“This place is magnificent!” I nearly shout as she shows me the massive series of rooms that the ‘Club’ considers a gym. Marcella joins me for a warmup run, then tells me to do half a mile on a rower before introducing me to Jamal. The man is a trainer of personal trainers and has already designed me a high intensity interval workout schedule in exchange for the pain relief balm I’m working on.
I stare daggers at my mentor before she explains, “Jamal, please don’t take offense. She doesn’t get the economy around here, but she’s a good egg. She just initialized this week.”
“Oh? And you’re pimping out her wares already? Cutthroat and shameless as ever Marcella.” He jibes and then gestures to me. “I hear you’re trying to put some bulk on? I can definitely help with that as long as you’re not too concerned about visual aesthetics along the way.”
“I’m cool with being chubby while I gain, no worries Jamal. Can I snack in here?”
“Break areas only, Kimber. Drink additives are fine though.” He proceeds to wreck me for an hour and I even thanked him after. He tells me to either walk it out for ten minutes or get on an elliptical. There’s a route taped out so I do that for ten minutes while trying to feel out what the symbiotes are doing.
Finding a new energy source inside my body is harder than I thought it would be. I ask Tova how I should approach this, but all she tells me is that information is in module territory and not currently accessible. Well, fine. I’ll meditate and then try small test batches. First I look at the recipe to see what kind of feelings and thoughts I should be projecting: calm, release, relaxation, soothing. Oof.
I sit down and start breathing rhythmically and letting my mind coast on a calm sea. I ask Tova if the symbiotes can help show themselves.
Make them process aether, see if that helps.
I should have thought of that. She pings in agreement. I order an infused juice and sip it calmly while focusing on how it feels. As it pools in my stomach, a glowing radiative energy starts appearing in my mind. A moment later, small motes around that energy start lighting as they push, pull, and corral the energy into paths until the energy is more or less homogenous throughout the space.
That was pretty neat. Can it go in reverse? Is that how manifesting aether works? So many more questions than answers! Does it matter what material I try to send aether to the concoction?
That I can answer, in the text, there is a list of aether insulative and aether conductive materials. Crystal, gold, and copper are recommended common conductors. Glass, rubber, and clay are common insulators.
Oh, so the glass stir rods are to prevent aether contamination. Which means I should look for a copper one? Okidoke. I start searching for copper utensils of any kind, and all I find are bowls and pots. I growl at my situation. Then I remember the copper tubing and wires I collected yesterday.
I rush out of the vault and rifle through my bin of scrap to find some 13cm or so lengths of insulated wire with ring-shaped attachment ends, likely battery connectors for old cars. I strip the insulation off and chop the connector ends then scrub and rinse the devil out of the cabling. I spend some time pulling back the strands on one end to make a whisk structure, and unraveling parts of the other end to wrap around as a handle. Then I rinse it one more time in Ethanol so I don’t contaminate the mixture with water.
Happy with my new copper tool, I find the vegetable shortening and measure ten grams for two drops of the extract. With the heating plate set to 35C I let the shortening fully liquify before stirring it with calm soothing intent that I try to radiate through my hand. I put the two drops of extract in and keep stirring with intent.
I fail, many times. The paste smells nice, but it’s not an alchemic concoction. The manual says that once it cools, you cannot re-use the substance. I’m so frustrated with myself. Why did I think that I could just do this like I did everything else? I made a cute little whisk for goodness sakes!
I pop a candy. I know I shouldn’t be eating in a lab environment, but I need my calming tools sometimes. I sip enough juice to feel the radiative glow again and calmly start another test. I keep sipping juice while the fat melts and start thinking about my intent to convey calm into the mixture with a silent prayer to my symbiotes to help me.
I can feel that they are trying, instead of diffusing it, the motes are now pooling some of the glow into my stirring hand! I pick up the dropper and add two drops of extract before the feeling fades and keep projecting calm vibes into the whisk and mixture. This time, I feel my fingers tingle as the glow in my hand lessens. At some point I had closed my eyes to focus on the glow, but I open them to see that the mixture is suitably combined for me to take it off the warming plate. I pour it into a separate, cooler container that I have lids for and as soon as the fat starts to harden I can see the bright green of success.
The extract is brown, dominated by the sassafras root color. This paste is supposed to be ‘vibrant green’. This is over-saturated and comically green. A huge grin spreads across my face.
“I DID IT!” I shout and dance around.
My triumph high begins to fade, but with my happy and positive vibes, it would be opportune to finish the extract by making more batches. So I order up more juice, collect the tins that Marcella had brought down for me to fill and start working.
When I hear a noise behind me as I’m cleaning up, I immediately turn, squeal and launch myself at Marcella. She catches me with nary a step and starts chuckling.
“I take it things went well?”
“Yes! After like a dozen failures, I got a success! I basically have to be drinking infused juice or flushed with aether when I do it, but it’s still a success!” I start poking at her face for sister reasons.
“Did you pick up the alchemy skill though?”
“Of course I did. I made the balm, I did alchemy.” I stare at her mouth, trying to understand why she would ask that.
“Not the same thing, but why would you know that. Okay, so your AI probably squashed incoming messages or alerts, so you should have some System messages if you learned the skill. It’ll also tell you if you’ve leveled up, gotten modules, most of your advancement comes from those types of prompts. Short story long, you can make things without getting a skill, so we persist until we get the skill we want.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Oh, Tova didn’t tell me, but I was so happy I may have missed it.”
You were in a ‘groove’ I did not wish to disturb it. Would you like an icon for system messages in your HUD?
“Yes please! And show me any that I may have missed today.
/Due to techniques used, sight, touch, and psionics will be used to perceive Aether.
/Products that resolve higher than your skill’s level convey increased experience.
“Nice work, Kimber, but I wouldn’t make a habit of broadcasting your display. I get it though, you’re excited. So am I, and if this stuff is as effective as it is hard to look at, we might have a winner.”
“How do we tell how effective it is?”
“Use it mostly. Some people have an appraise-like skill, but you can get around that by putting it on the Exchange for sale or paying a small price for assaying. No need for that here, though. Not that important.
“What is important is that now that you have the skill, you need to make something everyday to get that up to Novice. No need for big batches like this, but getting to level 3 is paramount, and if you get to 4, you can choose some advancement modules to work with. Modules are where a lot of a person’s versatility comes from. Want to be better with blades or guns? Pick up a quick draw module or a blade dancing technique. You’ll have more choices than you can afford, so don’t snap pick them. Use that cleverness stat of yours.”
Is she calling me stupid?
“Don’t do that. No pouting. Your stats are great for adjusting and getting out of places, so don’t think that intelligence is better than clever. No stat is an island. In fact, I’d wager that the disparity in your high and low aether attributes will cause some interesting issues in the future.”
Oh crap! You think that might be why I have to be ingesting aether to manifest it?
A solid theory. With your power and capacity being so low, and your having some talents that passively need aether, it could definitely be the reason. We could try to saturate you some and see what happens to the aether.
I do like experiments.
The rest of my day is spent buying discount aether items and consuming them while trying to figure out a low grade stim gel. Whenever I get too frustrated and fear that my attitude will infect the product, I collect copper and head to the shop area I found to try welding some stuff. It does not go the way I expect, and I end up with some funky looking bits of half-welded half molten copper bits. Next time I should look up smelting and see if I can approach copper tools from that angle.
It takes me the rest of the afternoon to figure out the gel, but the effects of my ‘sample’ seem super useful so I end up trying to burn off the energy with an evening workout. It works, mostly. When we sit down for dinner my legs are only bouncing a little.
Marcella asks me to check my messages since I learned a new recipe today.
/Products that resolve higher than your skill’s level convey increased experience.
/Unassisted endeavors provide more experience
//You are eligible to Choose a Track. Please select from the available options, or defer to the next module opportunity.//
//This choice cannot be undone, merely altered during key points in a User’s advancement.//
// Chose one of the following: Berserker | Sniper | Fixer | Parkour Enthusiast | Pocket Alchemist | Attack Dog | Blade of Vengeance | Hand of Justice>//
“MARCIE!!!” I shout loud enough that my sister jumps up looking for a threat. “I got level 3! I have Track choices and two of them sound interesting.”
“Only two? Let me see.” I mentally turn my screen for her to look at. “Jeez Kimber, scared me telling me you only had two choices. Instead I see more choices than I’ve heard of before. Eight, granted some of these are pretty cheeky. Your lowest grade offering is Sniper I think, still solid, but I think you should read more on Fixer and the three word ones.”
Okay, do I just stare at the words hard, ask for an explanation? Do I have to . . . there it goes.
/Fixer: They got a problem, you solve it. Check out the deets while aether resolves it. While this term is used mainly in nefarious circles, with the right tools, a discerning eye, and a little bit of magic, you can correct or fix situations from the mystical to the mundane. This is a combined Track and levels more slowly than single avenue Tracks in the Tech or Aether branches./
/Blade of Vengeance: Your ability to use emotions for speed and power make you the ideal weapon to be wielded in the name of Vengeance. When wielded for other reasons, your skills and talents are less effective. While in the [Throes of Vengeance], you may use the emotions of others to empower yourself. This is a combined Track.
/Hand of Justice: Your continuous drive to do things for the right reasons and punish those that break your tightly held code of morality lends a weight of authority to your actions. While maintaining your code, you have to ability to [Pass Judgement] on persons or agreements whose actions, creeds, or execution have come into question or are otherwise uncertain. This is a combined Track./
Okay, so I was right in not liking the sound of the Vengeance based Track. Would it be useful and powerful? Yes. Would I likely lose my mind and develop a thirst for blood? Probably. This is absolutely devolving from where therapy and a lot of my emotional effort have been aimed.
“Oh man, if I had been offered Blade of Vengeance when I got the system, I’d have selected it in a heartbeat. Not sure if I’d have a mind left now, but that seems perfectly tailored to where I was when I lost my sister.” I look at her with a bit of fear, knowing that if she told me to take it, I would.
“Don’t look at me like that, I know you don’t want that and I would never ask you to pick it. In fact, despite how useful you being a Fixer would be for me, I bet you’re looking hard at the Justice one.”
My trepidation fades as a molten ball of gooey feelings heats the scary mist in my mind away. I nod. “I also like that the description talks about an ability or talent that comes with the Track. That’s good right?”
“Can be.” She grabs one of my fries and chews on it along with the idea. “I know that crafting tracks come with abilities and or spells to enhance the skills that a person has in that craft. Good ol’ Renfroe has an ability called [Steady Hands], which is why he’s a great surgeon. I don’t know if it was listed in the Track description, but I don’t think it was.
“Whichever you pick, just know that Fixer would be easy to explain and even easier to get you on jobs. Justice can make criminals antsy, Kimber. The saving grace seems to be that it’s based on your code, and not some high-minded government regulations. That said, I’m not going to tell you what to pick. They both count as advanced tracks, and both could be very good for the Organization as a whole.”
Well, Tova, what do you think?
I can tell that one resonates with you, so why would I fight that? I want what’s best for us.
Alright then. I chose Hand of Justice.
//Congratulations on selecting the Track: Hand of Justice.//
//User does not have the skills necessary to utilize the Track selected. Deploying remediation.//
/Divine is a focused subset of Light Aether.
/Prerequisite for Divine Alignment not met. Deploying remediation.
/This skill is subsumed by Divine Aether.
As I read the prompts, I feel twisting change roll through me and as the intensity amps up, my consciousness is wrung from me.