Jeff could tell when Kazi finally built the new connection. He had spent the last day or so trying to find the right memories to gain the connection he wanted. It was nice to have a day-long break from the constant fighting for survival. The breather also let him realize how much he missed Emily. He hoped she was handling everything well. At least she didn’t have to fight for her life yet.
Jeff opened his eyes to see the new connection notification and the subsequent new abilities. A grin spread across his face. Having more magic powers was awesome!
New Myst Connection:
Build
New Build Ability:
Burrow
You can create a hole in the ground.
When trying to create the connection his strongest memory about building was a memory about building five miles of fence on his step-dad’s ranch near Phoenix. He had gone in the middle of summer to build two long stretches of fence. He helped pound in hundreds of barbed-wire fence poles while under the blazing hot sun and hundred and fifteen degree heat.
Those memories must have been stronger than anything else he tried. He had thought about building a treehouse with a cousin, putting together IKEA furniture with Emily, and building fun block structures with Ammon. None of those fit quite as well. He had also learned to drive a backhoe one summer, but most of what he did was digging.
Honestly, burrow being his first ability made sense. Every kid digs holes whether at the beach or in their backyard. And each construction project typically started with digging the foundations.
Jeff reached out with his spirit and opened a hole in the ground…directly beneath himself. He let out a yelp as he fell to the bottom. His landing jarred him a bit, but it wasn’t far enough down to hurt anything. At least not with his attributes where they were.
He looked around the pit and saw that it was a perfect cylinder at around arms length. Why had it dropped out beneath him? Luckily, his new strength let him jump to the top of the pit and pull himself without worry.
It took him an hour of trial and, oh so much error, to realize that the hole only opened wherever he was touching the soil. If only his feet were touching then that was the only spot the hole opened. However, he could direct which way the hole opened up from the spot he touched. He could drop himself into a pit and then place his hand in front of him to tunnel his way through the earth.
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He had to be careful though. When the hole was created it shoved all of the dirt into the earth around it. It made the walls quite solid. It reminded him of a friend who built his house with extremely compressed dirt blocks and used them like adobe bricks. The sturdiness of the bricks didn’t help if he built a tunnel too close to the surface. The very solid earth would come crumbling down on top of him if he wasn’t careful. He already had a few goose eggs on his head from his trial and lots and lots of error.
Jeff reached out with his spirit and his hand and created a hole directly above him. A hole opened up and he was able to see the light of the stars shining down on him. Luckily, this time he opened the hole high enough up that it didn’t leave a bit of earth above the hole to tumble in on top of him. The use of his Navigation ability came in clutch for him.
Burrow would be huge in helping him create a safe place for him to sleep each night. He wasn’t sure if there were any monsters that lived in the ground…nope, he was shutting that thought down right away. Sleeping in a big tunnel underground should give him way more safety than sleeping out under the stars.
After an hour or so of experimentation his spirit was feeling overly strained. He was also completely filthy. The dirt covered his hair and clothes. Surprisingly enough he hadn’t felt that dirty despite his survival situation. It helped that all the blood and guts that had splattered on him had dissolved away. Also, the few trips he had through the golden goo of the System Pillars seemed to help. He hadn’t noticed until the dirt under his fingernails was removed as he reached in for a platter of food that the golden material was keeping him clean.
He had thought to strip down naked and walk through the goo to get fully clean, but that just didn’t feel…comfortable. Not to mention that he had a hundred or so people watching him back on earth, or at least that’s what he saw while talking with Emily. He had been forced to relieve himself, but that didn’t mean he was totally comfortable with everyone watching him yet.
He wished that the System had given him an ability for privacy instead of the one he got for reaching level ten and completing the quest. An ability that made cleaning himself or letting him magically poop without exposing himself to the world would be great. Instead he got another rogue ability, which just meant it was an ability not attached to a Myst Connection he currently had. That also meant the ability couldn’t grow in Mastery.
The ability he got was Linguistics, which he wasn’t even able to use yet. Kazi said it was common for the System to provide abilities like that which would help him fit in with the rest of the Boschyan society. It would let him communicate with anyone regardless of language. There were some added benefits if he could improve its mastery levels, but the rogue version was basically given to everyone that reached level ten. It was awesome, but right now, being alone and all, he wished he could trade for a privacy related ability.
Maybe he would have privacy once the Mysts eventually reached Earth and everyone stopped watching…because they’d be fighting for their lives.
His stomach dropped at that thought.
He really didn’t want to imagine what Emily would go through when she finally had to face the Mysts. Luckily, they probably had a few more days before that happened. Who knew, with how the days here were shorter than on Earth he might have finished his final quest of ten nights before the Mysts arrived.
He could only hope.