The air was cool and dry, carrying the scent of pine and sap. The conifers sat a good way down the slope of the mountain, where the temperature was warmer, but an updraft carried the smell all the way to the edge of the prairie. Albert had left the snow behind a while ago, following a creek towards the bed of clouds that obstructed any view of the valley below.
We need a name for my mental energy, or bending fatigue or whatever. Let’s call it Focus. It is finite and quantifiable, therefore it can be represented by a number.
Do you want me to add it to your HUD?
Yes please. As a percentage, going from 100% when I am fully rested to 0%.
Where shall I put death and fainting thresholds?
0% and 10%. They are projections and can fluctuate, right?
Correct.
This meant that, the closer Albert got to 10%, the harder it became to remain conscious. However, it didn’t mean that once he reached that number, he would automatically faint. In fact, with his current mental strain and frail emotional balance, he suspected he would swing from being able to withstand lower percentages out of sheer stubbornness and anger to fainting even as high as 15% if he was in a depressed mood.
He made a mental list, which appeared at the edge of his vision as a minimized notification. It looked like a Quest of old at first glance, and it would be a notepad where all the issues he needed to fix would be added to. For now, only one item appeared.
1. Deal with my emotional issues before they overwhelm me.
Then, after some thought, another item appeared.
1. Deal with my emotional issues before they overwhelm me.
2. Investigate Power gains related to Focus expenditure.
For now, he estimated that whenever he dipped below 15% Focus and remained conscious, his Power grew by one. He didn’t know for sure, but Jeff could surely help.
Can you access my memories?
Only the memories formed after you left the Black Space.
That’s good enough. Correlate times when Focus drops to dangerous levels with growth in Power and let me know what you find.
On it.
By the way, Jeff. Did you also notice that magic seems to… do something whenever we use COPY: skill Bending?
I like the name.
Focus, Jeff, don’t turn into me.
I noticed it. I see everything you see, and I can feel your thoughts and conjectures. They can get quite distracting. However, the insight is sound, and I am running models.
Thank you.
Albert reached the pine forest, and the air grew humid. Following along the creek was no longer as easy as it was when there were no trees, forcing Albert to take a long time to avoid getting injured. There were ways to speed up the process with Bending, he knew, either by spending a lot of Focus or a little Focus if he got creative enough with his old skills. But he chose to take his time. He needed it to think, and the revelation that this was a future version of Earth had erased all sorts of urgency from his mind.
That’s when Jeff decided to remind him that it was not entirely true.
Alignment Energy saturation: 2%
Extrapolate.
Incomplete data, however the trend suggests that we have less than a year before reaching 100%
And then?
Unknown.
Albert picked up the pace. He watched the counter at the edge of his vision that indicated his Focus go from 100% to 80% as he and Jeff together cast a weaker, copy version of his old Strengthening skill, causing the magic around him to vibrate. A quick use of magic vision, costing 5% Focus, showed a leftover region of lessened magical density in Albert’s wake.
Albert moved quickly, jumping over fallen trees and navigating the terrain with ease. Having Jeff and letting the AI use Focus was like having a whole new sense of balance, using supernatural means to avoid falling or taking damage. Albert’s control over his body, in those brief moments when Jeff took over, was complete.
He reached the layer of low clouds, and the mist reduced visibility to near zero. At 62% Focus, Albert decided against using his still limited power to fight against the clouds, and instead slowed his pace. The sun was setting. It was hard to tell when he was surrounded by clouds, but the bright day was unmistakably turning to night.
Albert froze.
Shush. Did you hear it?
Hear what?
Albert checked his Focus. 67%. Cast COPY: Perception, tuned to sound and infrared.
The water in the air will abs—
Do it!
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Jeff did, pulling at Albert’s Focus and casting the skill. As usual, magic reacted to it, but Albert ignored it for the time being. The outline of an animal appeared in his vision, and his thoughts focused on it.
Scanning… Estimated Power 1.
Albert let go of the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Just an animal, then.
He shook his head. He was too jumpy. Moving quickly, consuming Focus to navigate the area of low visibility, Albert cleared the layer of clouds before anything else could sneak up on him. By the time he was out, he was covered in sweat, and the last light of day was vanishing. Rays of gold and orange were visible at the horizon, but the world was already dark, gloomy and cold. The wind swept the slope of the mountain, making him shiver.
He Bent reality, noticing how the mana around him did not move when he willed his sweat away and for himself not to feel cold anymore, refreshing his previous buffs. He stared for a moment at the swirling particles of magic, set into motion not by his Bending but by Jeff’s COPY: magic perception ability.
As night descended, he could see lights in the valley below: a village.
Albert constructed a small viewing lens, a rudimentary telescope, by asking Jeff to mimic his old Solid-State Manifestation skill. It was not enough to have a good idea of what sort of village lay in the distance, the light too dim and the lenses too weak to magnify the image.
To make the illusory construct more effective, he invested 20% of his Focus to make it work better, leaving the description vague, hoping that it would work. Back in the cave, letting go had been the key to making Free-Bending work at all, but here it seemed not to be as effective. When he peered into it, and frowned, he realized that if there had been an improvement from before, it was too little to even notice.
On a whim, Albert decided to try something else.
Jeff, appraise the telescope.
Focus dropped to 35% as the AI copied an old skill.
[An illusory telescope, slightly more real than it should be.]
Did you make the description up from raw data?
No. I am relaying the information to you as I receive it.
Wait, let me try.
Focus dropped to 25% this time, since Albert was not as skilled as Jeff when it came to COPY: skill Bending. It was the opposite with Free-Bending, but that would come later.
A shockwave propagated through the mana of the world, setting it into motion and vibration, and the same information appeared directly in Albert’s mind.
[An illusory telescope, slightly more real than it should be.]
The fact that Appraisal existed back when he had a system could be due to the system itself. But here?
Albert Free-Bent. Focus dropped to 10%, but Albert barely even noticed the drop. Power went from nine to ten, but again, Albert barely even read the notification before waving it away.
Appraise it.
Are you sure?
Do it. Now.
You might faint.
Fine! I’ll recuperate first. Add Bending myself to recuperate faster to the list.
What were you trying to do?
Didn’t you see? Appraising gave a snarky description, and since it wasn’t you, it got me thinking. My theory is that there is something or someone, perhaps a rudimentary consciousness, governing the universe. Magic is either an offshoot of it or an expression of it or another entity altogether. Which gave me an idea. What if I add conditions and limitations to my magical telescope? It should make it stronger.
I struggle to follow.
Appraise it. Did we recuperate enough?
Not yet.
Alright. Another thing. Who makes up the Appraisal descriptions? I always thought it was the system, but there is no system now. So, who wrote that the telescope is more Real than it should be? Why phrase it that way?
I don’t know.
Me neither. But it supports my earlier claim, and it gives me ideas. Why does magic seem to want to cast spells? Is casting spells magic’s true purpose or is it just another fundamental force? And why is Bending different? You can COPY: skill Bend, but can you Free-Bend? I have never seen you do it. In fact, you always need authorization to even COPY: skill Bend!
I cannot Free-Bend.
When I was running and you stabilized me. It was COPY: Telekinesis, wasn’t it?
It was.
Albert nodded. On the other hand, why can I COPY: skill Bend? I don’t have any mana, it’s ridiculous to think that I can manipulate it well enough to weave a spell. Unless mana wanted to cast the spell so badly that only intent is necessary, however a lot more since I don’t have your precision. I use Focus to gather the mana, then the rest comes from intent. In both cases, however, you need a conscious mind to Bend. When you COPY: skill, you ask me to do some Focus work, you add your super-lazer-focused AI intent to it, and then something else finishes it. Perhaps mana itself.
It is compatible with my preliminary results.
Albert glanced at his Focus gauge. 12%.
Spill it.
You assumed that your body is now devoid of magic. That is correct.
Right. Add an item to the list: I want to try to absorb mana into my body.
Done. You also came to the conclusion that Free-Bending doesn’t use mana. That is also correct. You then said that I cannot Free-Bend, which is correct. However, you are mistaken in thinking that I cannot manipulate mana, and that I merely add Intent. In fact, my requests to use Focus are not only so that I can gather mana for a spell, but they are also instructions on how to weave it into a framework. This is why your version of COPY: Fireball was different than my version of it. Mine was exactly like the system did it, yours was an Intent supercharged version, self-cast by mana itself. Or so I believe.
This means that I accidentally discovered a third, hybrid method.
Jeff did not immediately continue. Instead, a three-dimensional model of Albert and his surroundings appeared. In the visualization, Albert was in the act of casting a fireball. Both the weak version, and the supercharged one when anger took over him.
In the first version, Albert noticed a sudden drop in Focus, but the cloud of mana the surrounded him did not move. The result was a miser flame, and the severe backlash that dropping below 15% Focus caused.
In the second version, the drop in Focus was much smaller, barely bringing him to 10%. What changed was how the mana in the environment reacted. Immediately after Focus was expended, the mana began to move and weave itself into a spell. A spell that, in the mana-rich environment of the cave, was very powerful.
In a side window, Jeff provided an insight into how a ‘normal’ level-8 fireball was supposed to look like. The weaving of Albert’s version of the spell was similar, but on a bigger scale. It was a mix of COPY: Fireball and Free-Bending.
Now the differences are obvious. Three methods. The cheap one is the one where you spend my Focus to gather mana and then weave it yourself. The downside is that it’s rigid and fixed.
The middle method is the mixed approach, where I spend Focus to gather mana and add Intent.
The most expensive method is spending a lot of Focus to freebend.
I concur.
The revelation was shocking, and its implications even larger. However.
Why would I ever want to freebend, then? If magic can cast itself, I simply need Intent.
There might be a limitation. For instance, you would be dependent on ambient mana.
Until I make myself a core again.
Should you be successful, there might be other limitations.
Right. Can you make up new spells? Why limit yourself to only using copied skills from my old system?
Albert hummed in thought.
Add to list: try to see what counts as a spell and what doesn’t. Now, appraise the telescope, it’s time I prove to you how right I am.
[An illusory telescope, slightly more real than it should be. It has the following modifiers:
Magnification depends on how bad the user’s head hurts.
Magnification increased by 100%.
Sharpness of image increased by 300%.
Disappears after 50 seconds of use.]
Albert grinned. He was right: making objects weird made them more powerful. If his other theory was right, the same applied to Free-Bending, opening the door to many possible paths to power.
Unfortunately, having a weird telescope did not reveal much about the village in the valley, especially because there wasn’t much to see.
In much higher spirits, Albert decided to rest for a while, and in the morning made his way towards the village.