Albert’s Focus dropped to 55%, and he flooded the mana that gathered in front of his body with Intent. Intent to transform the tree he was staring at into a horse.

Nothing happened, and the mana lost cohesion.

Cross it off.

The long list of failed attempts gained a new entry. The first entries on the list were mundane things: creating water from condensing air, spears of light and spells that might make sense in a magical world. Further down, weird concepts and ideas found their place, growing more bizarre as Albert realized how futile his attempts were.

We cannot create new spells. At all.

I agree with your assessment. Can I free up my computational power for other tasks now?

Fine. Do it.

I feel you are disappointed. However, I postulate that we might be able to deconstruct and emulate new spells if we see them enough times.

By us you mean…?

I mean me.

I see.

Albert frowned. He didn’t really like the idea of having traded a monolithic magic system for another, even more complicated one. Free-Bending was his ticket out of this nightmare, however the limitations of Focus and Power made themselves known.

Still, despite his failures, Albert felt like he had a solid enough grasp of his abilities to enter the village. On his way there, he had scanned some of the people he encountered, and none of them had shown any reaction to his scans. Which meant that they were too weak to notice, something that their average Power rating of 5 confirmed. Even though Albert was a mere 10, it still meant he was more than twice as powerful as they were.

For comparison, Jeff postulated that Albert, before losing the system, was a Power 5000. Not across the board, but as far as the most destructive skills went, he was quite powerful. The Power rating of 10 he had now was skewed towards some aspects rather than others as well, of course, making the COPY: skill ability the most important tool in his arsenal.

Which in turn meant that Jeff held most of the power. Something that bothered him a great deal. But Albert was confident that soon his Free-Bending would become powerful enough to be main source of Power score.

It was a competition of sorts with Jeff, one which the AI did not accept formally but Albert knew Jeff had diverted computational power to.

Numbers were estimates, and magic was nuanced but while Albert knew not to let his guard down, he still felt safe enough to enter the village unannounced.

He found it mostly empty. A quick scan of his surroundings, complementing data both from copied skills and from an expensive act of Free-Bending, allowed Jeff to populate Albert’s mental map with little white dots where all the people were. Most of the dozen or so wooden buildings were devoid of people, but one of them wasn’t.

“Hello.” Albert said, pushing the door of the tavern open, revealing a dimly lit room. He had Bent himself to make sure he spoke the same language as the locals, and Focus had dropped significantly.

His eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the darkness, but slowly the shapes of the tables, of the man sitting at one of the tables and of the bar resolved themselves in his vision. Jeff, already aware of the shape of the bar and of how the furniture was arranged inside thanks to the earlier scan, helped Albert not to bump into a chair.

“A traveler.” The man at the bar cleared his voice. “What brings you here? Are you a harbinger of Doom?”

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Albert blinked in surprise. With a wave of a hand, he made it so that the blinding light coming from the windows scattered a bit more through the air, dispelling some of the darkness of the place. An action that cost him over half his Focus but made him grin inwards.

Did you see that?

He asked you a question. You should reply. Jeff was less than impressed with Albert’s wanton use of Focus where a simple COPY:skill would have achieved more with less.

Albert replayed what the man said in his mind. He cocked his head. “Harbinger of Doom? What do you mean?”

The man chuckled over his whitening beard. “Doom gathers, and in all haste do you appear at my doorstep. Where are my manners?” He pulled a stool for Albert to sit, then returned to tending to his glasses. There were few of them, the rest wooden mugs. “We don’t get many visitors here, you see.”

A grunt came from the other side of the room, where what Albert supposed was a regular patron was examining the now-too-bright window curtains with drunk interest.

“Ah yeah,” Albert said. A scan made him woozy, but revealed the man’s Power was 7. “I don’t even know where the fuck I am.”

Reality Bending Power: 10 -> 11

Shit. I went below 15% and didn’t even notice.

It’s because you free-bent instead of using COPY.

COPY what? We don’t have a scanning skill other than Appraisal.

“This is Tulebord, our humble village up the Spinetree mountains.” The barkeep said. “My name’s Chief. I am the chief. And bartender. Guard. Healer. Pretty much anything around here. We don’t have many capable hands.”

“Huh.” Albert said, using a hand to stop his head from swimming. “Is the village empty or are people out?”

He cursed himself for having dropped below 15% Focus in the middle of a conversation. Even though he had no way to stop himself, he was aware that he was making a fool out of himself. However, he also found out that he didn’t care.

Strange, it was the first time he felt like this. Usually he was rather self-conscious. Must have been the Power disparity.

“Ah,” the man smiled. “You joke, of course. There is only one path to the village, and you must have seen the men working on the trees there.”

Albert had. “You got me.” He smiled. “What were they doing with those trees anyways? I thought they were cutting them at first, but then I looked again, and they were… chanting? Casting something?”

Jeff claimed he couldn’t COPY whatever it was they were doing, which meant that it wasn’t a proper spell, or that they were still channeling it. Albert felt confident that it didn’t matter, although he had to admit that his Free-Bending was lagging behind.

“Extracting the dew of the spine trees.” The man said. “It’s our main source of income. The Kingdom pays a pretty penny for it. And people from all places come here to try and steal our secret method of extraction.”

The glint in Chief’s eyes sent a jolt through Albert’s system as alarm bells began to ring. He glanced at the edge of his vision. His Focus was still dangerously low, barely at 16%.

“I don’t care about it.” Albert said, sitting straighter on the stool. There was no backrest, and he shifted his weight to achieve better balance. He failed.

Chief nodded at him, but his gaze lingered at the side of Albert’s head. Albert, in turn, was suddenly aware of his half-elf status.

“You say that, but your people—”

Albert raised a wobbly finger. He cursed, and used the other hand to stabilize it. “Not my people.”

Jeff, solutions?

Albert’s vision populated with text. There was a sub-category labeled: inelegant but effective. He mentally clicked it and his eyes widened. Most of them were COPY:skills, but he couldn’t afford to be picky. Beggars, when it came to Focus levels, can’t be choosers. If his Focus was low, then his ability to do things his way diminished significantly.

Chief noticed Albert’s eyes glazing over, and correctly assumed that Albert was planning something. He reached with a hand below the counter. Albert’s mind went into overdrive, and he mentally clicked the first item in the highlighted category.

Many things happened at the same time.

Focus dropped to 9%.

The world grew blurry and distant, and Albert felt the edges of his vision grow dim and black. Like he was receding backwards in a tunnel, or falling in a water well.

He felt a voice. Cursing at him for being too jumpy.

Then he saw a sort of box. A notification! Power went from 11 to… 14?

At the same time, something warm splashed on his face. The taste of iron filled his mouth and a strange stench hit his nose.

He looked up, fighting the urge to vomit.

He reeled back in surprise, trying to wipe the red fluid from his face and only succeeding in smearing it everywhere. He fell from his stool and hit his head on the ground.

The other patron, in the meantime, had disappeared from his seat.

From his position on the ground, seeing the world sideways and dimly, Albert saw feet. A man was looming over him.

Jeff?

The request has been up for a few seconds already. Authorize it, please.

Yes, yes, yes. Do it. Whatever it is. Do it.

Blackness.