The six rows of zeroes descending down Casimir’s arm marked him as inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and he had never been happier to be objectively measured as nothing. He had the System. He had the System! Who cared if he was nothing special for now, all that mattered was that he had been brought into the fold. Judged worthy enough to be defined. To be measured. Under the System, being a bottom dweller only meant that you were about to start your climb to the top.
Power had a savory tang to it rather than the sweet one, and now that Casimir had a taste, he wanted more of it. His foot was in the door of opportunity, keeping it from shutting on him forever, and now time and effort was all that it would take to fix Ekaterina. To fix the mistake he had made ten years ago. Whatever Stats needed to be increased, whatever Skills needed to be learned, he would do it. Sacred texts, arcane rituals, Casimir would conquer them all until his great work of repairing the damage he had done as a child was fixed. Until his sin was washed away.
It would be a relentless task, but it was within Casimir’s reach to attain the one ability he desired most. Human Reconstitution. The Skill that had saved the few survivors of the Cataclysm from wasting away from radioactive fallout and the infohazard contagions that spread from the gods’ brief appearance.
“Rewarding this kind of insolence solely out of spite for me? I had thought better of you.” Kaczmarek said. There was not much energy to his indignation after the gifting of System access, just a slack jawed expression. Stunned. Horrified even. Like the proctor had just seen gravity decide to turn itself off on a whim. When Casimir looked at the Eleni Vassos and Luka Kaczmarek, he saw something in them like a small blue flame, but it was overshadowed by what glowed inside the priest.
“I did not do it because of you, Luka. I assure you of that. If your unprofessional behavior was all I saw here, it would have been noted and the boy would be failed and left here unpowered.” Barasa said.
Kaczmarek guffawed. “I’m the one being unprofessional here? Really?”
“Both our superiors would find claiming credit for the instructions, botching the execution of them with a time factor, and then being goaded by a child into putting an entire classroom’s results on hold to be lacking, yes.” The priest replied. His tone was dry, and he was thoroughly unamused.
“I did design this exercise.” Kaczmarek snarled.
“It, like all Academy testing proposals, was designed by higher ups in the twin branches and then anonymously submitted. I know for a fact that you did not make the Claymaker’s Trial test because I know who did.” Barasa said.
“Did you make it, sir?” Casimir asked.
“No.” Barasa shook his head. “A mentor of mine did, and I very clearly remember her spending several months with hands as dirty as yours.”
He might as well have gagged the proctor with a sock.
“You can’t deny that it is a reward.” Eleni Vassos said, backing up her coworker.
The priest sighed. “As I said before, this is no gift or honor. This is an investment. One that I intend to be collecting dividends from for the rest of my life.” Barasa said.
That did not sit well with Casimir but there were no great prizes without equal prices.
Everything’s got a string attached and everyone fancies themselves the puppet master, even me. It’s a wonder we aren’t all tangled up in one knot.
“He benefits greatly from this.” Proctor Vassos said.
“So long as I, and mankind, benefit more than we spend on the boy, I assure you the Ascendancy does not care how much he gets out of it.” Barasa said.
Such a contrast between the two factions, the Academy was the polar opposite of that statement. In the scholar’s world that Casimir had wished to join, there was nothing but superiors caring about subordinates doing too well. Success just meant that your underlings might be growing strong enough to take your place. It was not just distaste between the two men, that was clear from how Eleni Vassos’s discomfort with Barasa. This was a broader conflict.
If I find out why the Academy and the Ascendancy hate each other, but still tolerate each other’s existence to not wipe each other out, I can keep on using this. Casimir thought. The priest would try to have a tight rein on his initiate, no doubt, but this day had been proof that no one was above the human urge to align into factions.
“Let’s go, boy.” Barasa said, beckoning him to follow.
Casimir hastened his pace to keep up with Barasa’s long stride. As he caught the door before it shut on him, he glanced back inside. Thirty souls stared back. Most applicants stared with envy, some with disgust, but a few looked at him like he was a myth that had appeared out of thin air. A wonder. One that might vanish if they blinked.
“Where are we going, sir?” Casimir asked.
“For now, out of that room.”
“So that you don’t have to be near Kaczmarek?”
“So that the other applicants can be graded without being held up by our presence. There are more important things in life than our convenience. A word of warning, Shuisky. We’re about to exit into an open view of the city. You will want to prepare yourself.” Barasa said.
Infinite shadow. That was all that his eye could see. It made no sense. The gift of the System’s sight had somehow only blinded him from a familiar view of the great underground city of Salvation II.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“I don’t understand.” Casimir said.
“Neither your Perception nor your Observation are high enough to meet truth’s gaze.” Barasa said.
“There is no way for me to walk around like this.” Casimir said, starting to back away, seeking the comforting walls.
The priest seized his shoulder to stop the reversal.
“Do not shame yourself with cowardice. You must switch off your Observation or walk onwards sightless. I won’t allow a fragment of my will to degrade his honor.” Barasa said.
“How do I turn it off?”
“Children learn to swim best by being thrown in the deep end. Consider this your second test.”
Casimir threw the weight of his fear of the dark and his desire to understand against the darkness, but thought just glanced off the boundaries of his skull. Demanding the world to change, gritting his teeth and thinking about it did nothing at all. The only reward for his effort was the beginnings of a headache and the worry that someone might see him straining and think him constipated.
Finally, Casimir tried speaking. “… Observation off?”
The verbal command might as well have not been spoken. The boy rubbed his green eyes, but even the splotches of color that should have danced were a no-show. Not even an illusion would come to light his way. From the moment he had moved into the open air, all had been darkness. An unending one. An inversion that stole knowledge rather than gave it.
“Toss me into the deep if you like, but at least tell me which way is up.” Casimir said.
The priest sighed.
“We learn by defining our world. Those distinctions are won through dividing what we assumed was inseparable. You possess a Perception statistic and an Observation Skill. Split the two.” Barasa said.
His throat was dry, yet his palms were slick. Even as he tried to ignore it, Casimir could not help but to rationalize everything he experienced.
These are just stress reactions, only nervousness manifesting. I need to focus on what really matters, not spend time overanalyzing everything. My thoughts and sensations are completely sep-
Wait…
“Stats are… attributes, but skills are learned. Like how physical strength and a sport would go together. One applied in specific ways by the mind.” Casimir reasoned aloud.
“Yes.”
“And the blindness is from how they are mixing here.”
“Indeed.”
“So, boy, divide the universe and deliver to me the answer.” Barasa said.
“My physical ability has not grown, and I know it has not because I have all zeroes. But something has changed still. Skills come in levels, right?” Casimir asked.
“Yes. They do.”
“And I’m guessing they don’t start at Level 0 if I’m getting all of this nonsense.” Casimir gestured blindly.
“That is correct. Level 1 is where each Skill begins if they are awakened.” Barasa said.
“Okay. Okay.” Casimir said, thinking feverishly. “My eyes cannot see that there is something strange going on, because I never noticed it before, and my Observation is high enough to tell me that there is something in the abyss but not strong enough to identify it.”
“Just so.” The priest said. “And your solution to this is?”
Casimir opened his mouth and then shut it. He had not gotten that far.
“I’ll tell you what, the charge of Numerality that I have given you will run out in about a day. Find your way home and then back here tomorrow and I will give you a second boost.”
What? No, I need this to fix her.
“Have I displeased you? I promise I’ll figure this out.” Casimir said.
“You have not disappointed me. This is just the System’s nature. It is fueled by Essence that is provided by inhuman hands and passed down through the mortal ranks. Every moment that passes on Earth it runs out,” Barasa said.
“But that makes the whole government so fragile.” The boy replied.
“That’s by design. Only those with the heavens’ blessing may rule.” Barasa said.
“So the gods control the Hierarch, and it controls you, and you control me.”
“I’m glad you understand. The Academy dominates their members through intimidation because their stipend is so little, but we of the Ascendancy have enough for a simple truth. The fact that the System exists only for those who serve.” Barasa said. “I have other business. Find your way home.”
Casimir nodded in the direction of the priest’s voice.
“Within the next half hour.” Barasa added.
So soon! That would be easy with sight, but I need to stall. Casimir thought.
“Even with vision, getting from the Academy back into housing districts would be a big ask.” Casimir said, hoping to squeeze some more time out of the man’s tight grip.
“I recognized your family’s name when I Observed you. We both know you won’t have to descend far.” Barasa admonished.
“Ah.”
There was nothing more to say to that. Casimir wondered if the priest’s own lineage was rooted in Pre-Cataclysm Earth’s upper class as well. He sank to his knees, the ground just coming into clear focus as he neared it. Plan A was looking to be crawling on the ground. On his hands and knees even. Undesirable, it would make him look crazy but walking blind could mean a long, long fall.
“The descendant of a tsar will crawl like a dog?”
Casimir grit his teeth.
“I was merely thinking.” He lied to the priest.
Limiting the amount of information made movement possible, but now he had to find a way that would not disappoint his new master.
Fine then. Impulse got me this far.
Casimir stripped off his jacket and then his shirt, rubbing the porous fabric with his dirty thumbs.
“This isn’t the way I meant for you to pursue. What are you doing?”
“My way.” Casimir said, wrapping the shirt around his head, stretching it so tightly that thin holes in the threads were widened to the point that light could make it in.
A filter, blocking out the majority of his field of view.
“You look like a fool.” The priest said.
“Then this humble jester hopes you will be entertained.” Casimir said as he put his jacket back on and adjusted the shirt. His breath came with more ease, the cloth less smothering.
“I doubt your pride has ever been humbled.”
You would be surprised. I wish that you were right though. If Casimir had spoken, shame would have muffled his voice just as much as the fabric.
Half-obscured by thread, the underground city of Salvation II was made visible once more. Immense stalagmite columns pierced up towards a distant ceiling like the spears of a wrathful god. Perhaps that was what they were. The pillars were not natural, they could not be with their gargantuan, swollen thickness. Most of mankind was born, lived, and then died clinging to the surfaces of these icicles of rock. Homes and marketplaces stuck out like barnacles, and businesses and the lavish estates of the wealthy burrowed like termites into them.
Splotches of bioluminescent moss glowed like green and violet nebulas, the majority of the light sources. Between all of these thriving hives stretched connective bridges. They crossed through the gaping void to link everything together, warped veins that pumped the lifeblood of trade through civilization. At the center of it all was the Spire, the grandest of the pillars. No constructions marred its holy surface, no fungi illuminated it. The Ascendancy would never have allowed such impurity to profane their monolith.
----------------------------------------
Casimir Maksimovich Shuisky
Stats: (Unallocated)
-STR:0
-VIT:0
-CHA:0
-PER:0
-FOR:0
-DEX:0
Skills:
-Observe Lvl 1
Traits: Shuisky Heir, Inverted Human
Allegiances: Shuisky Family, Cult of the Delving Wyrm, The Ascendancy