“A room for two.” Albert said. “No, wait.” He looked at the boy standing next to him like a puppy. “That came out wrong. Two rooms.”
The innkeeper nodded without speaking, and produced two keys. Albert took them, and offered one to Scrap. The boy took a moment to understand the meaning behind the small pieces of metal being dangled in front of his face, but when he did his eyes went huge.
“Sir! Lord! I-I can’t accept this!”
Albert cocked his head. “Sure you can.”
The boy tried to argue.
“Why?” Albert asked. “You got better places to be? Or are you telling me that my hospitality is not only unnecessary, but unappreciated even!”
Scrap swallowed hard, eyes darting left and right. “N-no.” He stammered.
Albert smiled. “Good boy, Scrappy. Now, go get a good night sleep and, for the love of god, do take a shower. Meet you for breakfast at eight o’clock.”
Scrap looked confused for a moment, then gathered his wits and thanked Albert profusely. He even insisted on following Albert up the stairs, only entering his room after Albert had disappeared into his own, and not without trying to insist that breakfast was not necessary. All nonsense that Albert waved away.
As soon as the door was closed shut behind him, Albert finally let out a huge breath of relief and sagged onto the uncomfortable bed. Thoughts of making the bed more comfortable passed through his mind, but he ignored them. He wasn’t strong enough that he could afford to squander his Focus on things like that just yet. He still remembered the scan on one of the guards at the gate right before he entered the city.
Power 100+
It was the first time Jeff had been unable to be precise in his calculations, which meant that the guard could have been anywhere between the value of one hundred to potentially infinite.
Not only that, but the guard had noticed Albert’s probing. Instead of the hostile reaction Albert feared, the guard simply smiled through his helmet and gave Albert a thumbs up, flashing a grin. Albert smiled awkwardly in turn, then realized his mistake and quickly grinned back at the man, projecting confidence and even a bit of lack of care for worldly power.
He needed to practice his confident persona if he wanted to have more freedom. It had been easy when he was powerful, but now that he was back in the lower rungs, back he was the shy kid with anxiety issues.
Anyway. The reason why Albert did not Bend with Intent, asking the Universe what the guard’s power was like, was that he worried about the Focus cost increasing with the power of his target. Yet another test he would need to do to confirm his suspicions, once he had free time and a controlled environment. Onto the list of things to do it went.
***
Scrappy was overjoyed. Ever since the freak accident that turned her into her current form, she had discovered that humanity was evil, vile and uncaring. She had been left to fend for herself, alone, in the dark. She had been hungry for days. She couldn’t work. She wasn’t cute anymore to just earn what she wanted by sheer looks alone.
She thought she was going to die, starving among the uncaring mass of people who watched but did not care anymore.
Why did everything have to change like that? She wanted to cry, but didn’t know how to. She felt her eyes grow misty at the memory, and perhaps she figured she was finally crying for the first time.
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She shook her head. She wouldn’t cry! The memory was a memory, after all. Yet another change to her, the worrisome ability to be stuck in the past. But it wasn’t the whole story! Then came along the strange man. Elf? She didn’t know, nor did she care. He gave her a shiny coin!
She had learned soon after becoming like this what coins were for, and although she didn’t know how the man made it appear out of thin air, she knew how important the coin was. Her old instincts did not betray her, and she pocketed the coin with her now dexterous hands. Then, she thought about her old skills and thought about putting them to use. She needed to convince Sir Albert that he needed her. That’s where her old knowledge, from when she was in the nimbler form, came to her rescue.
For she knew Bastion like the back of her… Hand. She had hands now. She had been everywhere, when she was smaller and nimbler and could jump over the roofs and sneak everywhere. She could be a nice guide for him, and perhaps, earn another coin. Never did she expect Sir Albert to offer her a place to stay. A whole room, just for her??
Through the windows, back before the accident when she was still strolling through the night, she knew what people large like he was did to girls small like she was. Sometimes even to boys, like he was convinced she was. But no. Sir Albert went to his own room, and left her in hers.
He had fed her a nice dinner, then ordered her to take a shower, and who was she to say no? She did smell, after all. And she had learned soon after the incident that licking her skin was not a good remedy to that. She needed to overcome her greatest fear: water. A shower was like rain in a room. And soap? Sweet smelling and enticing, yet foul to eat. A trap.
After she was done, she felt a wave of fatigue wash over her. Finally, her mind allowed her to relax after many days in the cold, and her body was ready to give out. She crawled on the bed, curled up the best she could, and drifted off to an uneasy sleep.
***
After securing the room with a little bit of creative Bending, confirming in the process that it was true that creativity increased the power of his workings, Albert decided it was time to play around with his abilities. He needed to grow in Power quickly, especially if he wanted to rush to the Kirkesis core by chasing any lead he could find.
As far as strategy went, he talked about it with Jeff. In the hour that followed he was made aware of the fact that, even in cases where he could have done without, for instance when Jeff had a spell ready to fire, or at least solutions to mitigate Focus consumption by limiting the use of Free-Bending, Albert tended to favor the freer approach.
A fact that his AI companion complained about with increasing frequency, raising very good, sensible points. Albert's reply was that he needed the training, and that the increase in Power was worth the headache of a drop in Focus. It seemed to somewhat quell his companion's angst at being ignored in favor of a more versatile framework of casting, although Albert knew that the reasoning he gave was only partial.
The true reason was that indeed, the whole constructed mana ordeal was simply distasteful to his sensibilities, especially after he managed to rid himself of the system's way of casting spells. Even the numbers associated with Power, Focus and the likes made him feel trapped and constrained, although, like the old skills, he recognized them for the crutches they were. In time, he could learn to do without. Eventually, Reality-Bending in its most noble of forms, the Free one, would be all that was needed for him to do whatever he wished.
Pull up the list, please. Albert sent to Jeff, pacing around the room.
A message holo appeared in a split-second.
1. Deal with emotional issues before they become overwhelming.
2. Bend body to absorb mana.
3. Bend body to Bend more.
4. Test martial arts knowledge.
5. Test inventory.
6. Be on the lookout for large scale Universe interventions (Quests)
7. Test Intent and mana connection to Universe. Modes: intent-bending, intent-magic, bending alone, intent alone, magic alone
8. Determine whether asking the Universe for people’s power increases in cost based on: power of target, mode of asking
9. Try to create magical items that exceed current power by being creative.
Albert hummed. Since when do we have so many things?
Ever since you keep telling me to add new ones.
Albert was pretty sure that some items on the list were added by Jeff. All of them were quite interesting, however, so he didn’t complain. He only needed to choose one, and make sure he had enough Focus to Bend the need for sleep out of his body and still have enough juice to start the day tomorrow morning.
“Let’s get to work.”