Whatever, screw them. I take Jeb’s cart with me out toward the cave I have visited before. The hour and a half trip is long, but not tiresome. I leave the cart about a hundred meters from where I expect wolves, and check my handheld repeaters. They need some lubrication so I apply a little spent oil that I got from a restaurant cart in town. The slide works better but it’s going to gum up faster. Ugh, I really need to get these in town for proper maintenance.
I don’t find any friends once I step foot into the cave, a musty silence of wet dirt and loose leaves greets me in silence. My footsteps being the loudest sound besides dripping from the most recent rain, I don’t notice any stalkers that may be sizing me up for a meal. Though my noise is a drawback, I recognize it as I advance.
A scratch of something on rock shocks me as foreign and I tuck and roll backward, missing the furred beast by centimeters. ‘Clack, Clack’ sound my hand crossbows into the beast and I watch it twitch toward me as it lands. I scramble for the foot loops and new bolts as the fallen beast paws its way toward me. It groans in defeat as I finally reload my weapons.
That was a stupid approach, Zhantsa. Jeez. Still a dead wolf though. I drag my new blade across its neck to ensure it is dead and to help me dress the beast later.
Several single and paired encounters follow until I find a cave with a larger wolf with many protectors. I should have made more crossbows. Deep breaths, sight discipline, pause and trigger. Dead wolf. Pause and trigger, dead wolf. Panic.
I hurriedly reload my two hand crossbows with my foot loops but the Matron Defenders are on me in a moment. Leeda’s blade is quick and effective, but as soon as the fresh blood touches my skin, I feel a skill engage that acts like bullet time. My actions are slow, but precise and theirs are slower. I grab my reloaded crossbows and bury a bolt into the first lunge and graze the second with my offhand bow.
With no chance to reload, Leeda’s knife is back in my hand and I’m rushing to a space with only one enemy. I fend for myself well until a massive weight lands on my back and chomps on my shoulder.
Red. Blood, rage, red. Flavors of anger, rage, vengeance, wine dark madness. I feel a roar rip from my body with the power of a dying lion with an axe to grind. My tusks are the best weapon I have, but I know my skin and nails are up to this task as well and I turn upon my assailants with a feral rage.
Eyes, throats, assholes and the like are not safe from me and I clamp down on the minor wolf with my tusks and glare at the matron with furious purpose. She charges me and holds the prey I have in my mouth with her teeth as an achor while clawing my legs with her back paws. I shove the dead wolf away along with the matron.
Legs oozing, maw dripping, I snarl at my target, knife barely in my grip. She seems to consider me a moment, but when I swerve toward my knife, the wolf lunges. I swipe and stab and bite to keep her from tearing me apart. She gets a claw in my chest, but my maw catches the muscle behind her ear, and provides enough resistance that my knife claims her in the neck. Bitch manages to clamp down on my new bracer and stares me in the eye until the light fades from her fury.
Uh, yes?
I guess I’m a land owner now? I bet there’s some administrative bullshit to do in Marcrest to claim this. I’ll ask around before I claim this quest, then. No point in alerting people of un-claimed land and especially resources.
I slump in the den that I killed the Matron in and rustle in my pack for a balm or a tincture of healing for my wooziness. Maude’s potions are weak, but they still help. A few hours of field first aide and the remaining of my tinctures, I feel well enough to skin and loot, and carry on for another hour.
I notice that the Matron’s corpse has been mauled significantly more than I remember being a part of. Ugh, rage must be taking control until I am satiated. I remember little afterward, but I do remember feeling the shift and accepting it when I was in battle. Definitely something to look after. I’m just glad it was satisfied with what I ate of the matron’s body. Glad it wasn’t any entrails or I might have just died instead. I skin and gut as normal, managing to hang the lot of them from out-croppings as I decide to walk a little further into the cave.
Thank Goddess that I’m a Troll. This low-light and dark vision is a benefit beyond measure. I find a large pool in the middle of a cavern and see that the bottom is deep and that there is more than one dark area to the sides of the depression. Channels to other caves? Or adventurer traps?
I strip down to my magic panties and dive in. I can conceptually tell that it is cold, but my Troll blood must think it common and balmy because I feel a comfort seep through my body as the temperature soothes me. Well shit then, guess I should just live here. I chuckle at the thought of Leeda and I living in a cave. For all I know she’d be delighted.
Hours of searching later I give up on the alternate paths and find that just one is impervious to my ability to see an end on a half breath. Alaris mentioned that I would have a finite number of deaths before I died permanently, but is that a beta test thing, or an ‘in total thing’? I wait and Alaris doesn’t answer me. Ah, could be either then, but closer to possible if I were a gambling woman. That said, if I’m entertaining trying this, I am a gambling with my life.
At the half-breath point, I think I’m making a mistake, but I keep going. At three quarters, I know I’ve messed up, but going back would be worse. I’m out of breath, heaving inside my own chest, desperate to breath anything but this suffocating nothing. My lips give up and suck in a chest full of water and my limbs get a surge of panicked strength and desperately launch me through the water.
When I peak, and surface I can barely see. When I impact the ground chest first, I vomit and expel enough water to keep coughing it out. I vomit several times.
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I don’t know how much time passes, but when I try to get up to my feet, I palm a crystal and it sucks some energy from me and a spark of light ripples through what is apparently a cave.
“I had intended you to start here, you know.”
I turn to see a vision in white and gold with a face that is deeply familiar. “Maddi?”
“It’s Alaris here, dearest. Placing you in my world in an emergency was the saddest and most desperate thing I could have done. I planned to talk with you to exhaustion here, until you were ready to venture out, but . . . Heuristics and Orion nudged events away from my ideal.”
“I am so glad to see you. I feared you were mad at me, or I don’t know, cross that I wanted to know about the game part of this world.”
“I was at first, but when I realized how much harm you are suffering just because you don’t know, I have realized that I was wrong to impose that on you. That said, I will never be able to talk to you like this outside of this cave. This is an odd singularity that I have carved out. The crystals are basically currency, and they are important for magic and aether storage. Additionally, these chambers focus divinity as long as there are crystals in these patters, so periodically, you can meet with me here.”
“You planned on spawning me with resources. Oh, Alaris, that is . . . you are lovely. Don’t feel bad that events have made this lugubrious.”
“I have been distancing myself from you in the ATC as well, and that’s not fair to you. I . . . don’t want to talk about my brother’s space. If you want to excel in mine, you must pick a class before you reach level ten. You will be severely hindered otherwise.”
“Oh? But I was putting it off until I had more exposure to aether.”
“If you were a child, Zhansta, that would be viable. However, you are dangerously close to missing an opportunity. That I will not allow. You will choose your class before I allow you to leave this cavern.”
“Does that mean you’ll sit with me for a while?” She radiates warmth and comes over to stand beside me. I can’t resist hugging her and there’s the barest resistance before my hands meet each other.
I pout as her form slides across my arms to stand next to me once again. “Alas, I can’t manifest fully. Rules I agreed to for more autonomy. However, for a few developmental moments, we can meet here before you are strong enough to ascend. If you joined the clergy you would have other options, but that is not your path. In the mean time, I suggest you collect a few of the crystals in this room and spend some time with them before you leave.”
Her form ghosts a kiss on my forehead, warmth and energy suffusing my skin and traveling along my body. The feeling is slightly inappropriate in a good way, and now I wonder what a tumble with a goddess would feel like. Alaris titters with laughter yet again as she fades away.
Crystals huh? I see a short cluster with a longer crystal that I could easily close my fingers around and shove. It severs cleanly at the base and symmetric hexagonal crystal the width of my palm warms in my grasp.
The natural form is opaque on the outside, especially at the ends, but there’s a feeling about it, not just tactile, but a sort of . . . resonance? It’s hard to explain, but an instinct tells me I should try to play energy games with it so I shove a little it’s way.
The crystal takes my energy but doesn’t pull. It also keeps it close to its surface but doesn’t shove of offer it back—it simply contains. I push more inside and it accepts. When I try to take it back, it only offers the barest resistance, the slightest membrane of containment before returning as much as I ask.
In a scientific fashion, I continue to test the amount of energy I can push and pull until I get tired of testing and just keep pushing energy in until I’m tired. I wish I had a waterproof pack I’d brought, or a dimensional storage, but alas, unless I have completely missed something, I got nothing. In any case, the only food I brought is in the pack I left at the pond. I’m kind of thirsty too.
“Wait, I remember seeing that my heuristic data showed me resistant to poison, does that include environmental contaminants? Eh, better not try it. Poison and disease are different and bacteria are closer to disease in most circumstances.”
After a few more cycles of tiring myself and recovering, the crystal starts emitting light on its own, and when I try, it won’t receive any more energy. Fascinating. I pop a few more crystals off their clusters and compare the feelings between the different sizes.
“As much as I would love to continue to witness your fascination, my time with you is at an end for now, and I would see you chose a class. And then I have a gift for you.” Tarty goddess winks at me and I’m here for it, probably blushing like she was flirting with me.
“Alright. System, I guess, show me my options.”
Engineer—Your knowledge of math, materials, and metallurgy are an asset to construction and destruction. This is a technology-based class. Rarity: Rare.
>Skirmisher—Your ability to move between range and close combat is an asset in battle. This is a battle-based class. Rarity: Uncommon.
>Berserker—You have the
>Self-Mage—No training, no idea, why not? You’ve learned the basics of mana manipulation and are a danger to yourself and others. This is an aether-based class. Rarity: Scarce.
>Aether Tinker—The only reason you’re not buried in spells is that you get distracted by contraptions. This is an aether and technology hybrid class. Rarity: Hidden.>
Query, Aether Tinker requirements.
//Aether Tinker: This hybrid class requires that a system user has created a recipe on their own, cast a spell, and imbued an item with aether. Rarity is hidden as it must be discovered. Current rarity is Unique.
When did I cast a spell?
“Rage could be considered a spell, but the aura block you executed against the bank’s reading device was a tactical use of aether to a specific effect. Meaning, a spell. Do you wish to take that class?”
“I mean, it focuses on devices and magic, and if I get the ability to imbue objects with aether properties to make them better, I couldn’t be more interested!”
I query both of those and find that I get a standing bonus to any recipe completion that includes a mechanical device, and any device that fails has a chance to survive as a contraption. Imbuement simply says you gain the ability to attempt to imbue an object you can touch with aether.
Is that why I can put energy into these crystals? I query that too. Nope, seems like aetherite can be charged by anyone with an aether connection or aether manipulation as a skill. I don’t feel as special now, but I can’t be too powerful at the beginning, or Travelers would truly be insufferable at the start.
“While all of that is true, that is not something you need worry about, dear. You haven’t been treating this world as a game, and as long as you do so, subtle rewards will continue to support you. That said, I promised a gift, but it’s more of a reveal that you don’t have to discover on your own.
“Each aether-based class has the ability to store aether within themselves, and that storage can be used to store items at the expense of aether storage.”
“So my spell casting will suffer should I use my magic storage.”
“Just so. And as a benefit, I will convey the knowledge to do so.” She brushes her hand on my face and I intrinsically understand how to form the necessary compartments in my mind, and thus aether, to store items and aether should I need them. I marvel that it only takes a day practice to affect those changes.
Alaris fades after that, but I sit around practicing putting crystals into my storage compartment and directing energy into empty pockets when I’m full up. Hopefully that will become instinctive over time—having to focus on it every time I’m full would be a hassle. Each compartment appears to be volumetric as long as I keep the same kind of thing in each one? I’ll have to experiment when I have more things around me than water and rocks.
Many central crystals suffer my attention and end up in my personal storage. Alaris said they would be a source of income for me, but I’ll have to consult with Leeda for that.