Ethan struggled to decide how to allocate his Superior Attribute Point. He’d already allocated his Minor Physicality Attribute Point, which he decided to abbreviate to MPA, on his Agility, raising the Attribute from 1.6 to 1.8.
Ethan knew that he needed to spend it on his Processing, but it sucked. Ethan’s direct power and usefulness wouldn’t rise by much with the allocation, only his future potential- potential which he may never have the time to realize.
Just before Ethan gave in and put the point into his Processing, he remembered something- that the System had responded to his wishes once already, getting rid of the reminder to open his Panel.
“System, is it possible to split the Superior Attribute Point?” Ethan asked, hopeful. His expression gradually morphed into a grimace when he received no response, and he put the point into his Processing with a sigh, raising the Attribute from 1.4 to 2.4.
A second afterwards, Ethan gasped as he felt his mind... morph. Ethan felt like its borders expanded, becoming larger- able to contain more information. His thoughts became more… durable, making it difficult to lose track of his train of thought- and yet, they seemed to liquefy, so as to flow seamlessly. The differences were small at first, but as the seconds compounded, Ethan began to feel like he was an entirely different person intellectually, superior in every way. He recalled information from almost a decade ago, albeit only vaguely, and everything he’d learned in college felt fresh in his mind.
Three minutes later, when the process came to an end, Ethan realized that he’d horribly underestimated the benefits that Processing could yield. It was indescribably incredible to simply exist in such a manner. Ethan knew that, with how incredible his mind now was, he’d advance rapidly once he put his mind to it… but for right now, he simply took it all in.
Somehow, the world was far more intense than it had been before. He didn’t perceive more than before, but it all truly registered in his mind much better. Ethan knew that camouflage worked due to the fact that the human brain simplified the unimportant things to make it easier to function, and wondered if that aspect of his brain had been removed since he had the capacity to truly accurately perceive the world now while also functioning properly.
It took a few minutes, but Ethan eventually escaped his wonder at the world and began to test himself. It was truly hard to encounter things that his mind could no longer blow through; complex maths were blown through easily, even algebra hardly able to stand up to his upgraded mind. Ethan had a harder time with popping the math questions out than he did with answering them, which Ethan assumed was due to his comparatively low Creativity.
Going over the Impartment’s information again proved quick and valuable; the information was more firmly planted in his mind, and more easily understood. There was still so much that it took Ethan a minute or two to finish.
Almost immediately, Ethan returned to testing his mind. It took entire minutes to come up with math problems that Ethan couldn’t solve in seconds, and he was impossibly thrilled by how fast his mind worked now.
“Water,” Fred said, yanking Ethan out of his experiments. Ethan felt a bit of anger rising in his chest, and his shock at the emotion managed to fully pull him out of his obsession.
‘What the hell?’ Ethan thought, but the realization that Fred was holding out a bottle of water to him interrupted his worry.
∑
Ethan, Gadget and Alyssa were all finally properly hydrated, although Ethan had already sent Fred to gather more water.
Ethan already felt stronger, and his mind even clearer than it had been before. Strangely, Ethan also felt unprecedentedly exhausted the moment that his thirst was quenched. He tried to keep working, but it eventually became clear that he needed a short nap. He’d pushed his mind extremely far, and the enormous mental enhancement paired with finally not being dehydrated made it quicker than ever before, but it was exhausted nonetheless.
Eventually, Ethan gave in, setting an alarm on his phone to wake him up in two hours. He felt a bit bad for Alyssa, who was only now finishing up with butchering the Ferrow, but it didn’t matter in the face of utter exhaustion.
He slipped into a deep sleep after a while, but… not truly, apparently. Even as his brain shut down, a small section of his brain continued working. Very slowly, the splinter of consciousness worked to try to figure out what was up with Alyssa.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Two hours later, Ethan was jolted awake by the ringing alarm in his pocket. He shut it off quickly and took a few seconds to analyze his surroundings.
Alyssa was groggily awakening with a groan on the other end of the burrow, jolted awake by his alarm. Fred was standing at the entrance of the burrow, looking out at the rain, rubbing the water bottle in his hands absent-mindedly.
Ethan realized that Gred had sent him a message a while ago, while he’d been asleep. Apparently, it had simply waited in the summon link for almost an entire hour.
“Gred find interesting,” was all that the message had contained, and Ethan quickly located the goblin. He was clearly on the move, meaning that he probably wasn’t still wherever this ‘interesting’ was, but Ethan imagined that the goblin remembered where it was.
Ethan stood up and groaned. His whole body was sore; he hadn’t slept very well, clearly. Ethan used his flashlight to look around the burrow.
“What’re we doing?” Alyssa asked, but Ethan’s attention was drawn to something else.
“Why’s your hair so red?” Ethan suddenly asked, and Alyssa paled. She brought some of her hair into her vision and sighed heavily.
Many long, awkward seconds passed as Alyssa remained frozen in place, like a statue. Ethan was about to say something, but Alyssa finally spoke a moment sooner.
“It’s my Class. It’s apparently really strong, but it comes with a lot of downsides.” Alyssa eventually explained, slowly. “For instance, too much water will kill me.”
“Why?” Ethan asked, suddenly understanding why she’d been so afraid of the rain.
“It’s… the Class is called Flare Brawler. I still need water to survive, obviously, but too much will cause my Mana core to shatter, which would burn me to a crisp.” Alyssa said slowly, seeming to really not want to tell him what she was telling him.
‘I suppose it makes sense if she’s got such a huge weakness. Pushing her into the water would just kill her on the spot. This knowledge gives a lot of leverage over her.’ Ethan thought, even as she continued. Subconsciously, Ethan noticed that he’d accidentally managed to split his mind into two separate streams of thought.
“That’s not the only weakness, too. Fire has many concepts associated with it. The list of problems that have come with my Class is extensive. It’s supposed to be strong, at least.” Alyssa said eventually, seemingly disinclined to elaborate on these other weaknesses. They were called weaknesses for a reason, he supposed.
“…What are the positives, then?” Ethan asked, both out of curiosity and in an attempt to shift her thoughts away from the negative.
“I’m very resistant to fire and heat, and my body is somewhat better suited to handling smoke inhalation. I can sort of deal with the cold really well, too… it’s kind of a double-edged sword. My mana can protect me from the cold, but it’s not cheap. Whenever I’m not using it, the cold affects me much, much worse. Last night sucked, you know?” Alyssa said. A few seconds passed, but she eventually continued.
“I can’t even cry anymore- I’m physically incapable of it. Using my ability is painful, and I feel perpetually hot, even though I should be nigh-immune to mundane heat. If I ever used my…“ Alyssa was forced to stop by a convulsive gasp, and Ethan finally realized what was happening- Alyssa was having a mental breakdown. It had taken him a minute, likely due to the distinct absence of tears, but it was clear now; she was beginning to sob… just without the tears.
Ethan’s enhanced mind moved rapidly, trying to figure out what to do, but he had no clue. He’d never been good in these situations- he doubted that most people could do well in this situation. Should he try to hug her? That would be weird- they were strangers. Should he simply offer consoling words? That wouldn’t help very much, would it? Before Ethan could decide on a plan and act, Alyssa started speaking again, through her gasps.
“And… and, the worst part is,” Alyssa looked terribly conflicted even as she spoke, “The worst part is…. I feel hollow. Like, my emotions are dull, unless there’s fire, or heat, or fire-attuned mana.” Alyssa spoke the last few words with gritted teeth, and Ethan was almost certain he saw a bit of smoke coming from her, somewhere.
“It fucking sucks!” Alyssa shouted, stomping. Unexpectedly, flame burst out from her foot, enveloping her boot. She didn’t seem to notice, though, as she continued. “WHY DOES MY CLASS HAVE SO MANY FUCKING PROBLEMS? You just get to do fucking magic! I CAN’T FUCKING FEEL WITHOUT BEING PISSED!” She roared, with such intensity that Gadget, who had been alert since she’d began shouting, began barking at her.
The silence that followed was deafening. Three seconds passed before Ethan finally managed to cajole his body into doing something.
“Uh… Your shoe’s on fire.” Ethan lamely pointed out, but Alyssa didn’t move- not immediately, at least, and not to put out the shoe. Instead, a few seconds after his comment, she simply collapsed. She sobbed loudly, but without tears. Her entire body smoked but, luckily, there didn’t seem to be any fire aside from what was on her shoe.
Ethan wasn’t a therapist, and he really had no clue how to help Alyssa, but he was at least capable of identifying that the flaming boot was a problem. He hadn’t wanted to start a fire in the burrow due to smoke inhalation, and while he couldn’t see any smoke yet, he still knew it was a bad idea to just leave it.
“Get the fire outside!” Ethan shouted at Fred, who was just standing dumbly at the entrance and staring at it. The goblin rushed forward to fulfill his command, but Alyssa punched at Fred the second he neared, screaming as she did.
“Fuck off, bastard!” Alyssa shouted.
Fred fell backwards, blood dripping from his nose. The goblin was intent on following orders, though, and grabbed hold of her burning boot and tore it off her foot, even as Alyssa kicked at the goblin and wriggled backwards, away from Fred.
The goblin screeched as its hand was engulfed in fire as well, and it scrambled for the rain. In the meantime, Ethan shut off his phone’s flashlight and managed to make his leaden legs move for the exit as well. Clearly, she was having troubles with her emotions, and since Ethan didn’t know how to help, the best thing to do was stay out of the way- especially when she was feeling violent.