“Aspiration is everything”

~T Blank.

POV - TAD

Aspirational has always been one of my favourite words. It is a word in which I am convinced most of the secrets of life are hid. I mean, breathing helped of course. But life is so much more than breathing.

Lying in my sickbed I had plenty of time for thinking. And thinking and not doing is hard. There were plenty of books full of inspiration and inspirational quotes. Good books. Books to inspire. That enriched your soul and thrilled your mind. But to aspire was still better again.

Inspiration was all about taking something in. Injecting that sense of wonder. That thrill of empowerment. The frision and synergy of new visions that expand your horizons.

Aspiration is more.

It is that deliberate outworking of all that you are striving for. The hopes and dreams and sheer wonder of life. The options and possibilities and futures that you will make your own. That you aspire to do, to have, to be. Take away your aspirations and the struggle to breathe is so much harder.

As I lay there slumped next to Ninjabug, I remembered all that time I had lain slumped in my hospital bed. My aspirations had seemed so far away. And yet still so reachable. Paring back life to the essentials made you think about what it was that was really important.

And my aspirations were simple.

I wanted to live. To laugh. To love. I wanted both my family and a family of my own. And I wanted time. Time with them. To have and to hold. To protect and to pamper. And what had changed? The System had inserted itself into my life, or inserted me into it, I suppose was more correct, but other than that, nothing had changed. Well, nearly everything had changed. But my aspirations hadn’t.

They were as true now as they were then.

And now I was in considerably better shape to be able to achieve them. And I was much further away too. It was time to get a move on. It was time for my post battle analysis.

COMBAT REPORT

Interim Combat Summary

You have dealt 58975HP damage.

You have suffered 185HP damage.

Current reward due: 58790XP

You have defeated [966] Monsters your own level. No Level adjustment. Pay per kilo: +0.97% to XP.

You have defeated [423] Monsters one level higher than you. +1% to XP. Pay per kilo: +0.42% to XP.

You have defeated [96] Monsters two levels higher than you. +2% to XP. Pay per kilo: +0.10% to XP.

You have defeated [1] Monster seven levels higher than you. +7% to XP.

You have defeated [1] Monster twelve levels higher than you. +12% to XP.

You have defeated [1] Monster fourteen levels higher than you. +14% to XP.

Total 37.49% Bonus to XP

TOTAL XP TO BE ALLOCATED: 81014XP

Oh, Nice. The XP was factored up by not only the level disparities but also by the difficulty in facing multiple opponents. Pay per kilo! Ha! Like I was at some all you could eat buffet. Hmmm. I suppose I was as I stopped to consider my consumption of Essence. But normally you didn’t need to worry about your meal eating you. That would certainly change the dynamic of the place.

And it looked like all the bonus percentages stacked before they were applied. That was excellent. But if you were fighting monsters of a lower level it was obvious that there would be a penalty applied. And if the Level difference was more than a few then I could see that this would quickly build up. The System incentivised you to take on monsters above your level and leave lower level mobs for lower levelled participants. If I was reading this right then a difference of 100 levels lower would result in no XP at all. Or maybe there were some other cut off points. Hmmmm, yes that resonated. I didn’t know enough right now but I intuited that the penalty might cut in a lot sooner than the 100 levels. No matter. Didn’t affect me at the moment.

I pulled up my Character Sheet to check out my HP. I was getting low on Health potions. Only four left if I remembered correctly with one already in my iAPD. But they were only 50HP each so it would just about clean me out to bring me up to full health.

NAME:

Tad

Blank

SPECIES:

TIER:

Human

G

XP:

EXP:

88601

8833/8860

LVL:

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

1**

CAPPED**

MINION:

Nige

[Expand]

CON:

2737.87/2917.87HP

[Expand]

WIS:

101.57MP

[Expand]

KAR:

693.32E (0% Reserved)

[Expand]

LUC:

0.6

+0.05 on Loot/Drop rolls

Unassigned Stat Points:

Total Stat Points:

0

215.55

* 0

* +18

SKILLS:

[Expand]

ACCOLADES:

RESTRICTED System Title [Exemplar] (Unequipped)

PATHS:

Nasal Prospector Class

PERKS:

Gallifreudian Slip

TITLES:

Pertinacious

Black Swan Survivor

Audacious Pioneer

AWARDS:

Atelophobia Award

Precocious Award

Pestiferous Award

My health had gone up? That was weird. Maybe my spade had a hidden [Lifesteal] skill? That would be fantastic. Oh! My stats had gone up too. By 18 points. I frowned. I rechecked my combat report.

Oh no!

It didn’t say Combat Concluded. In fact it was only an interim report. Ergo. Combat hadn't been completed. There was still another Trashbug out there. And it was at least 30 levels higher than me. That’s where those additional Stats had come from. My Pestiferous Award.

I was a wally. Indulging in a victory soliloquy even before winning. This was bad. Like a nefarious villain boss had my aspirational monologue doomed me?

But I was not a villain. I was not defending all my illgotton gains in my dead end fortress. I glanced at my half destroyed hidey-hole. Nope. And I was not too proud to run.

And so that is what I did.

Scooping up my daggers, my trusty spade and bucket of unrefined Essence I spammed [Observation] and, [Prospecting] danger and safety, I set off with alacrity.

[Run], Tad [Run].

….

[Run] was fabulous. I barely had to concentrate on where to put my feet and rather than tiring me out it was invigorating. Each step was a fresh infusion and the feeling of weightlessness and freedom in between bore me up til I felt like I was floating along. Hmmmm. Maybe this is why people did it? I fell into a rhythm. This was nice. Almost meditative. Maybe at higher proficiency levels I would be able to utilise both Skills at once. That would be good.

But now I was sort of running aimlessly. Running away from danger, yes; but not toward anything. I needed direction. Purpose. A goal.

I took a moment to consider the landscape I was running through. It was endless. And boring. A sort of sanitised series of dunes of mulched up undifferentiated trash. Thankfully the ambient Essence was sufficient to fuel my body and it wasn’t a conscious action in replenishing my body. Otherwise I would have been in real strife.

[Observe] Essence. There were definite flows winding their way throughout the dump. They must be going somewhere. I altered my path slightly. Adding Essence to my litany of safety and danger, I continued building up the distance while directing my path towards wherever the Essence was gathering. Being drawn to. I wished I could slot [Mana Sight]. That would have made this so much easier.

Hopefully enough distance and the combat would conclude.

Pulling up the Combat Summary I was dismayed to see there was no change. Maybe the monster could track me. I looked at my bucket. Surely the bug wouldn’t be able to sense its deceased brethren in there? I checked out my Essence. Not quite full. I would [Loot] some more from my stash and top myself up.

While [Running], awkwardly holding the bucket and spade in one hand, I reached in and grasped a carcass. Yuck. It was drippy.

I dropped it almost instinctively.

Way to go Tad. Now why don’t you leave a trail of these to help your pursuer. Stopping, I quickly trotted back and [Inspected] the sorry looking bug. There was no Essence in this. The dimensional space inside my bucket must have sucked it all out. No wonder it said not to put in organic matter. While I had cleared my fighting ground I had sacrificed the Essence. Bummer. But no use crying over it now. With a shrug I upended my bucket and out flooded a pretty impressive galoop of decayed bugs, guts and limbs all merging into one another. Ohh that was so gross. I checked my bucket for any slimy residue. It was as clean as… uh, something really clean. I didn’t stop to refine my metaphor. [Run] [Run] [Run].

How could I break my trail? There was no handy stream of water meandering through the dump that I could use to mask my tracks. I needed options.

My mind furiously cycled ideas. I needed to break my trail.

Aha. I would run one beastie toward another. I set out towards the highest ridgeline I could see. And on to the next, higher again. And then I saw an opportunity. An escarpment which reached out into a valley and closed the distance to the nearby ridge. Without analysing my plan I [Ran] out along the top of it and at the end using my spade to give me extra momentum threw myself up and off to the side. As I sailed out through the air I had a moment to consider. Landing… This could hurt.

And then with a jarring thump, tucking my head in, I was rolling and tumbling down into the valley. With a scramble I gathered my limbs, wits and digging set and set off again in a totally different direction. Hopefully my pursuer would follow my trail out along that escarpment and straight off the end towards the adjacent ridge and lose my trail. [Inspect] had said they were patient, so it was likely it would start circling out, searching from where I left the ground. This may have just delayed it but it would give me more time to think of something else.

And I did.

I was getting sick of this wasteland. I needed an exit. Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier?

[Prospect]

And there was a very clear direction. Not quite directly ahead of me.

[Observe]

And the Essence was flowing thickly that way too.

What was I going to find?

I [Ran] for several more hours. Combat was still active.

It was the last thing I expected. A door in a frame. With no wall. But it did have a helpful exit sign.

Without even pausing to consider whether this was wise. I flung the door open and plunged through.

Escape.

Freedom.

There was a flutter of butterfly wings, and I was elsewhere.