Alex watched as V.V. displayed their control of the new smallest orb. The Combat Orblet flew around V.V. in quick loops then would abruptly stop and shoot off to slam into the tree above Alex for a moment and then return to V.V. The testing didn’t seem like it was going to end any time soon and Alex’s mind started to wander back to the other new abilities his class provided and his other orbs. He felt for his new companions and even without the thought truly manifesting, the orbs lined up in front of him. It was what he wanted them to do but similar to his old Orbs of Leporids, they responded faster than thought, to his wishes. The colorful spheres that lined up in front of him started with the red orb, then green, blue and white. He observed them with a little more focus and their information appeared.
Ingram’s Orb (Murky Red)
Name: Unassigned
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link
Skills: None
Spells: None
Ingram’s Orb (Dark Green)
Name: Unassigned
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link
Skills: Sight Beyond 1
Spells: None
Ingram’s Orb (Light Blue)
Name: Unassigned
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link
Skills: Dark Vision 1
Spells: None
Ingram’s Orb (Off-White)
Name: Unassigned
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link, Gaze Upon Prey
Skills: None
Spells: None
Alex viewed the windows that hung in front of each of his orbs with all new confusion. He had viewed the red orbs information only a few minutes prior and it had not said Murky Red beside what at first he thought was supposed to be its name. After seeing the other orbs information it was becoming clearer that Ingram’s Orb was what they were and not so much their names. Now though, a new addition accompanied the description. Something describing the orbs colors was interesting but far from the most confusing thing he was seeing. The blue, white and green orbs all had either a skill or ability that his old Orbs of Leporids had.
“So you really are a version of my other orbs or at least you consumed them I guess. I’m glad they weren’t alive at least.” Alex said while flicking his eyes back and forth between each of his orbs.
The Orbs of Leporids had two effects integrated into them, as well as one ability. The green and blue orbs seemed to have taken what were once effects of the old orbs and turned them into skills. The white orb simply transferred the Gaze Upon Prey skill to itself. Unfortunately for the red orb, no skills or abilities were left to transfer to itself. Alex continued to think about the fusion or transfer process for a bit longer before his mind landed back on the class abilities that were waiting to be melded.
“Ah, lets get you guys equipped properly.” Alex said and looked over the list of options he had for his orbs. Dome of Protection, Wound Care Aura, Boost Attack, Boost Defense and Flame Aura were what he could distribute at the moment.
“Hmm, Murky Red orb… That’s really not a name is it… It also says you still don’t have a name as well. Ok. First things first. I’ll call you Ruby.” Alex said, nodding his head towards his red orb. After naming his orb, it froze in place, glowed briefly and then returned to its normal slow floating bob in the air.
“Cool. Looks like that took. So then, if that ones Ruby then it’s only right that the rest of you are Emerald, Sapphire and Opal.” Alex said, nodding his head to each of his orbs in turn. A moment of freezing in place accompanied by a slight glow for each of them and it seemed the deed was done.
“Now then. Ruby, You’ll of course get Flame Aura. Emerald will take Wound Care Aura. Sapphire, you’ll take both Boost Attack and Boost Defense. Last but not least, Opal will take Dome of Protection.” Alex rattled off his intentions towards his orb companions and all four of them began to vibrate but to a much lesser degree than V.V. had. Only a second or two passed before a small wave of energy ruffled Alex’s hair and then it seemed that it was done.
Ingram’s Orb (Murky Red)
Name: Ruby
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link, Flame Aura 1
Skills: None
Spells: None
Ingram’s Orb (Dark Green)
Name: Emerald
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link, Wound Care Aura 1
Skills: Sight Beyond 1
Spells: None
Ingram’s Orb (Light Blue)
Name: Sapphire
Age: 0
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Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link
Skills: Dark Vision 1, Boost Attack 1, Boost Defense 1
Spells: None
Ingram’s Orb (Off-White)
Name: Opal
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link, Gaze Upon Prey
Skills: None
Spells: Dome of Protection
Alex looked over his orbs with a sense of satisfaction. Each one was special in their own ways and who knew what they would be like in the future. After allowing the windows fade away, Alex could tell their were differences to each of the orbs. Opal with its off-white color seemed to be trending towards a purer white color. Both Sapphire and Emerald looked to be slightly shinier than moments before. The real change came from Ruby though. The little orb glowed from its core, a soft flickering flame of light sat directly in its center.
“Oh wow, Flame Aura wasn’t kidding when it said you would permanently embody flames.” Alex said this and then got a bit of a surprise when Emerald floated closer to him and began emitting its own soft green glow. The glow that came off his little orb felt amazing to Alex. His aching mind and body felt lighter and more relaxed almost immediately. The wounds on his arms and smaller cuts and bruises all over his body began to feel less painful.
“Oh my god… That’s fucking amazing. Thank you…” Alex said as he laid his head against the tree and watched as Emerald floated to the top of his head then down his body and to his feet before repeating the movements. The Orbs of Leporids responded to his will just as easily as his new Ingram’s Orbs did but now they responded without needing input from Alex. It seemed like if he was hurt, Emerald would simply proceed to heal him. He let himself relax for a while longer before deciding he needed to press on.
He had each of the other orbs float around the small clearing they were in and willed each of them to activate their skills or abilities to test their effects. He had Opal cast Dome of Protection and watched as the ground rushed upward in a half sphere a few feet away from him. Alex watched from where he lounged and was very impressed by the speed at which the dome appeared. He decided to struggle to his feet in order to walk around the dome. As he circled the small structure, he realized that it had no opening for him to crawl inside.
“Oh, I thought it’d have an opening like an igloo.” Alex had Opal dispel the dome and it crumbled to the ground. He thought it may just return to the ground in reverse and leave no trace that it had ever been there but that wasn’t the case. After smoothing a space out wide enough for the spell to be cast again he carefully sat down. Opal flew above Alex and attempted to cast Dome of Protection once more. Unfortunately, it seemed there was a cooldown as Opal just vibrated for a moment and continued to hover in place. Alex felt a bit foolish as he sat on the mushy damp soil clearing he had made.
“Whelp, guess we’ll have to try that out later. Hmm…” Alex continued to sit in his spot while he thought about the ability and its cooldown. Emerald continued to float around Alex, giving off the warm glow of its Wound Care Aura. Alex was continuing to feel better and better as he watched V.V. float around trees and practice with the new orb a bit longer before deciding to move onto another test.
Without having to say anything again, his orbs moved into action. Sapphire floated in front of Alex and he felt a new wave of energy wash over him. He knew that his attack and defense stats must have been boosted but he wasn’t ready to start swinging his fists at anything just yet.
“V.V.” Alex said to his companion.
“Yes Alex?” V.V. recalled her Combat Orblet and floating over to Alex.
“Will you have your Orblet fly into the tree I was sitting against to see how much damage it does and then once more after I have Sapphire boost it with attack and defense?”
“Sure. Who’s Sapphire?”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. This one’s Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Opal.” Alex said as he pointed to each of the new orbs in turn.
“Interesting. Not overly creative but passable names, I suppose.” V.V. said as she eyed each of the orbs as Alex named them.
“I’ll never say I’m the best at naming anything but I think they fit pretty well.”
“Indeed.”
V.V. floated towards the tree Alex had designated and had the little orb fly directly into the trunk. There was a solid thwunking noise as the Orblet crashed into the bark. Once it began to return to V.V.’s side, Alex could see a circular indentation in the trees bark. It was easily as strong as a pellet gun, if not stronger. After the Orblet had returned to V.V.s side, Alex had Sapphire cast both Attack and Defense on it. Unlike Dome of Protection, it looked like Sapphire could cast it’s skills at least once more before it incurred any cooldowns. Alex began to think he’d really need to work out how all the cooldowns and costs worked before focusing back on the Orblet as V.V. launched it at the tree once more.
SLAM *crack*
Alex watched the marble practically disappear inside the trunk of the tree. He thought for a moment that the attack had been so powerful that the tree was about to fall over. A moment later, a rather thick five foot long branch speared into the ground a few feet from Alex. He flinched away from the limb and decided all future tests on trees should be done when he was a bit further away.
“Woah. Close one. That was really strong V.V. Do you think that doubled the attack power?”
“It increased the physical attack of the Combat Orblet by approximately thirty percent.”
“That’s still pretty damn strong for an early boost effect. Did the Orblet take any damage?”
“Only cosmetic damage seems to have been incurred. If Sapphire had cast the ability on me instead of the Combat Orblet, the effects would most likely have been weaker. If Sapphire had cast the effect on one of the other orbs I imagine the effect would be about a twenty-five percent increase.”
“So it will be stronger on weaker targets and weaker on stronger targets. Twenty-five percent is probably the average then, gotcha. Do you think the same percentages would apply to defense as well?”
“Most probably. The skills are similar in nature and from the same family.”
“Family?”
“Every skill, ability, spell, etcetera, can be categorized into different groups, families, categories and so on. These two skills, Boost Attack and Boost Defense, are both Orb Specific skills. They may operate the same way as a standard Users Boost Attack or Defense skill but they aren’t actually the same. The full name to those abilities is something more along the lines of 'Orb Enhancement: Boost Attack' and not just 'Boost Attack.' They were created by the System to accommodate your Class.” V.V. went onto one of their long descriptions that made Alex feel a bit more comfortable. V.V. had been acting so differently that he’d thought the old V.V. may have disappeared but they were still the same but with added exuberance as far as he was concerned.
“To answer your question more easily, we can categorize these skills into the Boost Family and most Boost Skills will usually have similar mana consumption, cast speed, effect duration, and cooldowns. This also applies to what each effect does. If you have Boost Speed then I’d imagine it would boost your speed by approximately twenty-five percent if you’re of a similar power level to Sapphire or whoever ends up with the skill.” V.V. continued and Alex was more than happy to listen to V.V. explain the entirety of the System to him but he knew he couldn’t keep sitting there and not finding suitable shelter and food soon.
“V.V, how long has it been since I summoned you?” Alex asked, suddenly realizing that he had no idea how long it had been since all the crazy things around him had started. He knew that it had been at least one day but maybe two by this point. He was hungry and extremely thirsty as well but his wounds and desperate fighting had put those needs to the side in favor of just surviving a bit longer. Now that Emerald was constantly using its Aura to tend to Alex, he was starting to really feel the hunger pangs in full swing.
“Hmm… Assuming I was only unconscious for a few minutes and not a full day; my best estimate would be about twenty-nine hours.”
“Ok. I’m not as far off as I thought I’d be. With no watch I’m really turned around. I also felt like it didn’t get so dark that we couldn’t continue hunting down all those squirrels.” Alex said, relaxing a bit more now that he knew he hadn’t somehow missed multiple days or only been running around for a few hours.
“It hasn’t been dark again since you summoned me. The light reflecting off the other planet and accompanying moons are the primary reason for this. When does the other planet usually set? It’s traveled almost across the sky at this point, so I’d imagine it will be dark in another five hours or so.” V.V. said this in her formerly usual nonchalant tone as she looked towards the sky. After Alex did not respond, she turned to view him and discovered him staring at her like he’d seen a ghost. His features were extremely pale to the point of being similar in color to Opal.
“Alex?” V.V. asked, concern in her voice.
Alex sat, staring towards V.V. but he wasn’t really looking at his companion. He was starting into nothingness as his mind tried to come to grips with what V.V. was saying. Yes, he understood that crazy things were happening. The world was ending and magical things were happening left and right but there was just something so unreasonable about there being a whole other planet floating in the sky that was turning his brain inside out. Not to mention the three moons that were not Earth’s Moon that he could also see when he looked up. He’d made it almost thirty hours apparently before he had to face the music. Monsters and magic were acceptable, but this was just too much for some reason.
“Alex, if you don’t say anything I’m going to bonk you, hard.” V.V. began to float towards Alex and the jeweled orbs began their defensive circling in response to V.V.s threat. Alex wasn’t catatonic; he could hear V.V. and he knew he was overreacting. Everything that was happening was insane and he was coping pretty damn well as far as he was concerned. The Earth orbiting another planet or another planet orbiting Earth or… whatever!
“…Sorry. Sorry, V.V. That p-planet… isn’t normally up there. Nor the moons… At least, not so many…” Alex managed to get the words out. He’d admitted out loud that there was in fact another planet extremely close to Earth. So close that he could make out continents on the other worlds surface. The planet had to be closer to earth than Earth’s own Moon. It just wasn’t possible and that’s where he felt the issue was coming from. The ground shooting in the air thousands of feet, sure. Animals transformed into monsters, sure. A ‘System’ appearing in front of his eyes that allows him to increase his abilities, sure. All things that science could probably explain away in some form. Chemicals that turn innocent squirrels into devil beasts. Microchip implants in the brain that make you see a ‘System’ in your vision that’s indistinguishable from reality makes sense. Even getting stronger through some unknown gas that’s spread all over the planet could maybe be plausible. Floating miles in the air could be explained… somehow. But a whole other planet? Projectors… Maybe projectors could do something like that… sure.
“Do.. you think that’s a real planet?” Alex asked, hoping V.V. could help by saying it’s all just an illusion or something.
“Hmm? Oh, that’s definitely a real planet. The gravitational forces alone are destabilizing your world. Your planet is probably doing something similar to it though. It’s an interesting tug-o-war.”
“Oh…” Alex said and felt darkness surround his vision for probably the hundredth time at this point.
Alex came to yet again to find Emerald floating directly above his head. It was close enough that he had to go cross-eyed to focus on the little orb. The first thing he felt after waking was a clawing pang of hunger come from within him. He slowly put one arm under himself and rolled to his side to see a pile of what looked like meat and a random assortment of fruit.
“…Ugg. How… long was I out this time?” Alex croaked out with his extremely parched throat.
“Roughly twenty minutes. We’ve procured sustenance for you. I cannot be certain that the fruit is poisonous or not but with Sapphire’s ability active, you should be fine. The meat is squirrel and Ruby cooked it… thoroughly.”
He looked to the burnt meat and more than likely, poisonous berries and couldn’t imagine what he’d be doing without V.V. and the others by his side.
“Thank you.” Alex said, with something almost resembling a tear beading up in his eye.