Congratulations! Your Nascent Affinity: [Mass], is ready to be evolved. Select a specialization!
1. [Density (Mass)]
2. [Gravity (Mass)]
3. [Strength (Mass)]
A heavy sigh of relief left my body, followed shortly by a grin.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Fuck. Yes.”
Meditating on my Mass powers had felt at times like an uphill battle, even aided by Kurian’s guidance. There was something about my Friction energy that had always come easy in comparison and at times, I had wondered if my connection to my Mass energy would ever catch up.
But finally, four days later—and just in time for the Second Floor—I’d reached that threshold. A part of me—okay, most of me—had worried that I wouldn’t clear that hurdle before the next Floor. Now, I could breathe easier.
When I opened my eyes, Kurian was watching me with an appraising look from across the room. A slight nod was the only acknowledgment I received of my accomplishment before he turned back to his damn tablet.
What was he always watching on that thing!
I was in too good a mood to let his casual regard ruin the feeling coursing through my body.
Fuck yeah! I was ready for Adept! All I needed to do was pick my core specializations and use the [Body Tempering Solution].
“I did it,” I said to the room.
Lacy pumped a fist in the air without looking away from her overwatch board. She was high up on her platform, engrossed in one of the new Scenarios Kurian had crafted. She was currently guiding Amos, Byron, Jerome, and Frank through that Scenario and they were supplemented by three Simulacrums to round out their squad. To my left, Athena was fighting three high-level Nascent combat Simulacrums at once, her body twirling through the air as she stabbed her sword through one of her targets. She glanced over with a grimace, her hair matted to her face and neck.
“Cool, want a cookie?” Then she turned back to deflect two simultaneous attacks, skewering the wrist of one, then turning her momentum to sweep the leg of the other. The downed sim used its fall to back roll onto its feet and the fight continued.
I chuckled at her comment, shaking my head as I looked around the room for someone to celebrate with. Up above, Lex was swooping through the air, the ceiling of the training room extended hundreds of feet by Kurian. Much to his dismay, the Class Guide had assigned Lex endurance and precision courses, and the air was filled with multi-colored rings of varying sizes that he had to pass through in a specific order. He let out a weary honk, passing through a blue ring that was so tight he had to fold his wings to his side.
“Nice one, Dirk!” he called down.
I gave him a thumbs up, not wanting to distract him from his course.
Walking over to the table setup near the Personal Space door, I plopped down into a foldout chair and put my hand on the oblong item that I had left there. Maybe it was cheesy, but it felt wrong to keep the item in my Inventory. Even if she couldn’t hear or see, it was nice to have her there.
“I did it, Red. I’m about to hit Adept.” The item was cold to the touch, like metal but with a textured surface more akin to leather. It was an odd sensation under my palm, but one that I had grown accustomed to over the past few days. The egg-shaped item had served as a sort of totem as I’d struggled with my physical and mental training.
“Wish you were here, Red,” I said softly.
I rested there for a minute, watching Athena slice her way through enemy after enemy, while Lex danced through the air. The others weren’t visible inside their Scenario, but I could hear Lacy giving orders—and scolding them when they messed up.
“Byron, no! No touchy!”
“Left past that lin—Left, Amos! What do you mean whose left? Your left, you dumbass—”
“Jerome, focus the mage on the left. Frank, lock down the group of skeletons…nice, good job guys.”
I felt at peace watching them train, listening to Lacy lead. Everything had come together in the end and though we were pushing ourselves to prepare for the next big challenge, in this moment, life was good.
A few minutes later, my Personal Space door opened and I glanced over to see Nikki approaching with a heavy duffel bag in her arms. She was combing through the bag, her face practically buried inside so that she didn’t notice me until she set it down on the table and looked up.
“Oh,” she said with wide eyes. “Hey, Dirk, didn’t see you there. Thought you’d be training.”
“Hey, Nik’. Just taking a break. What you got there?”
She unconsciously reached for the bag, biting her lip as if embarrassed. Then she chuckled and held it open for me to see.
Inside, there were rolls of gauze, packaged needles, a sewing kit, and an assortment of other items that I had trouble identifying.
“Kurian said that the System rewards you for what you do, not the class you picked. The fight with the demons and—” She took a breath. “—and Craig, showed me that I can make a difference without fighting. I…I want to be a medic or healer or something.” She shrugged. “If I work at the mundane stuff long enough, Kurian said I’d be offered a healing class of some type when I hit the next Stage.”
“That’s awesome! That would be a great fit for you. But why am I getting the impression you’re embarrassed or something?”
She looked around and indicated Athena and Lacy across the room as if that answered my question.
“Look at them, Dirk. They’re training to fight. And I’m…too scared. I don’t think I could ever go out into the front lines, fighting a demon or a Jree with actual weapons…” She trailed off, clearly having trouble finding her words.
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“And?” I prompted.
She scoffed as if it were obvious. When I didn’t react, she looked away.
“A ten-year-old has more courage than me,” she whispered. “Lacy’s been through so much and it’s only made her stronger.” She looked back at me, tears in her eyes. Her voice filled with fire and self-loathing. “And me? I’m pathetic! Every day I wake up, I lay in bed and hate myself for being so weak. Some days, I hardly have the energy to get up and face the embarrassment of my life, Dirk! He-he’s dead and I still see his face every time I close my eyes.” Her voice dropped to a whisper again. “I…I wish I were strong, like them.”
Pushing up from my seat, I grabbed her by the shoulders.
“We’re all weak, Nikki—”
She looked away. “Pssh, you’re not.”
I bent down until we were eye-to-eye.
“We’re all weak, especially me. I’m scared every second of every day.”
Her eyes trailed back over slowly. “You…you are?”
I scoffed, nodding. “All the damn time. But it’s not something I’m ashamed of. It’s my fuel, Nik’. It’s not the fear or the feelings of failure that keep me in the bed. They’re exactly the reason I get out. Without that fear, without the memory of my failures burning a hole in my mind, I’d never get out of bed. I’d wait for someone else to solve the problem for me.” I nodded toward Athena and Lacy. “That’s why they train so hard. They’re scared, too.”
She looked over, her eyes widening as she realized what I was saying.
“You don’t have to wade into demons to make a difference, Nikki. All you have to do is get out of bed and do your best—whatever that looks like to you. If you want to heal people, you should do that with all your heart and never feel ashamed about the way you’re making a difference.”
Her eyes grew distant and I could tell she was working my words over in her mind. After a few moments, she chuckled lightly.
“You’re so different than the Dirk in my memories.” She turned back with a smile. “I’m sorry for all the things I thought about you.”
I shook my head. “No, you were probably right about those things at the time. That’s the thing, Nikki, we can always change—for the better or the worse. But nobody gets to pick which way we go but us. We may lose our power or the strength in our arms or suffer a terrible setback, but in the end, how we address those moments are up to us, and only us.” I paused, shaking my head as I thought back to all the decisions I’d made—dumb and smart. “Recognizing that is the most important step in our personal growth.”
She laughed and I realized it was the first time I’d seen her in a good mood since we’d pulled her out of the Tower.
“Whatever books you read in prison, I want the list,” she joked.
I shared her laugh, then spotted Lacy coming down from her tower to join the team as they debriefed. Nikki followed my eye and a different sort of smile touched her lips.
“Wasn’t prison, was it?” she asked.
Shaking my head, I smiled back. “No.”
She nodded and put a hand on my arm. “I’m really happy for you, Dirk.” Then a twinkle lit in her eye, a slight smile touching her lips. “Don’t fuck it up.”
I chuckled at that and moved past her. “Oh, I probably will. Let’s just hope it’s not a Dirk-sized fuck up.”
She laughed and turned back to her duffel bag as I went to meet with Lacy and the team. As I neared, she was quietly giving them feedback as they listened patiently.
“Frank, that was a good call out on the second wave, but I need you to stay focused. No more mid-battle studying, okay?”
He had a chagrined look on his face and nodded quickly. “Sorry, Lacy.”
She nodded and turned to Jerome. “Jerome, you didn’t transfer your defense bot when I called it out. What’s up?”
He scowled, then looked away with an embarrassed grunt. “Thought Byron needed it more.”
She nodded. “I get that, but you didn’t see the third wave coming up from the sewer grate.”
“Got distracted,” he admitted.
“That’s fine, that’s not the problem.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t trust me when I called it out. Why?”
He squirmed under her stare and I hung back so as to not interrupt their flow.
“I-I guess I don’t like being told things,” he finally said. I could tell he was battling every instinct inside himself not to admit that. “When you said it, I…got mad.”
He looked embarrassed at the admission, but Lacy nodded solemnly.
“Thank you for telling me that,” she said sincerely. “I’ll work on my delivery next time, okay?”
He nodded, then spotted me over her shoulder and looked off like I’d caught him in a moment of vulnerability.
I purposefully didn’t make light of their conversation—this was obviously something Lacy was working hard on and I didn’t want to throw dynamite in the middle of a delicate situation.
With a wave, I turned and started over toward Kurian. He put away his tablet at my approach.
“Hey, Kurian. Wanted to get your advice on which core specializations to pick.”
“They are all excellent options,” he said. “But I would not sway you toward any selections. You must choose what feels right.”
He had said something similar before but I had hoped he’d have at least a little bit of guidance.
“No hints?” I tilted my head as if he to say this was his chance to weigh in. “If I pick something totally stupid, I don’t wanna hear any I told ya so’s.”
He regarded me with a placid expression. “I don’t do I told you so’s.”
I snorted and shook my head. “You’re no fun.”
“I stopped being fun when I conquered my first galaxy.” Then he pulled out his tablet and turned his attention back to it. Leaning in, I could swear it was a literal intergalactic drama.
“Okay, fine, enjoy your rom-com.”
As I turned to find a quiet corner to pick my specializations, he spoke.
“Use your Body Tempering Potion first.”
I looked back over my shoulder, but he was already heads down on his tablet.
“Roger that.”
Strolling over toward the meditation mat in the corner of the room, I sat cross-legged and pulled the Celestial grade Body Tempering Potion from my Inventory and regarded it. The liquid inside swirled with palpable energy, sending tingles through my palm.
Before I drank it, I needed to reach a meditative state. Thanks to the work I’d done pushing my Mass core to the specialization stage, my Meditation skill had reached level 6 and it was much simpler to enter that flow than when I’d first started.
After a minute or so of breath cycling, I felt myself slip in that now familiar state. Keeping my mind placid, I uncorked the bottle and put it to my lips. Thick, syrupy liquid poured into my mouth. The moment it touched my tongue, a bout of electricity began coursing through my body and I had to take a moment to re-center myself before I swallowed.
I could track the potion as it trailed down my throat, feeling it hit my stomach like a supercharged lead weight. The energy sat in my stomach, a heavy sphere of power that pulsed with potential. I regarded it for a moment, not quite sure how this was supposed to work. The instructions had never described how to direct the solution, only that it should be pushed to the outer extremities seven times, forcing the impurities from my body. Focusing my thoughts on that ball of energy, I peeled a tiny portion of it off and began directing it toward my right arm.
As soon as it left my stomach and began moving toward my chest, a wash of pain splashed the entire area. Cold fire burned me from the inside. It was like I’d jumped into a subzero temperature lake, shocking me so completely that I nearly lost all sense of self.
But the energy coursing through me didn’t dissipate or become wasted as I lost my grip. Rather, it seemed to float in place, searing me as it waited for another bout of direction. I took five deep breaths, readying myself for the wave of pain to come and pushing myself back into a meditative state.
When I reached out and grabbed the energy lingering in my chest, I kept myself detached from my body, thinking only of my breathing as a distant part of me guided the energy to my right arm.
Knifing pain followed the energy as it moved and I would have sworn I was being shredded from the inside. With a gasp, the energy reached the ends of my fingertips and finally dissipated. My heavy breathing dominated my thoughts and I opened my eyes expecting to see my entire right arm turned inside-out.
Black and red coated my arm, a thick, pungent mess that looked like a blend of tar and blood. But the pain was gone and I flexed my arm, feeling that it was in pretty good condition.
No, scratch that. My right arm felt invigorated, strong enough to tear a car door off its hinges.
The grime and goop coating my arm was disgusting and the pain had been excruciating, but that new strength I felt spurred me forward.
Six more times in that arm, seven total for each limb.
I took a few quick psych up breathes, then dived back in.