Alex watched V.V. for a while as they continued to add and remove different substances that he couldn’t really make out in the dim light. He was wondering if he should say something else about V.V. not telling him about the potential skills and abilities that his Class could offer him but decided that it really didn’t matter. V.V. would tell him what he needed to know before it was too late, hopefully. He looked back to the next category on his list, which was Physical. After opening it, he wasn’t surprised to see that every single skill that was available once again had the word Basic in front of them. The skills with their prices were: Boost Defense 3000, Boost Attack 3000, Boost Speed 3000, Boost Strength 3000, Dark Vision 2000, Bright Vision 2000, Far Vision 4500, Near Vision 4500, and Enhance Senses 7500.
“I’m still confused by the pricing on some of these skills and what even is Bright Vision?”
Bright Vision: Allows the User to see in extremely bright environments more easily. Lasts 5 minutes. Can be cast on User designated targets.
“Well, I guess that answers that. I didn’t even intend for the description to pop up, but I’ll take it.” Alex said, confused but also glad that he didn’t have to fight with the System to get a description for something this time.
“I wonder what stops you from just buying a skill in the middle of combat whenever the need arrives?” Alex said this mostly to himself but although V.V. was still messing with their makeshift poisons, they responded.
“You cannot immediately use something you’ve bought from the shop that you have to learn. There is a short period of time in which you’ll have to absorb the knowledge.”
“Ah, makes sense.” He looked over the Physical Skills a bit more but either knew or had a good idea of what the rest did. He began to wonder why so many of the skills said Basic though. Why did it say Basic Boost Attack for him, but Sapphire seemed to have the same skill but without the ‘Basic’ part in front? He pulled up Sapphire’s stats, selected Boost Attack and read over the description for it and did the same for Basic Boost Attack from the shop.
Boost Attack: Target self or other for a minor boost to attack. Attack Increase: 5 Range: 5ft Duration: 5 minutes.
Basic Boost Attack: Target self or other for a minor boost to attack. Attack Increase: 5 Range: 5ft Duration: 5 minutes.
“…I don’t get the difference?” Alex quietly said to himself but again V.V, overheard him.
“What difference?” V.V. asked.
“The difference between Sapphires Boost Attack and the Basic Boost Attack that I can buy.”
“Ah, Sapphires ‘Boost Attack’ will not transform or evolve into anything more than what it already is. It will get stronger as specified by the number beside it, but it will always be ‘Boost Attack.’ The skills you’re able to buy can evolve at a certain point. They will go from Basic to Advanced eventually. After that, it can transform even further.”
“Oh! Gotcha. I’m familiar with the concept but didn’t think there was a difference between what I could buy and what the Orb’s can learn.”
“The Orb’s may be able to learn evolvable skills eventually, but the ones they have now, cannot.”
“Thanks. I understand this a bit more now. What are the tiers for skills, abilities and what-not?”
“Inferior, Lesser, Basic, Advanced, Greater, Superior, Esteemed, Illustrious, and Renowned.”
“Hmm… I was really expecting some Legendary or Godly items.”
“Ah. You’re referring to a higher tier system. The categories I’ve just provided are all things that can be found in the Mortal World…” V.V. said this and before she could say more, Alex cut her off.
“…What the hell does that mean? Is there an Immortal World or something? I swear, this whole thing gets crazier by the minute…”
“You’re not too far off with your guess. There are other worlds that are home to beings that most ‘lesser’ lifeforms would call gods. It would not be completely incorrect to call the worlds they hail from as Immortal.”
“This is just… bonkers… ridiculous…” Alex closed his eyes, rested his head against his tiny cave wall and just breathed for a while. After he felt he had brought his spiraling mind back to a somewhat calm state, he asked V.V. the first thing that came to mind.
“So, they have Legendary stuff?”
“You would refer to them from least to greatest as: Mortal, Fabled, Exalted, Legendary, Mythical, and Supreme. Supreme grade items are often referred to as God tier, but the System doesn’t consider them as such. You won’t ever see Mortal or higher tier items in a world like this because there isn’t enough Mana to support it. It would start to disintegrate like your truck but also destroy everything around it as well.”
“So, there is nothing higher than Supreme?”
“Not that I am aware of.”
“Ok.” That’s all Alex could really say. There was already enough crazy happening around him to focus on without having to contemplate on the existence of higher realms where literal gods resided. His mother would not be happy to hear that there was even a single being that would conflict with her particular deity, let alone whole worlds of them. His mind started to slip into a direction that he’d firmly kept closed off since he’d been stranded on a literal floating island, during an apocalypse, hundreds of miles away from any other living human being… He thought of what could possibly be happening so many miles below him and…
Slap!
V.V. and the Orbs all froze as Alex abruptly slapped himself across the face. They did not so much as bob up and down but remained perfectly motionless in their floating state. A second passed, and then another…
“Alex?” V.V. asked with concern clearly evident in the small companion’s voice.
“…Sorry. Hmmhm. Sorry, V.V. My mind was trying to mess me up for a second and I had to get myself to focus. I’m fine.” Alex said with a somewhat shaky voice.
“Do you wish to discuss…” V.V. started to say, but once more, Alex cut her off.
“No! No, I’m fine. My mind just starts to wander when I really need to focus sometimes. I have all these stats and I feel like they should really help me… control myself… or something.”
“Which stat do you believe should help you with what issue, Alex?”
“My mind going places it doesn’t need to go… Maybe Intelligence or Wisdom… Willpower, possibly.”
“Intelligence affects how much knowledge you can take in and Wisdom affects how well you can utilize that knowledge. Willpower isn’t as straightforward as those two attributes though. You could argue that you’ve held yourself together remarkably well, given the circumstances. Some of that could possibly be attributed to Willpower.” V.V. said, putting a slight emphasis on the word, attributed.
“…Did you just make a pun?” Alex asked V.V, his eyebrow raising up, displaying a tiny bit of shock.
“Indeed. I am very good at puns.”
snort
Alex let out a quick laugh and realized he’d been brought out of his spiraling mental state. He’d said he was fine but so many unhelpful, distressing thoughts wanted to pummel him into a state of paralysis. Although he wasn’t truly fine; he was Ok enough to push his mind to thoughts that would hopefully help him live a bit longer.
“If I try to go through every category in the shop, I’m never going to get anything done. Not to mention that I desperately need to sleep.”
“Would you like me to give you a highlighted list of what I think is useful to you at this moment?”
“…You can do that?”
“Of course.”
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Sigh
“Please… Give me your suggestions.”
V.V. stored the poisonous materials away and floated over to Alex. “I suggest that you save your credits for material purchases. Utilize the Tokens that you’ve acquired from the System to purchase more powerful skills that will be much harder to come by or even impossible to acquire from the Credit Store. I will display several things that will be beneficial in the days to come.”
Token Store: T3 Skills: Magic
C-Grade Token: Advanced Mana Channeling
C-Grade Token: Advanced Mana Shield
Token Store: T3 Skills: Psychic
C-Grade Token: Advanced Remote Viewing
B-Grade Token: Greater Telekinesis
Token Store: T3 Skills: Combat
C-Grade Token: Advanced Melee (Tanzanine)
C-Grade Token: Advanced Swordsmanship (Tanzanine)
Token Store: T3 Abilities: Physical
A-Grade Token: Natural Stamina Body
A-Grade Token: Natural Regenerative Body
Token Store: T3 Abilities: Magic
C-Grade Token: Advanced Storage
C-Grade Token: Advanced Identify
C-Grade Token: Advanced Scan
Token Store: T3 Spells: Movement
C-Grade Token: Advanced Blink
B-Grade Token: Greater Return
A-Grade Token: Superior Warp
Token Store: T3 Spells: Defense
B-Grade Token: Greater Barrier
Token Store: T3 Spells: Offense
B-Grade Token: Greater Summon Sphere
“These are the skills, abilities and spells I believe would be most useful to start off with. There are other things that I would like to recommend but I would like to know if you have any questions before I continue.”
“Wow, uh, that’s a lot of stuff. Let me take it all in.” Alex said and began to go through each abilities descriptions to understand what V.V. was proposing for him.
“Ok. There’s a lot I have questions about. Mana Channeling says that it allows me to ‘move Mana to my will’ and what’s a Tanzanine… for starters…”
“Mana Channeling will more easily allow for movement of Mana through your body and will also allow forming Mana outside of your body into physical shapes far more easily. You are pronouncing Tanzanine incorrectly as well. You are saying ‘Tan zuh nine’ but it is more properly pronounced ‘Tan zah neen.’ They are a race of people whose grand-masters are some of the most lauded practitioners of physical combat in the System Occupied Cosmos.”
“Ah… K. Um, what about Telekinesis? I thought you said I would get it from my class?”
“You will most likely get something either very similar or the same as Basic Telekinesis sooner or later. Acquiring Greater Telekinesis now will make that future skill obsolete but having the skill now is preferable. Hopefully, taking in a Telekinesis skill now will override what your class will have given you and force it to provide something else.”
“This is venturing back into me questioning whether the System is sentient or not. How will my class ‘know’ to give me something else. For that matter… how does anything know how to give me anything…” Alex could feel pressure building in his head and knew that a wave of annoying thoughts were going to come crashing down on him again. Just as the walls he had built up to keep out the ocean of inane, unhelpful in this moment questions from pouring in, his head started to feel cool and relaxed. Emerald had come over to hover around his head and fill him with their soothing aura.
Mmm
“…That’s fantastic…” Alex let his mind relax for a moment as V.V. began answering him.
“The System helps Users incorporate Mana into their bodies to the best of its ability. Mana would have become a part of you even without the System and you would have started to develop skills and abilities over time just from existing. Assuming Mana didn’t drive you insane, force your body to explode, or worse, implode… If you have Greater Telekinesis, the System will detect it and assuming your Class has Basic Telekinesis lined up to be imparted onto you, it may warp, delete, strengthen or possibly rearrange the skill. Then again, it may do nothing, and you’ll acquire something like Basic Telekinesis while still having Greater Telekinesis.”
“You’ve said Telekinesis so many times that I’m starting to hate the word… I think I get it though. The System is a little bit like AI but mostly like an algorithm or something. Ok… Stamina and Regenerative Body seem cool but also scary.”
“Acquiring Body Enhancement Abilities can be quite taxing, but I do highly recommend them both. I would have suggested Mana Body as well, but you have something that’s arguably better and that I’ve not personally seen in the System shops before. Both your Mana Tolerance and Mana Absorption abilities are either very rare or possibly unique.”
“Oh, they don’t really sound unique.”
“What do you want them to say? Supreme Mana Gods Ultra Absorption?”
“You’re not very funny V.V.”
“I am in fact, hilarious.”
Sigh
“I’m glad you think that. So, will these Body Abilities hurt me? Alex said, slightly exhausted by V.V.'s pluckiness.
“There will be some pain and discomfort, but you will not be damaged, physically.”
“…So, mentally, I’m screwed.”
“That depends on how you feel about pain. If you find any amount of pleasure in it, this may be quite enjoyable for you.”
“…I don’t.”
“Well then, mental trauma is on the table.”
“You’re delightful…”
“I am fully aware of my shining personality, but it is nice to hear that you agree.”
“Sometimes, I’m positive you know exactly what I mean and other times… whatever… Identify and Scan both sound like solid choices but Storage?”
“Advanced Storage will work in tandem with the Systems provided storage and will in essence, expand on your already existing storage space.”
“Nice. Blink lets me teleport a short distance. Warp lets me teleport a long distance. Return takes me to a place I’ve been before. Why both Warp and Return?”
“Warp takes time to cast and will exhaust you much more than Return. Return is essential in situations where you feel that you’re in critical danger. It activates much faster than Warp even when Warp is at higher tiers.”
“The idea of moving things with my mind and actual teleportation still seem impossible to me…”
“Within the hour you should be able to test Telekinesis at the very least, if you decide to acquire that skill of course.”
“Oh, I’m definitely getting everything you suggest. Even the painful ones… Do I really need both Mana Shield and Barrier?”
“The description for the skill and spell may sound similar but they are much different. Advanced Mana Shield covers your body with Mana and will slowly drain your Mana away over time. The skill will move with you like a second skin while Greater Barrier is stationary and does not draw on more Mana once you’ve cast it. You may inject more Mana to maintain, expand or empower it, however.”
“The descriptions really need an overhaul. The last question I have is about Greater Summon Sphere. It states that I will be calling a Sphere from another realm to fight on my behalf. Is that not the same thing as your Combat Orblet?”
“It seems to be similar in nature. I selected it because I’m curious if your Class will affect it or if it operates on a separate system of rules. Regardless, it should still be an effective weapon for your arsenal.”
“I know you’re a sentient being and not like this Sphere I’ll be summoning but have you ever seen one in action? Are they powerful? If it’s from another ‘realm’ does that mean it’s alive too?”
“I’ve never seen it in the shop before now. I am not disinterested in beings that share a similar appearance as my own and have perused the shop for similar creatures before. I do not believe this Sphere will be sentient, however. Summoned creatures are almost always what you would consider robotic. They have a time limit on how long they can remain in this world before dispersing back to where they came from. Permanent summons, like myself, are far more likely to have at least some level of intelligence.”
“Gotcha. So, it’s probably going to be more like these guys.” Alex waved a hand in the direction of his Orbs that had returned to patrolling the small enclosure.
“Hmm… Your Orbs are tied to you quite strongly so I doubt it will be all that similar to them. They move to your bidding just as easily as you would move your arms or blink your eyes. I imagine you’ll have to give the Sphere verbal commands at the very least.”
“Right. So should I go ahead and purchase all these things?”
“Ah, would you like to learn them now or hear the next portion of my suggested buys?”
“How about I buy them now and while I’m moving rocks around the room with my mind powers, you can tell me all the other stuff I should get.”
“That seems horribly inefficient… Ah, I’m detecting…” V.V. started to say but Alex was already starting to use his tokens to acquire the skills that she had suggested.
Only a moment had passed after Alex bought the first thing on his list, Advanced Mana Channeling. Nothing seemed to be wrong, so he went to purchase Advanced Mana Shield when it happened. Pain shot through his mind like a hot poker through butter. He wanted to scream but V.V. used their body to cover Alex’s mouth before his scream could fully escape him.
“Alex!” V.V. hissed, strange coming from her robotic voice, made even stranger as it came from her precarious position halfway inside her companion’s mouth. “You cannot make overly loud noises at the moment. I’m detecting three large creatures nearby. I see you’ve acquired a skill and it’s somewhat painful, but you must not make any loud sounds.”
Tears were already pouring down Alex’s face from the ridiculous amount of pain the skill had caused him, but it was already fading. He reached up and plucked V.V. from his mouth. He had a flash of bobbing for apples cross his mind before he pushed the thought away and focused on his companion.
“…Can you tell what kind of monsters they are?” Alex said, pain still lingering in his head.
“As I am underground, my Map Skill is not as effective and can only tell that the beings are roughly the size of the hare we faced before.”
“Shit… Three of those things. No thanks…”
“While sharing the size, they are moving in a much steadier fashion than the hare. I would say they move more like dogs than hares.”
The thought of asking V.V. how they knew what a dog was crossed his mind right as he heard it.
Brraaaawgggrrrrr!!!
A huge roar came from above them and Alex felt like the beast was right on top of him. It dwarfed any sound he had heard so far from any of the other creatures they’d come across. It was, in fact, the most blood chilling sound he’d ever heard in his short, far too short life. He quite literally was shaking in his boots as he made himself as small as possible against the wall. He had subconsciously called his Orbs to him, Emerald and Sapphire hovered over his left shoulder, while Ruby and Opal hovered over his right. V.V. hung casually in front of him, about halfway between him and the tiny ventilation hole.
“Oh my…” V.V. said, which in turn, freaked Alex out even more than he already was.
“…Wh…what… is it?” Alex said shakily.
“There’s an even larger creature that has appeared on the opposite side of the road. We appear to be in the middle of two opposing forces. This is not ideal.”
“No shit…”