Alex breathed deeply in and out several times to clear his mind of unhelpful thoughts and feelings. So many times, he’d been stopped from accomplishing more than one or two small things at a time. Now was the time to finally check off all the System’s boxes. The next step was to use his experience points to level his class as much as possible. Focusing on this one thing was all he needed to think about. The moment he made plans to do more than one thing at a time, everything seemed to slip away by the simplest distractions.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
“Ok. I can do this. Focus, dammit.” Alex spoke softly to himself, trying to focus his scattered mind on the current task at hand. Not for the first time, he wished that increased stats would help him from losing himself to errant thoughts. He felt himself start to slip again into unhelpful tangents, shook his head and forced himself to pull up his Class window.
Orb Caller: Class Options
Summon Level 1: 100/1000
Enhance Level 2: 1000/2500
Elements Level 1: 100/1000
Utility Level 2: 1000/2500
Experience: 3848
“Crap…” Alex looked at the four options available to him and immediately hit a wall. Should he spend his points on Enhance and Utility which wouldn’t leave him with enough for Summon or Elements. Or should he upgrade Enhance or Utility and both Summon and Elements. The seconds ticked by as Alex mulled over his choices. Tick, tick, tick, seconds turned into a minute and then two.
“Alex, if you don’t make a decision soon the Sun will have risen, and we’ll need to start moving.” V.V. broke into Alex’s thoughts just as he was about to start spiraling.
“…What if I make the wrong decision though? What if I should have taken Enhance instead of Utility or vice versa and my choice gets me killed? What if I should have been leveling Summoning all along and that’s what gets my face ripped off!? Or…” Alex started to slip into panic mode. He wished so badly to not have such stupidly debilitating mental breakdowns but wishing never did anything for him. He knew he didn’t have time for another detour from the urgent tasks at hand, but it didn’t matter. It never mattered what he wanted or needed when that horrible something grabbed his mind. Anxiety and Panic were constant companions before the world changed and they never left him even in this new reality. Knowing he had no time for himself to devolve into a useless mess was only making it worse. He…
“Alex!” V.V. said in almost a shout. It had the desired effect of getting Alex’s attention focused on her.
“Calm your mind, you’re fine. We’re here and you have time to make your choices. There is no wrong choice as you’ll acquire everything after some time has passed. No single level in anything will be the decision between life and death.” V.V. said this to Alex, knowing fully that what she was saying wasn’t completely true. There were times when a different decision on something seemingly small could save you from a desperate situation. She didn’t feel that saying that was the most helpful thing in the moment, however. She’d save that knowledge for when Alex was in a less panicky state. While V.V. explained this to Alex, Emerald had taken up position above Alex’s head to bathe him in their Wound Care and Focus Aura’s.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
“…I’m broken inside, V.V. Even with all my new stats and this crazy world around me… I can’t seem to do what needs to be done…” Alex said, dropping his head to his chest.
“Nonsense. You’re not broken, Alex. You’ve got a few interesting quirks is all. If you were broken, the System would have fixed you when it upgraded your body. Your spiraling thoughts and emotions are just a part of you. That being said, there are several meditation techniques that exist that may help you control that interesting part of you a bit better. In hindsight, I should have added one or two of them to my recommendation list. In my defense though, I was going to mention them in part two of my recommendations, if you’d like me to commence part two, I’d be happy to oblige.”
“No, no. It’s Ok. I do want to hear it but I need to get this stuff done so we can move. I needed you distracting me and Emerald bombarding me with its aura to bring me out of my situation. Thank you.”
“No problem. Before you continue, I would recommend you choose Enhance and see what new skills you get before choosing your next step. Either way, you were going to pick one of the fifteen-hundred experience options.”
“…Thank you. Ok, yes, lets do that.” Alex said, feeling the strain of indecision loosen slightly.
Orb Caller: Class Options
Enhance Level 3: 2500/5000
Orb Skill: 1/1: Boost Defense: Target self or other for a minor boost to defense.
Defense Increase: 15
Range: 7ft
Duration: 7 minutes.
Orb Skill: 1/1: Boost Attack: Target self or other for a minor boost to defense.
Attack Increase: 15
Range: 7ft
Duration: 7 minutes.
Orb Skill: 1/1: Boost Speed: Target self or other for a minor boost to speed.
Speed Increase: 15
Range: 7ft
Duration: 7 minutes.
Orb Passive: 1/1: Focus Aura: A togglable aura that will slightly boost the focus of entities within its reach. Up to 2ft range.
Orb Passive: 0/1: Speed Aura: A togglable aura that will slightly boost the speed of entities within its reach. Up to 2ft range.
Orb Skill: 0/1: Boost Recovery: Target self or other for a minor boost to Health and Mana recovery.
Mana Recovery: 9mps (Mana per second)
Health Recovery: 9hps (Health per second)
Range: 7ft
Duration: 7 minutes.
“…Wow. Well, that looks useful. Another jump in all the other boost abilities as well. Nice. I’ll have Emerald take Speed Aura as usual, but I’ll have Opal take Boost Recovery this time.” He said it and both Emerald and Opal vibrated where they were for a few seconds before going back to their tasks.
“If you’re going to have Emerald acquire all Aura skills, I recommend learning a Mana restoring ability that you can cast on it as well as having Boost Recovery used on it as well. I’m surprised that it’s been able to maintain both Auras for so long as it is. Hmm…” V.V. said while having gone back to messing with her poisonous concoctions.
“Yeah, I was wondering about that. I don’t have a Mana bar or Health bar that’s visible, so I don’t really know how much I or you guys have available. I also don’t see where it says what the costs of the skills are.”
“It’s mostly a feel thing. You can have the System display Health or Mana estimates but I don’t really recommend it. It’s not a bad thing to take a look at what an ability should cost but there are many things that can affect the costs, ultimately. If you’re in a Mana dense area, the Mana needed will be less than if you were in a less dense area. Depending on your innate connection with Mana itself, costs will also vary. There are many other things that affect Health, Mana, Stamina and other energies within your body, skills, abilities, spells and the world around us. The System can calculate all these things for you, but you can do it better and faster by feeling the world around you if you practice enough. The System is also resistant to displaying pertinent information during critical moments for some reason. It could be because it was designed that way or maybe there’s interference with Mana while in combat. Who knows.” V.V. spoke a volume of information at Alex while never once turning in his direction.
“…Ok. Uh, I’m gonna level up Utility.” Alex said, while he heard everything V.V. said, he’d have to try to digest it later. If he started trying to decipher why this System could or couldn’t do certain things, he’d get lost in a whole different rabbit hole.
Orb Caller: Class Options
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Utility Level 3: 2500/5000
Orb Skill: 1/1: Dome of Protection: Can create a dome to protect the User from minor environmental elements. The dome can be constructed up to 7ft high and 7ft in diameter. Durability: 300
Defense: 9
Orb Passive: 1/1: Wound Care Aura: A togglable aura that will slowly clean wounds of both debris and disease. Up to 2ft range.
Orb Skill: 2/2: Summon Sustenance: After targeting a User, the orb can summon acceptable nutritious sustenance for that individual. Quality: 3
Orb Skill: 0/2: Summon Hearth Gem: After targeting a User, the orb can summon a stationary floating gemstone that will attune to the targeted Users needs. Regulates temperature of both User and surroundings. Restores Health, Stamina and Mana over time. Quality: 3
Orb Skill: 0/1: Transmute: Change the property of one thing into another.
Quality: 3
Range: 30ft
User Skill: 0/1: Scour: Removes non-harmful substances from target.
Quality: 3
Range:2ft
Duration: 2m
“These look useful. I’m still not entirely sure what Quality even does though.” Alex said while he looked over his new skills. He glanced at V.V. only to be met once more by the cueball floating right in front of his face.
“Gyaaa! V.V, seriously? What is it?”
“Transmute…” Was all the Alex’s little companion managed to say at first.
“Uh… Yeah, not exactly sure what it’s supposed to do.” Alex said, interrupting the silence.
“…It’s one of the most flexible abilities that exists. For it to show up as a Class skill of all things is astonishing…” V.V. said in an almost floaty, dreamlike voice.
“Uh, that’s… good? What does it do though?” Alex asked.
“…Hmm? Oh, yes, sorry. It does pretty much anything, really. Change the color of a wall, make birds bark like dogs, change grapes into cherries, turn your enemies’ eyes into cotton balls, etcetera.” V.V. said all this in a very manner-of-fact, nonchalant way. It wasn’t the first time V.V. had said something that Alex considered insane but eyeballs into cotton balls was on another level.
Second part starts here. I'll get rid of this line after a few days.
“Turn my enemies’ eyes into cotton balls!? What the hell?” Alex said with a slightly loud and shocked voice.
“Eventually. It can’t do something as interesting as that just yet. You’ll have to raise your Utility skill to find the limits of Transmutes abilities.”
“…Right. This shit just keeps getting wilder. So, what do you think it can do right now?”
“I’m not sure, have an Orb learn it and try to change some simple things around you.”
“Ok.” Alex said and looked over the new skills he could add to his Orbs. After looking them over once more, he decided to add Speed Aura to Emerald, Boost Recovery to Sapphire, Summon Hearth to Opal and Ruby and finally, Transmute to Opal as well. After making his decisions, his little Orb companions stopped their pacing through the small area and began to shake. Ruby seemed to be shaking the least, Emerald and Sapphire shook a bit more, but Opal was vibrating violently. So much vibration came off the little sphere that Alex started to become concerned that something was wrong. Just as he was about to reach out to Opal, it abruptly stopped shaking and started its pacing once more, as if nothing had happened.
“Wow… That was a little scary. I thought it was going to blow up or something from how fast it was vibrating.” Alex said, somewhat concerned.
“Hmm, blow up? That would be a very odd occurrence indeed. My bet would be that it would simply drop to the ground, devoid of energy before it ever exploded.” V.V. said, adding her two cents, as if they were discussing the shapes of clouds.
“…Can that actually happen?”
“No idea. I’m just saying it’s more likely than an explosion.”
“…” Alex had no words for his little companion. He looked at his Class skills again and added Scour to himself. He felt a tingling sensation run through his whole body for a few seconds and then it was over. He’d expected that he would also have a mini seizure when acquiring the skill but luckily that didn’t seem to be the case. Unlike Advanced Mana Channeling, there wasn’t any pain at all with this new skill. Pleasantly surprised, focused on using his first real skill since magic had entered his life.
Alex reached into the soft soil beside him, covered his hand with grime and pulled it back out again. He flipped his hand over a few times, thinking of the skill, Scour. V.V. had said that he didn’t need to speak out loud to interface with the System so shouldn’t he be able to activate his own skills without having to say them verbally? He spoke in his mind Scour, Scour, Activate Scour, but nothing happened. Asking V.V. how he was supposed to use his abilities wasn’t something he wanted to do just yet, but he knew he didn’t have much time to mess around. Just before he finally gave up and asked his companion, he thought, Clean. The dirt and mud that caked his hand started to sluff off in clumps and seemed to disintegrate from his skin once the larger parts had fallen away. He stared at his hand, confused as to why that had worked when saying the name hadn't.
“V.V, how do skills actually work? I tried to say Scour in my head over and over, but it only worked after I said ‘clean.’”
“Ah, you’ve finally used a skill. Congratulations. Essentially, you make things work by willing them to happen and I’m not referring to Willpower. I’m talking about your wants and needs. What do you want to happen and are you able to have that thing happen. If you didn’t have the skill Scour, looked at your hand and thought, ‘clean’, nothing would happen. Now, once you’re much stronger, this rule kind of goes out the window but we shouldn’t confuse things by going down that badger den.” V.V. explained.
“Badger den?” Alex hyper fixated on the most pointless part of what V.V. said.
“The trails one takes when attempting to discover new information that only becomes more convoluted as they learn more.”
“I think you meant to say a rabbit hole and I have no idea where you pulled badger den from…” Alex said, fully disregarding V.V.’s explanation of how his new power worked.
“Badger den, rabbit hole, same thing.” V.V. did her best attempt at an eye roll and went back to clinking her bottles of death together.
Alex looked at his companion for a few seconds and then pulled his mind back into focus. So, he could control skills that he had by willing them to work. It felt similar to but less responsive than his Orbs doing things as he wanted them to happen and not when he asked them to. So if wanted to be clean, would Scour simply activate or was there more to it. He pondered over the skill for only a few minutes but again, he was forced to shift his focus. He had too many things to do for him to sit around trying to figure out how best to clean his dirty clothes. Looking over his Orbs, he pulled up their info to get a measure of how their skills were being spread out.
Ingram’s Orb (Murky Red)
Name: Ruby
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link, Flame Aura 1
Skills: None
Spells: Summon Sustenance 1, Summon Hearth 1
Ingram’s Orb (Dark Green)
Name: Emerald
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link, Wound Care Aura 1, Focus Aura 1, Speed Aura 1
Skills: Sight Beyond 1
Spells: None
Ingram’s Orb (Light Blue)
Name: Sapphire
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link
Skills: Dark Vision 1, Boost Attack 1, Boost Defense 1, Boost Speed 1, Boost Recovery 1
Spells: None
Ingram’s Orb (Off-White)
Name: Opal
Age: 0
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Link, Gaze Upon Prey 1
Skills: Transmute 1
Spells: Dome of Protection 1, Summon Sustenance 1, Summon Hearth 1
Alex looked over his Orbs and felt that they were coming along nicely. He was focusing Aura’s on Emerald and Boost’s on Sapphire so that he could keep them relatively close to him and then possibly have Opal and Ruby be mid to long range fighters. Ruby was falling behind on number of abilities, but he’d add some useful things to his little flame marble soon enough. As he scanned over the new additions, he noticed that everything that had the number ‘1’ beside the name had still not increased. He knew that the skills were getting stronger every time he leveled up his Class in the respective categories so why weren’t the numbers going up in his Orbs status pages.
“V.V, I’ve leveled up my class in both Utility and Enhance twice but my Orbs still show level 1 beside the corresponding skills. Is there a bug or something?” Alex asked, confused as to why the skills weren’t reflecting the appropriate levels.
“Hmm? Ah, your Class levels and your skill levels are separate. The Class getting stronger simply makes the base of that skill stronger. To level the skills themselves, you simply need to use them enough. Once enough experience has accumulated in a spell, skill or ability, it will naturally level.”
“Oh, I see. That’s good then; the skills will get stronger on two different fronts.”
“Indeed.” V.V. bobbed up and down a bit to symbolize a head nod, at least that’s what Alex thought she was doing.
Alex knew that he needed to press on with other things awaiting his attention in his status but he wanted to try out Transmute at least once or three times. Opal came to hover in front of him as he looked around to find something to attempt the new skill on. Mud, dirt, rocks and grass were his only obvious options. At his need for more light, Ruby also came to hover nearby. With more light he noticed his discarded clothing from earlier. Deciding to try something V.V. had said was possible, he got the idea to change the color of his blue jeans to red jeans. At the thought Opal was already on the move. The Orb floated above the crumpled clothing and began to glow. It took longer than Alex thought it would to be honest. Thirty seconds had passed before Opal started to dim and the jeans had very clearly changed color. Now they were tattered and muddy red jeans instead of the traditional blue.
“This is great!” Alex said, a bit of chipper attitude wiggling its way back into his voice.
“Color is the most basic thing you could possibly do, Alex.” V.V. said, a slight admonition present in her voice but Alex ignored it.
“That was just a test. I want to try so many other things.”
“Perhaps when we have more time?”
“…Ah, yeah. Damn… I just want to be in a safe spot to play with magic…” Alex said, knowing he didn’t have the time to mess around but still desperately wanting to. He wanted to let his mind run off in all sorts of fantastic directions. Green jeans next time maybe, possibly even Yellow? A smirk started to creep onto his face, but it fell away as he dug his nails into his leg to force focus back to the front of his mind.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
Alex was happy with the new additions to his arsenal and although he really wanted to play around more, he decided it was time to move onto the next thing in his string of never-ending list of to-dos.