Claire blinked, suffering from conversational whiplash. “Which one?” she responded with one eye squinted in confusion.
“There’s more than one?” Clover asked, shocked. From the shows he had watched, he had been under the impression that museums were rare - a one per state type deal.
She nodded.
“The biggest one.” He scratched his head. “The one with the most stuff in it,” he amended.
“That would probably be the Ohio State Museum of Natural and Ancient History. It’s not more than a mile and a half away from here. She pointed to what Clover assumed was eastward - the opposite of the direction the group had gone yesterday. “Why did you want to know?”
"I'm looking for something," he said quietly, ensuring no one could overhear his words. He leaned closer. "I don't know if what I'm looking for even exists, but if it does, I think there's a good chance it'll be there."
After what he had seen of the System, he couldn’t explain why, but he fully believed in Ron’s theory that there would be treasure - magical items of great value in the museum.
She perked up. “Sounds mysterious. Can I tag along?”
On a base level, Clover wasn't opposed to the idea. She was only Level 1, but he figured having an extra pair of eyes at his back would compensate for it. And the thought of fighting to the death somehow didn't sound so scary when he imagined that he wouldn't be doing it alone. Plus, he owed her. It was the least he could do to agree.
“It’ll be dangerous; are you sure you want to come?” Clover said, quoting one of his favorite action movies. He had always wanted to say something cool like that.
She rolled her eyes, recognizing the quote. "I always liked the museum." She shrugged her shoulders in a forced but casual motion. "You're not the only one who wants to change. It's too late to go back, but here and now, I can make a different choice. I don't want to hide for the rest of my life. From a coffee shop window, the world looks so small."
Clover nodded, slightly confused. As he was coming to learn, Claire wasn’t the type to share details, so he was left guessing what she was referring to. Still, he empathized with the feeling behind her words.
He extended his fist. She bumped it. He jerked it back; he had been going for one of those basketball pregame group huddle-type maneuvers, but a fist bump worked, too. "Well, let's start planning operation: Night at the Museum.”
Claire half-heartedly raised her hand. "Shouldn't it be Day at the Museum?" she asked unseriously.
Clover glanced at the clock - only an hour was left till morning. He didn't know where the time had gone. The night had slipped by in a haze.
“Good point, but Operation: Night at the Museum sounds way cooler, so let’s go with it.” She laughed, then nodded in agreement. Clover chuckled along. “Now, for the first part of the plan, we need to find our third team member.”
Three probably wasn’t the optimal number for a party, but it did have certain advantages.
While traveling with a large group like the one he had been with yesterday certainly provided safety due to the sheer number of people involved, it also attracted a lot of attention. A smaller group would likely be able to skirt around many of the battles that they had been forced into. Plus, there was less of a chance of having to deal with a not-quite-crazy but definitely stupid person like Phil, who seemed intent on sabotaging the group.
“Who?”
“Ron. He’s the one who came up with the idea in the first place. I think he’s a genius. No, that’s the wrong word. He’s not eccentric enough for that.” He paused to search his internal dictionary. Mentally, flipping through its pages, he came up blank. “He’s a savant. No, that has the wrong connotation.” He shook his head. “I give up. You get the point.”
After securing his two sculptures in his lap, they left their small corner of the factory and began their search. As he wheeled through the Safe Zone, he was shocked at how many people from the expedition group he recognized. He had assumed that most of them had died. With how many Bone Rats there had been, he didn't understand how they had escaped. He noted it down as another question to ask Lin later.
A nervousness wormed its way into his chest as he continued to search and was unable to find Ron. Maybe he was one of the unlucky few who hadn't made it back?
Finally, behind a half-assembled machine in an isolated corner, Clover found Ron. Still wearing his signature pinstripe suit, his eyes were narrowed in concentration as he bobbed and weaved, using footwork to dodge imaginary attacks.
“Ron,” Clover said, waving as the other teen turned.
“Holy shit. Are you alright? You look like you just climbed out of a coffin.” The words tumbled out of his mouth even faster than before. It seemed he had upped his Agility even further since they had last talked.
Claire stood behind him, watching the two of them interact.
He swiped his bandaged arm around, demonstrating that it still worked. “I’m still alive, so that’s good enough for me.” He smiled as he wheeled closer. “You were right. You don’t die when you hit 0 HP.”
Ron’s mouth hung open.
"Don't look so shocked; if anything, it's good news. One of your predictions was right. That means your other ones are more likely to be true, too."
“The museum.”
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Clover nodded. "The Ohio State Museum of Natural and Ancient History," he said, enjoying saying the mouthful of a name. Then, remembering that he had forgotten something, he pointed behind his back and said, "Oh, that's Claire."
“Hello,” she said quietly.
After a quick round of introductions, they began to discuss their plan for getting to and infiltrating the museum.
Without knowing what they were walking into, past the basics, there wasn't very much to say. After a few minutes, they had ironed out the details; they would leave after sunrise. They didn't want to be the first people to leave the Safe Zone and run the risk of running into monsters that had yet to pack it in for the night, but they also didn't want to wait too long. If they did, someone else may loot the museum before they got there.
Clover settled in for a long bout of [Meditation] to pass the time. He wanted to refill his MP before setting out for the day. Plus, he was only 4 Skill Points away from completing another Path.
He closed his eyes and tried to still his mind. Immediately, intrusive thoughts barged into his head and banged at his attention. His conversation with Claire replayed itself in his mind's eye, and to his surprise, in his opinion, he had come off as a relatively normal person - or at least the silhouette of one. Huh. He paused. Was that something a normal person would think? Maybe he only thought he had acted normally because he was so abnormal that he had no notion of what normal really was?
His head spun, his 1 Point in Intelligence working overtime to decode the mystery.
Clover refocused, pointedly ignoring the radiating pain in his right hand. Having burnt through some of his excess thoughts, he had an easier time entering a meditative state.
Slowly, with a click, humming flows and currents of energy came into focus. Compared to last time, they were clear and distinct, like someone had come and turned up the resolution on his computer screen while he had been away. Now, he could perceive the general direction and shape of individual blobs of mana. More than that, their texture was clearer than ever.
To his left, vaguely spherical, an arc of mana burnt red hot with intensity, flickering as if it were a flame. It glowed like a lighthouse in a sea of darkness. Naturally, Clover turned his attention to it. The mana, unlike the majority of the other blobs, was largely stationary. In burning so brightly, it pushed back the other forms of ambient mana, clearing out a well-defined domain.
He tried to peer into the flame to parse its source, but in doing so, he was distracted, causing him to fall out of [Meditation].
He opened his eyes, and his perception of the ambient mana faded like water slipping through his fingers. He turned, using the last vestiges of his enhanced mana sense to locate the source of the flame mana. It was coming from Claire. He tilted his head. All that was from her? No one else had nearly as strong of an aura.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. Based on Clover's estimation, his mana sense quickly faded in fidelity the farther out from him it stretched. There very well could have been someone more powerful.
He eyed a pair of blue screens. Apparently, the System had been impressed. He had netted two Levels in only a couple minutes of effort.
Congratulations! Meditation has reached Level 4. +1 Skill Point.
Congratulations! Meditation has reached Level 5. +1 Skill Point.
Compared to [Sculpting], especially on that first night, [Meditation]'s rate of leveling far eclipsed it. He wondered why? In part, it must have been his [Magical Talent], but he also thought it Leveled faster because he was pushing his limits more actively with [Meditation].
He shelved his theories for now and delved back into [Meditation]. Without much difficulty, something in his soul clicked, and the ambient mana came back into focus. Now that he knew what to look for, he was quickly able to locate Claire's aura. Though, this time, he did not attempt to delve into it. Instead, he focused on the space that surrounded him.
Duller than Claire's flickering domain of fire, a sphere of bone-like energy surrounded Clover. It was solid, filtering the energy that passed through it, slightly tinging the ambient mana as it was slowly sucked into Clover's body.
He fought the urge to scratch his head, knowing it would break him out of his meditative state if he did so. While meditating, he was able to sense Affinity? That didn't sound entirely right. It could be more accurate to say he sensed a combination of Affinity and mana.
Perhaps he could learn to track people from a distance with more practice. His excitement grew, and as it did, [Meditation] wobbled, threatening to deactivate. He refocused, thankful for the Skill's increased resilience as it leveled up.
Filled with a child-like sense of wonder, he continued experimenting with [Meditation]. He found that if he focused on his breathing, he could pull more deeply from the ambient mana. With his full awareness on his breath, waves of cold mana flowed into his lungs, invigorating him like a polar plunge as they dissipated into growing channels of energy that circulated through the rest of his body.
He focused intently on his breath, trying to complete the hour long requirement for its Quest. However, as he did so, his aura of bone slowly shifted, transforming into something more physical - more cold. A chill set down on his shoulders, and following that, six bony fingers.
“You ready?” Ron asked as he gently shook his shoulder.
Clover’s eyes snapped open, his heart racing.
Ron's hand and the one he had just felt on his shoulder did not feel similar. But he knew it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Or at least he hoped that was what had happened.
Congratulations! Meditation has reached Level 6. +1 Skill Point.
Congratulations! Meditation has reached Level 7. +1 Skill Point.
Congratulations! Meditation has reached Level 8. +1 Skill Point.
Congratulations! Meditation has reached Level 9. +1 Skill Point.
"One minute. Let me finish this Path, and then I'll be ready to go."
“Nice. What are you getting?”
"[All The Colors In The Rainbow], it should let me change the color of my mana bolts. Maybe it will do a bit more than that if I'm lucky," he said as he arched his back, stretching out the kinks in it from sitting still for so long.
While it may not have been his first choice, it was the only Path he had unlocked that he could afford. His [Meditation] session had fallen short of an hour, though he did not know by how much.
"Cool. If it's precise enough, you could camouflage them. If the bolts perfectly matched the background, they'd be practically invisible."
Clover smiled; he hadn't considered that possibility. Now, with slightly more hope for the Path, he opened his Skill Paths screen. He had gained a new Path, [Hands of Stone], under the [Sculpting] tree, but he had already made up his mind. Besides, if he was forced into a position where he had to punch a monster, something likely went terribly wrong.
He tapped the air five times.
Fake it till you make it. In the realm of magic, function often follows form. By changing the color of [Unstable Mana Bolt], you can shift its nature to make certain related minor magical effects more likely to occur. After all, if a bolt of mana looks like fire and feels like fire, who's to say that it isn't fire.
Accept Sub-Skill Y/N: Minor Alteration Lvl 0 (Inferior)
Piece by piece, change the very fabric of [Unstable Mana Bolt]. Unlike most, this Skill’s mana cost is variable. The total cost of Alterations can not exceed 1 MP.
List of possible Alterations: Color, ?,?....