If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Pre-Fall Scientist

The town of Cheat was heavily fortified. The tallest walls Johanna had ever seen were made of what looked like alternating concrete and stone masonry, even on the lake on which it was located. All the local farm complexes they’d seen while traveling there were surrounded by massive palisades… some of which had obvious traces of recent repairs.

Cheat was the last town they would pass through. East of it began the recognized East Coast Mana zone. From now on, it would be all wilderness and ruins… and of course, Changed predators. The big reason they went through there was that, at least, there was a reputedly semi-intact Ancient road leading eastward.

Johanna learned quickly it had a nickname: “Beast Alley”.

“That’s usually where you get random Changed beasts coming in,” she got told. “Town keeps guards stationed east, watching it. When they spot beasts, they either dispatch it if it’s just one that seems okay to engage or run away to warn the town if it’s a large migration. Back in my grandpa’s day, some tough guys thought they could tackle one Aquila, and the only survivor was badly burned.”

They wanted to refill their food stocks and found the prices surprisingly high. At least until Peter, sneaking behind the backs of one of the two large stores in the town learned the exact reason.

“Since they know we’re going eastward, they see no reason not to gouge the maximum from us. We’re mad or too stupid, we’re not going to live long, or we won’t ever come back once we run away. Why not get as much money they can while we still have money in our pockets,” he summarized.

“Why am I not surprised,” Miles said. “Notice there were no price lists on display, although it’s normally done everywhere in Independence? I bet they took those down as soon as they learned about us.”

“I still would like to get a week of additional food,” Johanna replied.

“Let me negotiate for it,” Ulrich said, and he went back inside the store.

Rather than use the smallish inn that the town had, the expedition had opted for a camp, just inside the town walls, with the usual cook working its everyday miracles. One of them was a bit more of a miracle, as he worked Frostbite into making something rather more wonderful than the usual dried fruit desserts.

Ice cream. The dessert was not that uncommon in Johanna’s home State, although it was still horribly expensive in summer, owning to requiring deep ice rooms for storage. The Central States like Independence had more problems getting the ice. As Professor Gomez said, some of the modern fluid physics did preclude the methods that the Ancients used to freeze things.

But with a Water Shaper cook? Frozen recipes were trivial.

“Mind you, it takes too long for this on the road, and you need cream anyway. So, enjoy while it lasts. Thankfully, I had a book of recipes, so I knew I could do it. But I’m not spending 30 minutes making this every day.”

As for her contributions, she held off. It had taken her almost a week and a half of experiments to find that she had indeed a new Talent, as Laura had guessed. She could project flame now, in the form of a floating globe of flames. She was still surprised by how many of her Talents could be used in both combat and some sort of utility.

Of course, since they were staying within the town, she had not projected her “floating lantern”, as she’d called it at one point. Talents like using Frostbite for ice cream or her flame hand to cook were discreet enough that you could use it anywhere. But a floating ball of fire to light the camp in the evening? That was an entirely different thing. Better keep it for when they were out on the road, or in the coming mana zone. Once set up, it didn’t take any effort or concentration to keep up, as it did not move at all once projected.

One day, she knew, this might not be surprising. People would notice and then ignore it, instead of wondering what insanely awesome sorcerer was passing through. But until that day… she wanted them to keep a smaller profile.

“Got the packages at the town hall, where the post office is,” Gomez told Johanna.

“Which packages?”

“I had the Academy send me everything they have on Washington and your Library. I wasn’t sure it would get to New Sandusky in time, so I got them to send it here. I implied lots of books for Estrella, after all. I do wonder if she’s going to make the link. I want to see her face if I can find more Cambridge Press stuff,” he said smiling.

“Myself, I compared our maps with the local ones for accuracy,” Peter said. “They say it’s all good to within thirty miles east, but nobody’s gotten further in more than two decades. The Ancient road is not entirely gone, but it’s more of a question of finding its remnants rather than simply following it. Anything is probably a matter of beasts still using it as a path.”

“As long as the two wagons make it, that’s good. Worst case? We have two Fire Shapers to clear the way,” Johanna replied.

“As long as you don’t both burn the entire forest,” he laughed.

The guard tower marked the limit of modern civilization. Beyond that point, there was nothing until the Atlantic. Johanna, when studying her target’s Ancient and modern history, had learned that more than a few ships had navigated the east coast and that no sign of human occupation was seen from the coast. A few brave souls had landed over the decades, but no one had seen any person, at least before spotting huge Changed beasts and running away.

Given the number of people that were supposed to have died during the decade following the Fall, it was not hard to guess no one had survived. And their expedition was going to make history, in more ways than one.

For the moment, their path was an easy one. Large tracts of Ancient pavement were still around, with plants poking around here and there. The oxen teams had no problem at all on that easy way.

The three guards stationed at the tower couldn’t believe their eyes. She imagined how astounded they would have been if they knew why the expedition was so confident of their chances.

The expedition made a few miles out before camping for the day, the top of the watchtower still visible far in the distance.

“I’ve been working on models. Of course, any real model needs to be checked with practical experiments based on predictions, but that’s the part that will always be complicated with Talents,” Gomez said. “Even if you shower us with possibilities.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“So?” Johanna asked.

“Your earning-spending theory is a sound one. But it does not account for everything. Notably, Mrs. Veldhuis’s last Talent.”

“She needed a Dexterity parchment first, you mean.”

“Mathematically speaking, if it was a matter of spending some form of accumulated energy to pay for the various parts of a parchment, then it wouldn’t make sense she could spend for a single Dexterity, but not for Dexterity plus whatever it was – Popping Rocks? – yet once she’d used it, the combo would then become available. Which is why I have two different models instead.”

“Which ones?” she asked, fascinated by the researcher’s analysis.

“Intermediate pools of sorts. Mrs. Veldhuis needed two of Dexterity whatever since a single one did not work. So, either she needed to spend that Dexterity to obtain Popping Rocks, or she need a minimum of accumulated Dexterity to qualify for it. I don’t know which, not yet.”

“That sounds plausible. Both, I mean.”

“There are four potential parts in your parchments, but they don’t all have to follow the same rules.”

“Level, qualities, specializations, and Talents, you mean. Well, it looks like both Level and qualities draw on the same sort of currency.”

“Energy. That’s probably a better term.”

“Even if Talents are something that reflects Ancients?” she countered.

“Whatever. So yes, if spending for a Level locks you out of doing the same for one quality, it must draw from the same stores as those.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“Which leaves us with the specialization and Talents,” Gomez said.

“If we need qualities for a Talent, maybe Level is for specializations? Jackson got a Level with Fire Shaper to jump up in power… Hmm, no. We have at least three persons who got their specialization that way, then a Level with just a Talent.”

“Which means that you have both Level and quality on one side, and possibly both specialization and Talent on the other,” Gomez said, taking a few notes.

“It’s a bit weird,” she acknowledged.

“There is probably a logic underpinning it, and once you find it, it becomes obvious. That’s often the case in science. Find the right model, and everything falls in place. You can even explain it to a student.”

“It must not be easy.”

“No, Mrs. Milton. That’s what makes a scientist famous – finding a simple model no one suspected was there. In modern times, there might not be many simple models, but that doesn’t mean we stop looking.”

“Well, that one’s complex.”

“And that’s why the more people we have to track what happens, the more chances we have to spot the basis of whatever rules Talents. Notably diverse people.”

“Well, I originally thought you needed additional Levels to go over three Talents. But Miles and Ulrich proved me wrong anyway.”

“Why?”

“Miles needed only one Level and got seven Talents total. Ulrich got two, yet only six Talents.”

“And?”

Johanna frowned.

“Not everyone needs Levels to get Talents?” she said.

“Well, people don’t absolutely need parchments to get Talents, and if specialization is a separate thing, yet needed to get better use of Talents, then they don’t need a parchment to jump from adept to sorcerer or specialist. So why would people need them to gain Levels or Dexterity or Authority or anything else related.”

Johanna suddenly felt like she should facepalm.

“I sometimes get that look from my students,” Gomez laughed. “Although usually they were supposed to know better before I point incorrect assumptions. Here, we all are guessing still.”

“It’s probably easier to get than Talents if almost everyone has them,” she realized. “That explains it. Why Levels seemed so inconsistent. Makes sense if Miles had two more than his friend already…” she trailed, stopping mid-sentence.

“I realize something. Let me ask him…”

“Who?” Gomez asked.

“You’re right. I didn’t check immediately, but Jackson definitively increased slightly in power after he used that Fire Shaper parchment,” the Guardian with Gauge Stamina said.

The professor was fascinated.

“So, you get that feeling of a power scale from every person.”

“And Changed beasts too.”

“And how many expedition members have that same feeling now as that Fire Shaper? Do they have more Talents?”

“Six people? I think. My wife has four too and she gives off the same power as Jackson. Which she already had after getting that Level and Quick Battler parchment. The others have five, yes.”

“So, people with that same feeling have four or five Talents? Nobody with six?”

“No, Ulrich… or well, the two high Exemplars are all more powerful than any of the ones with five. The people with five Talents seem to be in two slightly different categories, a smaller and a bigger one. And, well, actually, you belong in the upper one.”

Ernesto Gomez laughed at that.

“I imagine it means I might qualify for five Talents already. And maybe more, with additional Levels. Given that I can use that one.”

“We’ve been keeping track for us, by the way. The parchments for Agility and Perception started lighting again after we returned from Grand Rapids, and Laura can activate Dexterity again. Both Tom and Peter can still use all six but not Level.”

“And they are slightly under you, according to that Gauge Stamina.”

Before long, Gomez had everyone at camp lined to record which parchments they could light. The results were mixed, to say the least.

Almost everyone could light all six qualities without activating Level. The only exceptions to that Level limit were Gomez himself, the three non-Talented recruits… and Kartmann the minotaur Duelist.

“Uh?”

“You got a basic set, not a customized one,” Johanna reminded him. “You probably could have gotten a second Level back then, if there had been one on those parchments. The only one with any was the first.”

“Would it allow me to get that sixth Talent?”

“Well, given that Foster says your power level seems on par with Ulrich’s or mine right now…”

“So, six Talents already?”

“Who knows?”

Another set of exceptions that made Gomez very interested was Jackson, the Fire Shaper, and Miles Bertram. Both Shapers could light all of the qualities… save Authority.

“It’s interesting,” Gomez noted.

“The costs are different for everyone?”

“You noticed. The ‘cost’ to obtain something seems to vary from person to person. I wonder if it is not progressive.”

“The more you bought, the more it costs?”

“Stated that way, it looks logical. It’s like athletes’ training, the higher your ability, the harder it is to get something out of training.”

Gomez went back to scribbling notes furiously, as the scavengers got back to eating.

Jo? Looks like a small pack of Canids, the voice of Peter came.

Johanna wished she could reply, but Telepathy went only one way. Thankfully, more details came.

Two larger, and two smaller ones. Possibly a couple with grown pups hunting along the Ancient way.

“Okay, everyone, Peter’s spotted four Canids, not too far away. We’re probably going to meet them soon.”

“Should be easy,” Miles said.

She turned to the two Earth Shapers.

“I say we lock the two big ones and take them at range. The other two should be easy.”

“It hardly seems fair,” Petra said.

“Consider this a pre-Monster wave cleanup,” she countered. “The less it’s fair, the better it will be for that town later.”

The dozen Talented that took point did not have long to wait until they spotted a group of furred shapes in the distance. The Canids had not noticed them at first, but they quickly stopped, briefly considering the approaching bipeds, before starting to trot toward the expedition.

The incoming troop crossed the invisible limit and the two larger beasts almost stumbled as their movement was invisibly stopped. Johanna ignored the two smaller ones and focused on the leftmost Changed, launching a fireball at it. The Ranger, now a bit better trained, shot at the rightmost.

It took two fireballs to finish the beast, and while their cook had pelted the smaller Canids with Ice Darts, the pair had reached closer range. Both Battlers, Tom and Caroline Foster darted at nearly the same speeds, batting at the beasts with hammer and sword. In a second the two were dispatched, and the melee line relaxed as the last beast fell.

“And done,” Johanna announced. “Let’s keep going.”

“That’s impressive to see,” Professor Gomez said as she ambled next to the wagon on which he rode.

“We could probably take them with just three or four people, but that’s not worth risking to take some damage. Patching clothes is hard.”

“Patching clothes,” he snorted. “That’s what matters to you.”

“Well, a large set of Talents changes your priorities.”

She suddenly realized something.

“You know… it’s almost the end of July. In five days, it will be a year since we met the Ancient. A year since we became Talented.”

“Well, I guess that should call for a celebration. I wonder if you can persuade the cook to make some ice cream again.”