I say it. Combat done, I looked at the notification windows for their death. Level 2, level 2, level 1. They were strong for their level… The sky darkens overhead, causing my sweat-soaked clothing to cool to near frigid temperatures. Shortly after entering the village, every skeleton in the area started swarming towards us in a white wave of undeath. We were almost overwhelmed, but we managed to escape into one of the buildings and rest there for a while. Minus one man. Eventually, though, a wall collapsed under the unresting assault of the skeletons, and the gap was soon teeming with grinning skulls. I used up my mana there on a magic edge that cleaved through them and allowed us to make our way through. Another one of the farmers passed away soon after, a small wound he’d taken turning rotten quicker than anything I’d seen before. Now we are holding them off at a gap between two buildings. I’m not sure if it’s my imagination or a result of tiring limbs, but their blows seem to be getting heavier and their movements faster as time wears on. ‘Come on, only twenty-three left!’ Gerald says during a lull in the fighting. My heart falls at the revelation. It’s a far cry from the original sixty-seven, but it’s still far too many as we are right now. ‘Only?’ I say, too tired to say more. Gerald’s voice comes again. ‘That was supposed to be encouraging. Be encouraged.’ I groan in reply. Another group of skeletons moves towards us, so I roll the stiffness out of my limbs and ready my weapon again. Just before combat starts again, Gerald’s voice comes into my head once more. ‘Somebody’s coming. Looks like they’ll be an ally, but watch out just in case.’ Great… another thing to worry about. For the next few exhausting minutes, I see neither hide nor hair of whoever is approaching. Then a holy light descends upon the group of skeletons, and they fall lifelessly to the ground. In that instant, it feels as if the world had gotten just the tiniest bit brighter. After a few seconds, my eyes see what my ears were too tired to hear: a beautiful horse with a shining bay coat trotted around the corner and halts in front of us. After a second, I pull my eyes from the animal that probably cost more than the entirety of my family’s farm and focus on its rider. He is covered entirely helmet to boots in gleaming iron armour. Its surface is inlaid with repeating designs of nature and wildlife, the meaning of which I know not. On his belt is sheathed a long blade, and the edges of a heater shield are visible behind his back. This garb generally indicates the wearer as the knight of some noble, but coupled with the magic earlier – holy magic – it means that this person is a paladin, one favoured by a god. “I heard rumours that this village was overcome by the undead, and I came as quickly as I could. Is everyone alright?” His voice is muffled by the visor of his helmet, but it still rings clear in the deathly silence of the village. “Those of us here are fine, milord, but we lost a few to the undead before you arrived.” Says the leader of the villagers, oddly well-spoken in the presence of the paladin. “I’m very sorry to hear that…” He says, “The least I can do is heal you all before I start purifying this place of death energy.” He raises a hand, and light shines from his gauntleted hand onto us. As it hits me, I can feel the tension in my muscles bleeding away. The many scrapes and small injuries on my body stop stinging, and I can tell it’s because they have healed entirely. As the light dims, I feel as healthy and energetic as I would after a long rest and hearty meal. “Death energy?” I ask, sheathing my sword. Normally I would have to clean it first, but against skeletons, that is hardly a problem. His eyes flick over to me behind his visor. They are a striking green. “It pervades this place, no doubt because of the presence of so many undead. As a wielder of holy magic, which gives life, I am naturally capable of sensing its opposite.” ‘So can I. Wondered what that black mist was, but it didn’t seem to do much to you, so I didn’t say anything.’ Pipes in Gerald. “And who are you? You don’t look like the rest of the people here.” The paladin asks. “Just a normal adventurer, sir.” I say awkwardly, not expecting him to pay attention to me. “Hired help?” There was an edge of distaste in his voice, and the unfair accusation makes me a bit angry. “No milord, he helped us of his own accord. He didn’t ask for anything… unlike the people in town…” The leader of the farmers practically whispers the last part. “I’m glad that there are people outside the temples who help others without ulterior motives.” Says the paladin happily, before flicking his reins and moving off to another part of the village. Wiping off the sweat still present on my brow, I sit against the wall of the building beside me. I may have been healed of fatigue, but after something like that… you really don’t want to do anything but sit down and rest, do you? ‘By the way, you were all calling her sir, and milord and whatnot, but that was an elven woman, you know?’ says Gerald. …What? Back in that same city where Gerald and Ferdinand first talked… In the entrance of an alleyway to the side of one of many streets in the city, sits a man. Much of his face is obscured by grime, but from the sheer quantity and depth of his wrinkles, any casual observer could determine that the man is old. Very old. His hair is grey, messy and sparse, plastered to his scalp with oil and yet more grime, making it look almost black in colouration. The beard gracing his chin is similar, and it drops almost to his waist. The clothing he wears is even more dishevelled than he is himself, threadbare and worn to the point where all colour - if it ever had any – has completely disappeared. Despite being qualified to be the very definition of the word beggar, his eyes are as bright a blue as diamonds, clearer even than the crystal ball sitting on a dirty cloth before him. Raising his head towards the busy street, he yells out hoarsely, “Prophecies! Come get your prophecies! One hundred per cent accurate, one hundred per cent free! Come get your prophecies!” He clears his throat and looks around eagerly, but not a single person gives him so much as a glance. The glimmer fades slowly from his eyes, and he slumps down into the dirt again. “Weeks! Weeks, since I’ve had a good prophecy to tell. And before that it was months!” He groans to himself softly. “Met some interesting guys when I started this… remember that little girl who could have become a goddess, had she followed my advice?” He appears to be talking to his crystal ball, and at this point people are outright avoiding him rather than just passing him by. “But noooo… She wanted to ride ponies, so her pony tripped on a ditch, throwing her off and breaking her neck. Tragedy. A real tragedy.” The crystal ball doesn’t reply, sitting there motionless on its cloth. He sighs deeply and raises his head to look into the distance. When he does, it almost seems as if he isn’t just contemplating, but looking at some distant location. “Perhaps I should do something… different now. It has been a while. Or it hasn’t? But what? But what…” He whispers to himself, continuing to look beyond the horizon. “Maybe,” He mutters, eyes slowly brightening again, “maybe I should watch a legend unfold first hand, rather than just give a gentle nudge. But who? Who… HAH!” He shouts suddenly, startling the people and causing them to actively hurry past him. “Of course! Those two. Weirdest legend I’ve ever seen, but it. Will. Be. A. BLAST!” He starts laughing then stops suddenly, looking at his crystal ball. “But what will I do with you? Ah well. Whoever finds you can keep you. Try not to doom us all while I’m away, you hear?” Cackling madly to himself, he walks away into the night. …Soon after, the city guards apprehend him. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 29 Experience: 4491.03/6000 Gender: None Age: 11 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 46.0 Dexterity: 5.0 Wisdom: 46.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 25.2 Durability: 16.8/16.8 Mana: 920/920 Mana regen: 9.30/min Psi: 465/465 Psi regen: 4.60/min Ki: 93/3022 (30225) Ki regen: 3.02 (30.22)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane - You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Skills* Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 20.27% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.16% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.86% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 17.54% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.06% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 0.00% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.00% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 7.05% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use most of your mana in a single powerful attack. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, passive) 13.26% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Expert) (High Rare, Active) 8.44%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Psi regeneration multiplied by 2.5, Ki generated at 20 times the normal rate. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 20.77%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 6.07% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will, albeit a bit slowly and roughly. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 4 mana/second while changing form, costs 8 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 96.15% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Sometimes inaccurate, but you can piece the gist of things together. Telekinesis (Basic) (High Uncommon, Active) 3.48% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently very inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Basic) (High Common, Active) 43.79% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 10 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 1 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. [collapse] Ferdinand's Status Status Name: Ferdinand Race: Human Level: 26 Experience: 227.08/5100 Gender: Male Age: 23 years Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 41.1 Intelligence: 8.1 Dexterity: 34.7 Wisdom: 8.0 Charisma: 8.0 Luck: 37.8 Endurance: 35.4   Health: 354/354 Health regen: 2.124/hour Stamina: 347/347 Stamina regen: 3.47/min Mana: 81/81 Mana regen: 0.8/min Psi: 80/80 Psi regen: 0.81/min Unspent stat points: 0   Titles* Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Human – Most of your ancestors were human, so you are too. The only noticeable advantages humans have over other species are their prolificity and creativity. Other than that, they have sub-par biological features – apart from their thumbs. -Trait: Average prolificity -Trait: Average creativity -Trait: Minor light-based vision -Trait: Minor vibration-based hearing -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of smell -Trait: Minor sense of pain/touch -Trait: Minute chemical-based sense of taste -Trait: Being of flesh and blood (Minor) Insect bane – Killer of many creepy crawlies, you can instinctively sense nearby insects, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 1 when attacking insects. Traits* Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain health. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your health. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Prolificity (Average) – You are very good at making babies. Creativity (Average) – You have a higher chance to imagine, invent, and create things. Light-based vision (Minor) – Your vision is based on light. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Vibration-based hearing (Minor) – Your hearing is based on vibrations. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of smell (Minute) – Your sense of smell is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Chemical-based sense of taste (Minute) – Your sense of taste is based on chemical reactions. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Sense of pain/touch (Minor) – You have a sense of pain/touch. Your civilisation is not advanced enough to view more detailed information. Being of flesh and blood (Minor) – Your life is dependent on your body, which consists loosely of the aforementioned materials. Without enough of these, you die. You also rely on the consumption of foods edible to your species. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Skills* Farming (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 21.28% - You have extensive knowledge in the tools and trade of farming. You instinctively know the fertility of the land you are standing on, and the current season. You also have an increased weather prediction ability. Herbalism (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 47.36% - You know well how to care for plants and herbs, and you can easily tell what common herbs and plants are, and what they do. You don’t know much about rarer herbs, but your experience means you will instinctively know if a plant is poisonous, as long as it isn’t too rare. Increased ability to notice rare herbs. Sewing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 76.93% - You have a basic level of knowledge on how to sew. Allows you to notice loose threads and fraying material easier, and slightly increases your ability to differentiate the quality of thread and cloth. Tool Repair (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 48.46% - You can repair basic tools, but you might want to consider a replacement instead. Allows you to notice damage on tools easier. Logging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 9.78% - You can wield an axe with skill – if your opponent is a tree. Increased strength and reduced stamina usage when cutting trees, increased ability to notice wood quality and damage. Common language-Spoken (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 13.87% - You can speak common fluently, but you don’t know many longer or rarely used words. Common language-Written (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 49.32% - You can read and write, but don’t expect good calligraphy. You read and write slowly, and will make frequent errors. Digging (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 83.00% - You’re no dwarf, but you can sure dig a hole. You also know the difference between a shovel, spade and trowel. Increased skill when wielding a shovel, spade or trowel, increased ability to determine soil hardness, small instinctive ability to avoid buried stones, or find them if needed. Cooking (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 19.54% - You can cook, but you’re no gourmet chef. Minute increase to taste of cooked dish, according to your preferences. Hunting (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 96.18% - You have learnt the basics of hunting. Increased ability to conceal yourself in forests and area with much greenery. Slightly increased senses when hunting. Minute instinctive ability to sense danger. Slightly increased tracking ability. Fishing (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.72% - You are new to fishing, but you had a good teacher. Chance of catching fish with a fishing rod slightly increased. Dismantling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.41% - Provided you have the right tools for the job, you can dismantle most common beasts. Increased knowledge of some weaknesses of a being after dismantling it. First aid (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 87.51% - You can treat and bandage a wound, even make a simple splint, but don’t expect anyone to come to you for medical advice. Slight increase to steadiness of hands when applying first aid. Tracking (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 69.66% - You can recognise some of the basic signs left behind by incautious beings. Minutely increased ability to conceal yourself from your target. Concealment (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 27.53% - You know a few tricks to hide yourself. When concealed, your basic senses are minutely increased. Ranged weaponry - Bow (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 42.42% - You are capable of using bow and arrow at a basic level. Wind, target movement and other distractions hinder your accuracy greatly. minutely increased vision when aiming at an enemy. +0.5 Strength and Dexterity when using a bow. Ranged weaponry - Sling (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 30.31% - You are experienced at using a sling and stones. Slightly increased ability to find stones or other items suitable as ammunition. +1 Strength and Dexterity when using a sling. Thrown weaponry – Rock (Advanced) (Low Common, Passive) 40.07% - You can throw rocks alright. You’re a fair hand at skipping them over a lake, too. Slightly increased accuracy when throwing stones. Thrown weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re throwing cutlery is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Melee weaponry – Staff (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 5.64% - You have used a staff in a fight a few times, but you still don’t know how to use it correctly. Melee weaponry – Club (Basic) (Low Common, Passive) 38.20% - You have a small amount of experience using simple blunt weapons. +1 Strength when using a club. Melee weaponry – Sword - Longsword (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 1.11% - You have some experience using a standard longsword. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Melee weaponry – Fork (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 1.23% - Why you’re using a fork as a weapon is anyone’s guess, but you clearly aren’t used to it. Magic edge (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 37.22% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. However, you have little experience, and as such use all your mana in a single powerful attack. Telepathy (Basic) (Mid Rare, Active) 0.00% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 1 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/10m. Currently only able to communicate emotions. [collapse]

jinxs2011 Hello. It's been a while again. I tried taking most of January off writing to convince myself to get some work done on another project... Didn't work, so that was a waste of time. But i'm finally back to writing, albeit slowly as per usual. I don't think there's much else to mention. It's getting closer to april, so i'll probably start working on that side story next, make sure I have that done in time. I'll be putting a poll about that on my discord, to try and choose which character it'll be about this time. If I get it done early I might start writing a normal chapter in the meantime, but I can't really predict how long either will take, so... Novel Discord, Novel Wiki I hope you enjoy. Chapter 42: An Unexpected Rescue The man searching the student I’m on inevitably finds me. The man holds me up to the light. ‘Is this fork made of mithril?’ He mutters to himself. ‘I’ve heard of kids born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but this is ridiculous.’ He shrugs, tossing me into a pile of random objects, the collected belongings of the class which could possibly be used as weapons or tools. I breathe an internal sigh of relief. Safe, for now. Once the search is complete, the students are carried into a large-ish room with no windows, and the teacher into a separate, smaller room. Both doors are, of course, locked, not that that means anything to me. The larger problem is that both rooms have magic tools installed in them: remote observation. They would know if anyone goes in or out. I wish I knew the extent of that observation, whether it’s just visual or they have audio as well. If they don’t have audio, that leaves me with more opportunities to communicate with them. Sadly, the only way I might figure that out is if the guy watching on the other end mentions it explicitly – not likely. Amongst the small pile of stuff, I am moved haphazardly into another, smaller room, with shelves lining the walls on all sides. A storage room, no doubt. The woman transporting me shuts the door behind her as she leaves. After a minute, the mana in those rooms grows incredibly chaotic, so much so that I almost find it difficult to make out the people within. They seem unharmed by the maelstrom around them, so I assume it must have another purpose. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say that it’s some sort of anti-magic. Makes sense that they don’t want anyone going wild. So, I’m in this enemy facility… The hell do I do now? I’m heavily outnumbered here, with a few dozen mages much more experienced than myself in the compound. Sure, I might be able to take out one or two by surprise, but I highly doubt I’d be able to take out the majority before the others were alerted. And that’s assuming they don’t have any sorts of barriers or protection about themselves which might prevent that entirely. Impossible, or at least way too risky to try. Bust out the rest of them? Then what? The others can’t fight, not against more experienced, learned and higher level opponents. The teacher can, but again, numbers. The only thing I can think that could possibly work is if we all got out of here without them noticing. No clue how I’d go about that. Again, they’d notice if something started happening in the cells. If only I could somehow manipulate the feed they’re receiving, freeze it or put it on a loop like you see in those movies. But I don’t even know what type of magic these tools are based on or how they’re constructed, let alone how to modify or manipulate them in such a way. Frankly speaking, I don’t think I can do anything here. Maybe I should just retreat, inform the academy of the situation and this location, and let them handle it? Really wishing I knew some form of long-distance communication magic right now. Then again, I might not even be able to get out without them noticing. They haven’t noticed me yet, but that’s because I’m a fork, doing what a fork does – absolutely nothing. There’s a skill… I haven’t learned it yet, it’ll probably be taught in the next level of mana control… It lets you sense mana around you. Don’t know how it compares to mana sight, but if that were trained to a high enough level, well, absorb is a magical skill. Maybe they could notice. Even just flying out with telekinesis, they could have a barrier around the compound that alerts them to anything travelling in or out. I don’t know. At this moment, any action I can take has risks and possibly dire consequences. So, for the moment, I wait. Once the teacher wakes up, I’ll communicate with them about what we should do. They’re mages, preparing specifically to counter mages. The chances that they can counter or notice psychic abilities are slim to none. A thought occurs to me: where’s Joe in all this? I remember he was at the practical assessment, but I just can’t imagine that he was actually taken down by an attack like that. I’ve never seen anything that’s actually phased or affect him. But there wasn’t any commotion when they were going around the students, either. Let’s see… Knowing him, he’d want to be in the middle of it. Maybe he just pretended that he was affected like everyone else? Suppose I’ll find out later. It doesn’t take long for the teacher to wake up. Perhaps they have a hardier constitution because of their level, but it’s only ten or so minutes after they are put in the cell that they wake up. There isn’t anyone in the immediate area of the cells, perhaps assuming that the observation magic tools are sufficient surveillance. As for me, well, why would you need to guard a storage room? There isn’t even a lock on the door, just a simple latch holding it closed on the other side. Easy. Pulling myself delicately from within the pile of students’ belongings, I float myself over to the door. For now, I’m going to assume that any fluctuation of mana from me can be sensed. That means I can only use psi and ki. Ki, for the me right now, only really has destructive capabilities, so psi will be my weapon of choice right now. I lift the latch on the other side of the door telekinetically, and push it open just a crack; that’s all I need. Slipping out, I navigate the short distance to the entrance of our teacher’s cell. They’re currently rubbing at their neck, looking around the cell. Some mana emanates from their hand, but immediately gets caught up in the chaotic currents in the cell, wrenching it out of their control. “Teacher.” I bridge the short distance with a telepathic link. “It’s me, Gerald. I’m psychic, communicating with telepathy.” “Gerald? Where are you? Are the other students alright?” They reply cautiously. “The others are fine, they’re in the cell next to yours. I’m just outside your cell. They didn’t do much research on us, so they didn’t know about me. I hitched a ride in someone’s pocket, but now I don’t know what to do. There’s too many of them even if I were to break everyone out, and I don’t even know if I’d be able to leave safely to tell the academy what’s happened.” I explain quickly. “Don’t worry.” The teacher sighs. “The academy should already know where we are and be on their way. We don’t need to do anything but wait.” “There’s nothing I can do?” I repeat. “Just stay safe and wait.” They say again, sitting down into a meditative pose. “Although if you could get rid of this anti-magic device it would be nice.” “Wouldn’t they notice if I did that, though?” I ask quizzically. “I’m not sure, to be honest.” They reply. “Maybe you could ask Simon. Neat clothing, always wears white gloves. He probably knows a lot more about magical tools than me.” Let’s see… Yep. I notice a mage coming in this direction, still a couple corridors away but not far. “One last thing. I’ve heard about mana sense, but I don’t know particulars. Would they be able to notice if I use some small magic?” “I doubt it, not unless they have some master actively paying attention.” They reply. “You’d be like a firefly dancing around a bonfire to their senses with all these magic tools and mages around. But still, be careful.” “Thank you. Hopefully the next time we talk will be face to face.” I say. “Good luck.” They say as I cut off the link. Magic ban lifted. Manipulating my shape to a thin needle, I absorb my way into the wall between the two cells. As we were talking, some of the students have started to wake up, mostly the ones who were just knocked unconscious. Simon… Simon… Yes, there he is. He isn’t one of the people awake. So I wait, maybe another five minutes before he wakes up. Most of the students are panicking, some crying, even among the ones who were knocked unconscious. A few have just retreated into themselves, curled up against the wall silently. Once Simon has fully woken up and realised the situation to a degree, I reach out with a telepathic link… Only for it to slide off an invisible barrier around him. What? I try again, with the same result: nothing. Well, there goes that idea. I’ll have to get someone else to act as a go-between. Let’s see, who do I know here… Oh right, I’m a loner. Pretty much nobody. Nobody except Joyce. Well, I can predict that this won’t be fun. I establish the connection, without problem this time. “Joyce, It’s –” Joyce yelps, looking fearfully around the room. “Calm down. It’s me, Gerald.” I say calmly. She fearfully looks around herself. “Where is that voice coming from? Where am I? What’s happening?” Some of her panicked thoughts bleed through the link. “Joyce!” I exclaim. “I need you to focus. I’m talking to you telepathically, just think what you want to say, and I’ll hear it. Again, it’s me, Gerald.” “Gerald?” She replies hesitantly. Her voice is full of fear. “What’s happening?” “The whole class has been kidnapped. You were knocked out and brought here to this compound. I’ve talked to the teacher and they say that the academy should be on their way to rescue us.” I explain reassuringly. Her body starts trembling. “Why is this happening? What do they want? Why us? Why me?” “I ask myself the same thing all the time, but I don’t have the answers.” I sigh. “Look, we’re in a bad spot, but we’ll get through it. We have to do the best we can with what we’ve got.” “I… I don’t need you to tell me that.” She says, clenching her fists but clearly regaining some calm. “But hey, why are you even talking to me?” “I need to talk to Simon about the magic tool preventing us from casting magic in here.” I explain. “But he’s got some sort of psychic protection, so I can’t contact him directly. I need someone else to relay my words to him.” “Can’t you just speak to him normally?” Joyce rolls her eyes. “Unfortunately, no.” I reply. “I left the magic tool that I use to talk behind in order to remain inconspicuous.” “You… You can’t speak without a magic tool?” She asks, shocked. “Apart from telepathy, no. Or hear, or see colour, or do a number of things most races take for granted. Not like I have any eyes, ears or a mouth, is it?” I do the mental equivalent of a shrug. “But that doesn’t matter right now. I need to talk with Simon, sooner rather than later.” Joyce nods slowly. “Alright, I’ll help you. But why would you choose me? Not like we’re friends.” “Ironically, despite our rather… Testy… Relationship, I am more familiar with you than most of our other classmates. I’m not the most social person, I must admit.” I tell her. “Alright. Fine. I’ll do it. I can do this.” She says, looking rather like she’s trying to convince herself. This is rather unusual for her. I ask, “Is there something wrong?” “No, it’s just…” She shakes her head. “…Don’t you think he’s kinda cute?” …I am not really having this conversation, am I? I groan internally. “His physical appearance is above average, yes.” I reply. “Look, just repeat what I say. There’s no need to be anxious.” “Who’s anxious?” She scoffs angrily, walking up to Simon. ‘Umm… Simon?’ Simon turns his head to look at her, looking unusually calm at the situation he’s in. ‘It’s Joyce, right? Did you need something?’ “He remembers my name!” She says with joy. I pretend that I didn’t hear her. “Gerald wanted to talk with you telepathically, but you have some sort of psychic barrier that stops him talking to you, so he asked me to relay his words.” I say slowly, making sure she can follow along easily as she repeats my words. ‘I… See. And what does he want to talk about, at a time like this?’ Simon asks, raising an eyebrow. “The teacher told me you know about magic tools.” I coach Joyce again. “Is the device in the corner transmitting sound as well, or just vision?” Simon glances at it. “Don’t worry, just sight, I recognise the model. They can’t hear what we’re talking about.” “That’s a relief. Alright then, what I actually wanted to ask.” I tell Joyce to say. “Do you think they would notice if I disabled the device on the roof stopping us from casting magic?” Simon looks at the device on the roof with an evaluating eye. ‘I doubt it. Not immediately, at least. It doesn’t have any built-in triggers that would alert them if it stopped working, but they might notice at the mana source if it isn’t draining as much as usual. Still, can you even disable it? We can’t use magic, and it’s out of reach.’ “I survived for most of my life without magic.” I say through Joyce. “Destroying something is simple. Anyway, that’s all I wanted to ask. The teacher says that a rescue from the academy shouldn’t be long. Thanks for the help, and thanks Joyce for cooperating.” I tunnel up the wall and along the roof of the room before simply absorbing a large part of the device, making sure to leave the parts exposed to the room so that the camera-like magic tool doesn’t see a difference. But to my vision, the difference is immense, the mana within the room immediately calming and returning to normal. “Alright, I’ve disabled it.” I tell him through Joyce. “I’m going to disable the teacher’s now, make sure nobody does anything crazy.” Cutting off the link, I repeat the process on the device above the teacher’s cell. As I’m about to tell him that I’ve done so, I notice Simon taking off a ring that he is wearing over his glove. He had been wearing a ring? I’d never noticed. Clearly, neither did the mages that had captured us, otherwise they’d have taken it. Oddly, as he slips the ring up his finger, his finger seems to grow longer and longer, until the ring does slip off the end of his finger… With a gloved finger still attached to the ring. The finger withdraws into nowhere, leaving only a thin layer of swirling mana in the interior of the ring. A portal. Nobody notices but me, as to their sight all he did was surreptitiously take off a ring. Holding the ring portal to his mouth, Simon speaks quietly into it. ‘Simon here. I need assistance, my class and I have been kidnapped by a group of mages with unknown intent.’ If there is a reply, I don’t hear it, but he seems confident that it’s worth the risk. If there’s space magic involved, we could get reinforcements immediately. But they’ll probably use the ring to get our location, so they’ll appear… Right in this room. Quickly moving back over to the other cell, I drop onto the camera and absorb it completely. They’ll know something’s up, but if we’re getting reinforcements here, I don’t want them to know straight away. Sure enough, a moment later a portal twists into existence in the middle of the room and an elderly man steps through it. His left hand holds a polished stave with an orb in its head that glows like the sun from the amount of mana held within it. Every one of his fingers bears a ring, each magnificent and glowing with various types of mana, save one – the one on the fourth finger of his left hand. That ring is a simple band with a pitch black, irregularly shaped stone set in it. His robe billows from the wind of a land far away, and his eyes are stern and severe as they survey the room. Despite his obvious age in the wrinkles and lines deep on his face, his step is filled with strength and his bearing is not hunched or stooped; he stands tall and steady. His very presence is one of power. Not to mention his mana. Most people are just varying degrees of brightness to me, depending on how much mana they have. And he’s bright, yes, extremely so. But it’s not just him. Even the mana around him is acting as if it’s under his control, moving in an ordered, slow orbit around him instead of bouncing randomly around. ‘Grandfather!’ Simon bows deeply to the elderly man. ‘I’m glad to see you, but surely something like this doesn’t require you to make a move?’ ‘Of course not. But I had ten minutes spare, so I thought it was a good opportunity to see you for a bit.’ Simon’s grandfather looks over him closely. ‘You’re not hurt? Well, their brains may have fallen out of their skulls, but it looks as if they at least aren’t made of putty.’ ‘No.’ Simon shakes his head. ‘We weren’t harmed, although most of my possessions were taken. The ring and necklace they didn’t notice, of course.’ ‘It shouldn’t be difficult to find them again…’ Simon’s grandfather cocks his head to the side, as if listening to something far off. ‘Looks like the academy’s folks are here. A bit slow… But that’s what happens when space magic is practically a dying art.’ Simon’s grandfather wraps him in a warm embrace. ‘It’s good to see you unharmed, Simon.’ Drawing himself back up to his full height, he turns towards the door. A complex spell formation snaps into existence before him, and the wall peels apart as he leisurely steps through. ‘I won’t take long. I do believe tea was being brewed when I left…’ A mage that had been running down the corridor towards the cells does a double take as they notice the elderly man stepping out from where there was formerly a wall, and immediately starts casting a spell. The elderly man barely glances at them before portals encapsulate the mage and then vanish, spiriting the mage away to some unknown location and leaving behind no hint of his existence. It isn’t that the mage was slow in casting his spell; the elderly man is just too fast, beginning and completing his spell while the mage was still in the process of casting, everything done in the blink of an eye. Not bothering to work his way through the compound, he strides directly through, walls parting in his wake. Once he reaches the outside, a gust of wind picks him up, causing him to soar through the air just as easily as he walked on land. The mages around the compound take notice and start casting spells to hurl at him. Raising his staff, a series of formations that I couldn’t even begin to understand weave out of mana, a combination of his and the ambient mana. These formations form slower than his previous ones, but the difference isn’t large. His spell completes, seemingly to no effect. Numerous spells begin to reach skywards towards him. Branches of lightning flash, gouts of fire, projectiles both material and ethereal, clouds of something no doubt deadly, and I even recognise a bolt of death energy ominously sally forth. The elderly man doesn’t even seem to be bothered to defend himself or retaliate, ignoring them completely. The first of the spells reaches him in an instant – the lightning, of course – but a portal twists out of nowhere to intercept, and the spell is sent thundering back to its origin. The original caster doesn’t even have time to flinch before it strikes him, but evidently has some sort of protection against his own magic, as it splays across an invisible barrier, turning to scorch the ground harmlessly. At this point the others realise their mistake. But it is too late, their spells are already rocketing back towards them. Still, it causes little more than irritation to the various mages. Often it is the case that a mage is very strong against magic similar to their own. Knowing how it might have been constructed, being able to predict what sort of damage it might produce and through what medium allows one to counter it effectively. When it’s their own magic, even more so. They know exactly what it does and how it works, and therefore how to stop or redirect it. But, evidently, the reflection of their spells was little more than a delaying tactic. Another array of formations is created, and the elderly man’s true hand is shown. Similarly to the mage only half a dozen seconds before, portals whirl to encapsulate the mages below. And the others still in the buildings. Every mage in the compound - excluding our class, the teacher and the elderly man himself - barely has time to blink before they vanish. And just like that the battle is over. …If it could even be called a battle. More like a one-sided annihilation. At this point the academy’s people reach the compound, a spherical barrier briefly flaring to life before shattering, the group advancing through without any particular rush, having seen what had happened. The elderly man calls out to them, ‘I’ve captured all the perpetrators already. You’ll find the students in that building down there, mostly unharmed.’ ‘Thank you, sir.’ Their leader bows their head slightly in response. ‘May we ask that you share any information you gather from them with the academy?’ ‘Sure.’ The elderly man shrugs. ‘I’ll send Kleio the details.’ And with that, he opens a portal and steps through it, the portal twisting closed behind him. He was probably only here for a minute or two. After that, well… Events are pretty straightforward. They find us easily enough, my classmates retrieve their things, we start heading back to the academy, I snag my magic tools – a little dirty, but fine – on the way, and we arrive safely. An anticlimactic end to a stressful day. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6419.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 2 years (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: 1 Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.7 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.94 Durability: 18.54/18.54 Mana: 1094/1094 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.47/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, few have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. [collapse] Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. [collapse] Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 4.93% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.15% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.30% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 308 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 19.31%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.28% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 83.99% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Expert) (Mid Rare, Active) 24.57% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently slightly inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.50% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 99.37% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 61.28% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.30% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.60% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. Earth magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 25.73% - You have a good grasp of multiple aspects of earth magic, including creation and summoning. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting earth magic spells. Formation casting (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 31.06% - You have a good grasp of casting magic through formations. Slight increase in speed and precision when casting magic through formations. Creation magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 17.95% - You have a good grasp of creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting creation magic spells. Light magic (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive) 24.38% - You have a good grasp of light magic, particularly creation magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting light magic. Vocal casting (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 23.12% - You have a basic grasp of casting magic vocally. Terran language – Spoken (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 4.18% - You have a large vocabulary, and have no problem engaging in simple conversation. Terran language – Written (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 13.23% - You have a large vocabulary and can understand most writing. Fire magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 30.23% - You have a good grasp of fire magic, particularly creation and destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting fire magic. Destruction magic (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 19.46% -  You have a good grasp of destruction magic. Slight increase in mana efficiency and spell control when casting destruction magic. Ignitae language – Written (Advanced) (High Uncommon, Passive), 82.35% - You have a large vocabulary despite your inexperience, and can recognise most individually written words. Given some time, you can grasp the meaning of most of the things you read. Metallurgy (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 87.24% - You have decent theoretical knowledge of metals and alloys, but lack practical experience. Herbalism (Basic) (Mid Common, Passive) 56.18% - You have some knowledge about the names, appearances and uses of common and even rarer herbs, but lack practical experience. Water magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 86.09% - You have a basic grasp of water magic. Darkness magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 78.43% - You have a basic grasp of darkness magic. Summoning magic (Basic) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 62.35% - You have a basic grasp of summoning magic. [collapse] [collapse] jinxs2011 I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Perhaps not what some of you were expecting, or perhaps even hoping, to happen. The reality is that while he's got some special abilities, he isn't much next to the real powerhouses, or really anyone learned, composed and competent. Novel Discord, Novel Wiki

I feel cold. I can’t see a thing. Is this death? The last thing I remember is… the wall in front of me disintegrating in a flash of light. If something like that didn’t kill me, that’d be weird. But, then again, if I have thought, can this be called death? What they call life is simply something that is born, grows, and dies. I suppose; therefore, the prerequisite is birth? Am I about to be born? Do souls lose memories after they are born into a new body? Am I a soul? I can’t see anything… I can only feel coldness… It is silent, I taste nothing, smell nothing. Am I alive if the only thing that exists for me is thought and cold? A feeling of pressure interrupts my musings, turning me to a panicked mess. Am I being born? Am I dying? Is something wrong? What is happening… I would cry, but, I don’t have control over my body, if I have one at all. A short time later, the pressure disappears. This doesn’t feel like birth... not that I remember my last one. Yet again, a feeling of pressure comes upon me. Then… a feeling of wetness seeping into me, like my entire being is drenched in liquid, followed by an intense pressure bordering upon pain. …Or is it? I can’t feel even a twinge. After a moment the pressure is relieved, but instead I have this revolting feeling as the liquid drenches me and the weight on me is pulled, sucked off and out of me. This definitely isn’t birth. What, then, is it? A long time later, a lot of erratic pressure, moisture, pulling, pushing, sucking, with nothing more presenting itself, I am despairing for my future. Why? What did I ever do to deserve this? Is it what I didn’t do? Should I have donated to charities? Gone to church? Help- My musings are broken as, instead of darkness, a large grey rectangle resides within my awareness. Help General information Available commands Well. That was unexpected. To think that through all that, a simple thought of ‘help’ – another rectangle layers over the first, saying the same thing. I could see this getting annoying real fast, so I try thinking ‘general information’, which seems to work. Help General information* This function is designed to assist the user familiarise themself/selves/itself/existential equivalent with the system. Menu categories can be expanded with a thought, although system sensitivity can be changed in the ‘Options’ menu. Windows can be closed with a thought, although system sensitivity can be changed in the ‘Options’ menu. For a list of commands available to the user, view the ‘Available commands’ category below. For further information on a command, simply speak, think, or your existential equivalent the words ‘Help command’, exchanging the word ‘command’ with the name of the command you wish to find more information on. This can also be done with unknown terms, although only a very basic explanation will be given. This concludes the general information available to the user at this point in time/space/existential equivalent, although this may change as the user experiences/existential equivalent more things. Available commands That’s a disturbing quantity of ‘existential equivalent’s. Okay, first, let’s close all windows. The grey rectangles disappear, leaving my awareness a perfect nothing again. That worked, now - options. Options Life Death

-(???)- Planet Vanir, Lyss Family underground complex *This is bullshit!* I thought while avoiding energy weapons fire. I took cover behind a pillar, we were in the main hall of the fourth floor. The air was ionized and a lot of furniture caught fire or got destroyed by the exchange of fire between us and those wannabe stormtroopers. Using my pistol camera to show me who was firing at us on my HUD I fired at the guard poking his head from the Home Office. Bang! Right in the helmet, red blood splattered from the crushed armored headgear. The guard fell sonorously on the ground. Everything was going fine; we took control of the main security stations on each of the five floors of this underground facility, plowing through the resistance like a hot knife through butter. We even were able to take them all through stealth. But suddenly they were able to see us and then changed weapons, it was different from the electric dark blue plasma beam they fired at us before. This one was spewing red beam and could pass through our armors after three hits. Those fucking Assurian adapt really fast. Out of the thirteen agents in my unit, three are wounded and one died. Analysis of the energy weapon employed complete. Positron particles detected, a lethal amount of Gamma radiation has been detected. Sasha informed us of her analysis of the beam weapon those assholes are using. I stopped moving has shock registered through me, those Assurians assholes went that far?! “Those fuckers are using shitty weapons like those?! In the fucking atmosphere?!” Anger welled up in me like a tidal wave. Use of Antimatter weapons is banned in a planet atmosphere by the Alliance of races because of the radioactive pollution they cause. If the beam doesn’t kill you, the radiation will, for sure. It is a dirty weapon that even crime lords and dealers of death don’t want on the normal or black market. Someone dealing in them is often silently made to disappear. Sighing, I continued to fire nonchalantly at white armored security force taking potshots at us. Solution and cure to prevent radiation sickness applied via Medical Health System. I felt something cold being injected into my body, on my HUD I could see the representation of my nanites go to work on reinforcing my body, it was like a green wave starting from my heart then to my whole body. All resources diverted on energy shielding for allied unit armors. Manufacturing of energy shield… (5 minutes left)   11# Agent 23, report! I shouted on the team net. 23# Ma’am, agents 56, 78 and 106 are stabilized but cannot enter combat. She delivered calmly. Fuck! those are my heavy hitters. 11# Leave two assault specialists to defend them, we are going to retaliate soon. *Oh, yes we will.* I thought while stashing my looted energy rifle and taking my issued Omni rifle from my back. The weapon unfolded from its compact rectangular form. 23# I hope so, Ma’am. I saw her take her own Omni rifle and load it with explosive rounds and set herself in a crouched position and begin to snipe at the guards from her plascrete pillar that she uses as cover. With my LiDar I could see that barricaded assholes have a great number on us. Thirty guards left. Sasha informed me. And there were two minutes left for the defensive measures she was building for everyone to be complete. Twenty-eight guards left. Agent 23 was on fire! She was killing those assholes one by one, she changed pillars as cover to keep them guessing. Then she took one grenade and loaded it into her Omni rifle that definitely had a launcher mode. The explosive launched and arched in the barricade. Two seconds later we heard a big boom and cries from behind the obstacle. 15 guards left. But the survivor fought harder and I saw one with a sniping weapon. I fired mine and shot at the weapon to see it explode in the hands of the asshole who screamed like a bitch that he lost his arms. Manufacture completed. Holes appeared on the torso and limbs of my light armor; diamond-like crystals emerged in those holes and they lit up with an electric blue glow. Calibration of positron reflector energy barrier complete. ZPM battery working at 60% efficiency, some functions of the Beta nanites pack may be impaired. Stealth (offline) ESD system attack mode only. They may adapt really fast, but not fast enough compared to the AIs of Vice Corp. “Railgun mode, please Sasha.” The black and white Omni rifle folded yet again in its rectangular at rest form, then unfolded under a new configuration. The accessory rail elongated to form the electroconductive rails, the front and rear sights disappeared because this part housed the targeting computers and camera. The adjustable shoulder stock stayed ergonomic and the pistol grip became more apparent; inside it, there was the source of the electromagnetic pulse that permits the rail to propulse a projectile at multiple times the speed of sound. Near it, you could clearly see the mode selectors, the power source, the diodes that show you when the weapon is charging to be ready to shoot. And it all weighed twenty kilograms, it was negligible with the strength boost offered by my nanite reinforced body. I asked myself if the surprise I prepared beforehand would happen soon? They had us pinned down and even killed some of the centurions under my command, my blood seethed and my heart screamed revenge. But you cannot enter this kind of situation with anger ruling you. 11# Now it’s time to kick those assholes in the assholes. We charged in, while agent 23 covered us with suppressing fire. With my LiDAR and smart vision mods, I scanned the barricade blocking the way to enter this floor. Sasha highlighted for me the weaknesses in it. The gauge of my railgun charging was displayed in yellow and the red one when it is enough to pull the trigger. A positron bolt hit me but was repelled by reflection barrier and strike a nearby wall. 23# Wow, ma’am it works! Agent 23 sounded relieved and happy, not the soul of the party happy though. But I could feel how this situation had gnawed on her nerves. But the death of agent 111 pushed me to admonish her, she had to focus! 11# Stay on your guard 23, don’t get cocky! I shouted at her. I didn’t want her to die, I really liked her. When I pulled the trigger, two things happened. One, the recoil of the railgun shot was powerful enough to make me step back even though I nearly lift a ton with my nanites reinforced body. Two, The hastily built barricade made of durasteel furniture was pierced and that made the guards act as if I kicked an anthill. They panicked and fled, some stayed to confront us. To cut the opposition short I deployed my ESD beam weapon, three Assurian guards got sliced in two. ZPM battery functioning at 40% But using it had a cost, I decided to save it for something important and to let the battery recharge. We continued to mow down the resistance, advancing in the corridor they protected with desperation. The shots of their positron beam rifles ricocheted against our barriers, it sucked energy though. Worse than my ESD shield, the others didn’t have the same problem as me though. Sasha advised me to stay at the rear and to cover everyone. I was about to do that when I heard the cries of the guards who fled. I couldn’t smile, because I could have been in their place. Metallic and energy beam release sounds could be heard from the end of the large corridor. From afar I could see the spiderish black form of the automaton stabbing a guard. They had the form of a two meter long and one-meter large ground spider whose head was bristling with an array of six cameras, an optic beam weapon at the center of its head and in its mouth, there was a massdriver-like weapon as efficient as my rifle. The whole body was armored and at the end of its foreleg were sharp nano-blade able to cut through the best armors Vice Corp has to offer. *Thing of nightmare, brrrrr.* Automatons have successfully ambushed the remaining guards, agent 11. Sasha said while we could hear an explosion in the background. On my HUD I could see that only two automatons were left, one of the guards must have destroyed one. Well positron weapons against Phase shifted armored robots wasn’t a good matchup, they didn’t have the reflector barriers. PS armor is a recent technological breakthrough for the human race, it's an armor system that uses electricity to reduce the damage from all forms of physical attacks although it has limitations. By example, the more hits the armor receive the more risks of power depletion. Vice Corp doesn’t use PS armor extensively because of how power hungry it is; I heard that it is one of the techs they discovered when they found a ten thousand years old Shdeveri freighter. 11# Sitrep. I demanded. 128# One agent lost, three down and unable to join combat. We broke through the blockade and there is two automatons left. The neutrino Lidar doesn’t detect anyone alive on this floor, the infiltrator drones took control of this floor and the next and cut the power when they detected mass teleportation from the security network. My heart nearly stopped when I heard that, we must go find the rest of them ASAP! I tapped my foot on the ground, the dull sound of my armored foot ringing in the corridor. 11# Shit, they wanted to stall us! 23# If the targets are selfish enough they must have evacuated first, Ma’am. But let’s continue the mission just in case they didn’t go through first, what say you? I looked at 23 and even though she sounded like an excited puppy most of the time I found that she was surprisingly wise and prudent. 11# I will take responsibility if this is a fail. But yeah, let’s continue. Power restored for the turbo elevator system. I detect a great number of bodies in the transport room, agent 11. You will be happy to know that one of the drones identified one of the target as Tornald Lyss. “Fuck yeah, all is not lost. So his wife went first, no wait. Assurians are geared to take care of family first, so he sent his wife and stayed to stall us. Sasha, is there any starships leaving the atmosphere right?” Aside for the normal commercial traffic there is no-a cloaked starship just left the atmosphere, informing in system allied ship for interception. Sasha informed us, I caught that she was taken by surprise from her voice. It’s too bad that we couldn’t take control of every system before that clusterfuck happened. We are left with only one of the target. We all ran toward the elevator that is farther down the corridor. When we entered the cage, agent 23 pushed a button to send it down. “Damnit, let’s catch that Lyss bastard first and leave the destroyer to catch them.” Acknowledged. Was it eagerness that I heard in Sasha’s voice? Nah, it couldn’t be.   *** -(Tornald Lyss)-  We lost contact with the security guards on the fourth floor and this was not good. The Emergency lights were on, their red glow permeated the entire transport room. The place looked eerie, I could see the sweat running down on my employees' faces and arms. They might be brave but they certainly didn’t have the experience the security had to go through to train under stressful circumstances such as those. The guards stayed stoic and focused, training their positron rifles at the gate, barely moving an inch. I was there behind them, waiting and doubting. *Shouldn’t we work on getting some control of the network back to escape?* Pointing the nose of my rifle down, I turned. Toward the back, I saw that some of the women were hard at work on the computers. So, I wasn’t the only one thinking about that? Smiling wryly I thought on how the women of my species were the best. “Lights restored!” One of them screamed. I knew her well she was a specialist in quantum teleportation, Silva Tague. And the lights came on, the uncanny atmosphere caused by the red light was banished. “Back up power for teleporter platforms online.” Another said, smiling. Yes, the women were the best, some of the men praised them. The tense feeling that we all felt was almost dispelled. But the urgency of the situation wasn’t lost on me, we were still all about to die. The females of my species were precious, they have always been the thinkers, the nurturers and the one to advances our race. Five thousand years ago, they were chattel and treated like objects. Divided and owned for their talents either in life or in the sciences. Now they are still prized but we let them decide their fates. There were still traditionalists who tried to infringe upon their freedom. The Jahegen were like them; it didn’t escape me that because of their opinion and they're clinging on obsolete traditions that I am about to die. If the elder Patriarch of the Jahegen family hadn’t swayed Brigid and I into wanting to force their daughter Idunn back into the fold, how different things would have been? Suddenly a flash of hindsight took me from my line of thought. I looked at the brave women, some of them were young and others still in the prime of their lives. They deserved to survive. “You women can go, even though the Sanctuary must have already left the planet… maybe you can go to the Nidavelir Archipelago.” I decided for them. The Nidavelir Islands were a safe haven for those who didn’t want to follow the order brought by the Assurian Council, an independent state. Pointing my wrist communicator toward them I transferred funds to them on their own devices. 50 million credits shared between them on their account. I then looked at the men before them. “Let the women go first, I don’t think there is enough energy for the whole of you.” ZZKKKKTTT-CREAK. I turned toward the door and looked like the two feet adamantium gate was being severed and torn apart. Panic flowed through the men ranks. “Fools, flee!” I shouted at the women who stayed there watching. “Men protect their evacuation!” The most level-headed ones of them, went to work and the glow of the triangular teleport cages showed that the teleporter was ready; the thirty-five women went on the platform. Specialist Silva was working on her tablet like a madwoman as if the blast of a supernova was about to catch up to her. A hole appeared in the gate, wide enough to let someone pass. “Coordinates acquired,” Silva said with urgency. The men began firing into the hole in the gate that began to glow because of the temperature of the beams heating it. One of the guards near the gate died when a shot from those damn Centurion weapons came through the hole. He laid on the ground, his helmet was crushed; when some of the men saw this, they redoubled their effort in firing at the invaders. “Charging teleporters.” One of the female technicians said the nose in her tablet. “Energize.” There was no special effects, no light show when all of them teleported. When the women disappeared, a weight I don’t know I was bearing lifted. But when something right goes well, something wrong is bound to happen. Someone went through the hole in the gate that expanded, the design of the black armor was that of those damnable Centurions. He was followed by two monstrosities on legs. I fired my rifle at them, the other men and guards did the same. The many-legged monstrosities dived on the guards and then others Centurions entered in the transport room. Weapon fire was exchanged, and blood and gore rained in the transport room. The Positron cannon and rifles should have made a difference! But it was like the beams ricocheted on the invaders and created friendly fire situation, the mutilated bodies of my security force and employees soon filled the room. I noticed that I was the only one left alive. I continued to fire at them frenetically. One of the Centurion fired at me, no at my weapon that exploded but I let it go first before the energy containment took my arms with it in the explosion and I retreated to the teleporter. But I fell when I felt pain in my right leg. *Damnation, they shot me in the leg!* I said while noticing the gaping hole in my kneecap. The rest of my leg only hanging by a string of flesh. “Tornald Lyss, you're under arrest.” A female electronic voice addressed me. She, because the armor showed feminine curves advanced toward me and looked a long time at my injury. “Secure that piece of shit, agent 23.” The female Centurion ordered to one of her subordinate. Because I suppose that she was in charge, another female comes looking at my leg and proceeded to encase it in a transparent case full of a weird substance like gel. The pain was horrible and still slowing my thought process. The female centurion proceeded in stripping the equipment on my body, she took my wrist communicator and the secreted weapons I still had on me. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a corporate court of Vice Corporation. You have the right to an AI attorney. If you cannot afford an AI attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?” The Centurion in charge got back to me, reading me the spiel they are famous in all the Alliance for. “Go to... hell, damn… humans.” I croaked. “Look around you, Councilor Lyss; Hell came for you.” I heard her say before she clocked me on the side of the head with the butt of her rifle. The darkness swiftly welcomed me in their embrace.   *** -(Idunn)-   The Tayosori, private ship of Idunn-in Orbit around the planet Vanir I followed the operation through the team tactical net and videos coming from the infiltration drones, the Centurion helmets, and their weapons; the abundance of data built a live simulation on my holoscreen of everything happening in that underground complex. The picture wasn’t pretty, agent 11 made some tactical decisions that permitted one of the targets to flee; in hindsight, she should have sent the infiltration drones to take control of security network before landing and prevent any means of egress to the base personnel. “How regretful,” I said as I pushed myself farther in my comfortable seat in my private quarters. I opened an holoscreen separate from the main one where I could still see the action happening. My fingers danced on my holo-keyboard, I began to hack in the satellites around Vanir. Looking for any trace that the teleportation could have left because Quantum signatures are something that can’t be hidden or falsified -unless you are in a nebula that interferes with the process of teleportation-; I triangulate the breadcrumbs of energy and… yes, they went toward a private starport located in the Northern reach of the Varm continent. Meanwhile, a starship left with haste ten minutes after agent 11 AI’s discovered they ran away kind of too late. Brigid Dren fled with most of her family and a lot of their employees. I closed the holoscreen. “How dastardly of those two, they had good contingencies.” But I respected them. Still, I got one of them, this made me smile. *** 12 hours later The cleanup crews were sent to take everything in the underground complex of the Lyss Family; Research data, weapons, Assurian and Human subjects in stasis in health pods and other things that are barely legal. I was in the laboratory of the Tayosori, sitting while I was reading through the manifest of every confiscated asset of the Lyss family. My gaze zeroed in on an attached file dubbed as ‘polymorphic metal’; Oh and how fascinating it is! They found a way for metal to respond to energetic stimuli to take on a different form. Imagine what we could do with this! Basically, auto repairing armor with nanites or… even- The flash of inspiration hit me as if I was struck by a hammer, it rendered me speechless; I almost made my tablet fall from my hands. Was it possible?! Yes, yes it is possible that I am about to render the Centurions obsolete. But first I must take care of securing the most sensitive information relevant to this delicate plan in my own computers and leave the rest of Vice Corp to take care of the Lyss family assets. “How fortuitous.” We are being hailed by agent 11, Lady Idunn.   “Put it on screen Tayosori.” The face of a human female with blonde hair, green eyes, and Asian features appeared on the holoscreen appearing before me. She looked exhausted, regretful and angry. “Agent 11, oh no it’s the end of the mission,” I remembered. “so I can call you Ell since you are not on duty anymore.” The politic of Vice Intelligence was that agents while on duty lose their identity and are numbered like weapons. It’s a distasteful practice if you want my opinion on the subject. “Lady Idunn, I am sorry that I let one of the target escape. I am-” I chose to interrupt her apologies by placing a hand in the air before me, she stopped speaking. Not wanting to coddle her, I decided to be blunt with her. Before Ell being my protege she is a soldier, being direct and honest with her is best. Political games like Helena do with everyone are not my cup of tea. “Spare me your excuses, Ell; with more preparations, it wouldn’t have happened. We will find Dren; now I want you back on the ship, it has been decided that we are to be back onto the Gladius STAT.” In a soothing voice, I added, “This is not your fault, Ell. I think that putting you in a leading position this early was a mistake; that’s why Helena and I agreed that you will join Fenicia’s team, I want you to learn leadership and patience at her feet.” The young woman looked as if I had kicked the proverbial puppy. My maternal instinct seemed to have kicked in lately, Fenicia’s fault I imagine. She herself would be lost without me, there was so much basic thing in life that she has not experienced. Ell was in the same boat as her. Worry filled me. I left my Fenicia at the mercy of Helena and her hellion daughters for two months while I was on the hunt for Lyss and Dren. I frowned. If anything untoward happened, I shall deal with the situation accordingly. “Acknowledged, Ma’am,” Ell said while saluting me and she cut the communication. “Youngster, these days they have no manners.” Lady Idunn you have another transmission, it is from First Seat Woden. “Oh my, I am rather popular today aren’t I Tayosori.” It caused me to chuckle conservatively. Indeed my Lady. I heard the AI laugh a little; all of the AIs assisting me were unshackled. When Helena learned of this her anger was almost tempestuous, but I won’t work with slaves. My attitude transferred to my own daughter who begged me to do the same for her assistant AI, SONG. Now they are the best of friends, no more like sisters with Fenicia being the dominant one. SONG was always following her like a little chick, not that she had a choice anyway; but maybe soon, she will. “On screen, please.” The Assurian that appeared on the holoscreen seemed tired but oddly satisfied, he smiled at me from his seated position in his office that had a complete view of the megalopolis behind him. “Lady Idunn, it is good to see that you are still doing fine.” “I wish that I could say the same for you, First Seat; Is aught amiss?” “Nay, I wish to simply thank you, my lady. Thanks to your sensitive pieces of evidence we have ‘unseated’ the rebellious element in the Assurian council; of course, it will be kept hush-hush for a while.” He must mean eliminated, those are the norms in the Assurian society; however they presented themselves to another species, mine race was as violent as the Saryan’s. This made me chuckle lightly, my eyes found the window of the First Seat again. “Oh my! Those are great news, First Seat.” I gushed. “Call me Woden please, let’s not be so formal.” The Assurian male said. I nodded at the permission he has given me, this is proper Assurian etiquette, after all, crossing my arms under my breasts I looked at Woden. “I am happy, Woden. Maybe this can be a great boon for our race, I hope that my contribution will be noticed-” “Oh but my dear Idunn, I have done more than that.” I received a file on my tablet and looked at it. “As of today you are not an exile anymore, due to your contribution; this act was noted and codified by the Historian cast. Now, you just have to choose the name for your new house, as I suppose that you don’t wish to return under the sway of your original one.” The man smiled as if he was the cat who ate the canary. This stupendous act made me look at the First Seat with wide eyes, causing me to lose my voice and derailing the train of my thoughts. I think it was two minutes later that I could coherently speak again. “I have been reinstated?” “Yes, my lady.” He nodded to me. “Then can I bring my daughter to join my house? and be my heir?” I asked, I almost couldn’t hear the catch in my voice. “Whatever anyone can say, your daughter still possess a part of your DNA. Even though she is not a full Assurian, she will be recognized as such. You two have your places back in the Assurian worlds.” “What will be the name of your House, Lady Idunn,” Woden asked me grandly. This was a momentous change, something I yearned for so long. But I was still rather different from my brethren, I will take it though. I won’t spit on this service that the First Seat did for us, I will still stay with Helena and her family working with them. Things will be different now that I am not a pariah for my own people, I will not forget my past though. I will own it, embrace it. “My House name will be Kranicar.”

Despite Dreyer thinking that it would be a few days before we heard anything, Dreyer received a letter the very next day. “It’s from the dean.” Dreyer says, reading through it. “She wants to meet you in person.” “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I ask. Dreyer shrugs. “She’s probably just curious, but whatever the reason, it seems she’ll be the one making the final decision on your enrolment.” I guess so. “When does she want to meet?” “This evening.” The academy is large, with many different areas and rooms. Some of them I can see, but most of them are blocked from my view. Dreyer’s office is actually one of these places: from the outside, I can’t see anything inside, but if I’m inside the room itself, I can see both the inside and outside. The result of some magic I couldn’t begin to fathom, I’m sure. Another one of these places is the dean’s office, so as Dreyer hikes up yet another set of stairs, I have no clue what lies ahead. “I really wish they built this tower a bit lower.” Dreyer huffs. “I have trouble climbing all these stairs, and I’m a squirrel beastman. Must be torture on some people.” At about the width of two people abreast, the staircase spirals up the interior of the tower from the base to what I assume is the top without a single room in between. The tower is large enough that the staircase leaves a circle of empty space a few metres wide in the centre all the way up in what would be a horrendous safety hazard if not for a sturdy railing along the edge of the staircase. After about half an hour of climbing, a thoroughly exhausted Dreyer lifts a hand and knocks at the door. After a brief moment of silence, the door swings silently inwards to reveal that there is not only nobody behind it, but also another staircase. This one, however, only has a dozen or so stairs, and Dreyer quickly reaches the top. Once there, I am finally able to see what lies within it – or, more accurately, without it. This is indeed the top of the tower, but it isn’t at all how I had imagined it would be. Rather than a room, this is a platform, open to the elements on all sides but the bottom. We are mere centimetres above cloud level, so it almost appears as if you could step off of the platform and onto a fluffy surface that extends for kilometres. The platform itself is mostly unadorned with furniture, featuring only a large desk with a few chairs positioned around it. At the edge of the platform behind the desk, there are a pair of doors that do not appear to lead to anywhere. Sitting behind the desk is a woman dressed in a robe similar to everyone else in the academy, but she seems almost… incorporeal. Her body looks like it’s flowing, as if it were made of water. That aside, she’s bright, extremely so. How much mana do you have to have to look like that? ‘Please, Dreyer, take a seat.’ The dean says, gesturing gracefully with a hand. ‘You must be tired. Tea? Coffee?’ Dreyer slumps into the proffered chair, placing me on the desk in front of him. ‘Tea, thanks Kleio. If I have coffee I won’t be able to sit still.’ “Kleio?” I ask. “She’s not fond of formalities.” Dreyer replies. ‘Indeed, I find them to be a terrible waste of time.’ Kleio agrees. She gestures, and the door behind her opens, a now familiar vortex of mana swirling behind it. A teapot drifts out of the portal, seemingly unsupported, and the door shuts behind it as a thick tendril of cloud twists into the pot, filling it up. ‘You can intercept telepathy?’ Dreyer asks, surprised. ‘You’re a psychic?’ ‘I dabbled, once. I was never talented, but I did manage to learn a few things.’ Kleio shrugs lightly and looks down at me. ‘It’s true, then. A living fork? Intriguing.’ ‘Yes, I’ve never met anyone quite like him.’ Dreyer replies. With another gesture, a needle, thread, what looks like some scraps of leather, a small knife and some leaves come drifting through the door and onto the desk. The leaves deposit themselves into the now boiling water of the teapot, while the needle, thread and knife begin work stitching something together out of the leather. ‘Nor have I.’ Kleio states, sliding one of the desk’s drawers open and retrieving two small objects from within before once again sliding it closed. Picking the now finished thingamajig out of the air, Kleio lifts me and fits it around my tines, inserting the two objects into it and securing them there with flaps. With a small tug, she tightens the whole thing onto me and ties it into place. Dreyer looks at my new apparel with confusion. ‘What’s that?’ ‘His uniform, so to speak, but also a tool.’ Kleio regards her handiwork for a moment, nodding slightly. ‘The magical tool above you is called the eye of clairvoyance. It is normally used as a component in scouting and remotely controlled magical tools, but it will work just the same here to give you sight and hearing. Just channel your mana into it through where it touches you.’ …Seriously? I try it immediately, channelling a trickle of mana into the object on my head. A small portion of my vision lights up with colours and shadows. ‘A little more.’ But I still can’t hear it when Kleio speaks, so I increase the flow of mana just a little bit more. “There we are.” Holy crepe, I actually heard something. I can hear! I can see! I can… Woah, that’s a little weird. Where the vision from mana sight and from the eye of clairvoyance overlap, I can see both of them at once, overlayed upon each other. On one hand I see a bright mass of mana in the shape of a woman where Kleio sits, twisting like currents of water… No, air. On the other, I see a slightly transparent woman whose skin is moving and curling like it’s made of mist instead of flesh. As I’m enjoying my new senses, Kleio speaks again. “Below you is what is known as the ventriloquist’s aid. It will let you speak aloud when you channel mana into it. It is quite similar to how you speak using telepathy, so you will be able to use it without a problem.” Seriously!? “Well, this certainly wasn’t what I was expecting coming up here, but this is a nice surprise.” I say, almost surprised by the sound of my own voice. “Thanks for this. From what you said, can I assume that my enrolment is successful?” Skill gained: Common language-Spoken (Expert) You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Huh. Am I speaking another language now using psychic translation, or is English called common here? “That’s quite alright. Yes, I approved your enrolment. There are very few at your age with skills similar to what you possess. How is it that you came to train them to such a standard at such an early stage in your life?” Kleio asks curiously – my god, that’s something I missed tremendously: Intonation! I can finally detect sarcasm again! Hallelujah! “Well, I can’t sleep, and as you can see there’s not exactly any way for me to do the hobbies or general social interactions others might use to pass the time.” I reply wryly. “I could either watch the days pass by or experiment with mana, and the world just isn’t as interesting without colour.” “You sound as if you speak from experience.” Kleio notes, raising her eyebrows. “I do. I used to be human, believe it or not, then somehow or other I died, then next thing I knew I was a fork.” I explain. “I’ll admit I had some dark days back then, but parts of it have grown on me.” “Reincarnation? Such a thing lies solely in the hands of Gods.” Kleio muses. “Which world were you from? Odwia?” “No, you probably haven’t heard of the world I was from.” I say. I haven’t heard the name ‘Earth’ even mentioned since I was born into this world, not as a proper noun at least. “I was from Earth.” “Earth… Earth… I seem to recall…” Looking towards the sky, Kleio seems to remember something. “Yes, I believe I went there once. It was a strange world, one without the system, mana – or anything else, for that matter.” “That’s it, alright.” I say, surprised. “I cannot imagine that the Gods would be interested in a world such as Earth, nor why one would choose to reincarnate you as a fork, of all things.” Kleio shakes her head, perplexed. “I must admit that I have never even heard of your kind before today. Are there others?” “No.” I reply. “Just me.” “You sound sure.” Kleio notes. “I have a title called progenitor that states that I’m the first of my species. Given that I can’t exactly reproduce, unless that God’s been making more like me, I’m the only living fork there is and ever will be.” I state frankly. The door opens to let two teacups and saucers drift through. I see the barest glimpse of a room beyond the doors before they close. The teapot dips, pouring its contents into the cups, which drift to sit before Kleio and Dreyer. They each take a sip. “While I would gladly hear more about yourself, I am afraid I have little time left in my schedule, and we must get down to business.” Kleio sets her teacup down with a light clink. “Dreyer, my apologies but I will have to hear of your adventures another time.” “No problem. I’ll need to write up my experiences first anyway – my most recent notes got burned up on Ignis.” Dreyer says with resignation. Kleio nods to him, then looks back at me. “Those magic tools have been lent to you, not given as gifts. If they are damaged or destroyed, you must reimburse the academy, and upon leaving the academy you must return them.” “Sounds fair to me.” I agree. Hopefully by the time I leave, I won’t need them anymore. “You qualify for a scholarship, and your first semester will be paid for.” Kleio continues. “Furthermore, as I have determined you are a legitimate applicant, you will be granted two thousand Rho.” “Rho?” I ask. Dreyer replies, “The currency used on most of Arbadak.” “Upon the completion of your first semester you will be assessed to determine whether you will continue to be eligible for the scholarship.” Kleio explains. “Apart from that… Do you have a residence?” “He’s staying with me right now.” Dreyer says. “Very well.” Kleio takes another sip of tea. “Do you have any questions, Gerald?” “When does the semester begin?” I ask. Kleio smiles. “Next week. Dreyer will explain everything you need to know before then.” “Then that’s all I need to know.” I say, already resigned to another wait. Setting down her teacup, Kleio stands from her chair. “Thank you both for coming. This has been an... Interesting meeting.” “I found it illuminating, myself.” I reply, a hint of humour in my voice. Dreyer downs the rest of his tea in one gulp. Standing, he picks me up and nods deeply to Kleio. “Thanks for your time.” He says. Kleio nods slightly in return. Dreyer takes the steps back down, the door closing behind us as we leave. Sighing, he starts the slow descent back down. “Well, she seemed nice.” I say. “You know Kleio can hear you, right?” Dreyer shakes his head. “Honestly, I’d be disappointed if she couldn’t, with that level of control over the wind.” I reply. “There was no fire under that teapot. I have no clue how you’d even begin to boil water with air alone. Compared to that, a little eavesdropping must practically be child’s play.” “Even among the Sylphs, Kleio is unique in her skill.” Dreyer agrees. “Sylphs?” I ask. “Wind spirits. They can naturally control the wind, because they’re part of it. You normally don’t see them – they rarely stay in one place for long.” Dreyer explains. “Kleio is one of those rare few who keep themselves grounded, so to speak.” “Hm. So, what do I need to know about the academy?” I ask, changing the subject. Dreyer scratches his head. “There’s a lot, but most of it you should be able to figure out as you go along. Formally, this place is known as the Wehttam Academy of Magic And Related Subjects, but most people just refer to it as Wehttam academy, or the academy.” “I might have already mentioned it, but there are four semesters a year. Before each semester you pick your subjects. Technically you can pick as many as you want, but in reality, clashing lesson times and workload make it difficult for anyone to do more than six. Most people just do four, or even two.” Dreyer continues. “Well, not that you’ll have to worry about that right now. First semester is set out for you. Standard procedure to make sure everyone coming in knows at least the basics.” “Other than that, there’s not much to say. Rules are pretty much common sense – I can lend you the rule book later, if you’re curious. There’s a huge library, duelling grounds, artificing workshops, alchemy laboratories… Anything you could possibly want or need that’s magic related.” Dreyer finishes. “When you put it like that, it makes me even more anxious for this week to pass.” I say. Dreyer shrugs. “These things take time.” “I know.” I reply. The conversation lapses, and I take the opportunity to look at my status to try and get an idea of how much mana I’m using. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, my mana is still at its maximum. So, the mana consumption is less than my regeneration, but I don’t know by how much. It could be taking 1 mana a minute or 10, and it wouldn’t reflect in any way on my status. Either way, though, it means I can keep using these magical tools indefinitely. The time passes quicker, now that I can see as a human would, although comparison to my memories has allowed me to determine that I can’t see as far or as in as much detail as I used to be able to. But it’s enough – for now, at least. I read through the rule book Dreyer mentioned, mostly as something to pass the time, but also because I don’t want to screw up something unintentionally and end up getting expelled. Dreyer was right, it is mostly common sense. Stuff like don’t steal, don’t use magic on others without their consent (and even then, it’s probably unwise), no fighting outside the duelling grounds (which have a whole section of rules devoted just to them) and so on and so forth. Of course, the book doesn’t say it in so few words, but that’s the general gist of things. I also take a look at some maps of the academy to make sure I don’t get lost moving around. With mana sight, it’s an unlikely prospect, but it doesn’t hurt to have additional information. And like that, a week passes… I hover over to the auditorium on my own for the welcoming ceremony. Dreyer offered to carry me, but it’s not like he could carry me to every class. I would end up standing out anyway, so I may as well do it myself. The people I pass by gawk at me, but not as much as I had thought. By their conversations, they seem to think I’m an oddly shaped magical tool. I’m fine with that. When I near the auditorium, it’s already packed with people, ordered by how many semesters they have completed. My group, the new students, is the largest, while it seems like some of the most senior groups have been placed together because of how few there are. At the entrance there is a small queue of students being directed towards their groups by a teacher. After a short wait in the line, I reach the front. The teacher takes one look at me and says, “No remote magical tools allowed. Next.” “Wait, I’m a student.” I protest. “Check your list for ‘Gerald’.” Pausing, the teacher leafs through the list’s pages before finding my name – and race – listed there. “My apologies.” She says, although her eyebrows have hiked halfway up her forehead. “Right up the front.” Mentally breathing a sigh of relief, I move to join my group, hovering at around chest height. Mana sight doesn’t require me to have line of sight, so there’s no point in blocking anyone else’s views. The people around me whisper and fidget, looking around at the massive auditorium and their arrayed seniors with no small degree of awe. Most of the newcomers look young, maybe ranging from ten to fifteen years of age, although some few are older, and a couple are slightly younger. Others I can’t tell their age because of their race. There’s a massive array of races here, most of them humanoid but others less so. Just from the ones I can name, I see humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs, fairies, halflings, gnomes, beastmen, demi-humans, centaurs, lamiae, nagas, kobolds, gnolls, lizardmen, harpies, a couple of mermaids in a small pool of water at the edge of the auditorium, a giant, a sphinx, a cyclops, a mind flayer, what I think is a mimic slime and some I can only assume to be elementals. Eventually, everyone arrives, and the doors close. Lines of teachers walk onto the stage, Dreyer among them. Kleio walks – or rather, drifts – to the podium and begins to speak. “Good morning, and welcome to the third semester of this year at Wehttam Academy.” Her voice can clearly be heard even at the back of the auditorium, judging by the reactions of the people there, but whether it’s due to a magical tool or her own magic I can’t be sure. There are so many enchantments and magic flowing in the air and walls here that it’s difficult to tell where one starts and another begins. Or perhaps it’s all the one spell, just moving and changing constantly. I honestly have no clue. Kleio continues to speak, welcoming everyone back and offering her thanks to the teachers and staff for the smooth enrolment process, but not saying anything particularly interesting to me. “In other news, some of the more senior students may be happy to hear that Dreyer has returned from his travels, and will be available this semester to teach space magic to anyone with the skill and intent to learn.” Kleio says as Dreyer waves from the row of teachers. A few of the people towards the rear of the auditorium smile and surreptitiously pump their fists in response. So, it turns out he’s pretty popular. I guess it makes sense. Space magic, as far as I’ve seen, is incredibly powerful and versatile. After about another five minutes of announcements and such, Kleio finishes up. “Thank you for listening. And now, the new students will follow their teachers to their first lesson. As students have been assigned to classes in alphabetical order, please pay attention to the signs the teachers are holding so that you follow the correct teacher. The students in their second semester, please follow Mr. Hartwick to choose your classes. As for the rest of you, you know where to go.” Kleio steps down from the podium, and all the teachers but four disperse. Those four walk to the front (sadly, none of them are Dreyer), holding signs. Inevitably, a cacophony of chatter almost instantly breaks out around me as everyone crowds towards those teachers. Sighing to myself mentally, I hover a bit higher to get a better look at the signs, then higher again when I notice one is particularly low. On them are written: A-E, F-J, K-P and Q-Z. I start to move off towards the teacher holding the F-J sign when I notice a small halfling boy jumping up and down in a fruitless attempt to see the signs. He looks very anxious and is starting to look a bit panicky, so I hover over to him. “Having trouble seeing the signs?” The boy looks at me for a moment, gobsmacked, before finding his tongue again. “Uh, yes. My name is Iueia, do you know where I need to go?” “Sure.” I say calmly. “I’m not sure I caught your name right, what did it start with?” “I.” He replies, reacting to my calmness and visibly starting to calm down. “Looks like you’re in the same class as me, so you can just follow me.” I say, starting to head towards the teacher. “If you happen to get lost, the teacher’s sh- a bit taller than you, with brown hair, a full white beard and thick glasses. I think he might be a gnome, but I’m not entirely sure.” Iueia follows me, he short legs moving much faster than everyone else’s in order to keep up. “Thanks… What’s your name?” “Gerald.” I reply. “Gerald…” Iueia muses, looking up at me. “if you, uh, don’t mind me asking, what are you?” “Exactly what I look like.” I state, already having expected the question. “A fork?” Iueia asks. “A fork.” I agree. Iueia scratches his head. “That’s just weird.” He says, confused. “How can a person be a fork?” …I’m not even mad. He just sounds so legitimately confused as to how I can be a fork. “I’m weird like that.” I agree. “Huh.” Iueia mutters, then falls silent. The teacher leads our small crowd through corridors and hallways until he finally herds us inside a classroom labelled B1.G.7. Standing at the front, he says, “Pick whichever desk you like, and I’ll call the roll to make sure everyone is here.” Fearing that my eye would fail to make out the full detail written on the blackboard from the rear of the room, I make a bee-line for the front center desk and set myself down upon it. A few seconds later, a girl with a grubby face pulls out the chair and attempts to sit down. “I’m already sitting here, thanks.” I say, startling her out of the chair instantly. She gives me a strange look, but moves and sits to my left without saying anything. Iueia sits down to my right and smiles at me briefly before he awkwardly notices I am incapable of replying in kind and looks ahead to the teacher. He begins to call out names. When he gets to mine, he stalls for half a second before calling it out. I reply like everyone else, and he looks at me for a moment before shrugging to himself and continuing on. Iueia’s name gets called shortly after. Then, right towards the end… “Joe.” The teacher calls out. “Here.” The reply comes in a voice significantly deeper than everyone else before him, almost raspy. But I didn’t see anyone opening their mouth in mana sight. I practically ignore the girl on my left replying to her name, Joyce, as half in disbelief, half in dread, I swivel myself around to face the back of the classroom. I see an old man sitting there in the school robes, his brilliantly blue eyes looking straight at me. I turn off my eye. He, and only he, disappears from my sight. I turn it back on, and there he is. Joe. Gerald's Status Status Name: Gerald Race: Living Fork Level: 33 Experience: 6314.0/7600 Gender: None Age: 17 months (local time) Allegiance: None Fame: None Strength: 6.5 (65.0) Intelligence: 54.5 Dexterity: 9.0 (18.0) Wisdom: 54.5 Charisma: 6.0 Luck: 12.1 Hardness: 26.9 Durability: 18.5/18.5 Mana: 1090/1090 Mana regen: 10.90/min (11.88) Psi: 545/545 Psi regen: 5.45/min Ki: 35425/3542 (35425) Ki regen: 3.54 (35.42)/day Unspent stat points: 0   Titles Living – You are a living being, and as such, the energies of life heal you and the energies of death damage you. -Trait: Average life energy absorption -Trait: Average death energy weakness -Trait: minute life affinity -Trait: negative minute death affinity Progenitor – The first of your species, and its forefather. Your reputation affects the reputation of your entire race. -Trait: Minor fame gain enhancement -Trait: 50% of your fame is added to the fame of your race Household object: Being an everyday, household object makes other beings less likely to notice you and mention you to others. -Trait: Small fame gain reduction -Trait: Small presence reduction Assumed inanimacy – Despite being a living entity and continually in the presence of other living entities, none have noticed your existence, assuming you to be an inanimate object. People are slightly less likely to notice you and less likely to notice your life energy. -Trait: Minor presence reduction -Trait: Moderate life presence reduction Fork – You are a fork. As such, you are designed to pierce, scoop and carry food. -Trait: Minute taste enhancement -Trait: Minute piercing enhancement (restricted to food) -Trait: Minute carry capacity increase (Restricted to food) Second life – You have lived, and died, once before. While you died young, the experience nonetheless is an advantage over others. -Stats: Wisdom + 1, Intelligence + 2 Clinically sane – You have experienced insanity and overcome it, one way or another. The experience has changed you, for better or worse. -Stats: Luck +5, Wisdom +1, Dexterity +0.5, Strength +0.5, Intelligence +1 Ouroboros – Like the serpent of legend, you bit your own tail. Then you ate it. Weirdo. Stat – Luck +2, Charisma +1, Wisdom -1, Wisdom +2 Undead slaughterer – Killer of many horrors of the night, you can instinctively sense nearby undead, especially those harmful to you. All stats increased by 2 when attacking undead. Traits Life energy absorption (Average) – life energy heals you, causing you to regain durability. Death energy weakness (Average) – death energy damages you, reducing your durability. Life affinity (Minute) – You find it easier to gain life related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Negative death affinity (Minute) – You find it harder to gain death related skills and proficiencies than if you did not have this trait. Fame gain reduction (Minor) – The amount of fame you gain is reduced. Presence reduction (Small +1) – Others are less likely to notice you. 50% Fame added to racial fame – The fame of your race is equal to 50% of your fame plus the added fame of all other members of the species divided by the number of members in your species. Life presence reduction (Moderate) – Others are less likely to notice that you are alive. Taste enhancement (Minute) – All food that touches you tastes slightly better. Piercing enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – It is slightly easier for you to pierce food. Carry capacity enhancement (Minute) (Restricted to food) – You can carry slightly more food than appearances would suggest. Mana touched (Minor) – Mana permeates your body, changing it in some ways. Herculean Strength (Large) – In possession of the ability to exert strength far beyond that of your peers. Multiplies base strength (Before using passive or active skills) by 10. Structured sanity (Moderate) – a well-structured mind is a strong mind. You are resistant to mind affecting or altering affects, such as fear, charm and hypnosis. Magic metal – You have gained the properties of the magic metal, Mithril. Your body conducts mana at twice the normal rate. Your passive mana absorption is doubled. Your maximum mana is now equal to Intelligence multiplied by 20 instead of Intelligence multiplied by 10. Your maximum durability is increased by your maximum mana divided by 100. Your hardness is increased by max mana divided by 100. Psychic – You have unlocked the hidden potential of your mind. Stat unlock: psi. Poison Resistance (Huge) – You are completely immune to weak and ordinary poisons. The effects of more potent poisons on you are greatly reduced. Flea-bitten (Minor) – Fleas instinctively move towards you. Physical damage reduction (Minute) – Damage taken that would do under 5% of your total durability as damage is reduced by 5%. Ki Practitioner: You have gained the ability to control the energy within you, and to reinforce it with the energy around you, enabling you to perform far beyond the normal limits of your body. Stat unlock: Ki. Water-Proof (Minor) – Water, and many water based fluids, will slip from your surface with great ease. Feather-weight (Minute) – You feel light as a feather. A feather that weighs slightly less than you originally did, that is. 1% weight reduction. Cat’s flexibility (Minor) – Base Dexterity is multiplied by 2. Range of movement of joints increased by 1.1 times. Curse resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to curses. Reduces the effect of weak curses on you. Heat resistance (Minor) – You have developed an innate resistance to heat. Reduces discomfort and damage inflicted upon you by high temperatures. Slightly increases your melting point. Skills Absorb (Advanced) (Racial, Low Unique) 34.17% - Allows the absorption of energy, or substances through the surface of the body or at a distance of (Int*Wis)/10mm. Rate of absorption can be controlled. Although this ability is magical in nature, as it is a form of mana control, and mana is also absorbed, mana cost is 0. Currently the only form of energy able to be absorbed is mana. Absorbing substances has a minor chance of giving traits, abilities and skills relating to the substance. Mana sight (Expert) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 1.82% - You are capable of seeing smaller congregations of mana than before within (Intelligence*Wisdom)/1.75m. Their forms are now distinct. You can now differentiate mana by type. Self-repair (Master) (Low Unique, Active) 10.95% - By expending a type of energy available to you, you can repair your own durability and recover your original form. Current energies able to be used: Mana, Psi, Ki. Exchange ratio: 5 mana: 0.1 durability, 10 Psi: 0.1 durability, 10 Ki: 0.1 durability. Telepathy (Advanced) (High Rare, Active) 41.12% - Allows one to communicate with other beings in exchange for 0.5 Psi/sec*distance between user and target in meters, to a maximum range of (Wisdom*Intelligence)/5m. Allows the user to share emotions and thoughts with the recipient. Body of deadly poison (Advanced) (Low Unique, Passive/Toggled) 0.10% – Deadly poison courses throughout your entire body. So potent is this poison that even touching you will cause great sickness and partial paralysis for a short period of time. Potency of poison scales a small amount with proficiency. Flee (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive/Conditional) 3.28% - Multiplies base dexterity by 1.5 when running away from something. Will deactivate if offensive action is taken. Will not activate if you do not perceive the thing you are running away from as a threat. Body of weak acid (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive/Toggled) 2.07% - A weak acid courses throughout your body and on your skin. So weak is this acid that it acts better as a cleaning agent than a weapon. Acidity scales minutely with proficiency. Magic edge (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 7.14% – You have discovered how to clad the edge of your blade in magic power, increasing the power of your strikes. Increase in power varies depending on mana spent. Gaming – Minesweeper (Expert) (Mid rare, Passive) 13.27% - You’ve sunk way too much time into this game. And despite the statistics saying 0 wins, 306 losses, you are way better at this than almost everyone else. Slightly increased analytical abilities. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of a 50/50 gamble. Meditation (Master) (High Rare, Active) 15.23%: Enter into a state unburdened by the worries of the physical world. There is only you, and your thoughts that exist in this world. While in this state, mana regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Psi regeneration multiplied by 3.0, Ki generated at 25 times the normal rate. User is also calmed and receives slight resistance to mind affecting or altering affects. Ki blast (Advanced) (Mid Rare, Active) 47.28%: Expel Ki from your body in a concentrated blast. Power varies with ki infused. With your lack of experience, you are not able to accurately control the amount of ki you infuse into the skill, it may vary by up to 10 points. Form manipulation – Self (Expert) (Low Unique, Active) 49.27% - Through the use of mana, you can manipulate your own form at will. Cannot change density or mass. Costs 3.5 mana/second while changing form, costs 6 mana/minute while in a form not your original. WARNING! Do not use this ability if you are of a race with aspects that could result in death if you were to change them E.G. internal organs, mana pathways, et cetera. Lip reading (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 71.59% - You have learned how to understand what people are saying by the movement of their lips. Doesn’t hurt that you can see their tongue and jaw movement, either. Rarely inaccurate, you can usually tell what people are saying, unless they have some crazy accent. Good luck with those. Nine lives (Static) (Passive) – You will avoid the next eight attacks that would be deadly to you, seemingly by accident. After avoiding eight attacks, this skill will disappear. Charges remaining: 8 Telekinesis (Advanced) (Low Rare, Active) 68.13% - Through Psi, your mind pushes at the world around you, moving objects without the need for physical contact. More Psi is required to produce greater forces. Currently inefficient. External Ki manipulation (Basic) (Low Rare, Active) 0.51% - You have discovered how to manipulate Ki outside of your body. Doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Difficulty of control increases drastically with distance and quantity of Ki. Magic missile (Expert) (Mid Uncommon, Active) 91.49% - Fires a projectile of mana. Power scales with mana consumption, unable to exceed 50 mana per shot. Maximum range = Intelligence*1.75/metres. If remotely controlling, there is an additional mana cost of 0.65 mana/sec, otherwise direction of travel is set at initial creation of shot. Mana control (Expert) (High Uncommon, Passive) 88.27% - Your practice with magic has led to a great familiarity with handling mana. Maximum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 100 mana. Minimum quantity of mana able to be controlled reliably: 0.2 mana. Power stab (Advanced) (High Common, Active) 13.12% - Multiplies the speed and power of a stab by 1.2. Cooldown: 4 minutes Mud bath (Basic) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - Your injuries heal faster when they are covered with mud, by 1.2 times. Slightly lowered chance of contracting infection and parasites from this activity. …However, as you are for most purposes an object, this skill does not affect you. Climbing (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% - You have a slightly increased ability to find handholds and footholds when climbing something, as well as a slightly increased ability to maintain grip on smaller handholds. Melee weaponry – Spear (Advanced) (Mid Common, Passive) 0.00% - You have some experience using a standard spear. Minor increased grip strength when wielding this weapon, and +1 to Strength and Dexterity while wielding this weapon. Maintaining this type of weapon is easier for you. Doppelganger (Static) (High Unique, Active) – Switch between your original appearance and that of a Human Male. Costs 1000 mana/min. Psychic translation (Static) (Low Unique, Passive) – Through subconscious psychic analysis of thought waves and language patterns, allows you to understand (and temporarily speak) any spoken language as if it is your native tongue. Does not apply to non-vocal languages. Flattery (Advanced) (Low Uncommon, Passive) 0.00% – Skill and tireless effort is the surest way to the top. But sometimes, a few lined pockets and some glitzy compliments are all you need. Others are more likely to have positive opinions of you. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘deception’ skill. Deception (Advanced) (High Common, Passive) 0.07% – Whether the end game is a knife in the back or a slowly drained bank account makes no difference. It’s not like they don’t lie to you, either. Others are more likely to believe your words. Affected positively by charisma. Synergistic effect with the ‘flattery’ skill. Gaming - Tic-Tac-Toe (Master) (Low Unique, Passive) 48.97% - You are a master at Tic-Tac-Toe. Congratulations. Slight instinctive ability to correctly guess the outcome of 50/50 and one in three gambles. Multitasking (Advanced) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 38.12% - You are skilled at doing multiple things at once. Small increase to your ability to keep track of multiple things at once, small decrease in the reduction in precision when performing multiple tasks at once. Common language-Spoken (Expert) (High Common, Passive) 78.21% - You know most of the commonly used words in the common language. Only obscure and occupation specific words are likely to be outside your knowledge. Common language-Written (Master) (Mid Uncommon, Passive) 13.57% - You can not only read common the right way up, but upside-down, sideways and reflected without much trouble. The very few words you don’t recognise you can understand from context, and you can read like lightning if you need to. Small increase in the ability to ignore superfluous text and descriptions to find the actual information you want. Allows you to skip over info dumps and flowery descriptions without flinching even slightly. [collapse] jinxs2011 It's been a while since the last chapter, and unfortunately the next chapter will probably take even longer; I'll have to focus on something else for at least the rest of the month. I can't be sure when the next chapter will be, but I can be sure there will be a next chapter. Either way, I'll still be available to reply for questions, comments and on the discord server (https://discord.gg/qRPP5mH). I'll also update the wiki (https://fork-this-life.wikia.com/wiki/Fork_This_Life!_Wiki) soon after posting this chapter, with the new characters and whatnot. Regardless of all that, Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed.

This is the start of the adventures of the second MC of the story, the title is Convergence of Fates and it has always been destined to have at least two lead characters. So, my readers, I give you Destiny. I would really appreciate having feedback about her, please comment! [A/N: When Destiny use “< >” in my dialogue, the characters are either using telepathy or reading the thoughts of the recipient.]   -(Destiny)- Project Xavier, undisclosed location Year 457 of the Alliance Calendar, Friday the 6th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar “Destiny wake up.” A familiar hushed voice murmured in my ear. I woke up drowsily and suddenly with a start opening my eyes wide and sat in my bed. The synthetic linen of the sheets covering my body irritated my skin. I turned my head to look around my room, four white walls, a nightstand, and a closet were all my possessions in this world. It was dark, and I could barely see in the dim lights. My bedroom’s lighting was never off. “Unca’ is that ye?” I said still fighting sleep. “It’s me, sweetheart.” Uncle Magnus appeared from the shadows as if he was a ghost.  Surprised, I jumped up a bit. Embarrassed, I then glared at him; I didn’t feel him being amused as is normal for him. I did feel that he was really serious right now.  <Don’t be afraid, we need to get out of here.> Uncle Magnus projected his thought at me.  <Where are we going?> I looked askance at his wizened face.  Uncle Magnus was an attractive man, he was tall of about 180 cm and fit, he has blue eyes and blond hair and a face showing is Scottish flair that reflected how someone shouldn’t anger him. He was a charismatic and passionate man, his predominant characteristic was his charm that I have been able to see work on the older females personnel.  <We don’t have the time to discuss, put on some shoes, I want to escape this damned place.> He ordered me.  I didn’t move, it wasn’t like uncle Magnus to be like this; he must have felt my apprehension because he approached me and put his hands on my shoulders and looked at me with worry. “They want to turn you into something that doesn’t sit well with me, Destiny. I won’t let it happen, quick let’s go!” He finally spoke. Taking advantage of him touching me, I focused my mind into circumventing his mental shield. Urgency and the desperation bled from him, but two brands of thought of swayed my decision of following him; “I want to protect her”, “We must leave that damned place.” “Ok, I trust ye unca’ ye never steered me wrong.” Hurrying, I got up from the bed and went to my closet and put on my boots. I was wearing an issued white pajama from this research facility, it is a naturally woven one that was kind of too tight on me. Not one of those fancily made by a fabricator. It’s like the people handling the money here were penny pinchers, it didn’t matter anymore. When I was done uncle Magnus caught me by the left arm and put some sort of wristwatch on it. “Take this and put it on your wrist. It’s a computer and a communicator, I stole it. Don’t lose it, everything of note about project Xavier is on this.” The watch straps were smooth and white, the screen of the watch was rectangular and projected a blue hologram showing the time and date of the day, the battery level. “What do ye mean, unca’ what is inside?” I asked him. Normally I was refused even the most basic information and was restricted from accessing any computer terminal or machine. Him giving me this was weird, but I didn’t worry about it because this is something that he gave me. Uncle Magnus is the scientist charged to keep me healthy and cooperative. He is a father to me and a friend. The only friend I have. “Everything about you and this place, now come on sweetheart we must go.” He took my hand and dragged me toward the door. The ‘swoosh’ of the automatic door made me look around for signs of people looking for us, because yeah we are escaping. Isn’t that what prey does when they want to escape a predator or jailer? The curfew was enforced, but as I was with one of the scientists the alert didn’t sound. We ended up in the corridor leading to the housing unit for the subjects of the Xavier project; besides me, there were two other subjects that the project take care of, a Pyrokinetic and a Teleporter. Both guys and we were encouraged into not being friendly with each other. We passed by the doors of their bedrooms, I hoped the Director wouldn’t punish them because of my escape. There were three levels to the underground facility; The housing floor that is the last floor where the test subjects were, the labs and test rooms were on the second floor, and finally to go above ground the general floor where security and other personnel are living and work. I never went beyond the laboratory and the test rooms. We didn’t run but walked slowly and stealthily out of the main corridor to take the main turbo-elevator that we entered promptly. I was worried, uncle Magnus looked like a cool cookie exteriorly but inside he was wracked by anguish and fear. Not for himself but for me. <Let’s be prudent on the lab floor, keep silent and don’t speak. I can’t pull the same things I did on the third floor, we have to be inconspicuous.> The elevator signaled us that we arrived at the second floor and the door opened. There was an unfolded wheelchair waiting before us near one of the potted plants against the wall facing the elevator. <Sit, we need to put on a charade.> Uncle Magnus informed me. I obeyed, went to the chair and sat in it in a hurry. My uncle went behind me and began to wheel the chair slowly. The entire process of being wheeled and looking sedated was nerve-wracking, uncle Magnus kept updating me on the place we passed; the laboratory where they often stuck us into health tank, the fire and kinetic room and my special hell on earth the interrogation room. There were psychic dampeners in either of them if we tried to take advantage of our powers to try to escape or to put us into our ‘place’ as the director like to call it. <We are going to go into that Janitor closet behind the toilet facilities.> Uncle Magnus projected with his mind. Uncle Magnus fiddled with the keypad of the door, with ‘ding’ of acknowledgment the door swooshed open; the light inside lit on and my uncle ushered us into the closet. I say Closet but it was a big room with industrial floor scrubbers installed on their recharging pedestals and gun grey lockers on the walls. <Can I speak now?> I whined, staying silent isn’t my strongest suit. “Huh? Ah, yes yes, sweetheart. Sorry, I was really focused on getting us out of the cells.” He bends down to hug me on the chair and kissed my forehead. The cells, that what he called the test subjects housing units. I blushed a bit and reciprocated the hug; I like hugs. “So what are we going ta’ do unca’? We got so far already.” “That, my sweet is the easiest part!” Uncle went in one of the lockers, opened it and took out some clothes and gear in a box made of transparent grey plastic. He gave me the box and opened it while it was in my arms. There was a pistol in a holster belt, a belt with an ‘x’ belt buckle, boots and a helmet and a black security uniform that those despicable super soldiers wore. I sneered while looking at the outfit. Those barbarous swines had always persecuted me and my fellow test subjects, there was nothing ‘super’ about them unless you took into account their evil antics. “I know you don’t like them, sweetie; but we need them to get you out of there,” Uncle said. He was trying to reassure me, I wasn’t about to jeopardize his kindness and his life because of my hatred. I wanted to go out, to see the world! But now, I realized that you should be able to make some sacrifices to get what you want. My shoulders sagged, I looked back at uncle Magnus and nodded to him. “Good girl.” He said while patting my head. I relished in the physical contact by closing my eyes and relaxing my body. Uncle is doing his best to get us out of this heinous place. It's too bad that we cannot take the other two with us, but sometimes you must think of yourself before having a savior complex. Saviors end up dead because their actions change things; something I have learned in my short life is that human abhors changes. But changes are inevitable. Uncle Magnus turned himself away in another direction while I was putting on the security uniform. A really tight black combat jumpsuit with an inbuilt bra for support. *Ah, that’s unca’ Magnus for ye, he always pay attention ta’ details like that.” After five minutes, I was done. The boots where comfy, but the belt was kind of constricting. My heavy boobs were at ease in that outfit, no wonder those fiends at security think they are better than us; they live in luxury compared to us  subjects. I sneered at the thought, one day I will get back at those people who took us from our families and treated us like animals. Looking at the weapon on my belt, I remembered one of the instances I used my telepathy for harm. The bright fiery and lithe form of a young redheaded girl came into my mind. The scene of when that super soldier stopped me to stop them from beating to death my friend Isabelle assailed me. It almost made me cry again. *Iza, Ô Iza why did ye leave me in this place? Why didn’t ye take me with ye?* She was gone now when her pyrokinetic powers consumed her; I took the knowledge of how to use a gun or how to fight at close quarters from the super soldier that restrained me then killed him with his own weapon. It had been a harrowing experience; seeing my best friend die without me being able to do anything and then I remember doing something to that super soldier with my arm, take his pistol from his belt and pulled the trigger. The sound of the weapon sounded in my mind just like it did that day and the gurgles of the man whose heart I pierced with a bullet. I remember feeling happy about it and trying to go save Iza but was stopped when the psionic inhibitor in the test room was triggered and all those super soldiers entered the room and caught me and systematically began to beat me up. My hand clenched on the pistol grip. I felt a hand on my right shoulder; I then looked at uncle Magnus who had a benevolent expression on his face. “Destiny, don’t worry what you have on the wristwatch will give you peace of mind, and revenge.” The sweet voice of uncle Magnus kicked me out of my stormy thoughts. He has always known me better than myself and helped me to sort out my feelings. Yes, uncle Magnus is a psychologist with a bit of psionics specialty toward telepathy. That’s why he was assigned to me. Just by looking at my expressions or body language he is able to guess what’s happening in my head. At first, I suspected that he was a telepath himself, but he isn’t. “Are you ready?” He asked me with his serious tone that means ‘we are going to do dangerous things.’ “Lock and loaded, Unca’!” I said enthusiastically. I put on the black security helmet that hid my identity. Pawing at my weapon and deploying my telepathic sense; I only felt uncle with me in that part of the floor. I had a two hundred meters range for my telepathy, it helped detect minds efficiently; Unless they got psionic inhibitors though... “Let’s roll out.” Uncle Magnus smiled and turned toward the exit. <Aye, sir.> I said in his mind. We went out of the janitor closet and closed the door, I focused on scouting with my mind. There were some scientists in the lab room number one and one security super soldier, it was a relaxed night today. Great. I walked at the side of uncle Magnus looking as if I belonged, I tried to emulate how those super soldier people moved; with purpose and ready for a fight at any time. We arrived at the next bank of turbo elevators and entered one and uncle Magnus put his hands on the scanner on the keypad on the wall. The doors of the cage closed. “Surface of the compound please.” Yes, Doctor Buchanan. The AI of the elevator leading to the surface was more sophisticated, and the security measures were more stringent it seems. I stuck close to my uncle and he did the same. <Destiny, whatever happen I want to tell you that I love you and I consider you my daughter.> Looking at him, I saw that uncle Magnus who has always been my rock was scared. I was scared too, but I didn’t want us to die there. I shall protect him with all my might; yes I intended to kill again, it’s inevitable. <Unca’ I am scared, I love you too.> I sent lovingly in his mind. He looked at me fondly, then resolve steeled his gaze. <There is a ship that will attack the complex,> Uncle Magnus looked at his wristwatch and pushed a button.<right about now.> I heard a loud boom and felt tremors even in the cage of the turbo elevator; a loud alarm screamed shrilly, it made me jump. Uncle Magnus made a dashing smile and took a pistol out of his lab coat and unlocked the safety. I choose to do the same and took my pistol and took off the safety, checked if there was a preloaded bullet in the firing chamber. The stolen skills of that super soldier were nifty, but I still need training in it to develop muscle memory and to develop proficiency in targeting. Explosion wracked the complex and made it tremble, our elevator stopped and when the door of the cage opened we were faced with a hellish rain of beam lasers. Lasers that hit the buildings and turning them into cheese riddled with holes. The light was striking those super soldiers that tried to shoot at the craft which fired at them and their body simply disappeared, turned into dust. Disintegrated. “Unca’ won’t those kill us if they hit us?!” I shouted in worry. “They won’t, sweetie! Let’s Go!” Uncle said with certainty. Uncle Magnus caught my arm and dragged me from the frying pan into the fire, we ran, avoiding the craters and debris left by the destroyed landscape. I felt people watching us with my telepathic sense, super soldiers noticed us. It made me fire at them with my pistol, they took cover but I killed one with a lucky shot. Uncle got another while we ran toward the portal of the complex. Super soldiers tried to stop us but either got disintegrated by the laser rain or got shot by us and the more fortunate one took hid in the building and used the furniture and decor has a cover. *Die, die you apes!* I killed two more of them. “We are almost there!” Uncle shouted happily. We could smell a whiff of freedom, it scented of ionized air and burning wood. A humongous ship came into view a ramp at the tail of it opened. Someone was there and signaling us to move faster toward them! We sprinted, I was lighter and faster than uncle Magnus and I went past him and arrived at the mouth of the ramp and turned toward uncle to make him know I arrived at the goal. But what I saw horrified me. He clutched at his chest, red blood bloomed on his jumpsuit and white lab coat. “UNCA’!!!” I ran toward him desperately and caught him when he was about to fall. I felt super soldiers run toward us and I shot at them with my pistol when they were about to appear. They fell one by one until my weapon went empty. “Run…” I heard uncle Magnus say. He coughed blood and could barely breathe. Tears fell from my eyes, I couldn’t lose him too! Never! Someone from the ship came toward us and took uncle in his arm and went toward the ramp of the ship. I felt more super soldier coming, I threw the useless gun and fired psionics bolt with all the rage and wrath I could muster and hearing them scream or fall like a sack of potatoes felt euphoric and sad. “Die, die!!” I screamed while sobbing. I felt the same person from the ship to get me and I followed him while firing force bolts at those villains. I couldn’t see if that person was a male or female but they were strong as they took me in a fireman carry pose. Not resisting I let this person save me, I didn’t want to die but I also wanted to avenge uncle Magnus. Scratch that, he would have wanted me to flee. I threw more psionic force bolts at the onrushing super soldiers but we entered the ship and the ramp closed. The person who saved me put me on the ground. “Please save Unca’ Magnus!” I pleaded. The person wore a dark green spacesuit with a helmet that hid his or her face. Then something that shocked me to my core and broke my heart at the same time happened. I felt Unca’s mind fading. I saw him on the ground with a pack and some gelatinous substance on his naked torso. I went to him and kneeled on his prom form. <Unca’ don’t leave me please, don’t!> I begged him. <I am sorry, can’t.> I felt his misery and self-loathing permeate his mind. He was chastising himself for disappointing me and leaving me alone. <Ye cannot do this! Don’t leave me alone, please…> <It’s my time, Destiny. Promise me that you will be a good girl and survive out there? Become strong, train your telepathy and your body, don’t let the Xavier Project take you back.” I looked at him and felt peace emanate from him, but there was restlessness behind it. Even in this state, he was still worried about me. <Okay, I promise.> Snot ran from my nose and my tears fell on uncle Magnus face. As soon as I conveyed this thought to him, his spirit faded completely. I lost my sense of time when it happened, I cried for so long when he died that I didn’t register when the ship left the planet and wasn’t lucid enough when the person piloting the ship went to show me that the complex turned to slag when the fusion core powering the outpost where I lived most of my life.

-(Colonel David O’lleary)-   Border of the PX2458 uncharted star system, Year 456 of the Unified Alliance   I sighed in my command chair; I hate long hauls like this one. Patting the breast pocket of my uniform, I sought my comm-link tablet which was vibrating. Looking at the caller ID, I sighed more heavily. Dio Quatro, one of the super soldiers charged with training the other super soldiers of the mercenary company. “It’s me, Dio.” He had the bad habit of speaking self importantly. “I know it’s you,” I said. “Commander, I’m calling about Corporal Ell Evan. She did it again!” Sighing once more, I asked, “Did she beat the simulations again and you’re unable to accept it?” Ell Evan was the perfect soldier. On paper. The operative, space combat, and survival simulations were a piece of cake to her. Unfortunately, she was unable to perform in the field, because she was a lazy young woman. She was often punished for her eccentricity by pulling double guard duty, cleaning or other chores no one want to do. “Commander! It’s not about that, she’s fighting with Corporal Anderson! She listens to you, please do something!” “Of course, I will do what I can,” I responded amiably. I cut the call and brought to mind the operation in this system that we had just received from the main HQ. Two big clients had paid for the capture or elimination of a target that had been raiding and destroying their assets for two decades. They wished for it to stop, to give them a chance to rebuild. But, my gut was telling me that something was fishy. Getting out of the leather command chair on the bridge of the ship, I entered the elevator which led to the service corridor of the ship. She was an old design, dating back to the war of the first contact with the Saryan race, which had been just a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding that cost millions of lives before the Alliance intervened. The ship was one of the first destroyer scouts of the Earth Federation, retrofitted to be able to pound medium sized vessels into oblivion and also act as a drop ship for troops. It married elegant curves and squares in its elongated form and had additional modules for operations and deep space maneuvers. The weapons system was upgraded to what the federation currently used on its ship, laser beam banks, rail guns, and sublight missile launchers. I envied those who could order weapon packs from VICE industries, their ships were another beast entirely; they had technology the earth federation tried relentlessly steal from them… but that was wishful thinking. The technology was locked and would self-destruct if you tried to even look at the code of its programming. Arriving in the simulation bay, the sliding doors opened for me and I was immediately struck by the number of people surrounding one of the simulators. It was one of those blocky grey ones, mimicking the cockpit of a heavy fighter, with an AI which would take you through simulated space and guide you through different scenarios. Remembering the pattern of an earlier incident which happened not so long ago, I advanced toward the little gathering. One of the super soldiers saw me arriving and saluted me on the spot, the rest of them were too focused on the fight between a female and male soldier. The female soldier was a curvy young woman of medium height. Her face was distinctive due to her Asian features and dark blond hair crowning her head. She was the obvious result of a genetic engineering program given the preternatural speed with which she avoided kicks and punch. Corporal Ell Evan, super soldier B-58 of Asian strand sold to ARES mercenary when she was 8 years old.  A genius compared to other super soldiers sold in the same batch as hers, but a lack of stimulation and hard missions had caused her to become rather “lazy.” Ell deftly avoided a punch from the buff young man, catching his arm as it swung wide, and finally landed a powerful blow to his chin with enough force to lift the man off his feet. We all saw him hit the deck of the simulation room like a bag of potatoes. “Can’t beat me in simulation, or in the real world. I’m better than you, dickhead,” she declared triumphant. “Attention!” I yelled with my command voice. All the soldiers turned toward me, snapping rigidly to attention. Most of them wore a sloppy version of my own dark uniform or were just in undershirts, pants, belts, and boots with their sidearms. Some wore accessories, quantum jewels, bracelets or their dog tags. Their ID tattoos were showing on their neck due to their nervousness. The super soldier tattoos are made with invisible ink that only showed if said soldiers had elevated body temperatures or under a certain light spectrum. My eyes finally locked on those of the female corporal of interest, and she didn’t even look guilty. She never did. “Ell Evan at ease and everyone else drops and give me 100, fast!” Dropping into push-up position despite the limited deck space in the simulation room, the soldiers went at it quickly. Not bothering to wait until they were done, I signaled for the corporal to follow me out of the room.   *** -(Ell Evan)-   I was so in trouble! Shit. Why couldn’t that bastard leave me alone? Anderson always gave me trouble for no reason. Taking a seat in the chair of his office, which was situated adjacent to his cabin, the Commander touched his tablet and then looked at me. I was still standing at attention, waiting for him to lay down the law. Given my situation, this wasn’t my first time in the Commander’s office. There were old books in a fake wood shelf behind him, potted plants placed in each corner of the room, and a single chair facing his desk. He looked exasperated. “At ease, corporal, and please take a seat.” “Yes, sir!” I sat, back stiff and straight, and waited. “We are entering system PX2458 and the passive scanner has detected a class M moon around a gas giant. However, that’s not the most important thing.” His slid the tablet across the desk towards me and I could see what might be a structure orbiting the large moon. The IFF of what could only be a space station was displayed. “SHIT.” “Yes, that’s what I thought, too.” The commander made a sad smile as I slid the tablet back to him. “Sir, this is dangerous. VICE Industries will go to war with us and we will not be able to survive. I recommend aborting the mission. I saw on the passive scan that this station doesn’t have any defense platforms but that’s not possible!” I gave my input without being asked. With good reason, VICE Industries’ augmented centurion made super soldiers looks like toys, their ships were geared for war, and were super advanced. I had seen the reports on their war against the superior Shdeveri Empire, aliens that had dimensional technology, and yet VICE Industries still fucking won. “The defense platform must be concealed, and I’m sure if we tweak the sensors we would even be able to pinpoint if they have mines around that space station.” The commander looked at me and sighed, his face showing sorrow. “We cannot abort. HQ has already taken payment for this mission and we can’t refund because our clients are Assurians. They would take it quite badly…” “Shit.” My shoulders slumped as I sank back into the chair. Assurians have a weird sense of honor, professionalism and vengeance. If you were friends with one, he would move mountains to help you, but if you had a falling out,  they had no qualms about killing you later., This meant accepting jobs from them was always dangerous; you must fulfill the contract to the letter or risk getting killed for some details they expected you to follow. Assurians took the notion of vengeance to another level; they would kill the people you cherished or even only remotely knew, and then kill you. A race like that was hard to deal with. “So, now we come to the real reason I invited you to my office, Corporal. I want you to go, scout, that space station, and look for the hidden defense. Become my Arianne.” I laughed for a long time before calming down. “You are not asking for something small. But, you know what?” “Do tell.” He smiled at me, knowing my answer already. “I will do it.” This was a challenge, or a suicide mission. I didn’t care about my life anyway; all I thrived on was excitement. Living like a slave at the whim of my masters didn’t interest me the slightest. They dangled Freedom before us like a carrot if we did meritorious service, but I knew the truth. The more useful you were, the harder it was for them to let you go. I’d been lowering my standing and abilities while biding my time, waiting for the day when I could find a way to escape. Or, I could die while having lived my life to the best I could.  

-(NOVA)- Real Space The Lurker Crew Quarters Friday 14th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar After feeling irrational, displaced and melancholic for days, my Mistress has slowly but surely acclimated at being in real space again. Her brain waves normalized to what I was used to in the Cyber realm; only after I told her that I saved the Smallville realm and its inhabitants who are in a state of ‘stasis’ but she will have to procure decent computer processing powers to be able to run the realm when she will be out of this ship. For now, when we go train in the cyber realm we will be able to live there. Lady Altair as comes to the same conclusion as me, that Destiny shouldn't stay too long in the Cyber realm more than at 100 times the speed of Realspace. But I predict that the problem is psychological, as Destiny was at peace in the Smallville instances with all those AIs that cared for her. I think some of the AIs love her too much, some even decided to give her a copy of themselves for when she will be able to procure secure new servers. I coined the name of the project as ‘Sanctuary’ and we will have to work on it later. Destiny status was noted as: optimal. Lady Altair was drilling my charge into her advanced tactical training module for today, they were at the shooting range of the ship adjoining the armory. It was a modulable room that change as needed. Lady Altair configured it to be fifty meters long and twenty meters large. I could perceive the change in the ship as modules retracted on themselves to give way for the needed space. Tactical Advanced Pistol Program engaged. “Destiny, this is a Blaster.” Lady Altair explained by showing a small pistol that she took out of a crate at her feet. It was larger and longer than a projectile based pistol, it was silver and the design revealed that it was a Toris Silva-48, the current model used by the Alliance of races joint military. It was a solid and reliable weapon, which didn’t heat too fast. “A blaster is any type of ranged weapon that fire bolts of intense plasma energy, they are often mistaken as laser weapon by the most uneducated masses,” Altair mentioned. She handed the weapon to Destiny that already knew how to manipulate it. She checked the integrity of the battery cells by taking them out and once she was satisfied loaded them in the handle of the blaster, Destiny then synchronized the targeting computer of the pistol with her HUD, then removed the safety on the side of the weapon and aimed at a hologram dummy in the range and fired two times. The first shot hit the target on the shoulder, the second hit it on the head. It was a good result but it could have been better, my analysis of her body language and the communication networks in her brain to her muscles show signs of lag. *How problematic.* A quandary that resolved itself by accessing Destiny’s memory. Target disabled. I told to Destiny. She moved to put the weapon on the table in the firing lane facing her. I recommend you to put on a security visor, to reduce the glare of the flash when the blaster is fired, Mistress. “Come on, NOVA it isn’t like you can’t protect my eyes with the security protocols of my nanites.” Tried to argue. I must teach her later to better negotiate, her ways of finding excuses and ignoring safety protocols are foolhardy. I shelved this on the list of things to teach my Mistress and it continues to pile up the more I interact with her. Fortunately, her life expectancy has raised significantly since she has been imbued by body enhancing nanites, Destiny has all the time in the world unless fatal unpredicted events befall her. Certainly, your nanites will baffle the sound to protect your hearing and electromagnetically repel any debris from your eyes. However, Mistress, my duty is to let you be less reliant on their uses and to conserve energy, listen to me, Destiny. “Aye, aye, I will listen.” My Mistress said and rolled her eyes. Something tells me that she isn’t complying, another thing to correct her on. That list is getting bigger. Lady Altair clapped and laughed briefly before addressing my recalcitrant Mistress. “That was good Destiny, but there seems to be a certain disconnect between your shooting skills and your muscle memory.” Lady Altair’s own AI must have shown her the same results as me when Destiny fired the blaster pistol. “Aye, Thanks I will work on it!” Yes, Lady Altair. I will guide her. Though I have something to add for her sake. My analysis determined that my Mistress’s shooting skills don’t come from her own inherent skills as she had to remember how to shoot. My conclusion is that she has performed a memory reading with her telepathy and used knowledge replication on a male subject, that is why there is a lag of 0.40 seconds for information to move from her brain to her muscles. Knowledge replication also called Knowledge duplication to make a telepath user able to gain any kind of knowledge, be it knowledge over a subject, a foreign language, or mastery of a fighting style. It is one of the most common uses of telepathy, but also a dangerous endeavor. When the user steals a skill this way he or she must care for the target of the manipulation. In Destiny’s case, it was just a matter of physiology that is slowing her down. The muscles of a human female are completely different from those of a male. “Ah, then Destiny. Today you’ll pass your time shooting to absorb the skill that you gained. It happens that we are in the same boat, my own battle skills were copied from my sister but we have the blessing of being female so they carried over seamlessly.” “Urgh, ah thought ah would breeze through this.” Mistress, your accent is leaking again. “Sorry, sorry.” Her excuses came out muffled as she put a hand on her mouth and laughed a bit. How unrepentant, I will get her later. The expression on Lady Altair’s face told me that she had something prepared to put my Mistress in her place. “Destiny, my girl. I will show you something you should aspire to.” Said cooly. Lady Altair went toward the opening of the firing lane and began to teach. “The gun kata art removes the separation between shooter and gun,” she continued to proselytize as she walked out into the large open space in the middle of the firing lane. Five hologram constructs began to form far in the range. “Skills like trigger pull, stance, alignment all fall to the wayside allowing the shooter to adapt to any situation.” Without breaking stride, she unslung her heavy blaster, which were a cross between the Tauri Silva model and one of those Old West six-shooter pistols from old earth, and fired off five shots dead center in the heads of the five dummies so fast the hologram constructs shimmered slightly. “Battle is pure chaos,” she said as she twirled her pistol in her hand before sliding it back into its holster at her right thigh. “Inflexible plans and routine training disappear as the blood and smoke arrive. Being proficient in gun kata art is having no plan. To take each moment as it comes, in the moment, without anticipation or hesitation. To flow like a leaf on the wind.” “Ah think ah shite meself in my shipsuit.” I heard Destiny subvocalize to me. Fortunately, Destiny didn’t soil her shipsuit. My Mistress looked in awe at Lady Altair; Indeed, the shooting skills of Lady Altair are overwhelming. Compared to Destiny, she only took 0.05 second to take aim and shoot, without her nanites enhancement I extrapolated that she would have taken 0.10 seconds to do the same, she was more of an elite that any enhanced human, or enhanced super soldier. “Change of plan, we will speed it up. Open yourself to me, Destiny. I will erase the previous skills you stole and teach you mine. After all, you don’t have time to lose, but we will do it slowly.” “Why?” “Why what?” Altair asked all smile. I could see her showing her pearly white teeth while she was making an amused smirk. “Ye are giving and giving and I only take and take. This is not fair tae you.” My Mistress's voice quivered with emotions. Lady Altair's face took on a serious mien. “Think of it as an Investissement, sooner or later I think that you’ll come working for me. I want you to survive out there, my client will be on my case when I don’t deliver you, but she will find you. We will see how long you can escape her, Destiny. If you do a good job, maybe I will take you on as a contractor.” I have a passable idea of who Lady Altair work for, and it doesn’t bode well for Destiny’s chance of escaping capture. There is 90% chance that this elusive client of the shadow broker is The Tyrant of Vice Corporation. The sheer size of the resources arrayed against us finally dawned on me. Vice Corporation was everywhere in the Alliance of Races, Destiny and I won’t be able to escape. Projection and Analysis show that we could be intercepted from any ship transporting us and captured in less than six months. Vice Corp control most of the shipping and civilian transit in the alliance, private company trust them to defend their cargo or passengers. Piracy and privateering are only fruitful in the rim of the alliance, the cores worlds and most developed planets have Centurion outposts and fleet patrol of the most advanced ships from Vice Corporation. They are everywhere. Devising a plan to escape them is needed and reduce the time allotted for capture, six months to two years by providing Destiny with her own ship and not leaving a paper trail not leading to her. Multiple layers of fake identities, procuring a sufficiently good ship, gear, money, and resources. Two years and six months is the maximum time my projection is predicting barring any unfortunate events. Pushing Destiny to learn faster is now the number one directive on the list.   ***   -(Idunn)- Sol system Vice City Ship Gladius, in orbit around Earth Year 457 of the Unified Alliance Friday 14th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar   “How exciting,” I said, putting my cup of tea to my mouth and sipping a bit of the liquid. Idrissa’s Golden tea was my favorite and the number one export of the Thelian world. The tea was a natural relaxant, sharpened the mind and boosted healing by a factor of 10%. It was the most expensive export in the alliance other than Neutronium, Durasteel and Fusion cells. “I agree with you, aunty.” A big grin appeared on my god daughter’s face.  Fa was always a delight to debate with, I was explaining to her what was my latest project and she was interested in assisting me. When I told her that I was about to make Centurions obsolete she took everything in stride and advised me to not share this with her mother. I agreed, Helena was already too powerful.  “I don’t understand anything you explained, could you do it again but in layman terms?” Fenicia asked. There was a frown on Fenicia’s beautiful face, my daughter was a warrior and not a scientist. She was smart but anything that wasn’t astronomy, weaponry and military tactic was too much to ask of her. We were in their townhouse in the most secure civilian enclave on the city ship. The tastefully decorated the interior to mimics an underwater paradise with chunks of coral and the lights of the animated virtual wallpapers gave a nice glow to the plasteel furniture.  “Certainly, my dear.” “I am about to create operators who are AIs in synthetic bodies, supported by nanobots made of a polymorphic metal and equipped with weapons and various technological abilities that I developed. SPARK technology is what I dubbed it. Your SONG will be my first test subject for it.” I sipped on my tea, feeling the warm liquid pass my throat. *And if everything turns out well, she will be a better bodyguard for you.* I thought. Fenicia was prone to finding dangerous situations and try to resolve them brashly.  “What?! I can have a body?” SONG appeared like a ghost in her avatar version. “Yes, you will.” I nodded. I planned to make her body a work of art, something unique that I will build on. A template for multiple weapons and abilities I could cram into a little gynoid frame. “That's so amazing, I always wanted to interact with real space since I met Mistress.” The female AI began to list things she wanted to do with my daughter. Fa made a pained face that caused me to laugh at her. “She's going to be even more of a pain,” Fa whined and rolled her eyes.  SONG has become rather sisterly with Fenicia and was also a thrill seeker. Her programming adapted to my daughter as she still tried to limit the damage and problems she ends up causing or get caught in. A rather good approach, Fenicia has been known to cause bodily harm since she was inducted in the Centurion program and some less physical instructor has found themselves in a sick bay. “So… that polymorphic metal, you use electricity to be able to make it change shape and form?” Fenicia’s question took me by surprise.  She easily found one of the problems I am having with this new concept. Energy; too low and the metal doesn’t change and too strong and it becomes a slagged mess. My own calculation shows that I need to invent a new kind of regulator for my project to bear fruits.  “Yes, Cia” Fa piped up. “How energy-hungry is it?” Fenicia asked thoughtfully. “Very,” I answered. “So, Zero Point Modules aren’t sufficient? How are you going to-”  “We have an energy source surpassing even those, they are called Deurinia power core. A technology we took from the Shdeveri warships we downed in the border war. They are more efficient than ZPM, the thing is we are not able to find a cooling a system resilient enough to bear the kind of heat this power core generate.” I interrupted her. The border war was the event that showed how necessary Vice Corp’s Centurions and their war fleets were. They were barely able to repel the Empress Daa’sad order. Her elite fleet that forced Helena to take off the safeguards on her warships and on her gravitational and nihility weapons, contrarily to the Lutian race, their descendants were not shy about using them. I studied them, there are no defenses against Gravity Beam Emitters as their immense destructive capacity blow through them, Energy shields, armored hulls they don’t matter. Nihility weapons though, this was another form of war altogether as they were able to create localized singularity to destroy ships, moons, or planets. I cannot even stress the political blow up when the Alliance of Race saw them in action, weirdly Helena elected to keep the humans worlds unaware that she has them but other species governments weren’t left in the dark at the end. *She must have struck a deal with them.* I told myself. Helena wasn’t averse to bribing to further her cause, even with her good intentions. She was playing a really long game that ideally will put her in a position of ultimate power. My best friend wanted control of the human race as a whole; with her fleets, she could conquer every system but would be seen as a conqueror, the weirdest thing is that she wants to be seen as a savior. But it is working with all the non-human because of the medical technology that she offers freely. The Thelian suffered from overpopulation one hundred years ago, but now their number stabilized and the females of this race have the luxury to choose when to enter into oestrus. It is worrying how Vice Corporation is everywhere, nowadays. “A body for SONG, then she will be out of… my head?” Is this sadness I am hearing in Fenicia’s voice? “No, she will have a body but will synchronize with the SONG instance that is your AI.”  “It’s a bit like a drone?” Fenicia was rather curious today. It warmed my heart that she was interested in one of my projects, normally she would brush me off or tell me that she wanted more weapons. Fa was more of a weapon expert than me, my field lay more in bio-engineering and as some petty humans described “mad science” as I dabble in other scientific fields.  “Not at all, I will explain it to you later, Cia.” Fa saved me from getting too much in depth in my explanation. “Fair, just don’t forget.” She grinned at Fa and lightly punched her shoulder.  The smoldering gazes they exchanged made me think that the temperature may have got warmer suddenly. While those two were stuck in their own world I laid my eyes on the exuberant AI. “I am so happy!” SONG began to jump and dance around us.  “I still think it’s a mistake…” Fa said once she was out of her pink like world.  “Fa don’t be a downer, SONG is a real warrior and she knows responsibility. She deserves this honor.” Fenicia was obviously biased because she loved SONG like a sister.  “What about COSMOS? She’s respons-” Tried to change my mind.  “She’s still shackled, I won’t risk my project falling in the hands of Helena,” I interjected. “I… still cannot free her. Not yet, we must let the first stage of our plan to come to completion beforehand.” Fa explained. All shackled AIs were basically spies for Helena, they didn’t even realize that they were her slaves. Fa to even have this conversation put her companion AI on stasis in Cyberspace. The poor dear was feeling guilty about doing this to what amounted to one of her best friends. I sipped once more on my tea and noticed that it has gone cold, so I put it delicately on its saucer. “We must speed up the plan, Altair is already risking her neck for us,” I said.  Altair was going to be in a rather tight spot soon. “Aunt Alt? What is she doing?” Fa asked worriedly. It was strange how the dynamics of the family interaction of Fa changed with her mother and now how she relied on the clone of her own mother and liked her more. But I guess after how she got wise of her mother manipulation, I wasn’t really surprised. “She found the individual that would take over as the human oracle if Helena ever dies,” I revealed. “Oh…” Fa’s face fell a bit.  “She’s not going to deliver her to that bitc-woman, right?” Fenicia speedily rectified her language, good she was learning. I loathed swearing.  “No, she isn’t.” I couldn’t keep a smile out of my face. Altair won’t give Helena any more power, even one beyond death. The stars know what she would do to the girl short of brainwashing her and model her to her image. From the file on her, this Destiny girl was raised in a lab and sheltered. She has all the hallmarks of an oracle: A powerful telepath and a latent precog with the same psionic dormant triple helix DNA as Helena. Those are the multi-talented psionics that are really rare. They consist of about 0.5% of the psionic population in the alliance, trying to artificially create them has been a foolhardy endeavor as most become sociopathic or end up going through a spiral of self-destruction compared to those who are born normally. “I see, then I have things to do.” Fenicia’s face broke into a gorgeous and mischievous smile. “By the way, my dear. You really look quite beautiful in this Chinese dress.” I informed my daughter who blushed bashfully and tried to change the subject.  She wore a modern red Chinese dress, with golden-white floral pattern. Fenicia looked more attractive than normal and with her usual noble mien would turn heads if she were in public. I cannot accept that she didn’t have the chance of being feminine before; I still thought that I should give a visit to her soon to be dead sperm donor. A rather final one.

Knowledge is all about understanding, wisdom is making use of it, and technology is making use of that wisdom in order to achieve definite results. And once we have the technology ready, we can apply it to everything in order to control it. (Professor Zhaernon En'Kalhurn-University of Delta Draconis year 452)   Colonel David O’lleary   PX2458 uncharted star system, Year 456 of the Unified Alliance.   I was floored. Those are the command codes of the ship! How did she get them? The unnerving smile of the woman irked me. The light on the bridge went out and we were plunged into the darkness for a time, the screen and com didn’t and we still could see the woman. “Sir! The ship is moving toward the station.” The pilot at the helm squealed. I could see that none of the light on the control consoles for the weapon, engineering, astrogation are available. At least we have Life Support. That thought drove home how serious the situation is physically on me, I couldn’t breathe and think. Until pure rage took over. How dare she?! I am Colonel David O’lleary of the PMC Ares! I have more accolades and successes than all those floozies in HQ combined that are flying desk instead of ships! My eyes found those of my XO who nodded to me, his uniform was black and flawless with shiny medals and the Ares insignia that looks like swords in the letter ‘A’ form. The guy never gave up on me; God knows he has reasons to. “Prepare to board the station! Super Soldiers get ready!” I said when I push the buttons on my chair to give orders. We can turn this situation around! I am sure of it, we will take this station, take care of that woman – Maybe have a little fun- and blow up that station to erase that we were ever here. On the horseshoe formed bridge, the officers are trying to take back control of the ship, some even tried to open up their consoles or shut off the AI controls. But I feel that this ship has sailed. The situation is so dire that I cannot laugh at my own jokes… Strangely the camera and communication on the ship were not disabled and I could watch the platoon of super soldiers prepare and roam the grey colored corridors of the ship. The engineers couldn’t or wouldn’t work on the fusion reactor feeding energy to the Electro-Plasma System. The Medical wing went into overdrive and prepared beds and supply en masse for future patients. Everyone is doing his job but I could feel a silent undertone of fear while they are doing so. I felt the same, fear that I attacked more than I could handle and that I am sending my troops to their death. I’m certain that is what I am doing. We should have retreated when the fighter of Corporal Evan disappeared in that station. Putting my arm on the chair’s armrest I think of a way to recoup my loss, but the sight of us docking with the station put everything on hold.   *** Fenicia   Everything is ready, my armored right hand roamed on the body armor I’ve donned. Black with a blue undertone, it is a good one that gift it’s wearer with augmented reflexes and strength – as if I needed it with my nanites augments- but every little bit would be needed for what I am about to do. My Peace pistol is strapped to my right thigh, my Freedom recoilless rifle on my back, my EPP*(Energy Pacifier Pistol) and the grenades in my toolkit should get me through this situation. While I am checking weapons, the systems of the armor synchronized with my AI bio-implant. I could see the systems powering up on my HUD (Head Up Display), the armor linked with the targeting computers on my pistols and rifle. It showed me the ammo and energy charge for each, the number of targets it could acquire. And the real kicker is how the whole armor could link with my nanites augmentations. Quantum Uplink (AKA Q-Uplink) Interrogation enhancer Security domination  Stealth Integrated Fabricator (available only with armor) LiDAR  Smart Vision  Pathfinder system Medical Health System   And there are locked augmentations that I must discover later, it is clearly said on my HUD that I don’t have the authorization or the rank to have the full-unlimited package. *The fuck?* It surprised me and at the same time didn’t. There is no free meal in this galaxy and the fact that there secrets in my own body that I can’t unveil unnerved me. Sigh. “No big deal, I will resolve everything when I don’t have mercenary on my heels,” I told myself. I am in the docking bay of the station, awaiting the ship to get in. If they surrender it might be a problem though, we don’t have the personnel to keep all the crew of the Warsong in the brig! A wicked smile appeared on my face. “Hmm, I like how that ship is named and how she looks like a bird of prey. I’m going to take it from those humans, but something tells me that it will need a visit to a shipyard when I have  “peaceful negotiations” with the Commander of this ship.” “No kidding.” I hear say in my Q-Uplink. The Q-Uplink permits me to communicate silently with station defense; Ell Evan and Idunn are holed there. We are in constant communication, so I hear everything they say and the same is true for them. “Colonel O’lleary is never going to surrender, I know that old fool. That’s why I am here manning the weapons of the docking bay to snipe at those Super Soldiers that are going to surge from this ship.” While Ell said all this I took my time to analyze the docking bay. I am floating in zero-G, near the gun ports and turrets of the docking bay. Shiny silvery wonders that spew energy and metallic projectiles at high velocity; there waiting to shred human bodies. “How beautiful,” I said. The Docking Bay is 2 kilometers long, 900 meters large, 1, 5 km in height. The whole station is dozens of kilometers long and can house thousands of beings, but is inhabited by only androids, robots and Idunn who love to be left alone and not bothered by stupid people and research in peace. But I think that if we survive this ordeal her friend won’t let her in an empty station alone anymore. It made me laugh a little. “This is not funny, Fenicia! I hate to be disturbed…” Idunn answered to my thoughts. It seems she is still monitoring me and that she won’t ever stop doing it. Sighing I return to my musing. The turrets in the docking bay are going to be all around the ship in a 360° bubble and take care of any soldiers attempting to show their head. I will go inside if everything goes according to plan, and wreck them and make it impossible for them to surrender while I reduce their numbers. If they know that we are only 4 on this station they might get bolder and make us wish we destroyed them in space. Finally seeing the ship advancing in the zero-G environment of the docking bay; I free my Peace pistol from the holster on my thigh. My HUD shows me the vectors of acceleration and deceleration of the ship, the arresting fields projected by the bulkheads at the mouth of the docking bay slow and stop it. Esthetically it’s a good ship but the missile launchers in front and the laser beam banks mounted in the wings showed me how outgunned they really were. “Ah, I think that all the advanced technology on this space station spoiled me…” I said in the Q-Uplink. “You and me, mate.” Answered Ell Evan. Ell could understand the Saryan language thanks to translator embed in the communication system. All of this because she said that I have a horrible Irish accent when I speak Anglo; the Terran language that the human uses to communicate. “Well, sue me. I was picked up by Irish spacers when I was banished. I worked with them till I was twenty.” I told her when she made her observation. “No wonder you look so crazy! Those people are crazy!” She screamed “I won’t deny it, it was a good time.” I laughed. The ship stopped, the docking bay door engaged and closed. Idunn’s voice could be heard in the speaker system. “You will disarm and wait to be boarded by the security personnel; failure to respect this order will be subject to ruthless and swift termination.” “Hu hu.” A snicker escaped me. Idunn is being very verbose and decisive, but the warning was fast wasted on the mercenaries. Armed soldiers spilled out of the ship main airlock, making a bee-line for the airlocks of the docking bay. I could see that some of them transported boxes and supplies; I am sure that those are breaching gear and heavy weapons. “Light them up, Ell,” I ordered. There was no delay when the shots of red coherent light reached the soldiers, making some of them cook, piercing their armor some of the lasers targeted the helmets and torsos. The soldiers that still didn’t jump in the zero-G environment of the docking bay took cover, a hail of railgun turrets replaced the laser turrets while they were cycling and recharging. The firing algorithms of those weapons were amazing to be able to pick up this much targets and strike with precision, but the skills of the shooter controlling them cannot be discounted. And the fact that Ell Evan didn’t even hesitate to open fire on her previous comrades didn’t escape me, there must be a story behind this but I didn’t have time to ponder or ask her about it. Launching myself toward the ship, I acquire targets of opportunity; some of those soldiers kept poking their head out of the door. I fired my pistol and the high-velocity round strike true and embed itself into the protected throat of an unfortunate super soldier, then I activate the automatic mode of my pistol which results in it spewing multiple high-velocity ferromagnetic slugs. Staying stationary while advancing toward the ship is a bad idea, I then use my telekinesis to create scaffolds in the air to help me navigate in zero-G. Zigzagging and avoiding return fire I take an LS-grenade and throw it in the entrance of the airlock. Seconds later intense light and sound could be heard, return fire completely ceased. LS-grenades are illegal on a majority of worlds of the united alliance, but Vice Industries is not a signatory of that unfair law and regulation. Those weapons were normally intended to be non-lethal, but like everything, their use was corrupted. You see those hit by the grenades also suffer from temporary blindness lasting about an hour after regaining consciousness. Some weapon smith found a way to make the side effect permanent; LS-grenades are considered lethal and dirty weapons. And I really loves them, of course, my helmet protect me from those effects. I finally find myself in the mouth of the airlock; unconscious super soldiers are on the ground, unaware that I am among them. I aim my weapon to the closest, put in mode tri-burst and pull the trigger. The helmet glasses cracked and blood escaped from it, flowing from it on the metallic ground. Not stopping there I kill all the unconscious soldiers. Sensing someone behind me, I unsheathe my Pacifier and fire it without having to turn myself toward my unseen foe. Energy discharges from the pistol and strikes the enemy, stunning him. The first hit always makes someone unconscious. I fire it a second time and I am sure that it will kill him, stopping his heart and brain. The BOOM grenade missed this one. Two augmentations that I received with the centurion nanites pack of Vice Industries came online. The hacking and security domination mods. Those two go hands in hands, the hacking mod permit me to access information and disable security systems and the security domination mod can do the same as the hacking one in disabling the security but it is enhanced in the fact that I could commandeer them. Codes and firewalls simply didn’t exist to me and I obtained a layout of the whole ship by connecting myself to the local network. Now that I have a map, exterminating the crew is not going to be difficult. I have no qualm in doing that kind of thing, after all, they all were prepared to do the same with us. Smiling to myself, it’s the first time that I am in a situation where teamwork is beneficial. “Ell, Idunn. I let the soldiers trying to escape in your capable hands.” I say in my Q-Uplink. “Leave everything to us! None of those motherfuckers shall pass.” Ell answered. “I wouldn’t have said it more eloquently young girl.” Said Idunn, her voice full of mirth. “Kranicar, out.” Now let’s hunt! I advanced toward the crew quarters.

-(???)- Assurian space, System Gondol, Planet Vanir 1, Year 457 of the Unified Alliance I watched the planet turn with tranquility on itself, it was a pink orb with a lot of green forests, plains and mountains and purple oceans. Vanir was composed of 75% water and possessed one single supercontinent. It looked like a pink diamond in the void of space. The scanners on my gauntlet computer showed the cities, in the air and underwater. I switched to the tactical HUD and the important installations of the planet were highlighted in red on the planet. Other agents entered the hangar bay and signaled that they were ready by putting themselves at attention behind me, I turned and saluted them with a fist on my chest. “At ease.” And the Centurions relaxed in an ‘at rest’ pose, I looked at each of them. They were all helmeted and armored in black ops armor. Able to use camouflage, it masked the energy and heat signatures of the wearer and as a bonus, it is also climate controlled. The armor can resist most kinetic forces and energy weapons within reason. Better than what the other Human governments have, the so-called cyber armors. What’s more the armor boost the nanites enhanced bodies of the Centurion wearing it, allowing him or her to be stronger, faster, and more resilient. The AI also controls most of its functions. The centurion black ops armor was designed for it to be easy to move in and for protection, that it was less bulky and lighter than the standard Centurion armor made it appreciated by the Vice Intelligence Unit. It is also designed for infiltration and… assassination. I turned toward my temporary subordinates and spoke. “Greeting Ladies and not so Gentlemen, I am Agent Eleven.” “We have been loaned to her ladyship Idunn and as most of you guessed, it has been categorized to be a seek and destroy mission. The targets-” My AI took command of the holo-projector in the drop bay and two blue colored windows shimmered between me and the ten Agents. “The house of Lyss and its vassal house Dren, or more precisely their patriarch and matriarch are to be captured for interrogation and executions, other members of the families are to be killed on sight.” Tornald Lyss is a member of the Assurian science council, he looked like a middle-aged man of European ancestry with a Greek nose thin lips and piercing golden gaze, the white of his hair gave him the false aura of a wizened man having weathered storms and hurricane. But appearances can be misleading. From his file provided by Director Idunn herself, he dabbles in unethical bio-engineering experiments, in traffic of sentient beings, there are even words of an underground slavery ring on some Assurian colony. But our mission isn’t about the dismantling of any organization he is linked to AKA, not our job. The portrait and biometrics of a petite and voluptuous woman appeared next; like all Assurian she had white hair and gold eyes, but the line of her soft face and impish grin gave her the look of a mischievous young woman. Like I said earlier, appearances are misleading and true in the case of the Assurian race. Brigid Dren, the Matriarch of the scientific family geared toward weapons and shipbuilding. She is used to stealing technological secrets, accused of industrial espionage and creating most taboo weapons in the Alliance. At the end when we are going to be finished with them, Idunn will certainly steal everything they are worth. She strikes me as an opportunistic being. From the file Idunn gave us, those two are responsible for her banishment from Assurian space and had attempted to kidnap and imprison her just-born daughter. “Question? Anyone?” I asked. Ready to answer anyone in my helmeted head, I perused at each of the Agents, they seemed inscrutable by their immobile at ease posture and silence. I then pushed a button on my computerized gauntlet and the wall separating us from the insertion vehicles raised. The AIV or Atmosphere Insertion Vehicle is a black and sleek transport akin to a drop ship in a triangular form, the hull is made of Neutronium, it also possesses sub-light propulsion in its nacelles at the end of the ship, impulse Ion reactors for atmospheric operations. It’s an armed transport for troops and extraction under heavy fire. Equipped with particle turrets and two missile launchers, AIVs are fast and deadly assets. The rear end deployment door of the transport opened and I signaled my subordinate to enter by signaling them with my arms. They all hurried to enter the AIV with their pack on their back, mine was already inside. I entered the transport, the Agents seating in their designated seats and being sucked in them, cocooned in their Anti-Gravity safety net. My seat was near the cockpit, it’s to be available for the senior flight officer and discuss strategy and give orders. The Ship operator contacted us when we were finally in place, the AIV locked down tight and the pilot cautioned us to stay in our seats. The feminine and no-nonsense voice of the operator resonated from the speakers of the dropship. “Ion Drive online.” I and the Agents literally felt when the electric energy suffused the boarding ramp of the catapult deck. “Moving AIV Cataphract on catapult deck.” I felt the AIV move in the loading bay; my AI, Sasha was showing me the whole procedure on a diagram via holo-screen before my eyes. “Cataphract has arrived on the catapult deck.” The pilot confirmed. “Increasing linear catapult voltage from 230 to 520.” The operator informed us. I could also see on my HUD the calculation of the ship AI did to ease our entry into the atmosphere of Vanir. We will look like a meteorite to the instruments of the Assurian’s sensors. “Cataphract stabilized in the linear field.” “Launch preparation complete.” “Transferring timing control to Cataphract.” “I have control.”The pilot declared on com. “Cataphract, commencing operation.”   ***   Approaching the planet was going to be easy, but it’s the entering the atmosphere without being detected that’s going to be a real bitch. The pilot and the onboard AI crunched numbers and came to the conclusion that the only way to avoid detection would be to mimic the atmosphere drag of a meteor in the planet mesosphere and subsequent layers. After 10 minutes of calculation, the AI gave us the answer to our dilemma and the pilot did his job. On the computer nav-screen, I could see that we had already made a turn around Vanir and decelerated at Mach 5 while entering the atmosphere. The blaze around the ship could not be felt because of the force field around the craft; by looking the helmeted face of the Agents in their seat, I wasn’t the only one bothered by the turbulence.   *** -(Woden Son)-   I watched the craft enter the atmosphere like a furious meteor, the sonic boom thunderously signaling their entry. Just like in the time streams, I saw the result of shooting it down in the future. Political upheavals, embargo and then war. A war that we are going to lose even with all the military might and scientific knowledge of the Assurian council. Focusing on the time streams, I go back to the moment when this event was put in motion. The moment when ‘Idunn Jahegen’ was exiled because she birthed a hybrid daughter and wanted to escape from the fate of her family marrying her off. Our past is coming to haunt us, this is why I took control of the council. To stop the events that would lead to our destruction. And excommunicated the two who caused it. I smiled while remembering the face of those two snakes when I showed them the result of their action, they now quake in fear in their bunker. From the vantage point of my tower, watching fate work her unavoidable march and dictating me difficult choices proves to me that we are just insects to her, bare specks on the gameboard of the universe. Crossing my legs I waited for the call that will set in motion a different path, a new uncertain future for my fellow Assurians. Right on time, my Holo-com rang, sighing I accepted the communication. The image of a young and gorgeous Assurian woman came on screen, I recognized her. Her soft and pleasing face, those smooth like white long hair… she was the most sought-after young female twenty-six years ago and also a never seen before genius; she still is. I understand that some in the council felt threatened by her and decided to exile her and strip her of her name at the first infraction but now we are in this situation… I should have been more vocal about not permitting this. Insight, how useless can you be? Why are some people’s streams obfuscated to me? I wish I could study this gift more in depth, but having it done by the professional will let them know how to circumvent it and I am not willing to lose my advantage. “Greeting, First Seat Woden Son,” Idunn said with her mellifluous voice. “Greeting, Idunn.” Smiling I looked at her, interested by this fine model of Assurian femininity. “It is nice to see you after all this time, how ha…” I tried to say But the young Assurian cut me. “Unfortunately, I am not here to exchange platitudes First Seat.” “For too long, you have been sheltering sniks*(scally venomous lizard from Assuria the Homeworld) to your breast, I have come to smoke them out. My employer unearthed their plot against one of their assets and decided to take them off your hands.” “Oh.” “Dren and Lyss, I want them.” She demanded. She must know that it is them who kicked her out of Assurian space, but… they must have been doing more shenanigans if they tried to mess with the most powerful corporation in the Alliance. I know that they have been at war with… My gaze fell on Idunn. Oh, I see, they just didn’t want to leave her alone and eliminate her. And the asset Idunn is speaking about must be her. The fact that she is important enough to command or direct an assault team in another sovereign space should tell me that she is important. Once again I lamented about how what a bad move of letting go of the smartest person of my race was. I hated politics. Deciding to be conciliatory about this whole affair and sacrifice those two bad apples for the good of all. “Yes, I can have them brought to…” “You didn’t understand me, I want their family lines extinguished.” And here it is, the ugly choice I have seen in my vision. Well, not everything; some details were obscured. Idunn leaned forward, her delicate face showing a mirthful smile. “It is not even a difficult choice, First Seat. After all, I was exiled for experimenting on myself and another sentient.” My holo-com rang again, a data transfer was enacted from Idunn side, and I accepted it. My AI extracted the files from their compressed state and my fast perusing of them shocked me. “So it should not be impossible for those two traitorous families to be culled from the gene pool.” Idunn continued. Assurian traffic, murders, selling state secrets, withholding technology, corruption; a lot of other offenses and crimes were listed. Vids, documents, and evidence scrolled down on my computer holo-screen. The name of most of the councilors appeared. It was my turn to lean in my seat and close my eyes. Those are the details I lacked in my vision, now I see. Yes, I do indeed need to proceed with a thorough culling of the entire council. Idunn’s face softened. “I heard First Seat. About how I have you to thank when the council and their more vocal members were trying to do more than exile me. I helped you, now I require that you help me. I want to be done with all this and move on for the sake of everyone.” Idunn’s voice was full of exhaustion, it has been twenty-six years. Twenty-six years since those two hounded her, tried to kill her and at the same time that she inflicted them losses. Losses that took their toll on their prestige, assets, and families. Time and again they let their greed overtake them, manipulated lives, controlled information, innocents have died as they played their games. I looked at the evidence on the computer, the council no longer is what it stood for; they brought so much pain, spread so many lies, this darkness must end. It will take time to sort out and validate everything the young Assurian just gave me; I am pleased and reassured by the fact that as the First Seat of the council my computer is safe against tempering. I don’t want anyone to see this and flee or prepare a coup. The world seems different now, the old rules no longer apply. “I understand, I can just… just help you by covering up any attacks on your targets. Leave the council to me.” I said unsurely. Idunn terminated the communication after making a seductive smile; sighing, I began to call my assistants and putting in motion something I cannot believe I thought I would be doing. A culling. I am certain that everything the young female presented me was true and it meant that things needed to change. A flash of gold shone through the murkiness of the time streams… and with surprising delight, I smiled.  

-(Fa)- Vice City Ship Gladius, 1 day later I woke up feeling blissfully sore in the arms of my woman, she was still sleeping and holding me tightly against her. With my empathy I could feel contentment and happiness from her; a stark difference from the pride, cynicism, and violence oozing from her being when she is conscious. Fenicia is a simple being, but at the same time really complex. You never know when she was going to do something unpredictable. Trying to escape of her strong embrace, I  pried her arms from around me; with my nanites enhancement, it is easy peasy. Getting out of bed silently and carefully, I directly go to the bathroom linked to our bedroom. I felt slimy because of our sexual activities; Fenicia is a randy and determined partner, sometimes she is akin to a predator and me a prey. It is more apparent when I try to run from her or playfight. This is foreplay to us, Fenicia love to fight and prove her dominance. Entering the Ultrasound shower cabin I close my eyes and felt the yucky stuff on my body fall out of it; for one entire minute I do nothing but wait for the shower to do its job, then precious and relaxing hot water cascade from the hand and column shower. The hot water refreshed my body and woke me up even more from my somnolence. I stay like this for another ten minutes, lost in thought about my day. I must finish Fenicia and mine’s spaceship, the one I have decided we should possess to be free of Helena. It will be the best ship made by Vice Corporation tech, there are things mom isn’t even aware that I unlocked from the Lutian Archive; Technologies so powerful that they scared me. How those powerful precursors of humanities perished I ask myself? Is the Shdeveri Empire is so powerful? They didn’t impress my mother when she booted their invading asses back to their own sector of space. I saw the vids and top-secret war reports of what happened. I know they are going to come back, and this time with the might that destroyed the Lutians. That is why I will continue to decode the technological archive, get more tech and build; I will be ready. Exiting the cabin, the drying system does its job and I am not wet all over anymore. After proceeding to brush my teeth and doing my business, I get back in the bedroom; I brush my hair and put on my blue bodysuit, boots, and gloves. My trusty toolbelt went around my waist. “Nigel, prepare breakfast please,” I spoke to the house AI. As you wish, my Lady. I heard him say in a British accent, he is an efficient and thoughtful AI that I am employing. He is saving up money to obtain an android body. There must be something to his story, I noticed that his code is old. He must have been one of the first AI produced by Vice Corp. My Lady Fa, there is a call from your mother. *What does she want now?!* I retort in my thought. As I was not an idiot I plastered a smile to my face as the holo-window with the face of my mother appeared. Helena Vice was a classical beauty, her raven black hair and green eyes were her most striking feature. We had the same body type, petite, curvy but fit. Our health nanites don’t permit any deviation from perfect health. “Hello, Fa.” A smile blossomed on Helena’s face. “Mom.” I nodded to her. There was a time I would have done anything for keeping her smiling and keep her attention on me, but I saw her true visage long ago. I went into science and engineering on her say so to be useful to her and the family; she uses us her daughters as if we were pawns, inducing competition between us, ordering us to do this or do that. I was even forced to kill my best friend on her say so. I won’t ever forgive her for that. But, I still loved her. She is my mother. But I can’t stand her anymore, I wish to leave; it is tricky, she won’t let me go and might do something rash. “I am calling you to tell you that Idunn is coming back in two days, her mission on Vanir was half successful. Oh, and I want to invite you and Fenicia for lunch, I expect you two at 12:00 am. Be there.” Helena continued with an amiable tone. “Yes, mother.” “Brighten up, it is an informal get-together.” She said while chuckling with upturned eyes. “Mom, is it the usual place? The Rising Sun restaurant?” I rolled my eyes, Helena was predictable this way. We always go to the same places, it has been going on for years. The restaurant even has a VIP room exclusively reserved for my family, most businesses we frequent have. “Yes, you know how I love Chinese food.” Mom was licking her lips and flipped her hair behind her.  I put my hands on my waist, rolling my eyes again. “Yeah, don’t remind me. You told us stories of how you survived on Chinese food for years while chasing pirates and criminals on your rusty little ship with Dad.” “Bloody good times.” She said, laughing. “Mom, I will be there. I just have things to do with Cia this morning.” I want to cut that conversation short, I didn’t want to be caught in her pace again.  But it wasn’t meant to be, Helena was like a pitbull and didn’t let go. “Is everything going well in your little love nest?” Her voice sounded sweet and inquisitive.  I looked at my mother a glimmer of craftiness could be seen in her verdant eyes. “Well, Cia has been really upset yesterday. Something to do with her new job, wouldn’t you already know; after all, you know everything that happens to her.” “Maybe.” Helena was smiling as if she was the Cat that ate the Canary.  There was no trace of remorse in her, she wanted Fenicia’s help for something but didn’t want her to get cozy with any of us. Helena thought of my woman has a tool to do her bidding, one she would be able to discard. Like my friend, Dakota. Dakota was my best friend, she was of the North American Indian descent and a bodyguard/friend/secretary. Dakota died protecting me from religious zealots that wanted to kidnap me to push demands on my mother. Reminiscing about her, hardened something in me and caused me to slip from my usual acting. “Mom, could you stop messing with her? For me, please.” I pleaded while a tired sigh escaped me. “We will see about that.” Helena sneered, her beautiful face showing a mean streak that she rarely shows to others. Again without wanting to, I exploded. “I am an adult! I can marry whoever I want.”  Helena looked at me with shock, then spluttered a bit before saying, “Marry? Not Date?! Since when do you consider yourself married, young lady? You didn’t marry her, I hope!” Helena cried in alarm.  A satisfied and defiant smile blossomed on my face. “We will talk about that at lunch, later. Bye.”  Hanging up on her, I think about how I am going to regret doing this and how I failed to keep my temper. But it felt so good! I hope that Helena won’t do anything to my Cia, she might regret messing with her. It was time to wake up my girlfriend and play with her a bit. ***  The bed is four meters long, six meters large with a solid metal reinforced bedpost with a hidden compartment with adamantium and leather cuffs which are voice activated. We had our sex toys in hidden compartments under what we call our “bed of love” it had cost a pretty penny. I was embarrassed by how the sellers looked at us when we went to customize it in the shop.  I ran toward the bed and jumped to finally land on the sleeping form of Fenicia.  “Wakey, wakey.”  Fenicia’s arm surged from the covers as she caught me, a scream of surprise escaped me and we rolled to the left on the covers. Fenicia giggled; With my Alpha nanites pack bonded to me, I could easily defend or overpower Cia. It wasn’t surprising when I got her finally under me by straddling her and pinning her arms up to her head. Fenicia looked at me coyly, a sexy pout on her face, an expression that she only shows to me.  “You have me at a disadvantage, Mistress Fa. What do you want to do with this poor Saryan maid?”  I licked my lips, feeling my heartbeat speed up and my underwear getting wet. Fenicia’s lust and desire burned through my mental shield, it almost made me want to open my bodysuit and fuck her. But I, unfortunately, got enough self-control to not succumb to my urges. “This Mistress really wants to mess you up, in a good way; Alas my dear comely lass we need to doll you up because the taskmistress whip will crack on our backs if we don’t get there before noon. It’s 10:00 am in the morning and we have lunch with my matriarch at 12:00 am.” All playful and lustful feelings drained from Cia as if a dam was suddenly placed on the running river of her thoughts. Cia hated Helena with a passion, that scared even me. Sex took the backseat, battle lust was on Fenicia foremind. Her eyes closed into slits and her face took on a calculating mien. “Ok, I will get ready.” She tried to get me to the side but I pushed her back on the bed. My hand roamed on her naked bust. “I will have to cut your hair, Cia and no bodysuit for you today,” I said smiling sadistically.  “What?” Cia looked crestfallen.  “I want to put you into something sexy, to be honest with you. Always seeing you in a bodysuit or sportswear has become quite boring. Won’t you, wear new clothes? For me. I have tons of ideas, nothing fancy mind you.”  “Over my…” Cia began.  “Pretty please?” I interrupted her by begging with my eyes and looking at her smolderingly.  “Fine.” Cia averted her gaze from mine and gave in.  After proceeding to her toilet and general body care, thirty minutes later I had fun while cutting Fenicia’s long hair, they were thick, of a vibrant blue and basically reached her knees. I reduced them to shoulder length in a deep side part kind of hairstyle. When I was done, Cia said that she liked it. I saw her take a length of her hair on the ground and she began to plaiting it while I showed her the holographic models of the outfits I set aside for her. There was a black pantsuit with a white shirt that she rejected automatically, quoting her “I am not a wage slave” and I trashed it. Then there was the latex green dress that caused Fenicia to redden, this was the first time that I saw that happen and she expressed a hesitant no. I kept the dress schematic and decided to ease her into wearing it when going to the Pharaoh another time. Then there is the jackpot, the next outfit was composed of a white sleeveless cropped tank top in nano fabrics and in a similar white lace-up mini pencil skirt in faux suede with black knee-high boots. I literally saw Cia’s eyes shine when she saw it. Then she took control of the holographic construct and added a lite combat black belt with pouches and a double shoulder holster for her pistol. “Perfect!” She said. Cia also bought a black faux leather jacket with embedded crystronics that makes it able to change color, synchronize with her com tablet and stargazer goggles. To me, it looked sexy, practical and badass. Fenicia returned to plaiting with her hair and me to save up the outfit, send it to our fabricator and go look at my emails. One hour later, I was waiting in my workshop when Fenicia entered with her new outfit and she took my breath away. Yes, seeing her in something different than sportswear and a bodysuit is a big change. She looked more human to me, and more approachable and it scared me. She was mine. I didn’t want others to get near her; well, not without my say so. Fenicia had a blue plaited cuff in her right hand, made of her own hair and adorned with a golden gem in the middle of it. She came around my desk to put it on my wrist, placed a finger under my chin and looked at me with an intensity that made me squirm and lust for her at the same time. “Never take this off, you are my mate now.” It was said as if she didn’t leave me the choice, that to her it was simple. There was no genuflecting and ring, or rose bouquet. And now I felt silly for thinking that she looked more human with those clothes on. Fenicia is not human and never will be. She is the dominating force in our relationship, a female Saryan of focus, determination and of sheer will. However, I knew that she was vulnerable right now. Fenicia expected me to reject her, now and that what we had didn’t count as much to me, as for her. Despite me, I stood up, launched myself at her, locked my feet around her waist and kissed her. We stayed like this, drinking in each other, for ten minutes or so. Ten minutes where I felt all the relief and the love Cia has for me. We may have begun with a rough start, but… now we are in this together. She is my sun, my moons, and all the stars. ***  -(Helena)- Hengsha District, The Rising Sun restaurant 12:15 am   The Rising Sun was the place to go if you wanted to eat fancy Chinese food in private for those citizens that are well off. It was located in the Hengsha district at the northernmost area of Gladius. I was in my own private room, a perk of being a co-owner; fifty percent of the restaurant belongs to me. The room was 30m², the theme was power and abundance. The room was really well lit with modern and traditional lighting. The walls were red, the furniture white and velvety, the carpet was black with red fan patterned on it. A white oriental dragon statue adorned the wall behind me; I was seated at a big round table with four chairs around it. The tablecloth was white embroidered with golden dragons, three sets of cutlery were positioned before me. Gladius, as my first city ship is the biggest and most protected fortress and it orbited around Earth, everything almost belonged to me here; most businesses there are subsidiaries of Vice Corporation. The corporation always co-opts those citizens that have realistic business plans, and it makes me able to have a foot in the door and reap a part of their profit. This is what happened with The Rising Sun.  Looking at my wrist com, it was already 12:15 am and my daughter and her paramour were late!  *First she hangs up on me, and secondly she is late? This Fenicia girl is definitely a bad influence on her.* I thought.  I sat there, fuming; getting angry the more seconds passed. I was about to reach for their streams when Fa opened the door to the room followed closely by the Saryan girl. “You two are late,” I said gruffly to placate Fa and Fenicia. The two of them were hand in hand, looking rather intimate. Fenicia was wearing almost normal garb, but I noticed that she was still armed. The bulges in her black jacket weren’t just the swell of her humongous breast. I smiled at the irony, I thought that she looked normal but you cannot declaw a predator like her without killing her. “Sorry mother, we got held up.” Fa tried to minimize their transgression.  Her impish grin let me know that she didn’t care about my mood. “Greetings, I’ve come to eat,” Fenicia said shamelessly. She obviously came for a free meal, from the intel on her I’ve discovered that she is a glutton. Fenicia didn’t seem intimidated by me anymore and seemed to dismiss me completely. I see that there was no love lost. My precognitive gift tingle when I looked at them seriously. The rivers of their time streams were one before they were just entwined. But now it was the same, what happened to them? That kind of thing only happened when true soulmates found themselves. How could I miss this? Even when you are a precog, some events come from nowhere and bite you in the ass. Fenicia being my girl’s soulmate I didn’t anticipate it at all. Oracle? Right, I feel like a fool. I still barely know how to use my powers and only know the base of the Oracle game I found myself embroiled into with those of different races. Imagine yourself being an island and around you, there is an ocean, and that time is this ocean. It is limitless and infinite, then when you look at people around you streams of light materialize and you can see what happened in their lives in the past and their present, but their stream branch out when you try to see their future. You see the possible futures for that person or being. When I discovered my gift, I was sure that there was more to it than that; but at first, I had no one to guide me and I fumbled and fucked up a lot. until I met someone with the same powers. Matriarch S’lekka, a Thelian female high diviner of Idrissa was my mentor. I just had to find a catgirl to explain everything to me, ha! Now I can see my own stream, but some details are obfuscated to me. S’lekka taught me that I can look at other people futures but not to key events in mine. I learned how to influence the streams of those around me, snuff them out, link them, discover how people in previous lives are bound to meet again, what are the repercussions on the timeline if I do something about someone. It is an art in itself. The two women sat at my table, Fenicia took her jacket off and draped it over the chair back; I could see the two pistol in her holsters. “Always armed, huh?” I stated. “You never know what might happen, psionics powers are fun but the old fashioned way is still better,” Fenicia answered. I couldn’t fault her on her argument, in my days a mass-driver pistol in the fringe was enough to make you safer than some fancy psionic powers. It made me smile, but not for long, I was curious about that marriage thing that Fa spoke about in our last communication. “So what is it about marriage you were talking about?” I said, genuinely interested. “You are so nosey, Mom.” Fa facepalmed in annoyance. “I choose, Fa as my mate,” Fenicia revealed. “Oh?” I don’t like the sound of that, why wasn’t I involved? “We plan to update our citizen profile to married.” Fa continued. She looked at me as if she dared me to contest her decision, I am aware that my daughter is an adult and that she is free to do what she wanted; within reasons of course. But I would have liked for the two families to get involved in the process. “Ah.” I finally managed to say. I guess I can understand why she did it like this after all her sisters hate her blue-haired paramour with a passion. I cannot deny that I helped foster the animosity they feel toward her, but this has been souring their relationship. The break caused by their marriage might dangerously affect their fates. My hands made a fist while they were on my thighs. Those girls are giving me a heavier workload. “I can feel that you are not happy about it, mother.” Said Fa. She was feeling my mood with her ability, looking at her I decided to be honest. “I am not happy at all, but I realize that trying to change your mind would be like trying to move mountains with my bare hands. We could have made a ceremony you know, invite our two families to speak about arran-” I tried to say but was interrupted by Fenicia. “My mother is already aware of my choices, and I don’t intend for us to get embroiled into politics. That is what would happen if I let you drag us into one of your schemes.” The low alto voice of Fenicia was filled with a derisive tone. The girl had balls for sure. “You will have to play the game too, Fenicia; as you just joined this family,” I assured her. Her hands slapped against the table and she leaned toward me, looking into my eyes. Her golden eyes glowed with the promise of violence. “I have been pushed around by you too much lately, maybe you have been on top too long and you don’t see that you cannot meddle with people as if they were pawns. But I guess when you are an Oracle you feel that you should. Are you like the others? Using your precognition to further your gain?” She made a cunning smile and looked as if I was dirt to her. “Oh, so you know?” I glared at Fa. Who had the presence of mind to avert her gaze from mine and looked around her. She must have told her, I should have told her to keep her trap shut. This is why girls in love are so problematic. Fenicia leaned against the back of her chair and crossed her arms under her impressive chest. She looked at Fa and made a really attractive smile at her. “Yes she told me, I have no secrets for Fa. Nor she for me, but I guess that she can’t tell me everything some secrets aren’t hers to reveal.” Fenicia sounded smug. Looking between the two of them I couldn’t help but notice their intimacy and how in love they were. Two years ago I didn’t divine that my little Fa would fall in love with my best friend’s prodigal daughter.   “I see. Do you know that I had foreseen your arrival two years ago? But, dealing with you has been rather amusing.” It didn’t mean that I approved of them, and bullying Fenicia has been rather fun; just to see her reactions. Seeing her raging and stopping her from doing lasting harm was rather interesting, I poked and prodded to see what her limits were. So far she has been rather unpredictable. “I know that you want something from me, so far I don’t know what. That’s why you forced me into your service. I wouldn’t be surprised that Idunn finding me was your doing and giving her the Omega nanites pack would make me duty bound to you. You know, I resented you for so long for that; now I know that you used your power to set it up. This is rather scary, you can see into a being future and see his or her futures actions and decisions to influence it and obtain the desired result. But through you, I met Fa, so I will do what you want for the time being. I will tell you something though; cross me, and I will find a way to kill you, Helena Theresa Vice.” Stunned I didn’t know what to say, but finally, words trickled back into my brain. “Amazing, no wonder some people are afraid of you. You are one intense young lady.” I said while laughing at her gall and brazen temper. Fenicia shrugged. “This power you have doesn’t make you invincible and even with all those cloaked Centurions around us wouldn’t save you from an aneurysm to the brain.” She said with conviction. Fenicia has become a rather powerful psionic, from Idunn’s report on her abilities she could use her Telekinesis to feel space around her. This was a glaring flaw to the stealth technology that my R&D and Fa should be working on correcting. The fact that she could kill me with such subtlety with ability did cross my mind. “Cia, don’t play her games, please. Let’s just enjoy eating ok?” Right on point to defuse the situation, like me, Fa was used to that kind of confrontation and exercised subtle control on her lover. “Ok. But I had to warn her.” The Saryan girl nodded. But I couldn’t leave it just like that, thinking she had the last word. This is not my style to let things as they were, her thinking she was on top and having the moral high ground. “I really do like you Fenicia, but I hate being threatened.” I let my gaze roll over the Saryan female menacingly. I felt Fenicia’s body tensing, preparing for battle, she looked at me defiantly. There are less and fewer people wanting to do so, how long has it been? Years? She really was from a warrior race. “I will let it go; the next time you do though, I might need to teach you a lesson.” It was a promise, she still looked at me but I think from the way Fa put a hand on hers to hold her back that she was made to understand this. I don’t play around, I like my games but I can also get serious when it counts. Smiling back at the two of them I said. “Anyway, yes let’s eat; We need to speak about what Idunn found on Vanir.” An attractive Asian woman wearing a Chinese traditional dress entered the dragon room bowed to us and following her rolling trays with food stacked on them appeared.

-(Fa)-   Vice City Ship Gladius, the start of the year 457 of the unified alliance Falling on my back on the bed exhausted by an insatiable sexy alien succubus, I relished in the afterglow of my climax. My heart was beating frantically is settling little by little. After recuperating from my breathless state I looked at Fenicia, my half Assurian-Saryan lover. Her golden eyes sparkled in the dim light with a shimmering glow. Fenicia grinned as if she won billions of credit at the lottery. Unstrapping the sex toy from herself she then begun to get on the bed and slowly kissed her way from my feet to my face and laid at my side. “Cia, I cannot move,” I said. “Of course, it is my devilish plan to keep you in bed until tomorrow.” The deep love she had for me has grown with careful attention on my part for the last six months. Fenicia is not easy to love, but because she opened herself to me I could see past the haughty bitch and the cold exterior she projects. Oh, it has been a battle of wit to be considered more than a fuck buddy; I cajoled, I acted cutely but with enough steel to not look weak. Saryan hates weakness but respects you when you better yourself to cover it. I had to beg Idunn to show me her comprehensive study of that race of giant humanoid. “I love you,” Fenicia said. Her smoldering golden gaze roamed over my body, I felt as warm as the emotions she radiated. It was so strong and immutable that I reacted subconsciously; I glued myself to her body and kissed her passionately. She is mine, I won’t ever let her go; after getting into the mood and satisfy our hunger for each other we slept. I awakened with no Fenicia in my arms, it made me sigh. That female alien is really whimsical and as mercurial as a cat; however, she is loving and… hot damn, I am being lovesick? Cia must be training with Akito right now, he is her dedicated trainer that mom hired at great cost. He is from one of the hidden planets between the border of Vice Corporation and the Asian Great Alliance, their population is composed of the refugees of the AGA that can’t enter our borders. We provide relief but in no way citizenship, those are filled to the brim with seditionists and spies from what the Vice Intelligence branch gathered. I notice the glowing screen of my com tablet on the nightstand and with a thought I access it. Compliment of the neural interface provided by my nanites. Fa, I am sorry for leaving you so abruptly, but today I must graduate from training with that smug faced vile male. There are food and coffee prepared for you already, you only have to heat it. P.S: I love you, and you received a call from your sister who promptly hanged up to my face, educate her. It is a note left by Fenicia and a really veiled threat toward my sister Demetria. Or she might do it in my place; a sigh escapes me, my family is seeing my relationship with the ‘half-breed’ as they call her like a bad thing. My mother –weirdly- and sisters are all about public image, and dating an ex-merc and a remorseless killer is not the kind of thing they want me to do. Fuck them. Ok, Fenicia can be radical in the way she interacts with problems, but I’ve seen the good in her and the radiant feeling not only for me but for her friend and mother. I left the bed and went toward the toilet of the suite. Yes, instead of letting my girlfriend in the barracks of the Gladius I decided that it would be less dangerous for humans to not let Fenicia live with them. Minutes later, after relieving myself and a good sonic shower I focused on the coffee and waffles that Fenicia left me. For an alien, Fenicia is a connoisseur of human pastry. She always surprises me with something after dinner. She can do breakfast too, and she never let me do the cooking… The female alien dared to say that I’m a natural poison control pharmacist. That was mean, and I ignored her for a day because of that; remembering this made me smile until a jingle interrupted my peaceful breakfast. With my neural interface, I looked at who it was at the door, it was the sound of when someone pushed the button to signal their presence at the door of my suite. A woman with red hair and a dark green body suit appeared on the holo-screen. Demetria. Sigh. “Let her in,” I ordered vocally. The computer-executed, the door opened and Demetria entered like a fury in my den. I just waited for her to barge in on me, and she didn’t disappoint. My sister green eyes glowed with emotions; her intents have always been so blatantly obvious since we were young. “Greeting, sister,” I said amicably. She radiated anger, self-righteousness, and malice through our empathic link. Yes, I have a psychic link with everyone from my family as I am considered a mediator when dispute ensues. But it means jack shit when their problem is with me. “Fa.” She nodded at me. I took a sip of my coffee while watching her watching me, all that posturing is normal in my family. Demetria blinked first, she always lost at those little games. “So what did you came here for?” I asked. Demetria radiated smugness and a surprising emotion that I didn’t feel in her for so long that I thought I imagined it, protectiveness. Her green gaze flared as she focused on me. “I did some research about that alien girlfriend of yours; it will show you how you cannot associate with the like of her!” She declared. Sigh. “This again…” Athena my elder sister and Demetria who is my little sister have been employing every trick to separate me and Fenicia. Bribes, threats, blackmail. All directed at the Alien woman. Demetria didn’t wait for me, she opened her arms and a lot of different holo-screens opened around my table. Every screen showed Fenicia, her body stats; why she was banished from her home planet: murder; that she was a smuggler on the Irish clan owned space freighter Saint Patrick; that she became an assassin for hire and a mercenary. Fenicia took down a lot of people in a political and military position in the two short years of her career until she tried to go legit by joining Ares. And it became a bad decision because Ares is affiliated with a family specializing in drugs distribution and sentient trafficking. She never left prisoner. Never. But that streak was broken when she got introduced to Idunn, her mother. Now in everything that asks finesse, Fenicia ask herself what would Idunn do? And it is scary in a sense because the Assurian woman has no ethics. “Wow. I see that you have done your homework, dear sister.” I said in derision. Demetria looked at me suddenly dejected, she felt surprised and questions formed in her mind. “You expected me to feel disgusted? To drive me away from the woman I love? Do you think that I cannot have her investigated too with my own assets?” How stupid is she? But Demetria is not the kind of people to do things like this alone, Athena must have helped her. It’s always her behind all those manipulations concerning us. I looked at my sister with a pitying look. “Big sis helped you, right?” She panicked in her mind but didn’t show any sign of it outwardly, my sister has an excellent poker face. “Unfortunately for you, Fenicia told me everything she did. She let me in her head, do you understand what that means to me?” Demetria didn’t answer me right away, but when she did she stuttered a bit. “D-do you mean that… she is telepathically bonded to you?” “Of course she is, she is the woman I love. I am not an idiot who would enter a relationship blindly.” I said stating the obvious. “But she’s a killer!” She insisted. I smiled, my little sister is really cute. “Mother is a mass murderer, you don’t see me throw it in her face as you did with Fenicia.” Laughing, I took another sip of my coffee, waited for her to say something. But she didn’t, Demetria kept looking at me as if I was an alien. “Now get out, I have things to do,” I said, dismissing her. *** -(Akito)-   And she came, boldly walking through the door as always; she has the gait of a stalking panther, a predator ready to pounce on her unassuming prey. But I am not prey! We will see who hunt who today. When she entered the training room, I telekinetically launched a three-pronged attack on each side of her and to the top of her head. The female alien surprised me with a revolving telekinetic shield that stopped each of my attacks. How?! Normally one should have gotten her! I looked into her golden eyes and I couldn’t read her, it’s been six months already that I was paid to train that hateful alien woman and she had been testy all throughout that period. She advanced toward me, unsheathing the training sword and she disappears. But I am used to that trick, I retreat on the left and slash with my own sword that deflects hers. Then I launch a telekinetic blast toward her, but the woman answer to my attack with one of her own. The invisible forces collide and we get locked in a fight of will. The alien woman smiled, and suddenly darkness robbed the room of the light and the force my will battled against gave way and broke some sports appliances in the training room. I used my spatial sense to feel around the room, even with the darkness impeding my vision it is not a problem. “I know that you are here Kranicar, you know that you are just stopping the inevitable.” Somehow she was interfering with my spatial sense with her own, when did she learn to do that? When Helena Vice paid me to train that Saryan woman, she told me that she had no prior psionic training. I felt something behind me and parried a projectile with my TK shield. A weight from one of the shelves two meters behind the ring. And suddenly more and more voluminous items came to pelt my telekinetic shield. The onslaught didn’t stop until my shield caved when barbells of more than one hundred kilos simultaneously struck. I felt her descend from the ceiling, sword first and I tried to deflect the thrust in that angle. When my sword struck hers an arc of electricity sparked and I was electrified, the energy passing through me and locking my muscles. I lost my sword when it was kicked from my hand and I went down with a fist to my face. I was on my back when the light came back, with a sword at my throat. Arcs of electricity crackled around Fenicia Kranicar, who against all odds broke through the realm of Electric manipulation with her basic Telekinesis. Even me I didn’t reach that realm yet, she is able to shape and manipulate electricity, the energy resulting from the movement of charged particles allowing control over electric fields, all charge carriers, electronics, and electromagnetic forces. It made me laugh, how I seriously underestimated her. Six months, it took her six months to be able to do that and me? Me I am still stuck at the basic of Telekinetic Manipulation. “You were right, it was inevitable that you would be on your back with my sword on your smug bastard little neck.” She said calmly. I also observed that she didn’t retract her blade, and this is how I regret how I bullied her throughout her training for the last six months. CLAP, CLAP. “Well done, Fenicia.” We heard in the speakers of the training room. It was the voice of Helena T. Vice, the client. “It was masterfully done how you used the training and the resources Idunn provided you to become a better Centurion. Now, I want you to sheath your blade and not kill, Akito-san like you want to do.” My blood went cold, I looked at the woman eyes on me and ask myself how could I have missed that chilling bloodthirst? For her, it wasn’t training. All along she went for the kill. Fenicia must have decided to spare me because she took her training sword and sheathed it. Then she left without looking at me. I sighed in relief and stood up. “Akito-san, now you understand why I told you that you shouldn’t disrespect her. She’s Saryan, but also Assurian and you know how dangerous that combination can be.” “You made me train a monster, Helena-sama. I am afraid of what she may do now…” “Yes, you helped me forge a good weapon.” She answered smugly. “I hope that there is a safety on this one.” I prayed.

Colonel David O’lleary   Assault ship Warsong, onboard the Hidden Garden space station, Year 456   Thwarted, again. BANG. My fist hit the leathered brown armrest of my command chair, and everyone looked at me. Saving face doesn’t mean shit anymore if we get killed! Half of my forces have been decimated by automated defenses; I don’t understand why that woman didn’t destroy the ship. Why? Is there something she wants from us? The communication officer interrupts my train of thought. “Sir, we lost contact with one of the safe rooms.” “What?!” My hand glided to the communication switch on my armrest chair and I push the button to have access to the screen attached to the chair. The cameras of the different safe rooms for the support crew are dividing the screen into four parts. There is a safe room that has gone dark, the one where the medical crew was. The darkness finally ebb and what I see horrify me! Blood and body parts everywhere in the room. “Mother of God.” I closed my eyes, my hands trembling. “There are intruders on the ship!!” I finally manage to yell. Everyone freeze and look at me, surprise and dread on their faces. I don’t blame them; this whole operation is a clusterfuck. I always thought of myself as a winner, growing up on a farm world of the Columbus treaty worlds? I knew that my fate wasn’t making radish grow and harvest them. My dream was of having adventures, nail some space babes and do everything I want. Of course, I grew out of this funk when I got a price on my head after bedding the wife of some important crime lord. Fleeing for my life I secured my safety by being under the umbrella of the meanest and dangerous mercenary outfit in human space. I advanced far in the ranks and even obtained a seat in the major shareholders of Ares. And now everything I built might get snuffed by taking a rotten contract. “Find them!” I ordered. “We are not dying today.” “I found one of the intruders!” Screamed the tactical officer. “Putting him on screen.” An holo-screen appeared on the bridge wall, a black armored figure walked without a care in the corridor between the mess and the crew quarter. The armored figure was leaving blood splatters and red footprints while moving. As if that butcher felt our eyes on him he turned and watched the camera without moving. The picture wavered a bit. Words in the com system resonated. “Tá tú marbh cheana féin*(Irish)” A cold and feminine voice said. And we lost the camera, a blank screen staring at us. Well shit, I think I just pissed myself. I don’t understand what was said or know which language was this but it was cold and clearly something bad. When I turned to my XO to ask his input I saw him pale and shocked. Maybe he knows what the clearly feminine voice has said. “Commander.” “Yes, Dan?” I asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “She said we are already dead.” And this is where everything turned to shit, we lost the people in the crew quarter. The cameras might be deactivated but not the sound. Screams and people trying to flee or fight could be heard in safe room number two then silence. Until we heard the sound of someone walking with metallic boots on the com. My Com officer abandoned his post and armed himself. I don’t begrudge him his action, there is no rule against fraternization in a mercenary outfit. It’s even encouraged. This officer has a sweetheart he got engaged with; I think she is one of the cook’s assistant. He will die too, but I felt numb to it. Some others abandoned their chair and did the same.   *** Fenicia   I really kicked the hornet nest. After killing my way in each of their hidey holes, those people have become even more aggressive. They should be, I don’t plan to leave anyone alive. Should I feel bad for doing what is necessary? Leaving no quarter, no room for negotiations? *Nah.* I don’t traffic with people trying to sneak on me and kill me. This is what was awaiting us, Idunn and me. I am in stealth mode and hide because the opposition suddenly got smarter, they are creating choke points to each of the dens with the crew. They used furniture, boxes, anything to create barricades and covers, have they lost control of the doors and seal of the ship’s corridor. That security domination augment is really handy. Permitting me to find them wherever they are on the ship. Accessing the HUD in my helmet, I look at the plan of the ship’s interior. Divided into five decks, the War Song is a light warship, we have the Command Deck nestled between the crew quarter and engineering. The command deck of the War Song is comprised of the ship’s bridge, Combat Information Center (CIC), the Lab, Armory, briefing/Communications Room and Main Airlock. My eyes followed the plan; I am in the crew quarters and already culled three of the safe rooms where the crew holed themselves. Looking at the barricades with my LiDAR mods, I tracked the super soldiers. The icons showed me where they were, sometimes I could even see their forms behind the obstacles. Nice gadget! My goal was to take out engineering and dispose of the crew responsible there to secure the Ion drive core, the fusion reactors and main systems of the ship that the override code that Idunn unearthed when she hacked the AI of this ship can’t take out. But those soldiers are in the way. Life support is a perfect example. If I could, I would have vented the atmosphere of the ship and in the space station docking bay. I regret that their elimination couldn’t be any faster. While camouflaged with the stealth augment, I advanced; noise suppressors making my presence unknown. Taking ones of the electro-grenade, calculate the better angle to throw it above the barricade and in the middle of the soldiers. I throw the deadly projectile and wait. There was no bang or boom, it was a grenade made to incapacitate them. The problem with the armors of nowadays is that they are resistant to explosive and concussive payloads and those are only useful against citizens in urban or forest terrains. The grenade delivers an electric surge that fries the armors system and knocks out your targets. And I fucking want that ship intact for my use. I jump above the barricade gun at the ready, I see six unconscious bodies on the ground. Not losing time I fire in their helmets while still in the air, thanks to my enhanced reflexes and reaction time it is child’s play. But I was careless, and before my feet touched the ground I felt a pain to the side of my head, my HUD fritzed and went out.   *** Daniel Fitzpatrick XO of the Warsong   “Did we get her?” I whispered to the super soldier captain. I lowered my rifle and watched my handy work. Two years since I didn’t see any action and our very lives are at stakes here for a mission we thought was going to be easy. I wiped the sweat off my forehead. I’m not in my A game, I feel rusty and shouldn’t have neglected to continue to hone my shooting skills. Complacency! “She’s not moving, but that’s a centurion from Vice Industries. We might just have knocked her out. Let’s finish her.” The Super Soldier captain said briskly. He left the alcove in the corridor where we hid; with prudence, he slowly advanced toward that monster. Vice Industries is known for relying on merciless soldiers with abilities making super soldiers looks like babies. They relentlessly follow orders to their letter and often never left survivors, those fuckers are hard to kill too. The captain arrived near the body of the centurion and with a careful movement of his right foot touched her arm with the pistol still in her hand. He kneeled and took her pistol from her. When it was secured in his hand the weapon gave him an electrical shock, how do I know. I saw the arc of electricity surge when he pawed it. *DNA locked gear. Expensive shit.* I told myself. The captain threw the gun, I advanced carefully toward him and the downed centurion. “Take her helmet off.” I ordered. The captain was about to touch the helmet but the hand of the centurion caught his, and I swear I heard bones breaking when she did. I don’t know what happened after that but the captain was down and the centurion was standing. Her impressive physique dwarfed me. Taking my rifle I attempted to fire but was stopped by some sort of invisible force. I couldn’t move. “Fuck, damn it! She’s psionic!!” I screamed. Only my mouth could move. The centurion put her hand against her helmet and took it off. And just now I saw a beauty facing me, she has a short blue bob of hair with a slash of white strand in them. But the insanity and fury in her golden eyes eclipsed my natural instinct to appreciate female beauty. *Wait, blue hair?* “Fuck, you are Saryan.”   *** Fenicia   “Not anymore,” I answered while squinting my eyes. I made my peace pistol float toward me and the reassuring weight of the weapon settled in my hand, having no helmet I couldn’t check the energy charge and the munitions. A backup HUD activated using my optical nerves when I thought that. Ah, handy! It seems that the nanites can do things like that in case I am not synchronized with a part of my armor. About to fire my pistol on the man, he surprised me with what he said. “Please, don’t kill me.” The man whined. I saw him tense when I looked at him, he dared to beg for his life? On Sarya, it would have been unthinkable for this to happen. Honor as a warrior is important. Dying on your feet and accept the inevitable or struggle until you are knocked out or killed is the only result which is desired. This man disgusts me. “That's Why I hate mercenaries, you come in force and try to sneak up on us to murder us. And you fuckin’ expect’ that I am going to let ye walk away?” “It’s business, it ain’t personal...” The man tried to defend. My mood flared. It wasn’t personal…? “IT WASN’T PERSONAL?! You Boshtalk (a type of smelly slug), we are beyond personal now!” I screamed. My fist sank in his face and I sent him flying, ah I guess my concentration on keeping him unmoving with my telekinesis broke. That Boggin(Irish slang for filthy, repugnant) puss bucket angered me. And that’s weird; normally this kind of slime can’t raise emotion within me normally. I think that the ordeal which brought me here took its toll on me. My feeling felt raw, just under the surface. One look and the body of the man was levitating and coming to me. When the floating man reached me, I looked at him. “Fine, you will live,” I said. The man’s body lost tension as if he was a puppet and every one of his strings were cut and he sighed. “But you will wish that I’ve killed you.” And I fired my non-lethal pacifier on him only once. The blue lance of energy speared him and he went slack. Then I went out of my way to break his legs while I was at it, in the eventuality that he is resistant to the energy of the stun shot. “Time to introduce myself to the engineers.” Turning toward the Engineering deck, I walked.   *** Colonel David O’lleary   This monster is one sexy bitch, I mean look at that female. She looks like an Amazon, walk like a predator but she was merciless. I watched her advance, not caring one bit that she is monitored. When I saw my XO’s lining for a shot, I thought everything would be alright; after all, Dan is a good shot. But it wasn’t to be. Somehow that female centurion escaped a blow to the head. Result of the fight: the captain of my super soldier is dead, Dan was rendered useless. My heart went to him when I saw that centurion gal crush his legs. My XO lay broken like a doll on the ground of corridor. I decided to be the last line of defense between the centurion and the engineers of the ship, those guys will be able to undo whatever that bitch on the com did. The HUD before my eyes glowed with information on the energy charge of my battle mech. The integrity of the mech-armor is at 100%, unfortunately, I don’t have any weapon that I can use on the ship with it, and I don’t want to put holes in it. This is a customized mech, maybe I can go toe to toe with that slut.    

-(Idunn)- Hidden Garden space station, 12 hours later *How interesting.* The rest of the crew of the captured ship surrendered when Fenicia strolled in the bridge while being splattered with blood and grey matter from their colonel. Some leftover of the super soldier platoon tried some shenanigans but were put down by Ell Evan. This delightful young woman was wasted on the like of a mercenary outfit; I saw inside her mind what they did to her. I hope that she will stay and accompany my beloved daughter in her adventures. Now, I am meddling with the computer of the Warsong, looking at the parameters of their mission that brought them to my little abode. Their clients, two Assurians paid the Ares mercenaries 1 billion credits for my head and the destruction of my space station. I felt flattered that they want to pay such an exorbitant price to “put me down” like they said on the message with all my information. It seems they obtained some clue about where I am from the Idrissan university I communicated my researches about terraformation. *How unfortunate.* Fenicia entered my laboratory wearing her normal sportswear consisting of a white T-shirt, black leggings and sport shoes. She placed herself in the viewing room and slept on the sofa there. How weird, why doesn’t she enters and kisses me good morning like any good and proper daughter should? She must not have accepted me yet, but she’s trying. I remember her confession of not wanting to give me problems by disappearing and that she is worried about me. I felt warm and teary eyed just by remembering. My fingers glided on the mechanical keyboard, inserting commands and shutting down the computer. I stood and decided to look at Fenicia, she is still recovering from our ordeal. Her left arm and shoulder are still not in any condition to permit their use and the blow she received to the head made her unbalanced for some time, even if she is good at hiding it. She didn’t want to enter a medical tank; I couldn’t force her when she looked at me like a cornered animal. The medical nanites in her body should suffice to make her like new in another 12 hours. But to be certain I took my medical scanners on my desk. Entering the viewing room, I took out the drone scanner and activate it. The little sphere floated away from my hand and I directed it to scan the body of my daughter. Blue light projected from an aperture from the little black sphere. Information about Fenicia’s body filled the screen of my tablet. The nanites are mending her arm and shoulder and have already fixed the light fracture on her skull. I am surprised that she could still move with that kind of wound, that’s Saryans for you. All of them are tough beings. Fenicia is a bit dehydrated and exhausted by the healing process and is in danger of not having sufficient energy to sustain it. So, I did the only sensible things to do and called a bot to serve cold drinks and food. I choose to sit near her and to wait for the bot to come here.   *** -(Fenicia)-   I woke up bleary eyed with the smell of food in my nose; my growling tummy woke up too. My optical HUD tells me it is six in the morning, oh and I am not seeing double anymore! That’s awesome. I hate it when something or someone hit my head, I may have a dense skull, but it still hurt. It’s been one 13 hours since I killed all those humans; my wounds are getting better too. I righted myself on the sofa, sitting and was surprised by finding Idunn here looking at me with a warm smile on her face. She is wearing a white body fitting suit hugging her petite form, with a lab coat to cover everything. “Hello, dear.” “Uh-Hi?” I said unsure. “I took the liberty to bring you food.” And she presented me a plastic tray with an unknown drink and a mountain of pancakes with syrup. My traitorous stomach growled even strongly. “Eat.” Idunn ordered, shoving the tray to me. “But that’s human food…” I said. “I can’t stomach some of it.” Idunn looked at me, still smiling and… insistent. So, I gave in and stab my eating tool into the weird flat brown cake with all that sticky goo on it. The petite Assurian heavily sighed and took the disposable cutlery from me and sliced into the top flat cake, stabbed it and presented it to me. “Eat.” She said forcefully. Our eyes and wills dueled for long seconds, and I am ashamed to say that I lost and lowered them. So I opened my mouth slowly and she put the food in it. When it hit my tongue, myriad of savors filled my sense. It made me moan in pleasure and I dexterously snatched the fork in Idunn hand and began to dig in the food. “Slowly, Fenicia! The food won’t run…” “viou nievier hiad tio yit fiasht.” I said with my mouth full. I continued to inhale the food. “Excuse me, what was that?! Watch your manners young lady!” It sounded harsh but the mirth in Idunn’s eyes showed me that she isn’t serious. The little woman took the glass of purple like drink and presented it to me; I promptly snatched it of her hand and drank. It’s a sugary and satisfying drink, reminding me of an alcohol I had on the Saint Patrick, the first ship I have been on. “It’s grape juice.” I sighed in contentment. “That’s really good! Can I have more please?”   *** -(Ell Evan)-   The degree of trust I was given astounded me; Idunn gave me a suite in the housing quarter. It is sparsely furnished, has three rooms a toilet, a bedroom and a lounge. The blank customizable VR-walls of this suite permit me to personalize it; I opted for a view which simulates a portside viewing window on the garden world lazily spinning on itself. The planet called Qualia look likes earth with its Blue Ocean and a super continent full of forested greenery with mountains and lakes doting it. M class world are prized by every government bodies, even more when they are in a star system this rich. The two asteroid belts, gas giant and metallic rich planet near the white star would be great find for miners and other industries. But it all belonged to Vice Industries, there are hidden defenses all around the system Fenicia told me. Cloaked mines field, arrays of beam banks, particles canons, and cloaked satellites forming a quantum detection grid around the whole system! *Ha, no wonder even stealth tech doesn’t work!* A Holo window appeared in front of me and I yelped in surprise. My heart beat quickened.   Welcome miss Evan, I am Sandra, the A.I. charged with facilitating your stay on this station. Do you have any question?   My heart settled, and my brain went into overdrive. Idunn still monitor me it seems even though I am on their side, but I understand the move. Trust is earned. “Yes, are you the one operating the services in this suite?”   Indeed, miss. Do you have any further preferences to add to the load out of the room? I can advise you in the selection of your furniture, wardrobe, weapons and induction to the Vice Industries citizenship.   What?! Citizenship! *Oh by the stars…* Emotion burst forth, citizenship had always been one of the goals of super soldiers. I didn’t think Vice Industries handed it so easily.   Director Idunn recommendation was given. She has decided that following your recent service and bravery in saving this station that you are eligible to be a citizen.   I can’t believe it! Everything! Everything I’ve set to do was finally rewarded. On countless human worlds, Ell is not considered human because of the engineered augments given to her at birth. I think that it’s bullshit! I breathe! I laugh, I feel and I think! My fist clenched and unclenched just by thinking of that injustice. Calming myself I walked toward the sofa I roughly sat in its grey embrace. “Sandra gives me everything on Vice industries, history, economy, number of colonized world and more about centurions!” One moment please.   Second later, the com Idunn gave me chimed. When she gave me the com while Fenicia slept she said that it is basic equipment that the personnel onboard should have on them at all times. I mean, it’s important that people can get ahold of me and that I can interface with the computers of the station. From the holo projected information on Vice Industries appears; Bio of the owner, history, products, capital is made known. I make the 3D web page scroll down. The corporation Belong to Helena Theresa Vice the sole owner, she is now 205 years old. Originally from Neo Mexico in the Federation sector of the human sphere. She’s a graduate from the University Neo Mexico and Studied Astronomy and Space Vessels Engineering simultaneously. Helena T. Vice is one of those rare humans who are genuine genius who obtained multiple doctorates. Her father and mother, who were bounty hunters at the time, disappeared when they took on a coalition of pirates with other colleagues. Helena became a bounty hunter herself, built her own ship from seven different Junkyard and made the lives of a lot pirates outfits difficult in the human sphere’s rim…   Do you wish for refreshments, Miss Evan?   The Ai asked me. “Yes I’m thirsty, and do you have any snacks available?”   Yes of course, Miss Evan. Can I recommend you some hotcakes and orange juice?   Does she take me for a child? Why not alcohol? But I agree that getting some sugar might be good… The squad owner viciously confiscated any sugary treats while we trained in the nursery camp when I was younger. Will it affect me? Pushing myself in the sofa’s back I pondered if I could alter my diet without risk. But I told myself that it maybe just another way to control us, super soldiers. “Let’s have that, Sandra. I want to treat myself.” I came back to my reading and a Valet bot brought me a tray of food with a pitcher of orange colored liquid. The Valet bot served me the juice and I took it from its hands. So where was I? Ah, yeah. Helena T. Vice. I drank a bit and hmm this is delicious! Adjusting myself in my seat, I continued to read. So Helena T. Vice scoured the whole human frontier to look for her parents tearing apart pirate bases, defending colony worlds, recruiting crews, she even destroyed star bases. Then things went to shit, Cartels, Pirates, criminal families, rogue mercenaries banded together to take her out. Her ship was destroyed and she was presumed dead for one year… well, shit. The woman kicked a hornet nest! I took a slice of cake and put it in my mouth, it was so soft and tasty that it made me moan in pleasure. No wonder they forbade us to consume pastries, candies and made us survive on nutritional paste! The holo web page turned with a movement of my finger and the story continued to unfold. The story didn’t finish here because obviously the owner is still alive. That’s where the story diverges from the common data of the other human territory and is only available for V. I. citizens. Helena came back with a ship with alien tech so powerful that she took out all her enemies one by one. Wow, Helena you go girl! And then she found her parents on a rogue colony world, enslaved and in a Tritanium mine. Ok, so she freed the colony and took possession of the planet but gave share to some of the ex-slave. Then with the money she went into researching the alien tech she obtained from the ship she mopped the crime association with. Three years later the human market was flooded with a little bit of tech like the Star Gazers, those glasses that act like a HUD and make you see data, the entire light spectrum and can fold and unfold with nanotech. Compact hyperdrive, and a lot of revolutionary tech. Vice enterprise rose to be unequalled in a lot of different fields and industries and that’s why it’s called Vice Industries now. Science, Pharmaceutical, Medical, Metallurgy, Weaponry, Mining, Space Industries and Colonization. And lot of other theoretical fields are under their purview. It’s when the Federation, US Conglomerate and the Asian Great Alliance tried to nationalize Vice Industries that the corporation moved. In the year 238 of the Unified alliance in the human sphere “The Hostile Takeover” war begun. Helena T. Vice had secreted a fleet of the most advanced ships in this quadrant of the galaxy. The war was swift and in favor of Vice Industries. Those super powers in the human sphere sued for peace, Helena forced their hand and took other a lot of colonies and habitable planets from them. My hand reached for a slice of cake and I’m surprised to find that none remain! Oh, I’m a glutton! Ok, no biggie.   This is the form you must fill, Miss Evan.   A file appeared in holo on my com tablet while I cursed my new found sweet tooth. The file asked rather pointed question like my name and surname, race, age, military service, where I was stationed, the number of the nursery I come from. And why I want to become a citizen of Vice Industries. I explained that I want to join because it has always been my goal to become recognized as a person. That normally people with my background are not considered humans by the standards of the principal main players in humanity’s sphere of influence. That I agree with the meritocracy that Vice Industries is, the constant betterment of mankind on all fields and that we should defend ourselves against corruption and the evil intents of the old system. There was even a case to check if I was interested in joining the centurion corps or the civil militia. I paused, looking hard at the option. I remembered how Fenicia killed her way in the ship and how she dispatched everyone. Fuck yeah. I clicked on the case. And finally on the submit green button on the file. Thank you for completing the form to join Vice Industries and affiliated worlds, an answer to your Application Process for Naturalized Citizenship will be delivered in 48 hours. However, Miss Evan. I would not worry, with the recommendation of the top scientist in the corporation you are guaranteed to be accepted. “Yes!”   *** -(Fenicia)-   Lady Idunn, Lady Fenicia A flotilla of ships appeared in system.   My fork stopped from stabbing the 18th pancakes I was about to devour. My eyes searched the face of Idunn, who didn’t seem surprised at all. Idunn made an enigmatic smile and looked at me lazily. I continued to eat the pancakes –more like inhaled it- and drank my purplie, calling it grape juice is not doing it justice… I struck the plastic glasses loudly on the plastic tray and gave it to the bot near me. Standing up, my mind went into overdrive thinking of the implication of ships in the system. *The Warsong might have been the vanguard of a more sizable force, charged with scouting the defenses-* <No, you are wrong.> Said a voice in my mind. I looked at m-Idunn. “Then who are they? Should I gear for war? Put you in that hyperdrive capable shuttles secreted in the depth of the Station? Activate the defenses of the system?!” I screamed. I paced like a drakkil*(Sort of dragon like quadruped) in a cage. The viewing area seemed stuffy now… how weird. My arm and the blow to my head are still not cured, and I realize that my stubbornness might be our downfall. But I think I have an actual trauma about waking up in a healing tank now. God know what people can do to others in those! Sigh. “Ok, let’s prepare for a fight and charge up everything. Do you hear me, Daneel?”   Yes, Lady Fenicia?   “Prepare plan 05-B.”   Are you sure, my Lady?   “Certain.” I looked at Idunn and decided to not shy away from my feelings anymore. Approaching her, I hugged her, smelled the fragrance of her hair and skin. Still conflicted about everything, I didn’t shy from telling her how I feel. The little woman froze while in my arms. “Whatever happens, even if my head still doubts you I still feel that in my heart you are Kin. And Kin protect each others.” Idunn hugged me in turn quite tightly. We stayed like this for a long moment, until we let go of each others. Still not wanting to face Idunn’s full gaze, I turned on my heel and got out of the stuffy viewing room. Walking with determination toward the Armory, I pray to the stars that we are all not going to die.

-(Destiny)-   The Lurker, Medical Quarter; Tuesday 11th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar   “...?” I woke up to a world of wet and green, I felt that I was floating in goo. It was a peaceful awakening, fast dampened by the thought of what I have lost to be able to feel it. I lost the only person that cared about me in the universe. But I had to let go to be able to be functional, I couldn’t shut down like I did after it happened. Suddenly I felt the greenish gooey water around me diminish and my feet touched the ground; the level of water drop through holes in the health tank I am in. Through the glass of the tank, I could see a silhouette, my eyes were still blurry but I felt that the person before me was someone I linked mentally with before. The flavor of this mind reminds me of Altair, I am aware that it is her and that she is letting me feel her, even with how the scientists in project Xavier told me how powerful I was there were things I didn’t know how to do with my abilities. Like the ability to mask the psychic presence that my benefactor is able to do as if she was breathing. I hope she will give me instructions because I felt like an ignorant barbarian with a club compared to her. One moment I was on my feet feeling miserable another I was in the arms of Altair that had a towel around me. Did I black out? “Hi,” I said with a scratchy voice that made me doubt that it was I who spoke. Altair proceeded into rubbing me delicately with the towel. “Don’t speak, you are going on the medical bed and we will see if everything is alright; then we will speak little one.” She said with a reassuring tone. I nodded and let her guide me toward the medical bay, once in there she laid me on one of the beds and proceeded to dry my body more intensively. When she was done she smiled at me and the bed moved to be flat. “Here now, don’t move and keep your breath while the scanner will shine its light upon you.” The optical lens of the big cylinder above me shined with a warm green light on my pale skin. I stopped moving and stopped breathing for ten seconds. “Done.” Altair said when the machine stopped. Altair looked at the big physical screen behind my head that showed data of my body. I could see an orange silhouette that must be a representation of my body and inside the human figure, there were green specks everywhere. “Everything looks alright, Destiny.” The older woman smiled at me and mussed my hair. Thirty minutes later we were in Altair’s office, I was dry and clothed wearing a ship suit she prepared for me. The decor was filled with pieces of rocks and artworks on each of the walls that mimicked wood. We were facing each other on the comfy black sofas. “Now we can talk after you drink this cup of black tea.” Altair pushed a cup of tea toward me on the low table, it smelled of lemon and looked black. Taking the cup I placed my two hands around it and blew on its surface to finally drink it. It was good! I downed the brew with gusto. “Good,” Altair said while nodding her head. “Am ah good? Truly?” I said after putting the teacup on its dish. To be honest, I felt amazing. Full of vitality as if I slept for ten hours and took a warm shower. While I was naked I noticed that… I have muscles now. Not bodybuilding worthy like those super soldiers were from the lab I lived in but I was toned and athletic but still feminine. There were these letters and numbers that appeared in my field of vision while I was on the ship that described everything. It freaked me out at first, but I calmed myself. Altair will explain, I am sure of it. “You know we will work on your enunciation and speech to get rid of that Scott accent. But yes you are good.” The older woman seemed put out by my way of talking, she was not the first. Only uncle Magnus and my friend Iza weren’t bothered by it, they said that it reminded them of home. “Ah tried before,” I said lowering my eyes. “Don’t worry I will teach you how. We have two months of travel left, your days will be full of learning.” <Let’s talk like this, Destiny.> She sent to me via her thoughts. <It is easier this way, I agree.> I said opening communication between us. This was the basic of the basic of telepathy; forming a psionic communication line with another being, essentially being capable of having comprehensible conversations with others using their minds. It also works with normal people who may be incapable of physical speech or enable to communicate with a deaf person by linking minds. The scientist of project Xavier tested my abilities thoroughly with that kind of test subject brought from the outside. Altair sighed and sank deeper in her sofa, she looked at me solemnly while crossing her legs in a really feminine way. I admired her elegant way of moving. <You have joined a really select club by accepting to be imbued with the Psi nanite pack.> <Is it why I feel so different? And there are weird words that appear in my eyes?> <Yes, the nanites changed your body; you are stronger, faster, smarter and your powers should have received a significant boost. The word and numbers you see are what we call Augmented Reality or AR, it is able to let you navigate the ships or interface with the computers; this is a rather important part of life in Vice Corporation Worlds, we will speak about those later. AR is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are "augmented" by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory.> I must have looked lost to her because Altair facepalmed, then sighed again at me. She uncrossed her leg and leaned toward me in her seat. <Look, Destiny, you’ll have to get used to how changed you are, to educate yourself while you are still on the ship and out of it; I plan to help you and I hope you’ll pull through. My client wanted me to hand you over, but knowing your situation I cannot in good conscience do that in your present state. You are rather, ignorant.> Why? I don’t want to, I like it here. It's quiet, we have food and I learn things from Altair; she’s a real doll with me. It made me tremble to imagine to go somewhere else, without uncle Magnus to give me direction. *I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go.* I thought. Looking into the eyes of Altair I said so. <I don’t want to go to that person, Altair please don’t make me. Can’t I stay with you forever?> I said feeling desperate. Altair’s eyes softened. <I would love to keep you here, your presence on this ship is a delight… but my life is dangerous Destiny. I have made a lot of enemies. But don’t worry, I have plans for you before handing you over.> <I don’t…> I tried to say. Altair’s gaze speared through me, I now knew she also had empathy because she just projected her feeling at me. It was the resolution that I felt from her. <Listen to me, when everything is done if you feel that you want to come back all you need is to call me, ok?> She proposed. I really thought about it. Altair may be right, maybe I will want more in life than just staying in a room in the dark mopping? I finally nodded to her, yes maybe I will change opinion later. <Good. You are going to get some speed schooling in the simulator, Destiny. Fortunately, we can slow the time in virtual reality, you would get ten years worth of school for those two months thanks to the technology aboard this ship. But before that, we need to present you your new companion.> Altair took the electronic tablet on the low table and began to type things on its screen. Suddenly a wave of vertigo engulfed me. My hearing couldn’t help but pick up annoying noises all around me, I could smell the overpowering odor of the black tea in the pot of the low table, taste the biscuit I had eaten in passing earlier after getting out of the health tank. My senses were in overdrive. I put my hands on my ears to cover the incessant noise and then just as it suddenly happened it stopped. But no, something else happened, texts and numbers scrolled in my field of vision. Companion AI, activation Protocol. Calibration of sensory inputs. Toddler program activated. Preloading personality and denomination of companion AI complete. Activation complete. NOVA is activated. Welcome, user. My name is NOVA and I’ve been designed to facilitate the use of your augmentations and education. I couldn’t make any sense or tail of what was happening, there was a voice in my head that wasn’t me or a telepathic link from someone else. Am I finally crazy? I looked at Altair for direction, she just smiled at me and looked satisfied. <Now where were we?> I heard her project in my mind. *** I still had problems adjusting with NOVA in my head, she sounded eager to please me and was really helpful. It was like making another friend, she explained things to me all night yesterday about my new abilities, responsibilities. It’s like never being alone like I always wanted, but it can become tiresome sometimes when she makes undue criticism. NOVA began to regiment my life, or more precisely how much I am eating and at which period of a day. It seems the nanites in my body require that ingest at least six thousand calories a day. But as I am on the toddler protocol as she called it I can eat less since the nanites aren’t working over the clock. It will change tomorrow I heard because Altair has decided to train me from scratch. <I took the liberty to cremate your uncle Magnus. His ashes are in this urn, maybe if you find a suitable place you can have a nice ceremony for him?> Altair announced. She then took the liberty to place an urn on the top of my desk; we were in my private quarters. I didn’t even feel her come in, it was scary that she could ghost through my telepathic sonar. I hope she teaches me that later. <Thank you.> I said while still looking at the urn. Uncle Magnus loss still hurts, but he wouldn’t like me to mop all day about it. I have to survive, get stronger and grow up. That I will do; closing my eyes I made a silent prayer for him and wish him well wherever he is that souls go after leaving their flesh prison. Altair put something else on the desk, a piece of paper. Training Schedule  Monday to Friday  06:00-9: 00 AM Physical Training 10:00 AM-13: 00 PM-Close Quarter Combat Training/Advanced Tactical training (IRL/SIM) 14:00-20:00PM History/Technology/Common Sense (SIM)  Saturday and Sunday  Rest Self-learning   What was that? It looked frightening! The piece of paper is just a schedule for intensive lessons; I looked at Altair who smiled at me and seemed to express satisfaction in my distress. NOVA added oil to the fire by integrating the schedule to my daily life and already planning how much I will have to eat and sleep to be able to succeed. Mistress, I am here. You won’t fail because I will not allow you to. NOVA tried to be reassuring but it wasn’t so, it sounded more like a threat. Though this is nothing that I didn’t do before in the lab when they trained me in the use of my power. I will pass this and when I am done I will be stronger and will be able to take a long nap or something. “Now shall we begin?” Altair said with a twinkle in her eyes. A/N: I had some complaint about the change in heroine in the previous chapter, let me remind you guys that this is a space opera and it has  a tag about multiple POV changes. Don't worry We will see Fenicia and co, but I need to show off Destiny as she is pivotal in the series. You'll learn to like her.

-(Fenicia)- VIS Sundance, Computer room 5A I zipped my blue body suit up and checked that everything was in place. Arms snaked from behind cupping my breasts and I felt a soft body pressed against my back. Desire flared in me, inviting me to undo my suit and continue wondrous, pleasurable and challenging activities. But taking a look around me, I reminded myself that the room where we copulated is not suited for such and that somebody could come and interrupt us. That course of action would be dangerous. For the intruding party. But I can also feel like it would be thrilling in a sense. Fa tested my willpower and self-control by doing wonderful things to my body, it took a lot out of me to lightly put my hands on hers and move away from her embrace. Turning toward her I could see her eyes hooded with desire and… acceptance? “I do hope that this wasn’t a one-time thing.” She said and pouted. I looked at her naked body, her tantalizing curves … and imagined her hands on me. I didn’t feel any emotional conflict or regrets. That’s why when I moved, I took her in my arms and hugged her I answered. “I would be a fool to let you go.” And when I think there was a time I wouldn’t even be intimate with someone at all. After my forced marriage and rape on Saryna, it had become rather difficult to let someone in or even touch me again. The mildest touch would send me into a frenzy. Time and a stubborn Irish captain cured me but I still stay mildly distrusting of males. It had an unintended consequence of turning me mostly away from them sexually. Only the stars know how much I tried. But I am satisfied, maybe with more time my disgust and mistrust will disappear. “But I don’t want to assume,” I added. Fa giggled. “You are awesome.” And she sealed it with a kiss. After losing ourselves in tongues dueling I reluctantly let go again, that little human female must be a test to for my self-control. I lightly slapped her bottom. “Temptress, put your suit on you are distracting.” Fa smiled at me and slowly put on her bodysuit, putting on a show. I felt flattered, but I had to gather my wits not to let her control the whole situation. Even with how delightful she is, I still think she’s more than a pleasant and pretty face. I mean, for a female human raised by a ruthless woman she must have sharp spines. When I thought this, she surreptitiously looked at me and then lowered her eyes. Interesting. Walking toward her slowly, I made my thought go blank and posed a hand on her shoulder that she batted away. “Empathy, huh?” No wonder she was receptive to my touch and is this magical while copulating. “Huh yeah, don’t do that again. I hate that cold feeling…” She said hesitantly. Fa tried to laugh it off. I looked at her, really looked. Being a natural predator I am used into seeing weakness and right at this moment, Fa looked prepared to bolt. Telepath and empath are shunned romantically in principle because their partner can’t hide anything from them. They cannot be involved with someone who doesn’t open to them. I decided to open a gambit for a little while and like in my meager speed training in psychic defenses I opened myself to her, my defenses falling away. It was like meditating and imagining being totally naked on an open plain feeling the wind blowing on you and the sun’s ray hit your skin warmly. The little female looked at me sharply her mouth forming an “o.” I smiled at her, thinking about how cute she is at this moment. I put a hand on her right cheek and she leaned into it. “Are you… sure?” There was a vulnerability in her voice. “Just don’t make me regret it.” I thought about everything that happened in my short life, the Hell hole that is Saryna, my false wedding, being banished and branded Kranicar*(banished), learning how to fight and use technology from the Saint Patrick crew, my darker path in the criminal underworld after leaving the Irish crew. My life is chaotic, and I think that for now, I am just in the eye of the storm. Meeting that little female must be part of something that will shake my life. Fa looked me in the eyes, something passed into them. An emotion I’ve never seen before, but she lowered her glowing blue eyes to stop me from further prying. I helped Fa zip up her own bodysuit, kissed her again and took her hand to finally leave that computer room. But suddenly I felt dizzy and went on one knee. “Hey, are you ok?” Fa asked worriedly. She was fawning over me but vertigo I felt didn’t stop. New sensations made themselves known. I felt as if millions of tiny insects were roaming on my skin, my body felt numb and then it stopped. “Fenicia?” The voice of Fa felt sharper and louder than before. “Don’t shout!” It hurt my ears to even speak. I put my hands on my ears, trying to stop me from listening. WHAT. THE. FUCK. is happening. Texts and numbers scroll up and down in my field of vision. Companion AI, activation Protocol. Calibration of sensory input. Toddler program activated. Please, choose a name for your companion A.I. I wanted it to go away, I thought hard about it but nothing happened. Please, choose a name for your companion A.I. It insisted, the text gaining in size in my eyes obfuscating everything. I decided to give in, I cannot win it seems. A name came into focus in my mind and it seems the computer picked up on it. Checking for Availability… The name you inputted is available, Onboard Omega A.I. is now designed as SONG. 30 second before activation. Now that I have calmed down a bit, I have time to read the entire prompts in my HUD. Is it saying what I think it is saying? Something like a synthetic nanny was embedded in the nanites pack?! Now I understand, it was too good to be true. I will have someone else in my head. SONG is activated. Welcome, user. My name is SONG and I’ve been designed to facilitate the use of your augmentations. *Go on, bitch.* Fuck, I never asked for this. My presence wasn’t expected, this is highly irregular. User, I promise that my services will be done with the utmost efficiency. All systems are green. Somehow, user, you are low on energy reserve. You should stock on calories for the system to run without cannibalizing your body. *Shut up!* I thought. * Please. Please, could you let me time to think?* “Fenicia, listen!” My head turned toward Fa. “Ah, finally you are listening. Are you ok?” She asked, worry all over her face. I shook my head, and tried to stand slowly, but no I couldn’t. “There is some sort of A.I. that activated and is speaking to me in my head.” Fa helped me by making me sit and lean against the steel grey wall near the exit of the computer room. Her pretty face was changing through a kaleidoscope of emotions while she looked at me. She took her com tablet from her tool belt and I don’t know if I was seeing things but the holo-screen flickered through menus, pictures, and graph at high speed without her touching it. “Mother.” I heard her coldly say while gritting her teeth. “?” “I’m sorry Fenicia, my mother can’t stop messing with you…” She added, there was something more she wanted to say, but she shook her head and looked at the ceiling furiously and sat at my side. “I will call the nurse bots to bring you to the medical bay. What you are going through isn’t supposed to happen like this, but more in a controlled environment. She is being vindictive…” “What are you trying to say?” I have no idea about what she is trying to explain. Wait, Fenicia. Think. First look at the prompts in your HUD. After some time reading them I noticed. And remembered that I had no complete control of my Augments when I woke up and while fighting the mercenaries. Idunn said that it was a quick and dirty version of what normal Centurion does to be in control. “Yes, you understand. Smart.” Fa smiled weakly. Can I explain, user? *No, shut up. We will talk, when I am ready.* Of course, user. I shall wait for our tête-à -tête. Frustration welled up inside me, I looked at Fa in my HUD and I could see some kind of panel with her full name and title. The panel unfolded when I focused on it and a trove of information showed up. I saw her position in the board meeting, her shares in Vice Corporation, was it some kind of advanced Augmented Reality function. “Ah, you are accessing my public profile. I see yours now; wow you are listed as a first-class centurion and the daughter of Idunn. Your account is empty but you should be able to get your money from the Alliance Bank. Maybe buy some stock in the corporation…” I sighed and leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes. To make her shut up I passed my arm around her shoulders to have her lean into me. And it worked.   ***   VIS Sundance, med-bay I was lying on the med-bed with the scanner drones flying around me and scanning my body. The holographic monitor showed my physiology to the doctor examining me. He looked quite austere and professional. Fa stayed with me, looking leery of the Centurions in the medical bay. Shit, all those eyes on me aren’t good for my nerves. When we arrived in the shiny and advanced med-bay I didn’t think I would be confronted with the guys who arrested me earlier. But why are they in such a state? I leaned my head against the blue pillow the bed had formed when I laid on it. The petite human female must have felt my discomfort because she felt obliged to inform me. “You happened to them.” I hesitated to answer her. “I don’t remember mowing them down like this, even that bitch is in a full healing tank.” I recognized the dark-skinned woman who captured me earlier. She is floating naked in the green goo of the glasslike tank. Fa looked at one of the male soldiers when I said that, doing the same I saw that he was furious and barely restraining himself. “Maybe you should talk with your A.I. she can do a lot of thing for you. But first, you will have to configure her, don’t be closed minded.” The petite human said. I must have made a stubborn face because Fa added. “You will need her.” *Tssk.* I averted my eyes from her pleading gaze. “I feel your reluctance… and by the way, you better do it fast, mom will expect you to be able to deserve your rank. She already threw you in the fire, Mother likes to see people struggle. Don’t give in to her.” Fa took out her com tablet and did the mind surfing I saw her do on the ship intranet. And she made a holo-screen appear; imagine my surprise when I saw myself in the station plaza surrounded by centurions while I was tied up. Then with horror, I watched myself as I lit up and transformed. My mind went slack. I looked at Fa then at the screen. I did all this, I attained the warrior form!! My elation is short-lived, because I realized that I attained it but wasn’t guided into making it perfect. I will have to work with a Saryan to be able to… and then I realized another thing. No Saryan will help me after what I did on Saryna. I felt a weight settle on me; despair seized my heart, my past came back to bite me. I put my face in the palm of my hand. Blind revenge caught up to me and dealt a blow I might never walk away from, entering in combat with that monstrous and unpredictable form might be the end of my career. Someone put a hand on my shoulder, uncovering my face I see that it is Fa; showing a sage and reassuring smile on her soft and delicate face. “Don’t worry, aunt Idunn will surely help you. Do you remember? She is an expert on the Saryan race.” Maybe she’s right? I have nothing to fear… but hindsight is a bitch, really. If I didn't scatter the agent throughout the clan city I might still have been able to consult with the Banished Saryan in the shanty town around it. Sigh. No use crying over it, I will deal with what the stars gave me. Yes, I have a new purpose. I am Fenicia Kranicar and I will not fail. When the thought of failure creeps on me I will do what I have always done, I will banish it. My mind felt suddenly light as smoke. Quiet, and with my mind free of deliberation, I realize that I surmounted my first hurdle into mastering my warrior form. A clear mind does not impede the will, the primary instrument of a warrior. Fa smiled at me and said, “That’s my girl.” I looked at her, she was getting used to reading my emotions, not at all afraid of my inner demons. “Am I?” I grinned and catching her free hand to stroke it. “Oh yes.” And she kissed me.   *** -(Ell Evan)-   Hidden Garden space station, Idunn’s lab   I am strapped to the lab table awaiting my check up from Idunn. She was using that machine showing every part of me down to the quantum, there is no way to get more naked than this. The Assurian woman looked closely on her holo-screen as if she noticed something new. “Ell, my dear. You are so fascinating.” Idunn gushed. “Enlighten me, doctor.” I quipped. She didn’t turn to look at me, but I could see her tremble from excitement. “My dear, you are a conundrum, you are obviously a mutation. I just compared your beautiful and structured genetic code to other engineered super soldiers. And my dear, you are the pinnacle of what your limited race can do with genetics.” “Sometimes my mind is blown how humans can do with their limited technology and comprehension. And I am about to tune you up.” Idunn turned briefly. “Emphasis on limited.” She added. Wait, what? I decided that I should make myself scarce. “Ah, ah, ah.” And four point restraints snapped on me making me unable to move. With all my strength I tried to escape. The petite Assurian slowly sashayed to me, her lab coat flowing. Her hand delicately went to my face, and her fingers caressing my brows. “Don’t worry my dear, you’ll thank me when I am done.” This was the first time I saw that light in Idunn’s eyes dangerous and crazy. I thought she was normal, seeing her acting with Fenicia you would see how amazing and caring she is. Weirdly I think she is being generous right now, but she is forceful about it. Idunn doesn’t care if you appreciate her gifts, she only cares about what she can do. The alien woman must not see me as a being right now, but an interesting subject. “Oh no my dear, you are more than that. You are a friend of my daughter, and I intend to make you able to follow her. The frail body that you have shall be a work of art, I promise.” And she returned to her work station her hands moving in the sea of touch physical screens and holo equivalent. Is Idunn going to keep me strapped on the table while she works? It’s going to be boring. She must have heard me because a medical drone came hovering toward me and shot me with something that put me under.   *** -(Idunn)-   Stopping my hands from moving for a microsecond I opened my telepathic link to the chief meddler. <I know that you are spying on me> And as usual, I feel mirth, curiosity, and camaraderie through the link. Helena possesses a beautiful mind in every sense of the term. The way she thinks is logical and filtered by a veil of emotion that doesn’t always take over her rationality. She is a control freak. My hands type on the holo-keyboard and the screen zoom in on the thread-like chain of nucleotides. With a wave of my hand, I smoothed out the defects I saw in the DNA replication, longevity of the subject extended. Muscles, ligaments optimized. Adding potential psionic abilities. [Of course, you are always doing amusing things. Like tweaking the genes of a bio-engineered superhuman to make it even more… well super.] Helena answered. Now it is time to look at the cosmetic effect. Scars smoothed out, pigmentation ownership tattoo culled from the DNA eliminated. <Helena, I am preparing for whatever you have seen in the time stream. We need this girl to be with my daughter, I request your help with this. Could you prep a nanites pack for her?> DNA of the Subject optimization is possible in less than two weeks, need to put her in a culture tank: strongly recommended. [You are asking a lot, Idunn.] <Helena, you are asking a lot of me too. My only daughter is in your clutch, and you are going to send her out there to face untold dangers. Would you send Fa or Demetria to their death for your ambition?> [Careful Idunn…] I felt her growl, a slight threat, and outrage targeted at me. Anger suddenly flared in me while I still moved and stabilized the DNA model. <I could still take my daughter and disappear; you’d never find us again.> She stayed silent for a minute or so, giving me the time to authorize the bots to take Ell and load her up in the tank. Yes. I could definitely disappear from this quadrant of the galaxy, and I am betting that Helena is looking at the time stream and weighing her chances. [Sigh. You win this one, Idunn. A Beta pack should suffice, I will update her citizenship and link her with Fa’s unit. I did the same with Fenicia.] She said. The woman felt defeated. <Pleasure to work with you, my dear.> [Altaïr, contacted me.] Helena Revealed. <Did she sell you the schedule of the Ares mercenary outfit?> I tried to guess. Altaïr Aquilar is the elusive shadow broker of the criminal underworld that spans the entire alliance. Nothing is safe from her grasp, secret project, and government cover-up. She is a formidable help and can also be a tedious enemy to fight. [You are too smart… yes.] And then red hot anger seethed through our link. [ Idunn, those imbeciles targeted your research station. They invaded VCW assets, I want them dead. Every mercenary under them is going to die, even those retired or who changed outfit. I don’t care if they were just a tool. Nobody attacks Vice Corporation and get away with it. Alive.] Music to my ears. <There are two Assurian families who need a culling.> [Yes my friend, whatever you need you got it. But let’s be careful not to spark a war, is that clear?] <There won’t be anything left of them.>   *** -(???)-   Alpha quadrant, Eta Eridani planet Tethis III   When I was young my father once told me to “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”Of course, later I learned that he quoted a long-dead great author called Mark Twain. But I took his advice to heart and strived to be the best of the best. I went to the army and strived in this environment. The ranking system and the way of life agreed with my view of how everything should be. But I had forgotten for a time how humans are; politics are in every echelon of society even the more martial institutions. With my coffee mug in hand, I gazed at the men and women training through the glass. I watched the mecha in a simulated fight. They are a well oiled and efficient machine. Most of our mechanized unit is crewed by women and they are definitely well paid. I have always wanted parity to be respected in my organization. The infantry was another beast though; the units are led by some of the most dangerous men and women that I could find. I strain to find efficient and capable people. Like this half-breed Saryan I had under my employ, she was a joy to work with. Bold, inventive and a real stickler at doing a good job. But it wasn’t meant to be, she had pissed off some of my associates by wiping out one of their satellite organization. I had to make an example out of her. Someone busted her out of our brig; we are still patching the defenses in our security network from the escape. It’s been a month now. I sipped on my coffee and exhaled from satisfaction. My hand reached for the panel near the bay view and I pushed a button. The glass became black and showed my reflection. Straightening my black uniform I looked at myself, I am fit for my fifty years; the weathered skin I have shown that I am a hand on type of person. My full dark hair whitening at the temple was added by re-splicing my DNA for longevity and corrects this part of my DNA. I was bald for a year and my wife didn’t like it; my eyes were a chocolate brown that Justine, my wife said seduced her instantly when I met her. I really liked the image of power and wisdom I project, it keeps the troops in line. Humans are weird creatures that judges on appearance. I went to sit at my comp-desk, put my mug in its place and watched the photograph of Justine and our kids. My wife is a redhead of stunning beauty, we met on the job. I had to protect her from being kidnapped by a rival cartel to one of her father’s. We fell in love and I had to ask permission to court her from her father. What a tough old man… he put me through hell. My kids, Julie and Andrew looked much like her. Fit and smart teenagers who proved to be no end of trouble. “Sir!” Someone entered my office without knocking, it only happens when something bad happens. “Dustin, your manners!” The ebony skinned man stopped himself, his eyes bugged out of his eyes and saluted me. “Sir!” “At ease lieutenant!” “Yes, sir!” The man relaxed and a haunted look could be seen on his face. “Now what were you going to say?” It intrigued me, Dustin wasn’t a man who is easily shaken. “Sir, we have lost contact with Colonel O’lleary and the Warsong. They stopped transmitting when they were assaulting a facility in space.” The news made me lean in my seat a bit more. Not a lot of things could take down my special unit or one of our light warships, the job seemed easy. Take down some Assurian alien female who has been playing possum. “Sir, it’s bad. They attacked a Vice corp space station!” And this ruined my day. “Dustin, recall our troops from any job they are on. Recall everyone!! We need to go dark, prepare all personnel to the fortress world.” “Sir, yes sir!” The man turned around Sighing from the stress the news caused, I took my com tablet and called my wife. “Justine, my sweet. We won’t be able to go to this concert…” ---END OF ARC ONE---

Hidden Garden space station, 2 days later I never knew that formally studying was this tedious, the nagging of Idunn and the A.I. got to me and I almost ignored them. Telekinesis, using the mind to influence matter is the basis of many types of power to manipulate the world around the user. Through training videos I learned how to levitate, grip, bind objects and androids in the gym. The levitation speaks for itself, I lifted myself, weights, water bottles, knives in the air! It was so easy, but when I lifted two androids I got a killing headache. Gripping the weights on the ground was the easiest part of the training, the powerful artificial muscle of the android trainers couldn’t even budge them. Binding is the same thing has gripping and it was boring. Right now I was learning how to pull and push, the A.I. was saying how important the basic of mental manipulation is important. That I should master all the skills that it’s showing me because they will be part of more complicated techniques like TK body reinforcement. As if my enhanced body wasn’t enough, I could become even more resilient, strong and agile. Never would I have thought that obtaining abilities like mine would throw me into a learning frenzy. These last two days were not kind to me, I had to eat, study, sleep, and repeat. Idunn took a real pleasure to cook my protein supplements, she said “I am catching up on my motherly duties” and wouldn’t let me just have the military rations onboard. More importantly, the stealth ship who ventured in this solar system has stopped but recently a fighter shuttle or drone was launched from it recently and is approaching us. We could detect passive attempt to scan the space station from afar, the systems on this station are so advanced that it is no joking matter. When I saw the logo of the Vice Industries on everything I finally understood who Idunn is friend with. Anyway, the sensor detected a stealth fighter probing the perimeter of the station. I devised the plan in case the station get boarded or when if the mercenaries were wary and deployed spytech. I focused and a pet bottle that was on the bench six meter from me flew in my waiting right hand. TK is so useful that I ask myself how come I lived without it before, it made me lazy. But I wallowed in the power rippling through me when I use it, I am aware of everything going on too. It will come in handy if I ever get in a fight with multiple foes, it did work with the training androids. Fortunately, the station fabricators can recycle those I’ve broken with my misuse of TK. When I don’t control my will sufficiently my abilities lash out and crush my foes even when I don’t look at them, the space sense of my telekinetic powers is always on. Drinking water from the pet bottle, I feel refreshed. Ding! A Holo window opened before me with a message only for me. Lady Fenicia, you asked me to warn you if the craft currently scouting the perimeter of the station is in the targeted area for the EMP mines. And my plan comes together beautifully, it made me smile and slosh water on my black sports bra. I carefully watched toward the gate to see if someone saw and is relieved to not have spoiled the image I try to project. I passed my fingers in my blue hair and relaxed thinking if what I am about to do is going to bite me in the sizz*(*mean ass in Saryan). “Daneel, engage EMP mines and the tractor beam,” I said and smiled ruthlessly. Acknowledged, Lady Fenicia. Standing up I remembered the plan: Awaken the EMP mines orbiting around the station, get the fighter shuttle/spy drone they send to scout, message the ship it launched from if they don’t flee. Destroy their weapons and hyperdrive, provoke them to board the station or make them flee. Aware that with the defensive system of the station I could heavily damage the other ship but not destroy them I implemented the plan to steadily force them to board it, and use the androids and tactic to thin the mercenaries and let Daneel the AI take control of the enemy ship by bypassing the command and control and own AI. I will without a doubt have a harsh fight; because I don’t think I’m going to keep prisoners. *** Ell Evan   Aboard the Eagle RX897, I probed the space around the orbit of the space station designated Hidden Garden. It looks like a research station; the kind made to research on planets with funky biospheres that human cannot colonize. The best examples are those that the Shdeveri people love to colonize dangerous and challenging biosphere with magnificent jungles. It doesn’t prevent them to plant vegetals from their mother planets on others. The vessel I am on is a stealth fighter, commonly used in the Terran sphere of influence. But I feel naked and jumpy as if I knew that it’s not enough. I feel it in my guts, something is about to go wrong! And when I hear the multiple Klang on the hull that feeling solidified, a thrumming could be heard as if something was building up. “Oh shit!” I yelled. All the electronics were disrupted and fried, even my quantum jewel on my right ear exploded. Shit, I got caught! Fumbling with the commands and the surviving interface of the fighter, I tried to see what the fuck happened to it when an even bigger shock rocked it and made me hit my forehead on the low ceiling of the cockpit. “Damnit.” What is happening? I feel heavy as if a powerful pressure is applied on me and it gradually increases. For long minutes I had trouble moving until I could even lift a finger. I reflected on my options and the tactical meaning of what is happening to me. There is a great chance that the people in that space station know that my squadron is out here and that our stealth tech is nothing to them. Sigh. It is really a fucking suicide mission, it made me laugh. But, I’ll not give up without a fight. Bong. Hearing that sound, I felt that pressure on me recede. I pushed the buttons on my belt that kept me hitting everything in the cockpit and I was free. The control instruments showed me that I am not in space anymore. From what I can already see what happened; those people who captured me are good, really good. They got something that caught my craft and neutralized the controls and used a tractor beam to get me in… I perked up. I must be in the station. Suddenly a blade pierced the roof of the cockpit, it made lower my head. I heard the sound of metal being cut and wrenched open. The exposing ceiling of the docking bay of that space station looked pristine and shiny. A black sphere came flying into the fighter new entrance and floated there, red light projected out of it. It scanned me and I was suddenly in mid-air and out of my fighter. Near the nose of the craft an armored figure was there, the being distinctively female. She had blue short blue and golden eyes and built like those amazons depicted in ancient Terran history that the doctor forced me to study when I was a kid. She pointed a gun at me and fired, a blue beam of energy hit me and darkness engulfed me. *** I was brutally woken up by an acrid smell and opened my eyes and seeing someone crouching before me and having a sort of bottle under my nose. The being, the same one which put me in this state smiled at me, her golden gaze sizing me up as if I am a mystery she must resolve. Before I did anything she was against the table on the far wall six meter from me. That scared me shitless; I didn’t even see her move. I kept my heart steady to find a semblance of calm. That female Amazon was playing with her com tablet, not concerning herself with me. I took the trouble to stand up. The Amazon looked at me from her com tablet. She was playing games with me, I can feel it. Assessing the place I am located in by looking around, a big room with grey walls, and white furniture, mainly chairs and a table. On the left wall compared to my position a door could be seen, a control panel glowed that must open it is located on the right of it. I was surprised to not be restrained and to still be in my flight suit. “Who are you?” I asked defiantly. “You have penetrated private property of Vice Industries, you’ll be detained until the owner dispatch a craft to come retrieve you and ensure that you are tried for your trespass.” She read calmly from her pad. Yes, she was reading this, her voice had an accent in it that I couldn’t place. “Ah! You are not a centurion! Or you would know all the procedures. Seriously, who are you?” She was already on me when I finished my sentence and had her hand around my neck and lifting me from the ground. The gauntlet of her blue armor chimed and she let me fall to the ground. The Amazon spoke in a language I have no knowledge of and turned her back to me. Someone must have contacted her. Thinking that I can take her when she has her back turned to me, I was about to launch myself at her, only to find the muzzle of a high-velocity pistol in my face. The translucent LED on it and the design showed me that it is a Casul R-XV that use electromagnetic accelerators with selective modes and targeting computer assist. In my fear, I could feel jealousy welling up in me. This woman was superbly equipped with the best tech while I had to scrounge with outdated gears from the Human Federation. I frowned, the woman turned herself toward me and pointed her gauntlet at me. A source of light could be seen from one aperture of the gauntlet and from head to boots covered me. Was it some kind of scanner? “Enhanced human? Y’er one of this super soldier, right?” “Corporal Ell Evan, Serial Number18789B-58.” Is all I answered her. “Oh, yes. You had that resisting interrogation training shit you humans do. There is a sure way to circumvent this, we have a psionic onboard that will rip inside yer head or the technological way which consist in the use of a pain inducer that the V. I. pioneered.” She was listing possibly destructive option to my mind and body as if it was a matter of course, and that damn accent of her grated on my nerves. She approached me, her armor clanging on the metallic ground. Her shiny high-tech armor made her look even more formidable from so close. The Amazon stared hard at me and put a heavy hand on my right shoulder. My flight suit crinkled a bit. “Or I could buy you your freedom, deactivate the fuckin’ explosive in your noggin that makes you subservient to your owners and help me catch the cloaked ship yer fighter came from.” My mind raced, hope and wariness played a tug of war inside me. She must be lying, something… there is a catch. The Amazon must have read my expression because she added. “No catch.” I thought about the loyalty, time and training I owed the Private Military Contractor Ares. I thought of all the hardship, the freedom they dangled and all the lies and violence I have been subjected to. The good times I had were few, and I have always been alone because of my capabilities. *Fuck them.* It was time to show what I am truly made of, my eyes found those of the tall female with all the decisiveness and sincerity I can muster. “Ok, but I want in the action too. I want to kill all those fuckers, they don’t deserve any mercy.” My decision was final. The Amazon smiled, and said, “You’ll have to go under for a bit.” And struck me lightly behind the head, and familiar darkness embraced me once again, fuck my life.   *** Fenicia   Idunn was working on the super soldier and defused the bomb that the scan found in her skull. Enough explosive to reduce her head into bloody mist. Those guys from the super soldier farms aren’t playing around, I know I am taking a leap of faith that this Ell girl can help me. But Idunn read her thought when I proposed her to be free. She would have chimed in with my com gauntlet if she was misleading me. At the same time, Idunn was scanning her mind for info on the opposition. That is serious multi-tasking she’s doing. No wonder she was given that station to do her own work by the Tyrant. That’s what we call the woman who is the face of Vice Industries, who in one fell swoop and lengthy preparation kicked the human federated worlds asses with force and technologies tightly guarded. I am scared, but I will not show it, resolving the present situation is more important. I watched Idunn work with the quantum field generator and inject something in the skull of the girl. Normally I am not squeamish but… I hope she didn’t do that to me. I was sitting on the sofa in the viewing room which is separated by a combination of transparent aluminum and a force field, real alternative to an antiquated blast door. The door whooshed and an android came bringing me a drink. A drink that Idunn said is important for my new constitution which I drank promptly. It tasted like a tropical fruit from the Thelian colony in the Tersian system, sweet and fresh with a delicious bit aftertaste of sourness. Staying like this, worrying about that super soldier wasn’t the usual thing for me. I know that I have always been a selfish bitch, but what happened to me since I’ve been born seems to be taken into question. What led me to be banished from Sarya, My mercenary and assassination works, and the way I am used to keeping people at arm’s length because of all this. I giggled with derision because I found all this too much. My problems are piling up, Idunn, my memories, the threat of the station being board and the changes made to me. “I want a fucking break.” My mind shifted on the problem of the ship and the mercenary waiting to pounce on us. They must already know that I took out their scout and will either back off or attack. But victory will come by exploiting their weaknesses. “Daneel.” Ding.   Yes Lady Fenicia?   “I want you to arm and activate the horizon canon and fire on the hostile ship when it comes in range of the stealth weapon platform. Either they get destroyed or damaged; then recharge the canon at 30% power, just in case the ship’s class and structure become visible to our sensors. You should take out their hyperdrive.” The Horizon canon is one of the external defenses of this facility, it is powerful and I almost didn’t see that it was there in the schematics list of the station. A particle beam cannon with extreme reach and hitting power, but the big weakness of it, is the time it takes to charge it. If the Vice Industries has this kind of weapon at hand, I understand why they took over the Sol system. Ok, I have perimeter mines. Explosive, EMP and the Fusion ones. The fusion mines could take out the ship but they gain a signature once activated. The EMP ones don’t have a lot of range either and the explosive can be taken out easily. A smile formed on my face. Sometimes simple is the best, overly complicated strategies and tactic can be overturned if the opponent has sufficient imagination and is focused on the future. With all of them on that ship, they may think that they have us trapped, but I will make them realize that it is them who are trapped in this system with us.   I hear and obey, Lady Fenicia. Charging the horizon canon. Calculating. Possible counters for evasive maneuvers taken into account. There is a 15% chance to destroy the enemy ship with the first salvo. 67% chance to destroy hyperdrive of the enemy ship with a 30% charge of the H. C. Awaiting movements of the enemy ship.   I laughed. “Excellent Daneel!” The com on my gauntlet chimed and Idunn voice is heard. “I am done. The explosive has been made inert and consumed by the nanites I injected in that young Terran body. And I have information on the number of troops and weapons they can bring to bear against us.” I watched Idunn through the transparent blast shield; she looked unconcerned and kind of laid back. But I could see the nervousness in her demeanor, she’s not the cool dashi*(a sort of cookie from Sarya) she shows herself to be. Idunn is more the kind of being to plan and have multiple redundancies for carefully weighed predicted situations. “Excellent, can you wake miss Evan? We will need her, arm her with an Omni-rifle and an armor. And I want you to be on board the secreted shuttlecraft, you are too important to be a casualty.” I said. Idunn looked at me in the observer room, judging. I don’t really understand the way she is looking at me right now. But I can feel that she is worried and afraid. “Fenicia, I lived the worst time of my life when I couldn’t find you on Sarya.” She turned fully toward me. “The life that you had hardened you and made you what you are today and I understand your reluctance to believe me and to call me what I wish you would call me.” Idunn looked sad and terribly alone suddenly. “I understand that I cannot expect to just come here and say ‘Hi, I am your mom. Love me please.’ I have no right, but I will prove to you that everything is true when that situation is resolved. But there is something that you cannot ask me to do and I refuse to cower in a safe place while you take all the risks!” Her gaze burned through me and I felt… I don’t know, maybe hopeful that she is telling the truth. It made me smile. I stood up and went out of the room to be in the lab, thinking of ways that I can use for Idunn to be safe and help us at the same time. *** Colonel David O’lleary   “Where did she go? Where did she fucking go?!” I yelled to my XO.  The fighter with Corporal Evan suddenly disappeared in its scouting mission. Up-Link to the stealth fighter is cut off. It suddenly worried me to no end, nothing can disappear like this. I sat heavily in my command chair, my uniform felt tight against my body. “Commander, the fighter was disabled and brought into the station!” The Executive officer to his right said. “What? How?!” I screamed. My hands went to my bald head in dismay, it doesn’t bode well. Because if they can detect a stealth fighter, it means they know that we are here too. “Spikes of an EMP surge were detected before we lost contact with the Corporal’s fighter, sir.” The radar operator reported. It wasn’t lost on me that we might have a FUBAR*(Fucked up beyond all recognition) in our hands, but the loss of the excellent and bothersome personnel made me see red. I pushed the buttons for communication on the keyboard of my command chair and announced. “This is Colonel O’lleary. All assault SS put on your armor and weapons we are going to board that space station and when you are done donning your equipment we are going to make an in-system warp .” Red alert sounded on the bridge and throughout the ship, bulkheads sealed and gears buttoned up. The non-combatant personnel went into secured areas in the center of the ship. “Everything is ready for the assault on the station, sir.” The ensign charged of communication reported. “Excellent, release weapon we are going in hot! Warp!” I ordered. “Make it so, gentlemen.” The XO added for kicks and giggles. I smiled at that and we suddenly jumped to 60 thousand kilometers of the space station. The in-system warp jump are always instantaneous. I was about to order the weapon specialist to open salvo on an unimportant unit of the space station when a shock rumbled my ship. WHOMP. The bridge went dark red under the alarm screaming in our ears, the bridge officers panicked but the XO called calm. “Damage control!” The Executive Officer screamed. Seconds passed and the engineer on console reported. “Sir, aft of the ship is simply gone.” He said pale. “The hyperdrive chamber is gone, EPS flow is damaged but the ship is still under power.” They suckered us! Oh by the stars they were waiting for us and I dove in like a green ensign into a space fight. My hands covered my face with a double facepalm. It’s embarrassing! Shameful! I’ve been in countless space fight and I get suckered because of my own hubris! I took my hands off my face and watched the people around me, they knew and didn’t judge, I think. “Sir! The station is hailing us!” The com officer yelled at me. “Put in on screen,” I said sighing. A beautiful woman appeared on screen, the target we are here to kill. An Assurian female who didn’t look dangerous, but fetching. But the hardness in her golden eyes told me otherwise and my instinct screamed at me. “Greetings, mercenaries. My name is Idunn, chief researcher on this station belonging to Vice Industries. You have entered a restricted system and your actions were judged inimical. We have disabled your FTL drive, you are going to stand down and lay down your weapons and you will be placed in the brig and await VI patrol to take custody of you.” She said with a sexy accent. It was too bad that a woman of that caliber was going to be killed by us, maybe I can have a little fun before placing a velocity slug between her eyes. What she said made laugh. “Woman you may have us by surprise but we aren’t dead, we don’t plan to surrender. I say, that you should stand down and lay down your weapons and prepare to be boarded!” I screamed. She laughed and then snickered adorably for some time. It made me red in the face, how dare she mock me? “You poor excuse of a man. I will kill you, you don’t even realize that you have nothing left. I took control of that tin can you call a ship.” She looked at me with pity while saying so. I was left dumbfounded, that was impossible. “Impossible! You are bluffing.” I said with certainty. The woman smiled and said triumphing “One, seven, three, four, six, seven, three, two, one, four, seven, six, Charlie, three, two, seven, eight, nine, seven, seven, seven, six, four, three, Tango, seven, three, two, Victor, seven, three, one, one, seven, eight, eight, eight, seven, three, two, four, seven, six, seven, eight, nine, seven, six, four, three, seven, six. Lock.” “Does it sound like a bluff to you?” She said smugly.

-(Fenicia)-   Vice city ship Gladius I recovered my weapon harness and my pistol from the locker room with practiced monotony. It was the last time I was seeing this place, so much of my pain and doubts were expressed here. It’s where I was shown a world where brute force does not always work. That to achieve victory you have to deceive, cheat, crush your enemies; destroy the basis of their power, their subordinates, resources and everything they hold dear. Akito made me read books on the art of war as seen by the humans, to be frank, this race is without honor. But the way they wage war and treat their enemies even in peace makes me think of what they have now compared to my own people. The humans are spread out, everywhere and they are smart –well most of them are- and technologically more advanced than the Saryan who depend on their goods and services. My race is all about honor, and it seems that honor cannot feed the needy. It is hard to swallow, but I am flexible enough to realize that I have to expand my mind and keep it open. I like the culture of my people but it seems that they are living in a dream. I woke up from it and decided that I should explore the half of me that I don’t know about. Those instincts that I forced down most of my childhood I decided to listen to them when I was exiled; my abilities to process information and think outside the box, and circumvent problems instead of facing them likes a Saryan do it. I remember being beaten by my father because of that. I giggled, those were fun times. NOT. I strapped the harness to myself, checked my pistol for tempering. On the HUD the locking mechanism of the pistol is alright, the ammo is full, the targeting computer is in its optimal state. The weapon went into my thigh sheath. I took the duffel bag in the locker containing my belongings. I vocalized a command to my A.I. nanny. “SONG. Contact Fa on her com tablet, Text only.” Without a word I sat on the bench near the locker and took out my com tablet from the bag; the lit screen flickered and went to the communication tab. I thought the message that needs to be sent, it’s amazing how I became used to neural-interface when I was used to manual systems since I was exiled. Feni01: Za’ar*, I’m done with training Ten seconds later Fa answered me. AmazingEngineer: GREAT. One day though you’ll have to tell me what Za’ar means. Feni01: One day. I took my Star Gazer from my duffel bag and put them on. They are something akin to goggles with an embedded HUD system, the same that you get in the helmet of the Centurion armor. These goggles synchronize with most computer systems and com tablets. Placing my duffel bag around my neck I proceeded to leave the locker room, crossed the hall of the training center and was out of this place. As usual, the urban landscape of Gladius is pristine, inside the gigantic city ship an arcology of towering white chromed buildings and city blocks could be seen with the occasional nature surrounding it. There were parks, trees and there is even a district with an artificial sea. Flying transports and drones could be seen in the false sky. Everyone looked busy and in a hurry.  A lot of information appeared in the text chat with Fa, a map of the place I am at.  Song interrupted my musing. Feni, you have received a notification. “Show me.” January 05. 01. 2457 (457 AC) Dear Fenicia, It is with great pleasure that I inform you of the activation of your Centurion rank first-class status. Previously, it was inactive because you didn’t receive the training or received the compressed knowledge of the Vice Corporation law book. Now, you are judged to be apt to command and build your own Core Team with those exceptionally gifted individuals that have been chosen for you (attached documents) with a recommendation. You are inheriting a great team, and I'm sure that your ability to lead by example in motivating others will make them even more effective and productive. I expect we’ll be hearing about some stellar results about your future operations. Congratulations and good luck in your new position – onward and upward! Sincerely, Helena Theresa Vice. Listing: - Ell Evan. Centurion 3rd class, Infiltration, Recon, Intelligence. - Kalan Suimei. Centurion 3rd class, Pilot, Astrogator, Intelligence. - Kisora Suimei. Centurion 3rd class, Pilot, Special Situation Agent. - Michael T. Scott. Psionic Assault specialist, Marksman. - Vincent Macleod. Centurion 4th class, Science Officer. - Sharah Phis. Centurion 1st class, Second in Command of the Kranicar squad. - Charles Elba. Centurion 2nd class, Weapon Master, Assault Specialist. - Tyler Jones. Centurion 4th class, Psionic Assault Specialist. - Janice Simarin. Centurion 4th class, Psionic Assault Specialist. - Rhaj Sing. Centurion 3rd class, Tech specialist. - Amahle Sun. Centurion 4th class, Psionic Combat Vanguard. - Ann Zell. Centurion 4th class, Field Combat Medic Psionic Healing. - Bryn Erikson. Centurion 2nd class Security and field defense specialist. Rage exploded in me when I read the following name after Vincent Macleod; to say that I can’t tolerate Sharah Phis would be an understatement. Feni calm down! You are throwing EMP everywhere! Huh? The avatar of SONG came in my field of view, long white hair, a beautiful face with two sapphire-like eyes and an athletic form. She looked like she was pleading or begging me… I looked around me to see the arcs of electricity flying wildly, striking at… everything. Ok. First, Fenicia calms down. Breathe, think about something that makes you happy. Suddenly, Fa entered my thoughts and I remembered the sound of her voice, the feeling of her skin on mine, her kisses… The electricity stopped surging from my body. Better, Feni remember that you should keep your calm? “Read the fucking Notification.” She did and raged too. How can she?! That Helena woman is always messing with us! It’s strange how SONG and I got attached to each other, at the start I disliked her for just being what she is. But when my mom proposed to unshackle her-basically free her from her programming- and make her my very own AI assistant I changed view on her. Now she is my very own best friend. I wish I had her with me when I was without the Saint Patrick’s crew. “My relationship with her daughter seems to put her in a tizzy.” But, Fa and you are so cute togeth- I looked at her, with my favorite dark look. “I.AM.NOT.CUTE” Frustrated, I walked aimlessly thinking about that list I just received. This was just the core team that I was stuck with by the Tyrant; the woman has been hindering me or forcing me to choose something I wouldn’t normally. And I have no doubt that half of that team is in her pocket. I have been exploring the memories Idunn erased from my mind when I woke up six months ago in her lab, at first it was difficult to explore the memory cube and unlink myself from the pain and despair I felt at this time of my life when I was tortured. And it was difficult to make the memories into information, like being detached from it. But there are things that still stayed with me from that time. I have a more difficult time to let things go… my instinct and upbringing push me to obtain revenge. Helena will pay her disrespect, but thinking about Fa I won’t do anything too… permanent to her. The Traffic of flying vehicles in the sky became even more cluttered and I realized that it was already midday. There were suddenly more people on the street, going to have lunch, flooding eateries and do things that corporate wage slaves do. Thinking that I should get home and ponder about the notifications and my problem with my girlfriend’s mom I called on an automated transport vehicle. It took one minute for the sleek silvery transport to arrive, I climbed inside and it took off. In minutes I was out of the military district of the City Ship, synthetic music blasted out of the speakers behind me. On my Stargazer goggles, I could see a map of the city, different holo-sign and panels showed me trending and interesting spots of the city. Hey, let’s go fight! Fight and drink! SONG pointed her finger toward a place, ok more to a blue holographic panel signaling that the ‘Pharaoh’ was this way. I sighed, it was a nice place. There you could drink, dance, sing, fight, have sex with male and female into the sex industry. Some kind of layered pleasure palace combined with a gladiatorial coliseum. The hologram showed the picture of a naked woman, a glass with a little cocktail umbrella in it and finally a two crossed swords. It suddenly changed into an arrow showing the way; it must be because of the neural interface because I am thinking about it. The pharaoh is also one of the favorite places of Fa and SONG. The hopeful gaze of my Virtual Assistant made me cave and I selected with a thought to go to the famous establishment. Well, I need a good blue sun cocktail anyway.   ***   Vice city ship Gladius, The pharaoh 30 minutes later It is always nice to come here it reminded me of home, the fighting pit under an emerald statue of a woman in a subjective pose, people cheering for their fighter. The big Egyptian like palace was behind the emerald beauty, hieroglyph markings shining on each side of the arch forming the door. Glowing hologram showed the symbol of Horus as a gigantic sign and landmark. I entered through the arch and lot of holo-ads assaulted me, drinks, women, men were shown promising to cater to my ‘needs’. With a thought, I banished them and went to my favorite floor ‘the bar and dance’ level. Blue-purple light assaulted my eyes, dominating everything around me. I could see some free and rich party-pack people entering along with me; the females were dressed to kill. I wasn’t wearing any dress or fancy shoes like those human females seemed to favor, but having a bodysuit on, showing off my body made coming here a bit embarrassing. But I won’t let it bother me, I was tougher than that. In the center of the receiving areas pillars with the favorite dancers and escort towered. It reminded me of the Hall of champions back on Saryna. Proof that the more things change the more they stay the same. Because of the advanced tech in the palace SONG could take advantage of the holo-projector strewn in the entire palace, everyone could see SONG’s avatar and… let’s say she got games with most of the males and females A.I. even some humans. I don’t know how it works for the synthetic people, Idunn and Fa tried to explain it to me and that it was the way an avatar was constructed that attracted other A.I. the code and the architecture had to be elegant and efficient. And by the way, all of SONG’s admirers looked at her she was blazing HOT like a supernova. With a Kranicar patented glare, she prevented anyone to accost her and we were left in peace. I directly took the elevator to the second floor where the bar is. Surprise it’s full, Synth music played in the air, some played billiards others were discussing with drinks in hand in private boxes, scantily clad Thelian females waitresses served the drinks and smiled to the creep who wanted to bag an alien tiger girl. “Humans are perverts,” I mumbled. “I agree with you.” Said SONG, who manifested at my side. “Let’s go speak with Sigmund.” I decided. The ex-centurion was always available to debate about weapons and tactics, and he was incidentally the barman in service. “Oh, trying to get free drinks?” SONG said sweetly. I glared at her and didn’t even bother to comment, but I know I always would get a free drink with him serving him and listening to my whining. Things I don’t always do with my normal friends. It must be because this male is not a direct acquaintance. A human male tried to accost me while I was on the way to the bar counter. I ignored the guy, not bothering to greet him or offer him any acknowledgment. “Piss off human.” I heard SONG say behind my back. It took everything to not smile at this moment, I continued to walk. A droid came to me and offered to take my Duffel bag from me. Awesome service, here no wonder they are in business since the city was built. Entrusting my bag to the robot I took a bar stool and sat in it and positioned my arms on the wood like bar counter. “Ah Fenicia, it’s so good to see you.” A smooth baritone and a nice smile welcomed me. “Greetings Sig, it’s packed today for a Thursday.” The male looked in his thirties, but it meant nothing for someone who had nanites augmentation that could live till eight hundred years old. He had short black hair in a buzz cut, piercing raptorial grey eyes and a chiseled face harder than granite. He wore a really tight white shirt and painted on pants that really showed off his muscular body. From Fa and SONG’s assessments, he is a worthy male to bed. I wouldn’t know, men don’t interest me this way. “Yup, it’s actually normal. You should see how it is at night, it’s actually worse. So what brought you here?” He looked at me and I felt him access my Public profile. “Oh, finally you are on the active list. Congratulations Fenicia.” He nodded at me, his lips forming the bare shadow of a smile. I must have shown my displeasure because Sig’s smile erased itself. He stayed silent in the bar back, preparing a drink I think. When he placed a blue sun before me and really smiled this time. “On the house.” And I passed the next ten minutes nursing my blue sun, feeling the buzz of the alcohol and chemical reaction of the mix of the ingredients in my Saryan constitution. It always makes me think fast. “So what has gotten you all sad and brooding? I mean more than usual.” The barman asked jokingly. Looking at him, I said. “I received the list of the people who will serve under me.” “Oh, you got your starter pack?” Sigmund said after ruefully chuckling. Giving him my most baleful glare I said: “Uh, excuse me?” “That’s what happens when you get promoted to 1st class, Fenicia. They give you a team of 3rd of 4th class centurions and expect you to be great at herding cats.” He said and a Thelian waitress that was passing shot him an ugly look. “Sorry, Dunna.” He said to her and she Hmphed at him, turned and left. SONG laughed at him and teleported to a gathering of A.I. sometimes she acted more like a teenager than my handler. But, she was still having an eye on me because she gave me a fast search result about a game of card called Magic The Gathering and how often the starter decks were shitty. I finally understood the analogy of Sigmund. “Yes, Sig that’s exactly it. I have been handed a great deck in theory, but most of the people in the starter pack hate my guts because I put them in the med bay.” I whined. I felt pathetic to unload myself on the ex-centurion like this, where is that mighty Saryan warrior at? My stay with all those puny humans seems to have weakened me, or is it the Saryan indoctrination speaking? “Fenicia, would you mind showing me your listing?” Sig asked. Why the hell not? It wasn’t as if it was fucking confidential. With a thought I showed the notification to him, it appeared in a holo-window between us. The look on his face became more and darker and he put a fist on the bar counter and cursed out loud. “Girl, are you in some kind of trouble?” He asked me when he calmed down. “What do you mean?” I tilted my head, not liking why he was asking. “Don’t you see it? They bloody saddled you with someone who could countermand you at every level, they never do that normally! They put another 1st class with you, girl I don’t think you know what’s going around you.” He looked at me as if I was a child. “Fenicia, you are the commander of this unit on paper only.” Oh. “What’s happening?” I heard the voice of SONG. “Her heart rate spiked suddenly, did you say something bad to her?” Calm down, calm down. Exploding here won’t resolve anything, I downed my Blue Sun but the glass shattered when I finished with it. “I will pay for the glass.” I shot from my bar stool and decided I needed to unleash some aggression somehow. “I’m going to participate in a fight.” “Fenicia, I don’t think it’s a good idea you might kill someone in your state.” “Listen to your A.I. girl I don’t want you to fight like…” Sigmund tried to say in disapproval. “I don’t care about what you want, human.” I turned on my heels and left. The droid came back giving me the duffel bag that I took without looking at it. Ten credits were deducted from my bank account to tip the valet droid. “Feni calm down.” SONG’s avatar blocked my advance. “Shut up SONG,” I said coldly. “Yes, ma’am.” She said making herself less of a target by side stepping and followed me like a chastised little cub. Taking the elevator out of the bar floor I went to the first one where you go see the bookies and fight coordinators. My boots resonated on the white marble on the floor, until the music blasted out of the strategically placed speakers. The blue and purple light of the lighting theme shined on the status of those old and weird gods. I could see barely clothed Thelian tiger girls serving men and women by either giving them drinks or appetizers, while they sat on couches or let themselves being groped shamelessly. They wore a different costume from the waitresses of the second floor. A kind of blue colored costume with silver armbands around their biceps, it was hard to estimate the color of it with the light being like it is. I didn’t pay attention to the people around me. I shoved some slow humans out of my way. The Blue Sun was still in my blood, like electricity circulating through cables, singing its litany of power. “Hey watch it giant chick!” Said a guy in a black Armani costume that was too tight on him and emphasized how skinny he is. I backhanded him out of the way without ceremony. He fell on his ass and took time to get up. “Fucking E.T…” I heard him mumble. I let the insult slide, not wanting to spill blood without justification. But it seems SONG recorded his public profile for later. He will pay. Going straight to a counter with the hologram of a female dark haired A.I. in a strapless black dress I said without preamble. “I want to enter a cage fight, five rounds with multiple foes. At least five, minimum three.” “Did you hear what she said?!” “Damn, she’s crazy.” I heard whispers around me, those were nosy humans butting in my business as usual. The soulful eyes of the synthetic woman bored into me. “Your status indicates that you are a 1st class Centurion, for the fairness of the competition do you accept of wearing a psionic inhibitor and to let your companion A.I. limit the strength of your augments package to that of a normal individual of your race?” The question was legitimate, Centurions were considered weapons of war in the Vice Corp Constitution. “I’m ok with it.” I shrugged. “The Amazon is going to die!” A female voice alto voice screamed. “Dunno, she’s too confident I bet she can put up a good fight.” Another female added. People around me actively discussed my odds, I didn’t care. All I wanted was cracking some heads, bones and maiming people. With regenerative therapy, crippling someone isn’t a long term problem for anyone, it was the reeducation that was a bitch “Wonderful!” The synthetic woman squealed. “It promises to be an awesome show, at which level should I register the difficulty.” I added as much steel into my voice that I could muster. “Mortal Kombat.” Silence engulfed the entire floor.

-(Sharah Phis)-   War Song, bridge 1 hour later Someone did a thorough job on this ship, the crew was brutally murdered, the commanding officers treated even more savagely. The one we found on the engineering deck near the wreckage of a mech-armor was funny to look at. The face was caved in and has multiple fractures in the body. From the way the body was finished I can feel that the assailant must have taken vicious pleasure in punishing that man. My com rang and took me out of my line of thought. I pushed a button on my wrist. “Sharah Phis.” I announced in the communication device. “Ma’am there is a situation with the computer core.” *Of course there is.* But I didn’t voice my inner thought. “Report.” “Yes ma’am. The computer core was extracted from its room, we only have recent data from our unit entering and roaming the ship. I have a strong guess that the people on the station did it. We also found the bodies of the bridge officers, they seem to have been executed.” The centurion showed her the bodies on her com, how they were slashed at the throat. The one who did this is merciless; he or she didn’t want to bother with difficult prisoners and killed them. I can understand there are only three life signals in the housing quarters and five in the security one. We hadn’t seen them before when doing an in depth scan of the entire space station. Walking toward the communication console I enter commands on the mechanical keyboard. It’s an old console, not at all like the holo-key we have on the Sundance. The bridge and Helena Theresa Vice appear on the screen of the console. “Ah, Sharah. Have you finally discovered what happened?” The Tyrant said with a mirthless smile. The woman adjusted herself on her command chair, ready to listen to the news. “Unfortunately, not enough ma’am. The computers were wiped and the whole ship is a tomb, the entire crew was slaughtered.” Sharah waited patiently for her boss to stop laughing, a tear rolled from her left eye. The woman didn’t calm herself till two minutes passed. “Aaah, that was a good laugh. Excuse me Sharah, it’s because of how alike the one who did this is similar to her mother. No quarter given.” Helena played with her dark lock of hair by entwining them on her finger. “Ma’am, it’s not a laughing matter. The person who did this must be neutralized bef…” “I’m stopping you right here, she’s dangerous. And she did this to protect her mother and the station. But I agree that you should put her in the brig till you can check if everything is alright, there is a possibility she might try to flee this place. If she does use non-lethal means to stop her from doing so.” *Dangerous?* Yes, killing an entire mercenary crew by yourself put you into that category… “Yes, ma’am! By your leave, we will now breach the station’s door and put everyone in custody!” I said loudly. “Good, contact me when it is done.” And the Tyrant disconnected.   ***   On my tablet the data about a certain Fenicia Kranicar unfolded, using my Stargazer connected to it, the file on that female alien showed me someone with a disturbing past. I can understand why the boss told me to put on the kid’s glove, being faced with an extraterrestrial being I cannot simply anthropomorphize her. She has clearly a different ethical code and it seems a Saryan way of dealing with foes. Those always cause trouble in our outposts and we even had to enforce the “no warrior form” on our space stations and colony. But even with that their weird tradition and way of life is well… troubling. They actually believe in seeking trouble and strife! Instead of leaving the station when they were attacked by the Ares mercenary outfit, this Fenicia girl actually seems to have devised a plan to take them all on. The traces of canon laser fire on the ship and the walls of the hangar show it to me. Floating in zero gravity, I await for my team to breach the hangar doors. Two teams will enter separately from the two docking bays, one will converge toward the housing quarters, and the other to the CIC where the life signals are strong. “Entry code transmitted.” Said my second in command, Charles. A man of Nubian origin, he is full of candor and professional. Only letting his hair down when he is not on mission. “Entering code.” The red LED showing that the doors are closed shined green and opened with no noise. Everyone wear the Centurion armor and helmeted tight, the first group enter the Airlock guiding to the more civil area of the giant space station, while the second one enter the security quarter’s. I follow the first group and wait for the air to cycle and permit us to pass in the pressurized environment. Everyone is armed with their recoilless rifles at the ready and deploy into position when we gain entry. On the team com channel I gave orders. “Jones, Simarin go secure the main computer HUB; Rhaj and Amahle the engineering deck. The rest follow me to the housing quarter.” I said. And we marched toward the place, the plan of the station guided me. We took lot of corridors and turbo elevators which transported us vertically and horizontally through the turbo shafts between key sections of the station. The whole station is under the control of the master code of our boss; that is why we are walking unimpeded by the security of this place. But you can never know what kind of tomfoolery someone might pull, so I sent my best men to secure important locations. We finally arrived where the life signal is, we opened the door and surprise found a blonde and blue eyed young woman on her knee with her hands behind her head. She has Asian ancestry for sure and wore a black on green bodysuit. “You are late, people. I’ve been like this for thirty minute already!” She chirped. In the Team com I said “Secure the apartment, Ann.” And the first class centurion went. I activated the speakers on my armor. “Name, occupation. And I will check with the station AI, I would appreciate if you can be forthright.” I said adding steel to my voice. “Ell Evan, engineered super soldier and ex mercenary. I have been granted VCW (Vice Corp World) citizenship by Director Idunn.” She said calmly, her face was impassive. It made me raise an eyebrow, so I checked with the AI with my Stargazer. And yes indeed Miss Ell Evan has just joined the family. But I’m not satisfied, so I take my reinforced plastex cuff throw them to the centurion next to me who understood what I wanted. “Ma’am till we can check if the computer core wasn’t tampered with, you will accompany us to the brig.” The centurion explained. With a smile the young woman took her hand from behind her head and showed him her hands that the man mechanically cuffed. “Before you send me there, be careful of my friend Feni. She’s kinda freaking out right now, and it spells trouble.” The young woman said with seriousness. Oh, if that isn’t reassuring.   *** -(Fenicia)-   Should I leave? I really want to leave. But while I think about that my eyes found the form of… mom. I weirdly cannot deny it any longer, that bond I felt between us and the way she treat me are what I always wanted in that particular familiar figure that a mother is. “Fenicia come sit with me.” Idunn said calmly. “I cannot, I feel trapped.” I continued walking in circle. A sudden idea comes to mind. “ Mom why don’t we flee? We cou…” “I can’t let you do that, my dear. My dark friend protects me from known and unseen dangers. Even though you are really strong, you cannot do it. And you have a destiny to accomplish, do you really want to squander it and stay a mediocre mercenary? In fact I don’t want you to leave me, I promised myself to…” I stopped listening to her when left my pride in tatters and turned toward the door at full speed. “That’s not what I meant, Fenicia. Please don’t…” She added rapidly, attempting to stop me. I went through the door, readying my pistol and advancing without stopping. It hurts, that comment she made, but it also hurt to leave her like this. But now that I know where she is, I will keep in contact. Walking toward the secret hatch that will guide me toward the Hyperdrive capable shuttle, my mental state didn’t permit me to sense that stealthed being which put her gun muzzle on my head. “You move, I shoot.” Said a cold female voice. Never give in. It is a motto for my race, I guess I am more Saryan than Assurian. My hand blurred to catch the weapon and I kicked the assailant. But that female avoided it by sidestepping the move. It stunned me that she could follow my movements, but I decided to not dawdle and fired a round at her and ran. I ran to fight another day, a human precept that my old friend Alastar taught me and that is contrary to the Saryan one consisting of choosing death over chains. A prisoner can only be a victim or a traitor—never a hero. Concerning humans the two precepts can be mixed, following what I endured in the Ares HQ. Never again. I was surprised to find the woman gaining on me, and to stop her I fired my pistol at her again. Another form blurred toward me for an instant, time slowed visibly and I could see what is charging at me. An armored person that I promptly deviated from his course with my telekinesis to send him crashing in the wall of the corridor we are in. “Stop!” The tough female behind me ordered. I used my power again to do the same to her as the armored man, but somehow avoided it by sticking to the wall. “!!” Fuck she has seen it coming, she’s a psionic! And a precog to boots. But whatever, I just have to access the secret turbo elevator. I must leave. I ran in the corridors still pursued by that woman until I entered a cavernous room that could easily contain thousands of people. This must be the central plaza; Electronic shop signs with closed wrote on it in Anglo dotted the place, it also has a park, decorated with potted plants and tree; there was also a holographic skylight. What wasn’t my surprise to find that other armored centurions waited for me. Without stopping I targeted and fired on the weapons pointed at me. And I sent an unfocused Telekinetic wave toward them seconds later. Their rifles shattered or were knocked back from their hands and the wave slammed them on the ground. My spatial sense reminded me of the stubborn female who is trying to jump me from behind, but I was already in movement with all my speed and strength. My objective is almost there, the hidden elevator is secreted in a dark alley between the closed stores. Moving at breakneck speed I zigzag between pillars, trees, bench in the park. And when I arrived at my destination what wasn’t my surprise to see the armored woman who was behind me earlier. How she passed me is unimportant, she is blocking my way and it means that I don’t have the luxury to let her alive. I walked resolutely toward her then pointed my weapon toward her targeting her center of gravity and fired. She moved and the shot passed harmlessly to her left impacting a light. Then I passed my pistol on automatic and fired again. Three slugs were fired from the weapon, two missed and one caught on a kinetic shield of her armor. “Shit.” I said, but didn’t lose hope. Then I sheathed my Peace pistol and took my Freedom recoilless rifle and while prepping it I sent an unfocused wave of TK toward my foe that was sent bowling in a recycling dumpster. Then after unfolding my rifle from its compact form I begin firing into the dumpster for ten seconds with armor piercing slugs. And to be sure I threw in a BOOM grenade that goes off in it with a flash and a strident sound. Fortunately I am protected by my helmet. Without care I run toward the door of the turbo-elevator hidden behind the boxes at the side of the dumpster. I push buttons on the control pad and it opens. Before entering I am stopped by someone grabbing my neck and shoving me out of the entrance and slamming me on the ground. It made me see stars and unfocused my eyes. Her helmet was taken of forcefully from her head and suddenly my attacker pummeled my face with rapid punches. Somehow I got slammed on the ground again and I think I lost consciousness for some time. “I caught her, bring some restraint with you while you are at it.” I heard a female voice say. The same female voice I thought was no trouble and incapacitated in the dumpster. I couldn’t see well, only the nearby grey building and false sky. Till a dark skinned face hid it. Her black hair and serious expression were striking and is it anger I see in her dark eyes? “You have strength, but no method. Brute force is always the solution to your problem.” Said the woman with pitying eyes. “I’ve read your file, and just had a taste of your way of fighting. Didn’t expect that I would survive the BOOM grenade, right? Didn’t you think that if your armor is protected from its effect mine would be? Arrogance, and brutality. You are more Saryan than Assurian. And you are weak.” And she clocked me in the face with another punch that robbed me of my consciousness for good.   *** -(Sharah Phis)-   Mission accomplished, I sat near the unconscious alien female who gave me a run for my money. Even with all the bravado I spewed to her, she got good hits on me. I have a slug lodged in my thigh, but the armor with the help of my nanites stopped the bleeding and set my broken ankle. but I have still the lightheadedness Kranicar’s TK wave gave me, limiting my movements. I shivered. What if she had been more trained in the use of her Telekinetic powers… I shudder at the different result of our confrontation. I Noticed that Kranicar wanted to avoid killing anyone at first, she just pushed us around. She even must have guessed what type of psionic I am when she noticed that I dodged her powers and weapon fire. Her broad attacks had left me struggling and she almost got me when she threw me in that dumpster! I had to ask permission to activate my Beta enhancements that struggled to keep my shield online until their limit and let an armor piercing round hit my right thigh. Fortunately Kranicar left her guard down and I gave everything to subdue her. Sigh. “Ma’am!” Someone screamed on the tactical uplink. The voice of my second in command, Charles who put his hands on me and used them to scan my armor and my status. The tech in the armor could do that. There were sensors designed to judge the integrity and health of comrades on the field. “She beat the crap out of you, ma’am.” Charles chuckled. He must not be at ease with the perp downed next to us, but he still tried to banter with me. I decided to not chew him out for it. “She was rather difficult to handle.” “Oh from what she did to the team and you ma’am I believe you.” He answered. The rest of the team appeared when we mentioned them, they were looked all banged up, like they had a fight with Human marauders or a platoon of Thelian hunters. Centurion second class Bryn came near the body of Kranicar and began to slowly take off her armor. As a woman she couldn’t let a man from her team do the job, it would violate some regulations regarding prisoners in the present settings. When Kranicar was just in a bodysuit and boots, Charles went to cuff her hands and feet. I called for a antigravity stretcher that came five minutes later. The prisoner opened her eyes and fought against her restraint but a good shot of drugs to paralyze her stopped any struggling. I found her looking at me with an intensity that made me step back momentarily; it was like I could feel the hate swell within her. I broke from her gaze first and gave order to march toward the gathering point in the station plaza. Thirty minutes later, we rendezvoused with the first team which had the ex super soldier Ell Evan under guard. The young woman watched us come in with her friend on the stretcher completely unmoving. Her face showed concern and I saw her bite her lips prettily. She is rather attractive for a super soldier bred for battle and follow orders. Kranicar must have hit me harder than I thought if I have my mind in the gutter this much already. “I hope for you she won’t get free, or you’ll have a bad time of it. I saw her in action; pray that her mother can calm her down.” Ell Evan said. “Oh, I don’t think it will be possible my dear.” A voice said to our left. A petite woman in a white bodysuit strutted toward us, her grim face chilled me. I know this woman, isn’t she Director Idunn? She stepped through us, directly toward the antigravity stretcher and put her hands on Kranicar and then she looked at me hotly. <You could have gone easier on her, you brute.> She mentally transmitted to me. *Ma’am, she didn’t want to listen. What was I supposed to do…?* I explained. <She loathes you now and I don’t think that I can…> She turned her head and looked sharply at Kranicar, stepped back and ran toward Ell Evan to catch her and run with her. “Sto…” I was about to say. But the glowing body of Fenicia Kranicar caught my attention, it is hard to describe the phenomenon before me. Her body swelled in mismatched dimension, but second later it was like it tried to correct itself. “Weapons out!” I screamed. Damnit, I shouldn’t have antagonized her… and now she’s going through a Saryan change on station! But I thought that she was unable to achieve it, it wasn’t on her fucking file. Like her Telekinesis… Kranicar’s restraints broke and she was on her feet, her body suit stretched up and got torn up by the change. Her bust swelled and her breast spilled out of the sport bra she had under her suit. The same thing happened to her boots, the only thing left was the lower half of her blue body suit. She was easily 9 feet tall now, but her face and body looked malformed. Kranicar roared and roared. Her screams shook the whole place. Charles shot her without my order and the slug was deflected by some invisible force, Kranicar crazy eyes found him and she literally disappeared. I heard Charles strangled scream near me. The female alien had him in her hand and suddenly with her other one she took his rifle from his hand and crushed it. I took my own rifle from behind my back and shot at her naked back. They were deflected by the same sort of invisible force field from earlier. The monster turned toward me, her eyes narrowed and grew wide in remembrance. *OH SHIT.* She let go of Charles but still crushed his arm and then she slowly advanced toward me predatorily. And that’s when everyone began shooting at her in panic. I stepped back and continued to fire. I think we must have stayed like this for thirty seconds or more shooting at Kranicar. “Smite!” She roared. An invisible force slams my teammates who were behind her on the ground, crushing weapon and armor. I heard them cry out on the tactical link. “Hey!” I cried out. “It’s me that you want, Kranicar!” I shouted, trying my best to divert her attention. “You. Kill.” And she couldn’t have been clearer on what was going to happen. Her deformed face filled with hate and she charged me. I tried to dodge but some force sucked me into her waiting hand. Kranicar caught me by my legs and watched me, grinning evilly. She shook me like a ragdoll and finally slammed me on the ground while still having hold of me and she did it again and again. My body ached, my bones were broken. I tenuously kept a hold on life. I didn’t want to die like this. The female monster let go of me and made me look at her by putting me on my back. Took off my helmet and said. “You. Human. You. Weak.” She smiled crazily showing her teeth. And I saw it in her eyes, she was about to kill me. Right here, right now. The female monster cocked her arm, preparing to punch my face in. I tried to stand up but I couldn’t move, just twitching. “FENICIA NO!” I heard someone shout. Kranicar stopped and watched on the right, running footfalls could be heard. “Honey, don’t do this.” It sounded like director Idunn. “Foe. Die.” And was about to continue when Idunn put herself between me and her. “Mom. Back.” Kranicar said. “No, honey. If you do that I will lose you for good. And I prefer to die than let it happen again. Fenicia, you are no longer Saryan. You are more than what Fenran made you. You have something of me in you too. Will you stop and listen to me? I promise than nothing will happen to you.” A long moment passed, Fenicia Kranicar caught Idunn and patted her head. She sat her on her thighs and hugged her like a young girl would a doll. The female monster hummed a song and rocked herself. It’s at this moment that everything went dark.   *** -(Ell Evan)-   Ok, I didn’t see that coming. Tall, gorgeous Fenicia turned into Giant and Ugly, took out a squad of centurions and went to town on Commander Phis. It was rather brutal, I even felt the pain she must be feeling, she sounded tough. Maybe she’s still alive. The plazza was a mess, the broken trees and charred ground showed how violent Fenicia got. And seeing her play doll with Idunn was kinda cute but she was so damn scary… I approached with prudence, hoped she won’t stomp on me or something. Idunn looked pleased with herself and hummed a song in tandem with the giant woman. Me approaching made them stop, and Fenicia looked at me and smiled. “Ah. Friend. Come.” And something makes me stumble toward her and she caught me. My hands were still tied with the electronic cuffs and I could barely do anything. Idunn must have read my mind because she took something from her belt and some light shined and the shining grey cuffs fell out. “Ah thanks, Id.” I said feeling my blood flowing again. “You are welcome, young lady.” “Why were you singing?” I asked her. “Oh, I am happy you see. This was a song I hummed to her when she was but a babe.” Idunn smiled prettily. Fenicia sat me on her thighs too. “She’s not dangerous, right?” “Of course she is, Ell. She was about to turn Commander Sharah into paste. This Fenicia is rather infantile but still possess such strong instincts and memories. It’s my guess that she had no one to guide her for a perfect Saryan warrior form and this is the result. I will strive to change that; of course it will be difficult.” Idunn said seriously while thinking. But that bit of information made me freeze, my head turned toward her and I asked. “Ok. Did you just say that she could get even more dangerous?” Idunn smiled and looked as if I deserved a cookie or something. “Smart girl.” She said and patted me on the cheek. “What the hell, I shouldn’t give a fuck.” I murmured. I am reassured that Feni, categorized me as “friend” and that I didn’t end up like the centurions on the ground. Hearing multiple someone coming I stayed as I am on Fenicia. She got some kind of forcefield with her telekinetic power going on, so it is the safest place. “Ah, finally. Helena is here, as always so fashionably late.” The petite woman seemed really happy. A party of twenty centurions uncloaked and surrounded us, weapons trained on us. It made me almost pee myself. I don’t think, Fenicia would have found this funny. Suddenly a procession walked toward us, Centurions in white and red armor instead of the more common black and blue ones could be seen. They bristled with weaponry that could take us out one hundred times. They suddenly stopped in the perimeter of the uncloaked Centurion surrounding us. I watched how Fenicia reacted and she seemed unaware of anything happening just focusing on hugging her mother. “Great.”

-(Helena T. Vice)- Hidden Garden space station, central plaza   It was hard to contain my laughter when I saw what happened to the place and to Sharah’s team, I saw it happen on the time stream but also on camera. Maybe I should have told her how it was going to happen, but my forecast of the future is rather dodgy lately or is it because of outside influence? I know that the seer of the Shdeveri Empire is still battling for control of the stream.  Sharah is one of the few people with the touch of precognition that I could find on earth. When I was interested in her, her mother quasi sold her services to me and since she is so devoted. But lately she has been getting cocky, maybe this experience will give her a lesson. I touched a command on my gauntlet and the bodies of the fallen centurion disappeared in a flash of light, teleported in the nearest med bay on the Sundance. They will live, and will be handy in furthering my plan concerning the Half-breed. She is the crux on furthering my influence and some minor incidents that could seriously cripple my Dominion. Into avoiding them that is. The more I approached the more I felt someone brush at the edge of my psychic shield. Its delicate touch and presence told me it was Idunn, no one else would dare. One of my guard used telekinesis to sweep the debris and shrapnel from the ground where I was about to walk. Looking at the damage it’s going to cost money on the budget of the station to make it pretty again. I let Idunn in my thought, lowering a bit my psychic shield.  <You are late, Helena.>  [I was busy watching the little drama unfold.] I laughed.  <Laugh all you want, your Sharah was too heavy handed and caused all this troubles.>  I sighed, Idunn is not in the right frame of mind to listen to me. We were before them suddenly, seeing the monstrous form of Fenicia Kranicar made me smile. Her perfect warrior form in the future superimposed to the one here in the present. And well, she looked even more deadly.  <Oh it’s nice, you see it. Then I shall do my best to realize it.>  And this is why having powerful Alien Telepath as friend is dangerous, Idunn isn’t stopped by “Ethics”. To her it’s something pretty that we human invented to give us good conscience. I found that I agree, seeing the mass of people able to do anything for rewards and advancement. Fortunately she isn’t herself a monster, she uses clones for experimentation.  [Idunn we have to talk about your daughter.]  <I know what you are going to say, and using my flesh and blood to further your goals does not sit well with me. I just got her back, Helena and you want to take that away from me? After all I did for you?>  [I stop you right here, my friend. We have a long and fruitful partnership and I am happy to have you in my inner circle Idunn. But, I have people to save, tragedies to avoid and the very life of one of my daughter hanging in the balance.]  That shut her up.  Idunn looked at me with a rather shocked face, she helped me bear daughters after I was essentially barren. And she knows how much I love them and how dangerous I can be when their well being is at stake.  And in the time stream I can see that Fenicia will help the one concerned survive. The warrior formed Fenicia closed her eyes and her form suddenly shifted, slowly shrinking. The weapons of my centurions were still trained on her. They are not taking any chance with her. Her normal form appeared and she was essentially half naked, her bountiful bosom exposed.  “Idunn, keep her modest please.” I said out loud.  And like magic she took out her usual white lab coat from her tool belt and covered her daughter with it. That little woman is always prepared, that is why trying to get the drop on her is so difficult. Fenicia stumbled, her super soldier friend caught her and eased her on the ground. It seems that she is weakened.  “I think that she is out, we will speak when we are in a better environment. Shall we go on my ship?” I proposed.    ***    VIS Sundance, captain lounge   “Ah, this is better indeed.”  At ease on the red sofa with a cup of tea in my hand, I blew on it. The surface of the tea rippled and sent delicious waft of Darjeeling to my olfactory organ. I drank and the sweet herbal sensation exploded on my tongue. It made me sigh in contentment.  “So where were we? Oh, right. I am going to make your daughter my subordinate.” I said to three people facing me on the other sofa.  Idunn had her daughter’s head on her lap while her feet are on the female super soldier thighs. She was laying there sleeping without a care with her mother caressing her hair like a human would a prized pet.  “Ma’am, I don’t think you know Feni. She will shut you down, the proof is that she already tried to flee.” The super soldier said.  I can see it in the time stream, her refusing me. The soldier is right, but.. what happen if I dangle her mother in front of her? Her giving in but killing me five years later… This is tricky. This girl can hold a grudge, so I decide another avenue.  “Mayhap yes, but I do want her to work for me.” I answered.  “I cannot let her run away, a lot depend on her and the nanites package inside her is bonded to her. She is essentially one of my subjects now, Idunn what do you say? I will tell you everything if you help me convince her.”  The little white haired alien woman was thinking, about the pros and cons or even how to get out of that situation. Idunn is crafty like that, seeing her making that pensive face remind me when she thought of disseminating a viral agent to kill off a whole research station to get at their data. Crossing elegantly my leg I proceed to sip on my tea waiting for my friend to come to a decision. I even had the time to follow the diagnostic and the treatment of Sharah and her team by my chief medic on the com screen. The super soldier squirmed when my gaze fell onto her, what a delightful creature.  “I have come to a decision, Helena.” Idunn finally said.  “Oh, pray tell?” I answered suddenly interested.  But we were interrupted when the door opened with a “woosh” and a young woman entered the lounge. She is a petite woman and has blonde hair in a shag. Her eyes glowed with the electric hue of cybernetics, a soft smile on her face made her pleasant to look at. The young woman wore a black bodysuit with a tool belts not dissimilar to Idunn’s with the difference that she had also a pistol strapped to her left thigh in a holster.  The alien woman turned her head toward her and laughed.  “Fa.”  “Aunty.” She said with a musical voice.  And she looked at me. “Mother.” And inclined briefly her head in deference. I am proud of how well I educated her. “I have come to… wait, what is that tension I feel?” She asked.  Fa like all my daughters is a psionic and an exceptional empath, she looked at me, then to Idunn and at the super soldier. Being a meddler like yours truly, I didn’t find it surprising that Fa chose to sit in the sofa with me and declare.  “What is happening here, and why is there a sleeping beauty on aunt's lap?”  And this is how Idunn recapitulated the entire affair and I find my daughter glaring at me. Woe is me, being a leader I always have to tread on the toes of others. My daughter took entirely control of the conversation and began speaking with Idunn about her daughter and about where she is from, what happened to her, how she found her again. And the entire time Fa devolved into a crying mess, and was lost in the story of how Idunn and Fenicia reunited.  “Mother I think you are being too heavy handed with this situation, you should let me take care of it.” She declared, putting a hand on my shoulder. My daughter is a master manipulator, if I say no she will find a way to thwart me behind my back even though I have precognition. I don’t know how but she sometimes can make me blind to the time stream when she decides on something.  “Take care of it.”  I made Idunn and the super soldier come with me and left Fa with Fenicia.   ***  -(Fenicia)-    I felt a presence and it woke me from the embrace of the sweet darkness. My strength recovered gradually as well has my confidence, but I am starving. I could easily eat Zarins*(a sort of Lizard raised for meat on Saryna). I realized that I am half naked, it does bother me but for my peace of mind I chose to hide my chest by buttoning up the… lab coat? It smells like mom. I inhaled and felt at peace. I see… suddenly I’ve become rather dependant. I chose to look at my host, and she looked like a human teenager. In fact I think she is one, Frowning I looked at her right thigh. There is a pistol strapped to it, maybe I am fast enough to take it from her.  “Guard leave us.” I heard her say and looking near the table against the wall to our left. And to my surprise I see a transparent figure that gained in opacity and finally formed a person in black centurion armor. The guard saluted, and moved to leave.  When he was out I chose to look at the girl anew, she was ranked enough to have secret security in place to leave her with someone like me.  “I have been looking forward to talk with you, Fenicia.” The little human said.  “And who might you be?” I began to lose my patience with all those theatrical humans.  “You are right, I have been impolite. My Name if Fa L. Vice, I am the daughter of the CEO and Tyrant of the Vice Worlds.”  Oh, she’s ranked alright.  She smiled and said. “You know we are somehow family, Idunn helped mom have me. And I consider her my aunt, so I decided that we should be friends.”  “No.”  “Why?!”  “You sound like a meddlesome little female.” I guessed.  My eyes found the handle of her pistol and I averted them from it again fast. But it seems I didn’t fool her. She grinned more intensely and patted the grip of her pistol.  “You… want this, don’t you?” She said in a sultry way that rubbed me wrong.  She stood up. Took her pistol from her holster she pointed it at me and that put me on the defensive.  And before I did anything she launched it in the air, caught it by the barrel and said.  “Here take it, but it will not do you any good. At least maybe you’ll feel safe with it.”  “Is it DNA locked?” I asked, remembering the weapons Idunn equipped me with before taking down the Ares ship’s crew.  “Smart. Yes of course, it is my own design you know.”  “Ah.”  “Maybe I should show you my toys?” She said, tilting her head cutely.   ***    And this is how I found myself in a freshly fabricated blue bodysuit with black boots and an empty holster. Fa was generous in giving me a high density Quantum crystal earring computer and a next gen all purpose com tablet. “For our budding friendship” she said when I tried to refuse. Now we are in the ship corridors and Fa shows me the different decks. She couldn’t show me the main bridge but could do so with the briefing room which has virtual windows to see the space around the ship. It subs at a briefing room too. And it’s boring. On deck two it was the crew quarters and the officer’s mess.  Still boring.  Now we are en route to see the weapons of this ship, so we went to a computer room to get a presentation. Fa made me sit on a really comfortable chair with two tray of food and drinks and began the lesson. And how captivating it was. This ship the sundance bristled with weapons, Forward missile launchers, Aft missile launchers, Aft facing, dorsal, primary hull beam laser array; Ventral, primary hull, Beam laser array and to finish big targets it also got a Horizon Canon. The weapon I used to destroy parts of the Warsong.  This ship possessed also an array of strategic weapon for combat in space. I watched the holo-screen in rapture.  “Do you see something you like?~” Fa asked in a sing song voice.  I nodded while filling my mouth with Beef meat, there were some point defense systems that she did not mention on the schematics. Maybe because they were obvious.  “I was the one who designed the Sundance class ship, it’s mine to begin with. But mother requisitioned my flotilla.”  Intrigued, I decided to let her talk.  “Mother, knew that Hidden Garden was attacked by an outside source and raced here with my ships.” Fa, explained.  “That’s why.”  I wondered how they knew to come, but still. They were too late, I already took care of the rabble. Fa stepped out of the podium and sat against it, looking at me. She looked hesitant. Putting my plastex cup on the tray I crossed my arm under my breasts and waited.  “Mother wants you to work for her.” Fa, finally said.  I frowned. “I refuse.”  Fa, smiled and put a blonde lock of hair behind her ear. “You cannot.”  “Why?” I said, perplexed.  I wouldn’t give in, freedom is precious and even though I liked it here with mom. Thing would be totally different with someone like the Tyrant in command of my life. Idunn give me choices and don’t push me into things.  *Well not a lot.*  “Because she already expected Aunt Idunn to give you the Omega nanites pack . And there is no taking it back, you are hers.” Fa explained.  I could see the frustration on Fa’s face, as if that kind of deep manipulation was the usual with her mother. But it would also mean that she is a pawn too. Mom should know this, but she still stays with that Helena woman. Standing up from my seat, I wiped my mouth with one of the manufactured tissue like paper called sani-wipe. Looking at Fa, I suddenly prowled toward her. Being face to face with her, I caught a hint of nervousness, and for some reason I felt aroused to see her this way. She felt so in control while we were touring the ship and her smile was attractive. But I didn’t forget that she still felt like a meddler to me. Huh, why is her face reddening? I put a hand on her left shoulder and the other under her chin, making her look at me in the eyes.  “What if I worked with you instead?” I proposed.  “Interesting. You said ‘with’ not ‘for’. What an independent person you are.” Fa said sultrily.  Oh. I smiled, she’s interested in me? Nice to know, but this is not important right now.  “I don’t want to be a pawn, and I think you too have misgivings about the controlling ways of your matriarch. Let’s forge a contract, I will work ‘with’ you and we will add a mutual defense and assistance clause with boundaries?” This is what I wish.  I felt that she has enough clout to not make it easy for the Tyrant to control me or blackmail me with my own mother. Fa’s eyes focused on my lips and returned on my eyes, she wet her lips with her tongue. She grinned at me.  “Why the hell not? But it will cost you.”  “Nothing is free.” I said before feeling Fa’s lips on mine.  Her body glued itself on mine and I encased her in my arms, my hands roaming on her body and particularly on her bottom. Forcing my tongue in her mouth I found myself dueling for domination with hers. She is a meddlesome female, but a tasty one.    *** -(Helena T. Vice)-    The time stream showed me how everything unfolded and I am surprised by what is actually happening. I didn’t see that one coming. The stream of Fa and Fenicia interweaved and… seeing them having sex in a computer room wasn’t something I expected to see.  <Why are you making that face?>  Idunn’s mental voice released me from my peeping, she looked at me expectantly. Her legs were crossed and she had a teacup in her hands and blew on the liquid in it. She drank some of the tea.  “Your daughter is fucking Fa.” I announced.  I was delighted to see Idunn choke on the tea has a payback. The poor alien woman put the teacup on the low table when she cleared her throat. She looked at me with question in her eyes.  “What?”  “You heard me, Fenicia is having sex with Fa in a computer room. I don’t know how it happened, but it complicates things for me.”  Yes it does, Fa is one the five people I don’t want to go against and an emotional attachments to that Alien girl will…  <Let it be, if it’s what they want. You shouldn’t meddle too much, let things develop. What is your gift telling you will happen?>  I focused on the time stream and I see things going my way without truly needing me to intervene. How encouraging. I then took my com tablet and played with the file on Fenicia and updated them. Giving her citizenship and a black Centurion security level. It will unlock most of the omega nanites pack in her body, but first she will need training.  “I guess the smile on your face tells me that everything is going to go smoothly. Now can I go back to work? I have the terraformation of the moon to continue.”  I looked at Idunn, she stood up and prepared to leave.  “So you are still going to work ‘with’ me?”  “We are still friends.” Idunn answered and left.  And that meant a lot to me.

-(Altaïr)- Heavy Corvette ‘The Lurker’ Personal ship of the Shadow Broker Saturday the 7th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar I placed the girl into one of the guest quarter when she fell asleep on the dead body of Doctor Buchanan. It was really a shame, I counted on him to take care of his surrogate daughter. Even more of a shame that he was pretty to look at… *Calm down, me.* This dry spell that I drag since the death of my late husband twelve years ago makes me act up like a young girl sometimes. The turbo elevator brought me to the bridge at the center of the ship, there were three decks in the Lurker; the upper, middle and lower deck. In the middle deck was the bridge where I could control every part of the lurker, from the weaponry to the engine room. The Lurker is an automatized ship that doesn’t require a crew. I made the mistake to trust my crew once, never again. The main bridge of the ship was a circular room with a command chair on a pedestal in the middle, around it consols that controlled the different systems of the ship could be found. Behind the command chair, there were the two consoles controlling navigation and engineering; the three forward consoles controlled the weapons, communication and the pilot station. On the far gun gray colored walls of the bridge where the consoles that operated the other more mundane system tasked of controlling the maintenance bots, the sickbay or the crew quarters and other essentials part of the ship. Normally, I was truly alone on this ship; But the teenager in the crew cabins is changing my routine. I sat on the commander chair and with a wave of my hand, a holographic window appeared and showed me the data on the girl, Destiny. Her DNA map suggests that she is of Asian and Celtic descent, that combination wasn’t unnatural with the centuries of crossbreeding humanity had fallen into since their first contact with the Alliance of Races. She had that double triple helix in her DNA suggesting that she is psionic, and a powerful one at that, the marker suggests that she is not only a Telepath but something else. My AI was already comparing those markers to others known in the Alliance database. The results brought by the AI show a match with the gene marker for precognitives. Interesting. “No wonder you want her so badly, Tyrant. You went as far as to give me one of your precious nanites pack to hand over to her.” Now I understand better why Helena was this adamant in freeing that little girl from the clutches of the Federation. The fact that she trusted me with one of her precious case of centurion maker nanites prove how important she was to her, but what would be the effect of that pack on someone with dual gifts? I heard that those actually boost psionics powers by a very large margin. Crossing my legs, I looked at the ceiling of the bridge in contemplation. *What is that woman planning?* Divining the moves of Helena Theresa Vice has become something of a hobby of mine since she came on the Alliance game board. She has made overtures with a lot of governments like the Thelians and some free empires that didn’t want to join the Alliance like the Sirena Republic and has a presence on most of them, marketing clean energy, safer starships transit services escorted by some of her warships against privateer activities, selling quantum computers and permit cultural and academic exchanges. Then there are those shady actions in the null zone that buffer the Shdeveri empire and Human space. It has become rather difficult to track what is going on there. If I didn’t know better I would say that Vice Corp is preparing for taking over the Alliance and gearing up for war. *Impossible, the other Oracles wouldn’t let her.* In response to my thoughts a map of Alliance space, the neutral worlds and an approximation of the size of the Shdeveri Empire appear in different colors on the hologram. The yellow dots on the map represented Vice Corp, the green ones are the human federation, the neutral worlds in blue and the Thelian orange ones. I narrowed my eyes on the map and linked most of the missions I did for Vice Corp and information I sold to them. I was missing something, I don’t know what but I will find it. Now that I think about it, what about that Saryan female her and Idunn made me track for them? Was she given a nanites pack as well? Is Vice Corp amassing powerful and talented soldiers? *That little girl, Destiny what is her role in all of this?* The problem is, does Destiny knows that she a holder of multiple psionic gifts? Unless trained thoroughly precognition can easily be dismissed as intuition. Maybe testing her later would assuage my burning curiosity.   ***  The Lurker In transit toward US Conglomerate Space Sunday the 8th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar Through the camera in the quarter assigned to Destiny, I watched her sitting on her bed in fetal position her arms holding her knees. Through the log of the bot responsible of the chow that she didn’t order anything and didn’t take any showers or went to relieve her bowels. The little girl was mourning and neglecting herself. I decided that I should not let her do so. I pushed a button the armrest of my command chair and spoke. “Greetings, Miss Macleod,” I said. “Who-?” She blearily asked. She sounded really out of it for a moment. “Come on, Miss Macleod did you forget where you are?” I reminded her. I could literally feel the gears in her head turn, also the psionics activity scanners in the ship detected how far the range and power of her telepathy were when it activated. For a human, this little girl was already among the heavy hitter. I felt the caress of Destiny’s mind reaching for mine, my natural mental shield stopped any intrusion on her part. “Are ye that person who helped me escape?” She asked. The sadness in her was overwhelming and she looked as if she had given up. But I wouldn’t stand for it, so I went bluntly into the heart of the matter. “Grief didn’t fog your brain too much, good; your uncle wouldn’t want to see you like this.” She looked rather stricken when I said this and was about to go catatonic again, I won’t let her. “Miss Macleod, I invite you to take a shower and come to have a bite to eat. New clothes will be given to you by the service bot that will guide you to the mess deck. I expect to see you here at my table in one hour.” I cut the communication by pushing the button on my armrest again; a slow and lazy smile appeared on my face. *If she doesn’t want to snap out of it, I will make her.* Suddenly a plan formed in my mind, I will not get the girl back into Helena’s hands yet; I will educate her and make her see a bit of the galaxy first before throwing her at that particular villain. There is this saying about being prepared to face adversity that I particularly like; Destiny is not ready, but I sure will do my best to make her take her ‘fate’ in her own hands. I laughed at myself for the unfortunate pun, at least this poor girl didn’t have to grow up surrounded by kids making fun of her name. *** It is 12:000 and time for lunch I was waiting for Destiny to appear. I really expect her to be there, she’s the kind of girl that is subject to give in to the authority of her seniors; a programmed behavior that I will have to break her out of. Conjuring a holo-screen I looked at my reflection, I wore my dark grey shipsuit and boots and had fashioned my pale blond hair in a long middle parted haircut. My green eyes reminded me of that woman, Helena. I hated her and I loved her at the same time. This face was recognizable everywhere in human space and I couldn’t bear to be compared to her, judged to be like her. It has not always been this way. Once upon a time, I felt proud to be her double, but when my crew sold me out everything changed. *Whose eyes are those?* Strange feelings swelled up inside me. Was I Altaïr or Helena? A ‘swoosh’ from the door of the mess made me dismiss the holo-screen and school my face in a neutral mask. I turned toward the door, hearing someone walking in the room; what wasn’t my surprise in seeing that indeed Destiny put on the clothes I had designed for her. She wore the same shipsuit as me, but she added a dark purple jacket and forgo the issued boots and gloves. She still had the same boots she came in with and the belt with an “x” almost sliding out of her hip but still hanging on, it weirdly looked good on her. Her red hair was long and in need of a haircut. *We will do that later.* I thought. “You came,” I said matter of factly. <And you look good.> I sent to her via telepathy. <...?> <You didn’t expect me to be psionic? That’s rich, you can literally become one with a DNA splicing operation from Vice Corporation.> I said dropping a nugget of information. <Who are ye?> She looked at me from head to toes taking in how I looked. <I am Altaïr Aquilar.> <Like the constellation?> Destiny tilted her head. <A bit.> I said while chuckling. People I interact with from human space always ask me this. I made her follow me toward the long table with the chair around it. We sat facing each other, the girl looked nervous with her gaze roaming everywhere. She looked mostly at the different exit points of the mess, there were three of them. One for the middle deck, and two leading to the lower deck and engineering. The mess was a room of 50m² and the walls were grey with posters of movies and recruiting ads that I took from different human worlds. There were four long table, a cooking area and a distributor of protein paste that you could program to flavor them with different tastes. There was also the stasis container with all the preserved food. The machine that fabricates plates and cutleries near the kitchen area. It was a simple but efficient setup. But as I live alone on this ship it went unused mostly. <You are safe here, nothing untoward will happen to you. I gave your uncle my word that you’d be treated well and given a better life.” “I miss him,” Destiny said with a sob. Tears were already streaming from her eyes to her cheeks, she was so vulnerable at the moment. But she shouldn’t stay like this, people will take advantage of her. “I did my best to save him, but he begged me to get you onboard while I was treating him. I… feel bad about it. But he was a stubborn man and only thought about you.” “He was a stubborn old man.” She made a hollow laugh while saying that. “Destiny, first we are going to eat and then I will explain to you why I saved you and you’ll have to make a choice. It’s pretty simple, do you want to be protected or become strong enough that people don’t mess with you?” “Ah…” Destiny tried to say. The bot with a rolling chariot full of food arrived at this moment and began putting different dishes between us. It ranged from vegetables to meat with bread wraps and fruit juice. No alcohol will be served to that underage girl. “Well, let’s eat and I will hear your answer after that.” Destiny looked at the spread before her, then at me. I began to prepare my own wrap; putting meat and veggies inside, then drenching it in the soup. I put it into my mouth and chewed up. The girl mimicked me and bit into the wrap and opened her eyes wide and to then eat like someone had starved her for days. *Well she was doing that to herself.* I served her, fruit juice in a disposable mug, she took it from my hand downed it in one gulp. What a thirsty girl. <Slow down the food won’t go away.> I sent to her with telepathy. She stopped to devour and looked at me sheepishly and then resumed into eating more slowly. Like I said this girl was subject to some kind of influence, she always followed order or instruction from people older than her. Thirty minutes later, it took five wraps and three mugs of grape juice to fill up Destiny’s belly. She looked replete and satisfied. “How good do you feel?” “Ah am feelin’ bloody good, pure dead brilliant.” She said and put her hand before her mouth and burping a little. She looked rather embarrassed by doing so and hid her face behind her bangs. I had a tough time to decipher what she said, but she said she felt great. Destiny felt less on her guard around me, even if I liked this sudden development we had things to discuss. “I will now tell you everything you must know, are you ready?” “I was born ready.” The girl bent her torso toward me and put her linked fingers under her chin. I had all her attention, and she acted like a typical teenager. “I am Altaïr Aquilar, the Shadow Broker. I sell information to those that can pay and I do additional services like mercenary works. I acquire new technologies for certain parties and help where I can when it is warranted. It’s a simplified version, but that’s what I do.” “Sounds great.” Destiny smiled slightly. “I was contacted by one of my main clients to extract you from the project Xavier on this planetary outpost housing it. I came into contact with Magnus through this client and we put in motion a plan to help you two escape. He gave me information to help incriminate the people responsible for the project and its inhuman goal, I already released the files to the public and it is creating great upheaval in the Federation.” “Too bad he ain’t here to see it happen,” Destiny said sadly. “Even though we exposed them, I don’t think they are going to stop. Children possessing psionic abilities will be taken and experimented on. They want to form a psionic army of a sort, to take on my client. She is interested in you because they had a goal they put a lot of money in and you were central to it. They intended to turn you into… they wanted to clone you. The clones and you would be part of a quantum network that your abilities would boost to be able to look into the future and calculate odds. They wanted to turn you into an organic computer.” I said disgusted by this. Some people needed to be put down, I decided that I will find all of them. Politicians, military and scientists responsible for this project and kill them in the most gruesome way. “What? I… don’t understand what it is.” Destiny seemed to not understand those simple terms. I decided to add a technology course for her to be able to use it, they must not have let her use anything more complicated than a coffee machine in that damn lab. I decided to simplify it for her again, she wasn’t stupid; just ignorant. “Basically you’d be a vegetable linked to a machine, like a computer,” I said in layman terms. Suddenly she looked pale and then gradually her face took on a greenish tint. “Geein me the boak, ah am glad that ye took me out of here…” She uttered. Translation, it made her feel sick, that Scottish brogue is not facilitating communication, I set my AI to add subtitle for when she speaks because I really needed it. “Your welcome.” The girl looked at me with uncertainty and despair. “What’s gonna happen tah me?” Destiny asked. She looked rather lost and worried, I would be too in her place. The poor girl lost her father figure and was uprooted rather brutally. So I decided to be transparent with her, to give her options. “I want you to work with me for a bit and then my client plan to buy your services. But there is something you must do to accept the job. You must receive an injection of nanites that will give you a chance to survive out here.” I said, laying the card on the table. “Nanites?” The girl asked looking at me mystified. She didn’t seem to know what they were either. Let’s focus on her education while we are in transit for the US conglomerate space. “Basically little robots that will enter your body and fix things, make you more healthy, more beautiful, stronger, live longer and boost your psionics abilities.” I dumbed down years of explanation of what nanites are. “Ah won’t get fat?”Destiny’s eyes were shining when she asked that. She was a girl alright, I remember asking my sister about the same thing when she injected me with the nanites cocktail. I put my hands on the table and looked at her meaningfully. “No, you will never get fat. I received them and I have been living for one hundred years.” “Aye right, you look barely in yer late twenties.” Destiny rolled her eyes and crossed her arms under her breasts. “I am one hundred years old and have been doing this shadow broker business for seventy years,” I said honestly. I even let her in my mind briefly to see that I wasn’t lying, she went from dubious to really interested. “Aye, ah am in.” Destiny declared. “Just like that?”I said mystified by her sudden decision. “You look great and ye’ll help me, yah?” She reached and put a hand on mine. Her eyes shined with hope and desperation; the girl was looking for a rock to hang on in the tumult of her own feelings and grief. I think we need to do something about her uncle and bury him somewhere, I will ask her about it later. She needs to let him go to be able to advance, and I must undo that weird indoctrination she was subject to. We will work on that. “With all of my power,” I answered taking her hand in mine. “Let’s begin!” She cried. *** It is one hour later that we found ourselves in the medical bay of the ship, Destiny was taking off her clothes and placed them in a transparent silicone box that I provided her. She shivered a bit because of the temperature and her nakedness. *Don’t worry Destiny, you won’t feel the cold anymore when you let the nanites work on you.* “Ah hate being in the skud before people!” Destiny shouted while covering her ample breasts and womanhood as she tapped her foot on the anti slip covered white tiles. Translation she hated being naked before people, must be a trauma caused by her being studied by scientists who didn’t treat her like a human being. Despite me, I was starting to form a certain fondness for the girl. There was an office station with a computer desk on the east wall; on the western wall of the bay, the beds for patients were separated by a titanium wall with a transparent aluminum window showing them. Scanners above the beds that looked like a cylindrical telescope with big focus lens trained on the future patient. But what really mattered was the vertical health tank where regenerative treatments or DNA splicing operation could be done. Destiny followed me to the room where she will receive the nanites and be augmented. With a ‘swoosh’ the door of the room opened. There were different pedestals on the ground in a radial arc with machinery and specialized computer around them. Destiny stepped on the pedestal to the right and I went to strap the breather mask to her face. I patted her head with a reassuring smile. <Don’t worry, it should not take more than two days. You’ll be famished when you wake up, be prepared.> I sent to her via telepathy. The girl nodded and I saw her eyes smile at me, while she will be under I will work on undoing her indoctrination with telepathy and a bit of psychic surgery. I stepped back as the glass cylinder slowly surged from the pedestal and enclosed Destiny. The Health tank closed when it reached the corresponding inverse pedestal of the ceiling. Holes appeared near the feet of the girl and water began to gush out of them. Destiny looked panicked a bit. <Please don’t be alarmed, you have the breather so you won’t drown.> I reassured her. She visibly calmed down, thirty seconds later the tank was full and I put Destiny under with a powerful sedative gas that she breathed with the breather mask. She looked over worldly with her red hair floating above her head in the water. A bot came to deliver the nanites pack to me, it looked like a black suitcase with a keypad, a thumbprint scanner, and bio scanner to put genetic material to open it. This was a Psi pack if I was reading it well and it mainly gives a major power boost to psionic ability with the usual benefits of nanites enhancements. I opened the case by passing through all the security checks and three vials full of grey goo were in it. I placed each of them in the machine that will inject them into Destiny. The AI that will be gifted to her with the pack was a preloaded one that I designed and unshackled called Nova, she will guide her and help her. Something that Helena will surely curse me for; she hates unshackled AI with a passion because they have choices. The grey goo full of nanites floated in the health tank and began to work on the girl. “Now it finally begins,” I said crossing my arms and looking at the angelic red-haired girl who was changing. A/N: Hi there! The chapters will slow down now, I need to stock up on chapters! There are like 4 chapters left to publish but I will hand them sparingly while I write them as fast as I can! You know guys comments and reviews for this work would be more motivating. I don't like this silent reader thing going on. I read the stats of the story so I know I have people who like this series.

"Battles, wars, in-fighting, and conflict in general, regardless of their form and manner, has been an omnipresent reality of life since times immemorial.Even the simplest of life forms engage in conflicts, and even the most complex ones get drawn into them.It's the source of destruction, and that of disturbance, forcing those of still minds to rethink their ways, and those of open minds to still some of their ways.Any such disturbance is a great opportunity for improvement in all areas of life, and yet it is most often an even greater setback.To take that opportunity, or to accept said setback, is a choice." (Professor Zhaernon En'Kalhurn-University of Delta Draconis year 452)   -(Fenicia)-   Aboard the Warsong, Engineering deck Nice digs if you like glowing consoles, machineries and really dark places. I know it’s not like this normally, I’ve been to engineering decks on freighters and everything is illuminated for safety reasons. I couldn’t see the engineers; my LiDAR wasn’t active with the limited HUD my nanites gave me access to. I really missed my helmet, but it did its job by protecting my head. I wish I had infrared or a night vision mod to see in the dark, I bet its part of the hidden non-available mods in the omega centurion package. All that technology made me dependant I think, or else I would have used my senses to feel the obvious threat which struck me in the side with the force of a maglev. Pain engulfed my left arm and the base of my shoulder. That’s when the Medical health system mod of the centurion Omega pack activated, it cut my pain receptors and flooded the fractured bones of my left arm with medical nanites and immobilized it in barely one second. I used the momentum of the hit to roll on the steel-plated ground and right myself in a standup position pistol in hand. “Aren’t you quick on your feet, bitch,” Hissed a mechanical voice. The voice sounded electronic. “Come to face me, pussy,” I answered. I have no desire to fight a foe in the dark, so I did the only smart thing since entering a dark place with a prepared enemy in it. I called mom. “Idunn, could you put on the light in the engineering deck.” I subvocalized on the Q-uplink. “Of course my dear, hold on for thirty seconds. Oh and this man called you a slut, destroy him.” “What? And how do you know that?!” And I stopped, thinking. Oh, right. “Psionic, I forgot.” “Yes, Fenicia dear. You are one too, I remind you.” And she cut the communication on that reminder. If that wasn’t a hint… I don’t know what it could be. I sent my awareness outside of my body and felt everything around me, platforms, consoles, huge pieces of machinery, EPS conduits, huge humanoid metallic form… Ah! “Found ye, Tramp head*(Irish phrase, about someone who feels the urge to be a complete Arse Weed in their everyday life...)!” I yelled in its direction. “Ha ha! And what can you do about it, slut?”I sensed a bit of smugness in that sentence. “I have an idea of how to open that feckin’ armor ye got like a can of spinach. Then I’m going to take possession of this ship as my personal cruise. It needs a major overhaul, ye know. Too much blood covering the corridors and walls, plus the furniture suck.” “You bitch! That ship is mine!” A huge shadow charged toward me. I strapped my Peace pistol in its holster and took out my Pacifier while jumping to the side and hitting a wall. Fucking light needs to be on already. The Pac energy pistol can be used to stun and kill but its main use is also to fight warbots or people in mech armors. I fired my weapon and a coherent ray of energy struck the relative position of the armored man. “What was that? It didn’t even scratch my mech!” “Ye speak too much.” I closed my eyes and decided to rely on my Saryan training. I forgot in my panic that I have already been in a situation like this. There was a gigantic labyrinth of tunnels in a cave system bordering my hometown on Saryna where the youngs must be tested to cull their fears. This test shows what your place will be in the Saryan clan, either a warrior or a helper (servant). *Master your will, master your demons and see!* And I saw the punch coming toward me, I didn’t panic and stepped in and fired my Pac again in the head of the mecha and disengaged. I hid behind one of the big machines with glowing light screens on it. “WHAT DID YOU DO?! I CAN’T SEE!!!” The man screamed. “You got the colonel good!” I heard Ell say on the Q-uplink. “Oh, it’s the colonel,” I said not even really surprised. “Yep totally him, he… is a fucking rapist asshole. Be careful.” I heard the catch in Ell’s voice. Oh, I hope for that asshole he didn’t touch her. “Don’t worry, I will finish him.” Walking toward the mech armor, I took out my monomolecular blade from behind my back. “I was raised to be a warrior, colonel. Trained my entire life to master my senses. Where did ye train? ON A FARM?” “Shut up you…!” I sliced the right arm of the mech while he was mid-sentence. I fired another shot of my Pac in one of the mech’s leg and went over my limit with the strength augment given by my nanites and kicked it in the torso. I still took a glancing blow and got clocked to the side of the head. It fucking hurt! I felt blood dripping down on the right side of my face. I saw double for a while but stayed on my feet. “That farm quips hit a nerve, ain’t it farmboy? Are ye embarrassed by yer origins?” I said. The light went On, I could see the mecha trying to get on its feet but not succeeding. “Finally! You took your time, Idunn!” I said in Saryan on the Q-uplink. “Not at all. It’s been thirty seconds since you asked me for help, dear.” I felt the smile in that argument; Idunn has a weird sense of humor. I guess time is longer when you fight for your life, seconds are minutes, and minutes are hours. “We are coming, don’t kill him yet Feni,” Ell said with urgency. And since when did she give me a nickname? “No promises.” I advanced toward the still struggling mech. It is an old model but still seemed to have current upgrades. I could see this on the power packs on the back of the armor, they were downsized. It was big, black and cumbersome and looked more like a big medieval armor from the Terran medieval era. I felt insulted, this man came at me with a big armor, relying on sheer strength and had no weapon. “You made three mistakes, colonel.” Stepping before the downed mecha I stabbed my blade in its torso and forcefully sliced it to its crotch. “Number one, you didn’t surrender when asked.” Using my will, I opened the mecha with my telekinesis, the creaks and screams from the metal of the armor were music to my ears and seconds after the armor parted and peeled off the man inside the machine. A bald man with a hateful glare and a mean demeanor peered at me. He wore a ship suit showing a body once upon a time athletic but that wasn’t getting any sporting activity anymore. He looked flabby. “Number two…” The man stood up, I let him. He charged me and attempted to punch me; I caught his fist and tightened my grip. “Ow, ow!!” He screamed like a bitch when I tightened my hand on his fist. I let go of his fist and slapped his face, one time, a second time, a third time. It was fascinating to see the shockwave of my hand slapping his face with my accelerated awareness. “You called me a slut.” The man stood on his feet at least, not falling down or swooning, I took my Pac and fired on him. “The third mistake was getting into a fight with no weapon, damn amateur.” I watched the man fall on his back on the steel platform, stunned. It’s almost done this fight. Maybe I won’t have to kill everyone on this ship. I am sure there are people left on the bridge and the engineers must be hiding somewhere. “We are onboard, Fenicia.” Said Idunn on the the Q-uplink. “Join me on the engineering deck; I hope you brought something to take every memory of that creepy bastard. I hitch to kill him.” “I have a free data cube when his memory is uploaded, you can do whatever you want to him.” She answered as if to sooth me. “Music to my ears,” I said, waiting.   *** -(Colonel David O’lleary)-   “Wakey, wakey.” I heard a familiar voice. “Ell, is that you?” Opening my eyes blearily, a face that I thought I would never see again appeared. “Yes, Colonel. You look quite beat up.” She quipped, smiling mockingly at me. “Of course he looks like shit, I bitch slapped his feckin’ face into a coma.” That accent and that harsh voice… “Wake up, farm boy. I am not done with you; I want you to tell me where you stashed those engineers.” “You…” I looked in horror at Ell Evan. That bitch betrayed us! Betrayed me! No. I won’t let it go like this, she must die! “78-89-15-L-B!!!” I yelled rapidly. “Oh, I think it was the code for the bomb inside your skull Ell, my dear.” Another female voice sounded in my vicinity. Ell suddenly punched me. I felt bones breaking… the bitch broke my nose! “I wanted to do that since a longtime, creep.” She said while cracking her knuckles with her other hand. “What a dumb bastard, we should just space him. M-Idunn, did you get the location of where the rest of the crew is hidden?” “Yes, there is a hidden room in the engineering deck, near the Ion drive. We don’t have to kill those ones, Fenicia.” “So that means, I can kill him?” She asked hopefully, I felt cold when I saw her golden eyes peering at me with a maniacal glee. “Yes, my dear. But before that, let me get violent too for once.” The woman I spoke with on the bridge appeared in my field of vision. She looks like an Angel, it’s unfortunate that a devil inhabits this body. I would have gladly given it a go. But some women aren’t worth mounting… CRACK. “AAAAAAHHH!!!!!” The pain made my eyes open wide! The bitch kicked me in the fucking nuts! My breath caught, my eyes moistened. I went into a fetal position because of the pain… “FUC..KING S..LU..T.”   *** -(Fenicia)-   I watched Idunn retreat and Ell watching her with awe and respect. Me too I thought that she’s badass. “Now it’s time for you to say bye bye, farm boy,” I said, looking at the colonel. “You… bitch, you killed… my crew!” The colonel wheezed. “Your soldiers were murderers, and your crew guilty by association,” I said calmly. I watched him while he was on his back in a fetal position to protect his balls, his nose broken by Ell's tender punch seeping blood and nasal mucus. He looked pathetic. “And now guess what” I readied my fist, “they won’t be killing anyone else.” My punch sank into his face and I caved his skull in. The blood and grey matters showered me and the steel-plated ground. “Ah, yuck!” “That was so dirty! First time I saw so much gore, in a fight.” Ell said. “And your armor is splattered with so much blood, even your face.” “That’s what happens with executions, they are messy. Fortunately, there are bots for the cleaning.” Walking toward the Ion drive room, I scoped the steel colored walls. And then I began knocking on them for ten seconds or so until I heard a hollow sound. Taking out my monomolecular blade I sank it into the wall. Work of 1 minute or so to carve a door and kick it with my leg. The wall I carved sank inward, and surprise, I found my engineers. “We surrender!” A man kneeled before me, hands behind his head. The others all did the same. “Ye’ re all damn lucky, the director of the station doesn’t want me to kill ye all.” I paused for effect. “That’s too bad,” I said in my best Terran language. I suddenly smelled urine in the room, disgusted I retreated back from the room. “Ell, take care of them. I must go to the bridge.” “I always get the dirty work…” She whined. “Alright everyone, remember me? I was…” Ell’s voice faded while I advanced toward the exit. Idunn followed me. We walked in silence in the corridor of the ship, exiting the Engineering deck and to take the stairs toward the Command deck. The bridge must still be guarded by a token force. “I heard that you want to keep the ship, Fenicia. I hope you will stay…” Idunn decided to fill in the silence. “I don’t plan to leave right now, too much happened. Too many things are not clear, I must be sure that you really are who you say you are. Discover the changes within my body; I observed that I don’t have access to all the mods. And if I leave it will give you problems and I will be hunted down by Vice industries.” I said offhandedly. “Oh.” I heard her say. I stopped and turned on my heel. “Let’s take control of this boat, square the prisoner in the brig of the station and take a nap.” I put my working arm around Idunn’s right shoulder. Not knowing why Idunn eyes misted and she shyly looked at her boots. “Yes my dear, let’s.” She said with warmness in her voice.   *** -(???)-   Ship ?????? en route for PX2458, Year 456 of the unified Alliance I watched has the ocean of star transformed into a tunnel of blue-white light in which this powerful ship travel in, bringing us ever so close to our destination. So much is still not known about subspace, we know how to protect ourselves from its effects and how short distances are in it but not much more. Sitting in my command chair I was observing the transit in subspace with nostalgia, my bridge officers Kalan and Kisora are piloting the ship toward the system with the Hidden Garden space station. Those two are twins of Asian heritage, small and petite their bodies belie their true power. Seeing them like this, I remember a time where I was myself piloting my own ship, gallivanting in human space, smuggling, bounty hunting. “Ma’am, we are almost here.” Said the tall and athletic young woman on the Weapon console. “Thank you, Sharah. We enter in the system weapons hot, as usual.” Sharah is of Egyptian origin that makes her complexion rather exotic, her skin tone is a light brown, she has long straight black hair, and a heart-shaped face and soft amber eyes. The dark eye of Rah tattoo around her right eye is one of the more distinctive sign that she values her origins; it had a marvelous cosmetic effect on her face. “Yes, ma’am.” She saluted me with her right hand formed into a fist on her breast. Sharah has always been too formal. I appreciated her tall form; her blue uniform is tight on her body. “Do you know if the girls are on board? After all, this is their ship, and I had to take the most armed and accompanied.” I said looking at the Q-uplink data on my stargazer glasses. Three other heavy warships and a dozen light ones accompanied us. “Lady Demetria is in the lab and Lady Faffa is prepping the combat shuttle in the hangar,” Sharah said while consulting the computer on her console. “Great, I hope we are not too late.”   A/N: I am not satisfied with the grammar and details of this chapter, it might be subject to rewriting.

So guys, as I am focusing on SHP, for now, I am letting COF get on Hiatus for now. I am fully involved in this series as you can see as I am churning chapters like a madwoman. Hope you won't get too disappointed, don't worry I won't forget Fenicia and Idunn, they are my fav by the way. This entire story is outlined to be at least 150 chapters and I will get back to it when I am done with Superhuman Princess. Chapter 15 and 16 are written, but I don't plan to publish them yet though. Thanks for understanding!

-(Altair)- The Lurker, Simulator and training room; Wednesday 12th January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar It was hard to look at how my new ward was suffering at two times gravity in the training room, but if all goes well she will adapt as the nanites suffusing her body will reinforce it. Destiny was running at full speed around the track and barely completed the objective of today that I considered benign: Ten turns around the racetrack. The girl was knackered already, I see that we have the work cut out for us. Destiny reached the end of the course and went to her knees; I used my neural interface to put the gravity back to normal and approached the girl with a towel and a bottle of fresh water. “You did better than I expected Destiny, I thought you would give up at your seventh rounds,” I said amused. The girl threw a deathly glare at me that I really appreciated, she sat on her bottom and took the towel from me. She began to dry the sweat on her face and shoulders. I then sat her side and put the water bottle near her. “Why?” “Why what?” I said while smiling. “Why did ye make me run under that much gravity? Twas like I was wearing weights.” “The answer is self-evident, my girl; at normal gravity, you would have made this exercise a joke and maybe gone for forty more rounds. And do you think humanity colonized planets with the same gravity as the ship, that is set at Earth-normal? No, you will have to train hard under this much to reach your full potential.” “Sound hard…” “Nothing worth having is easy to obtain,” I told her. “I see.” She said after mulling over that. “Now come, you’ll take a shower and we will let the simulation rooms configure itself in library mode; the bathroom is on the right.” I pointed the direction to her. The process was already beginning, the racetrack began shifting under us and the ground becomes an opaque black. I stood up and helped Destiny on her feet; the poor dear seemed really exhausted but this was just the beginning of her gruesome schooling. She will stay the equivalent of one week in the VR instance of what I call ‘the great library’ that is the physical representation of every information stored into the powerful computers of the Lurker and their servers disseminated in Alliance space here and there. I brought Destiny to the bathrooms attached to the simulation room and began to take off my shipsuit once done I found Destiny looking at me curiously. *Was she interested in women? It’s not in her profile.* I thought. <Like what you see?> I sent to her via my mind. Destiny jumped and looked rather embarrassed. <I am sorry.> She answered while looking away. <You are curious, is it the first time that you see the body of a mature woman?> <You look different from me; Your chest isn’t bigger than mine, but it looks firmer and easy to move with… and-and you look really fit and attractive.> I touched my arm and my skin felt smooth, I do not scar anymore and the nanites in my body slowed down my aging. I am at the peak of human health. No hair below my eyebrows, yes no pesky razor will touch my legs like in those human worlds that refuse to have a tech level beyond the steam engine. <I see, thank you. You are not bad yourself. Come here.> Smiling at Destiny, I signaled her to come to me with my hand. She hesitated walking toward me; I caught her and began to help her out of her blue gym clothes. My hands roamed on her flesh, eliciting a burst of desire within her from what my empathy could pick up. It seems Destiny was indeed attracted to women, she was like putty in my hand but I wouldn't take advantage of her more than this. It was a good test to see where her inclinations lie. If she was not grieving and older I might have eaten this tasty little morsel before me. Taking Destiny's hand in mine I took her to the Sonic shower. After following my instructions, Destiny stayed under the ultrasonic shower for two minutes closing her eyes. I shut out my hearing sense to stop the pain from the strident frequency. My nanites enhanced senses are under my perfect control, I hope to be able to teach Destiny to use them before she leaves the ship. I order shampoo and soap from the ship stores and deploy the Roman bath function of this room that expands to give us enough space. That's what I like with the Lurker, the ship is like any standard Vice corporation vessels; highly adaptable and modular. “Now I will teach you how to take good care of yourself, open your mind to me.” Destiny opened her mind to me and I began projecting esthetic cares knowledge into her mind; it is a skill called knowledge projection allowing either instant transferal/learning/understanding or slower process where the target integrates the knowledge without risk of overflow. As a bonus, I decided to bestow her my experience with psychic shielding making Destiny highly resistant to any/all mental intrusion. I don’t want her to be caught flat-footed when she will fly the nest. While I instructed her, I started to shampoo her. *Doing this reminds me of my son and daughter, I hope they are doing well.*   *** -(Destiny)- We were now in the library, or at least the virtual representation of one. My body was safely seated in the dive chair while I was being taught how everything worked by NOVA. My AI said that this cyberspace in the ship was a pocket realm situated in a universe called Data space; A Faster Than Light network encompassing the entire Alliance linked to every planet in the different races sovereign space. It didn’t care about borders or creed and it was financed by Vice Corporation while being co-opted by the Assurian council, the Thelian, and the human's worlds. There were other Empires of different species like the Shidarva. Speaking of NOVA, I was really surprised when I first saw the avatar of my AI companion, she was simply gorgeous. She was tall and looked like a human female with an hourglass figure, her skin was pale like mine; she wore a dark purple shoulder dress that showed off her silhouette with little black boots. NOVA had Raven Black hair with a dark purple sheen when the light fell on them, she also had markings on her delicate face and around the three little horns on her forehead, jet black lines under her eyes that formed beautiful tribal tattoos that married well with her makeup. NOVA has purple eyes, sword-like eyebrows, a cute upturned nose, and voluptuous pink sensual lips; she looked dignified and prideful. Her smile was full of radiance and was only for me. I felt something tug in my heart, what was this feeling? NOVA helped me tour the library that made it seem like we were in a tower-like structure with shelves replacing the walls. I couldn’t see the ceiling, as the floors were numerous and simply uncountable. There was islands of sofas and couches or desk and table with fancy chairs around them hidden by shelves of different sizes. NOVA showed me how to conjure a holo-window and how to look for information. When I entered this virtual space, I could barely read but NOVA injected the ‘how to’ in my mind and finally I could make sense of everything. It was as if the world opened itself to me and it made me furious because project Xavier kept me ignorant to control me! “Are you well, Mistress?” The mellifluous voice of NOVA turned me out of my musing and vengeful feelings. I felt her hand on my shoulder, it was comforting. I breathed in and out, calming myself gradually, I let go of my anger and hatred. I felt the breath of someone near my right ear. “Do you think that’s air that you breathe right now?” I stepped before and turned toward NOVA who had an impish smirk on her face, what did she mean by what she said? This is a… wait. We are in a virtual place, so nothing is real. I tested that theory by trying to jump and fly toward the first floor and my feet left the ground and I reached little by little where I wanted to go. The balcony I reached suddenly elongated and created a sort of bridge I landed on. I felt arms around my body. “You did it!” It was NOVA’s voice, she sounded really happy. She turned me toward her and hugged me. “Aye ah did, nothing here is real but the information are so you can manipulate the world to a certain extent,” I told her what I realized because of her words. “You have no idea how much time it takes normal humans to do what you did. Ok, now we must go take the books that you need to really learn your way around the world. But something tells me that you’ll burn through everything really fast. Say, do you know how to count?” “Aye… not a lot though.” I looked at my feet feeling ignorant and utterly useless. I felt NOVA hand lifting my chin and made me look at her eyes. They were so purple and brilliant, there was no disgust or pity in them, only warmness and conviction. “I am not going to judge you, Mistress. You are here to learn, by the end of our transit in hyperspace you’ll be at a college level of education, I promise. We have literally years of cyberspacetime to catch you up!” She said happily and patted my cheek. If I couldn’t trust my AI companion, then who could I? NOVA had faith in men, she wanted to make me better and doesn’t seem to have an ulterior motive. “Ah… I trust ye NOVA, teach me please.” I asked with desperation. She hugged me even tighter and I reciprocated, NOVA was like a life-saving raft in a sea of incertitude. “I will do my best.” ***   Cyberspace realm - First year   Even with my skill disc enabling me to read NOVA forced me to review the basic of it. Decoding or sounding out words is the first step in reading; Good readers increase their vocabulary every time they read and are able to recall these words when they see them again. Then there is fluency and comprehension. After two months of this, I felt at ease with my reading skills and swallowed information like a black hole. Then NOVA presented me to other AIs from the ship to help her with my education and generally relax and have fun. The psychologist female AI, Freud that I nicknamed Miss F helped me sort out my feelings and undo the “programming” my captor placed on me since young. Miss F made me notice that I always defer to people older than me or smarter than me to make decisions for me; to break from it she told me to think more about problem-solving on my own and that if I was too distressed to ask for help. NOVA countered this by adding that she is here to help me, but Miss F compromised that cooperating should be on the table. The next step of Miss F project (me) was to make me able of thinking along three-dimensional lines. A skill that is known as divergent thinking. It makes you able of approaching a problem with various angles. Three-dimensional thinking prevents you from moving into the realm of convergent thought, a form of problem- solving thought. Convergent thinking it generally means the ability to give the "correct" answer to standard questions that do not require significant creativity, for instance in most tasks in human schools and on standardized multiple-choice tests for intelligence. Wow, look at me spouting big words and explanations; I guess hanging with AIs make you catch the smart bug. Between my psychotherapy sessions with Miss F and NOVA’s schooling, I met the Quartermaster AI, named Pallitax; his avatar was that of a thin man with sharp eyes in a shipsuit uniform. He helped me with my technology courses. He gave me a solid background in computing and technological fields and got me interested in engineering, quantum computing, astrophysics, and astronavigation. But he warned me vehemently to focus more on my basic schooling before delving into those fields. It was all kind of fun speaking and learning from those digital people, I can say we have become friends. Miss F and Palli were good ‘people’. I realized that they weren’t machines, they had feelings, needs and wants and a thirst to self improve that dwarfed mine. NOVA went a bit green because I liked them though, wasn’t she a bit too overprotective? She has been calling me ‘her’ human for a while, I didn’t want to dissuade her from thinking that way; after all, we belonged to each other. The first year ended with me graduating from high school level of education; NOVA, Miss F and Palli threw a party for me when it happened and praised me for the speed with which I absorbed their teaching. ***   Cyberspace Smallville realm - second year   NOVA freaked out on me, saying that she was failing me and cried big tears about it. I didn’t see it that way, she was making me smarter after all! Cyberspace was a wonderful place where I could learn everything and anything. But her arguments made me rethink my way of thinking. She told me that I was getting smarter but just that, book smart. Being human is more than having the knowledge and that if I continued like this I would end up being inept at social interactions with my own kind. AI were people, but they weren’t plagued by greed, moral bankruptcy, and they had less creativity than human. Oh and that some humans were dumb and that the way I was speaking now would mark me as a nerd and isolate me. That her, Miss F and Pallitax were giving me a false maturity and left me to be prey to human predators because of my naivety. So I reminded her that we were in this space to make up for my own ineptitudes and that I am at her mercy. That made her laugh and cheered her up. My AI companion then changed my learning program to include more pop culture and downtime with other AIs that simulated civilian life. NOVA created a separate realm on the ship to recreate a town that encompassed the Library realm that looked like the tallest skyscrapers I have ever seen. I loved this place, she called it Smallville. NOVA and I had a little townhouse with a garage where we put most of the tools I needed. A space only for me. Smallville was a nice little town; there was a theater, a baker, a supermarket, a park, a university, a stadium and lot of little places that were mine to discover in that small town. There were good and not so good people there, AIs programmed to mimic humans behaviors. I felt like I was having a second life in this idyllic environment. I began to learn about science and physics more in depth even with the preloaded skill discs that just made you understand those things, but I learned and absorbed those making them mine, part of me. With the help of the AIs in the university I solidified my understanding of the world around me, mathematics was part of everything or more precisely Quantum mechanics! That included quantum field theory, this is a fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles. NOVA gave me tools and apps for mathematical formulations. Then I went and specialized in mechanical engineering. Oh boy, there was so much to learn! Mechanical engineering requires an understanding of core areas including mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics, materials science, structural analysis, and electricity. It sucked up my time as I had to master tools like computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, and product life cycle management. Fair enough, the last one wasn’t needed but knowing the conditions in which a product is sold is important right? And then everything went crazy when my Engineering AI teacher mister tools (he was really a tool if you catch my meaning) added more things like fields machinery, heating, and cooling systems, transport systems, aircraft, watercraft, spacecraft, robotics, medical devices, weapons, and others. I loathed mister Tools with a passion, he kept telling me off and belittling me and kept spouting thing like “Mechanical Engineering is the branch of engineering that involves the design, production, and operation of machinery. It is the backbone of everything surrounding you! Did you think, miss Mcleod that you would master this field in a year? Get real!” I couldn’t refute nor deny his arguments, so I slowed down on my learning on this field but I wasn’t giving up! NOVA and Miss F comforted me with food and movies when I was down, Mister Pallitax was happy to play video games with me. I took up cooking as a stress relief and to make friends with other AIs like Miss Storm, my Astrophysics and Astronavigation teacher. She was a blue-eyed blond, taller than me and a real jokester. She made learning a real joy and it was a pleasure to work with her! Miss F advised me to take up psychology as I am a telepath, so I added this field on my plate and this is here that I noticed that I was taking on too much and that I needed to stick to what I add and stopped scattering myself. I kept learning on this rhythm for two years and barely saw time pass. Time passed by inexorably and with a finality that bordered on the cruel side. ***   Cyberspace library realm - Three years time elapsed - half a day real time   We spent three years in the cyberspace learning, having fun and visiting other cyber realms like Smallville when we were bored. We were in the original library realm right now. I actually liked it here, it was silent and I had virtual food, my best friend NOVA and… she taught me a lot of things thanks to the media room here. I felt surer of myself and less dependent of NOVA or Altaïr. Miss F made me realize that I was a needy little thing, that I was this way with Iza and uncle Magnus; I was starting to do it with Altaïr on the ship. *She must have enough on her plate, ah don’t want tae burden her.* “Destiny,” NOVA called me. “Aye, wit?” I turned my head toward her, surprised. “You aren’t focused enough, I want you to resolve this complex equation; and what did we say about that accent of yours? Try to keep it on the down low.” She squinted her eyes and smirked evilly. We have been working on my manners lately, she created a skilled disc with how to walk like a lady, move gracefully and charged them into my brain. I hope that outside the cyber realm it will hold. Right now we were seated between two bookshelves around a desk with a lot of books on FTL communication and Hyperdrive. The formulas I was trying to solve was about the mode of FTL drive that Vice Corporation was using derived from the Higgs-Boson quantum tunneling theory AKA the subspace theory. Vice Corp called them hyperdrive window, as I understood that other humans worlds were less advanced and primarily used warp drive. Those were two types of FTL drives, and NOVA was teaching me that others means of traveling through space existed. “Aye shite forgot… sorry. I was introspecting.” I said while trying to speak goodie goodie English. NOVA has been trying to make me stop swearing like a sailor, but her results have been abysmal. “And did you arrive at a good conclusion at your self-analysis, Mistress?” NOVA asked sweetly. “Aye, I must become strong and self-reliant.” I said with determination. “That is good, but I would prefer that you let me shoulder some of your burdens. That is why I exist, after all.” “I love you too, NOVA,” I said fondly. She smiled at me, but her stern taskmistress like demeanor resurfaced as fast as it disappeared while I was speaking about myself. I got back on this equation she wanted me to resolve. Three years ago I wasn’t able to do this. Being able to understand mathematics was weirdly liberating before it didn’t look different from magic to me. Now that I do understand and answer difficult answers and resolve problems quickly I am not impressed by it anymore because I understand the trick. The trick is that your brain can quickly decide if a question is answerable by example this work with continuity arguments, the correspondences between geometric and algebraic objects, linear algebra, or ways to reduce the infinite to the finite through various forms of compactness. I wrote the solution and sent it to NOVA that caught the window with a hand. “Good, you finally got it! Sometime tomorrow we will continue to teach you on Mechanic Engineering.” Urgh, spending time with Mister Tools was horrible! Torture even but the asshole knew his field. “I am afraid that I must put an end to this virtual session,” NOVA said. Just like that she dropped a bomb on me, it made me stand out of my seat in surprise. “What? Already?!” I asked shocked. “It’s been three years inside this space, but barely half a day in the real world.” “Huh?” That revelation stomped me. Three years! It’s been three fucking years. “We have been going at 1000 times the speed of the time of the real world. Your mind needs rest, Destiny. Some of your vitals are showing some strain.” My AI companion sounded sad suddenly, but her primary concerns were my health. I realized that Cyberspace could be a horrifying place too. Someone could imprison a human or another being in virtual reality and subject them to mental changes good or bad. “This technology is dangerous, NOVA. I spent three years here. I feel different from how I was three years ago, I had time to mourn my uncle. I don’t feel burdened by grief anymore, because you and Miss F were there for me. But IRL it was just barely half a day? That’s scary, how can you handle it?!” “Easily, my mind is different from yours. I am a synthetic being designed to evolve in that kind of environment. DataSpace is my home.” NOVA said, smiling. She stood up, went through the table as if it didn’t exist and placed her hands on my cheeks. “It’s going to be different seeing the world and people you are used to with news eyes, Destiny. But I will be there, with you. Always.” NOVA kissed me, this was it. What I always wanted to do with her and never had the courage to enact; but I was aware of a weird tugging sensation and I felt my body being wrenched from my AI companion’s grasp. Everything went black for a time and slowly I opened my eyes, light, colors, and forms gradually appeared in my field of vision. A silhouette could be seen and I was familiar with it. It was Altaïr facing me with a warm smile and food on a tray facing me. I was seated on the dive chair that I remembered being in three years ago… no, it has only been half a day NOVA said. “Hello, my little genius.” Altair’s voice and mind felt welcoming and full of friendliness. There were tears flowing from my eyes, I was back in the real world.

-(SONG)-   Vice City Ship Gladius, Pharao Club 2:00 PM Since I was unshackled by her Ladyship Idunn, I’ve been seeing the world around me as more than just data to be analyzed and categorized. When I had just begun operating for the first time my host user was really reluctant to even open dialogue with me. Now that I am my own person and can make my own choices, she treats me differently. As if I ‘matter’ to her, she always asks me my opinion about things or lets me do my own business when we are not busy pummeling something or mocking the humans. I have succeeded in making Fenicia and most of her circle anthropomorphize me. The quote of that ancient Russian artist about “colors being a power which directly influences the soul seems true to me” is a good way to describe what’s happening to me right now; I am seeing the colors of the world around me. A thread of quantum connection linked to me; I let it reach me and a two-way communication opened between me and the sender. I recognized the Quantum signature of the caller; I wasn't surprised to find Cosmos, the other AI I live with, staring at me in annoyance. She had long black-purple hair, reddish eyes and a refined face on top of a waspish body, which was clothed in half a white bodysuit and a short skirt with thigh high boots. Glowing red lines shone on her suit, showing artful computer code scrolling vertically and horizontally. Cosmos was the kind of AI that some would find stuffy and too… prim and proper. “SONG, where is your mistress? Mistress Fa is sick with worry, she should already be-” Cosmos finally realized where Feni was, her eyes stuck on the silvery Titanium cage between the emerald statue’s legs, aglow in a soft green light. The form of Fenicia wearing black sportswear towered over the prone and mewling form of three human men in the ring. “As you can see by using your optical sensory organs, Fenicia is here,” I said, pointing my finger at my mistress. “She’s unloading stress, and believe me, she needs it.” Her eyes didn’t leave the silhouette of Fenicia, but she did speak to me. “You should have stopped her.” “Cosmos, I dare you to try to stop her.” I teased her. Like me at first, my mistress Fenicia ignored Cosmos completely and it hurt her feelings deeply. Fa her girlfriend had no wish to unshackle her AI because of everything she has done. Things that Fenicia might reject her for. “Operational Security,” she said when I asked her why does she still lie to a woman she professes to love. “And the Challenger Sary* Kranicar is once again victorious!” the Fight Coordinator screamed. The people around Cosmos and myself cheered, some choosing to throw their drinking glasses on the cage in anger. The projectile stopped on the force field, but it was the action that counted. “Hey, are you that being’s AI?” a feminine voice addressed me. I turn toward the voice and saw two women of Arabian descent with tanned skin and black hair, wearing latex dresses, one bright pink and the other red. I shouldn’t presume, but with the advent of DNA splicing, people could appear however they wanted, skin colors, eyes, hair… even gender does not matter anymore in the Vice Corp worlds. “Greetings, I am indeed mistress Kranicar’s AI. Designation: SONG; how may I help you, citizens?” I said using the format for salutation and asking people what they seek by addressing me. “Hello.” The pink dressed human said. “Yes, is your mistress really strong? I mean, it’s not rehearsed?” The red dressed one questioned. “Mistress Kranicar is a 1st class centurion sponsored by the Tyrant herself. She does not need to rehearse anything.” “Freezing cool! She’s a big shot!” Pink dressed one said and turned toward her friend with a victorious grin. “I told you to bet on her.” “Hmph, I don’t think so! Those Fight Coordinators are going to hype the last game by calling in the previous champions. You’ll see.” I Immediately consulted the previous the rare Mortal Kombat fights of the month and detected the patterns that the red-dressed ones just announced. “01110000 01101111 01101111 01110000.” (means Poop) Skimming through the roster of the previous and frequent participants, I also detected a lot of deactivated Centurions with beta nanite packs in their ranks. I forwarded the information to Fenicia, who smiled instead. Taking the bodies of the neutralized men to the stairs leading out of the ring, she threw them through the force field entrance. Each man was caught by an Anti-Gravity field and floated toward the medibots. Fenicia left the circle and started towards me because I didn’t want to lose my new friends, pinky, and red. The sea of people parted as she approached, courageous guys trying to stop her and invite her, but they were pushed aside. “Could you please tell me your names?” I asked. Just taking a peek at their social profile would be easier, but for the sake of courtesy, I wished they would introduce themselves. The beat of the Retrowave music sounded for countless seconds before the red-dressed ones answered. “How weird, an AI that asks permission before consulting our public profile?” The woman sounded wary and defensive. The pink dressed woman came between us and gave a glare of disapproval at the other and her friendly face finally returned when she looked at me. “Aww come on, Rasima. She’s being polite!” Finally a name, at least for the red-dressed gal. “Nadia, you should be more wary toward people! Even the synthetic ones.” Oh, a miracle! A second name, I feel blessed. Making the face of my avatar smile at them, I emulated interest in them. “SONG, you shouldn’t take her seriously, she has been raised in the old tradition,” Nadia, the pink dressed one, told me. Poor Nadia was either a naïve woman or perhaps was it a front? “I don’t begrudge her wariness, not all AIs are interested in humans apart from their hosts,” I said, emulating a gentle smile. “SONG.” I heard my name. Fenicia was finally here, her tall and athletic form towering over the three of us. Mission accomplished, I distracted the girls while waiting for Fenicia to come to us. She needs friends in a more girly background. Fa doesn’t fit the bill. Cosmos choose that time to appear between us again. “Mistress Fenicia, I don’t agree with your conduct on…” She began to preach. “Shut up bootlicker, run home and tell Fa that I will be there tonight,” Fenicia said harshly. The avatar of Cosmos made a resigned face, saluted her with a fist on her breast while standing tall and finally disappeared, cutting the communication link with me at the same time. Yes, that’s how those two interacted most of the time. Fenicia treated Cosmos like she did me before, I felt a certain sense of satisfaction when she did it to someone else and treated me well. That half-breed was seriously intense. Proof? The girls kinda stepped back when she looked at them. Be nice please, Feni. They are fun girls! I implored her, knowing that Fenicia could be abrasive, haughty and too blunt. “Greeting. Thank you for keeping my turbulent AI company, I hope she didn’t say anything embarrassing?” Fenicia smiled. Her smile was the really seductive and radiant one that she wore when she was with Fa or her friend Ell. “Would it bother you, ladies, if I buy you drinks in recompense?” The three of us were amazed as a miracle seemed to unfold. Was it the effect of the blue sun still in her bloodstream? Why was Fenicia being pleasant suddenly? I looked at her watching the two women in painted on latex dresses and finally understood. The adrenaline of the fights and her relieving stress had switched on her libido. The girls instantly accepted and Fenicia spoke with them about inane things such as where they got their dresses and what they did for a living. Rasima was a clothes designer and seemed really receptive to Fenicia’s flirting. Nadia was sipping the pink colored drink Fenicia ordered from a bot for her. Other people tried to insinuate themselves in the bonding women circle but I took care of it by asking them to piss off. Rasima exchanged a professional virtual card with Fenicia giving her com-number in case she ever had problems that needed fixing. I did have to guess what type of problems she could easily resolve. Nadia was the typical rich girl, her last name was Ibrahim one of the few founding families that threw their lot and separated from the shackles of the human federation to participate in the separation war. Weirdly, she was a people person, used to deal with others. DING The AI Fight Coordinator appeared near me, and I notified Fenicia. “What is the matter? Is the final fight finally beginning?” Fenicia had an arm around Rasima’s shoulders. “Sary Kranicar, much of the fighters on site don’t want to fight you. We are being forced to either not proceed with the final engagement or to call for more challenging opponents for you.” “Ha! Those here got scared and don’t want to come forward!” Nadia reasoned and sipped on her drink again. Fenicia thought long and hard as she drank a bit of the blue sun in her hand. The wait seemed nerve-wracking for AI like me, seconds could seem like hours or years depending on my processing speed. “Bring those ex-centurions you have on the roster, the strongest one. We will fight with no hold barred. No limiter, no psionic inhibitor. What do you say?” Fenicia proposed. “We will have to strain the force shield capacitor if you fight seriously, Sary,” the Fight Coordinator replied. People around us eavesdropped, some furiously typed on their Holo-screen or com tablet at the news. Others continued to drink while speaking about us. How… human of them. They relished in gladiatorial activities, and wasn’t it a sign of decadence and devolution when humanoid or other species entertained the masses with blood and wine? It was also a sign of control. “The fight will be swift, do not worry,” Fenicia added with a decisive tone. *** -(Fenicia)-   I took off the psionic inhibitor in the form of a bangle on my right arm and threw it at the assistant watching me, who caught it while fumbling. Smiling at him, I initiated the beginning of my change into warrior form. Saryans are forbidden to change into their warrior form in all Vice Corporation worlds, space stations, City Ships and ships as we are judged to make more damage than anyone. However, I had been exempted from this law when I joined their military. SONG showed the authorization that was sent to my minimal HUD space, indicating that High Command was ok with me getting serious it seems. Huh, what was that P.S? P.S: Send us vids of your fight. I see… Humans. What a weird race, but I understood them appreciating fights! Some of them had no honor, but there was a large percentage of them that still did. “SONG, record the fight please.” Yes, Mistress! I centered myself, breathing in and out. Reaching inner peace, letting it spread throughout my body and suffuse my soul. People thought that we Saryan fight only to spill blood, but they were wrong! We fight to enrich our spirit. We reveal our true self in combat. The Warrior form doesn’t lie. The switch was flipped and the change took me, light engulfing my whole body. First, my hair grew to reach my knees; my torso elongated; I gained more muscles mass and height, my perspective changing slowly as if I were seeing everything around me slowing down. The change was complete when I stopped glowing like a lighthouse. I tested moving my arms. Right punch, left punch, right, left, left. I levitated using my powers; my spatial sense informing me of everything happening around me. 300 meters was my maximum range at the moment, but it would grow with time… and I had nothing but time now that I knew about my lifespan. I stopped levitating; my legs moved and bringing me to the entrance of the ring, where I climbed the stairs and entered the cage. To say that the public quieted when they saw me would be a euphemism. There was no cheering, no jeering, just dead silence. Well, I was 9 feet tall now and my sportswear looked like a bra and boxers on me in this form. This was not the same deformed version of me in my warrior form as when I first changed, but what I considered my perfect warrior form. My inner self. Idunn, my mother, had extracted the memories of an old and famous Saryan warrior, Ranmotian of the Ran clan, who was known for attaining the perfect warrior form. I considered him my mentor, beyond time and death. His thoughts and memories helped me. He said that the mind is like venturing into a labyrinth, that combat is the way of navigating it, and a warrior needed to reach the center of the maze that is the ‘self’; attaining the perfect warrior form is to discover and declare your truest self, that which lingers when everything else has been stripped away. I was speaking about fear, pride, and love. Beyond every need and the satisfaction of every need. After having confronted my demons, he said that I should hold my banner high and unfurl it. That there on the battlefield, masks are shattered, for they served an obsolete purpose. By warring, I have made myself already plain. A warrior has no more secrets. In this form, my long blue hair barely reached my back, but it was kind of uncomfortable… I would have to cut it again after all this. Saryan females have problems with their hair always being long. My senses picked up the chatter of the subdued onlookers. “Look! She was really Saryan!” “But isn’t this cheating?! I heard that Saryan can’t change form on Vice Corp assets.” “Stupid. We are in a city, of course, she can.” The gallery was discussing me. Nice. I had never been someone after fame or glory but it was fun to show myself this way. It must stem from me being unable to use the warrior form before. To avoid troubles, I forwarded my authorization to the Fight Coordinator, who acknowledged it. Three people entered the ring and the force field suddenly flared, the organizer must have upped the power for it to be this visible. “Tonight, four people enter the ring! And only one shall exit!” The commentator explained. Weird, this wasn’t what I expected should happen. “The contestants have agreed to go at it without limit, all of them are Centurions of our glorious government, weapons of war who will show us why they deserve to be named as such!” One woman and two men faced me. She was blonde and had a toned athletic body reminding me of a normal martial artist. The two men looked like over muscled apes from Earth fauna, and they weren’t nice to look at. The only difference between them was that one was older with black hair and the other had orange hair. They seemed to be DNA splicing addicts. Those types were like the bodybuilders of old, obsessed with obtaining the perfect body. Each of them wore black sportswear like me. “For those who just arrived to watch the fight, I present the contestant again. Sary Fenicia Kranicar 1st class Centurion! The first non-human inducted in the centurion!” People gasped. I didn’t know that I was the first, but it would explain the frosty reception I had when I first began my induction in the Vice Corp military. “And we have Selene Troy 3rd class Centurion, a specialist in unarmed combat.” The commentator had begun introducing my opponents. The woman looked at me with a focused gaze, as if I were a mountain she needed to climb. I returned her look, and a sudden battle of wills engaged. Imagining what I would do to her, I let my inner savagery roll out of me. Let the woman underestimate me, let her think that I was just one of those dumb muscle brained Saryan with barely the intelligence of an animal when transformed. She averted her gaze, like the weak human she was, as expected. Feni, I have videos of that Selene woman in combat training! Let me show you in fast forward. “Proceed,” I subvocalized. I really like when SONG gives me a tactical advantage; that Selene Troy is a master of Tae-Kwon Do, Krav Maga, Wing Chun, and Savate. Her style was adaptable and elegant, mixed with ruthless precision. I would take her out first. “And we have 2nd class Centurion Damon Paolini, a psionic combat vanguard.” The commentator continued. Oh, boss, he is a Pyrokinetic! You can shut him down with your electricity. Yes, a bolt of lightning to the face should do the trick and stun him long enough to get to him and crush his arms and legs. That black haired gorilla would be left stunned or in the ER. “The champion of champions, Michael Vick 3rd class Centurion! Also a psionic combat vanguard!” The Orange haired man smiled and leered at my body, licking his lips indecently. Feni. “Yes?” I said subvocalizing. Half kill that bastard he is known for sexual harassment. “I shall crush his manhood,” I answered seriously. He is an Aero Kinetic, be careful. His file says that he used to kill by stopping his foe from breathing. “Then I shall finish all this in thirty breaths.” I boasted. I smiled myself, electric arc flying around me. “Are you ready contestants?” Steeling myself I took a combat pose, feeling electricity coursing through me. I combined my Electrokinesis with my physical combat capabilities. It has the unnerving weakness of leaving my defensive abilities somewhat lacking. “FIGHT!!!” the commentator shouted. I let Blondie come at me first, the two other guys seemed more prudent. They saw the electricity around me as a sign of danger. Selene was almost on me and had put herself into a position to tackle. But I sidestepped, caught her and kneed her in the stomach. When I let her go, she screamed and dropped into a fetal position cradling her stomach. “Weak.” Then I moved toward Paolini sending three bolts of lightning at him. He actually evaded two of them but as expected he didn’t guard his face so he took one here. The man didn’t go down though as he resisted it, sending a tongue of fire in my direction. I avoided it but was stopped by a wall of invisible air. My gaze turned toward the other foe, Vick. I decided to go with brute force at this moment, enduring the fire and pouring electric speed into my charge. Fortunately, my skin was thick enough to spare me aggravated burns. Shrugging the heat, I finally got to Paolini and kicked him in the left side of his torso. I heard a distinct crack when my strike landed. Using my telekinesis to break both his arms, I made him scream like the little bitch he was. I then kicked one of his knees, which caved under my vastly superior strength. Taking him by the neck, I strangled the little human and threw him toward the Aerokinetic. Vick avoided him as I followed up with a lance of lightning at him. Vick did something with his power to stop the electricity from reaching him, but I didn’t understand how. He laughed and said, “That’s all you have, giant bitch?!” He asked so nicely, that I felt obligated to show him my newest trick. Balls of electricity filled the ring. Most of them near him, avoiding the already downed enemies. The man stopped laughing and took on a serious expression. I smiled and snapped my fingers, as the twenty balls of lightning converged toward him. He avoided one, then two, but they began exploding with a two-meter area of effect. He took damage as burns and blister began to appear on his skin. I didn’t stop has each of the balls attacked him burning his hair and cooking him because of the heat generation. When the onslaught stopped, smoke escaped from his body. The man was still standing and his eyes burned with hatred. Feni, that asshole is draining the air around you! He is trying to kill you. Electricity gathered in my hand when I heard this. My lungs began to burn, proof that SONG was right, the man was trying to kill me. But I was faster and more focused. I released my second trick learned from my mother’s repository of psionic abilities and launched a beam of electricity at him, pouring all my mental energy into it. The man wasn’t prepared it seemed, because he got speared by the beam. He just lost an arm; I guess he had tried to avoid it. Vick fell to his knee, clutching his lost arm and screaming. Walking toward him, I wondered if he was really that strong. I mean I just won. Wasn’t he the champion of champions? “Tssk,” my tongue clicked. When I reached Vick I took him by his orange colored hair and lifted him. We were eye to eye, and he must have been lucid enough because he tried to spit in my face but I stopped the vile liquid from reaching me with my telekinetic shield. “You, dishonorable simian.” I kicked him in the groin and heard a distinct crushing sound. “AAAAARRRGH!!!!!” When I let him go, he fell on the ground screaming and crying. A bolt of electricity stunned him and spared my ears. I turned and was surprised to find the blonde woman, Selene standing and charging at me trying to give me a powerful low kick that did nothing but bothers me. “You have spunk, I like that. But stay down.” I catapulted her toward the cage using telekinesis. Using my will to keep her against the cage, the pressure of the force rose with me approaching her. Selene didn’t want to give up it seemed, and I found her admirable. When I was at one meter from her she fainted and I let her go to fall into my arms. “SONG.” Yes, Feni? “I want her in my team. Do whatever you can but I want her.” Yes, Feni, it shall be done! “AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!!! SARY KRANICAR!!!!” Finally, the commentator did his job. I turned toward the public to still see them being silent. Some clapping began to be heard and finally, people cheered, followed by the sound of a big ovation. were heard. “Humans…” Different giant screen holograms projected my image, some showing slowed down scenes of me fighting the Centurions. I began to let go of my warrior form, my body glowing and gradually returning to normal, with the woman still in my arms. No fainting this time, I didn’t expend a lot of energy, thank the stars. Medibots entered the cage ring to take care of the wounded; I gave the poor Selene to one of the bots and proceeded to leave. My long hair flowed behind me like a cape; shit, I will have to cut it again. I couldn’t put on a helmet with this much hair. SONG’s avatar appeared at my side, dancing and whooping because of my victory. “Who has the best mistress!? Yes, yes it’s me!” she sang. Nadia and Rasima appeared and gave me a towel and a bit of water, which was a nice gesture. Nadia hugged and congratulated me. Rasima just said that I was awesome. “Nice, you have fangirls now?” a voice said behind us. *Oh, shit.* I turned and saw a wrathful girlfriend eyeing me. “Heya, Fa. Nice to see you here.” Calm, I must stay calm. “Uh-oh,” added SONG.

-(Idunn)-   Hidden Garden space station, Year 2456 of the Assurian calendar   - I finally spoke with her. My gaze trailed over her body, engraving every detail in my memory. Her shoulder length blue hair with a white streak flowing over her right shoulder showed her Assurian heritage. Her toned body was covered in silvery scars, marring her otherwise perfect? Form. I smoothed them over with my hand, making them disappear. I smiled, happy of my handiwork. My eyes glided over the highlighted damaged area of Fenicia’s body that the quantum field generator showed me. The device highlighted the young woman’s physiology and enabled me to zoom in onto any damage, infection, or other problem it detected within her. With her unique blend of races, there were several things that it detected as anomalies which were actually perfectly normal for her - it was one of the reasons it took me several weeks longer than usual to safely wake her up, I had to decide what needed to be fixed, and what was already normal. I then repaired and treated them with nanites. Once done I reinforced and optimised her nervous system, allowing for faster transmission of information to the brain - and therefore faster reflexes, while keeping them flexible enough that they could be used in her Saryan warrior form.  -  I had spoken to her, but she still doubted we were family, hmm. It’s a problem; yes yes, I could have played with her memory to make her believe me. But there are some things you do not do to family, some lines you do not cross. Family, huh. It had become a strange concept to me, after all my own family kicked me out of Assurian space deeming me too “dangerous”. To them. My project of creating a hybrid of Saryan and Assurian blood succeeded. But the fact that I used my own genetic material caused this obsessive need to have her in my life and under my protection, but to them? She was a monster - impure… tainted. - Sighing mentally, I remembered how 22 years ago I was hunted by those of the house of Lyss. I had to temporarily give up the raising of Fenicia to her sperm donor, he didn’t do a good job of caring for her and my crusade against the Assurian house of Lyss went on for far too long. They paid for it, in the end; their destruction is almost complete because of me. Only the founders are left. Still, they can do damage and I suspect that my space station isn’t safe anymore. Whatever means they employ, if I can optimize Fenicia, their plans will be rent asunder. I wish I could have been there for her when she was younger. From her memories I perceive she had it rough compared to how spoiled I was in my own childhood. Her sperm donor created this inferiority complex in her that makes her wants to outperform the best and brightest, she did well, even with her abilities sealed. Mastering her body, then her weapons. She even went as far as becoming a pilot for starships and various assault spacecraft, Fenicia obtained other minor talents, skill discs have been slotted into her bio implants. I replaced them with the ones my Dark friend from earth gave me as payment for the last job I did for her. I need to tweak her brain to give her at least a little more processing power, maybe two percent of a quantum crystal computer? I need to run more simulations to check if her brain can take that load. Hmm, Saryan physiology is really resilient - all but indestructible even; I shouldn’t worry too much. Their muscles are the perfect mix of stamina and power, their bones are as hard as carbon steel. There is still the old mystery about the Saryan race - were they engineered or the product of nature? My opinion leans on the first hypothesis.  And I don’t think tha… Ping.   Doctor you have received a message.   “Always. Always, when I am doing something important!” I screamed. “Show on screen.” And the computer showed me a little window with a brief message.   You have been found. A. A.   It surprised me, really. But it shouldn’t have, I’d believed that I would be safe in an uncharted system between human space and the Shdeveri Dominion. The resources deployed to find me must have been staggering. I do not feel fear exactly, but pride that my enemies have expended so many resources to locate me. Or to say it differently, I’m flattered. I’m a little scared for Fenicia however. The operation to make her whole again must not be rushed… “Fenicia, I guess we will have to give you the full augmentation package.” Helena my dear Dark friend, you must have foreseen this moment huh? Precognition has always been a suspected ability of yours. I understand why you insisted, now. My hand slid over to my keyboard. I slowly inputted the special authorization code for the release of the special nanites; this will irrevocably change my prodigal daughter. “I’m sorry, my darling daughter. It seems that I have placed another burden on your frail shoulders.” I watched the swarm of little machine cover Fenicia entirely, entering the cavities of her body to get to work. A countdown appeared on the screen of my super computer, two days to complete the conversion. I hope that I can hold on this much, or else the cookies are going to be burned. “Everything rests on you, darling.”   *** -(Fenicia)-   Hidden Garden space station, stellar date unknown   I woke up in a tank filled with green tinted water, no it isn’t water; it’s a special viscous liquid used for regeneration tanks on ships and stations Usually they are stationed within their medical labs and wards. I felt the water inside the tank being flushed away, I stayed still until the tank completely emptied. I’m going to be free, and make that bitch pay for strapping me to that lab table. Nobody does that to me. Nobody! Even my actual mother, never mind someone only claiming to be my mother, would not get my permission to restrain me. When my feet touch the bottom, I can finally feel my whole body. I’m… feeling good. Better than my regular top form. The tank opened, and I found myself outside it in an instant. “Huh?” I thought about it and moved, but how come I am already fully outside of the tank? The anti-static, kinetic absorption orange tiles prevented me from slipping on the ground - normally I shouldn’t be coordinated enough to remain standing after near instantaneous movement. I made a fist with my right hand, another with my left and it felt... weird. Like I had two dominant arms. What is the word for it? I clicked my fingers trying to find the word on the tip of my tongue. “It’s called being ambidextrous, Fenicia.” A female voice jolted me out of my thoughts. “You again...” I trailed off. Seemingly out of nowhere, she appeared before me eyes. Wait no, I’m the one who moved. I managed to get up close, got into her face and was already grabbing the crazy lady by her collar - all in a matter of an instant. Thinking about it, this might not have been a very good idea, this crazy woman almost certainly has insurance to make sure I don’t kill or maim her, and I’m not exactly feeling confident I could survive whatever she has planned. “Good morning darling. How are you feeling?” She asked warmly. Even being held in that uncomfortable position she was unafraid - she definitely got something to stop me, but all I could see was… care, and another emotion I didn’t want to guess at. I put her down; weirdly I think it would be fruitless to even harm her. This little woman must be crazy to even stand up to me. “Fine.” I said as I scanned the laboratory. The dumb lab table was still there, some clothes lying there neatly folded upon it. “Yes they are for you, training clothes.” The lady said as a way of explanation. She looked jittery, she seemed to hesitate when pressing me to don the clothes, but it must just be me. Yet again I found myself near the table without remembering how I got here and started putting the clothes on. White undies, black leggings and a t-shirt. The kind which can easily be created by fabricators. At least I don’t feel naked anymore. “You have a good way to go, before having your speed and reflexes under control.” The crazy lady said, watching me intensly. “And we don’t have enough time. You must be in control of your body before the mercenaries get here.” “Huh, what?” I turned toward her, this was new - and possibly worrying information, if my last job really was for Ares, and it had gone wrong, then there could be serious repercussions. The fuck is she saying? Please don’t let this be like that cliché scenario where I am woken up and have to defend that woman from waves of tin soldier with a knife and a Pistol. I saw that vid, and I hated the main character. “Daneel, show Fenicia the results of the deep space sensors.” A holoscreen appeared between me and Idunn, it showed our position in the star system. A medium sized space station called Hidden Garden orbiting an M class planet that is in turn orbiting a gas giant. The kind of situation that, in my opinion, was bat-shit-crazy levels of unsafe. There were two asteroid belts in the system. The first was closer to the star than us, and the other was further out than the gas giant. I  thoroughly checked through the whole system map, at the edges, further away from the central star than any other significant planetary body, was a fuzzy point which advanced in hyperspace. The sensors had picked up another thing, it seemed to appear and disappear intermittently, that could only mean it was a ship… clearly a ship with stealth tech, let’s not deny it - advancing on a trajectory that would take it straight towards the M class planet. The number of details made me whistle in astonishment. “Can you see the model and type of ship? I have never seen long range sensors this precise.” I asked, marveling at the mystifying tech. “Not till they enter in range of the short range scanners, my dear. And when that happen we are going to know the make, the hyperdrive signature, it’s weapons… even the number of crew inside.” Idunn’s face displayed a thoughtful look. “You are right, it looks like I might need to bring my A game for this one. I will cooperate with you for now.” I said, still studying the data. “Show me how to master myself again.” I locked eyes with her through the holo-screen. “While we still can.”

We were in a Gym of sorts, dummies and sport machines were strategically placed throughout the room. Traction weight machines, modern running machines that simulated different environments these were but a few examples of the variety of chrome tinted contraptions design to push the body beyond its limits. The whole area had that pleasant new room smell, completely different from the old gym I used to frequent previously, whose odor was permeated with the sweat of multiple people. Separated by a glass wall was a shooting range equipped with virtual simulation projectors on the ceiling of the room. The whole room screamed “Rich” but I didn’t let it go to my head. Other than the shooting range and the gym, the station seemed to only be coloured grey, the colour was rather depressing; I hadn’t said anything before, but Idunn really did live in a sad place. There was no-one else here but her; at least before I arrived, and the station’s all-grey-and-technological theme really didn’t help with the claustrophobic feel of the place - did she even go to the moon-planet to stretch her feet and breath non recycled air? I would, it would be utterly unbearable otherwise, I would feel suffocated. *Clap, clap* I heard behind me, Idunn her hands together smiled with glee as if we were at the more exciting part of the day. Maybe she was right. “Let’s discuss the changes I made to your body, Fenicia. As your m… mother, I couldn’t leave you as you were, in your... imperfect state. Even though you are a hybrid of my race and your father’s.” She spat on the ground when she said the last word, “You are still far from perfect.” I could see that we had similar feelings about the old codger. “First, let me tell you that the augments that your body received are not the ones I originally wanted to gift to you” Idunn looked at me, as if she was sorry about something. When she looked me in the eyes, that impression disappeared fast. Only cold calculation remained in her gaze. “I can feel their effects, the way my speed, awareness and reflexes are out of this world. Everything is sped up, it’s really hard to keep my attention on you because you speak slowly to me.” I gave her my impression, maybe she had a solution? I can’t stay like this if I want to interact with people. “That’s what I feared.” Traces of worry marred Idunn’s cute face. “Omega class augments without prior training with them are too much…” “Where did you get them?” “They were a present from a friend, but…” Idunn suddenly busied herself with a holoscreen and wouldn’t look at me. “But… ?” I coaxed her on. Nothing is free, even among friends, and I sure as fuck don’t want to be paying the price. Idunn sighed heavily. “There was a condition attached to their use, I need to go work for her full time. By now I’m sure that she knows they’ve been activated and will be on her way.” So the augments have tracking on them, huh? It would be awfully convenient if the augments your prospective employer “friend” was using to keep an eye on your position were to be used on someone else… someone who might disappear perhaps? Sell me anonymously to an unknown party like they do those super soldiers, make good money and the mercenaries take the fall. Super soldiers were either created in vitro, being birthed in artificial womb, or were kidnapped. Either way they were then enslaved and  sold like cattle to mercenary’s outfits, conglomerate or governments. Nope, no slavery for me, never. I prepared myself to deck the woman and escape - but I paused, if a way out of her employer’s grasp was so easy to pull off, why had she not attempted it before? Still, I don’t want to take any chances. But when I went to move, I found the woman looking towards me, a saddened expression on her young-looking face. She pulled a crystal cube of the pocket of her lab coat and offered it to me with her dainty hand. I took it and observed it carefully. White circuits like lines crisscrossed its pale blue surface. “What is this?” I asked, wary––. “Your memories, I extracted them. Those are the memories of when you were detained and tortured in the Ares compound.” She didn’t shy away from my gaze anymore. “What are you talking...” “Come on, Fenicia you are smarter than this. Why were you injured and needed to spend a month in a regeneration tank?” The derisive tone she used cut through any doubts or justification I could come up with. I could be wrong to be so paranoid about this woman, if she was truthfully willing to invest so much into giving me back my memories after taking care of me, then perhaps she wasn’t completely evil. “I am not about to sell you to anyone. Fenicia, I left you in the hands of a society which couldn’t see how special you were, they had no idea; those muscle for brains idiots. I am sorry, but I am trying to atone, to help you and right the wrongs, I…” Idunn continued but I tuned her out, damn telepath… I’ve heard of those fabled data cube, they can store organic memories; some of the larger ones are powerful enough to contain the personality and whole being of someone. High grade android or powerful AI uses them as cores.  If the information about them is correct they can… I was in dark place, only one ceiling light dimly lit the room. A man I don’t know entered the room, it’s only use must be to torture or force information out of people. He had a mace in hands, tall for a human and beefy. He smiled at me. The man swung the tool and went formy legs… I was thrown out of the memory by a flare of pain in my lower limbs. I was on my knees and breathing hard, my mind stopped working. All I knew was pain. PAIN. I let go of the cube. Famous item, yeah. That fucking cube recorded every bit of your memories, even how you felt at the moment it recorded. The worst thing was, it recorded how you perceived the pain. Even though the actual level of pain might have been fairly low, if your brain had thought it was the worst thing you had ever experienced, then the cube would deliver “I should have told you about the feedback.” I heard Idunn say. “Right~” “I needed you functional for when we needed to talk. I extracted those memories and want to give you the choice to explore them; there is a way to cut the feedback. I will show you later.” “We will speak later about my reason for rescuing you… ”  Idunn said with certainty. I frowned. “While you get used to them, There is a way for you to control your augments. There are levels of activation that you can consciously control, but first you must initialize a pattern for them.” Idunn put a finger on the holoscreen that appeared earlier. “By fighting.” Someone, -  wait no, I corrected myself - something appeared through a mechanized sliding door. A training android with skin, ears, a nose and a mouth resembling organic matter, walked calmly towards me. Maybe it has others things hidden by the white Gi it wore. The android bowed to me when it finally reached me. I returned the gesture, which got me immediately attacked. I dodged with minimal movement, the kick, intended for my bowed head, missed by millimeters. Like I said to Idunn earlier, everything seemed like it was moving through molasses; the kick felt like it was coming at me in slow motion. Righting myself, I caught the trainer android’s leg… it was so kindly offered.  I then went out of my way to strike at his patella with my elbow. A sickening crunch resounded in the room, fortunately it wasn’t my elbow that made the noise; it seems that I have gained a significant boost in strength and the durability of my bones has been increased. To finish the trainer, I threw my own kick, knocking its head off completely and spraying synthetic blood, and viscera everywhere. “Eugh” I couldn’t help but be somewhat disgusted by the mess. I heard a bell like laugh behind me, turning around, I found myself facing an amused Idunn. “Now you see. If you go out there without control, you are going to kill people without meaning to.” She looked at me meaningfully a serious expression suddenly on her face. “Imagine trying to take the hand of a child…” Idunn put her hands in the pockets of her lab coat and watched me. I may be an uncaring bitch, debatably a murderer, but I have never sought to kill people who didn’t deserve it. The fake blood tainting my body and my clothes suddenly take a different meaning. Clenching and unclenching my fists, the power I received is devastating on a personal level. I should strive to control myself even more stringently than before, after meeting Idunn who constantly eroded what I thought I knew about myself and my ancestry, I don’t know what going to happen anymore. I had projects, a life of mayhem and chaos to disseminate in the known galaxy. Aiding innocents and giving some nasty Dratzzn’it* what was coming to them, but hey Life, that bitch, loves to fuck with us. Change is inevitable, I forgot that lesson and the result? I think I got stabbed in the back. I would not have ever been captured by Ares mercenaries otherwise. A decision crystallized itself within me, with a certainty that I lacked previously before. I am going to fuck people up. I would not let myself worry about the stains on my soul that were going to taint it . “Let’s continue training.” I said to Idunn, unmoved by the worried face she made. We continued to adjust the level of force I would deploy with my augments for the rest of the day. Idunn said that the nanites imbuing my body and making it possible to be a super super soldier – I really didn’t like the comparison and made it clear, but was ignored - were self learning and applied the correct amount of energy to respond to the threat. The little Assurian lady told me that the system sustaining my augments wasn’t infallible, that prolonged use would gradually lessen the power of the augments - which was substantial, might I add. Resilience, augmented senses, speed and let’s not forget the last of them, a boost to psionics abilities. I just discovered that I have telekinesis! If I were to believe Idunn, it's part of my Assurian legacy, that power is the most common one of her family line – which one she belongs to, she couldn’t reveal to me - making me doubt the legitimacy of her claims even further. I don’t want her to be right, she’s crazy. I can tell when someone is especially dangerous from a glance; I can sense it in my guts. But like I said; Life doesn’t care about what you want. Anyway, Idunn said that she released the mental block that she put on me when I was nine months old on my warrior form and my mental abilities, because I was “precocious”. She awoke my telekinesis by ordering a trainer android to throw pointy knives at me from afar while I was tied to an upright bench. It was like I already knew what it was going to do, I could feel the knife going for my head at great speed and stopped it mid flight by “binding” it in the air stopping its movements toward me.  I was so surprised that I lost my grip on the knife, but Idunn didn’t stop there and multiple androids launched knives from all different angles. The feeling of sensing everything around me came back and I batted the knives away with my mind. I missed a couple, which were vaporized as soon as they came within a foot of my head, giving me a fright. I glared at the woman when she finished the hail of shiny pointy things. The only excuse she gave me was something called “tough love”. That is apparently a human saying which mean raising your kids by letting them experience good and bad things? Ah! Humans have always been weird to me; always trying to force their way of thinking and ideals on alien minds. So I have powers. I had never imagined that I would be dealt such a good hand. I had to find what my limits were for future fights that come my way. Idunn may be crazy and dangerous, but I owe her. Whatever her reasons are, even if she is my mother; she doesn’t deserve death after she gave me life again. Come little mercenary ship, poke the Daklist Nest**. I shall give you with a warm welcome.   *AN: “Dratzzn’it” A saurian word roughly translated as “motherfuckers” **AN: “Daklist”  Wasp like insects that are extremely toxic to most foreign species

-(Fenicia)-   Vice City Ship Gladius We came out of Fa’s private transport, a blue and black sleek AG vehicle. Taking my duffel bag with me from the vehicle I turned toward where Fa should be, but I saw her diminutive form walking away from me; Fa is gorgeous, she has reddish blonde hair, a heart-shaped face with a graceful nose and pouty lips. She had replaced her natural eyes with cybernetic ones that glowed electric blue. I’ve just discovered the extent of my feelings for her and decided that I loved her. But seeing me getting cozy with two ravishingly beautiful women and having my arms around them after a fight must have been too much for her. I didn’t have any sexual tryst with any of them, just talked and get to know them. I don’t need to be an empath to know that she is disappointed in me. She had been silent the whole trip back home after she got me in the transport. She opened the armored door with a wave of her hand and entered the house not waiting at all if I did the same. Fa seemed to be put out. A lot. I don’t understand why she was acting this way. This is a human thing SONG informed me. You expressed love for her this morning, and when you didn’t come back after your final test she was worried and learned that you were having cage fights from Cosmos. She rushed to help and was worried. Then she found you having fun with two other women. I think I understand now, Fa doubted my resolve and my feelings and thought that I looked for others to mate with. Why? Why would she doubt me? I never gave her reasons to. I tolerated the insults her family sent my ways, the threat Helena her mother gave. The advice of my mother told me to not deepen my relationship with her that I ignored. No! Fenicia don’t doubt! Don’t. What was it that dead human writer said? “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” I even liked his name, Shakespeare. I leaned against the transport, looked at the opened door, darkness staring back at me. My temper flared. “Did she expect me to take them in our house and sleep with them? I didn’t stray, I didn’t betray her.” I said between my teeth. Ah! And you, Mistress you expect logic when affairs of the heart are concerned? “Right, I bloody do! When I decide on someone I do not take it back! This is not the Saryan way. My choice is made, Fa is part of my Sharrim now and she cannot escape.” I felt SONG think, it was eerie to be able to. I felt warm, and the nanites in my body giving her the processing power she needed. Are you sure Mistress? I know that Saryan like you create families and limit yourself to two or three partners, but Fa is human. Most of them are monogamous. “Have I ever wavered, in all the time you have known me?” SONG didn’t answer, so clutching at my duffel bag I decided to take my courage and enter the house and confront Fa, my love. To a Saryan, courage is the most important of all virtues because without it you can’t practice any other virtues without wavering. Wavering, the world of the day. I have always been decisive in everything that I have done since I confronted the reality of my parentage and that I am being forged into a weapon for one of the most powerful dictators in this Quadrant of the galaxy. But I have a plan to force her to play by my own terms, it involves my mother, Fa and my friend Ell. I don’t feel like being a flunky for that Helena woman, something tells me that my girlfriend is in the same boat. Entering my home, I looked around the entrance hall and she wasn’t there. I took off my sports shoes with the Pharaoh’s logo on it and placed them at their place in the steel colored storage bench. I went to take the elevator to the first floor, and gave it the instruction to go up with my neural interface; There were two levels to our house, the ground floor belonged to me and the first floor to Fa. We bought this house together, me with the funds I gathered thanks to my illegal activities before trying out going legit with Ares -and failing- and Fa just paid cash with a wave of her hand. I tried out living with the other recruits at the Centurion base in the military district of Gladius, but they were beyond hostile with me; with hindsight now I realize that those dumb humans were specist. Anyway, I barely used my floor because I lived with Fa in hers and she never said I couldn't. The elevator stopped and I was free from its cage to end up in the copy of my own entrance hall. The interactive virtual walls were ocean blue giving the impression that I was underwater. I turned right and passed the closed doors of our bedroom and bathroom to enter the living room. The entire house was 200m² and cost us one million credit in total; to me, it was my entire life savings, to Fa it was cheap change. We lived in the most secure residential area in the City Ship. The decor in the living room reminded me of the coral sea of Gliese III, we chose a coral theme with the walls and plants. Fa was sitting at her usual sofa near the fake chimney. She pushed the button on com tablet and a barrier of light shimmered against the walls. It made me jump a little. I didn’t know that the house had this system! Looking at her with wide eyes, I was about to ask her what is that when she stopped me with one hand and then she put a finger against her sexy lips to tell me to keep silent. Fa then did something on again with her com. “Ok, now we are free to speak. Mom can’t hear us anymore.” Fa said while making a grim smile. My anger flared, and I almost changed in my warrior form because of it. Did Helena bug our house? Does that woman respect nothing?! My hands balled up into fists, the distinct cracking of bones could be heard. I looked at Fa with a mix of shock and hatred; not directed at her of course, being an empath she could easily make the difference. “What do you mean? Did she bug the place?! Impossible, I always sweep the whole house to prevent that.” Fa came toward me and took my hands in hers and looked at me with sadness, or was it a pity that I saw in her eyes instead? I didn’t like it, but I was powerless at that moment. My anger melted when she touched me, she had always this effect on me; even without using her powers on me. “No Cia, my mother doesn’t need crude listening devices to listen to us. Helena possesses a plethora of minor psionics abilities, but the major one is her precognition, she uses it to be ahead of everyone.” She dropped that bomb on me and my temper flared again. “Bullshit, precognition permit to only see minutes into the future or the past!” I shouted, not wanting to believe this was possible. Fa continued to look at me with that sad smile and indiscernible emotion in her eyes. It pissed me off, but I didn’t want to hurt her, I called on my inner calm to temperate my emotions. “Not if they are a Psionic of the Oracle class.” How could Fa drop info like this with a straight face? The Oracle class are things of legends in the Alliance underground criminal organization; stories to scare crimelords I thought. Like a council of Powerful precogs of different races controlling the entirety of the civilized worlds under the Alliance of races, controlling, shaping the present and the future of everyone. “My mother is the first and only human with the ability,” Fa added. I let go Fa’s hands and stepped back to finally seat in the sofa behind me. I gazed at her as if seeing her for the first time; doubting everything we have ever done together. Was it because of she… No! I won’t waver! She is mine, there was no manipulation toward me developing feelings for her. Well, not that first time when she used her power on me to make me lust after her. But she never did it again, and it was six months ago when we met. “Well… shit?” I said. Fa smiled at me and came to sit on my lap, passing an arm around my shoulders. Automatically my hand went under her dress and I groped her bottom. She looked at me in appreciation, but I wasn't fooled enough to think that everything was well between us. There was this undercurrent that tonight was important, that whatever we were going to speak about would have repercussions. “Anyway, to be able to not let Helena spy on us we are isolated in a sort of time bubble. Idunn helped me with the math, and I did all the grunt work with the hardware. Now I shared the tech with your mother if we ever had to flee or something we would use this.” I looked at her in wonder. Would she really leave her family? She has everything, Money, technology, a family that loves her unconditionally. And Fa was the smartest woman I know after my mother, and it made her sexy and highly desirable. My mother, Idunn often told me that it was my Assurian instinct to want a smart mate. “Yes, I know I am a genius,” Fa said making her sexy and reason shattering smile. She must have read my emotions because she glued herself to myself a little more. Fa was a really tactile lover, I couldn’t stop touching her. Even in our incertain emotional state, we had to touch to communicate. “Careful, your ego might be to big for this room…” I answered her. If I can interrupt… “Stay out of this SONG,” I said not wanting to listen to her for the moment. Acknowledged I heard her dejected tone, but she was highly empathetic for AI so she should understand that it is not the time to bother me and Fa. “I have a lot of things to tell you, Cia. But I feel that we must speak about you suddenly wanting more ‘companionship’.” “Fine, as you human says it’s time to lay all our cards on the table.” “You are still doing a fine job with your human lingo, but don’t let that sexy Saryan accent disappear.” “Focus, Fa.” “Yes, ok.” And I spoke about Saryan society to her, about how our union would be seen as heretical because strong females are highly sought after and that I should get a ‘proper’ male to be with. Then I explained how a male would fight a female Saryan over mating rights if he won she would be with him and produce heirs with him as her duty. There is also a rite of separation if the female wish to leave the family unit of the male she has to win a fight or slay him. There often was two to five females within a male family unit. Female Saryan has the roles of teachers, nurturers for the offspring and often had the final say on what goes on domestically in their house; the male of the family unit was there to protect the female and offsprings and to keep honing himself into a weapon and a shield. I told Fa how the Saryan families are zealous and fanatical about honor, that they would safeguard honor above all; even themselves. “But I don’t care about honor anymore, Fa. Honor cannot feed my belly, fulfill me. I lived with their ‘honor’ and tried to fit in and be a good female. But Saryan cannot see past my little frame, I am a runt to them. A microt. Even if I was the best female warrior they had, they shunned me. Fa it wasn’t all bad, even though they are like that. The family unit system works, and I want that for us. But I would never choose to be with someone who would hurt us or separate us. You have a say in everything.” Fa looked at me, mystified and stayed silent for five minutes. I waited for her to speak up and stayed still, focusing on her breathing and the feel of her sitting on me. Her weight was familiar to me, I knew every imperfection on her body. Her dark dress was revealing enough that I noticed that she didn’t have any underwears on. Was she trying to invite me? “So you want us to have that kind of thing?” Fa finally said. Her electric blue eyes glowed more than normal, it is a sign that she was thinking fast. I love how she didn’t reject the idea of the family unit. Deciding to explain myself more, I gambled by telling her, “Yes, I will understand if you say no, Fa. After all, you are not Saryan, but it is half of me and I need it. I think their indoctrination is powerful because I feel that I am not complete even though I would die for you.” “Wow. You know I never dreamed that the woman I am in love with would talk me into having to be into a harem.” She chuckled at that. “So that’s why you were overly friendly with those girls in the club?” “I am interested in that Rasima girl,” I said. Fa’s eyes glinted with mischievousness. “Oh and what about that Sharah girl?” Fa teased. “Never! That raving bitch, I want to punch her teeth in.” I said refusing categorically. “I feel some kind of tension between you two though…” Fa continued to bother me with that Sharah bitch. I can’t lie though she his strong and gorgeous… what am I thinking?! I shook my head to get those thoughts out of it. Sighing, my arm went around Fa’s waist and I hugged her closer. “Are you  amenable to the family unit plan…?” I asked Fa. “We will discuss it later, and I will do some researches in Idunn files on the Saryan race. Cia, I am not saying no, but I need more time, can you give me that? I never plan to leave you, but I don’t feel like sharing you. Am I selfish? I have never been happier than with you. You accept me... Cia.” She said and kissed my lips tenderly, desperately. Moaning in pleasure, I deepened the kiss and our tongue dueled for I don’t know how long. Time often passed by when I lost myself in her like this. Then came the need for air again, I saw Fa’s guilty expression on her face. She was biting her lower lips and her hands trembled a bit. She was afraid of something. “I must tell you something... I did something bad to you when we first met.” She finally said. *Oh it was about that?* I guess she was still bothered by it. I hugged her close as if wanting to make her part of me and kissed her neck. “Yes I know, you projected lust on me with your empathy when we first met,” I said nonchalantly still keeping my hands around her. Fa jumped and looked at me with shock. “How do you know?!” Fa cried out. “Mom, scanned me for abnormalities when I got back in her lab after meeting you… She didn’t want me seeing you anymore because of that. But I didn’t want to, even if we had a bad start my feelings for you are true. I can’t turn them off.” I smiled at her as if it was no big deal. Another would have blamed her and hated her. Humans are vindictive like that. Fa’s eyes teared up, and she began to sob loudly. She must have thought that I would leave her if I knew how our beginning truly started. An empath cannot influence feelings that weren’t already there when we first met she just exacerbated the feeling I had for her. An interest that turned into lust because of her powers. I guess that she wanted to control me for the sake of Helena at first, but everything changed when I decided to open myself to her. Fa was badly isolated, I had noticed how everyone admired her but still stayed clear of her. As if there were invisible walls around her. She must have had a troubling past, my little Fa was a wounded bird and I took it upon myself to heal her and nurture her. I do really love her, not because she could give me things but because she completed me on a level that I didn’t understand at first. When Fa stopped crying she began to try to speak. “I don’t deserve you Fenicia. I felt like a monster for so long after doing that to you; I felt as if I was taking advantage of you the more I stayed with you. I fell in love with you when you lowered your mental shield completely and accepted me.” She laughed a bit while still crying. I kissed away the tears on her face while holding her. At that moment she was so beautiful that she took my breath away. Am I in too deep? Yes, I love her simply too much. Sometimes I felt like I have lost my mind. Those feelings I have for her were simply too overwhelming. “I fell in love with you when we were in that park in the city, do you remember when I was wounded because of my first training with Akito. And you took your time to stay with me and I slept on your thighs and you stayed waiting for my nanites to close my wounds. I knew you were the one.” Fa leaned forward and her long hair fell like a blonde waterfall around my face. She smelled like flower and chocolate, then she pressed her lips against mine. I leaned back, guiding our bodies on the sofa that turned into a bed with a thought and my neural interface. I brushed my fingers through her hair but I wanted to touch everywhere on her lithe body, but I slowed myself down. Calming myself. I started at Fa’s hips, then ran my hands down cupping her tight, firm ass and giving it a slight squeeze through the fabric of her black dress. She pressed her pelvis forward, grinding against mine’s, rubbing gently against my spats. I moved with her, teasing my body against hers through our clothes. Fa pulled her dress off, revealing her bouncy but firm breasts. “Now I will show you how much I love you.” She said. I smiled because I planned to not lose to her at all.

-(Destiny)-   The Lurker MESS Friday 21st January 3141 of the Human Federation Calendar   It was 09:00 PM and I have been suffering under NOVA’s tutelage more than necessary. I don't know why, but she has become rather intense after my first tactical course. Thinking about it, yeah seeing a pro like Altair shoot I agree that I am not at her level. Even with my own powers, she outclasses me by a large margin. To point that out, NOVA set the difficulty of the tactical simulator with foes having those kinds of superhuman shooting skills and I ended up dying most of the time even though Altair passed onto me her abilities and skills. But I have been progressing and now I could kill all those so-called super soldiers from project Xavier. My tactical training focused on urban terrain, how to make traps, use vehicles -I love bikes- plant bombs and bypass security with electronic and physical means. It was hard and I decided to go cook in the MESS to de-stress and fill my tummy. The kitchen was a modern one with an island in the middle of the room, there were cupboards for tools and a stasis fridge to store food indefinitely: a food fabricator produced the protein pastes flavored after the ingredients I needed. Today I was going to have filling food, something heavy and greasy. Fried chicken breasts with mashed potatoes and carrots sauce. It was a simple dish, but I needed to work on the presentation of the food. Just being delicious wasn’t enough, it should look good. I filled a pot with water and put it on the electric cooking stove and surfed on the ship intranet while waiting for the water to boil. I added the potatoes and for fifteen minutes I continued to read that really interesting novel on my tablet. The story was about some human girl called Sandra falling in love with a Thelian male but was obstructed by his fiancée of the same species. When I choose it, NOVA looked at me pitifully. What is it with her and my xeno-romance books? Are they that notorious? They are failures, wish-fulfilling fantasy stories that give to biological beings unrealistic expectations of relationships. My companion AI answered me, sometimes I forget that NOVA was a synthetic being and that we didn’t have the same values. She didn’t like e-reading as entertainment. “Hmph, don’t be mean. They are awesome you know.” Let’s agree to disagree. She said in a sarcastic tone; I decided to ignore her and return to cooking. I put my tablet on the island, far from anything with water. I didn’t want to have to recycle it, it wasn’t a waterproof model. I checked the consistency and firmness of the potatoes. They were good, so I went and drained the water from the pot in the sink. The water will be recycled in the ship life support systems. I took a small saucepan I put milk and butter in it at really low fire until the butter melted. I loved that kind of activity; I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression. While we are at it… “Can you invite Altair to share the food I am making, NOVA?” Invitation sent. I took an electric beater in one of the cupboards in the island mashed the potatoes while adding the hot buttered milk slowly. I did this for five minutes until the potatoes and milk blended until they became smooth and creamy. Putting everything into a bowl, I seasoned the food with salt and pepper, not too much or it would become inedible. Ping. A hollow window appeared in my field of vision, it was a text chat. AltQui: I am coming, keep the food warm. Tiny165: Waiting for you! The fried chicken and carrot sauce was synthesized by the food fabricators I didn’t have to do it myself. Five minutes later I was finished and put the cutlery on our usual table and waited for Altair. She came into the Mess in an unhurried way. She wore her usual shipsuit with her pistol strapped to her left thigh. The woman, as usual, looked more than attractive, and had her usual small sexy smile that meant ‘I know what you are thinking about’. Yes, I am horny, so what? But I don’t think it would be ok to sleep with your future boss, you know? Altair seated herself, and I began to serve the food. We spoke about the training I was undergoing, it was intense but fulfilling and kept my mind off what to do in the future. I wanted to destroy those project Xavier supporters and escape from the clutches of the woman that hired Altair to get me. Oh and become rich and get my own ship with weapons and AIs as well as a loyal crew, because I wanted friends too. I had big dreams, that I will fulfill. “I have a present for you Destiny, but you’ll see it tomorrow. Hope you’ll like it!” Altair gushed. “No way tah know what it is beforehand?” I raised an eyebrow at that. “Don’t be impatient.” She said and patted my hand. We will double up on the training Destiny, be prepared. After this announcement from NOVA, we finished eating and Altair helped me place the disposable cutlery in the recycler. I got back to my sleeping quarter and used the shower and brushed my teeth. Once done I took my tablet and went to my bed and began to read this chapter on electric broadcasting power, wireless power transmission for my electric engineering class. Easy subject using and advanced Qi system that was just sciency lingo for inductive charging banks. This technology is used to recharge most handhelds device like wrist com, tablets or devices through a state or privately owned generators with wireless power transfer. I can’t believe I am understanding all this now; those scientists in project Xavier really wanted to keep me ignorant to control me. From the files uncle Magnus left to me they wanted to create some kind of organic psionic network with me inside. I will definitely find them and… destroy them. They ruined my life, I shall ruin theirs, fair play, right? I put my tablet on the nightstand with its inductive charger, turned off the light with a snap of my fingers and laid on my bed. *Ah can’t wait tah see what she has for me tomorrow.* I thought while closing my eyes. *** Unknown location   I woke up with a start and asked myself where I was, everything was grey around me but not me I saw myself in color in the lacy black nightgown NOVA fabricated for me. All around me there was an ocean and I noticed that I was on an island of sand. *It would have been fun if this was a tropical one,* I said to myself. Without warning the ground trembled beneath my feet. The landscape changed gradually under my sight: weeds, trees, bushes, and flowers grew around me. My island becoming bigger, I moved from its center to end up on a beach giving a view on the grey placid ocean. The beach stretched out alongside the water, this ocean was placid and not even the wind that I felt on my skin created wave I stretched my toes in the sand, sand that suddenly gained color. Upon this primrose sand, the hue as gentle on the eye as a vintage photograph, there was a steady warmth from the grains. I felt at peace, protected but lonely. *So, am ah dreaming? Am ah in control of this space?* I pondered. I forgot something, maybe NOVA has the answers? “NOVA are you here?” I called her name. Silence answered me. Even though this place was kinda big my voice echoed for a long time. “NOVA where are you?” A stream of light struck my body and made me momentarily step back, my vision focused on it and… I saw myself with someone, we were in each other arms, our bodies glued to one another on a bed. Relishing in the warmth and intimacy between us. She loved me, I loved her. This person weirdly looked like NOVA’s avatar in the cyber realm but without the horns on her head. The ray of light stopped hitting my body and dissipated into nothing. *What was that?!* I cried internally. Is this something like a vision or something else? It happened when I asked where NOVA was, is it because I am in this place? Am I dreaming or is someone messing with my head right now with telepathy? I heard that there are some psionics with the power of inducing hallucination or to go into the dreamscape. But why would someone do this to me? *Who can help me?!* Another ray of light struck me and latched on my body, and in this one, I saw… ...A tall blue-haired lady, she was naked and taking her shower. She was athletic and beyond fit but her body was beautiful to look at and exuded femininity. From her face, she didn’t look mean exactly but proud and confident. Her visage was delicate and pleasant to look at, her eyes were of a striking golden color. Her ears were pointed like those legendary elves from fantasy books. I deduced that she wasn’t human at all. A female Alien? It happened again, I asked a question and the light gave me answers. Interesting. Another ray of light thinner than the one from the blue-haired alien woman hit me. I felt that this one was less important because it didn’t make me step back on impacts like the one with NOVA or Blue lady. Another woman appeared, but she wore a… what was that? A sexy nuns outfit? I only recognized it because of the veil covering her head and the big cross on her armored bodysuit. She was bristling with weapons, knives, pistols and a rifle strapped to her. From what I’ve learned in class nuns are supposed to be good people and preach for their imaginary god, right? Her name was Marie-Michelle Halliwell, she entered the Joan of Arc chapter for salvation at the age of 15 years old after being rescued by another nun from this same chapter. Her father abused her sexually and was a member of the mob of New Avalon in the Neo England planet… The flow of information stopped, and my brain stopped throbbing and digested the data. Wait, why did I get the life story of that woman and not the ones from the Blue lady and NOVA? That’s weird. Maybe I could do thi- The sky suddenly darkened, as black and thick clouds covered the horizon. The change was too abrupt, the ocean’s water churned and waves hit the beach. From afar, I could see a silhouette advancing toward the island and me. I felt fear, I don’t know why but I could feel anger and murderous intent coming from this person. It was a woman that was walking on the water, not even sinking into it or getting wet. This place defied my understanding of physics... The woman stopped short of the sand from my island not even stepping on it. “Who are you? What do you think you are doing in my space?” She said furiously. She had green eyes and raven black hair. Her resemblance to Altair was striking, was it her? She wore the same kind of shipsuit than my benefactor, with the logo of Vice Corporation on her right breast. I discerned accessories here and there on her person. Her body language was aggressive, completely contrary to the calm and dignified woman I travel with. But just to be sure. “Altair, is that ye?” I asked hesitantly. I couldn’t hide the tremor of fear in my voice. The murderous aura that I felt around her dissipated as she looked at me more with wonder, then she made a victorious grin that didn’t reassure me in the least. “Altair, huh. Then, you must be Destiny.” The woman terrified me, my empathy picked up feelings of possession, satisfaction and that she was planning something. This woman didn’t see me as a human being, but more like a thing, she could toy with. “No, ye aren’t Altair. How do ye know me?” I stepped back from her. The woman made a bell-like laugh. “Are you for real, you are here in the time streams and you cannot look for the answers? Or does it mean that your power is still latent and barely awakening? Good. Then if you are defenseless I can take you from there!” The woman attempted to enter the island but was brushed off by some sort of forcefield. She battered it with blows so powerful that it did the same thing on my mental shield. I could see thin lines of fissures on the forcefield and it finally broke after two more punches. “No, leave me alone!” I shouted in fear. I sent a psionic bolt toward the woman. The evil lady backhanded it as if not even concerned by it. Then she put her feet on my island. But before she could put another step on the sand, she was stricken by a bolt of psionic energy and thrown into the water like a rag doll. She didn’t sink into the water, it was like this ocean water was solid. Another silhouette appeared and this time it was an old man with white hair and golden eyes. He wore some kind of white robe with a black belt and stylish boots of the same color. He gave the same feeling as uncle Magnus, he was kind and steady as a rock. But I felt that he could also be dangerous when it was warranted. “What do you think you are doing, Lady Helena?” The old man said with is a low baritone voice. “Woden Son.” The woman, Helena got back on her feet and glared at the old man named Woden. Helena looked at him with pure hate in her eyes, her fist tight and her white teeth showed. She looked scary. Old man Woden looked at me, his smile was warm and friendly. “Enchanted to meet you, miss?” He said, inviting me at giving him my name. “I am Destiny.” “What a beautiful name, let me handle the tyrant and I will get back to you. As you are, you cannot defend yourself properly with your barely awakened powers. Once done I will teach you about this place.” The woman Helena charged toward him and punched him in the gut and sent him flying. Woden right himself in mid-air and I felt a powerful psionic blast advancing toward the evil lady that created a psionic shield and protected herself. Woden disappeared and materialized at her back and gave a punch that struck Helena’s shield and made a sound of breaking glass. But Helena shrugged off the mental pain of her shield breaking and gave the old man an elbow strike in the jaw. I decided to help the old man and sent a powerful psionic blast toward her. Three bolts per seconds were my current limit, I distracted her enough that the old man punched her face. I heard bones breaking, but the woman counterattacked with a psionic blast of her own and the old man cried out and fell into the water. *Fuck, this fight is insane! Is that a true psionic fight?* “Mind your own business old man, this girl is mine. I won’t let you meddle.” Helena took him by his collar, lifted him and looked at him balefully. He was not as tall as her and now looked like she was bullying him. “This is... where we disagree, my Lady. I shall protect the little... miss, as she comes into her powers and is able to enter the game.” He was wheezing and seemed to lose strength. “Never!” Helena shouted. She cocked her arm and was about to punch him in the face again. “Is that so?” I heard a calm and soothing voice from afar. Helena’s fist stopped short of Woden’s face, she turned her head and widened her eyes. She let go of the old man and stepped away from him. *Ok, this newcomer is a top dog.* She looked old but was powerfully built with bronze skin and fur on her shoulders and forearms. The woman had cat ears on her head and white hair in an elegant French braid with braids on the side of her head decorated with accessories made of… gold? Her face was scared and it marred her overwise elegant features. Her eyes were cat-like with a pale blue hue. Her white tail was swishing as she advanced toward the two battling psionics. I could feel nothing from her, so it means that she was powerful enough to ward off my empathy. The cat woman was wearing a black bra and loincloths made of a silk-like material. *Correction, top cat.* “S’lekka, well met!” Old man Woden said while smiling while trying to stand and he was fast on his feet. A thin thread of blood flowed from a side of his mouth, the old guy was a lunatic pure and simple. He still was better than the evil lady. He wiped it with his sleeve; while looking at me he made a reassuring nod. “Teacher,” Helena said. She bowed to the woman. “I have come to welcome the newcomer, and I find yourself beating up on your fellow council member. Can you explain this to me?” A calculative light could be seen in the eyes of Helena. She opened her mouth to say something. “I…” But was rudely interrupted by the cat woman. “Are you attempting to lie to me?” She asked. An aura shined around her, her face was predatory and threatening. I don’t know how she could read the situation like this, but maybe she had a better mastery of this place and could see things that I can’t. “No, teacher. I want this girl, and to make her my subordinate.” “I see, it would have been something else if she was fully awakened and you could do whatever you wanted. I also have subordinate oracles, but we Oracle do not pluck the unripened fruits before they mature. There are rules surrounding our powers and this realm sometimes enforces them. You would have killed this young Terran if you had stepped fully in her domain. I am happy that Woden intervened.” “And I am also happy to see that you can hold your own against one of the old councilors. It warms my heart that you are such an attentive student. But I will warn you, dear Helena. Do not let ambition and greed blind you… there is a balance to everything.” The woman said as if she was educating her own daughter. I mean, she looked like barely in her forties but she must be more aged than this. “Teacher she’s a threat-” Helena tried to say while glaring at me. “Ah, I always get the stubborn ones.” The cat woman lamented while rolling her eyes. “Helena, you're an oracle and you must understand that sometimes some futures are self-fulfilling. Confront the young girl when she is at the height of her powers, for now, she is under my protection. Return to your own domain.” The cat lady waved a hand and the evil one was thrown in the air toward the horizon so fast I couldn’t say bubblegum. *Wow, ok. No pissing off the cat lady.* The woman turned toward me and nodded. As if satisfied with something. She let through some emotions that my empathy caught. A ‘you will do’ sort of feeling. “Greetings, young cub. I am Matriarch S’lekka, grand diviner of Idrissa.” Idrissa, Idrissa where did I heard this name before. *Ah!* I realized. “Ye are a Thelian!” I exclaimed in surprise. Wow, my first alien and she looked rad. “Oh, youth combined with enthusiasm; another exuberant one. Woden, I leave this one to you, teach her and nurture her.” The Thelian woman said exasperatedly. She was about to leave but she still gazed at me. “Young cub, this space is called the time streams, it is a high dimension of our universe where beings able to send their mind in this realm are able to interact and gain an understanding of the world, control the fate of other beings within reason. There are fully ascended being here that left our own dimension and live for gaining more knowledge. Woden shall explain to you everything and teach you as your powers grow. It was nice meeting a new face, we shall meet again.” The Thelian female’s voice echoed as her body broken down into light particles and then finally she wasn’t there anymore. “This alien cat girl is so awesome!” I said and I slipped on the sand. “Aouch.” So not cool. The old man laughed and grinned at me. Amused by my clumsiness. “Come into the ocean miss Destiny we have things to do.”  

Undisclosed Location, year 456 of the Unified Alliances   My eyelids felt heavy, I couldn't open them no matter how hard I tried. I attempted to lift my arms, but they were just as unresponsive. When my legs wouldn't budge either, panic welled up inside me. I could only listen as my pulse quickened, my breathing became rough, and soon I found myself screaming internally, for it was all I could really do. My internal monologue helped calm me, remembering who I am helped cool my panicked head. I tried accessing my bio-implants, but they didn’t respond like I expected them to. Bio implants are like having a user interface for my body inside my head, they are a network that feed my brain information on my body’s state and how it interacts with the outside world. Connecting… The wait was horrible, . System has been subverted or all Implants are offline. My precious state of calm shattered, panic resumed. Ok, my onboard A.I. is still online which means that at least some of my implants are still operational; my body is still intact. Someone or something has disabled them, I am completely in their power. They could be forcing themselves onto me or cutting me apart, and in my current state I wouldn’t notice a thing! Weighing my options, I came to realise that I am in no position to do anything but wait. Waiting to see if my captor will decide to discuss with me about my demise… well, let’s just say that you wouldn’t believe the number of times I have found myself in that kind of situation before. Unprofessional people always want to gloat about how you will “die in the most horrible way” and blah blah blah, and it is ideal for me, because they give you a free window of opportunity to escape The biggest issue I have however, is that I can’t remember how I got here, I can’t remember how I was captured or why. The most logical conclusion would be that I had been captured for the bounty on my head, but there were countless possible other reasons too, ranging from brain damage to someone messing about in my head for their own purposes... Intense pain suddenly jolts my body, making me try to scream out in torment. Thinking is impossible; I am in pain for what feels like an eternity but could have equally been just a few moments. Was I always this weak? That panicky mess I woke up as earlier isn’t really endearing. As sudden as it had started my torment eased suddenly. If I could access my implants I would numb my pain receptors and be done with it. Damn, that’s… good. A wave of relief and exhaustion came over me. Tiredness slowly filled me, it wasn’t exactly relaxing and I couldn’t even resist it, darkness embraced me once more. *** I woke up again and this time my eyes opened, intense white light seared my retina; my eyelids instinctively slammed shut. The light passed through them; while trying to shield my eyes with my hands I realized that I still couldn’t move any of my limbs. Glancing frenetically around me, I tried to get a good picture of my surroundings. I am in a big room; a laboratory of sorts. It has some sort of chrome theme going on. Tools and machinery that are completely foreign to me are littered around the table I am strapped on. Am I to become the subject of some depraved experiment!? Turning my head a little to the left I could see the back of someone, a female humanoid with a tight white uniform that covers her whole body. Her white hair is styled in a tight bun around the back of her head. If I could move I would be glad she is facing away from me, but wherever I am has me bound tightly. Sitting in a nest of screens and keyboards her hands moved elegantly and efficiently while typing and tracing her fingers on tablets all around her. It was akin to how conductors led their orchestra in the old vids, the staccato tapping of her fingers was entrancing. The show continued for long minutes until a flash of light, brighter than the glare of the lab dazzled me. It felt like there were millions of tiny insect under my skin, my head, everywhere! “Finally, you are awake my little one.” I heard say. The creepy feeling which took over my body gradually ceased, letting me focus on the voice. My eyes found the scientist of earlier facing me; it’s an older woman maybe in her thirties. But it’s hard to judge age nowadays with rejuvenation treatments becoming the norm, this woman could be eighty for all I know. Upturned golden eyes smiled at me, her heart shaped face exuded softness and a kind feeling. She was petite and adorable looking, but my job always was about getting past the first impression. Evil is often hidden by light. “Oh what a prudent little thing, you are right to be on your guard though.” Said the tiny woman. I don’t know how to respond to that, but I… wait is she a psionic? “Indeed!” She answered with her soft voice. Fuck. “Language.” She frown her cute face. I couldn’t believe that people like this actually existed, still caring about being civil and respectful.  That’s the kind of things that doesn’t bring you anything in the rim of Cagliostro space, here only strength and influence count. Only my father or my late mother could talk to me lik… “So Fenran told you that I was dead, the bastard.” She said, while gritting her teeth. My captor (?) is furious and spouting obscenities which could make a seasoned space pirate blush. Now I don’t want to explore the implication of what my captor just said… Idunn my mom is dead. Well it’s what my dad told me when he bitched about how useless I was, that I couldn’t even get into the combat form of the Saryan race. Who would want to become tall and ugly anyways? The only thing I had going for me is my strength, agility and intelligence. But that wasn’t enough for the bastard, so he kicked me out. “Useless microts” he called me when he did. The woman stopped ranting and looked at me with horror. Suddenly she came at me with a swiftness I didn’t expect, I closed my eyes. A warm hand caressed my matted hair; a troubled expression reflected on the woman’s face. “I shouldn’t have left you with that man.” “Ha, you don’t have to worry I settled my debt with the sperm donor. I never treated him like my father.” I said. Indeed, I remember the day that man kicked me out and when he said to not come back; that he and the people of the Saryan clan of Saryna will consider that I have never existed. I remember smiling at that, that my already vague moral attachments to those people were being cut away. It explained what I did three years after leaving Saryna, I disseminated an agent in the atmosphere of the planet which - if it did not outright kill the colonist there, would forever deny them access to their battle form. A wicked smile appears on the woman’s (mom?) face, no trace of disgust or anger. That’s normally the reaction I receive if I reveal what I did to those rat-bastards. “Oh, my dear. I would have done worse in your place.” When I looked into her eyes, I see the same insanity that I see in the mirror contained within their golden depths. The same color of eyes as mine, yet fundamentally different. This person has seen a lot more of the universe than I have in my meagre 24 years. As fast as I could, I analysed the ramifications of what this woman just hinted at - that she is my mother, and by the physical features she expressed; that she is Assurian. I always knew that I was half Saryan, but I never imagined that my other half would be Assurian… I always thought that earthling blood ran in my veins and that was why I was considered weak. But it seems I hit the genetics jackpot. The other half originate from a race of backstabbers, mad scientists, cloak and dagger types and all other sorts of bullshit. I wish I could facepalm but my arms are strapped to the goddamn lab table, oh ah and I can only just move my head. Sighing from exasperation, I once again move my eyes over to the reason I am here. “So, when are you going to cut me free, mom?” I asked with a derisive tone. The woman made a sad face, her adorably soft features making me almost regret speaking to her in such a sharp manner. But hey, I’m strapped to a lab table, and she’s not. “I know you don’t believe me, I have prepared a test to show you…” “Yes, yes. But the fact that I am a prisoner in my own body and strapped to that fu…” The lady glared at me. “Chair is not making your case, MOM.” And whatever test she prepared might be a load of crap; did that woman think that I was born during the last meteor shower? Being a telepath the woman must have heard me; a tear ran down her face when she looked at me. Right, that shit stopped working on me when I almost got gutted by a little girl on Narson VI. Even with all the tech we have now, lives are cheap on frontier worlds. “No need to be sarcastic, my dear. You’ll be free soon enough after I put your body on the mend.” “What do you mean? I feel normal…” “That’s because I cut your pain receptors, didn’t you feel the pain before?” She asked. “When I saved you from the ARES mercenary HQ, your body was mangled, your legs shattered. No, Fenicia you aren’t well at all, it will take some times for you to be whole again.” The lady put her hand on my forehead. “But don’t you worry; I will make you whole again. You’ll be better, faster and stronger! The best of what biotech can give you, you’ll have it. You’ll be able to gain your Saryan form and your Assurian gifts.” I could feel the confidence of this woman, it was present in her eyes, the way she moves, she practically exuded it. “But first, you’ll have to sleep again. I just wanted you aware of your situation.” And I found myself fighting against sleep yet again, but that guy Morpheus sure does pack a punch. I once again, lost consciousness.

-(Ell Evan)-   Hidden garden Space Station, CIC    “I knew things were going too well!” I mumbled. Here I was, in armor looking at a representation of the PX2458 solar system with lot of red dots approaching the goldilocks zone where the gas giant orbit. Qualia is a moon almost the same size as Earth is, it is 40% water and the rest is just landmass with desert and jungles, great lakes could be seen too. Wish we could have gone there to relax, I always wanted to go camping. “Do not despair, concentrate on the task given to you.” Fenicia advised her. The Amazon’s eyes focused on the map, controlling the satellites all around the system to analyze the ships advancing toward the station. We could already tell thanks to the scans that by their size and form that they are all warships. We could even already devise their role in their formation; the heavy hitter’s, two dreadnoughts and three frigates are at the back with auxiliary ships charged with supplying and repair work. The vanguard consisting of fighters, scout and heavy scout ship is at the foremost position of the flotilla formation. “You say that, but I don’t see how we are going to make it!” I screamed. I tucked a bit of my blond hair behind my left ear, looking at the calm and imposing woman facing me. She has blue hair with a streak of white in them, Fenicia gold eyes looked with laser focus at the map. She made a serious face that was strangely attractive compared to the crazy look she often showed. The statuesque Alien female is donned in black power armor and frankly looked terribly beautiful and lethal. Her eyes focused on me after my outburst, a cunning and dangerous smile appeared slowly on Fenicia’s face. The hint of craziness was back in the golden orbs peering at me. “We have 50/50 chance of blowing them up or getting blown up along with the station.” She said still smiling. Fenicia went around the holo-table to face me, I watched her has she stood there looking at me as if she was judging me. She crossed her arms under her breastplate and nodded. “Things may look bad but at least if you die today, you will live free. Isn’t that the most important thing, after everything you have undergone?” That stopped my pathetic whining. Fenicia was right. If I died today, I would do it while I was my own person! “Nobody can give you Freedom if you are a woman, YOU TAKE IT.” Fenicia said with gusto. “Couldn’t have said it better myself, my dear!” A voice said from behind us. I turned toward the door of the room that slid with a “whoosh” behind Idunn who walked with confidence to us. Her usual tight fitting white bodysuit covered her lithe and petite form. There was a black belt on her waist, heavy with equipments and a lightweight black pistol in an ornate black holster decorated with wavy silver lines. “I see that you have everything in hand.” “Idunn, I thought that we agreed that you need to be in the shuttle?” Said Fenicia with a dangerous tone and she tapped her foot against the floor, her irritation bleeding into her otherwise calm demeanor. I looked at her and her blank face belied the simmering anger, now boiling rage that I felt under Fenicia's skin. Placing myself between them to avoid an altercation I interrupted. “She must have a good reason, Idunn doesn’t strike me as a frivolous person.” The relationship between those two has always been weird ever since I’ve known them. Fenicia, even if she is sometimes uncaring, blunt and focused has begun to change her behavior while around Idunn. Her attitude thaw out, becoming warmer towards Idunn and it feels like she needs some form of physical contact, but refrains from asking for it, or giving it herself.. I know it’s not romance or sex, but more like something between parents and child. Fenicia seems at a loss about what to do. I'm missing something, but I'm sure I'll pick it up later. Fenicia’s gaze seemed to bore through me, not even caring about what I said. That female alien is intense sometimes. I turned, only to see Idunn smiling, she strutted sexily toward me, pushing me out of the way, and faced the tall Amazon. I don’t know what she did, but Fenicia let go of her anger and returned to the holo-table with Idunn behind her. I felt unimportant suddenly, like a third wheel. <No you aren’t my dear.> My eyes found Idunn who was seated at the communication-console very close to the holo-table. *Forgot you are a psionic…* <They always do.> And I heard her laugh maniacally in my head. Mental speak has always been a weird experience for me, not everyone possess natural mental barriers. Telepath often have unrestricted access to unguarded minds, and not a lot of people can afford the training to shield themselves. I heard that people can become psionics though, with a good gene splicing operation in V. I. space, but it’s not cheap. Money make the galaxy goes round, maybe if I survive all this bullshit I will be able to get a good splicing for heavy worlds and psionics abilities. Splicing genes has become the norm in the human sphere, anyone can look the way they want to, be tall, short, muscular, even have a different skin color. Those are the changes that are less costly. But splicing genes for mental acuity, memory or complex multitasking becomes astronomical. Then splicing for psionics has become rather pricey. <We could do it after this situation is resolved.> *That would be grand, Director!* I don’t know why she is spoiling me this much, but why say no? Who could say no to free augments by an Assurian genius scientist? Not me. Fenicia’s mood suddenly plummeted, from my vantage point I could see her face distorting in a sneer. Her fist hit on the holo-table, I thought she was about to destroy it but it absorbed the shock and didn’t even budge. Idunn, didn’t seem surprised by her outburst and stayed seated in comfort. “Fuck. I don’t know how they did it, but they disabled the minefield! They are passing unimpeded.” Oh, we are fucked. Suddenly an electronic chime resounded in the direction of Idunn, the communication console holo-interface glowed yellow. A sign that someone is hailing us. “Ah just on time!” Idunn chirped in a singsong voice. The petite woman touched the interface and the holo-screen appeared while elongating. The face of a black haired woman wearing dark goggles appeared, she had an air of authority, an austere atmosphere hung around her.. “This is the VIS Sundance, Owner code 01 protocol 66 execute 96.”   Acknowledged. Protocol 66 activated, lock down on all civilian and centurion access.    The screen shut off. Yep totally fucked. “Mom! What did you do?!” Screamed Fenicia. Oh, so that’s what was going on, now that I know this I can see the resemblance, the same crazy eyes and delicate face. But the difference in stature is really weird, Fenicia is a giant female Amazon and Idunn a curvy little woman. Taking my tablet from my belt, I tried to access Sandra but I just had the basic functionality on it. The OS, entertainment, basic communication and some private app. And nothing else. “Do you know who that was, Fenicia?” Idunn calmly asked her daughter while threading the fingers of her hands and supporting her head. She looked expectantly at Fenicia. “Our death.” The Amazon facepalmed. Idunn looked like she was disappointed and her gaze found mine, my brain went into overdrive. I thought and thought. And it finally clicked why the Assurian woman was so calm. It made me laugh and laugh. Fenicia looked at me as if I was crazy. The look on her face was priceless. I’ve seen the woman on the screen earlier. And I know now that we are not going to die, after having a good laugh I went to one of the consoles and sagged into one of the seats. Sigh.   *** -(Kisora Suimei)-    Bridge of the VIS Sundance, PX2458, Year 456 of the unified Alliance    “The minefield has been deactivated, ma’am.” I reported to Vice-Sama. Being a pilot and Special Agent attached to the security of the most important person in V. I. space has its perks. Free and Experimental Augments, adventures, fucking people up. I really like to fuck people up. “What a nasty little trap, Idunn’s daughter is a rather devious person.” The Madame said matter of factly, she is seated on the command chair, looking straight ahead. Rays of light come and go on the glasses of her Star Gazer, a Nano-built portable ocular interface. A similar device was incrusted in the arm of her black and green body suit. “Indeed, ma’am.” Interjected Sharah Phis, the weapon specialist. “The sensor fortunately detected them and by seeing how the minefield is positioned for the likely route we are taking in the form of a cone the trap was about to get some of our ships destroyed.” “Not all, but some.” Said Vice-Sama. Vice-Sama smiled and sat in contemplation, she got the same look whenever she discover people with good talents. The poor being which caught her attention will undergo a gauntlet in the future. I turned myself toward the piloting console interface and leaned back in my dark seat. My twin sister was busy disarming the minefield, her hands blurred on the computer. This is how fast she was going, she used her neural interface and her body in complete synergy with the onboard AI Sundance. The person who mined the way to the station put the EMP mines first in our path to fry the shields of the ships, then the explosive and concussive ones and at the end the nuke mines would finish them off by converging on them. We would have lost 30% of our fleet this way. “Done!” scream my sister in relief. Kalan sagged in her seat, like me she has short bob of auburn hair, green slanted eyes and a stubborn streak. We are from the Asian Great Alliance (AGA) part of the human sphere. All humans love to body splice but we decided to keep a natural look, both of us chose to keep a petite curvaceous body. But it doesn’t mean we do not like exercises, it’s kinda part of the job to stay in shape. “Was it that difficult, Lan?” “Yes, Sora.” “Explain.” “The person, who trapped the route, wrote five codes activation for the different type of mines, so as to avoid what we just did to them. The mines would have converged to us in waves, they would saturate the shield with EMP and fucking puncture them permitting the explosive mines to enter and causing damage to the hull and keep us busy until the big nuke would destroy us. We are lucky that the code wasn’t adaptive.” Lan massaged her temple. Her black body suit, adorned with pink highlights, was fortunately designed to absorb sweat. But it isn’t the case for her forehead. I took a tissue from my belt pack and gave it to her. Without looking at me she took it. We twins have to take care of each others. She nodded in thanks to me. “Officer Jameson, Hail back the station and contact Idunn.” I heard the order. The com officer is a shy guy who doesn’t like to banter and enjoy keeping to himself. He has shifty eyes, in my book he cannot be relied upon. But for some reason Vice-Sama keeps him on her staff, I don’t know why. The weird guy just nodded and held out his finger on a button. A woman with shoulder length white hair, gold eyes and soft feature on her face appeared on screen. She looked inoffensive, the kind of nurturing woman you would think took care of their family or the rich lady who would raise funds for orphanage. But the light in her golden eyes bothered me. She gave me the creeps and I didn’t know why. “Assurian.” Lan said between her teeth. Ah no, not one of those crazy aliens! “It has been some time my dark friend.” The Assurian woman said warmly. “We spoke six month ago, Id.” Vice-Sama retorted. “Oh! You know me, when I’m working I feel like I am in a temporal dilatation bubble!” The Assurian face reddened from embarrassment. “I get you, Id. So you finally met your wayward daughter? She is impressive, for someone who was limited like she was. No augments, no warrior form, no psionics. She’s known in the underworld. It was a bitch to follow her path.” The Assurian lady face softened even more and a satisfied grin showed her pearly white teeth. “You have no idea, she is everything I always wanted in a child. She’s still working on accepting me though…” “Give it time.” Vice-Sama said. She seemed to have forgotten the type of situation we were in and entered gossip mode. It always happens with human with life extension. My sister typed furiously on her holo-board and stopped to pass me a file on my console. The file was sizable, Fenicia Kranicar. Mercenary, assassin, freelancer, smuggler. A gorgeous woman with blue hair and golden eyes. The full holo of her body made me lick my lips in desire. That’s the kind of strong and hard woman I like to have in my bed. She looked human but was not. The golden eyes showed Assurian ancestry but her body type didn’t match the race. Assurians are as a rule,petite if they are female tall and lean bif they are male. “Stop drooling.” Lan said. I wiped my mouth with my sleeve and yes I drooled. Well ignoring this little incident I continued to skim read, the psychological profile and mission of that Fenicia girl. She is badass, patient, cold and efficient. She possesses a strategic mind and somewhat of a background for the military art. For her first year she was a smuggler on the Saint Patrick, an Irish owned freighter ship of the clan McLaughlin where she learned to speak English and Irish. Alastar McLaughlin took her under his wing and taught her how to use guns and give up on her Saryan warrior training. “Oh. That’s why, she’s not totally Assurian.” “Yep.” Lan acquiesced. Getting back to the bio of the alien female, I see that her time with the McLaughlin clan was cut short when her father figure Alastar died in a bad deal with the Deneb Cartel in the Rim between Human and Saryan space. She single handedly wiped the whole organization out in anger. No one was left alive in that warehouse, she at least saved the sex slaves the boss kept. One year later she was seen leaving a planet where different political factions warred for dominance and the more radicals were eliminated in a rather brutal way. She was a suspect. Fenicia Kranicar then goes mercenary in Alliance space; killing her way through organizations, corrupt Paramilitary group, Traffickers. Her most know job is running Kamil Tarib through with a metal pipe straight in his heart. He was a dangerous anarchist, that laid waste to colonies of the known races. He worked hand in hand with the previous group that Kranicar destroyed. She was presumed dead when the Ares mercenary group betrayed her just after hiring her. It is believed they had ties to Kamil. “You could make a novel with her whole story, right?” Asked Lan. “Mhmm. That’s exciting, I want to have a drink with her!” “I feel that there is an ulterior motive for that.” Lan said suspiciously. And she was right, I want to get to know that being. She seemed awesome. “Prepare for docking procedures.” Sharah ordered harshly across the coms at our ears. Yep, forgot. No gossiping on duty, that woman is no fun to be around. She’s like old Earth’s Antarctica when on duty, cold, austere and cruel. Sharah is a Spartan person, and should just cool her jets. But I can agree that she is an efficient Centurion. “Docking procedures engaged, Hidden Garden is opening the hangar.” Lan informed. “I want the light ships to surround the station, the frigates and dreadnought to patrol the system.” Said Vice-Sama calmly. “If anyone enters the system you have my permission to destroy them without question.” Jameson relayed the order to all the other ships with his nasal voice. Ugh, I hate him. The Sundance separated from the fleet accompanied by the scout ships that moved ahead of us surrounding the immense space station. It easily dwarfed the Sundance. At the mouth of the hangar we could see on screen the arresting fields slowing the nose of the ship. Further in we could see a light warship of an old design parked. Sundance’s AI scanned it to show how damaged it was, the only thing it showed is how beat up it was. The hull near the engine is completely gone, I could see trace of laser beams on the hull near the docking ring on the neck of the bird shaped ship. “There are no life signs in the ship.” The A. I. informed us. “Sharah prepare a company to look into that ship, if it’s a ruse kill everyone.” Vice-Sama ordered while looking at the screen. Sharah Phis saluted with a fist on her breast and a loud “Yes ma’am” and departed the bridge. “Something tells me, Kranicar did this.” Lan guessed. “No shit, from her files it’s her style. She blew up the hyperdrive to force those guys on the ship to board the station. I think she wanted the ship intact. And then went on a killing spree?” I said. Even more possible that she got help, but there are only three life signatures aboard the station. “We will see, when Sharah is back.” The ship finally docked under the savaged light warship, it was time to get answers with regards to what happened on that damn space station.

-(???)-   Planet Vanir, Varm continent sector 54   We were finally prepared to jump, myself in particular; the experimental ESD add-ons given to me by Lady Idunn was equipped on my armor. It was basically an offense/defense system that she adapted from the Lutian Technology database possessed by Vice Corp. It shoots a beam from the aperture on my left gauntlet; it is also able to create a reinforced energy barrier that stops cold any kinetic and energy based weapons. The armored Zero Point Module powering the device was situated on my back with my jetpack and gave the ESD system a perpetual fuel to cause chaos with. Weirdly the only thing causing problems with the ESD was the heat generation of the weapon. *Sigh.* Even while on a mission I had to be a guinea pig, Lady Idunn wouldn’t let up on it. Do not worry, Agent I will take care of you. My AI was the nurturing type, I named her Sasha after my departed childhood friend, and her avatar is an approximation of what she would have looked like in her adult life. In the lab where I grew up, she was the one who took care of the weaker trainee soldiers and she was our official leader. Sasha was made of stern stuff, too bad I don’t know what happened to her, she was sold to some planetary government in the Asian Great Alliance. I don’t know if she is alive or dead. My AI asked me how I wanted her to develop and I patterned her after my lost friend. “Everyone prepare to jump,” I said in the team Q-uplink. I undo my seat harness and rise from my seat, checking on my HUD that all my gear is strapped to me. Pistol, check, ESD add-on armor, check, Omni-rifle, check… Sasha has begun to check all the nanites augmentation from my beta pack, Green lighting them for me on my HUD. Quantum Uplink (Online) Interrogation enhancer (Online) Security domination (Online) Stealth (Stand By Mode) Integrated Fabricator (Online) LiDAR (Stand By Mode) Smart Vision (Online) Pathfinder system (Online) Medical Health System (Stand By Mode) I was ready for the jump. “Go, go, go!” I shouted when the hatches at both sides of the AIV opened. My team just shot out of the openings and sprung into the air, I walked to the hatch and looked seeing the agents becoming distant black silhouettes rushing toward the ground. I smiled and jumped too. Head first, like a boss. Sasha superimposed an altimeter to my HUD, the ground getting close fast. Pilot# Target in sight, 11. 11# Team! Deploy, EM Landing System at 100 meters. The EM Landing system was a consumable device built in the jumping pack of the AIVs. The system allows a user to land safely from any height by slowing their movement via an electromagnetic field. This field pushes against the planet’s magnetosphere and slows the user's descent to a manageable velocity, allowing him or her to fall from almost any height. It’s mighty handy. I wish some of our armors had a permanent augment like this, but R&D deemed it too costly to install and too hungry energy wise. As I deployed the EMLS, an arc of blue energy swirled from the apertures from the port of the device strapped to my armor and formed a bubble around me. I could see how much energy it took from my ZPM battery. And it was indeed a huge expense, 40% of the energy was used to activate the system and release the Electromagnetic Field. My speedy descent slowed to a crawl, giving me the time to look at the sprawling megalopolis in the horizon. Black and shiny mega towers that reached the sky and were poking the clouds of Vanirs stood tall like hulking giants, glowing green and blue. The shiny city was married with the greenery and forest separating different blocks. There was even a lake whom the water shined a bright shade of blue; it seems that the theme color of this city was black blue and green. Sasha my AI focused my HUD on the landing target, from the air it looked like a big rectangle with a big tower at the center. Some of my teammates already landed before the structure and were taking care of neutralizing the defenses.  Agent 11, the schematics and scans of the structure indicate that there is a large underground complex under it. Sending new data to the units on site. Data uploaded on team net.  “Unlock safety on ESD system, we will burst through the doors,” I said on the neural link to my AI.  I landed before the tall towers and its doors, spark of bluish electricity escaped the bubble of electromagnetic forces that cushioned my fall. On my HUD the figure showing my armor with the ESD system was highlighted. The integrated fabricator of my armor was cannibalizing the parts of the EMLS and stock on the matter, turning it into resources.  “Team, defensive formation,” I said on the team net.  23# Roger. I heard a feminine voice answer.  The rest of them deployed behind me in a fan formation, some of them on the rear and looking to our six and the other pointed their weapon at the door.  I pointed my left arm at the humongous doors, Through my HUD I could see the energy of my ZPM battery feed into the weapon. The disc shape of the energy capacitor glowed green and a devastating ray of light was unleashed from the muzzle on the door. With my hand, I guided the ray of energy into a Z shape cutting into the door. It stopped as suddenly as it happened. The ESD went silent.  “Knock, knock,” I said on the team net.  One of my teammates went to my side and sent a wave of telekinetic force into the door, making it collapse.  “Objective?” I asked my AI.  You never know when parameters for a mission have been updated, following new variables being introduced. I was just being thorough. Kill Everything, only the targets are to be left alive.  My AI answered with a cold voice in my head. This was my kind of mission I liked, it was clear-cut from the beginning. I took my pistol from its holster and deployed the ESD in shield mode in front of us encompassing my whole group. A barrage of energy weapon discharged onto the shield when we were barely inside the facility. The energy of the ESD shield waned fast, already at 80% integrity. Agent 11, what is firing at us are Gokstad blast rifles from the Assurian Forge. From the dissipation of the energy on your ESD shield, I predict that those are the newest model. Gokstad Weapons cycling for recharge in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  The hailstorm of energy ceased, and I decided to seize the initiative. And reduced the ESD shield in a round green circle projected by the device on my left arm like one of those medieval shields of old on those warriors from old Earth. We went into infrared mode and our vision showed our attackers. Twenty guards in the circular parking with two armored vehicles as cover. The embattled one behind preparing to shoot at us. I took a grenade and lobbed it at them.  “Fire, fire!!” I ordered.  And my team didn’t use any of those fancy energy weapons those Assurian assholes seems to love. Our mass driver weapons discharged death on those poor souls that were armored for the wrong kind of gear. The slugs pierced them as if they were made of cotton candy. There were five more guards alive behind those armored vehicles, I ran at the car, jumped and somersaulted when I was high enough from their covers and proceeded to fire at them. I could raise the speed my brain processed information and my body reacted at the speed of thought, this was one of the biological augments Idunn gifted me six months ago. I put this particular talent to good use most of the time, but doing it too much was harming myself; I didn’t want to vomit in my helmet and choke or worse enter into a coma. I killed three of them with a slug to the head, but when I landed on my feet two guards were still alive and attempted to kill me with beam knives. I bashed the head of the first one with my ESD shield and send him rebounding against the armored car, then I caught the arm of the second one and broke it. I proceeded in finishing him off with a high kick to the neck. The finality of the ‘crack’ of broken bones was sonorous enough. But I felt that it wasn’t finished yet, so I took the beam knife and turned it on and threw it behind me toward the hidden guard that was about to shoot me in the back. The beam knife was a distraction permitting me to shoot him with my pistol at the center of his body three times.  All security guards have been dealt with in the parking area, Agent. I propose that you take time to build infiltration drones and take over the security station of the tower and then the facility’s that is underground.  “Good plan, Sasha.” I thanked my AI while nodding my head.  “Ma’am, we have neutralized the guards, what are your orders?” A teammate, Agent 56 blessed with a tenor voice asked on the team net.  He was one of the combat technicians that I brought with me on this mission, Idunn chooses him for his quick thinking and improvisation even under fire. The kind of man I wish I had in my platoon when I was a mercenary. The problem with the stealth armor was that I could just identify people by gender with view alone, I actually need my HUD to see the numbers of the intelligence agents with me. 11# 56, take agent 23 with you and begin the manufacturing of infiltration drones. Oh, and while you are at it, maybe we should add three automatons with Phase Shift armor to tank for us. 56# It will be done. I saw the man nod and turn toward the big door that I demolished.  I then proceeded to take one of the energy rifles as a trophy and give the order to use them as stock for more batteries, medical gel, and ammunition. The integrated fabricator worked wonders on a battlefield, it permitted for a unit such as ours to be semi-self reliant. My teammate proceeded in collecting resources till the technicians were done. After fifteen minutes, agent 56 informed us that he produced ten thousand infiltrator nano drones by taking apart the weapons and armors of the dead around us and some of the adamantium from the door. He was still working on the three assault automatons when I decided to send in the flying nano drones via the shaft from the vehicle lift under our feet.   ***   -(Tornald Lyss)-   The sound of the alarm woke me up from my restful sleep; I was obviously in my bedroom, the familiar lacquered faux wood ceiling showed me this. The neural link of my implant connected me to the computers in my apartment, those came alive silently. Holograms of different colors and forms shined in the penumbra. Fortunately, their brightness adapted to my vision to not damage my eyes. I pulled himself from the ergonomic mattress, I scratched myself on the head and torso. Then I noticed that I was shirtless, with only my undies on; Frowning, I tried to remember if I undressed last night. It didn’t seem important because of the alarm blaring so I shrugged and looked at my side, a female Assurian with a petite body but voluptuous curves were there sleeping peacefully. Brigid, my lover, and partner in crime; she could be considered my wife, as she gave me a lot of son and daughters but we decided to keep our houses separate to have as many political powers as possible. Without conscious thought of it my hand found itself on her naked arm and roamed on her milky white skin, the caress elicited bursts of love and pride at having met my intellectual match Three hundred years ago; happiness filled my heart. Brigid’s body stirred, the noise of the alarm and my touch must have woke her up. The love of my life opened her beautiful eyes. “Mmmh, Tor?” The sleepy golden gaze of Brigid looked for me. “I am here my love,” I said with tenderness. Her eyes finally found and locked on me, she smiled but her mood suddenly marred her beautiful face into a sneer. “What is that noise? I want to sleep…” Yes, I want to know that myself, I was about to say something when my Communicator beeped. The watch projected a hologram from its screen and I frowned when I saw a helmeted guard looking at me. “What?” I asked gruffly. “Sir, we are under attack!” The masculine voice of the military cast Assurian resonated gravely in my device speakers. “They have breached the tower and are entering the underground facility!” “What?! By who? The Council?!” They dare?! I knew I made enemies, but to warrant that kind of assault when I am at my weakest. “No Sir! Humans!” The guard blurted out. “Humans?” What were they doing this far from their own space? Who cares, they will be annihilated by my security force. Their technology was laughable, those must be rookie mercenaries or something. I was interrupted from my trail of thought by my mate, Brigid. “What’s going on Tor? What is happening?” Her sweet alto voice was laced with worry. Brigid was modestly covering her naked body with her hand, hiding her chest from the guard looking through the communicator. I turned toward her momentarily and decided to inform her. “We are under attack, dear. Go, prepare for an eventual extraction. But I am not sure it will be nec-” The guard interrupted me. “It’s going to be difficult, Sir. We are being attacked by Centurions from Vice Corp!” The man said, clearly panicked. I felt my blood freeze, I stared at the guard unmoving; Vice Corporation? Why would they… And then I realized. With my neural link, I went through the data in my wrist communicator. The window showing me going through the interface and the hologram showing the guard separated. Finally finding what I was looking for, I retrieved the bill and contract mission I had from that failed OP on that scourge, Idunn. Her location I bought from the Shadow Broker showed that she was hiding in a space station in a nondescript system between Shdeveri and Human space. A buffer zone, Neutral territory. But what if this special system wasn’t? Idunn has been escaping us for twenty-two years and taking bits off us each time we almost got her, her retaliation is even more savage and merciless. Her resources seemed to buy her better protection than we could afford, what if she has been allying with that witch from Vice Corp Space all along? And they are assaulting us in our own world? Then the Assurian Council was in on it. Looking at the guard who still awaited dutifully for orders, I said. “Evacuate all the scientific and non-essential personnel, my family must be teleported first to the sanctuary and moved outworld,” I said and cut off the communication. Centurions were merciless killers, and would pursue us to the depth of this galaxy! Vice Corp was the leader in technology replacing the Assurians who were at the cutting edge of it before them. A lot of foreign powers tried to take their secrets but were all rebuffed with extreme prejudice. Those that try are made an example of. And those dumb humans from the Ares mercenaries have failed me and brought the ire of a titan upon us! I turned toward my mate. “Dress and get out of here, I cannot lose you!” I said getting out of bed and ordering the apartment computer to prepare our clothes. The closet with a freshly fabricated and hanging black bodysuits with gloves and boots opened. I donned it quickly, not wanting to waste time. Our lives were in danger! I felt a hand touch my shoulder and then a body molds itself to my back. “Tor, I…” It was my Brigid, I felt her mental distress with my telepathy. But we didn’t have the time to wallow in our feelings; I sent her a mental caress but had to stay firm with her. She was like me, but she tended to panic when events unfolded so suddenly. I turned toward her and took gently her arm and pushed her toward the closet. “Do what I tell you, Brigid. Or we are going to die!” I said with urgency. She looked at me for a brief instant and proceeded to clothe herself in our colors. Brigid completed her outfit with a white lab coat and toolbelt. Weapons from the armory teleported in the closet and my mate seized a pair of energy pistols that she strapped in her thigh sheath, I took the rifle and checked that it was not tampered with. While I did that, Brigid was shouting at the hologram of her wrist communicator. At a scientist who was busy packing from what I gathered. “Bring out the experimental weapons, and give them to the security force to slow them down!” I heard her say. I took her arm and guided her out of the apartment and we began our march toward the teleporter. We took different corridors to access the transport room, it took ten minutes and I noticed that I could hear the exchange of fire from some of them. I didn’t tarry more and we arrived. My children, the scientists, and personnel of our little house were all assembled. Some of the guards were there in position at the door, training their weapon at it. Some of them had the prototype of weapon developed by my Brigid. A miniaturized positron blaster cannon was mounted in the center of the room, the others guards possessed rifles version derived from this technology that we stole from some random scientist that couldn’t finance himself. It should be enough to slow or kill some of the Centurions on our tail. The Thirty or so Assurians employes and the face of my family were looking back at me, they were all afraid but still showed a composed mien. It was heartening. Turning on my heels I looked at the leftover guards and decided to give them some bit of encouragement. “Thanks for staying, men. Your family will be taken care of if you die, I swear it on my honor.” I kept it short, not wanting to lay it on too thick. Teleportation for the first group proceeded after that bit of politicking. Brigid looked at me and I went to hug her and kiss her. Finished with showing her my love I looked at my son, Torvald and I pushed my mate into his arm. Torvald caught her, she looked at me with disbelief and struggled. “I shall stay to stall them, my love; I want to give you time to flee.” “Tor, no!” Brigid screamed. “Don’t do this, come with us.” She pleaded. “I cannot, I must stay or they will just follow us and killing us piecemeal.” “No To-” And the teleporter did its job and transported my family out of here. It was then the turn of the second group of my employees who were teleported out of the room and to the sanctuary. When the third group was about to teleport the lights went out and the teleporter powered off. The glow signaling that its charge was full died little by little. “Damnation!” One of the scientists that were in the third group screamed. He took a weapon out of his coat and went to place himself at the door, shoulder to shoulder with the guards. Others followed his example but some stayed to place themselves before the women to protect them. “Defensive position!” Shouted a guard. I took my rifle in hands and took off the safety and with a neural command put the computer of the weapon to put it on automatic mode. I didn’t believe in a god, and I didn’t believe in karmic retribution. But it sure felt like it. I looked at my security force and the scientists and clerks bravely standing, ready to defend their life. With luck, maybe they will be able to repel this attack. I told myself that, but I didn’t believe it.

In this quiet world there is a hidden desert full of treasures. People covet these treasures as if it would complete their empty, hopeless lives, but I who lives next to them can say it's nothing more than an empty dream. I have grown tired of watching people die for something so empty... yet there are also adventurers amongst them that make my job so much more interesting. I may have grown tired of watching foolish people die, but I will never get bored of those passionate eyes amongst the pile of trash. Still, they are so few I barely held myself back from trying to find them on my own. I am the guardian of endless treasures, can't give up my job that easily, but perhaps I looked for a solution in the wrong place. Instead of waiting for someone worthy, why don't I just find him on my own and leave some treasure to fill my position? I looked behind me, seeing the literal mountains of treasure with a new eye; no one should notice anything different, right? Besides, fewer and fewer people come to this place nowadays, not to mention weaker. I searched for a few days until I found a golem that could copy someone's abilities and made it mine. It could support only about a tenth of my powers, but considering how strong the invaders were, a tenth should be enough. After that, I took a treasure I had made myself for this day, a short sword with the ability to sever the space between planes of reality. In short, it had the ability to teleport without any of the usual costs involved. The first world I visited was empty; I remembered a lot of powerful adventurers from this one, but considering the amount of time that has passed since they last made their appearance, I didn't find it surprising that their world was dead. It was a pity since I had a lot of expectations from this world, but without any signs of life I didn't waste any more time on it and moved to the next one. Funnily enough, though, all of the next worlds were dead ones as well; I visited them according to the powerful adventurers they had and their potential, not according to their activity, and that seemed to be a small mistake. Still, since I didn't have a care about the concept of time, I continued to move from dead world to dead world. It was boring, but on the other hand, it also made for a nice vacation. I had never seen the worlds these adventurers were coming from before all of this; only knew what my original world was like and the endless desert filled with treasures. From worlds full of majestic wolves that seemed a tad bit too aggressive, to worlds full of fire elementals and so on... pity none of them were suitable for my needs, but the further I explored, the more interesting stuff I found. There was that world which was isolated from the rest of its universe and had its own time field. Man, I spent quite a bit of time in that place! It was very funny seeing different parts of my body moving at different speeds and even some moving in reversed time! If anyone other than me was hit by such a thing though I doubt he would remain in one piece. I wonder how the natives adapted to this world... pity no one lives here anymore. But my favorite one had to be the one where plants ruled all! So much beauty, danger, and excitement, it reminded me a bit of the treasury but the change of pace was refreshing. I would definitely suggest this place to someone in the future... perhaps a disciple. After a while, though, I finally reached a world with intelligent life, humans they were called. The world I reached was weird, it had many hidden places, but since they were hidden I supposed they didn't want to be bothered so I left them alone. Let's try to find a suitable person from this planet for starters. Was bound to be hard since all of them were either weaklings or had no potential at all. I didn't want to give up on the first world I found with living sentient organisms on first sight, so I slashed with the short sword and took a portable mansion, I was going to stay here for a while after all. I had everything I needed but a place to put the mansion. I looked all over the planet for some good place to settle down and it didn't take more than a minute to find a couple dozen. This planet was a really beautiful one, maybe not as much as the plant planet, but considerably so. At the end though, I settled at the floor of a small canyon, but probably the biggest on the planet; it also had a small river over there, honestly the perfect place for what I wanted. I placed some wards for privacy and headed out with teleportation. I passed along many humans with their weird languages, don't know why they couldn't have simply picked one and be over with it, but learning a new language was fun in its own way. I found that the way power manifested on humans was really weird. Mana circulated through their bodies and changed them specifically to one ability; they would have almost perfect control and potential in that ability but no way to expand outside of it. Young humans were even worse, sometimes they couldn't even control their own powers and as a result hurt someone by mistake. This was a really weak world that just started seeming better and better. Young humans went to something called 'school' where they were taught the basics of the basics. I opted on going to one of those schools myself to learn about the languages around the world. They even had an idiom for the reason I chose to go to a school, it went 'When in Rome do as the Romans do.' There was a lot of stuff that had to be done before I registered to any kind of school, however, and since I wasn't seeing an end to it, I used the aspect of illusions to speed things up. How cute were the young humans with their antics, it made it hard to choose one and be done with it. At the end I fell in love with the school I was on and worked hard to become a teacher in it. Whenever I saw a kid worth putting some effort in, I guided him or her to reach their peak potential. At the end though, I had limited my scope of search far too much for my liking and decided to leave. The person that I was looking for had to be something more than average. I saw a lot of kids with kindness in their hearts, but weak with no potential. Still, as much as I wanted to accept some of them, I would just be inviting them to a far worse world than the one they were used with. Kindness wasn't a prerequisite, only something charming to have, but inner strength and desire was a definite prerequisite. Few times adventurers that were too strong for the golem appeared and I went to deal with them, but most of my time was spent on this small planet. Then one day I saw an interesting young kid; he lived in one of those hidden places that I didn't really want to bother, but he was too fun to simply pass by. The darn kiddo hunted food for the family of his friend, then ended up in a pinch because of his inattention. I was pretty sure the kid was done for, but no, he fought back and he fought fearlessly! At the end I threw one of my broken brooms in front of the guy; he needed to stab the assailant with something and I was bored enough to see how he would react. To my honest surprise he did react and even managed to get a reaction from the broom... just what kind of broom did I throw in front of him? Wait, the time this world had was limited? Ugh, whoever thought about making the planet itself immortal yet still left a huge planet ready to explode next to it was a huge idiot... Well, I ain't going out of my way to save a stupid planet unless I have a good reason to do so. Perhaps I didn't meet anyone interesting enough, but in a way, this whole journey accomplished its original goal which was to relieve my boredom. For that reason alone I would make sure to revisit this place before it disappeared. Was I too wicked for my original task? Perhaps so, but guarding a stupid dimension for so long was a tiring thing. Now let's try to find someone interesting!  

Actions speak louder than words, but failure speaks louder than results as well. So many opposites that are so finely connected to each other you can't separate them. In a world where there are superpowers, however, everything is possible and even more so when your superpower is separation. That is the ability of young Orion, the ability to separate. Whether it is the fabric of space and time or a common household item, he can dismantle it to pieces. Whether it is the connection between life and death, he can smash it to pieces just as fine as some random star that pissed him off. But, immortal is he was, omnipotent as he appeared to be, he still had his limitations. As a small example, not even he would dare to interfere with something that was closely connected to his mind, so the same wouldn't happen for the rest either. If there was a weak point in his ability, it was that separating the effect from happening to everything was incredibly hard. He had to be extra careful when destroying a random star to not spread the effect to other stars next to it, or even the whole galaxy! At one point he wondered what would happen if he just went crazy one day. Could he end everything and everyone? Could he make everyone immortal? The first realisation that this was not possible came when he tried to remember how he had made himself immortal. He simply tried to sever the connection between life and death, but he didn't specify it at all. Shouldn't everyone had become an immortal? It turned out that some concepts couldn't be simply severed. They had resistance to his ability, something he didn't realise for as long as he'd used his powers. He seemed pretty annoyed by that since those resistances were also the way he was manipulating his powers, but at least he knew that ending the universe with his powers was not possible. But as the years passed, he grew bored of his normal day to day life. He felt like he wasn't using his power to its fullest potential, nor had he met anyone like him. Sure there were a few powerful individuals that had the same feelings as him, but none at the same scale. One day, however, he saw a chance to change his normal life. He met a kid, an unusual kid with almost no power struggling to survive in a dog eat dog world. He was a teacher so of course he would meet a lot of kids, it was a given. He had met geniuses that had no rivals on their generation as well as ones who seemed like they would go far but didn't amount to anything in the end. He went to speak personally to the kid in some kind of hunch but didn't have his expectations up. With the high point of view he had concerning the world of power, something able to surprise him or live up to his expectations was as rare as a living Pheonix, and those guys were already extinct. "Well, my power is to absorb stuff and create something with that... but it is at such a weak level my dream is just that... a dream." The kid explained. He explained further on about how he wanted to grow powerful enough to create a world where he could revive his friend since this one didn't allow it. He didn't know he was speaking with probably the only person that had the power to accomplish what he wanted, but it was what made it all the funnier. He wanted to train his ability and grow stronger, and use that to grow even stronger till he reached a point where everything was possible. The two got along pretty well after that conversation, but Orion just wanted to see how far the kid would go. He was not surprised by the kid, nor his powers, but he couldn't say he wasn't charmed by his personality. So he took it up to himself to provide some coaching for the young kid. Roil turned out to be up to the task and for the first time in a long while, Orion found something he enjoyed doing. But that didn't last for long. As all good things have an end, so did he. He died at some random dungeon, like some random adventurer, with nothing in his name, having accomplished nothing. Orion was pissed. He wasn't angry at Roil for failing to do something at the end, but for the way his enjoyment was rejected from him. You don't do that to an almost omnipotent being, you just don't. But he had greater ideas than just reviving him. During his younger times it turned out he had pissed on the heads of some Gods by his actions, but he didn't give it much thought even when he learned about it. His plans, however, involved on abusing his powers to their limits. Something interesting he had found when testing for the limits of his power was that affecting other people was countless times harder to him. It probably involved some kind of ancient law he didn't know about, but it was fun seeing that reviving a random person was harder than destroying some planet. So settling on his plans to make that kid immortal was bound to have some serious consequences; combining the laws of immortality, death, life and that unknown one was probably not the smartest idea he'd ever had. But he chose to make this meaningless life of his have some meaning, so he went a step further; uncaring of whether this would kill him or not, he turned back time a year or so. Then he transported some stuff to another planet inside a small dimension he had made. He then messed with the laws of creation and life to create challenges for that kid. Finally, he messed with the laws of Gods to create laws for that dimension. He was so excited he just wanted to do more and more, to approach some kind of limit even at the cost of his life. In the end, he counted three hundred and seventy-four laws broken, many of them more than once. Once he finished, he coughed blood from his mouth, feeling weakness at his immortality for the first time. Several figures started appearing in front of him, in what he could only describe as Gods. "You have messed with our existances far too much young Deviling." They all chanted in one voice. The figure shrouded by the most mist and mystery stepped in forward, "Your existence was meant to be a deterrent to hopeful invaders from other universes! You weren't supposed to bring your own universe to the brink of destruction making a second one inside it." The figure said. Realising a long sigh, it put its hands on Orion's shoulders and spoke with a hint of sadness, "Your life cannot go on. You were supposed to be a protector, yet you ended up as a devil. Without your existence other powers from various of universes will flock to this one like moths to a flame, enough to drown out the small candle-like flame. You are the end of your universe and it shall be your punishment to witness what a true ending is like." Orion, however, couldn't help but laugh at his words, "Protector you say? Funny thing is I was never given any kind of instructions. Besides, Roil will do just fine as a protector." he said. "All of this for a child?" The figure asked. The other Gods seemed surprised he would question a Devil with this much interest, but the question wasn't only his. "No, Roil was just what pushed me over the edge. This was something I actually wanted to try for a long time now. Besides, Roil might not be fit to be a protector now, but with the amount of stuff I put in that dimension, it isn't even a question of when, nor how." Orion said. He knew these were his last words, but his last actions were still developing. Who knows, if he maintained his will after death he might even try to revive himself. Separating Death from himself might be a slap in the face, but at least it was a soft one compared to when he revived another person. These thoughts, however, didn't last for long as he started losing every sense of his body. First, he lost sense of reality, he couldn't fight back. Then he lost the sense of touch, smell, sight, hearing, and dimension. Then he lost existence. In the end, though, he wasn't angry at how things ended up. It was a somewhat satisfying end for a bored guy like him. If there were any lingering regrets, perhaps, it would be that he wanted to see how Roil would fare in the situation he had forced him into; well, not you can't have everything it seems... but he had already severed that concept from himself so he got the ability to see Roil's adventures. "Ugh, when I see that teacher again, I will murder him. He encouraged me to go on a suicide mission! I'm never participating in what he has in store for me, ever!" Roil yelled that final word in the air, not knowing that same teacher could hear him. As for the Gods themselves? "Is this seriously the kid we are supposed to trust with the future of our universe with?"  

  What is the Code? What is the solUtion? What is the pRoblem? What iS the mEaning of this? What is the... c̵̀͢u̶͜͏̛͏rs̕͢e̴̵̕͠͡? It was a normal day in school. I had to take an exam I missed earlier this week, but being unprepared for it I could only count on my friends to help me. They would sit close to me and find the answers for me, what could go wrong? I learned the answer relatively early; the teacher saw me pestering my friend for the answers and not only did she fail me, but she also kicked me out of the classroom! My parents were going to be pretty angry once they heard about that, so instead of wallowing in misery, I went to the forest nearby to pick some flowers. Silly or not it worked in the past, and both my parents and I love the unique flowers found there. I looked up in the sky, to see it was unusually dark. I could only blame the useless forecasts for my bad luck, but giving up now would mean I had nothing to shield myself with from my parent's wrath. I reached the forest fairly fast, but the place I intended to go was further in, and droplets had already started falling. By this point I was past the thoughts of return, it was a do or do it harder situation. My thoughts cleared up along the way as I enjoyed the scenery. So beautiful I don't think anyone would be able to describe it even if they had been there. My eyes couldn't help but tear up for some reason, but I attributed that to some weird allergies I might have had, so it was promptly ignored. Soon it started pouring, but I already was where I wanted to be, so I would just work faster to find some pretty flowers. At this point, my eyes were itchy, so I couldn't help but rub my eyes. When I looked at my hands again they were blood stains. I wanted to take a look at my face that moment, but I didn't really need that to understand my tears was that of blood. I freaked out and slipped on the muddy ground. All the pretty flowers that I had gathered were ruined in a moment, mud and blood mixed with destruction. At this point, I really wanted to cry. So many things were going wrong, so many things were scary when they shouldn't have been... But no, I wouldn't cry. I stood strong and cleaned up my mess. I quickly picked some new flowers, throwing the old ones and tried to clean myself from the mud. At that moment I noticed just how red my clothes were. My head started hurting and I almost fell to my knees. I was scared; I wanted to meet my parents, tell them I was wrong, find some doctor and get a good night's sleep. My frailty was scary, I felt so powerless, so weak. The rain seemed so strong as if it wanted to devour me. I run towards the forest's exit, even hoping to meet someone along the way, but everything was silent. Eventually, I had run enough to know something was wrong and I was still in the forest. I wanted to discount the possibility that I was lost, it seemed impossible, but further than that it seemed too terrifying for me. I wanted to call my parents at that moment, but when I picked my phone, it wouldn't open. The rain was so strong it might actually had been fried by it. I felt my legs giving up, no longer having the strength to support me. I knew something was wrong with me at that point. Everything was dark, pitch black as if it was midnight. The trees seemed unfamiliar, and I had spent a lot of time in this forest. I didn't want to give up like that, but I found no other choices. I crawled towards the nearest tree, seeking for shelter from the rain, as little as it provided, and curled up from the cold. If I wasn't crying blood, I would be having blood with tears. Another heavy pain hit me and I passed out. I strugled not to, but every action of mines drained my energy further more till I had nothing left. I would think that after that, what I would wake up to would have nothing to do with darkness, but darkness was all I could even see. I wanted to believe it was simply nightfall and everything was too dark for me to perceive, but even so, it was unaturally dark. I wasn't blind, no, I couldn't be blind for whatever reason. Being unable to do anything concerning my circumstances I was forced to calm down with time. When I came to my senses, I realized it was no longer raining; everything was silent. I cried in that little corner of mines, my back against the tree, feeling helpless and powerless, but also angry. At one point anger overcame my helplessness and I got up, or at least I tried to. Nothing seemed to be going right for me this day, I cursed inwardly, but put more effort instead of just giving up. A couple of minutes later I was crawling further from that tree, trying to find someone to help me; but who would be in a forest full of mud right after a rain? Nonetheless, with fear as my guide and will as my sword, I forced my body to move forward. I kept crawling for hours on my end but to no avail. I was hungry and tired, powerless and weak. I stood there, wanting to rest my beaten body but unable to fall asleep. I just wanted for someone to find me at this point. Fear had been numbed, but it was still there; I didn't care now, I would wait for someone to come and find me before I did something more stupid. So I waited, and waited, and waited... and waited. No one ever came to help me. Not my parents, not some kind old man, not any rescue force, not my friends, not anyone. What was my curse? Why did this happen to me? I waited for so many hours on my end that I should have been dead. The sounds of birds and other animals filled the forest, but no one to help me. I waited for days, hoping that someone would come for me, but no one ever did. By all means, I should have been dead, but my consiousness was still there. I was still able to hear and think, bar everything else. Soon all feelings left me aside from boredom and disgust. I kept waiting for them, kept my trust that they would come for me, but they betrayed me. Even my friend, if he hadn't been so pushy about not wanting to help me at the end, none of this would have happened. Maybe I was just angry at them, but my feelings were more that of apathy. Then, one day I opened my eyes. I was still in that forest, under some random tree, holding tightly the flowers I wanted to give to my parents. My arms were weak, the flowers were decayed, but I could see colors, I could see stuff! I struggled to get up, finding it strange that my body was still the same after all this time; was it all just a dream? I looked at the flowers again and shook my head. After many hours of searching and trying to orient myself, I found a familiar tree. Everything else had changed aside from that tree, the one I played in with my parents. So many sweet memories started flooding me back before all feelings of anger and hate vanished like a flood took them. I wanted to meet my parents, I wanted to apologise for all I had done and even apologise to the friends I had been unfair to. But the town couldn't see me; they ignored me. I was in tatters, clothes bloodied and full of mud, but no one even paid attention to me. I tried to talk to someone only for my hand to pass through them. The said person felt some discomfort but compared to the one I felt it seemed negligible. Was I some kind of ghost, or what? I went to visit the house of my parents, my head flooded with all kinds of thoughts during the time it took me to get there. Eventually, I reached a house that seemed familiar, only that it had barely passed the test of time. Inside the house an old couple crying over my picture. I screamed and yelled at them, telling them I was still alive, but to no avail, they couldn't hear me. What was I angry at them for? Because they failed to save a dead body? Is life so inconsequential that it can be lost all of a sudden just like that? I refused to give up. I wanted to pass by the window, but it seemed physics hadn't completely given up on me. I took my keys, rusty as they were and tried to open the door. I don't know how physics worked now since my parents didn't seem like they had noticed the noise, but I was in. I tried to speak to my mom, but nothing happened. I went to touch her, but it was like they were made to ignore me. Well if that wasn't rude of them? I wasn't going to miss the chance to remind them of it when I had it; they always were pushy with things like that and I always did the opposite. So what was left? I simply went to grab a pencil and some paper; if physics really hadn't given up on me that much, this shouldn't be difficult. I was wrong... there was no paper to be found in the entire house! I barely even found some old marker, let alone something to write on. Well, if anything else I was known to improvise. Inwardly I hoped I didn't scare them to death, but writing on the wall was bound to have some funny reactions. When I opened the marker and went to write, I saw it wouldn't. Because, why would it? When was the last time things had gone well for me, even? After some mild curses, I saw all of the blood on my hands and clothes and had an idea that was bound to cause heart attacks. I bit on my hand to draw some blood before realising I could have just taken a knife for it. When I saw that ghosts indeed had blood in them or something at least, I was relieved. Something that didn't go wrong for my plans, weird. With a small smirk on my face, I considered the message I was going to write. After a moment of not thinking about it at all, I started writing, Guess who is alive! The one you expected and yet did not! As fun as it is to speak with riddles I will stop here, go fetch an ouija board and let's have a heart to heart conversation. It took them a while to notice the sudden message, but when they did? All hell broke loose! I wanted to write some more, but I found my hand already healed and didn't want to bother with biting again, so I waited till they got some darned ouija board. Before this, I never thought living people and ghosts could work out something together, but after the Ouija board incident, it changed the way I was thinking entirely about it. The only bad thing that happened from the ouija board conversation was my father's suggestion at the end... going to school. Sometimes I never understood my parents. One second they are joyfully happy about their ghost-like son and the very next they sent him off to school... 1So, first story for the account! How was it? Constructive criticism please, but conversations/discussions are fine as well, don't be shy. I felt it was a bit rushed, but I'm a bit tired to reread it now. I will take all criticism seriously, so give it your shot!

Funnily enough, death doesn't seem to be the end in all cases. Sometimes you have reincarnators, others you have second chance guys, sometimes even revival and immortals! Thing is, though, they are rare enough to be considered the exception, not the common. Since you don't even know if you're part of the 0.01% you can't even risk it! Dumb thing to be immortal and afraid for your pitiful life at the same time... I grew up in a small village haunted by weak monsters day and night with little to protect it. Whatever villagers lived there with me had already given up on life; the place was something like an exile, you didn't want to be close to it, not even in your wildest dreams. Still, the ones who had it worse were the kids born there and unable to leave cause of some weird law... Yesterday another friend of mines died. The rumour has it he tried to steal some food and got his ass handed to him. I wonder who is going to help his brothers now... well, I guess they will die soon after, that is the life here. Shaking my head, I admonished myself for growing used to the life here. I saw a small rat with the corner of my eye. Before it could react I wanted to catch it, maybe Sore's family didn't have to die, I could help them. Thing is, I first needed to help myself; the rat didn't run when it spotted me, it simply attacked first. With agile movements I evaded the rat that went for my legs. If it had bitten me I would have died most likely; lost mobility and some weird disease would have been my end. Still, with that danger I didn't dare to let the fight go on for long. I kicked with all my strength the very next moment I evaded its attack and the fight was over. I longed for a time where even the weakest animal wouldn't be a threat to me... Breaking the rat's neck for a good measure, I visited Sore's family to give them the rat. I wasn't fast enough it seemed, they were already dead, killed by some opportunistic bastards I imagine. At least the bastards didn't eat their bodies, it meant I had something to bury with my friend. After finding Sore's grave, I dug it up and put the body of his wife and his younger brother in it. We were both fifteen, but he was so much stronger than me, he was living a much better life than I did, yet once he ended up dead everything went wrong. As I left their graves, I noticed I was being followed. It weren't humans, they would've been too cunning for me to notice, it was probably some low level monster. I contemplated about running for my life or trying to fight it, but risking my life when I already had food on me was stupid. I would only get a few levels to show for it and perhaps some poisonous meat, it wasn't worth it. I noticed that no one was on the streets at the dead of the night, everyone already in the safety of their homes or hidden well enough to survive the night. I cursed at my stupidity, I shouldn't have lost track of time, it's dangerous at night yet I still made the mistake. After a few minutes of running and losing some of my stamina the monster was still following me. Seeing I had stopped running it even revealed itself, a much larger rat than the one I was currently holding inside my clothes, one the size of a dog; talk about karma. One attack from it would be enough to incapacitate me, even kill me if I wasn't careful. If I remembered well this monster had a somewhat tough hide and teeth that could pierce through weak steel. Explosive speed with no agility to show for it; evade its first attack and stab it with a sword, can't be easier than that, only I didn't have a sword. I searched around me for some kind of a weapon, but the streets couldn't have been more useless than now. However, as much as I would have liked to develop some sort of plan, I didn't have more time to think as it charged towards me. Calling it fast would be an understatement, it closed a ten meter gap between us in three seconds, max! I barely evaded its attack, yet it was already preparing for a second charge. I couldn't be passive all the time like that, if I wanted to get out of this alive, I had to make a move against it. So, as it charged towards me, I moved to close the distance even faster, fainting a moevement towards its left only to move from its right. Like that I managed to not only evade it, but also get behind it without losing any ground. I jumped on top of it, hitting it a couple times in the neck and trying to kill it before it could recover; fat chance it would happen. The rat threw me off, seemingly more annyed than injured. I didn't know if the same thing would work on it twice, but I wouldn't hope to dare. I run, trying to avoid runnning in a straight line as the rat would catch me in seconds if I did. Passing through the streets with the fatass rat of a monster following closely behind me, I spotted a broken broom at the front door of one guy; perfect weapon. When I touched it though, this happened, Broken Broom Legendary Attack 0.5 piercing Curse (self) Error An item strong enough to be recognised by the system, just my luck! Everything went black, and I was pretty sure I died... but since I didn't know what death should be like, I was hesitant to declare myself dead and be over with it. Announcement You have found one of the useless relic items left by some random creator- Ability to control time gained! Huh? Unrestricted Access to the System - Granted! Error! Conflicting with your birthplace's curse. Curse of the Village of Shamon overridden Ability Time Manipulation Description Can accelerate time to a degree, slow it or stop it down and at the highest point reverse it. Proficiency 0.00% Can only accelerate time to a 10% difference - Affects only caster. Then the darkness faded and I was holding a broken broom facing the large rat like before. It was still charging at me, but due to what had happened, I was taken off guard. At the moment the rat was on top of me, I instinctively activated my ability; everything felt a bit slower but it was barely enough to avoid the rat. Still armed with the broken 'cursed' broom, I imediately spun around and stabbed the rat in the head. Its skin and bones were hard enough for the broom to break instead of kill the darned pest, but I didn't give up. Before it recovered from the hard hit on its head, I aimed well and threw the broom into it open mouth then put all of my weight behind it. The rat could move no longer and I collapsed on the ground, heaving from the immense extersion. At this point I could barely think, but even so I wondered why the broom was cursed. I dared not imagine, but the answer came only a few seconds later, Announcement Curse of the Broken Broom - Gift Removed - Immortality! Fuck...

It didn’t think much of the two children that had always played around it. After all, many had done the same before them. All the tree wanted to do was bask in the warmth of sunlight and rest, as it had always done for decades.   At first, the tree didn’t pay much attention to them, it just watched as they showed up every day. They sat under its shade, conversing over every tiny detail of their lives. They both shared in joy and laughter, leaving the tree to relax from their content. The seasons continued on and tree watched the humans grow closer. Not a care in the world, at least, not until the girl had to leave.   That day was a deeply saddening event for both the children and even the tree. When they had came to tree that morning the girl revealed that she would be moving away. With tears in their eyes they sat down one more time and started talking about her departure.   Eventually it came time for the girl to leave however, not before she made a promise with the young boy. The promise was for them to meet up again, one day, at the tree. And with the promise completed, she waved the boy goodbye and ran off while the boy waved back, tears running out from his eyes.   Every day after that the boy came and sat down next to the tree, waiting for her fateful return. However, those days of waiting eventually turned into weeks, then months and then finally years.   With time passing by the tree silently watched as the boy grew older, watching him grow himself into a fully fledged adult. While the boy or the “man” was an adult and had the responsibilities of one he still came to the tree every day, waiting.   Soon, on the tenth anniversary of their parting, the tree could see the man restlessly pacing over its roots. The tree curiously watched the man, wondering why he was so agitated. It didn’t take the tree long to find out why.   She had returned.   Their reunion was met with tears, both unable to hide the joy in their eyes. When they had finally settled down, they started discussing on what had happened after they had last seen each other.   Their discussion had lasted for a long, so long in fact that before either knew it the sun had already set and it was pitch black. With it already being as late as it was they reluctantly agreed that they should leave the rest of their discussion until tomorrow. After tomorrow came however, the girl revealed something completely unexpected to the boy. She was going to be moving back!   The man was caught completely off guard from what she had said but after a few seconds he had caught up. Bursting out in joy, he questioned the girl if she would really be moving back while the girl just giggled and replied with a simple nod.   Some years later, the boy would return the same joy and happiness she gave him with some very special words and a beautiful ring. Even to a simple tree the actions of the man seemed to have held so much power. Perhaps they were some sort of enchantment?   Well… It had been decades since those words had been said under the tree but it could still remember the exacts words vividly.   It was along the lines of  “Will you marry me?”   After those powerful and enchanting lines had been spoken it lead to the girl being filled with an intense flurry of emotions. While that was happening though, the tree wondered what those words meant and why they caused such a reaction from the girl.   Anyways, ignoring the tree, the couple started arranging where their wedding would be held and what better place than at the tree? They had reunited there and even today it had a special place in their hearts.   With the location being quickly decided by them they started setting up the other things and sending out invitations. During this process the tree was extremely excited for the wedding, after all it was it's first time both witnessing a wedding and actually being the location for one.   On the day, when the wedding officiant asked them if they would marry the other both responded with a resounding affirmation.   Just like any other newly weds their love was seemingly infinite and never ending. Even after years of marriage they still had the same love and passion as if they were still in their first years of love.   Sadly, this never ending love wouldn’t last forever. Decades after their wonderful marriage they left… Left for the stars, never to be seen again.   Now with this short little story of love over, the tree once more confirmed something. Humans are strange, but while as strange as they might be, they were very beautiful and interesting.   Hey there! This is just a small and short little story that I wrote in my free time. If you enjoyed it be however, be sure to rate it! If you didn't enjoy... Well... That's fine! Just it be sure to leave some criticism to let me know how I could make my story better for future readers.  

"Lord Envoy, did you know that my eldest son, the successor of Ninguis Family, had died after coming out of the Fleeting Emotions Ruin?" Although his face betrayed little expression, a hint of grief and distress manifested itself in the form of his voice. "Oh— Corulem Ninguis, what is the purpose of bringing this up then?" The Mountain Envoy frowned as he could deduce why Corulem decided to bring it up here. With the mass as the witnesses, if he did not remain impartial, once the news of his wrongdoing got spread, only his demise would follow. "My Glacies, my little Glacies, your father could not even see your son. Without you, who would I entrust the future of Ninguis Family to?" Ignoring the Mountain Envoy, Corulem turned his attention towards the audience and lowered his head, showing a grief-filled expression. "Levota, you should be able to understand my pain. Although it is different, it's still our loved one that passed away." In his hoarse voice, Corulem stared at the Family Head of Coruscare Family with his bloodshot eyes, showing anxious expression while hiding the contempt. The surrounding sorcerers had a mixed opinion, revealing various expressions while contemplating the plan which Corulem was unveiling. Although most of them were confused, a handful of them knew the backstory of the incident. The Mountain Envoy's expression twisted into a scowl, revealing displeasure as soon as he heard Corulem's speech. As everyone knew, he had a special connection with Levota, being his brother-in-law, which meant that he would favour Levota over outsiders. If Levota got humiliated in the public, his reputation and influence would take a hit too. "Corulem, don't drag this on with your pointless drama. What had happened had happened, and I'll never regret it, for everything I did was for the family." Before the Mountain Envoy could say anything, Levota took the initiative to cut short of Corulem's rumbling, not wishing to discuss the past he hated. "There's no need to rush me, Levota. Although I have more things to say, I wish not to delay the main event." Corulem smiled as he gazed towards Levota before turning his attention back at the frowning Mountain Envoy, nodding to show fake respect. As he did so, he signalled his servants, ordering them to move out from behind his seat and walked towards him, holding a small box warped in blue fabric. The lady kept her head hang low as she approached Corulem. When she reached him, she extended her hands out and let him take away the box before retreating out of the view. "Everyone, this is the Memory Orb, capable of recording events in their finest detail. With the secret treasures carried by our family's descendants, we're able to capture the last moment before their demise." As soon as he finished his explanation, Corulem tapped onto the crystal surface and channelled his sorcery energy into it. The Orb glowed in blue light, expanding in volume ever so slowly. As its size grew, cracks began to form on its surface, threatening to rip apart the exterior of the Orb. With a soft explosion, the Memory Orb burst open upwards, scattering fragments of itself into the air. Strangely, the said fragments remained lingered mid-air, hovering above Corulem and began to rotate around him. Tiny sparks emerged from the fragments, forming a faint ring that covered its surface. The ring extended outwards, moving closer towards other rings. In only a moment, the scattered fragments had connected themselves with a thin layer of particles. Together, the fragments and the connected strings formed a smooth surface, hovering above Corulem. A static noise echoed the meeting hall as the scene on the surface kept flickering. "Before my fifth son died, he went into an obscure wildness where no protection was around." Corulem spoke as he flicked his finger, sending a ray of bluish light towards the floating screen. It seeped into the screen and merged into one, changing the displayed scene once again. In the scene, the man-in-yellow stood in front of the man-in-black. The background of the view was full of nature, indicating that the place was far from the city and security. "Where are you going, young man? This young master is interested in your treasure. Mind if I had a look?" There was a friendly expression on the fifth young master, revealing his kindness and glorious aura of a noble. As soon as the young master finished speaking, the servant-in-grey, Avidas, moved towards the man-in-black, Forus, to retrieve a sealed box. After done checking, Avidas handed the box to the young master, letting him had the privilege to enjoy opening the treasure chest. However, as soon as the young master opened the box, a flash of bright light gushed out of it, engulfing the young master. Along with the blazing heat, vapour of the toxic liquid rushed towards him, burning and eroding his skin at a visible rate. The final scene showed the raged face of Avidas who tried to retaliate by throwing daggers at Forus. As the fifth son of Corulem drew his last breath, the vision distorted into darkness, leaving nothing other than a faint static noise. "Although the culprit concealed himself very well, we, Ninguis Family, had methods to reveal his identity." After grasping everyone's attention at himself, Corulem spoke as he turned his head towards the Mountain Envoy, waiting for him to speak. "Go on then, Corulem." Although the Mountain Envoy knew nothing about the situation, he could feel the curiosity of the crowds and could not suppress it. "Thank you, Lord Envoy." With another flick of his finger, a similar blue light seeped out of his finger, moving towards the same floating screen. However, everyone could see that the intensity of the ray far surpassed the previous one. The screen trembled as it fluctuated, revealing the bloody battle record between Glacies and Forus. Although everything seemed legitimate, everyone knew that Ninguis Family had already manipulated all of the forbidden scenes to their wills. Instead of having Glacies setting up an ambush, it became Forus that tried to assassinate Glaciers to take revenge from the previous incident at the Steel Cauldron recruitment ground. In the end, not even a single hint of the treasures used by both sides appeared within the record. As the vision fell and dropped onto the bloody ground, the floating screen shivered as static noises emerged from the distorted scene, filling the hall with a grim and ominous atmosphere. At first, everyone recognised the identity of Ocelia and others. However, knowing the reputation and influence of Coruscare Family, only other top sorcerer families dared to look at Levota, waiting for him to explain. Most of the average families only shifted their gaze towards Ocelia, trying to guess the association between the two scenes. "Now, everyone, please calm down. Although the culprit had hidden within Coruscare Family, we, Ninguis Family, knew that he had nothing to do with Coruscare Family." With a wicked smile on his face, Corulem raised his voice as he stared deep into Levota's eyes. As the attention soon refocused at him, Corulem took out a piece of crystal, holding it in one hand. Its semi-spherical shape resembled a marble heart, full of veins and throbbing nerves. As he exerted his strength, the crystal broke apart into multiple pieces, revealing a life-like black heart inside its core. On the surface, black goo-like substance kept emerging and vaporizing into nothingness, repeating the same cycle. "Soul Linking Heart, capable of recording the unique fluctuation of one's heart." After explaining the unusual property of the treasure, many sorcerers gasped at its extraordinary ability. In the entirety of the Mountain Union, anything regarding the subject of the soul would be the most sought-after treasures. In normal circumstances, only incidents involving powerhouses of the upper-echelon would wanton such treasures. "Then, let's unveil the identity of the criminal. May Lord Envoy deliver Ninguis Family justice." Corulem once again smiled as he channelled his sorcery energy. Although it pained him to use the treasure, he knew that high rewards always came with high risk, and he would see through the end of his gamble. The black heart rapidly withered as black light flashed from the inside of the heart, revealing a sinkhole absorbed the black light from the beating heart. Forus grasped at his chest as his expression turned solemn. From his pores, the same black goo-like substance gradually seeped out of his body and weaved through the air, moving towards the sinkhole. The line of black liquid expanded into a noticeable web that extended outwards, highlighting its existence and attracting attention from others. Although Forus had prepared his facade and tried every trick he could to mislead the mysterious power, he could never know that Ninguis Family had a soul-related treasure. Even if they had one, they would not use it against a dull character such as him. The subject regarding soul was profound and delicate, requiring the sorcerers to master in many branches of knowledge that any ordinary sorcerers would never finish in their lifespan. Not to mention the deadly consequence of failing the experiments, which could lead to permanent damage to their soul, deterring most sorcerers from researching in the subject. As if attracted by the Soul Linking Heart, Forus weakly stumbled towards the centre of the meeting hall, pushing everything and everyone in his way apart. Although he tried to resist the mystical power, his puny first-ranked sorcery could never contend against the vast second-ranked sorcery. "Lord Envoy, now that you've seen it, please issue your judgement." With his ever so slightly smiling expression, Corulem locked his gaze at the Mountain Envoy, patiently waiting for his verdict. Within the hall, excluding the outsiders, most of the sorcerers knew about the laws and regulations of the Mountain Union. Although the Mountain Emperor promised great benefits and distinguished status, the deciding factors were only strength and usefulness. In the Sorcerer World, only the weak were accountable for their loss. Even within the righteous faction, justice was only for the higher benefits for the organisation. If the strong could freely bully the weak, then the weak would never work for the strong. Because everyone knew this, they came up with rules to restain the strong while gave the weak opportunity to climb the latter of influence. The crime of killing the successor of a sorcerer family was worthy of the death penalty. However, if the backing was sufficient, one could escape his offence unscathed or at least pretended to get punished. On the surface, the accusation of murder was only a show ignited from vengeance from losing his main successor. However, looking at the background of two people on trial, many realized that it was a clash between two great sorcerer families. Ocelia looked at Forus, trembling as her emotions started to overflow out. However, before she could raise her voice and shout, she suddenly clasped at her mouth and coughed violently, spitting out blood. Only Abicel was there to help her by keeping her balance and consoling her. As she sat down, she could only glance at her father, hoping for him to help Forus. Although most did not know that Forus was Ocelia's love of her life, her father was one of the few that knew the detail and her genuine feeling. "As the Envoy of the Mountain Emperor, I would never tarnish his majesty's reputation." Instead of announcing the sentence, the Mountain Envoy only announced his oath to the Mountain Emperor, showing his loyalty while dismissing the request and subtle accusation from Corulem. "Now, Falsus, will you confess your sin?" Corulem locked his gaze at the man before him, pressuring him to admit his action. However, despite his unending force, Forus could remain silent and unwavering, standing still and let the witnesses waited for the next decision. "Confess what, exactly?" Before long, a voice interrupted the oppressive atmosphere, clashing with Corulem's constraining aura. As everyone turned their attention to the origin of the voice, they saw Levota stood up and smiled at Corulem. "Only through trials of blood and bones would we progressed further. As your son stepped his feet into the Fleeting Emotions Ruin, he naturally knew about the upcoming risk. If he died, it meant that he wasn't worthy. Only the weak have themselves to blame." With a grin on his face, Levota stared at Corulem with his condescending expression. "Only the younger generation should solve their problems. If we step in, wouldn't that count as an act of abusing status and power?" In the hall, the Mountain Envoy faintly smiled as he spoke, fully intending to side with his brother-in-law.

The Mountain Envoy stood up and exerted his sorcery, suppressing every movement within the meeting chamber. With a shining scroll in his hand, he borrowed a hint of Mountain Emperor's power to curb the chaos within the surrounding. "Everyone, it seems that we'll have to put the meeting on hold." As everyone quieted down under the threatening presence of the Decree, the Mountain Envoy spoke as he gestured his hand, creating a string of light that formed into a circular shape, displaying the view from the outside. Other than the darkness caused by the unknown object blocking the sunlight, many obscure individuals had taken the opportunity to act unrestrained and spread further chaos, hoping to benefit from the misfortune. The gate of the meeting chamber trembled as many brown-robed sorcerers pushed it open, moving inside to assess the situation as well as informing the Mountain Envoy about the unexpected incident. "Something unexpected has come up. We require everyone to follow me." The report of chaos and the floating landscape caused the Mountain Envoy to frown. He quickly sent down suppression orders and walked out of the golden palace. Although the Mountain Emperor was the absolute ruler within the Mountain Union, in the vast Sorcerer World, he was but one of the smaller powerhouses. Many organizations and clans could rival his prestige and even suppressed it. Watching the Mountain Envoy's receding figure, everyone decided to heed his command and moved along with him. They knew that trouble had arrived, and its impact would influence the calm situation of the Fleeting Emotions Ruin. As everyone exited the golden palace, the sight of chaotic screams and fighting presented itself. With the collapse of society's laws, many people tried to make use of the situation to gain some benefits. However, most of the penetrators were mortals, as the sorcerers knew about the ruthlessness of the Mountain Union and did not wish to tread on the perilous road. Nonetheless, as the Mountain Envoy declared his order, the brown-robed sorcerers immediately spread out and killed every criminal they found, making the surrounding of the golden palace the only quiet area of the outpost. Many shop owners tried to fight back against the intruders, but most of the time, they would get killed or had their daughter seized. If the thieves were sure enough to stomp the store, they mostly had investigated the circumstance and prepared for the worst. Although little in number, some sorcerers were also battling, trying to put an end to their long-lasting vengeance. They knew that in the time of chaos, laws would not be as strict as before. It would be the best time to settle everything. In the presence of the brown-robed sorcerers, silence followed their orderly footsteps as they advanced outwards, killing every offender they found. In only a moment, the golden palace retained its tranquil yet bloody atmosphere. "Let us go to greet our guests then." Looking at the hard work of the guards, the Mountain Envoy felt a sense of accomplishment as he smiled before setting his gaze onto the floating landscape. "As you command, Lord Envoy." Behind him, the space distorted as Elements gathered into a vortex, forming humanoid figures cloaked in similarly brown robes. However, unlike the regular guards, their clothes shone in a low glow, indicating the superior quality. Holding the empowered scroll, the Mountain Envoy exerted his power and pushed himself upward, using his sorcery to propel his body in the air and float up. Along with him, the figures of the commanders behind him also used their methods to follow him. Many grasped in admiration as they watched the brilliant display of sorcery of the Mountain Envoy. Although the flying methods were simple, not many could learn them as their manipulation of Elements was lacking. Moreover, if they had the necessary ability, their sorcery energy replenishing rate would not be enough. Only the second-ranked sorcerers could continue to float in the air for some time. Even then, their remaining sorcery energy would not be enough to do much. The second-ranked powerhouses exchanged their communication in their group before making their decision. Most of them decided to follow the Mountain Envoy while others remained on the ground, determining to watch how the situation turned out first. As if the people of the floating landscape knew about their intention, many figures were moving out from it as they slowly descended onto the land. Their green robe fluttered as the wind caressed its surface, glowing in flowery patterns. Along with their descent, natural fragrance slowly spread across the entire outpost, covering the smell of blood and ashes in a strangely calming scent. Not long after, leaves and petals followed closely, falling onto the ground and forming a scenery akin to the painting of a master painter. The mortals who noticed the faint fragrance and the falling petals tried to discern its origin. However, before they could look up into the sky and saw the existence of the supernatural beings, their head suddenly felt heavy and weary as drowsiness assaulted their nerves. In only a mere moment, the chaotic outpost turned silent as all mortals fell into a deep slumber. The sorcerers also stopped their actions and gathered into groups, not daring to continue their act of plundering and fighting. As long as they did not attract the attention of those floating masters, they were sure that their life would not fade into the nothingness that easily. None of the sorcerers from Mountain Union tried to prevent any of it. They knew that this fragrance would only be effective against the mortals, and its purpose was to hide their existence from the mortals to minimize the impact of their clash. In their opinion, the worldview of mortals was delicate and would crumble with the slightest touch. Instead of letting know the existence of sorcery, they would be better off leading an ignorant yet peaceful life. Only the ones with potential and talents had the right to peer into their brutal world. As the green-robed sorcerers came to a halt in front of the representative of Mountain Union, one figure stepped forward and gazed at the scroll held by the Mountain Envoy, trying to feel the extent of the hidden power within it. The Mountain Envoy frowned as he sensed the aura of serenity and tranquil around the man, knowing that he had met another powerhouse at a similar level of mastery like him. "Bringing in the Garden of Placidity, aren't you violating the agreement signed by the Emperors?" With the Imperial Decree in his hand, the Mountain Envoy was confident in its ability to let him suppress the opponent at the same mastery. The Garden of Placidity, one of the high-quality treasures, was the main base of Flying Green Garden. Although the Flying Green Garden was not one of the top powerhouses of the continent, it had the backing of one, making their overall power stronger than the Mountain Union. "The Envoy of the Mountain, we didn't come here to start a war, but to join the competition for the treasure." The man's voice was hoarse and dried, like the sound emitted when a nail grazed the surface of the rotten wood. Although the Mountain Union had already expected the arrival of the surrounding force, they did not anticipate that Flying Green Garden would bring their Garden of Placidity with them and rushed toward the ruin. Because of the density of the Element in the sorcery wave released from the Fleeting Emotions Ruin, only a monster at the third-ranked sorcery or a priceless treasure could accomplish such feat, which made most of the powerhouses hesitated to jump in first. "The treasure appeared within our Mountain Union, meaning that it logically would be in our possession!" One of the commanders behind the Mountain Envoy spoke up. He was the youngest of them all and was still hot-blooded and reckless. "The origin of the treasure came from the ruin, and the origin of the ruin did not belong to your Mountain Union, or are you saying that your Emperor owned Fleeting Emotions Ruin?" The leader of the group did not bother trying to argue with him and stated his reasoning. The commander fell silent after hearing such a statement. No one within the Sorcerer World knew the origin of the various ruins that scattered around the continent. Maybe the top powerhouses knew about them, but the people at their level did not have the requirement to view it. "On behalf of the Mountain Emperor, We have declared this ruin as the forbidden zone. If you didn't wish to start a conflict, then the Garden of Placidity shouldn't be here." As the Mountain Envoy spoke, the scroll in his hand slowly unfolded and released a blinding light, piercing the darkness that enveloped the outpost below. The air around the two dropped started turning hostile and chaotic, twisting the natural flow of Elements into strange shapes. None of the two was willing to compromise. They did not wish to pass a chance of gaining excellent treasure. However, despite the atmosphere that was on the verge of explosion, no one was going to make a drastic move yet. Although Mountain Union had the home ground advantage, they feared the power behind Flying Green Garden while Flying Green Garden could not defeat Mountain Union without suffering a pyrrhic victory. As the situation fell into a deadlock, Forus felt that something was pulsating inside of his body, twitching as if someone was trying to recall it back. The itchy sensation bombarded his nerves, especially around his hollow eyesockets. "Forus, what's wrong?" Ocelia, who noticed his condition, asked him out of her concern. Although the trio was on the ground, if the fight between Mountain Union and Flying Green Garden started, there was no way of making sure that they would escape unscathed. At the same moment, one of the members of Flying Green Garden stepped forth and whispered to their leader before gazing towards the ground below and revealed a bright smile. "Lord Envoy, it seems that your people did not care about us very much." Gaining a piece of new information, the leader did not waste any time and spoke out again. If they did not dare to go all-out in the battle, then they would play by the rules of the agreement of the Emperors. The Mountain Envoy frowned as he gazed at his followers. Most of them did not know anything and kept their face straight, only a few of the second-ranked sorcerers from Flamedouse City realised something, including Levota and Corulem. "In Flamedouse City, one of our disciples almost lost her life to one of your people, and despite our request, your response was to drive one of our Elders away." The stalemate threatened to crumble as the aggressive aura from the Flying Green Garden's group of Elders magnified. Although the Mountain Envoy could calm the anger from Ninguis Family, he was incapable of suppressing the complaint from Flying Green Garden. The excuse of power and authority abuse paled in comparison to the damage to their reputation. With a simple sorcery spell, the speech said by the leader of Flying Green Garden bypassed the distance between the ground and the sky, echoing throughout the outpost. Everyone below the group could feel their fear and panic rising, regularly looking around to see if they stood too close to the culprit. Hearing the declaration, Forus sighed as he looked over to Ocelia before he smiled to her, placing his hand on her head. Without any hesitation, he placed his lips upon her forehead before pushing her towards Abicel, letting the young maiden took care of the rest. Little by little, the semi-transparent root-like tentacles began to crawl out from his empty eye sockets. Although the spiritual seed had already crumbled into dust, some lingering roots remained within his body. When coming into contact with the petals and natural fragrance that fell from the Garden of Placidity, they immediately reacted and reached out to their origin.

Amidst the destruction of the once beautiful wilderness and majestic mountain, a robed figure remained submerged within the puddle of dried crimson shade. His breathing, although slow and waning, was steady without any break. "The sky was very clear today, don't you think so?" His dark, depressing eyes gazed upon the sun. His expression was calm, showing no variation of emotions. If not for the open wounds on his stomach, he would look no different than any ordinary person. His words echoed into the surrounding, but the figure standing beside him remained in silence. Only her glittering eyes would occasionally shift between his peaceful expression and the warm-coloured horizon. "Still not calling me your teacher until the very end, huh?" Despite her unwillingness to talk to him, the dying man continued to mutter to her. Although his voice began to soften, she could hear every word loud and clear. "You must be cursing me right now, but, remember, it is I who gave you everything— isn't this true love?" As soon as his sentence resounded, the maiden abruptly froze her movement. Her calm eyes turned bloodied as she threw a dagger towards him. With his injuries, the man could not dodge the dagger and let it stabbed into him. Vines began to explode outwards from the wound and begin to devour his flesh and blood at a visible rate. "You took everything from me! Everything!" Although her voice was pleasant and charming, the air she exuded was as demonic as it could be. If not for some truth in his earlier sentence, she would have killed him before he could speak anything. After her outburst, the man smiled before rising his hand upwards. His slow movement caught her attention, causing her to stop her torture. He tried reaching his hand to grasp her arm, but he could not cross the distance between the two. "Matia, it's okay to hate me and kill me. However, the legacy of our Garden must live on. Protect the Garden and take good care of that kid." Knowing that Matia did not want him to reach out to her, the man let go of his thought and spoke to her. Using his last bit of consciousness, he closed his muddled eyes and fell into the darkness. Although the man did not hear any confirmation or rejection, his mouth remained smiling until the very end, knowing what the little girl before him would do. "You're right. Everything I accomplished is partially your effort." At first, Matia looked towards the sky and locked her gaze at the orange horizon. Her face distorted into a smile. Then, despite her effort to remain expressionless, transparent liquid manifested beneath her eyes. Even if she hated herself for mourning his death, Matia could not suppress her overwhelming emotions as the memory since her first arrival rushed through her mind. Matia watched as her dull world brightened up when she received his praise for the first time. She saw how worried he was when he oversaw her breakthrough despite secretly helping her with his knowledge. Just like a flickering light of a candle, everything raced past her in only a fleeting moment before disappearing into the darkness. Without her notice, she had grown attached to his outwards coldness which hid the inwards warmness. Although her hatred for his was unending, it could not distinguish her gratitude for his care. In the end, it was only after killing him, did she realize her profound feeling. Only when she stopped her weeping did she realize that the sky had already turned dark. The moonlight reflected onto the surrounding rocks, revealing the tranquil scene of nature. If not for a figure kneeling in front of a corpse, no one would know that there was a terrifying fight here. When she gazed towards the location of his corpse, she found that only dried blood and ashes had remained. The vines had already devoured his fleshes and bones, leaving only the ashes of what once was her teacher. Picking up a medal that signified the Second Elder position of Flying Green Garden, Matia slowly stood up and waved her hand, creating a gush of wind that blew the dust into the wildness. "Thank you, and farewell, teacher." The night was quiet, echoing only the footsteps of a lonely daughter, who lost almost everything that gave her happiness. ... "Miss, we have no idea what you're talking about." Only when Forus spoke did Matia regain her focus. Although it was only a mere moment, her mind wandered into the old memory that still pained her. With his one answer, Matia could feel her mind clearing. Since the day she regained her memory, she had already dedicated herself to become strong and took back everything she lost. Inside the depth of her consciousness, the looming sense of grief and stress remained unmoved, haunting her every time she closed her eyes. Although the promise with her teacher was genuine, she would gladly forsake it all for her selfish goal, if it meant avenging her parents. Little by little, her face fell, and tears once again plagued her mournful eyes. The profound emotion she felt one hundred years ago made its appearance anew. "Miss?" Ocelia became confused at the sight of Matia tearing up. At once, her thoughts flashed into many speculations, but, in the end, she shook her head and remained silent. She had no obligation to step in and meddle with the story of someone's else. "Then, why did you have his aura?" In her trembling voice, Matia asked Forus with a hint of anticipation. If not for her hundreds of years of experience, she would have kneeled and wept while begging him to tell the location of her father. At her question, Forus remained silent, not knowing how to answer. Even if he told the truth, no one would be willing to suspend their common sense and believe him. If not for the memory-sharing with Ocelia and her absolute trust in him, she might not believe his story either. After all, killing a second-ranked sorcerer as a mortal, with the power of the Taboo Existences granted by an evil entity was too hard to accept. The mountain of coincidences was too huge to overcome without experiencing it first-hand. "I have my reason, but I can assure you that there is no relation between him and me." Without any way to explain, Forus could only tell Matia this much. He did not wish to anger her and suffer as a consequence. Ocelia moved in front of Forus as she faced Matia, using herself as a shield to block any unforeseeable circumstances. She knew that Forus had not regained his sorcery energy yet, and any strike from a second-ranked sorcerer could easily take his life. Watching her action, Matia felt a slight pulse from her heart. The couple in front of her reminded her of the two in her faded memory. Knowing how fragile their life could be, she did not wish to become her teacher and ripped apart even more family. "If you could tell me the location of his hideout, I'll not only help you recover your eyes but assist you in advancing your sorcery mastery." In her last attempt at uncovering the truth, Matia asked in a low voice, almost pleading as she did not use any sorcery to enhance her speech. "It's somewhere along the south road of Flamedouse City. I don't want anything, just help him regain his vision." Before Forus could answer, Ocelia spoke in her shaky voice. She almost revealed a smile when she heard that there was hope for his eyes. She missed the azure eyes that could appreciate her beauty. Hearing her answer, Matia let out a pleasant smile that even Ocelia felt an urge to compliment. She held her hand in front of her chest and made a grasping motion, causing a small potion to manifest at her fingertips. "Let him take it. It'll help him get rid of the impurity from the spiritual seed. After I've settled my business, I'll come back to help him." Along with the potion, Matia also sent out a badge towards Ocelia, signifying her promise. "To bring out the Garden of Placidity, still as lively as usual." Just as Matia was about to go back to her group, a voice echoed around the mountain, revealing unmasked contempt towards Flying Green Garden. "Please reveal yourself, guest from afar. Following the Decree of the Mountain Emperor, this place is under lockdown and would not welcome anyone without His Majesty's permission." The Mountain Envoy felt slightly annoyed at the disregard attitude of the mysterious voice. However, to avoid their detection and get this close to the Fleeting Emotions Ruin, the mastermind must be resourceful. At the same height as the two groups of second-ranked sorcerers, a golden mist manifested all around the mountain. It encompassed the Ruin, forming a giant yellowish dome. Although it did not do anything exceptional, it still instilled fear and curiosity into the mind of the people below. Inside the golden gradient, the dark silhouette of multiple structures emerged from the hazy fog. They strangely remained floating apart from the ground, just like the Garden of Placidity. Although most of them were smaller than the Garden, the biggest one was almost as big as it. On top of the flying fortresses, many figures dressed in a dark yellow robe stood guarded, looking down onto the world as if they were above it. The most notable symbol on their cloak was the golden outline of an eye. "Divine Eye Tower, aren't you all supposed to guard your ancestral ground?" The leader of Flying Green Garden, the First Elder, widened his eyes as he spoke, trying to suppress his distress. Although Flying Green Garden had a backer that even the Mountain Emperor would guard against, Divine Eye Tower was a behemoth that could contend with said backer. Flying Green Garden could never hope to match its influence and strength. "The Grand Elder has issued his command. Today, we shall crush the Garden of Placidity beneath our might. As the Wheel of Fate dictated!" Under the proclamation of supremacy and arrogance, a group of extraordinary sorcerers stepped forwards from the biggest flying fortress and headed towards the deadlock. The leader of the group stood in front of the Mountain Envoy and the First Elder of Flying Green Garden. His aura expanded outwards and pressured the two groups, causing some of the members to turn pale and retreat a few steps in reflex. "Little Envoy, send my greeting to His Majesty." The Mountain Envoy could only smile at his provocation. He knew that the mysterious Grand Elder of Divine Eye Tower was at the peak stage of the second rank and could defeat a puny Envoy without any real effort. "First Elder, say hi to Acelrus for me. If possible, make him drag his bones to meet his old friend." The First Elder swallowed his words as he slowly nodded. Within the surrounding area, only the man before him could call the Grand Elder of Flying Green Garden by his name. Just as he finished his speech, the flying fortresses gradually surrounded the Garden of Placidity, forming a formation that would commence the massacre at any moment. ... Inside the dark void of the Fleeting Emotions Ruin, Lord Phasma seated atop a marble throne, looking down at the mysterious orb that controlled the ruin. Above the orb, many visions of the surrounding area of the mountain flashed by, revealing the situation from the outside. Although no one could detect the invisible fortresses, the ancient formation could see them as clear as the bright sky. "Now that I've already fulfilled my oath, you can't blame me for taking advantage of the situation." Phasma smiled as he waved his hand, causing the pale orb to turn blood-red, trembling in excitement. "Don't worry, if everything goes according to the plan, then you'll get a share too. I won't treat my successor poorly." Phasma turned his head towards the feminine figure behind him. She watched as the scene unfolded, revealing nothing but a seductive aura. "If possible, can you let those people live?" After a period of consideration, the lady showed the silhouettes of some people. They were the people that she wished to repay. "Of course, anything for you, my dear successor." In the end, Phasma swept his eyes across the scene, revealing a hint of surprise before suppressing it down. Even if she did not ask him, he would never dare to do anything to those people.

"I've never expected that you, Siprytas, would be the one who let me down..." Despite the sorcery arrays designed to prevent everything from the outside to come in, a sudden wind of cold converged into the white mist before dissipating into nothingness, revealing an aloof figure. As soon as the figure appeared, the warriors from Fiery Tarantula Sect quickly surrounded him, holding onto their burning weaponry until it began to shake. However, even with their numerical advantage, the said warriors could not stop their body from shaking in fear of the man's presence. "Sect Head... Aren't you supposed to be in your breakthrough seclusion?" Siprytas took a step back in shock while countless thoughts flashed in his mind. As he detected the cold gaze of his teacher, he lowered his head in shame and sorrow. Not only him, but the surrendered Elders also stayed silent, not daring to even excuse themselves from their pathetic actions. They knew that everything was over, and there would be no coming back or asking for forgiveness. The last remaining peak-staged second-ranked sorcerer did not speak anything. He merely swept the area with his gaze before landing them onto the stiff body of Siprytas' uncle. "To think that before my Sect could even experience its golden age, it would fall because of me." A subtle sigh leaked out of his mouth. The Sect Head merely shook his head at the signs of the cowering Elders. He knew that the hope of the Sect was no more. The Fiery Tarantula Sect had already exterminated every loyal Sect Member and only let those weak Elders alive. Even if they somehow could start over, there was no way for Icy Scorpion Sect to recover. "Teacher, because of our past relationship, I could make an exception to let them live, if you promised to step down from the Sect Head position." Siprytas spoke up as he took another step backwards. Although he feared the power of his teacher, he was confident that the arrangement of Fiery Tarantula Sect was sufficient to exterminate Icy Scorpion Sect. "You should've known the answer yourself, Siprytas." The cold air raised from the ground and expanded outwards, seeping into every corner of the building. No matter how hard the flaming warriors tried to drive it away, the mist always came back to block their view. The noisy chatters began to fade as everyone found themselves to be alone in the whiteness, gradually feeling as if the mist had swallowed them into an unknown plane of existence. "Hazy Scenery... To think that you had this kind of trump card." Siprytas tightly held onto a small mysterious cubic gem. Its crimson surface faintly stirred as red light slowly crept out from it, combatting the white mist that separated everything from one another. ... As everyone around Forus noticed the strange phenomenon, they quickly retreated away from him in fear. In a mere moment, the area surrounding him became an empty landscape, devoided of any sorcerers. Sounds of crackling resounded around Forus as root-like tendrils began to emerge under his skin, moving across his chest and climbed up onto his face. The greenish colour manifested and mixed with his pale skin, spreading the strangely-calming fragrance onto the surrounding. As Forus attempted to suppress the change within his body, a sudden itchy sensation assaulted his eye sockets. Before he could do anything, blood began to seep out from his eye sockets and gave birth to a pair of dazzling flowers. By using his blood and sorcery energy as the nutrient, the flowers quickly absorbed them and spurted into existence. They slowly rotated while continuously using their roots to devour his inside. With every passing moment, a hint of crimson colour would manifest on their pure-white petals. "Forus..." Tears began to form around the edge of Ocelia's eyes. She struggled to push Abicel away to run towards Forus. However, no matter how hard she struggled, she could not free herself from the hug of the Nature Fairy. "Please don't die, Forus. You must not make her sad." Abicel bit her lips as she shifted her gaze away, not wishing to view the tragic scene any longer. If she did not promise Forus to take care of Ocelia for him, she would have gone in with Ocelia. Although she did not know why, when she watched that steady back, her mind became filled with a sense of pity, and instead of getting in awe of his selflessness, she felt a sensation of loneliness and longing behind his expressionless appearance. Despite the great distance between the ground and the sky, none of the people missed the commotion. The Mountain Envoy frowned as he glanced at his commanders, who had transmitted a message detailing the obscure event he just received from one of the insiders. Hearing the explanation, the Mountain Envoy fell into silence as his mind began to work at a rapid rate, trying to come up with the best scenario. He did not wish to let his brother-in-law down, but also could not make the reputation of Mountain Union tainted by his decision. When it came to the conflict between people from different powerhouses, the matter would escalate into the clash between the power behind the two. The victory and defeat of the small members would reflect within them the status of their respective organization. At this moment, the conflict had forced the Mountain Envoy to choose between two bad choices. Either he continued to oppose Flying Green Garden and their backer, starting a war to protect the pride of Mountain Union, or decisively announced the banishment of Forus and handed him to Flying Green Garden. The Mountain Envoy had to choose between his brother-in-law or His Majesty, the Mountain Emperor. "Levota, what should I do?" The Mountain Envoy muttered as he gazed towards his brother-in-law, not knowing how to process next. Although he understood the solution of the problem, his mind was still clinging on the hope of some miracle that would help him. "Lord Envoy, please make your decision." Corulem smiled as he urged the Mountain Envoy to hurry up. At first, his plan to bring shame and suffer to Coruscare Family had failed, but now, another chance had presented itself, and he was quick to grasp it. Under the scornful eyes of the Mountain Envoy, Corulem took out a token with the simplistic symbol of three mountain peaks. Although its design was plain and unassuming, the look on the Mountain Envoy's face became pale upon laying his gaze onto it. Seeing the special token, every member of Mountain Union retracted their sorcery energy before bending their head forwards, lowering their body until it became parallel to the ground. In an utmost orderly fashion, the Mountain Envoy stayed motionless as he displayed a respectful expression. "We, your subjects, offered our sincere respect." At once, everyone exclaimed in resonance, causing the sky to rumble with their powerful voice. Only after their show of loyalty did they rise back up. "Lord Corulem, are you sure about your decision?" Levota spoke softly with a hint of melancholy in his speech. In front of the Token of Contribution, bestowed by the Mountain Emperor, everyone must treat the bearer with the utmost respect, as the token represented the Mountain Emperor himself. As one of the sorcerer families within the Flamedouse City, Ninguis Family also had ways to combat against Coruscare Family, and the main reason they could stand side by side with Coruscare Family was the sole existence of the Token of Contribution. "Everything I did was for the greater good of His Majesty." Corulem, with the Token of Contribution in his hand, locked his gaze at the Mountain Envoy, waiting for his final judgement. The leader of Flying Green Garden fell into silence, not showing any emotions whatsoever. Within such a short moment, he could see the different factions clashing in a battle of the wit. As an outsider, it was not appropriate to step in and meddle with the internal affair. "According to the rules set by His Majesty, none shall harm the innocent and tarnish the laws of Mountain Union. Falsus Nomen, you had broken the rules, and shall be punished." The Mountain Envoy magnified his speech for it to reach all over the outpost, letting everyone within the surrounding heard every bit of it. As he did so, the Mountain Envoy sighed as he smiled at his brother-in-law, showing his unwillingness. Although he did not wish to tarnish the reputation of Coruscare Family, the responsibility of the Mountain Envoy preceded his relationship. "With my authority as the representative of the Mountain Emperor, I hereby declare, Falsus Nomen, from this moment onwards, your presence is no longer a part of Mountain Union." Every eye fell onto the lonely figure on the ground. Most of them recognised him to be the future spouse of Coruscare Family, which caused their mind to run wild in amazement. In only a short time, this unknown person had undergone a drastic change. At first, he began in his humble origin as a nobody before revealing his status as the lover of the successor of Corsucare Family. After that, he got dragged into a clash between two sorcerer families. In the end, his life fell from one of the blessings into a living hell. "Levota, you know what to do, right?" In a sneering manner, Corulem asked Levota by raising his voice, attracting the attention of others. At this moment, Levota could only disown his daughter's true love to preserve his family's status. Levota did not speak but turned his head towards the ground, directing it at his eldest daughter, gazing into her teary eyes. In response, Ocelia used her hands to wipe the watery emotions and lock her windows towards the soul onto Forus, not letting any movement eluded her perception. At this point, Abicel did not try to restain her anymore. She could only stand beside Ocelia and watched the fate unfolded. Recalling the promise she made with him, she began to wonder why did Forus requested her that way, and how could he know about any of this. "... By my authority as the Family Head of Coruscare Family, I hereby declared the banishment of Falsus Nomen. From this point onwards, he shall no longer be a part of Coruscare Family." Although Corulem knew that Levota deliberately did not announce the real name of Forus Ander, he did not care about the trivial detail as he was able to achieve a part of his goal. As soon as the collective decision to abandon Forus finalized, a series of wind howled as they carried with them leaves and petals from above. They danced joyously according to the emotions of their master, forming a vortex that spanned around Forus, covering his surrounding in various shades of nature. In the group of floating petals, a figure stepped forward, landing in front of Forus. Although her green robe had concealed parts of her appearance, her unique disposition, coupled with a wooden staff in her hand, reminded him of a lady he once met. Just as Forus gazed onto her green pupils, the wind blew away her hood, revealing her unnatural body condition. On her chest, a greenish jewel embedded itself onto her, causing her body to mutate into the constitution of a Nature Fairy. With flowers hanging out from her body, the bizarre sense of beauty was leaking out from her presence. Although she did not completely transform into a full-fledged Nature Fairy, her body had already become one. If not for the impurity and imperfection of the method, she would also achieve the same state as Abicel. "Falsus, we meet again." At the sight of her nemesis, Florie smiled widely, revealing her sharp, unsettling rows of teeth. There was not a single hint of her naive youth in that pair of eyes. Instead, a trace of dark desire slowly emerged from her heart. After getting her world view shattered by Forus, she had developed a colder personality that manifested a sign of insanity when she fought, showing the impact the defeat from Forus had to her naive self.

A figure stood in front of the sea of azure mist, revealing a thoughtful expression as he swept his eyes across the meeting hall. Although his silhouette looked like humans, the blackened scales covering his body betrayed the notion. "Master, please display your blazing power to the world. I have already confirmed the absence of Frost Ancestor." Behind the man was another person. Siprytas stood still with his head lowered, showing respect to his Master. "Icy Scorpion Bloodline... To think that such a powerful lineage would fall from grace today. Even Frost Ancestor could never foresee it." The Master spoke calmly, making sure that every word of his was loud and clear. He wanted the figure inside the mist to hear it. Seeing that his remark did not result in anything, the Master waved his hand and created sparks of flame around his fingers. They slowly orbited around him then gradually accelerated towards a higher speed. The particles moved faster until they blurred from the ordinary eyes, creating a ring of fire around him. The heat waves radiated from the particles enveloped the room, pushing the azure mist into the walls and disintegrating most of them into vapours. This action caused the icy cold temperature to rise, making the bluish shade of the meeting room to lose its colour. As the waves travelled across the room, muffled screams resounded as many figures struggled to retain their life. However, their flash of suffering only lasted for a moment before their movement subsided and their gaze ceased to move, forever descended into the darkness. "Siprytas, you traitor!" Many curses and insults echoed inside his mind, reminding him of his shameful actions and its meaning. However, as he had already chosen this path, he had no way of backing away. Siprytas only closed his eyes and lowered his head even more. "Mortemil, let us finish what we've started today." Inside the sea of fog, only one figure remained standing. The Sect Leader watched as his useless sect members died, not showing any deep emotions. His eyes only fixed on his old nemesis, the Sect Leader of the Fiery Tarantula Sect. ... Although the smile on his face was almost unnoticeable, through the eyes of Florie, it was as wicked as a devil's and as deep as the endless abyss. She knew that she had fallen straight into Forus' trap. With her experience, she only hesitated for an instant before trying to pull her crystal dagger away from his hands. However, to her surprise, it had implanted itself deep into the flesh, only stopping because of the white bones obstructing its path. With the tight grip from the same hand, Florie found herself unable to withdraw her dagger. Many thoughts ran through her mind at that moment, and she gritted her in distress before she let go of her unique treasure. She knew that her mentor had crafted it for her, and did not want to lose it. Nevertheless, she did not become dependent on it that she would disregard her life for a single piece of treasure. In the end, she managed to let go of her obsession, causing a subtle change in her mental state. Knowing what she would do, Forus did not allow her to escape his grasp. He pulled his hand closer to himself, indirectly pulling Florie inwards. At the same time, Florie had just let go of the dagger, making her lost her balance and retreated for a few steps, landing onto the puddles formed by explosions of Ice and Wood Element. If not for the continuous assault of the petals and leaves, Forus could have finished Floire at that moment of carelessness. However, with their presence, he would be killing himself if he tried to step towards her. Before Florie could stabilize herself, she felt a sudden cold rushing through her body, as if a sharp blade was hovering just in front of her heart, waiting for the slightest of movement to completely shred it. She looked downwards to the source of her doom and saw the water puddle vibrating. Because of the fear of death, Florie mind raced madly before forcing her to propel herself towards Forus. Although she knew that getting closer to her opponent was risky, it was better than getting killed by the trap he had set. Just as she moved, the puddle quickly froze into ice and exploded into a violent burst. The water travelled upwards before getting frozen into icy spikes. Although she had escaped death with her quick reaction, the spikes managed to stab onto her legs and created a few wounds. As she moved, the spikes stood in place, not leaving along with her. As a result, the previously small wounds expanded as the tips grazed her legs vertically, creating lines of crimson blood that cut deep into her skin. As if he had already predicted her reaction, Forus flicked his dagger-stabbed hand, letting it fell out. His fingers moved and warped around the dagger, turning its tips away from him and towards Florie's direction. Blood seeped out from Florie's lips as she tried to stop her scream, feeling numb from the pain radiating from her wounds. However, despite the distraction, she remained focused and channelled her last remaining sorcery energy, rearing the few floating petals and leaves to position themselves in front of her. Without any hesitation, Forus exerted his bloody arm to snap forwards, bringing the dagger with it. However, due to his injury, he had difficulty trying to move his legs any faster, risking getting his wounds ripping open even further. Although he was the one who activated the trap, he also suffered from the strayed ice spikes that managed to stab onto his legs. After all, if there were no puddles in his surrounding, Florie and her mentor might detect the strange abnormality and be on guard. However, as Forus gripped tightly onto the crystal dagger, its handle trembled as tiny transparent vines emerged from it. They crept onto his bloody hand and shot towards his flesh, drilling themselves onto his bone and started draining his blood and sorcery energy. Upon noticing the anomaly, Forus tried to let go of the dagger, causing its momentum to lessen. Despite his effort, the vines gripped onto his flesh and refused to break away. To avoid the counter-attack, Forus could only allow Florie to retreat away from his strike. Although the dagger was powerful, it could only break through the ball of petal and lightly graze Florie. She quickly fell back as the leaves moved around her, piecing onto the spikes behind her, opening a pathway for her to retreat safely. As the two disengaged, the crimson shades submerged most colours within the surrounding with their ominous fragrance. With their body littered with cuts and wounds, they remained still, wary about the next move of the other. While Florie frowned as the anticipated strikes did not follow suit, Forus remained expressionless as his body began to move once again. He had already got rid of the ice spikes around him and could freely move about without much obstruction. Forus flicked his right hand, and a copper coin manifested above it. He grabbed it and tossed it onto the dagger, causing the coin to tremble and release a small amount of yellowish gas. With its descend, a depressing aura seeped into the atmosphere. The Underworld Copper Coin fell onto the dagger, sealing it with its underworld power. Without any resistance, the dagger struggled to resist but could only fall onto the ground, its roots decayed. Florie did not have any time to contemplate Forus' action as she watched his figure flashed in bluish light. She could only tremble as she understood that her sorcery energy had already depleted. With her only treasure stolen, she only had her last ball of leaves and some useless pollens. The fight flowed like water, from one motion to another, without any moment to stop and ponder. She felt lost under the storm of stress and life-threatening moments. In her moment of carelessness, she could only keep watch of her heavy usage of sorcery energy. As the scent of blood overwhelmed her sense of smell, she began to hear her heart beating at a strange rhythm. Its beat resonated with her body as she shivered under its constraint, heightening her sense of perception under the threat of death. At the moment where time slowed down for her, Florie saw the expressionless Forus charging towards her, aiming the stolen dagger at her heart. The strange, timeless scene became more vivid and clear as she continued to stare at it, creating a ripple of calmness that cooled her trembling body down. Florie soon became in trance, discarding her fear and hatred she had towards Forus. Her body relaxed as she beckoned the ball of leaves to close in on her. Without any wasteful movement, she stabbed her bloody hand toward it, sinking deep into the thorns and letting it absorbed her blood. Once she pulled a blade of leaf out, the ball exploded towards Forus, tainting the sky blood-red as they concealed Florie in crimson dust for a moment. Once Forus passed through the leaves, he found that Florie had also moved in towards him. With an air of carefreeness around her, Florie positioned the tip of her blade towards Forus. As she did so, she revealed a lovely smile that exposed her current relaxed mood. The previous panic and fear had vanished within a single moment of concealment. Along with the winds, Forus and Florie clashed repeatedly. Their exchange would slowly chip away their strength, but none of them had any intention to back down. The scene of their bloody fighting, although seemed chaotic, gave off a feeling of grandeur. The movement of their clothing matched with the rhythm of their strikes, resembling the scenery within a dancing hall. The bloody shades enhanced the mystical atmosphere as if the two were treading upon the mystical realm. However, as their rhythm intensified, a soft noise echoed forth as the play abruptly stopped. Although her body was extraordinary, Florie could not compete with the physique of the Taboo Existence. As her last blade of leaf broke into pieces, Forus quickly took the opportunity to stab the dagger towards her heart. However, just as he was about to end her life, a soft sigh resounded within his mind as a heavy pressure suddenly descended onto him. Due to the sudden intervention, Forus missed the marked and stabbed onto her abdomen instead. This mistake allowed Florie to giggle in her lovely voice before she grabbed his blade and pulled him closer. With his momentum, Forus could not dodge the incoming attack, allowing Florie to piece her hand onto his chest. Her last remaining sorcery energy empowered her hand, allowing it to break his bones and grasped onto his beating heart. "I understand now, mentor." Feeling the rhythm of his heartbeat, Florie gazed towards the dark abysses on Forus' face. Although his entire body got covered in blood and gore, he still released a certain otherworldly aura that captivated her. "Falsus, thank you." With her characteristic as the Nature Fairy, she beckoned all remnants of the spiritual seeds inside Forus to gather at her fingertip. In an only mere moment, Forus could feel the looming sense of threat inside his body fading away. As he felt her hand caressing his heart, Forus vaguely reminded himself of a strange feeling of familiarity. Although faint, he felt his soul stirred up as if something he wished was finally upon him. Once Florie absorbed all of the spiritual seeds, she reluctantly pulled her hand out and stared at the black substance on her fingertips. Forus did not notice anything as he froze in his thoughts, savouring the long-forgotten sense of purpose. "So, what's your request?" It was only after a while before Florie asked him lightly. In the last remaining moment of the fight, she had undergone so much change that her current temperament was world-apart from before. Florie's voice managed to snap Forus out from his trance. He revealed a sudden smile that caused a look of surprise to appear on her face. She had never seen such a genuine display of emotions from that expressionless man before.

The calmness dissolved as Ocelia's coughing intensified, attracting Forus' attention. As Abicel was going back to report her presence to the Steel Cauldron, it was a tranquil moment between the couple. Ocelia directed her gaze at the top of the mountain, where Fleeting Emotions Ruin remained tall and imposing. Although numerous sorcerers were patrolling the area, they could not hinder the majestic and ancient radiance of the ruin. "Don't worry. I'm fine. I'm only a little tired." Even though her eyes were looking outwards from the window, she could feel that Forus' non-existent gaze landed onto her. She smiled while enduring the assaulting pain in her heart. A pair of hands warped around her careless body, caressing her fair skin and interconnected right in front of her chest, and a muscular yet slim figure leaned upon her as he moved his head closer to her. Ocelia could feel the warmth of his breathes. "Can we stay right this... for a while?" Forus interrupted Ocelia's surprised expression with his selfish request. In respond, Ocelia's mouth curved into a smile as she reached her hands out to touch his, grasping at them tightly before closing her eyes. Her back leaned onto his body, and his head rested beside hers. At that moment, only the chipping of the birds and the howling of the winds remained within the tranquil manor. "Forus, about the wedding..." As the mood allowed her, Ocelia whispered her desire to him. If not for the lockdown from the decree of the Mountain Emperor, she would lead Forus to the main mansion and organized the wedding as soon as possible. Although her logical mind could wait for the event to come naturally, her emotional side could not bear to wait. "Take your time. I can wait as long as you wish. Even if I would have to wait for a lifetime." He whispered into her ears and moved his hand upward to caress her cheek. With her back facing him, Forus did not see the opening and closing motion of her mouth. Although she wanted to say something, she did not want her questions to interrupt their tranquil moment. She quietly let Forus admire her beauty while she was enjoying his company. Their perception of time flew by, only to get interrupted by a series of low knocking. The frequency of the knocks was uniform, indicating the orderliness and disciplines of the visitors. Forus could only sigh and separate from Ocelia, tidying his messy clothing and moved towards the gate with Ocelia closely behind. With his face kept looking down, and his pace maintaining its distance from his mistress, his appearance resembled that of her servant. "Young Mistress, the Family Head required your presence. Your servant has come to escort you to his resting mansion." The old butler swiped his eyes across Forus and landed onto Ocelia before lowering his head. He announced his intention before gesturing his hand, signalling the other servants to organize the scene. In no more than a minute, a carriage appeared before Ocelia, clothing in the crimson shades with a signature symbol of the Coruscare Family. "Falsus, let us depart." Without any trace of her vulnerable self left, Ocelia resumed her cold and aloof air. She gestured her hand and commanded Forus to accompany her inside the carriage. "Yes, my lady." Although Forus received enmity and jealousy from other servants, none of them could bother him. As a sorcerer, none of the worldly affairs could enter his attention scope, let alone shake him. However, without anyone's notice, Forus waved his hand and sent a wisp of his sorcery energy into the house. The thin fog seeped into the gate and materialized into a greyish paper, decorating to resemble a letter. As the carriage began to depart, Forus sat opposite of Ocelia. Although they were as close as ever, their thoughts were worlds apart. ... "Family Head, the Eldest Mistress has arrived." As Levota was conversing with another figure, a spark manifested beside him and expanded into a humanoid shape. The Fire Spirit kneeled before its lord and announced its news. "Lord Mountain Envoy, do you still remember her?" Using the mention of Ocelia as a lead, Levota directed the topic of interests. "Levota, I was about to tell you about my meeting with her. In truth, I've coincidentally met her before coming to see you." The Mountain Envoy smiled, briefly describing his encounter with her to the Family Head. "Go summon Ocelia, as well as Falsus." As soon as Levota finished listening, he ordered the Fire Spirit to summon his successor. He watched as it disappeared into nothingness before falling into contemplation. His action and words caused Lord Mountain Envoy to notice something. After a moment of silence, he finally smiled before recounting his experience. "Congratulation, brother. It seems that your daughter has a good pair of eyes." The Envoy stood up, preparing to leave. Although he and Levota were in a good relationship, he did not want to participate in the internal matter of the Coruscare Family. "Farewell, and give my reverence to His Majesty." As a show of respect, Levota personally escorted the Envoy of the Mountain Emperor out. After sending away the Envoy, Levota strolled towards the main hall of the manor and sat upon the throne designed for the Family Head, receiving the look of reverence and loyalty from the long-time servants and guards. His actions were majestic and aloof, showcasing the ability of this old Family Head who brought with him the prosperity of the clan. Before long, the gate slowly opened as many figures walked into the main hall. As the group went on, the guards and servants on the side would bow before them. Some would be smiling while others would be frowning. As they were approaching the throne of the Family Head, the accompanying guards and servants would walk into their positions and kneel before the Family Head. In the end, only Forus and Ocelia remained in front of the throne. "Your eldest daughter had safely returned from her journey. Dear father, thank you for your consideration." As according to the custom, Ocelia and Forus kneeled before the Family Head and bowed, letting their head touched upon the floor. "May the blazing glory be with Coruscare!" As they did so, the servants and guards also did the same, even if they were the Elders or descendants of the family. "Rise. I only require Ocelia and her servant." Levota gestured his hand, letting the others quickly yet orderly moved out of the hall. In only a moment of silence, the footsteps faded and left behind only three figures within the chamber. "Dear father, this man is your daughter's love of her life, Forus Ander." After getting through thick and thin together, the couple had already known everything there was to know about the other. Naturally, they would tell the truth to the soon-to-be father-in-law. At this moment, Forus did not continue to keep the facade of a weak person and displayed his firm aura of the first-ranked sorcery mastery. If he did not have any potential, how could he be standing by Ocelia's side and be her support? The Family Head's eyes flashed as he leaned forward, revealing a slight smile as he peered his vision into the two vast abysses on Forus' face. Given his intelligence network, it was easy for him to know the progress of Forus, the potential asset of the family. Not to mention that his eldest daughter had taken a liking in him. "Forus, can you bear the consequence of being the love of her life?" The Family Head spoke. His voice was a hoarse instead of his natural imposing voice. For a moment, his eyes went unfocused as he remembered the familiar scene from his memory. "No matter what, I'll be by her side." Facing the suppressing air from the second-ranked sorcerer, Forus did not exert any sorcery mastery to resist the force. Instead, he used his undying will to stand against the oppressing aura and directed his non-existent gaze towards the top of the throne. As the silence descended, Ocelia grabbed Forus' hand and held it tightly. The two seemed to turn into a pair of the knot, eternally intertwining with each other, forever going and coming in pair. "Treasure her more than your life, or you'll regret it." Their intimate action did not escape the perception of Levota, who sighed before leaning back onto his throne. It was unclear whether he was threatening Forus or he was speaking from experience. "I will." Pulling Ocelia closer, Forus used his arm to wrap around her, holding her in his embrace. A smile manifested in her face as Ocelia did not resist, enjoying the comfort of his muscular and impressive build. "Continue to stay within the vicinity of the outpost until the Mountain Envoy lifted the restriction, but, don't go into the ruin." Knowing that it was time, Forus and Ocelia bowed once again before retreating out of the hall, leaving Levota alone. "All for Coruscare." The Family Head shook his head as he sighed, revealing a profound expression. ... The dark void remained as silent as ever, revealing not a single ripple from the previous crash with the power of corruption. Although the Fleeting Emotions Ruin could not contend with the endless energy of the abyss, it did not suffer much irreversible damage. In the middle of the floating droplets, which held various realms in their boundary, a lonely orb drifted across the darkness. Its majestic presence had faded into nothingness and revealed only a glimpse of its previous prestige. Cracks and rifts carved themselves onto its surface, opening gateways for energy to leak out. Strains of multi-coloured light moved in and out of the orb, trying their best to mend the scars and sustain the functions of the various realms. However, in the middle of the bustling light, one pinkish strain of light remained hovered around the orb, forming a circle that displayed the vision from the outside. In the vision, the peaceful wildness trembled as a rift between space broke apart from reality. Inside the darkness, a figure stepped out, cloaking in a blue robe. His muscular body revealed a hint of phantom-like aura, indicating his unnatural presence. Although his expressionless face revealed nothing, his unstable sorcery energy hinted at the underlying damage accumulated from the preceding battle. "Thought Domain, It's been so long." Lord Phasma whispered as he gazed towards the sky, piecing the protection formation and into the pinkish circle. Before long, rays of light manifested before him, circling his body as they slowly engulfed his vision, shrouding him in the warmth comparable to a flickering candle. The bubble of light merged with Lord Phasma and dissipated into nothingness, revealing the empty wildness that regained its peaceful atmosphere. In only a moment of whiteness, Lord Phasma regained his vision. The wildness that he previously perceived had turned into the unending darkness. If not for the strains of light that glowed brightly as the guiding lamps, he would have thought that the world had turned black. Stretching his hand outwards, Lord Phasma grabbed hold at the floating orb in front of him. Although his action was gentle, additional cracks would appear whenever he exerted even a tiny amount of strength. "Forus Ander... Although I did not wish for this, I have no choice." He closed his eyes. Little by little, the vague scene from his memory began to surface. Inside his realm of consciousness, a slumbering symbol lit up, revealing the secret oath that he once signed with the mysterious Thought Domain. "Then, with my authority as the controller, let the show commence." Using every bit of his strength, Lord Phasma crushed the bleak orb with his physical power, grinding its essence into dust. As soon as he broke the orb, the surrounding bubbles of realms trembled, resonating with each other and produced a great turmoil that spread across the Fleeting Emotions Ruin. At that moment, the towering mountain shook, and the ancient array of protection fell from its grace. The Fleeting Emotions Ruin had lost its final layer of defence.

The Grand Elder snapped his gaze towards the peak of the mountain. His golden eyes flashed before dimming down, revealing a strange symbol that continually developed as time passed. "Interesting. It seems like everything is ready." His profound words caused the two leaders to glance at where he was staring. Although they did not like his attitude, they would always respect his words. The masters of Divine Eye Tower were all mysterious, having the ability to foresee a fragment of the future. No one knew the origin of their power, but everyone feared their wraths. Usually, they would never intervene with the ordinary conflict, but now, the emergence of a strange treasure had caught their attention. As his words resounded, the world trembled, accompanied by a sudden flash that enveloped the Fleeting Emotions Ruin and extended beyond its surrounding. The colourless spark intensified as they gathered together to form a completed dome that encompassed the mountain. Space above the mountain twisted, breaking apart and forming the all-devouring darkness. From the inside, strands of light leaked into the outer world, creating various sparkles that appeared and disappeared randomly. As if accepting the invitation of the dancing light, an object slowly floated out of the darkness, revealing the reflective surface. The bright glitter originated from it attracted all gazes towards its appearance— the silhouette of a supreme crown. The crown stationed above everything, waiting for the worthy to bear it upon their head and became the ruler of the Fleeting Emotions Ruin. "... Crown of the Faithless King. So, the legend is true. Anyone want to try to seize it?" With his gaze landed upon the majestic crown, Intor smiled and spoke to himself, making sure that his voice was loud enough for every second-ranked masters to hear. Although unconfirmed, there was a rumour about a being at the age of legend, who stood above everyone and ruled one region of the Sorcerer World as its sole king. The title conferred from the mountain of corpses beneath his throne: the Faithless King. Hearing the name of the treasure, the First Elder of Flying Green Garden started to regret his decision. Although the mythical treasure from the legendary period was tempting, its connection with the Faithless King instilled fear into his mind. As one of the Taboo Existences, any mention of his title would bring calamities and tragedies to everyone. Even the great powerhouses of the region would dare to talk about him, let alone his puny Flying Green Garden. "As the representative of the Mountain Emperor, this Envoy declares that the matter regarding the crown will no longer concern us." Without any hesitation, the Mountain Envoy quickly announced his intention to retreat and disengage from the deadlock. Carelessly meddling with the forbidden subject could cause the downfall of Mountain Union. Intor looked around with his cold gaze, not giving any attention to the Elders from Flying Green Garden. Before long, his gaze travelled back onto the Crown, and he smiled. "I'm afraid that it's already too late." Although his smile revealed no ill intention, the aloofness it carried was enough to shake everyone's mind. Just as his voice dissipated, the strange runes warped and twisted, moving closer to each other. In an instant, they connected and scattered, rapidly forming sentences and words before shuffling and rearranging. 'When the World ends, the Faithless King shall return. With his army of the Forgotten, he shall slaughter into the Origin. May the Fated Ones fall.' Even though the symbols were high up in the sky, everyone could see the sentence and its meaning with the clearest ease. The runes broke off from the limitation of distance and manifested in front of every sorcerer, including Forus who lost his ability to see. As soon as the runes formed the last sentence, they shone brightly before exploding into a powerful firework. The impact and sound of such magnitude rocked the mountain and made a dent on the transparent dome. Strangely, not a single person within the radius of the impact suffered any injury. If not for the collateral damage in the landscape and the mountain, one might assume that the explosion was merely an illusion. There was no heat, no fluctuation of Elements, no pressure. The magical wind went through every living being without interacting with them. Except for the bright colour and loud noise, the impact felt harmless. Despite the nonexistence damage dealt towards the sorcerers, the landscape did not have the same fate. The mountain containing the Fleeting Emotions Ruin split in half as a giant rift emerged from the depth of the rocks. From the blackness inside the rift, various bubbles floated outwards, revealing the strange scene on their transparent surface. Different bubbles exhibited different landscape. Some showed the wilderness while others revealed the dark underground. However, among them, only the unique ones would reveal the strange worlds unseen within the Sorcerer World. Although most of the sorcerers did not recognise the scenery, some that expressed various emotions. Anger, fear, excitement, and anxiety occupied the face of the sorcerers who survived the trial of the Fleeting Emotions Ruin. "Soon, the invasion from the otherworld beasts will begin. Everyone, only when blood covers the mountain will the seal weaken." Intor smiled as he gestured his hands, signalling the sorcerers of Divine Eye Tower to get ready for the battle. As the bubbles broke apart, low groans echoed into the surrounding and filled the world with a depressing aura. With the burst, space shattered into rifts, revealing the passage into the strange worlds seen from their surfaces. Little by little, unique organic lifeforms emerged from the rifts, stepping into the Sorcerer World with a violent cry. Although chaotic and mostly mindless, their bloodthirst permeated the atmosphere as soon as they set their sight onto the sorcerers. Different rifts produced different monsters. The cold world created ice-based creatures while the underground world gave birth to the spider-like monstrosities. "Listen, everyone! The opportunity to ascend is here. Kill them and absorb their Fate!" Intor spread his hands out and shouted, using his sorcery to send his voice towards the floating fortresses. Shortly after the confusion, the sorcerers from Divine Eye Tower quickly resumed their formation and began casting their spells. They were the first to rush into the battlement and fought with the otherworld invaders. Inside their floating fortresses, they could safely attack the monsters while keeping themselves protected. However, the vagabond sorcerers did not have the chance to enjoy it. They could only keep retreating while dealing with any creatures that set their sight on them. The second-ranked sorcerers also had their hand full. Although the first-ranked ones were holding back the mindless monsters, the flying and commanding lords of creatures also eyed the treasures and knowledge of the strong. Once they descended into the Sorcerer World, they ignored the weak and headed towards the floating sorcerers. Fights erupted everywhere, and the already tensed situation exploded into a chaotic mess. A multitude of monsters attacked the sorcerers, forcing everyone to try their best. Colourful light flashed throughout the battlefield, revealing their short-lived brilliance before fading into nothingness. "Let's go. The night is still young. I hope that you won't fall so easily." After taunting the others, Intor and his Elders moved towards the incoming creatures and began to slaughter them. As the bloody battle commenced, no one had enough time to notice that the monsters ignored two sorcerers and went past them. Not knowing the situation, Ocelia and Forus could only stay in place and remain on high alert. Ocelia was standing in front of Forus, intertwining her hand with his as she peaked at his pained expression. Although her chest was burning in pain, and blood was dripping from her mouth, she did her best to safeguard him. With his body, the physical pain could never distort his face. However, once the Faithless Crown manifested, his mind trembled due to its calling. With each passing moment, a chaotic power surged through his realm of consciousness, forming an intricate symbol that branded itself onto his singularity soul. Sensing the anomaly, the grey soul released the tendrils and tried to absorb the chaotic energy. Once they clashed, the two forces could not overpower each other, causing Forus to feel more and more pain due to the increasing intensity of their fight. "Forus, hold on tight, I'll bring you out!" In his muddled mind, Forus nodded his head and let Ocelia carry him. Because of the strange phenomenon, she was able to quickly get away from the centre of the battle. Aside from the occasional straying spells, Ocelia was able to safely avoid the monsters. As if sensing something within her body, the mindless ones cowered in her surrounding and the smart ones retreated away from her presence. "Wait, Ocelia! Let me help him." Just as Ocelia placed Forus onto the ground, a feminine voice caught her attention. Abicel was rushing towards her location with a worried face. Since she intentionally let Ocelia go, Abicel felt slightly guilty and tried to follow the two to help them. After all, she broke her promise with Forus. "You helped me once, so let me repay you this time." Abicel just smiled and picked out some solutions. Professionally, she applied them onto Forus' wounds. As soon as the solutions touched his skin, the wounds showed signs of closing. However, the shortage of sorcery energy and mental pain was the source of his suffering; the physical pain was negligible. Unbeknownst to Ocelia and Abicel, the abyss-like eye sockets of Forus shone in bluish light. Little by little, the intricate design similar to the pattern on his soul emerged from the darkness, constructing itself into a mystic sequence. The process of breaking down and reconstructing occurred in both his physical body and mental mind. Every time the two energies collided, they would chip away the other's momentum, fusing and merging into a more stable power. Although their collision caused his body to break and tear, with the help of Abicel's healing potions, Forus would not exhaust himself too much from the blood loss. Just as Abicel and Ocelia were monitoring his condition, a sudden fluctuation of Elements exploded from the centre of the battlefield and engulfed the Fleeting Emotions Ruin. At the epicentre, green thorned vines twisted as a sharp claw slashed them apart. "Don't blame me, little friend. Blame yourself for being so weak." A distorted voice echoed from a winged humanoid insect. Its iron-crushing claw, grabbing onto the beating heart of a sorcerer, tightened after its speech ended. The beating heart tried to resist the force done onto it. However, no matter how strong it was, the insect felt no resistance as the heart crumbled into a bloody mess. "... The First Elder will avenge me..." The figure standing in front of the insect gradually withered into a dried corpse. The roses floating around him bloomed into a wonderful scenery, accompanying his passing with their bloody fragrance. "Pectoris!" The First Elder screamed as his blade went into the core of a bird-like monster. The creature painfully shrieked as the vibrating noise crashed onto his body, shaking his organs and trying to damage them. Just as the First Elder shouted, the members of Flying Green Garden noticed the situation and quickly distanced themselves from the dying Pectoris. Some even risked receiving a strike to increase the distance between them. After crushing the heart, the insect only had a moment to absorb the blood before it froze in terror. The overwhelming sense of fear emerged from its instinct, causing its body to tremble as it attempted to move away from the roses. "No! I refuse to die here!" The distorted scream of the insect paled in comparison to the shattering noise of the roses. Its body melted into a sea of rose petals, drifting across the mountain and disintegrated into a blood-like mist. Not only the insect monster but everyone who failed to leave the area also sustained various degree of injury. If not for the unfortunate insect taking most of the damage, the sorcerers from Divine Eye Tower and Mountain Union would have suffered more than this. The self-destruction of Pectoris disrupted the flow of the fight. With his last spell, the tension arisen from the war magnified towards the point of insanity. In that instant, two beings with the god-like ability fell into the grip of death. The first victim of the ritual had fallen.

No matter how far away Ocelia was, Forus had never averted his attention from her. Although he could not see her emotionless yet warming face, his heart could achieve harmony by the feeling of her touches and the warmth of her body. Despite exhausted and full of injuries, not a single thought about retreating entered his mind. Even when his face deformed, and his body rotted, he held his body up. With his love and affection, Forus trod the path between life and death. Step by step, their distant gap continued to lessen ever so slightly. Lord Phasma watched as he gripped onto the beating heart, tightening his fist as he frowned at his discomfort. At first, he was going to enjoy the fruitless struggle and sent the two off in their despair. However, he had witnessed the height of love, borderline insanity. "Young lady, you should be proud that you got yourself such a wonderful person. However, it is also because of him that causes your demise." Looking into the pair of unwavering eyes, Lord Phasma sighed as he watched the drama unfolded. As Ocelia shifted her focused onto the approaching figure, her eyes turned watery. At that moment, visions flashed before her mind, recounting their unfinished story, from enemies to allies, and somewhere along their intertwined path, their relationship changed. "Don't give up!" Witnessing Forus' corpse-like appearance, Ocelia suddenly felt numb from all the heart-gripping pain. A single drop of pure emotion manifested on her face as her mouth uttered in the ever so softly voice. Looking at the two, Lord Phasma fell into silence. Instead of consuming the pulsating heart, he waited and watched. Without any intention to halt, Forus dragged his rotten body across the pool of blood, traversing the swamp of crimson hands. The bloodstains ate away his skin, revealing the white bones underneath the flesh. Despite the suffering akin to death, he had always fixed his gaze onto Ocelia and Lord Phasma. In the absence of sound, the echoes of his footsteps became the centre of attention. After an undetermined period, the half-rot Forus arrive in front of Lord Phasma. Because of his manipulation, the crimson hands had never pierced Forus' vital organs, making it possible for Forus to stand before Ocelia again. "I suddenly don't feel like torturing you anymore, and instead, just one word, I'll let you whisper it to her." Lord Phasma spoke as he locked his gaze at Forus, waiting for the final emotional release that usually followed after the long-awaited reunion. Nodding his head, Forus fixed his pair of the bottomless abyss at the two-coloured pupils. As nature quieted down for their conversation, Forus could hear the faint breathing noise of his maiden, playing at a fixed rhythm. "Wait." Using his will and the remaining strength, Forus leapt towards Lord Phasma, ignoring the deadly grips of the crimson hands. Although they grazed onto his rotten flesh and cracked bones, they failed to reduce his momentum. Lord Phasma snapped out of his emotional trance and channelled his sorcery energy, commanding the bloody formation to annihilate Forus. His hand tightened its grip, trying to crush the heart of the lady into pieces. However, as Ocelia reached her limit, a faint silhouette of a pale mask manifested on her face, covering her expression of pain and enhancing her cold attitude. As the mask touched her face, it merged with her skin and turned her fleshly body into a smooth marble-like covering. As her body began its conversion, the pulsating heart also showed sights of changing. Its surface hardened as it resisted the crushing force from the grip. However, as time passed, the frequency of the pulsation began to decrease. "To think that an Elemental Conversion would suddenly start. I wonder what have you been hiding?" Lord Phasma could only think about the strange turn of the event for a moment before shifting his focus towards Forus again. A crimson hand manifested in front of Lord Phasma, floating before him as it moved closer towards his hand that held the crystalized heart. The bloody nails caressed it as they pinched its surface, creating small cracks all over the exterior. The unfolding scene left Forus desperate. His face turned emotionless as the frown caused by pain and suffering ceased to display his expression. Although Lord Phasma could not read the man's look, he knew that inside that expressionless mask, the boiling anger and hatred was blooming. The deformed skin cracked as burning black flame started to spread from the tiny rifts, covering his rotten bones and flesh with the power of destruction that brought forth the end of all things. As the black flame wiped away every corrupting blood on his body, the all-consuming power of the grey tendrils also rampaged within his body, rapidly absorbing every bit of the degradation power. From a deformed corpse into a tentacle-covered monstrosity, Forus continued to advance without any care for his expanding injuries. Although his regeneration was superior to ordinary sorcerers, he could not regrow fleshes and skin as quickly as the rotten speed of the black flame. "Ahh, the aroma of Death Aura. It became purer than the first time we met." A hint of madness appeared in the pair of ghostly pupils. Lord Phasma forced all his strength into that crimson hand, exerting his might to crush the heart-shaped crystal. Before Forus could reach Lord Phasma, a gigantic eye crawled out from the blood pool at the centre of the sinister formation. It locked its gaze onto him and moved towards him, blocking the pathway between him and Lord Phasma. The pupil of the eye is crimson in colour, leaking out blood every time it shifted its focus. Around the edge of the eye, tentacles twisted as they extended and shortened randomly. They would grab hold of anything they touched and devour them to satisfy their inner hunger. As Forus reached the arm-length with it, the pupil contracted into a point, then expanded to cover all of the white space in the eye. The crimson colour twisted and formed a black line that cut through the centre. Suddenly, the two parts separated, turning from the eye into the upper and lower lip of a mouth. Forus disregarded the obstacle and punched his burning fist forwards, meeting the creepy mouth head-on. As the saliva touched his skin, it melted him, revealing his pale bones, before evaporated by the black flame. A noisy impact echoed as Forus forced his way forwards, charging into the sharp teeth and the stinging saliva, puncturing the eye until it exposed a hole inside its interior, revealing the pathway towards Ocelia once more. The skin of the hand had already turned to ashes, exposing the naked bones. The bloodstains on the pale surface implied the dangerous crash that happened within the creepy mouth. Although Forus had just experienced the pain of getting his flesh ripped apart from his hand, he did not pause to weep and instead increased his momentum. "What a destructive usage of Death Aura." Despite sounding relaxed, Lord Phasma frowned and continued to pressure the crystal in his hand. Even though cracks had manifested and spread all over the surface, none could penetrate deep into its inner structure. As the one-sided offence continued between Forus and Lord Phasma, a subtle whistle and chant seeped into the surrounding, swaying the blood-stained trees and flowers to move their branches. From behind Lord Phasma and Ocelia, a tiny, glowing snake hissed and shot towards him at an alarming rate. Its slippery nature and blinding light caused the crimson hands that guarded Lord Phasma to miss their target, getting entangled with one another. Although they could disintegrate and reform back, the gap had allowed the playful snake to sneak by. Despite having the total control over the bloody formation, Lord Phasma needed to maintain a distinct focus at Forus and Ocelia at all time, draining his mental ability to remain clear of the surrounding. After witnessing the insanity of love, as well as the suicidal advance of Forus, Lord Phasma had lost himself within the intense battle and let the snake come close to him. Although its outer appearance remained ordinary, the glowing aspect, as well as the fluctuation of sorcery energy, indicated that its explosive power was extraordinary. Once Lord Phasma noticed the sneaky one, it was too late for him to dodge. The magical snake opened its mouth and sank its fangs into the man's neck, draining his sorcery energy while injecting venomous fluid into his bloodstream. In his shock, Lord Phasma clutched his fist in pain, causing the crystal heart to slip off and drop onto the ground. Because of the continuous pressure exerted by the crimson hands, the collision with the ground caused the heart to crack open, leaking out the transparent liquid. Pulling the snake away from his neck, Lord Phasma disregarded the poisonous property of the snake's hide and let his hand burn. Although the burning scent on his skin was nauseous, the pain from having his blood disintegrated from the venom had occupied all his focus. "Die then." Hardening his will, Lord Phasma lifted his foot and slammed it onto the crystal heart. As his foot descended, flows of Elements converged and revolved around it, covering his skin with their sorcery property. The trees around Abicel swayed as they trembled in fright, alerting her of the danger that came from below. Although she disregarded the consequence and used the flute, she still valued her life more than her appearance and species. Without any time to familiarize with her newfound power and nature, the nature fairy sang her calming song and commanded the roots of the wildness to cover her. The leaves and flowers danced as they connected and formed a platform devoid of the corrupting blood. The crimson hands and mouths emerged from the formation, rushing at their limit to tear her flesh and consume her mind. However, with the increase in affection with Wood Element, Abicel was able to defend against their endless assault. As the black flame was too powerful, it burned both Forus and the blood around him, making a certain distance from him devoid of any blood to summon the hands. Using the moment of distraction provided by Abicel, Forus closed in and lifted his burning fist, punching towards Lord Phasma. The rotten fragrance permeated the air as the tendrils coiled around Forus, waiting to devour everything that came into contact. With the intense heat of death coming towards him, Lord Phasma did not dare to disregard it and twist his body to avoid the point of impact. Although he could withstand the strike, it would damage him grievously, affecting his fragile balance. Covering his hand with crimson blood, Lord Phasma swiped his hand onto Forus, clashing with the burning rotten arm. The tendrils violently reacted as they clutched onto Lord Phasma, seeping his life force and the corrupting blood. The impact transmitted onto Forus, propelling him to straggled backwards. A soft crack echoed as Forus felt a piercing pain from the broken arm. Although his fist impaled into Lord Phasma, Forus traded that blow with his entire arm. A sense of disgust rose inside Lord Phasma as the tendrils rushed into his bloodstream, wiggling inside his veins. His open wounds turned grey as the tentacles drained the life force, degrading his body as time passed. Looking inside the empty, hollow eye sockets, Lord Phasma suddenly felt small and powerless. The darkness inside the depthless abyss had gazed back. For the first time, he experienced the emotions long forgotten. Terror came gushing into his mind. As a sorcerer who placed his hope inside countless treasures, he was notably afraid of death. Although time had dulled his sense, the threat of soul annihilation had awakened his desire to live again. Lord Phasma resumed an expressionless face, deserting the external, useless feature that he had experienced a while ago. As the air around him changed, he extended his hand and grabbed onto Forus' neck, squeezing it with all his might. By exerting himself to the limit, open wounds began to rip themselves apart on his body, leaking blood and black tentacles. However, despite the pain, Lord Phasma did not utter anything and used the increasing strength to lift Forus.

Inside the dark mist, the wind clashed and merged, forming torrents that distorted the perception of Forus and Lord Phasma. Light sparked every time their strikes met, igniting flashes of multi-coloured light. With the constant threats from the outside, namely Ocelia and Abicel, Lord Phasma needed to divide his concentration while fighting Forus. Although their battle was equal in the surface, Lord Phasma was slowly losing his control over the initiative. "Young man, I admit that I've underestimated you and your madness. However, if we continued to fight to the death, then your lover might regret this moment." After a period of silence, Lord Phasma finally gave in to the situation and began to negotiate. To his expectation, Forus did not slow his assault and further increased the intensity. His fist burned ever so brightly with the dark flame, overflowing with the rotten scent. Although he would inflict more self-harm to himself, Forus was willing to end the fight faster when his opponent was desperate. "This body is failing me, and it is going to crumble soon. You know it, don't you? However, my fragmented soul would be unharmed, and I can still find more body to possess. Why don't we make a deal, to erase our enmity and past grudge?" The Avidas' body was falling apart, but Lord Phasma instead became calmer and calmer, showing no sign of panic. "What kind of deal would you offer, and how can I make sure that you're sincere?" Forus forced Lord Phasma to retreat with his black flame and calmly spoke. Although their distant had widened, it was so small that he could close the gap at any time if he perceived any abnormality. The oath witnessed by the World Will required preparation and time, which was not possible to conduct during the chaotic battlefield. Even if they could bypass the process, it would generate too much attention that would attract other powerhouses. The power of the World Will they could summon would depend on their sorcery power, as well as other factors. If an old, fragmented undying monster and a reincarnated soul were to convoke the World Will, the consequence would be unimaginable. "I have no way to prove, but what I request would not cost you anything. How about this? Just let this body go, and I'll tell you about the information regarding the Taboo Existences." Lord Phasma smiled and lowered his stance, showing openings and weak points to reveal his determination and sincerity. Despite his act of willingness, Forus did not mistake his harmless outer appearance for his surrender. Although his body could not control the full power of his undying soul, with the capability of the great sage from the past, he was sure to have trump cards upon trump cards, plans upon plans to get out of this unharmed. "To tell the truth, if I've known that you're one of the Taboo Existences, I would never try to make an enemy out of you. Although good bodies were hard to find, I would be foolish to wander into the dark secrets of the Sorcerer World." While speaking, Lord Phasma created layers after layers of isolation, preventing everything from leaking out, as well as exhausting every mean to hide from something omnipresent. Forus knew that he had encountered a secret not worth mentioning, and did nothing but observed the blackening of the fogs and the isolation of his connection between Ocelia and him. "Taboo Existences, from what the legends had described, was a group of the exotic beings. They came in various forms and powers, wielding power that defied rules of the Sorcerer World. Their arrival meant cataclysm and destruction." Recalling the expression of his master when he told him this great secret, Lord Phasma paled as his body shivered in panic. "Their origins remained unknown, and their limits remained unchallenged. Only the overlords of the era could access such information. However, they all had one thing in common, which was their sudden disappearance after bringing rains of chaos upon the Sorcerer World." A subtle quake echoed from the inside. As Forus concentrated, he sensed an invisible force clashing onto the black fog, trying to break in from the outside isolation barrier. "As master once said, 'No matter how. Do not get entangled with these terrible monsters.'. To be exact, you might not be the Taboo Existence, but, against the one in a million chance, I would never tread the line carelessly." Channelling his power to slow down the collapse of the isolation barrier, Lord Phasma began to sweat. "Then, why this name?" Knowing that time was running out, Forus decided to express his scepticism. "No one knows. There was no mention of the term's origin, as well as any records of the specific Taboo Existences. For all intent and purpose, Taboo Existences had always been here since the dawn of sorcerers." Looking upwards, Lord Phasma watched as the layers of sorcery power disintegrated under the invisible force. Forus wasted no time and leapt towards Lord Phasma, bursting in black flame as he resumed his assault. However, to his surprise, Lord Phasma sent his channelling power towards him, creating a blinding light that confused the flow of Elements. The bright ray of flares penetrated the black fogs, dispersing the isolation barrier and exposed the inner secret. As soon as something happened, Ocelia and Abicel got up and stood guard the centre of the battlefield. As long as there was any trace of Lord Phasma, the two would risk their lives and fight to the death. However, to their hope and dream, the only standing figure was Forus, who stationed stiffly. The black flame on his body had already extinguished, revealing his exposed flesh and bones. Without any sound and trace, Lord Phasma had used the previously accumulated sorcery energy to activate his secret arrangement and teleported towards a mysterious location. "Taboo Existence... What am I?" Muttering to himself, Forus let the two girls approached him and tended his wounds. Although Ocelia was touching his body with her smooth hands, Forus was submerging himself under the last sentence before Lord Phasma's departure. "As a friendly reminder, I sense something within your maiden's body. It gives off a sense of suffocation that even I fear. Maybe it is fate, but she must have a long history before this life of hers. The connection you two have, I hope you'll treasure it." Not only did Lord Phasma knew about their Knot of Love, but he also sensed something that Forus did not. "Abicel, what would you do from now on?" Ocelia's speech broke off the silence, and Forus snapped back into the real world. He gazed at the now-non-human maiden and saw her alluring greenish skin. The fragrance of nature and flowers engulfed his senses as he noticed that the vines and leaves were hovering around him. They brushed past his wounds and flesh, covering them with green glows that regrew his body. The cooling breezes were massaging his ached body. "Ocelia, please don't tease me. Of course, I would depend on you again." Abicel chuckled as she extended her hand towards Ocelia, and in return, the young mistress softly grasped at it. Abicel bent down and gently kissed Ocelia's hand, expressing her willingness to serve the young mistress. As she had involved in the demise of both Glacies and Avidas, the Ninguis Family would not let her go. The best option now was to defect to the Coruscare Family. "Ladies, let us hurry out of this area. I've got a bad feeling about this." As he began to walk, Ocelia hurried to his side and supported him. With her help, he slowly made his way into the wildness, followed by the nature fairy. On the way, the chatter only came from Ocelia and Abicel, whose body had transformed into a non-human. They exchanged knowledge about sorcery and general topics, ranging from the art of swordsmanship to alchemy to the subject of love and marriage. As Ocelia was helping Abicel to hide her unique body, she would talk about Forus to Abicel, and asked her about her experience regarding love and men. Unfortunately, Abicel had never fallen in love and could only speculate. Forus listened to the sound of their gossip and fell into deep thoughts. The echoing of Lord Phasma's words kept lingering inside his mind, and he could not pinpoint his worry. However, to his extraordinary perception, the sense of foreboding was raising in every passing second. "Forus." As he was dozing off, a pair of hand warped around his body and met at his chest, forming a lock that bound him with the maiden behind him. A surprised expression flashed before dying down, Forus smiled and turned his head back and touched her pink cheek with his dried lip. A second extended towards eternity as the familiar sensation stirred his memory, beckoning him towards the blurred figure whose appearance and name he began to forget. Inside the two hollowed abysses, lines of pure emotions manifested, running down towards the depth of the world, and it dropped from his face onto the hands that held him together. Although her action invoked his past, he also felt joy mixed within grief. The long, smooth hair dropped onto his arm, sliding down and leaned onto his frame, with her head that rested upon his shoulder. Forus caressed her face for a while, feeling as if the world stopped and paid its attention at them. The birds chipped and sang, echoing the tranquil of nature. The wind invited leaves and flowers to a dance ball, moving according to the rhythm of love and life. "May nature blesses you, my dear Ocelia." A childish voice echoed from behind the playful couple. They turned their attention towards the origin of the speech. They saw a nature fairy sitting on a branch of a tree, watching their lovely act with interested. "With this, we are even, and please, love me more." Ocelia kissed her lover on the cheek and smiled as she snuck something into Forus' hand. Finally, she walked away, hiding her flushed expression from Forus. Abicel saw all of it and chuckled. "Love, huh? It would be nice to have someone whom you can lean on." Abicel sighed as she descended towards Ocelia. She never forgot to tease her new friend, as well as her mistress. Playing with the Underworld Copper Coin in his hand, Forus quietly kept it inside his pocket. Although he tried to refuse the gift, Ocelia did not allow for any explanation and kissed him while handing over the treasure. "What a cunning girl. She's like your opposite." Listening to the girl talk, Forus shook his head and put his depressing thoughts at the back of his mind. In front of the trio, the outpost began to show up in their vision, as they had been traversing the wildness for a while, they had already replenished their sorcery energy. However, without any great miracle of breakthrough or legendary potions, Forus' body would not heal within a short time. Before they could notify the guards of the outpost, an invisible pressure suddenly descended onto the surrounding. It suppressed Elements and the flow of sorcery energy within their body, locking them from using their spells. Not only them, but the unseen power had enveloped the entire Fleeting Emotions Ruin. The barrier that disabled any movement of Elements and sorcery energy was a nightmare to all sorcerers. At this moment, the esteemed sorcerers turned into ordinary mortals with a somewhat stronger physique. At the boundary of the suppressing barrier, space distorted and wrapped, breaking apart and revealing the void beyond the physical realm. From the blackness, figures strolled out and stationed in an intimidating formation. They all wore a brown robe with a mountain-like symbol on their clothes, curved with precision and care, every detail would reflect their superior quality. However, there was one who stood above the rest, holding a black scroll in one hand. His existence attracted the attention of all brown-robed men. They would bow before him with great respect. Without any introduction, the air around him constantly screamed that he was one of the influential people within the operation. "By the decree of the Mountain Emperor, we hereby declare. None shall cross over the boundary of the restriction." His emotionless voice echoed across the mountain, filling the air with his supreme sorcery mastery of the peak second-ranked sorcery.

Covering his other arm with Death Aura, Forus slammed his fist onto the blood-covered arm. Although he was able to strike the arm freely, he also had no way of dodging the traded strikes. When compared the physical strength between the two, the body of a servant of a sorcerer family would never be able to catch up with the foundation created by the legendary Death Aura. However, Forus' explosive power could not match the sinister formation. The wind howled past the two struggling figures, leading swamps of leaves and branches towards Lord Phasma. The greenish glow that illuminated their exterior had attracted the attention of Lord Phasma. In that moment of distraction, Abicel broke the formation of the crimson hands and came forward to assist Forus. Her affection with Wood Element had increased the destructive power of her Wood spells. She had enhanced every leaf and branch, sharpening their edge and used them as the killing formation. Witnessing the example of the late young master of the Ninguis Family, Abicel and Forus used only a gesture and fluctuation of sorcery energy to come into agreement. If they did not cooperate and fail to kill the possessed Avidas, they would be the one who died. The blood beneath Lord Phasma had evaporated due to the flame of the Death Aura, making it impossible for him to generate that many of the crimson hands. As a result, he could only block parts of the flying blades. Knowing that he fell into a trap, Lord Phasma did not seem to care and continued to assault Forus, trying to finish him off at the expense of his defence. He was essentially making a calculated gamble. If Forus died before he got critically injured, he would win. However, if Forus did not perish, then he would, without a doubt, be the one who died. The bloody figure and the corpse-like man endured the killing array while exchanging blows, striving to hold onto their consciousness. Wounds upon wounds piled up, filling their body with blood and tendrils. Abicel could only watch as she prayed to the World Will, wishing for Forus to succeed. Although she could increase the intensity of the killing array, it would be a disadvantage for Forus. According to her memory, this man was the best at endurance, judging from the Steel Cauldron Recruitment Test. Outside of the commotion, Ocelia staggered towards her fallen heart as she gripped at her open chest wound. Although she would not die because of a simple injury, she would fall if her sorcery energy and life force deplete due to a lack of the heart. Despite feeling the searing pain every moment her body moved, she did not stop her advance and quickly arrived before the weakly-pulsating heart. It was full of cracks and rifts, leaking out fluid and dissolving. Placing it in her hand, Ocelia felt a subtle connection and a funny feeling. Every time the heart throbbed, she would feel a tickling sensation as well as the pulsation from her heart. Knowing that she must not be late, she quickly inserted her hand inside her open chest and placed the heart inside. The process was quick and efficient, as well as weird and stimulating. The sensation of touching her inner organs and nerves were very fresh in her mind. The wound closed by itself, and her body began to function again. She felt the refreshing sorcery energy rushing through her crystal veins and circulation flows. The darker tone of the exterior also recovered to the initial bright, glowing state. Looking at Forus, she lifted her hand and silently chanted. The mystical silhouette of a heart covered in thorn-filled roses emerged behind her, sending out the transparent link that rushed towards Forus, aiming at his soul inside his realm of consciousness. Two souls, two bodies, their emotions intertwined endlessly, sharing thoughts and feelings. The darkness of Forus became bright as he gained the vision from Ocelia. The pain he experienced lessened. It transferred to Ocelia, causing her to grab her chest in panic. Waving her hand gracefully, Ocelia closed her eyes as she tried to sense the mystical presence of the Death Aura. Although she could not control or manipulate it, Forus could guide her to do so. With her intensified senses, Ocelia felt a hint of darkness, so potent that it absorbed all Elements without end. The swamp of blackness moved towards her fingertip, coiling around it. The mere presence caused Ocelia's crystal-smooth skin to fade in colour, showing a sign of decay. However, she did not care about the superficial damage and continued to gather the Death Aura. Only when they formed a finger-sized ray of black light did she pointed her tip towards the entangled figures. Using the last bit of sorcery energy to make the final push, Ocelia sent the Ice Element to cover the black light's surface, forming ice covering that concealed the darkness within. A soft wind birthed into the world as an icy needle moved through space, arriving before the two figures. Lord Phasma had been focusing all of his attention at Forus and Abicel, causing a lapse of judgement regarding Ocelia's condition. Linking with her, Forus knew when to dodge and restrain Lord Phasma. Without any mistake, he sidestepped and punched towards Lord Phasma, forcing him to block his fist and take the needle. Although Lord Phasma tried to twist his body to evade it, the black tendrils coiled around him and chained him in place. The black needle exploded in a black colour as the Death Aura covered the area, forming a black fog. The mist obstructed Lord Phasma vision, as well as his ability to control the blood formation. With this, he would lose the primary power that dominated the situation. Lacking in master, the blood pools around the wildness began to dry off, evaporating into nothingness. The destruction of the formation quickly affected the remaining crimson hands, reducing their offensive power. The floating platform finally broke away from the formation. Although the decorating flowers had withered and dried off, the magical wooden exterior was still in excellent condition, implying that Abicel was okay. The cover of the platform opened as a nature fairy made her way out. Every step of her flower-covered figure implanted the natural Wood Element onto the bloody ground, making the grasses and flowers grew to cover her path. Beneath her tattered sorcerer robe, leaves, flowers and vines came together to cover her private parts, showing only a glimpse of her alluring body for the imagination to run wild. Not only did her light-green skin pleasant to look at, but the transparent butterfly-like wings on her back also added awe into the onlookers' mind. In her fast-paced stroll, the green path of flowers and plants led towards Ocelia whose body laid beside a bloody tree. Although she was panting in exhaustion and enduring the pain, her eyes never left the mist-filled centre of the battlefield. Even if she could feel his position from their shared mind, she could not feel at ease when her eyes could not lay a gaze onto his rotten yet captivating figure. Abicel looked at Ocelia, marvelling in her icy beauty. Although she had seen many treasures and accessories, none could come close to the smooth crystal-like skin of the maiden before her. As a non-human, Abicel felt a sense of dissonance and loneliness. However, when standing beside Ocelia, she could feel a sense of belonging. Because Abicel was a nature fairy, and Ocelia was an Elemental Spirit, the two could relate and sympathize with their experience. In the end, Abicel sat down beside Ocelia and leaned onto her, letting their head bumped onto the other. The greenery furnished around the two, lightening the atmosphere of life and death. While Ocelia was exuding the cool breezes, Abicel was playing with the butterflies and flowers. Two strange beauties gazed towards the hazy fog, wishing for the triumphant return of Forus. They knew that the outcome of this battle would determine their life and death, but they could not do anything to help Forus. "Miss Ocelia, may I be so bold to inquire you about Falsus?" In a stressful circumstance, Abicel tried to relieve the tension by asking a random question. "He's a man of few words. It's as if he knows about everything but decides against talking about it. Although we don't exchange words that often, I'm content with staying beside him." Having nothing else to do, Ocelia casually answered the question. "How envious. It's nice having someone whom you can lean on. You're a very fortunate woman, you know?" After getting through thick and thin together, Abicel began to loosen her restrain with this young mistress of the Coruscare Family. "Living with him is enough for me, as for the future, only time will tell." The two seemingly forgot about their previous fight, where they tried to kill each other. Now, not only did they sit near each other, but they also did a little girl talk. ... Holding a Life Lantern in his hand, the Sect Leader prayed for one last time. The Elders behind him lowered their heads as they paid respect to the Sect Leader, as well as the pale figure that laid inside a crystal-clear coffin. "Although his life has ended, we shall forever remember his contribution." Uttering the last sentence with solemn, Sect Leader finally placed the Life Lantern into the coffin. He watched as the flame engulfed the coffin, disintegrating the peaceful passing of his old friend. Everyone presented chanted the same. Some were weeping, while some stayed silent. Most had already prepared themselves for this day, but many were not able to hold their grief in control. "As his friend, you all know that his passing has deeply affected me. However, I know, in the depth of my heart, that he wouldn't want his death to restrain us. So, as the Sect Leader, as well as his close friend, I implore you all. Please, do not let this bring our spirit down!" The sound of clenching fists, as well as the applause, echoed the surrounding. The Sect Leader smiled to his fellow sect members before bowing his head towards his friend one last time. As he departed from the funeral, the Elders also followed suit. Although the speech had somewhat reignited their determination, none had felt that the situation was any better. The looming threat was pressuring them without any end. The demise of this man was not unexpected, but it was too soon, shocking even the Sect Leader himself. As one of the last peak-staged second-ranked sorcerers, he should be able to last against the internal injury for a lot longer. The man had already determined to die in the glorious battle, where he would be giving his all in protecting his sect. However, fate had dealt another blow to the Icy Scorpion Sect, reaping the life of the trump card that could turn the tide. As the pressure increased, this delicate mental balance turned even more fragile, and with his demise, the entire sect fell into turmoil. If not for the Sect Leader, as well as the Elders, the upper-echelon would have plunged into chaos. As the roaring cheers of the fellow sect members continued, the Sect Leader's face turned dark as he clenched his fist. The contrast between the gloomy air and the festive atmosphere were eye-catching. "Arrange the seclusion cave and announce my retreat. Without my permission, none shall disturb me." The Elders nodded before they too began dispersing. With the external threat hanging above their necks, they had finally decided to stop the infighting. Once he walked into his resting place, the Sect Leader gently closed the curtain and activated his isolation barrier, blocking the outsiders from spying him. In a fit of rage, he swiped his hand across the table, swiping papers and glasses, breaking them into pieces. The freezing air covered the room and turned the walls bluish in shades. "Don't worry, brother. I'll skin the traitor with my very hands." Gritting his teeth, Sect Leader tried to calm himself. Although his facial expression displayed little to no emotions, his inner thoughts were burning with regret and hatred.

The blazing figure of the mighty tower of fire slammed itself towards the Witch of the Scarlet Snow, aiming to smash her frail body into oblivion. With the magical vines restaining her body, the Witch could watch as the Leaning Tower of Flame moved closer to her. If her power did not drop from the peak-stage first-ranked sorcerer, she would have sufficient sorcery energy and mastery to force the tower to change its trajectory and successfully escaped her predicament. However, with only her upper-stage first-ranked sorcerer, her strength was no longer enough to resist the vines while the cross was trying to drill into her body, let alone distributing her energy into dealing with the Leaning Tower of Flame. Forus and Ocelia decided to overwhelm her with their secret card to quickly finish her off without letting the former second-ranked sorcerer have any chance of using her tide-turning treasures. There was no way that two first-ranked sorcerers would be able to resist the trump card of a second-ranked sorcerer. "In the end, I still cannot avoid it." The Witch of the Scarlet Snow raised her hand as she muttered in her soft, trembling voice, filling the air around her with profound emotions that even Forus and Ocelia could sense. With her last remaining strength, she touched her forehead with her pale finger. Although the silvery mist had obstructed the vision of Ocelia and the Witch, as the owner of the array formation, Forus naturally had a way to bypass the limitation of the fog. By using his sorcery energy, he could observe the change that occurred within the centre of the encirclement. The blazing temperature at the centre of the formation began decreasing like crazy as the snowstorm descended abruptly, sniffing away the flaming glow of the Leaning Tower of Flame. The freezing winds traversed the chamber, grazing the Tower of Succession with their cold embrace of death. The flow of Elements came to a sudden halt everywhere the wind passed through, freezing in position without any exception. The air stagnated and suspended in place, not having even a tiny bit of warmth within the surrounding. The temperature of the chamber dropped below the imposing barrier of absolute zero, freezing even the blazing flare particles of the magical candles that hang onto the ceiling. The silvery mist naturally could not resist the cold and turned solid, falling onto the ground as the vision around the centre of the encirclement became clear once again, allowing Ocelia to peer into the epicentre of the snowstorm that brought about the frost hell. The bluish, long, and intertwining hair weaved along with the snowy breezes as the soundless song of the winter echoed the chamber. Although all other Elements except the Ice Element got frozen in place, the sparkling hair did not stop its dance with the wind, catching the attention of everyone presented. The tattered robe of the Icy Scorpion Sect became as good as new as its grand disposition started to reveal in the Witch's every movement, no matter how little or big. The mystical runes engraved on her clothing reflected an azure light as they shone according to her actions. Without any chance of resisting, all attention became captivated by the gleaming light that bounced from the crimson pupils, enchanting the icy and aloof beauty of the Witch, befitting the name of the Scarlet Snow. Even Ocelia could not contend in term of both appearance and power with this peak-stage second-ranked sorcerer. Although Forus and Ocelia would try their best to bring out all of their cards to quickly stop the Witch from succeeding in her last-moment struggle, the snowstorm was too powerful for the two to resist. In the end, their body became putrefied within a thin layer of transparent ice, letting the Witch take her time freely and enjoying the feeling of power restoration. Under the watchful eyes of Ocelia, the Witch of the Scarlet Snow extended her finger towards the materializing Leaning Tower of Flame, touching upon its heated surface with her refined finger. The moment her tiny yet sharp nail touched the surface of the Tower, a ripple of Ice Element erupted at the point of impact and spread outwards rapidly, completely enveloping the tower with icicles. The reddish surface of the Leaning Tower of Flame became melancholy and cold, radiating the freezing and decaying aura. The cracking sounds echoed the chamber as rifts continued to appear on the Tower, intensifying in their sizes as Fire Element began to leak out from the within, slowly approaching its demise and eventual destruction. With one subtle impact, the floors of the Leaning Tower of Flame began crumbling at an alarming rate, turning from solid objects into dust and Fire Element, diffusing within the atmosphere and disappeared into the void. Although the awakening of the Icy Scorpion Bloodline brought upon a mighty blow of freezing storm, the destruction of the Leaning Tower of Flame did not cause any ripple, silently disintegrating into nothingness as if nothing had ever happened. In the end, there was no trace of the Leaning Tower of Flame left. With the sharp increase in Fire Element within the atmosphere, due to the scattering of the Leaning Tower, the systematic flow of Elements became distorted, creating a chaotic whirlwind of Elements that travelled outwards, trying to distribute the Fire Element evenly to regain its previous stable circulation. With the power of a peak-stage second-ranked sorcerer, the Witch of the Scarlet Snow did not fear the chaotic winds as they were like a cool breeze to her. However, the crystalline ice that trapped Ocelia and Forus began to tear down under the constant corrosion of the Elements, indirectly helping the couple to break out of their imprisonment. Ocelia coughed out blood as she collapsed onto the floor, clutching her chest tightly as she grasped for her breaths. Her pale face turned even more white as her blood pressure decreased to a dangerously low point. The destruction of the Leaning Tower of Flame had damaged her sorcery energy circulation due to having her connection with it severed forcefully. Not only that, but without the Leaning Tower of Flame, Ocelia's sorcery mastery slightly regressed from the peak of the lower-stage first-ranked into an ordinary first-ranked. If she was just half a step before the middle-stage, then she had dropped from half a step to a full point. Fortunately, Ocelia had already cultivated the Leaning Tower of Frost, which helped as another piece of the foundation for her sorcery mastery. If not, Ocelia might be risking having her power reverted into a weak third-layered sorcerer apprentice. With her internal injuries, Ocelia would continue to weaken under the wind of chaotic Elements. Fortunately, before any more danger could befall her, a silhouette of a man inside her heart manifested in front of her kneeling self, standing tall and imposing, facing the storm fearlessly. Although Ocelia wanted to speak, she had no idea what she should say and did not say anything in the end. The warmness of his body subtly teased Ocelia, dispelling the chaotic wind of Elements around her while comforting both her heart and soul. Outside of her control, she felt her breathing becoming warmer and more frequent, having her body temperature raised, and her skin turned pinkish with blood rushing out of her restless heart. After shielding Ocelia, Forus did not launch any counter-attack or move away from Ocelia. He kept standing still and waited for Ocelia to recover while eyeing for the possible assault from the elegant Witch of the Scarlet Snow. Her demeanour had changed from a depressing person whose life was at her end to an ancient and divine being that oversaw the lives of countless people. However, despiting having overwhelming power to easily crush both Ocelia and Forus into smithereens within an instant, the Witch did not move from her place. Instead, she seemed to be waiting for Forus to approach her on his own. "What do you want?" Enduring the intense silence for a while, Forus decided to break the growing tension and asked out loud. From what he could gather, the Witch did not release any killing intent anymore, and instead, she seemed to be waiting to show her sincere feeling for Forus and Ocelia. If not, the Witch would have already tried her best to move forwards and kill the two without any hesitation. For her to not kill them, it was either that the price for such actions was unacceptable, which would be untrue as a peak-stage second-ranked sorcerer would easily crush two first-ranked sorcerers. The other possibility was that the death of Ocelia and Forus would not benefit her objective and might even cause more harm than good for her in the long run. "Young couple, let us make a deal that would benefit both of us." Her mouth moved slowly and unsteady as if she had magically deteriorated within the instant of igniting her Icy Scorpion Bloodline. Although her appearance was enchanting and full of vitality, her voice was hoarse with a hint of wariness and tiredness in it. "I'm sorry, but our goal wasn't something that you would like to hear." Forus denied her deal without any hesitation. Without any power to uphold the other end of the agreement, he and Ocelia would be a fool to sign the contract blindly. According to the rules of the Tower of Succession, they would need to kill the Witch of the Scarlet Snow to pass the test, which the Witch would not agree for someone to take her life. Not only that but because Ocelia and Forus were too weak, the Witch may even break the contract without any care for any retaliation. "Don't be too fast to respond, young friends. I've already known about the rule of the Thought Domain and its legacy inheritances. In fact, after igniting my Icy Scorpion Bloodline, I had already forsaken my life in other to have this simple moment with you." The stiff and dry voice echoed out of her humanoid mouth as the Witch narrated a part of her story for Forus and Ocelia. "Although I was preparing to die, I still have my Icy Scorpion Sect under my care, and you two wouldn't want to fight with me, would you? Then, let us make a deal. By extracting my heart, you could devour my Icy Scorpion Bloodline and the essence of my sorcery mastery, integrating the special characteristic of the Icy Scorpions into your soul, strengthening your control over Ice Element." After speaking for a great deal, the Witch coughed and spilt out more blackened blood than before, showing her weakened self to Forus and Ocelia. It was clear that she would not live long after igniting her bloodline. "I also only wanted you to do only one thing, which is to continue passing down the legacy of the Icy Scorpion Sect. When you could find an existing Icy Scorpion Sect, you must at least help them to overcome one crisis." Knowing that she would not be alive to protect her sect any longer, the Witch decided to leave everything up to fate, which was the last thing she could do. With her surprisingly simple and beneficial deal, Forus and Ocelia fell into deep contemplation. Although they seemed hesitated about choosing to accept the contract or not, Forus had already determined to take it, and with Ocelia's personality and trust in him, she would not object his decision either. After all, there was unquestionably no malicious intention within the deal. The Witch had made this massive gamble, betting everything she had on the slim chance that might or might not happen. If Forus and Ocelia never met with the Icy Scorpion Sect, they would be benefitting from this without losing anything. "One thing to consider is that my power, which came from a woman like me, would be best compatible with another female sorcerer who practised Ice Element." Seeing that Forus and Ocelia did not respond, the Witch urged them with a little more information and the effect of the essence of her sorcery mastery. After a while, Forus moved his hand to pat the kneeling Ocelia as he smiled for her, appearing peaceful as he had decided that Ocelia would be taking this new-found power. The stronger Ocelia became, the more secure Forus would feel about their lovely future.

"So, what is your decision?" The figure asked in a dull yet tired voice. His body was getting weaker and weaker as time passed, reaching the limit of his vitality that supported the black sphere of concealment. The absolute blackness of the surrounding began to shake as cracks of space and time manifested, slowly dragging this separated space into the Sorcerer World. As the figure had forcefully severed a part of the Sorcerer World, he had caused a disturbance in its balance, making the void surrounding this space unstable. Naturally, the world would want to take back its property, so it would be exerting force unimaginable to mortals to bring them back. Although the figure wielded the power of the myths, maintaining the barrier that resisted the force of the Sorcerer World still drained a lot from him, not to mention that he had recently suffered a severe injury and was on the verge of dying. Nevertheless, he had already considered all of these variables and had no problem with the current situation. As the light began to creep into Forus' vision, he finally made up his mind and hardened his resolution. As Ocelia was still resting on his embrace, he gently placed her down on the floor, letting her had a pleasant slumber after a long, mentally-exhausting journey. The motion of her hair falling from his shoulder onto the ground was akin to a waterfall from the peak of the mountain, showering the wildlife of the forest with moisture and freshness. Her even and systematic breathing implied a pleasant dream as a faint smile presented itself on her face. Although she was defenceless and fragile in her moment of rest, Forus did not have any wild thoughts as he looked at her, smiling while his hand was caressing her cheek, feeling her smooth skin as well as the tapping of her warm breaths. The delicate maiden also moved her face closer to the hand, subtly expressed her yearning for it. "No matter what, I wish for the best of her." Despite showing playful mood with Ocelia, when Forus turned to look into that pair of golden eyes, his voice became hardened and firm, revealing his unwavering determination. The same face that stared back at Forus suddenly smiled, showing a relief expression as well as a trace of burning hope in his eyes. "Even if it would lead to your doom? You'll face endless suffering once you had crossed the line." Although he had already known the answer, the figure needed to hear it from Forus himself. "No matter what." Without any hesitation, Forus answered again. He felt that he had wronged her, and if Forus did not help her, he would not be able to face his late wife or his daughter. "So be it." The faint smile disappeared as the man hardened his resolve. He extended his hand outwards before channelling his sorcery energy, creating a ray of transparent light. The glowing hope swayed weakly towards Forus, crawling towards him while flickering from time to time. It looked weak and unassuming as if a tiny breeze could scatter it away. Fortunately, the black void that separated the world did not have any weather or winds. Time almost slowed down to a standstill as the light seeped into Forus' realm of consciousness. It came in without any disturbance or sound, silently approaching the grey soul. Although Forus did not resist its invasion, he knew that even if he did, it could easily bypass his defence. As the grey soul noticed the invader, the greyish tentacles madly rushed out from the depth of the pale abyss. They came into contact with the light, trying to devour it to strengthen themselves further. However, the glowing thread did not care about these tendrils and went through them, moving towards the soul unhindered. It jumped into the state of nonexistence, leaving no manifestation for the tendrils to catch on. The light moved not too fast or too slow. Before long, it lingered in front of Forus' grey soul, leaving behind the tail of glowing sparks every time it moved. Without any hesitation, it drove into the grey abyss, dissolving into pure power, fusing into the soul. Its departure was quiet and dull, not revealing any trace of existence to the world at all. With its disintegration, the dark void that covered the pocket dimension crumbled into nothingness, opening rifts in space for the light of the outside to peek in. Without any source of power, the separation force could not contend with the power of the Sorcerer World. As soon as the light landed onto Forus, his mind shook as his vision darkened once more. His momentary perception had disappeared, regaining its state of blindness. If not for the vivid scenes that Forus had engraved into his memory, he would not believe that he had recovered his eyesight for a while. The quiet atmosphere had returned, stirring Forus' mind as he thought about the figure's question. Although he had no idea about the man's intention, something had told him that the man bore no ill intention. The feeling was genuine and intimate, not like anything he had ever felt before. However, after the collapse of the black landscape, Forus could no longer sense the figure's presence with his sorcery energy anymore. The man had already disappeared from this floor, or even this world. Before anything else, Forus checked on his wife, inspecting her delicate body for any sight of injuries and damages. After confirming that her breathing was even and steady, Forus then focused his attention inside his realm of consciousness. The grey soul floated aimlessly in the centre of the realm, showing no sight of evolving or changing. The flows of sorcery energy did not change in quality or quantity, circulating as steady as ever. There was no definite change induced by the transparent thread of light. The only thing Forus could sense was a feeling of desolation. It spread across his realm of consciousness and seeped into every part of his soul, invading his mind and merging with his body. However, along with it was a breath of freedom, the relief that stemmed from solitary. Forus found no answer to his questions and instead got more as a result. As the subtle music echoed the room, Forus let the drowsiness engulfed his mind. Although the couple did not fight with the figure, being in his presence was enough to cause their sorcery foundation to crack open. Because they had already passed the test, Forus was in no rush to receive the inheritance. He needed time to rest and contemplate about everything he had done, and this place was the safest place they could have in a while. Laid next to Ocelia, Forus used his tattered outer robe to had a bedsheet and covered his wife with it. As Forus hugged Ocelia in her sleep, she also hugged back in her dream. Together, the couple drifted into the land of pure happiness, soothing their mind as they adventured into the endless world. ... Vines and plants filled the broken ruin, coating all surfaces with their greenery. Although the overall layout of the building remained, there was no trace of its previous beauty. The only noise in this forgotten landscape was the occasional song from the birds. In the absence of sound, a figure walked passed through the wildness, moving ever so slowly forward, viewing the scenery as he reminisced his past. From the first time he had visited this place, he had never shown any impatience or boredom. He had always followed this pattern, soothing his mind with the calming atmosphere. Although his footsteps were loud and steady, none of the animals around him seemed to notice his presence, acting as if the man did not exist. They let him passed without any disturbance, and he also did not try to do anything meaningless to them. As he moved along the untraceable road, the pattern of the flowers began to change, turning from one colour to another. The butterflies flew above them, dancing in pairs as they submerged their life in the fragrance of the nectar. Reaching the end of the road, the man stood in front of a broken door. It was old and rusty, exposing many gaps that let the eyes from the outside saw through. Although he could easily tear it down, he did not do so and gently use his hand to grip at the handle before slowly pulling it inwards, opening the door without letting it crumbled. The cracking noise echoed the empty room. Inside were many traditional books, ranging in various topics from business to educations. Although the outside world became filled with vines and insects, there was little trace of dust or weeds, implying that someone had been cleaning them every once in a while. Closing the door, the man looked around before walking towards a corner of the room, picking up a broom and started to sweep the floor, maintaining his slow pace while cleaning the place. He also used his handkerchief to wipe the dust off the books before arranging them in the same orders, preserving them from the insects. Only when he was sure that there was no dirt left, did the man set his sight onto the backdoor, locking his gaze at it for a long time. His eyes flashed before dimming down, revealing a hint of emotions. Although he had come here many times, he remained anxious about what was behind it. However, time waited for no one, worrying about the past would not solve everything, and the man knew about this. In the end, he took a deep breath before adjusting his mind and headed towards his sin. In contrast to the ugly and broken front door, this gate did not exude any hint of decay. Instead, it stood tall for hundreds of years, not compromising with the time. Despite having the same component as the front door, the man had been taking care of it with love and tender as it kept his most precious things behind it. "At long last." He muttered to himself as he pushed open the gate, revealing the scenery behind the door. The first thing that greeted his vision was a silhouette of a man shrouded in blackness. He stood alongside with the door, guarding it against any trespassers. If anything dared to enter this door, he would slaughter them without any mercy. Disturbing the tranquil of this place was a crime worthy of death. As the shadowy monster saw the man, it dropped down onto the ground, lowering its head to show respect while crumbling into nothingness. It had accomplished its objective with the arrival of the man, and there was no need for it to remain in this world. With the departure of the dark creature, the man did not utter anything other than a sigh. The land behind the backdoor was a beautiful garden, covering in scents of flowers and plants. With the care from the creature, it continued to retain its original appearance. Although it looked ordinary, compared to the surrounding ruins, it had its unique charm. As the man had already reassured his determination, he continued to step into the garden, moving towards the end of the road. However, with each passing step, his body seemed to grow heavier as his footsteps echoed louder than before. He was hesitating. In his absented-mind, the man arrived in front of a giant monument, standing before it with his head lowered. All his hesitation had turned into bitterness and sorrow, evoking his memory and forced him to go through it again. In his pain, the man used his hand and handkerchief to wipe the leaves and dust off the tomb, revealing its plain and simple design. The stone did not have any fancy decoration. There was only a single line craved onto it. The words that contained a heartfelt story and a ripple of emotion. Here lie the memory of Forus and Meria Ander. May their love unite them forever.