“You named me Woozle?” the lynx-shark asked for the fifth time. While he sat on her shoulder, Woozle gesticulated his front paws as he talked, and she grinned at the cuteness. “Now, kid, imagine sitting in your sedan chair, being carried by your undead minions, and looking out over your vast army as your enemies face your army of the unliving. You could have said, ‘Go forth, Destroyer of Worlds, and bring my enemies to their knees.’ What are you going to say now?”
While speaking to her new familiar, she was testing her force field ability. Casting was quick, but while using the power she sensed a minimum time required before activation. It was not the sense she could feel with things like taste or sound but closer to the sense of maintaining balance, or knowing where your hands are. The sense was there if she looked for it, just not something she could fully describe. To bring a protective field up, it required the use of mana before the power activation. After the power was mentally pressed, her mana required less than two heartbeats to fill up. Jennifer had no idea what mana was, but the bar it sat on was blue. To her it was much like moving her arm. She knew how to use it but had no idea of the mechanics of how it works.
“Since I don’t want to take over the world but help it, I would ask you to deliver a message asking them if they would like to go apple picking or maybe some other group activity. You know, something where we don’t try to kill each other.” It seemed strange, but apple picking was a fun activity. “Apples even kept doctors away, so that would be an enjoyable pastime.” She looked at the small jet engines on his back sag slightly, “I get you’re not happy with your name, but it’s a good name. You are who you are. What I call you isn’t as important as what you do.”
With a mental nod, she could see her health, stamina, and mana bars. As she used her abilities, she could see the mana bar lower before casting and raise after casting.
“But why the name, Woozle?” He was fidgeting on her shoulder, but he stopped. The front of his face moved down with a sigh, “There have been worse names. Why not move on to your health potions? Those kinds of powers can be tricky.”
“Good idea.” Jennifer took his advice with her next mental button press. After a few tests, she discovered that she could store up to four potions at the same time. This came with a small twist. Craft Potion did not need ingredients or a crafting station. Jennifer was able to activate the power the same way she activated the force field. Rather than using mana, the Craft Potion used stamina. After the ability was used, her stamina would recover one third of what had been drawn out. Mana recharged the fastest while appearing as a blue bar in her menus. Stamina was represented as a green bar. The red bar showed her health. The skills, powers or abilities would use those bars.
But her stamina was not recovering like her mana. After the initial recovery, her stamina did not go up again. While only one-tenth of her stamina was grayed out for each health potion crafted, each time she used the power, it was harder somehow. She felt weaker and drained like she walked up a flight of stairs. The first one was easy; the tenth was harder. The force field bubble was like lifting something heavy once, but the last lift was only as hard as the first. Not wanting to see what her dark pulse would do in this room, she opened the door. It was time to explore the school.
With four health potions in her pockets, a mop she used as a walking stick, and the young lynx-shark in force field bubble, Jennifer walked down the long, unlit hall. Light fixtures were on the ceiling, but the bulbs were missing. The only sources of light came from the classroom windows on either side of the hall and the force fields that gave off a slight glow. With the bubbles having a light-blue glow, much like a single candle, there was no point in trying to be sneaky. She weighed her options of protection versus stealth, recognising that both offered a level of safety. With stealth, she was only protecting herself. With Woozles’ size maybe stealth would have been better for him, but the force field offered her and her familiar something beyond just hiding in the shadows.
Not long before she heard the sounds of voices. Jennifer could not understand what they were saying, but she could tell they were coming from down the hall. As she turned a corner, her eyes went wide seeing three green-skinned children were playing with something she could not see. As she moved closer to see them, she saw a spider toy the children were playing with. It looked cute, with long silver legs and a large white circle on its abdomen. The toy was about the size of her hand.
Something was off, but she could not put her finger on it. Woozle moved from her hood onto her shoulder. While he continued to be silent, her hair moved from his engines powering up, while never adding noise. The largest of the green children pulled off one of the spider’s legs and laughed. Jennifer’s hand flew to her mouth, and her eyes widened even more as the spider tried to pull away.
This was not a toy spider but a live spider! On instinct, Jennifer reached out with her energy and bubbled the hurt spider. What the children were doing was wrong. Something in the core of her being moved to anger knowing that they were causing undue harm to another living creature. Remembering that she was dealing with children, she used her best schoolteacher voice. “Stop that, this instant!”
The children jumped away from the spider. They looked startled, holding sticks, and were looking at Jennifer with oversized eyes.
“You were being mean to this little spider. You children were being naughty.” Jennifer did her best to maintain her impression of a schoolteacher and picked up the spider. Woozle shifted on her shoulder and growled.
Jennifer took one of her health potions, popped the top off, and put the mouth of the bottle before the spider. She was not paying attention as the youths moved closer to her. They had, in fact, surrounded her. With some hesitation, the spider drank the potion in one go. “Oh, poor baby. Do you want to come with me?” she asked as it finished the potion. “It’s okay. Come on. You can ride on my shoulder.” The spider moved with grace and sped up her arm to sit on the unoccupied spot.
She did not like being surrounded by all three children and moved so she could face them. Looking the children up and down, she noticed that their proportions were off. Their legs were short, their arms too long, and all three children were bald. One of the green kids rushed at Jennifer. Grabbing her mop, she bopped him on the head. Not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough to make him stop. “Stop. I know that hurts. Now think how that spider felt when you were playing with it.”
The green child who rushed her hunched his shoulders. He turned to his companions, looking for support. One of the other green children shrugged and pointed at Jennifer.
Jennifer rested the mop at her side, trying not to be threatening to children.
The spider may as well have been made of air as it sat on her shoulder, in spite of its size weighed so little. She reached up to pet the spider on the head. “Now, you’re a good spider. I’m sure the children will apologise.” Turning back to the children, Jennifer said, “I would like you all to say ‘I’m sorry’ to the spider.”
The children stared up at her with their mouths open before turning and speaking to each other in a tone too quiet for her to make out. While they talked, they took quick glances at her.
Annoyed, she pointed at the closest child then pointed at a spot in front of her. She made a petting motion over the spider, speaking the word, “Sorry,” in a raised tone.
One green child took the hint and repeated the word in a strange guttural accent.
She motioned to the next child, who proceeded to pet the spider and apologise in the same accent, followed by the third child.
“Good children.” She smiled as she addressed the children. They stood before her, looking down, unwilling to meet her eyes.
Continuing with her instructor voice, “Now, go home. And if I catch any of you being mean again, I will speak with your parents over this.” She pointed down the hall. They took one look before running off down the hall at full speed.
Once the children left, the spider on Jennifer’s shoulder lowered its body and stretched out its remaining legs. The lynx-shark relaxed on her other shoulder.
Feeling a little smug about this encounter, she said, “I have no idea if they learned their lessons or not, but I hope they don’t do that again.”
“Kid, I was expecting you to fight the goblins, not talk to them,” Woozle said in the same tone Jennifer used on the children. “They were low level goblins, and you made them say sorry to an even lower-level spider.”
With her brows coming together, she tilted her head. “What’s a goblin?”
Once Woozle stopped laughing, he said, “Kid, goblins are one of the most basic monsters in this world. They’re mean little guys that low level adventurers are able to easily beat.”
Jennifer was not sure why he called these goblins monsters. They were a little mean, but they said sorry before they left. Her voice raised and she felt defensive. She searched her vocabulary for words to convey her feelings, “Well, I was able to stop them. I think they learned their lesson. They know better than to hurt a poor defenceless creature now, too!” She knew her own pouty voice was coming out.
“What about the goblin you hit on the head? And do you have any plans for the missing spider leg, kid?” Her familiar pointed out.
Woozle’s words stung. “You’re right, I shouldn’t have used violence. Next time I will do better.” She turned her head to look Woozle in the eyes. “Violence is never the answer.”
This seemed to take the steam out of the lynx. He slowly closed and opened his eyes a few times before he responded, “Okay kid,” and added in a calm, non-patronising voice, “Well, what about the spider leg?”
There was no good answer for what to do with the spider. The healing potion restored the spider’s health but not the limb. After petting the spider, she picked up her mop and walked down the hall. “I’m sure the village I’m supposed to save will have a veterinarian that will be able to help.”
The hall ended in a T junction. On the wall hung a sign saying LIBRARY with an arrow pointing left. Someone had painted the word beware in red on the bottom. There was no sign for what was on the right. All she could see was more hallway.
“Woozle, what way do you think we should go?”
The lynx-shark yawned from Jennifer’s shoulder. “Unmarked corridor in an abandoned university, or one that has beware on the sign? Neither looks like a good option.” He then moved to be in the hood of her robe.
“Just because we haven’t seen any teachers or students doesn’t mean this place is abandoned.” She ignored how much dust covered everything while looking around the hallway. “Besides, how dangerous could a library be?”
As they moved down the hall towards the library, she took her time and renewed the force field bubbles around herself, Woozle, and the spider. Each time she used the ability, it got a little easier. Soon the action would be as natural as if she had been doing it her whole life.
At the end of the hall were two large ornate doors in a stone wall. The word Library was carved in calligraphy in the stone above the door. After taking a deep breath and holding it for three heartbeats, she opened the doors.
Standing in the hallway, she gazed inside at the beautiful library. Her eyes passed over clean white marble floors, matching tables, along with high-back, black-leather rolling chairs. There was no sign of dust or age on the tables, chairs, or floors. Computer screens floated without support in front of keyboards. To Jennifer, the room looked like it belonged in some sci-fi future movie, technology she had never seen in her life. It was covered from floor to ceiling with bookshelves. This place offered both the new and the old in one place. The lights were bright, mimicking sunlight rather than white fluorescent light. Compared to the room she started in, this was nice. With desks, tables, and reading alcoves, this is what Jennifer thought of when choosing her school. To Jennifer, this room was more modern, a fantastic place to read on a screen or study from a page. There was even a large turtle statue, which peered in her direction and was amazingly lifelike. It looked a bit like a box turtle standing on its hind legs and was at least six feet tall. Taking in every artistic detail of the statue from its black robe with grey lines on the side to its realistic eyes, she marvelled at the sculptor’s skill. Until the statue blinked.
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“Goblins, then a sci-fi library with a robed turtle in it? What exactly is the theme of this world?” Jennifer asked aloud to no one in particular.
“The theme of this world is whatever the system had and the ones who made this system needed,” Woozle responded in a hushed tone.
The turtle croaked.
Jennifer froze before replying in a natural way. “Hello, my name is Jennifer. This looks like a wonderful library. May we come in?”
The turtle stared at Jennifer and Woozle.
In a whisper Woozle said, “That’s a level fifteen turtle master librarian. I think we should just close the door and look for another way.”
Confused, she whispered back, “How can you tell the name and level?”
“Remind me to reset your interface with the system, but this could go really badly here.”
Without missing a beat, Jennifer said, raising her voice, “I am new to this world, and would like to read some books on alchemy.”
The large turtle librarian remained still and didn’t reply.
Her heart quickened at the thought of not being able to use the resources of the library. She needed books to learn, and all professors would have assigned reading. Trial and error was a way to go, but books would have stories about other people’s errors that she could learn from. She was very lucky libraries were a thing here, and that she had found one. This one had a lot of books. Not wanting to lose this chance, she took a step into the library.
The turtle’s head turned, gazing at a section of books. Jennifer held her breath as several books moved off of the shelf under their own power, floating slowly at first but gaining speed once they were in the air. The books spread their covers like wings, but they looked like they were floating or gliding rather than flapping their covers to fly. They slowly floated in all directions.
Amazed at what she was seeing, she turned to turtle librarian. “Is this normal? Do books float on their own here?”
The turtle librarian snapped its jaws and hopped away from Jennifer. Hiding under a desk, it retracted its extremities into its shell.
She thought this was not a good sign.
“Hello books, my name is Jennifer, and this is Woozle.” Jennifer tried to sound nice.
“Kid, I think it is time to start attacking.” She heard the tension in Woozles' voice.
Jennifer did not want to fight these books. One of the larger leather-bound books with a very thick cover gained speed, charging at her. On instinct, Jennifer held the mop out in front of her as more of a shield then anything. She closed her eyes. The book hit Jennifer’s mop hard, pushing her back and causing her to lose her balance. She was not hurt but surprised a book could hit that hard.
After opening her eyes, the world slowed down. Her body was unable to keep up with her mind as events happened around her. Woozle leapt off her shoulder and charged at the book with teeth and claws extended. She was grateful that Woozle had a bubble shield on. But she didn’t want the book to get hurt either. Something clicked in her mind. Hoping that it would work in time, Jennifer cast a force field around the old leather-bound book attacking her. Before her heart finished a beat, Woozle and the book collided, but the shields took the damage and only a little dust fell from the book.
“That book was attacking you, kid. If that’s not an argument for self-defence, I don’t know what would be!” The lynx-shark’s concerned voice was loud and deep.
The book was now floating undamaged in a bubble shield. All the other books were floating around like a school of fish, but a few went to inspect the bubbled old leather-bound book.
Jennifer stayed still and Woozle remained on guard as one of the books, which had been inspecting the force field around its companion, turned and floated over to her. Time returned to normal, but her mind still raced on what to do next. Making no sudden or threatening movements, she allowed the floating book to approach her.
This new book was a much smaller paperback book that had a picture of a castle on the front cover. It had no words. The book, in spite of looking new with clean colours and white paper, was covered in dust. Jennifer took a moment to look around. All the books were in various states of dustiness and disrepair. She looked at the turtle still hiding in its shell and thought how hard it would be to clean, maintain, and repair books without thumbs. Jennifer reached out, causing some of the books to flutter faster, but the paperback novel landed in her hand.
While trying to maintain the calm in her voice, Jennifer asked, “Woozle, can you look around for some dust rags or something? We need to start cleaning these books.”
“I’ll get right on it, kid. For now, why not just use your mop on them.” Showing no movement in looking for rags, Woozle went from a ready to attack posture to lying flat on the ground. She decided to call this the monorail pose.
Jennifer assumed Woozle would be happier if she used the mop to attack the books, not clean them. She did have a cleaning tool, so she used the dry mop head to dust off the book, and for safe measure, she put the book in a force field bubble.
All the books, as well as the turtle librarian, were watching her every action while she cleaned the young book. When she finished cleaning the book, the words Level Up in glowing golden light appeared before her.
The books opened and closed a few times, as if in applause, while floating faster before returning to their previous state.
Looking at her menus, she realised that there were levelling options to choose.
Level two came with one new power for each of her three power trees. Since she had her tech tree, alchemist tree, and necromancer tree, she would get three new powers. She also now had access to the generic power pools, which had thousands, if not tens of thousands to pick. Each power pool had between four to six powers. She also got to have two new perk points to enhance or add to a power or skill.
“Woozle, can you highlight any repair skills?” Jennifer asked wearily, not wanting a repeat of how she ended up as a necromancer.
Woozle waved a paw but did not disturb his monorail pose.
The Tailor (Generic) power set allowed repairs, which is what she wanted, but the rest of the power’s levels mentioned alterations to suits. While that skill would be useful, she did not want to be fitting, altering, and enhancing people's clothes.
The second choice was Mechanic (Generic), which fit Jennifer better. She could get Mend right now, then at level five she could use a power called Over Charge. It would make her powers stronger and faster at the cost of additional mana and stamina. At level twenty, the final power in the set was Rebuild. All three powers appealed to her.
Not wanting to choose the first one she liked, she reviewed the two remaining choices. Almost immediately, she dismissed Field Medic (Generic). It could mend wounds, give out stimulants, and resuscitate, but she could already do that with her alchemical powers.
Crafter (Generic) offered Mend, Craft, Improve Craft, and the top tier ability was Scrapper. She would be able to scrap something for parts and build something else with the scrapped items. That would be a pretty useful skill to have.
Although she felt better having narrowed down her choices to Mechanic and Crafter, the pressure to choose quickly nagged at her. On the whole, all of the powers appeared nice. The difference between Mechanic and Field Medic seemed to be one repaired what was not alive, while the other healed what was alive. Crafter and Tailor both looked interesting. But they seemed more specialised than she would like and would not be helpful in this school or a dungeon.
Thinking for a moment, she decided to call this a school dungeon.
Another book moved towards her, the pressure continuing to build. The urge to pick a power, and then return to the book built up inside her. She knew this was just herself pushing, but she did not want to just sit and wait. Knowing she could heal others with her potions, she counted Mechanic as the logical choice. Something still caused her to hesitate. She was getting sick of making choices that would affect her entire future without knowing what was best in the long run.
She had Woozle, but she still felt isolated and alone and wished there were teachers or elders around to talk to and get advice from.
What choice did she really have? She did not know what would happen if she did not pick one, but she did not want this sitting over her head. She had to choose, and she had to choose with the best available information.
Jennifer chose the Mechanic power pool, taking the Repair power. She had two powers left to choose, so she decided to check out what generic powers might apply to the ones she already had. In Future Defence Tech, there were two options. She could add more health to the bubble or add a chance to deflect damage. In Necromancer, she could Raise Undead. In Alchemist, she could add more health to health potion or generic alchemy craft. These choices seemed simple to her.
Jennifer made her mental selections.
Raise Undead: Skeleton can be put into attack or bodyguard mode, 25 mana per skeleton, Each skeleton will have 15 health, 0 mana, long cooldown. In attack mode, the skeleton will attack the enemy’s user targets or closest enemy to the user. In bodyguard mode, the skeleton will attack the closest enemy to the user. You can now raise the dead. It is easier than raising a house.
Deflect: Force fields can now deflect damage. Cost and cool down are unchanged, forcefield will now have a 1 in 10 chance to deflect attacks. Who needs dodge when you can deflect.
A second book landed in Jennifer’s open hand. This was all too much, she was going to find a way to simplify how the system displayed her powers in the future. Something simple like, add rainbows or something. The feeling of frustration left as she focused on the tense and stiff book. Moving her hand over the cover reminded her of petting a dog that had never felt the caress of a gentle hand. Taking a deep breath, she cleaned this new book. The book remained closed, its cover had some scratch marks. Running her hand over the side of the book, it had more than just superficial damages.
The way the book moved made more sense as the back cover flapped a bit. Jennifer smiled, taking this as a good sign that she had made the right choice when levelling up. She put her hand on the cover of the book and cast repair. A glow from her hand and the feeling of something moving, and a slight itch coming from her palm, told her it was working. She assumed it would be mana being used. With a quick look at her menus, she saw it was stamina draining.
Jennifer was confused. She was triggering repair through her interface, which was costing stamina rather than mana. After the power was ready to be used again, the book was whole. Once the force field was cast, the book floated away. It bobbed up and down as it went, which gave her the impression that it was happy, but she was not an expert on the emotions of books.
The other books floating around no longer felt menacing. Some of them had formed a line in front of her. They seemed eager for the cleaning, repairing, and force field bubble. Although Jennifer was happy to help, she did not want to spend the whole time on her feet, so she went to the nearest desk with a chair and sat down. “Okay, I’m ready. Next, please.”
The next book in the line floated into Jennifer’s hand.
After the fourth or fifth book, the head of the mop would need a good shaking out before it could be used again. The turtle librarian had come over with some dust rags in his claws.
“He’s saying he found you some rags,” Woozle said, having not moved from his chosen spot on the floor.
Jennifer thanked the turtle and gave a half-hearted glare at Woozle. After spending what felt like hours cleaning, mending, and adding protection to the books, she felt drained, but happy and a bit hungry. Her stamina was two-thirds greyed out.
Woozle wandered off to explore the library while Jennifer worked on the books, and he brought her a few non-floating books to look at.
Jennifer decided to take a break. When the next book approached, she put her hands out in front of her with her palms facing out, hoping this was the universal signal to stop.
The books left the line for cleaning, returning to their own business and floating around to do their unknown errands. Several floated from one section to another, while others rested on shelves or on top of other books.
This was the first time she was able to sit and relax. She found her mind wondering, as she watched the books for a bit. There was a combing feeling as the books would leave the spot they landed on and headed off to another section of the library. The books came in all sizes from small paperbacks to massive hardcover leather-bound books and everything in between. She even saw a comic book floating behind a shelf at one point, but she only saw that one out of the corner of her eye.
Making eye contact with the turtle, she put a smile on her face, hoping it would make it easier to approach the turtle. She hoped the turtle would be able to communicate with her more.
“Woozle, I think I remember hearing that a turtle holds up the world.” Even to her own ears, it sounded more like a question than a statement, unsure of the memory.
Woozle returned and relaxed in a sunbeam on one of the desks. “At least your timeline got something right. The librarian’s name is Wegeforth, and she’s wondering if you’re hungry.”
With a small mental nudge, Jennifer brought up her status bars, which showed a larger section of her stamina bar that was greyed out. But she did not feel hungry or thirsty, even though she had not eaten or drank anything since she got to this new world. She could feel her body slowing, which she assumed was her body’s way of telling her that she was tired. She figured this would be as good a time as any to have a snack.
“Please tell Wegeforth I am hungry, but I am not sure where to get food here.” She hoped her familiar would relay the message. The turtle nodded and turned without a word from Woozle.
Stretching out his paws, and opening his mouth wide for a yawn, he said from his sunning spot, “Kid, the turtle understands Common, and she even offered you a common quest with a Speak Turtle ability as a reward.”
She blinked several times, attempting to collect her stray thoughts. Jennifer had not realized she had been given a quest. Bringing up her full character sheet menu, she could not find where the quest was listed.
“Umm, can you help me find the quest in the menus?” Part of her wondered if she should already know these things. While she had not been in this world long, having to ask for help made her feel weak and useless.
Woozle left his spot in the sunbeam, walked over to Jennifer, rubbed his head on her arm, moved to her lap, curled up in a crescent shape, and purred. The whole set of actions took less than a handful of heartbeats, but it put a smile on her face.