Prim’s consciousness was drifting among the other fragments of The Primordial in the vast origin. They were drifting to sleep when something tugged on them, drawing them back to the shrine. Ethan was visiting. They broke free of their dormant form with a shattering sound and assembled themself over their vessel. Their form felt stiff so they gave it a quick stretch before turning their attention to their small friend standing before them. Ethan asked the usual question.
“Hi Prim, could I see my sync really quick?” Prim tried out the thumbs up one of the other fragments had taught them earlier today before answering.
“Of course, one moment.” Their vision shifted from colors to energy and they peered at the bundle of energy within Ethans chest. It was firmly attached to him, none of the shaking and distorting it had been doing just earlier today. Prim smiled, proud of their friend.
“Congratulations, your sync has reached 100% and you are now able to advance to the next tier.” Prim noticed a bunch of spear attuned origin within their friends backpack, and they offered up a suggestion. “I can detect a large amount of matching shards on your person. Would you like to construct an orb and begin?” Ethan nodded
“Yes, or well…” He stumbled over his words before stopping and trying again. “Yes, but first I was going to make the orb with some others. Could I have the spear shard you stored?” Prim was a bit disappointed that their friend didn’t want to share the experience with them, but they quickly let it go. They were happy their friend had other friends. Besides, they would still get to experience the tier up with them.
“Of course.” Prim said as they raised up a pedestal containing the spear shard. Ethan grabbed the shard and dropped it in his backpack with the others.
“See you soon!” Will said as he stepped out of the shrine.
“See you soon” They thought to themself, unable to say it out loud as they returned to dormancy.
—
Ethan stepped into the dungeon proper again. The other two were sitting on the usual root. Rose was the first to notice, poking Will before both of them quickly walked over to me.
“Soooo?” Will asked, excited. I nodded as I answered.
“It’s at a hundred percent.” Will reached out and it took me a second to realize it was for a high five. I slapped his hand with a quiet clap. He reached out for a second high five. This time I was ready and did it without hesitation.
“Alright, lets make that orb now.” Rose said, and I nodded again.
“Right.” I shrugged off my backpack, and started pulling out the shards. Once they were all out, they briefly looked up at the other two.
“Does one of you want to make it, or should I…?”
“Just do it.” Rose said, and I did, grabbing two shards and pressing them together. They stuck together easily, like magnets. The entire orb was together in no time, and the seams sealed with a final flash of light. I forgot to close my eyes, but after a couple blinks I could see the smooth off-white orb in my hands. Will gave a quick cheer, and as usual I joined in a bit quieter. Rose cut us short.
“Alright, I want to see your new avatar before I have to go today. Could you get started?”
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“Oh, yeah. I guess I’ll go do that then.” I said, suddenly feeling guilty for taking so long. Was I stalling? I hadn’t been trying too, but maybe I had. I walked back to the shrine and stepped through the doorway. Though I didn’t look, I knew Will was waving and Rose probably was too.
Prim assembled themself over the statue with the usual shattering of glass, and for once they didn’t stretch.
“Hi again Ethan. Are you here to tier up?” the statue asked pleasantly, and I slipped off my backpack.
“Yeah, that’s the plan.” I pulled out the new orb. “Here’s the orb.” Prim reached out a hand and it drifted over to them to drift at their chest. I looked behind me to see the throne had silently risen from the ground. I took a seat, and the crown fell into place. My avatar appeared on the statue, or more accurately, my shield appeared on its arm. I drifted toward it, and more importantly I drifted toward the ball of energy that was the orb. Just like last time I reached out and gently poked it, causing the tightly packed sphere to poof out into a loose cloud.
Grabbing a strand of it I poked the shield experimentally. It refused to stick to the main part of the shield, but the closer to the dull spike the easier it was. Towards the tip the energy almost seemed to be attracted to it. Satisfied, I grabbed the rest of the bundle of energy and got started on making the corner a proper spike. I started by lengthening it into a steeper triangle like I had initially wanted, which was easy enough. I added the metallic appearance matching the shield, and worked on further sharpening the tip. Soon enough all the energy was in the shield, and it had several extra inches of spike. It honestly felt a bit underwhelming. I thought this was going to be a big thing, but not much had really happened, and it hadn’t taken much time either. That was probably a good thing anyways, I was trying to do this quickly. Something seemed a bit off about the avatar, but that would probably go away with sync. I drifted back to my body, and Prim drifted away, returning me to normal. Immediately the pins and needles returning to my body started up, and I started shaking and stumbling to get rid of them. Prim joined in as usual, confused but happy. Once both of us were done I started toward the door, waving bye to Prim. I stopped when Prim spoke up.
“Before you leave I need to inform you that your sync has fallen back to 27%, and can only be maintained for 16.2 minutes.” I had forgotten that was going to happen. I didn’t love the loss of progress but at least my avatar time hadn’t gone all the way back down.
“Thanks for the warning Prim. see you again soon.” I said as I stepped out of the shrine, Prim waving.
As I stepped out of the shrine Will and Rose rushed over, or more accurately Will rushed over while Rose walked over. Will of course started talking the moment he was close enough
“Alright, let's see the new avatar!”
“Okay, one sec.” I reached for it, but it slipped away. Oh yeah, we're back to the beginning. I sighed and then mimed grabbing it, pulling it over me. My shield, now with a proper point at the end of it, appeared. Will and Rose both complimented me on it, and I smiled. My avatar ran out of time shortly after. It had regained a short amount of charge. I was still feeling a bit down that I had lost so much progress. I was hoping I wouldn’t lose that much, but I couldn’t do anything about it but work on improving it again. We all went down to the guild and dropped off our rentals, and then we split up again going our separate ways. I got home around 7 and found a seat sprawled across the couch. I wasn’t tired enough to sleep though, so after a couple minutes I got up and went to the kitchen. I found some ramen and started searching for a pot. After a couple drawers I found one and started boiling some water in it. I started scrolling YouTube on my phone while I waited, eventually settling on an older Liam Palmer video called avatar tier one. It talked about how he had designed his avatars first tier with demonstrations of its abilities. I paused the video to add the noodles to the boiling water. His avatar was currently just a really detailed spear. He showed some footage of fighting a fire cat maybe twice the size of a house cat. I paused the video to add the flavor packet to the noodles and pour them in a bowl. Sitting down with my too hot to eat food I resumed the video again. I finished my ramen before the video, settling back onto the couch as I continued to the next video. In it he went up a tier, adding fire attunement. The video didn’t help me as much as I hoped, but I noticed his avatar had changed a lot more than mine had. I had a plan for what to try tomorrow as I drifted off to sleep.