I don't know if I made the right choice. I hope I did, I think I did. Fate's words rang sweetly, and that bothered me true enough. I read once that the greatest way to get someone to give you what you need is to give them what they wanted. I wanted power, safety, and a chance. I had died once in this world, and had come back. What I had told Fate was true. I didn't regret the choice, but I was worried that it was a bad one. I could die again so easily. Even if I managed to make my way out of the dungeon, that asswipe Roquain was still waiting for us. I could make it through all of this just for him to kill me, or worse.
So I made the choice to accept Fate's offer. I don't know why she chose me, or what might be so special about this particular focus core. “I mean fuck... I don't even really know what a focus core does. Magic, powers, how the fuck will it all work?” What was this world even like, really? My view was so miniscule, so myopic. My entire experience in the world was of a forest, a prison, and a dungeon. WAS it a dangerous world? Had I just made a foolish deal before moving into an easy world? Were dungeons the only places that had real danger, real monsters? I rubbed at my eyes under the PSD-glasses, and stared once more at the thing in front of me.
> [Focus Core of the Barrier] - Magus type - A core of crystalized magic that can open one's magical meridians, allowing for the shaping of mana.
The Focus Core was a glowing sphere of blue energy, roughly the size of my fist. The surface of the sphere flowed and shifted with various colors all traveling around in streams. Each one had its place, not one intersected another, instead passing above or below when the streams crossed. When I focused on it, I could see that under the swirling surface of the blue sphere was a more solid area with the barest hint of a golden light. On occasion, one of the streams would attempt to pass through the center of the sphere, but would always bend when it made contact with that golden core.
“So... this is it.” I pursed my lips, staring. There was a sense of finality to the thing, to the room I was in and what it all meant. I knew I couldn't go back home, the Paradigm Shift Device had been quite clear on that fact and I wasn't willing to risk dying again to see if it had been bluffing. Maybe there would be a way, in the future. But that was a far off question. The truth was, I had no idea what taking this meant, what this world was like. What kind of power would it give, and what had Fate done to adjust it? Accepting it felt like signing a contract, and I certainly hadn't read the fine print.
But if Ophelia was right, then I needed power to survive. Maybe others in this world could survive as farmers or merchants or barkeeps. But I needed power, just to get out of this place alive. So I did the only thing that I could think to do. I reached out, and touched the sphere.
It felt like glass in my hand. Like an enormous marble. It wasn't particularly heavy, and I could feel the sensation of the energy flowing across my skin like licking a battery. It was making my hand numb. The energy pushed at my hand, and I had a feeling that is hard to describe in words. It was like... Have you ever slowly pushed your fingers into that green foam they use for holding flowers in arrangements? It felt like I was the foam, and the sphere was gently touching, pressing and leaving dents. I could keep it from going further, but I could also choose to let it push all the way, to shape my, what did the PSD call them? My Meridians.
Full of doubt, but unwilling to let go of what might very well be my only method of survival, I relaxed my resistance.
The pain was indescribable.
Lava burned pathways through my body, starting at the tips of my fingers and pushing up. I could feel every inch of it searing through, and yet the sweet bliss of unconsciousness avoided me. I screamed, though I couldn't hear it, until my throat ran dry and painful. When the lava in my arms reached my torso, I lost it and fell to the ground, sobbing. It was the singularly most painful thing I'd ever experienced, and I had just gotten crushed to death and drowned in my own blood like half a day before.
The process felt like it took hours. Once the pain reached my torso, it seemed determined to carve me from the inside out. Inch after inch, it seemed determined to melt everything inside my skin. When it reached my head, I lost my sense of self. The rest of it is just that. Pain was my existence. I could describe it more, but I don't think any words can accurately describe the experience. All I can say is that I hope you never have to go through it yourself.
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I laid there for a long time. Until the memory of the pain receded enough that I didn't feel it phantoms anymore. That... that was going to haunt me. When I finally opened up my eyes, I could see that the PSD was giving me some new information. The little notification icon I had set up was blinking like the network connectivity light on an old router, rapid and attention getting.
So of course, I ignored it for a moment to instead check my body. I stood up, slowly, and looked myself over. No glowing veins, no charred skin from lava. There was an unsettling amount of vomit on the floor, on my face, and in my shirt and armor. Excellent. I didn't have any way to clean it, so I just wiped my face off with my sleeve. THEN I checked my notifications.
> [Focus Core of the Barrier] has been absorbed.
> [Focus Core of the Barrier] is opening your meridians.
> Meridians have successfully been opened.
> [Focus Core of the Barrier] is adjusting your core attributes to handle your newly opened meridians.
> Core attributes have been adjusted.
> You have gained new abilities.
> Active abilities gained: [Shattering Barrier] [Lance of Fate]
> Passive ability gained: [Kinetic Vision]
Okay. So that was a lot of nonsense. Litteraly. I had no idea what any of that meant. What were meridians? How did the thing affect my core attributes and what did those do? And a bunch of new abilities. I had to look through everything and try to piece together what I could. Luckily, it seemed that I had the time at the moment at least. Nothing had changed when I absorbed it. Not that I had really taken the time to look around the small earthen walled room. It was just the roots that had held the focus core, and a door behind me, with just enough room to lie down in. Not much else.
The upside of everything was that I had an instinctive idea of what the abilities did and how to use them. Shattering Barrier would create a hex shaped shield that could block a single attack, and Lance of Fate was some sort of attack spell that launched a spear shaped projectile, maybe? That one felt less certain. Kinetic Vision let me track the motion of objects better. One ability seemed... odd. Lance of Fate didn't seem like the kind of ability that matched the more defensive features I expected from barrier powers. Maybe that was where the goddess had meddled. I wonder if they have temples in the towns... Maybe I could ask her there?
I tried to leave behind the thoughts of dealing with gods and goddesses behind. Uncomfortable as the dealings with Fate had made me, I didn't have the luxury of turning down any chance to better my odds of surviving. Instead, I used the PSD to examine my status page, where I remembered seeing the core attributes before.
> Status
> Name: Niles Thatcher
> Race: Human
> Age: 27
> Focus Core: Barrier - Magus
> Level: 1
>
> Attributes
> -Body: 5
> -Mind: 7
> -Spirit: 8
“Okay... that explains nothing.” My attributes had gone up. Body and spirit had both been 3, mind had been 4. Where the fuck was the help function on this damn thing?
> Paradigm Shift Device Encyclopedia Entry: Core Attributes.
>
> Core attributes are a numerical expression of your base abilities. An average person will have a score of 3 in each attribute. A score of 10 denotes the absolute peak of normal human ability.
>
> Body: Your physical fitness. Body represents strength, endurance, speed, and physical recovery.
> Mind: Your mental ability. Mind represents how well you can absorb new information, not how much you already know. Mind also affects how well you can process sensory input.
> Spirit: Your magical fitness. Spirit represents the ability to generate, manipulate, and manage mana.
“Well that is convenient.” Okay, so maybe the PSD was getting better at understanding what I wanted? It would be kinda cool if the more I used it the more it learned to understand my desires and needs. It seemed I had been taken from average human to slightly above average. Nothing superhuman though. I wonder what happened when you got above a 10. Could you get above a 10? And what did levels do? There wasn't an experience bar or anything. Sadly, the PSD did not seem to chime in this time, and even looking through the encyclopedia manually gave me no results. Perhaps there was a trigger to the PSD getting information? Questions for later. Again. I was putting off far too many things really.
“Okay, then just the abilities. There was an abilities tab, lets see what it has for me.”
> Abilities
>
> [Shattering Barrier]
> * [Conjuration]
>
> * [Force] [Barrier]
>
> * [Casting time: None]
>
> * [Cooldown: None]
>
> * [Mana Cost: Variable]
>
> * Creates a hexagonal barrier in the users line of sight. The barrier will stop one attack that hits it before shattering. Physical attacks will bounce off the barrier and Magical attacks will be dispelled. Mana cost increases based on barrier size. Mana cost increases exponentially for each barrier active when a new one is created. May not completely stop attacks coming from a source of a higher level.
>
>
> [Lance of Fate]
> * [Conjuration]
>
> * [Casting time: Short]
>
> * [Cooldown: None]
>
> * [Mana Cost: High]
>
> * Conjures Providence, the Lance of Fate into your hand. Providence can be manipulated from a distance with Mana. Attacks from Providence inflict [Threads of Fate]
>
> * [Threads of Fate] - [Debuff] [Stacking] - Reduces the agility of those afflicted
>
>
> [Kinetic Vision]
> * [Passive]
>
> * [Perception]
>
> This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
>
>
> * User can perceive the motion of objects in sight, no matter the size or speed. Does not increase reaction time.
That was a lot of information to go through. Even for just three abilities, it felt like a wall of text. How many would I end up getting? Was there a limit? How did you get more, or was three it, would these be the only abilities I could use for my life? I honestly couldn't wait to see Ophelia again. I really hoped she had some information on all of this, so that I could clear up some of the thoughts trying to make a living distracting me. “Should probably try these at least so that I can figure out what is going on....”
The process was mostly instinctive. I knew what to do to cast shattering barrier, and how to summon the lance. Starting with the barrier, I conjured a single shield, about the size of my chest. The barrier was nearly invisible, just a blue sheen barely visible to show the hexagonal shape of the thing. Watching my mana, I could see a small drop, but it wasn't particularly worrisome. I could likely cast quite a few of these shields all at once. I could also hold them in place, seemingly indefinitely. I let the first one go, and watched as my mana slowly refilled. Interesting.... I cast a few more of varying sizes, making one far larger than my body, enough to split the room into two halves. That one took a much larger chunk of mana, nearly 10 percent. I tried poking it with my finger and found it solid to the touch, impassible. When I gave it a solid kick though, it shattered into countless pieces that quickly dissipated, and my foot flew off of it like I had just kicked a bouncy castle. I watched my mana bar again and counted it out. that 10 percent took about a full minute to refill. Not long if you were just walking around, but an eternity if you were in a fight.
One more test. I summoned five medium size barriers, each about the size of one of the round metal shields from the armory. The first one and second one didn't take much mana, but the third stole a noticible chunk. By the time I finished with the fourth and fifth shields, my mana was over halfway gone. “Okay... so not going to be useful to stop a barrage.” I held them for a moment, watching my mana, and it didn't seem to be recovering. So I dismissed two of the shields, and held the other three. My mana began to recover again, reaching about 80 percent full before it stopped again. “An upkeep cost? If I want to keep the shields conjured, I have to sacrifice a portion of my mana...” I suppose that made sense. Sorta. But the mana didn't get refunded if I let the shield go, and it didn't slow my mana recovery from what I could tell to keep the shields in place, so.... “That seems almost arbitrary really. I'd expect a slower mana recovery rate, not a loss in my maximum.” Maybe the gaming abstraction the PSD was using wasn't completely true to what was actually happening?
I let the shields go and prepared to use my other spell. This one had a short incantation that popped into my head when I imagined using it. “Oh, this is going to be embarrassing, isn't it?” I sighed and held out my hand. “Bring forth the lance which pierces even fate!” I could feel the mana flow from my core through my arm and into my hand. It was strange to watch as the mana flowed out in a blue and gold stream, taking the shape of a six foot long spear with a short, partisan-style head. The shaft was around an inch thick, made of a pure white metal with veins of gold running through it. The head was similarly a white metal with a bluish sheen. Two small bladed protrusions came off the base of the spearhead to act as sword catchers, and overall it was a light weight weapon that I could easily move about myself. Sadly, I wasn't exactly a trained spear fighter, but.... well, now I had a goal in mind for when we made it to a town or city. Probably. It hadn't seemed like guns were a thing yet at least, so this was probably a good weapon to use?
And it did have that one feature I hadn't tried yet. I knew it could fly around on its own, that I could manipulate it with mana. I checked on my pool before trying, and saw that a good third of my mana pool was gone again. When I focused on trying to make it float, it took far too much concentration to direct the spear. It didn't seem to have an actual mana cost to use it like that, but I would need to train before having it fly around would be a useful tactic. I dismissed the spear, and glanced at the door.
Time to see what came next, and what these new powers of mine could really do. “As long as I don't die again, I'll consider it a victory...”