Joe then found himself playing with magic heal another couple dozen times, making cuts and healing them, but this time much smaller ones as he wanted to test various things and not have to wait to replace his MP constantly. He learned one very useful thing; he could target what he wanted to heal. That, more than anything else, gave him a lot of peace as he realized that one of the biggest problems, blood loss, was something he now had an immediate response for. He could rapidly repair the blood vessels and make sure nobody died from blood loss. After that was infection, but he wasn’t sure what he could do with that, although with heal and cure, he was hoping something could be done. One down side, however, was that he had to focus to really make use of his MP well. He could heal while distracted, but if he did so, his MP evaporated like ice on the sun. But if he focused on what he wanted done, pushing to heal by steps and what he wanted, his MP lasted much longer and thus healed just that bit more. He grinned and turned to his next gain. Well… then… time to level magic heal then! More MP… true, but much faster… and for an emergency, speed is going to be… so much more important! Guess I need to work on gaining some MP as well, then… Right… the next skills… but…
Only thing left are the spearmen skills… but I’ll do that back at the inn. I’ll guess I’ll need space for them, right? Joe brought his thoughts to an end and came out of the bath, washing and preparing to head back. He rinsed then dried off before dressing and heading out of the door, slinging his pack behind him.
When he stepped out into the street, he stretched then froze when he saw the street seemed to be abuzz. He looked to the right when he heard the unified stomping of feet and saw a squad of obvious soldiers running double time down the middle of the street. They passed by with a pair of soldiers peeling away ever dozen steps or so. The line of soldiers running past took almost half a minute to pass him and two at the end peeled off just past him. Joe glanced back and forth, watching with some fascination.
One of the soldiers that had peeled off went to one sides of the street, quickly knocking on the door there and waited for an answer before entering. The other went to the opposite side and did the same. Huh. Pretty polite. Joe considered, before turning to head home. Wonder what’s going on?
He had walked a bit when one of the soldiers that were lining the sides of the streets checking door to door came out of the business he was checking and noticed Joe. He quickly walked up to Joe and intercepted him. He wasn’t rude, but he was harried in his work, obviously doing his job but rushed.
“Sir. Please stop and answer some questions.”
Not really an option, I would guess, but certainly polite enough. “Yes?”
“You felt the disturbance today?”
Joe became wary as he certainly hadn’t felt a disturbance, so became cautious, “No? What disturbance?”
The soldier’s boredom quickly shifted to shocked suspicion, “You did not notice the pressure over the city?”
“Pressure?”
The soldier’s eye’s narrowed, “The great wave the spread over the city.”
“Um… I’m not sure that I saw any wave spread over the city. I was in the bath and felt no pressure wave… well, I did notice a wave while I was in the bath.” I’m not going to tell you I did it, though!
Joe’s good humor was quickly souring as he began to wonder what was going on, having a very bad feeling that he was the source of the pressure wave. Keeping his face carefully neutral, he waited for the soldier’s reply.
The soldier’s suspicion didn’t seem to ease, his face still considering, “What is your name?”
Joe paused, but didn’t think fighting this would be a good idea, “Joe. I’m Joe McConnell.”
The soldier seemed taken aback at that, obviously reassessing before bowing quickly, his abrupt and forceful manner quickly replaced by polite deference, “I apologize, Joe of clan McConnell. I meant no offense.”
Why the sudden change in… ooh… last name! Right! Clans equal nobility and I have a clan name…. family name, uh… The thoughts whirred quickly through his mind but he didn’t allow them to delay his reply.
“You could not know. I refuse any offense nor accept any from you. You are only doing your job.”
The relief was quite evident when the soldier heard Joe’s reply and he seemed to be concerned, obviously torn and Joe quickly realized his consternation.
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“Please. Ask your questions. You must complete your duty.”
The soldier quickly bowed again, this time grateful, “Thank you for your consideration. Please, tell me of the wave.”
Joe shrugged, “I’m not certain I can speak much of it beyond that it was a pressure wave and it… spread. I noticed it while bathing and it … yeah, there is nothing further to add. It spread.
The soldier seemed to consider, accepting the statement but still unsatisfied.
“Please feel free. Ask until you’ve done what you have to do. It’s your job.”
The soldier nodded again, continuing with more courage, “Then, did you notice anything unusual?”
Joe blinked at that, a bit confused, “Just… the pressure wave. I have seen them before but they are not common. That is the only unusual thing.”
“You were not harmed?”
“Oh, no. I was fine.”
“You were unaffected?”
“I think so? You are asking ... obviously something happened, what happened?”
“Ah… I… cannot reveal anything.”
“Oh. Right. Apologies. I did not mean to bother.”
“No. I can understand the curiosity. Have a good day, sir.”
The soldier bowed to him as he stepped to the side to let Joe past. Joe lifted a hand to wave but stopped when the soldier bowed, and he stopped to offer his own small bow back, very cognizant that he had to make sure his bow was very small as he was seen as a clanner. He made sure to simply bow his head and walked past, heading home. What… happened? Seems different than the ten core spark fiasco… so…
Joe made sure to keep his movements similar to those around him, which thankfully, all appeared to be a bit rushed and anxious. He made sure to be a bit calmer, not wishing to draw the attention of any other soldiers and made it back to the inn easily enough. The inn was pretty much empty and Joe entered it, anxious to do something but soon realized there was nothing he could do.
No internet, no news, no TV, no… man… This really sucks! Joe felt his anxiety peak then begin to die down as he realized there really wasn’t anything he could do. He found himself stuck in a loop of anxiety, desire for knowledge, the need to do something, and the absence of anything that could be done. He tried to explore his status some more, but found the distraction too shallow, so went outside and began going through his various forms of the marital arts he had learned.
Very quickly calm returned to him and he found himself settled, easily flowing through his forms. When he’d completed a set of forms for taekwondo, he felt more in control and took a look around, finding the courtyard still empty. He considered which forms to practice next then stopped, cocking his head in consideration. What about those spearman skills? Even the staffman skills! I forgot about those!
Joe quickly flipped open his skills listings and scrolled down to the combat jobs and their skills. He glanced at them quickly before deciding on using the skill: forwards spin defense. It seemed pretty fancifully useless, and Joe chuckled at the naming but wished to see what it could accomplish. So, how do I use a skill like this, usually I jus…. Oh, no! Please. Please. Please. No! I will NOT shout the name of the skill. Please don’t let this be a thing!
Joe almost decided then and there to never use any of the skills available from the system, but then calmed himself as he realized he was able to just think of what he wanted to make it happen. Just do it in my head, but man… I hope I don’t have to listen to others shouting out their moves. Joe chuckled at the idea then prepared himself. Forwards spin defense.
Immediately, Joe felt something erupt from within him and a force took over his body. His arms pressed forward with both palms pressed quite close to each other with the spear in his dominate hand. After his arms speared straight out in front of him, his hands began rapidly spinning the spear before him. The movement felt natural enough as he’d practiced the move enough times in various positions, although he’d done so more to practice his dexterity than as any form of serious move. But suddenly, the rotation of the spear erupted, skyrocketing to speeds absolutely impossible for human hands to be able to accomplish. Joe actually felt a wash of air explode outward, blasting him and his clothes even as the opposite side sent a wave of air across the courtyard, scattering leaves and small sticks easily.
Soon, the spear came to a stop, once again held firmly in his dominate hand, his pose still that of two arms press out forward with palms close, loosely open and ready to spin the spear. Joe found himself quite conflicted. The move proved quite a bit more meaningful than he feared. Rotating spears as defense… dumbest idea in the world, but man… how did I make it go so fast? And what took over my body? Joe grimaced with that last thought, not really liking the idea that anything should be able to take control of his body so easily. OK. Didn’t expect that. That just… sucks. Why is it just taking over my body. Wish it would just give me… pointers… or… some kind of guide or something… you know… holographic depiction that I can use to…
Joe trailed off his thoughts as he felt a shift of some kind; a twitching instinct that informed him something had changed. He paused a bit, looking around and wondering if some form of pressure wave was going to occur again like at the bath, but nothing happened. He took some time to carefully take stock, but found nothing after a few moments so returned back to his exploration of the skills he had from the spearman jobs.
Right. Forwards spin defense. Joe thought, preparing himself, but this time nothing took his body and instead he saw a holographic representation of the proper stance and correct positioning of his limbs. He blinked in surprise, then laughed. Nice! OK. The system does respond, in some way. Of course it did. It’s answering my questions, but it’s a bit more flexible than just answer questions with blue boxes! Right. Let’s test it.
Do forwards spin defense! Immediately, his body reacted as before, arms moving forward to position the spear before rapidly spinning it faster than any human had the capability of doing so. Something flashed through his thoughts with that realization, but he was too focused on figuring out his current thoughts, so he put it aside and stood up to do another test.