Chapter 35

As it turns out, it wasn’t so hard being the bad guy. A little villainous speech here and there, turn a swath of forest into a permanent bonfire and torch a town, and you’re well on the road to being irredeemable. As it happens, all the things I did had a good reason; they needed a push to go out and become stronger before the creatures around them became too strong to fight. It turns out, when pressed, some of them were even good fighters, and were learning and advancing at a surprising pace. Learning with a vengeance, even.

The downside, naturally, was swearing off pretty much any human company, including things like having fresh cooked food that wasn’t just carving slices off something that had been trying to kill you an hour before. Not that I needed to eat; the energy in this place was enough to sustain me even without a bite of food or a drop of water, but I couldn’t tell you the mechanics on that.

What I could tell you is that turning a hundred-yard circle of forest into an eternal pyre was a great way to keep people and animals away, and acted as a wonderful filter for guests; chances are if they were trying to force their way in, they weren’t friendly. It kept conversation to a minimum and gave me plenty of forewarning in case of attacks. My only occasional company was the rogue, Cenna; red-haired and fair-skinned, with stunning blue eyes and an athletic figure, and a tongue as sharp as her twin daggers. She would appear at the edge of my clearing and wait until I noticed her. Sometimes this meant patiently sitting and whittling arrows or little carven figurines; other times it meant shouting at me until I cleared a path.

Today, it was about five patient minutes followed by launching one of those lovely hand-whittled arrows into the trunk of the tree I currently lived atop. I pulled myself standing, uncertain how much time I’d lost to meditation until I checked against the ‘game clock’, as I called it.

[Trial by Fire]

Survive System Initiation

There are many paths to Power: carve your own. There are many trials within the Tutorial area that may be overcome to grant various benefits. Sponsors are watching, and your performance may curry favor with them.

Rewards will be granted based on performance within the Tutorial.

May the Scribe witness your deeds.

Remaining Time: 5d 4h 35m

This time I’d spent about six hours in meditation. Once I reached level 25, I received an unusual notification that had led me to taking on a more introspective bent; I had received an unexpected prompt from the System that finally gave more answers than questions.

Race Evolution Available

You have gained sufficient power to become fully integrated into the System. Your Path, Class, Profession, and Cultivation Environment all play a part in the result of your Evolution. All Experience gains will be suspended until your Evolution is complete, and the saved amount will be granted afterward.

Are you ready to Evolve?

Y / N

I had almost hit the button straight away, but realized something unexpected; the System had filled my head with knowledge about a ‘Cultivation Environment’, which filled in a lot of incidental details. It clarified the concept of Attuned Energy, Intent, and Core Energy: Attuned energy was energy given purpose, either by infusing it with intention, or by creating appropriate environmental conditions, such as turning energy into fire energy by setting something on fire. Intent was ‘mental energy’, and it represented the mind’s ability to hold clear and detailed images of an action within it, giving shape and purpose to energy to cast spells and the like. Core Energy came from within, that nexus of power dwelling within my stomach that fed the vast majority of magical effects I’d created. As it turns out, manipulating energy wasn’t just a magic thing; those on the path of martial might could innately infuse their energy and intent into their movements and attacks, reinforcing their bodies or allowing them to perform superhuman feats, far above what mere attributes could account for. Those on the path of Cunning & Guile were more efficient at imparting powerful Intent, enough to even influence the powers of others, and drawing lightly upon facets of both Martial Might and Arcane Power.

I could imprint my Intent upon my surroundings through the use of runes and ‘runic magic’, effectively a system of glyphs that each held domain over very specific things; for example, the rune for a flame created to give light and a flame created to cook food were two very different things, even though a normal fire could do both. Attuning the energy around myself made it easier to use if it matched my own Attunements; in this case, fire was good. Fire was really good. By ‘attuning’ the area around me – read: setting the forest on fire – I was able to draw power into myself much more easily and manipulate it like it was my own. I’d spent the last eight days circulating between roving around fighting monsters and specifically wiping out some of the most powerful predators in the area, checking in on the refugees, honing my blacksmithing in my Crystalflame forge, and creating my ‘cultivation environment.’ It was still, to my understanding, absolutely crude, but it was leaps and bounds above what life was like without it.

A second arrow, impressively accurate despite the lack of fletchings, embedded itself in the trunk next to my head. “Damnit, David, are you asleep up there?”

“Hey! That was awfully close, Cenna.”

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“Yeah, I know; the lack of fletching really threw off my aim.”

I frowned at her, dragging myself to my feet and stepping down from my roost. With my control over the area’s flames, it was trivial to solidify the fire beneath me, [Crystalflame] steps appearing underfoot just before I put my weight on it.

“Showoff,” she called out, softer now that I was close.

“Practice,” I countered.

“What took you so long? I thought you’d fallen back asleep.”

“Are you level 25 yet?”

My question caught her off-guard, and she tilted her head at me. “Uhm, no, but close. 23.”

“Then you’ll understand when you’re older.”

If looks could kill, she wouldn’t need the bow hanging over her shoulder. “We’re getting ready to move on the Guardians. Lyrella’s hit 24, and she figures we need to go take them out now, while we have the chance. We don’t expect it to take five days, but we’d rather have an extra day or two just in case.” She looked nervous about something, and it took her an extra couple of seconds to add it, my raised eyebrow impetus enough. “We ran into someone; claims to be a messenger for the Longclaw Guardians, some group over that way.” She gestured vaguely off to the south. “They claim that they are planning to move on one of the other Guardians when the timer reaches four days exactly. He was trying to find other groups like us and get them all into the attack; we don’t know what’ll happen when time runs out, but we should probably deal with the Guardians before then, don’t you think?”

I stayed silent for several seconds, taking my time to think it through. With my heightened attributes, I could think pretty fast when I needed to, but I’d grown accustomed to being able to take my time, being out here by myself. Judging by her tapping foot, Cenna hadn’t gotten accustomed to my silences at all. “Do you think they’re ready?” I asked her, gesturing back the way she came.

“Ready as they will be. A lot stronger than they would have been, without your… intervention.”

She looked ready to apologize when she saw the brief look of pain that crossed my face. I waved it off before she could speak, pushing ahead. “Alright. We’ll move up to the ruined tower, and engage the nearest Guardian at the four day mark. Anything else?” My tone was harsher than I’d intended, and I saw the slight hardening of her gaze in response.

Before she could speak, however, someone else did. “Yeah, one other thing,” Lyrella called out, stepping out from behind a tree. Now it was Cenna’s turn to look guilty. “She told me what you did. And why.” She took a deep breath, crossing the distance between us in a handful of quick strides. She was strong, now, and the force of her steps seemed to come down with small shockwaves, grass fluttering around her boots. Her body held a solidity that I couldn’t quite describe, as if she had somehow compressed more of herself into the space she occupied, threatening to burst forth from it at any moment. “When she told me she knew where you lived, I told her to bring me here so I could kick over your damn sand castle. But I changed my mind.”

Lyrella approached closer than Cenna had, seemingly uncaring about the heat radiating from behind me, though a few droplets of sweat formed around her hairline anyway. She was stocky and broad, built like a truck and with a punch to match. Short, straight black hair crowded her chocolate-brown eyes, her muscles sharply defined beneath her dusky skin. She had a way of moving as if she expected the world to yield to her, and a habit of smashing through obstacles in her path rather than anything so simple as stepping around. Regrettably, I was feeling an awful lot like an obstacle right now. I drew in a deep breath, but did not immediately reply, trying to gauge her mood.

Her mood seemed to be ‘violent’, but it was hard to tell if that was directed at me, or a regular state of being. “I changed my mind, because you were right. I was so busy chasing you around and chasing my own damn tail that I hadn’t realized even little Cenna had outgrown me. I couldn’t allow that, now could I? But you’re gonna make it up to me.” Now she was smiling. Somehow, the smile made me feel even more wary of her.

“And how do you think I’m gonna do that, Ella?” She bristled at the diminutive, but her expression made it clear she wasn’t going to get even for that, right now.

“You’re gonna come with us and help destroy the Guardians. And you’re gonna make sure Cenna comes through in one piece, even if it means leaving a few chunks behind along the way. Clear?”

I braced myself to step forward and call her bluff, but instead I held the movement, muscles tensing. I figured I could probably still take her; not as easily as last time, certainly, but not too hard. “I agree, the Guardians need to be put down, and the Greenwarden defeated, before the end of the Tutorial.” Lyrella’s gaze hardened. “… And I will protect Cenna to the best of my ability.”

Finally she smiled, a big, toothy thing that less resembled a smile than a threat. “Perfect. See you in a couple days, torchbug.”

She was already walking away by the time I began to formulate a response, Cenna’s cheerful “See you Torchbug!” the final nail in the coffin. I gathered up my wounded pride, and climbed back into my roost. Enough meditating, enough preparation; it was time to Evolve.

I reached out, pouring extra energy into the [Crystalflame] runes I’d embedded into the trees around me, causing the flames to surge upward, consuming the wood even faster than the self-repair enchantments could restore it. I carefully pumped the energy upward until it would take about twelve hours to consume it all; that would have to be enough, one way or another.

I called up the prompt once more, and defiantly pushed my will into starting the process. It only occurred to me as the world began fading that mindset was also a part of the process.

Oh well. There were worse motivations than revenge.