Imri was awoken by Emelia, who smiled apologetically at him. He had only gotten a few hours of sleep but still felt invigorated. She kissed him before they traded places, Imri on watch and Emelia trying to get some sleep.
While Imri knew he should be focusing on his duties as a watch member, his mind quickly drifted toward learning new spells. The first idea was expansion, the opposite of compression. He thought this would be easy, with the universe's expansion surely it was more natural than compressing space inward. However, it wasn’t nearly as simple as he had hoped. It seemed that the matter within the space resisted being pulled apart. Fortunately, his attempts weren’t entirely in vain; his repeated attempts to manipulate space gave him a better understanding of the space in an area.
Spell Learned Tier/Rank Description True Distance 1F Determine the distance between two frames of reference. Mana cost varies by precision and the distance from the caster to the frames of reference.
Quest Updated Progress Class Rank up F to E Learn space or time spells 3/5
Like the metronome spell, this was more of a foundation for future spells but wasn’t immediately applicable in obvious ways. It also brought him one step closer to completing his class quest.
His watch came to an end, with Zhaire taking the last watch. Imri didn’t feel like he needed more sleep; instead, he meditated for the last few hours before they broke camp. He found it difficult to separate himself from his emotions for a reason he wasn’t familiar with. He was too happy, his thoughts drifting back to kissing Emelia. He eventually gave up and wandered back to where Emelia was sleeping, settling in close to her but careful not to wake her.
He wanted to hold her, to keep her safe, but his inability to get over his insecurities plagued him again. Instead, he decided to watch her sleep like a creepy stalker. Her hair was disheveled, her face speckled with grime and dirt. Yet, to him, she was still beautiful beyond words, and for some reason, she liked him. A part of him still couldn’t believe it was real, couldn’t believe she would choose him over someone more attractive, like Zhaire. He pinched himself just to be sure he wasn’t dreaming. He wanted time to stop so they could spend as much time as they wanted together. Yet, cruelly, time marched on, seeming to accelerate through life's most joyous moments and grind to a halt during the cruelest moments. He realized that time was a construct of perception and could, therefore, be relatively faster or slower to the perceiver. It was another insight into time that didn’t lead directly to a spell, but with each insight, he felt closer to being able to wield time itself.
He was so lost in thought that when he focused on the present, he noticed that Emelia had woken and now stared at him with a coy grin. “Good morning,” she said with a smile. Imri immediately averted his gaze, embarrassed at staring and still having completely zoned out. She giggled, turned his head back towards her, and kissed him.
“Good morning,” He said, wholeheartedly agreeing with the statement, all sense of embarrassment and insecurity melting away, for the moment at least.
“I don’t understand how you do that, how you can be so focused on thoughts that you're oblivious to everything around you. You probably shouldn’t be on watch if you space out this much,” Emelia said, standing and stretching out the soreness of sleeping on the hard earth. As she stretched out her back, Imri couldn’t help but stare. The motion accentuated her chest, which pressed against the loose robes, revealing her bust. He was allowed to stare, right? Imri knew he wasn’t being subtle, and when Emelia noticed his staring, he was sure she would tell him to stop. Instead, she gave a coy smile and seemed to accentuate the stretch further.
“We should check in with the others,” Imri eventually said, feeling embarrassed for being so brazen. Emelia just smiled, apparently reveling in his awkwardness.
The entire camp was beginning to stir as everyone awoke. Someone had taken the initiative and cooked up a large portion of meat from the Ulfr Hounds. Despite his initial aversion to eating the monster, it had been almost two days since the integration, and he hadn’t eaten anything. Judging by the amount of food consumed by the entire camp, most hadn’t eaten either. It was far from the best meal he had ever eaten, with no spices or flavoring, but it was well cooked. He ate a piece of meat larger than anything he had ever eaten in a steakhouse, devouring it in several minutes.
With sated bellies, they broke camp. With no one having any belongings worth mentioning, the entire process took only a few minutes. In quick order, they began hiking through the forest. Sylvi took the lead with the most wilderness experience, even if it wasn’t completely applicable to the stone forest. Zhaire took up the rear, hopefully protecting them from anything that decided to follow. Imri stayed with the main group, nominally to protect the group from any unexpected threats. In truth, it was because he was out of shape and clumsy. He doubted he could get to Sylvi before Zhaire, even with the head start.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
While most of the group consisted of healthcare workers in decent shape, there were still several elderly patients and obese staff. Imri wouldn’t be the group's anchor, but due to his recent illness, he was a bit on the out-of-shape spectrum. However, they made a decent pace with the help of more physically fit people.
“So you were a patient before all this happened?” A middle-aged man asked. Imri recognized him as one of the two doctors in the group, Dr. Thompson. Imri nodded. “What did you do before you were a patient?”
“I was a software engineer,” Imri said.
“How do you think you got that class, Relativity Mage?” The doctor asked.
Everyone in the group had gotten classes similar to what they had done before the integration, with Imri being the most notable exception. None of them had a choice in class; they had simply been assigned their class by the system. Even Zhaire and Sylvi, who seemed to have strange classes, made some sense. Zhaire clearly identified more as an athlete than an orderly, and the Line Breaker was somewhat similar to his position in football. Sylvi was just a badass special forces operator, both pre and post-integration. Even Emelia’s class made some sense with the strange empathy that she had possessed. Imri was clearly an outlier, having been able to select whatever class he wanted.
“I did always have an interest in cosmology, and from what I've seen, advanced magic is similar to software,” Imri explained, both of which were true. He omitted the fact that he had been able to select his class, something no one else had mentioned to this point.
“Still, that seems like quite a jump. You were interested in cosmology, so now you can control it?” The doctor said, some jealousy leaking out into his tone. Imri didn’t entirely blame the man; the doctor had worked hard to become what he had. The system seemed to assign other people more powerful classes seemingly at random.
“Maybe it gives those with professions that were overly specialized to our previous lives different classes. It could have made Zhaire a football player, but it made him a fighter that fit his existing skills. All of you are still healthcare workers because we still need healthcare workers,” Imri speculated. That response seemed to appease the doctor somewhat.
“Still, it would have been nice to have gotten magical healing. It doesn’t seem fair to give that ability to a nurse when there are plenty of capable doctors. Imagine what we could do with both knowledge and magic,” He said, oblivious to the fact that the nurse in question was his girlfriend. Was she his girlfriend? He wasn’t sure how that thing was decided; he hadn’t had many girlfriends before the integration.
Imri’s annoyance must have shown, so Dr. Thompson apologized and left him alone. Imri had never been good at hiding his emotions. He wondered how much of an open book he was to Emelia.
They hiked for hours, taking breaks every so often. Few in the group had come this far in a single direction, meaning they were in uncharted territory again. They hadn’t seen any sign of the Chixel or the Ulfr Hounds. They were nearing the end of the daylight when Sylvi rejoined the group, motioning for everyone to stop.
“There is a city up ahead, and I think it’s Minneapolis,” Sylvi said. This was followed by a cheer and a chorus of people excitedly talking about what they would do once they were back in the city. Imri was less excited, mainly because he realized what many of them hadn’t. The city wouldn’t be what it had been. Every one of them had been near the city's center when the integration had happened, yet they found themselves spread out kilometers away. While there would undoubtedly be a few people who had been integrated within the city, most would be far away. They wouldn’t be returning to a functioning civilization but an eerie ghost city that would mostly be abandoned.
Imri voiced his logic, and while it made sense to most people, it only slightly dampened the mood. Most were excited to be out of the strange stone forest they had been wandering since the integration, even if it had only been a couple of days.
“You aren’t excited to be back somewhere familiar?” Emelia asked Imri. The camp had broken into smaller groups, conversing while they waited for Zhaire to rejoin the main group.
“It might be nice to be back in a city, but I think everyone underestimates how creepy it will be to have an entire city with no people,” Imri said.
“Even if it’s creepy, it can’t be worse than a stone forest or a soul-sacrificing temple,” Emelia said.
“What if the city has attracted attention? Like how we were attracted to investigate the temple,” Imri pointed out
“You think there will be Chixel there?” Emelia asked.
“That, or possibly worse. Who knows how many monsters are out there, at least in the forest we’re relatively well hidden. In the city, things will be able to spot us a lot easier.”
“I see your point,” Emelia said with a frown. “Still, everyone is going to want to go there.”
“I’m not saying we don’t, just that we should be careful,” Imri said. He hoped everyone would take his warning to heart or that he was just being paranoid, but he didn’t think that either was likely.