The remainder of the day that Ross met Davey included the former renting an inn, laying down on a bed and not moving for four hours before finally relaxing. His mind worked out every possible way the situation could have gone far worse - he could have hurt another Hero, or another Hero could have hurt or killed him. His brain was practically sparking with the impossible flow of thoughts that surged within, how every single move could have been done a bit worse and ended the encounter in a variety of gruesome ways. Even his steps back to the shopkeeper he was interacting with before the fight happened gave him anxiety; he had to keep looking forward to dissuade Davey from going after him again, and he wasn’t sure how fast the lunatic could get himself up.
When he had re-entered the shop, Davey’s goons were blessedly absent. After taking a considerable amount of time to drop out of Kinetic Plexus, Ross gave the shopkeeper the rest of the information he had to, including a few new gear concepts he hoped were achievable. The entire time they talked, the merchant was giving him second glances and concerned looks. Once the man finally asked if Ross was okay, the firbolg broke down into tears; Ross hadn’t ugly cried in public before, and it did not feel pleasant.
To the craftsman’s credit, he gave Ross a few comforting words and a gentle back pat before saying goodbye. Ross had wanted to ask the man more about Davey, but whenever words tried to come out, burbling nonsense was all that actually escaped his mouth. After a few attempts, Ross took a deep breath and wiped his eyes dry on his cape before hurrying to an inn. Luckily, he’d found one of the quieter ones preferred by gardeners instead of adventurers or Heroes, which made him far more relieved than he thought it would. He’d managed to stop crying by the time he reached the check-in desk, but his puffy red eyes told the receptionist everything she’d needed to know. The yosurim gave him a room at the far back of the third of five floors, which had an excellent view of the largest community garden.
He’d laid down on the shockingly 70’s-looking flower print comforter, and just stared at the ceiling for hours. The room fortunately had the same kind of ‘air conditioning’ as the bulk shop - a smaller but still clearly placed miniature blizzard, right above his head. He counted the number of snowflakes and hail chunks that blew within the perpetual winds, trying to get his mind to think about anything else.
Eventually he gave up on thinking of other things and resolved to simply not think. Even this took some work, but eventually he managed it. He fell into some odd combination of meditation and half-sleep that finally let him wind down. After the sun had arced over the sky and was halfway to setting, Everest burst into Ross’s room with wide eyes. He scared Ross so intensely that the latter literally leapt into the ceiling, which fortunately wasn’t damaged.
“Jesus christ, Everest! What-” Ross began, but Everest knelt down beside his protege, who had shifted to a sitting position on the edge of his bed.
“Ross, I heard what happened at the jeweler’s. How many absorption points did you use, and on what?”
Ross rubbed his eyes, heart pounding but brain still waking from his odd, relaxed state. Bringing up a major source of stress, though, helped to push his thoughts along.
“I… think I used the shields a bunch. I made sure they had none left after the fight. I used that new transformation, but only to block, so it shouldn’t have gained much EXP if any. The only other thing I used was the passive regen, which I can’t really help…”
Everest stared into Ross’s eyes, searching for something. Once he couldn’t find it - or did find it, Ross was unsure - Everest let out a sigh of relief. There were a few moments of awkward silence before the mentor glanced out of the window.
“You got a nice view of the outside, huh?” he said. Ross nodded, and Everest sighed.
“I’m sorry for scaring you. I just know it’s dangerous for you to use any of your abilities. The shields are fine because they’re relatively stable already. Passives are the same. The transformation was risky, but as long as you didn’t hit anything, it should be fine overall. A drop in the ocean. I just wanted to make sure you were okay and didn’t make a major, uh…”
“Fucky wucky?” Ross asked with a smirk. This made Everest immediately break into laughter.
“Yeah, kid. That works about as well as anything.”
The two sat for a few moments before Everest spoke again.
“I talked to the town guard. Apparently, that Artorius guy-”
“Davey.”
Everest raised an eyebrow.
“How’d you know that?” he asked.
“His goons.” Ross said, rolling his eyes. Everest could visibly see Ross’s muscles begin to tense at the conversation topic.
“Apparently, Davey has been a big problem for awhile now. He was never under my tutelage, so he’s more than likely not from Backwash, though the pompous attitude is all too common there. And the dick growing contests with strength.”
“And the idiocy?” Ross asked.
“And the idiocy!” Everest said, smiling and shaking his head. His grin didn’t last long as he turned back to Ross.
“Listen, kid. A lot of people don’t have their egos in check here. The people who turn out like Davey find out they’re a chosen one, which makes them think they’re the Chosen One, with a capital C O. The laws in place around the world don’t really help; the gods basically give every Hero every privilege.”
“Is that why the guards didn’t stop that twat?” Ross asked.
“Yeah, unfortunately. Davey took advantage of one of the more local laws; as long as he helps the guard, they cannot deny him a place to stay here. Also, as long as he’s in the Guard, he cannot be arrested by the Guard due to being a higher rank than any officer in the barracks. Because he’s a Hero.”
“And they just give asshats like him that kind of power!?” Ross exclaimed, arms thrown haphazardly to his sides. Everest nodded grimly.
“Yep. The citizens of Terraegnus don’t wanna get on the gods’ bad sides, so they do everything in their power to avoid harming or otherwise antagonizing Heroes. The only time that changes is during a Flux, and even then they’ll be moderately cordial at best and moderately defensive at worst. Luda is a weird one, but she definitely lies on the ‘protective’ side of things.”
“This is beyond fucked…” Ross muttered. “And I take it Heroes like Davey think they’re practically gods themselves, after they find out about this stuff?”
“They see themselves as the main character, and everyone else be damned. You’ll meet plenty of truly heroic people, of course, but you’ll also meet a lot of assholes here. Especially when the Titan Flux hits. Otectvurce was able to tell me it should be about a week from now, so we’ll hang around for two or three days until the party’s gear is properly upgraded. Avoid as much conflict as we can.”
“That’s good to know. And how am I gonna dodge the Titans who can sniff me out like bloodhounds?” Ross asked.
“That’s the neat part. You won’t.” Everest said, smiling.
Ross looked at him, confused, so he continued.
“Otectvurce is putting out the mass update before the Titan Flux, so you can fight them and get a metric fuckton of experience points, kid. Then, we can go into Epochs.”
“Epochs?” Ross asked. Everest nodded.
“Epochs are basically where you start out at level 1 once again, but your class is stated with a plus, so yours would be Full Counter Plus. You get a plus for every Prestige you have, but it also removes a possible class you can have, which caps out at five.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Does everything reset then?” Ross asked, a bit horrified.
“Nope. You keep everything; your EXP just doesn’t carry over, and it takes more to level up each level. You can only enter a Prestige for a class when you reach level 100 in it, but for every extra time you could have reached level 100 after that, you get a bonus for the next ‘round’, so to speak.”
“So basically you just take all your experience and meld it into your class to make something new, and start leveling the new class?”
“That’s the jist of it.”
“I like the sound of that, considering I can’t have more than one class…” Ross said, sighing.
“That’s my thought behind it.” Everest agreed. “I didn’t bring it up before because I didn’t actually read up on it much; every other person I’ve ever trained could get multiple classes, and I was led to believe that such a path was more beneficial. Turns out, both have viabilities.”
“So how much experience after reaching level 100 in my class would I need to get the most possible perks?”
“Well, after a point it just grants you more unused stat points. I think after another 100 levels in - so a hundred times the experience you need to reach level 100 - it grants you five times experience gain in the newly upgraded class instead of the normal hundred percent bonus. And yes, those stack with this.”
“That’s… not exactly a safe amount of work for a lifetime, is it?” Ross asked.
“Nope.” Everest said.
“But you’ll try to have me do it anyway?” Ross asked, smirking.
“Yep.” Everest said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the daylight faded into a gentle evening, Ross truly took q moment to admire the streets around Sathenkura for the first time. He hadn’t had enough of a chance to give proper acknowledgement to the lighting system around town, but the spheres of delicately thrumming magic wrapped in flower petals and held in place by thin vines was another beautiful reminder to Ross that the city embraced the blessings of nature available to them. The village itself wasn’t very large, only being about a half mile in diameter, digging into the side of the unnaturally placed cylindrical tunnel. Despite the lack of size, it held so many small stands, shops and hidden gardens that he could’ve spent a year there and still not have known where everything was.
One particular grotto - the one owned by the jeweler he had gone to when Davey struck - allowed Ross time to sit there and relax whenever he needed. This didn’t quell his overall dread since the violent encounter, though it did help to a small degree. Fortunately, when he’d finally gotten the alerts to pick up some of his gear and upgrades, Ross had mostly calmed down from the excitement of the morning. When he realized he hadn’t seen Davey or his lackeys anywhere while roaming the village for well over half an hour, he finally let true relaxation take hold.
The clouds outside were dense and grey, like a weighted blanket; despite this, the sun still somehow shone and Ross could smell the humidity in the air. It mingled with the fresh sod and countless fragrant flowers to give him a rejuvenating breath. He sighed contentedly before stretching out, the slowly setting sun causing a warm glow to spread across the scenery.
Everest had headed back out to keep an eye on where Davey might have gone to, but since he hadn’t told Ross anything over the text chat or in person yet, the latter assumed that the egotistical Hero wasn't present - at least for the time being. Everest returned to his tasks, setting up meetings with local merchants and public leaders, like the town guard’s commanding officer and mayor; he shared his protege’s stats around and offered meetings with the firbolg hero to all of those he crossed. With Everest being the one to talk them down, the town’s nervous murmurings were gradually, yet seemingly inevitably, quelled. After that, Ross had gotten friendly waves and smiles from various people he came across, regardless of if he'd met them before or not.
After nearly every time Ross stopped to check up on another upgrade or piece of gear, he paused to help some of the elderly people with their own gardens, pulling weeds and digging holes sporadically. It never took long - he had levels in mining and this was no grand ramp to escape a crater, just a cup-sized divot in the earth - and the work felt right to him. He loved the combination of intense effort and relaxing tedium that both came with preparing and tending to a garden, and he considered checking in at the fantasy bulk store to see if they didn’t have some sort of portable planters. After all, he didn’t want to simply relegate himself to training; he wanted to get into a hobby or two, which was recommended by Everest. It would allow him to ease into the new cultures and relax between quests and jobs. Terraegnus had so much to offer him, and he refused to let himself squander this much potential again.
As he considered gardening and alchemy as a pair and how it might be right for him, Ross felt a nearly imperceptible quaking beneath his feet. He paused, startled, and began to take rapid stock of his own person.
It felt… off, somehow. Not in a physical or mental way, but almost as if his very essence was being jostled. Almost like a power cord being bumped by a jittery knee, but the plug was connected to his own soul.
An alert popped into Ross’s vision, but he couldn’t open it. He began to take a deep breath, trying to focus on the small icon, but a second and far more potent jostling snapped his focus. Once more he tried, full attention on the task now, but even without an interruption he couldn’t get the pop-up to open. He knitted his brows together as a second alert popped up in the Text Chat tab, but he couldn’t pull up the window. He tried to physically interact with it after a moment, to no effect.
Ross’s heart sank as his mind began to reel.
He tried to open something - anything - in his interface, wildly mentally and physically clicking on items, even resorting to the verbal options eventually. Unfortunately, nothing he tried worked, and a third, horrid jostling that was exponentially more potent than the other two shook him to his core. He tried breathing slowly, but to no avail. He saw people giving him odd looks before they, too, began to freak out - it seemed as though Ross was not the only one to experience such a glitch. The elderly residents hobbled into their homes hurriedly, younger folks either aiding them or rushing to their own abodes or businesses instead. He cried out for Everest, but the man was nowhere to be seen. Ross began to jog through town, searching for his mentor.
After another minute or two, a fourth, disturbingly worse rattling overtook Ross’s essence, and he nearly collapsed; it felt like someone was, for lack of a better term, trying to unplug his soul from his body.
He quickly recovered, breaking into a sprint and almost instantly tripping over a large, turquoise form.
Everest.
Ross checked his pulse quickly, looking into the man’s eyes. He had to peel back his teacher’s eyelids to see his state, and he fortunately seemed to be alive - the light behind his eyes was there, and despite his pulse being slower than Ross would expect, the BPM was not seemingly in a danger zone. Unable to lift the incredibly heavy man over his shoulders, Ross dragged him out of the street and into the nearest shop. He explained to the shopkeeper - who happened to be speaking to Luda in a massive panic - that he’d found Everest passed out like this on the road, but they didn’t know what to make of it. He hefted his mentor into a chair before trying to go back out the door.
As he touched the door handle, as if on cue, his arm seized.
Then, the real pain began.
It was unlike anything he’d felt before. His entire body was aflame with a pain akin to excruciating soreness, every cell throbbing with agony. He felt his brain pounding against his skull, and he could feel a sensation that could only be described as freezing hot, or possibly burning cold. His eyes rolled back into his head and, for only half a moment, he passed out. Almost immediately he came back to consciousness and, with a jolt, coughed up clots of blood and mucus. It felt like his bones were bruised from the inside out, and his muscles all felt torn; it was as if he’d exercised for 24 hours straight. His knees and joints cracked and popped with every movement, his muscles burning to the point of going numb; he felt his blood begin to pump far slower for a few moments, then significantly faster, then rapidly alter speeds with no rhyme or reason; his tear ducts flowed with salt water, mud and blood; his eardrums were ruptured, but he could hear better than ever before; even his hair felt itchy, dry and sore, as if someone had pulled on it with all their might, one strand at a time.
It was here that the ‘cable’ of his soul was fully unplugged, and all of the pain in his body was simply gone. He couldn’t feel anything - not light-headedness, nor nausea, nor suffering or pangs. He simply knew he was still alive, and any other sensations left him at once. For the moment of eternity that the cable was ‘unplugged’, he could swear his body became visible to his eyes in its entirety, as if he were a camera zooming out on the grisly spectacle that was his current condition. He did not drift far, but he did begin to drift; of this, he was certain.
Then, all at once, he felt normal once more.
Not Terraegnus normal, not firbolg normal and not Full Counter class normal.
He felt Earth normal.
Ross Olsen normal. College graduate with a dead-end job normal.
Something in his brain clicked then. Some level of his psyche that still doubted this was all real. Despite the uncanniness, the pain, the people and the physical capabilities well past his normal means; despite everything, he felt like he was playing a game or was in a deep coma, dreaming.
After the momentous instant of feeling like his old self again while still observing the 'dreamscape', his mind really and truly accepted this as truth - as his new reality.
The realization lasted for only a minute, but in that time, Ross still managed to feel his panic and anxiety rise as he tried to make sense of the situation. He had but a handful of milliseconds to think, because as soon as the feeling of his old body, mind and soul ended, he was back as the less familiar fey-aligned, half-giant vessel. A handful of further notifications popped up, and despite Ross's willful attempts, they would not open either.
Over the course of the next few seconds, one by one, each of his abilities returned to him. It felt as if he remembered things he hadn’t realized he’d forgotten, and it sent a shiver down his spine. Once the last ability was unlocked, his shell-shocked mind finally re-registered the pain, but it was blissfully fading.
Then, not five seconds later, a single message popped into the view of every living entity on Terraegnus.
[Hard Reset in progress.]
And the world went dark.