Lucas swung his stick, putting all his strength into the strike. Amateurs made the mistake of only using the power of their arms, but he’d picked up better technique through experience, short as it was.
He stepped forward into the swing, pivoting his body to one side with his stick held behind him in a two-handed grip, then rotated his upper body as well as swinging his arms, vastly increasing the power in his strike. His stick lashed through the air with a whoosh. With his vitality strengthening it even further, anything that had been in the path of the blow would’ve had a bad time.
The movements weren’t something he’d ever been taught. He’d never had any combat training in his life. It just seemed the obvious way to put more power into an attack, learned through trial and error, and he was keenly aware that this probably wouldn’t have occurred to him so quickly without someone pointing it out just a few months ago.
That was a running theme, he was noticing: things had been coming easier to him. Presented with options, the most effective one popped out to him. It had started simple with his plant magic, able to discern the weakest part of the plants blocking his path and strike them with the correct strength, and it only got more impressive from there. With everything else going on, his skill with the stick had fallen to the wayside.
Now, he was thinking about it again, for obvious reasons. Magic had overshadowed his feats with the stick quickly, but in those early days he’d been wielding it like he’d been doing it for years. He’d spun it like a baton, thrusted it like a rapier, swung it like a longsword, and more. Most impressive of all was when he’d flipped like an acrobat, ending his somersault with a deadly overhead strike. The branch he’d hit hadn’t stood a chance.
Lucas had never been a particularly talented guy. He was in the middle of the class. Unimpressive in PE. Mediocre in music and the arts. He wasn’t the slowest learner among his peers, but nor was he the fastest.
And now here he was picking up skills like it was the easiest thing in the world. It didn’t feel like him. More like he’d been gifted in preternatural talent in… everything.
It didn’t sit right in his gut. For now, he was thinking of it as a Gift to distinguish it from himself, from his own talents… whatever his talents were. He was sure he had some, deep down, undiscovered.
Once he was thinking about it, he couldn’t help noticing other ways he’d improved, if more marginally in comparison to his magic and… swordplay? Stickplay?
Meditation was one discipline that had gone under the radar, so to speak. On the earliest nights it had done nothing noticeable for him, and he still didn’t think he was a master of zen, but pushing thoughts from his mind and sinking into his vitality had become a natural thing before falling asleep every night. It had come in clutch ever since he’d left the overgrown city and had to sleep rough.
As far as mundane stuff went, there was also the weaving. The first batch of clothes he’d made—which he still wore—were scratchy and rough, with some patches that were noticeably more threadbare. The latest sack he’d made was, while not high quality, clearly an improvement. He hadn’t even used that skill much, and it was arguably part of his plant magic besides.
Even super basic shit like bloody walking had changed. Quite apart from being generally fitter, his gait felt smoother, his posture and balance more refined, and he came to realise he’d become remarkably accurate at predicting how much ground he could cover in a given period of time. Thinking back, he’d even figured out a good technique for stomping down the grass in the village in no time.
It all came to him easily, even when he wasn’t trying or thinking about it, but definitely faster when he was actively trying to improve. He didn’t know whether to be disturbed or excited.
Because this wasn’t him. He wasn’t supposed to be a genius or talented. He was just… Lucas Brown. A C-student destined for nothing special, a footnote at best.
Evidently, whoever had brought him here had done more than snatch him out of his kitchen before he could finish his breakfast.
The rest of his practice session was ferocious, fury driving ever more force into his swings. By the end, he was imagining his stick connecting with the skull of a bearded man wearing a robe and wizard hat, and he was bellowing out curses and insults between each attack.
Lucas came back to himself with his chest heaving and sweat slicking his skin. He stayed still for a long while, his hands behind his head as he greedily sucked in air beneath the morning sun. Steam wafted off his skin. His vitality buzzed like an angry hive.
The village was still visible in the distance as a little smudge of grey among endless green-blue fields. He’d intended to follow the river down stream for the entirety of the day and put as much distance between him and the village as possible as fast as possible, but his stick had been calling to him all morning. He hadn’t been able to resist it.
Now, he had time to think. He didn’t like that; he was liable to consider the implications of his magic if he stood around for too long without distraction.
First, imbuing human remains with his vitality. Then, sucking up the soul of a slain monster. Both were disturbing, but in a way they showed intriguing possibility, even if he was reluctant to deploy either of them themselves.
Just how broad was the talent he’d been gifted? Could he get good at anything?
It was daunting to think about. Intimidating. Frightening. But he knew he couldn’t afford not to consider his next steps. If he had an ability to improve himself at an impossible pace, he had to be strategic about it. It made sense to pursue skills that afforded him the best chance of survival.
The wind shifted, and a rancid scent invaded Lucas’ nostrils. He grimaced. He’d think about all that stuff when he didn’t stink of sweat and grime. Grumbling under his breath, he started the trek down to the river’s bank to clean off and sate his thirst.
Jamie hopped up from where he’d been lounging on Lucas’ blanket and trotted along beside him, tail swishing through the air. The tabby cat seemed disinclined to leave his side after yesterday’s incident, probably having decided Lucas made for a good distraction if they ran into any other murderous beasts.
The water was tepid, but he was used to that at this point. Stripping down, he started wiping himself down, eyeing the cat as it settled by the edge of the water, staring at its reflection. He descended into thought, considering the future.
It went without saying that he wanted to get stronger. The fight with the beast yesterday had been terrifying, and his skill with the stick had saved him. There was a chance the gift would have given him another option in the end, but he certainly wouldn’t have escaped with only a few scrapes and bruises. He poked at the few purple patches on his skin, and found they were less sore already.
Was that another aspect to it? Healing? It was hard to be sure. The vitality humming through his channels was probably another factor; the inner warmth it provided certainly seemed to be a balm when his muscles were aching, so it would make sense for it to have an effect on injuries too.
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Regardless, he didn’t want to stretch himself too thin trying to be versatile. Being a jack of all trades sounded nice, but with his gift the other option wasn’t necessarily only master of one. It made sense to pursue his plant magic further since he’d already gone fairly far with the skill, and he’d seen with his own eyes what greater mastery could achieve back in the overgrown city. Fantasies of lassoing enemies with vines that were strong as steel and struck like vipers flashed through his mind.
If his skill with the stick could transfer over to more conventional handheld weapons, that’d be great. He didn’t want to disparage a tool that had saved him on multiple occasions, but there were surely more efficient weapons out there. If it didn’t transfer, he hoped he’d be able to learn another combat discipline.
Lucas grimaced as his mind turned to the other major skill he’d discovered thus far. Necromancy wasn’t an option for a host of obvious reasons. Assuming there actually was any civilisation in this place, he felt it was safe to assume they’d look down on raising corpses and skeletons to do his bidding. If he was the only man alive after all, he could reconsider.
As for devouring the souls of beasts… Well, it had been an involuntary thing, and he only had one data point to go on. If he slew another beast and it happened again, he’d give more thought to it. Frankly, he didn’t see a huge downside to it right now. It hadn’t done anything to him but shore up his channels, making him marginally stronger in the long run.
If there really were no negatives to it, then ‘grinding’ was a tempting proposition.
Aside from that, the possibilities were endless. He was spoiled for choice. It was almost paralysing, to have theoretically infinite options.
He liked the idea of throwing fireballs around. And if he could find a way to fly, he was certainly going to pursue that path, whether it be under his own power or through a winged familiar. Something to do with water would be cool too, he thought as he emerged from the river. Add air and earth and he could get an elemental mage thing going.
He sat down on the grass beside Jamie, turning over options in his head. Maybe he was getting ahead of himself a bit. There was no guarantee that his gift was limitless, after all. For all he knew it only granted him a certain number of skills, though he hoped not.
Jamie mewed and trotted over to plop himself in Lucas’ lap, then stared up at him in sheer bafflement that he hadn’t started giving the cat pets already. Smiling wryly, Lucas obliged his new master, scratching the tabby behind the ears where he knew the cat liked it. Jamie’s eyes closed and he purred in bliss.
Lucas stared at the cat for a moment, wondering. Letting a hunch guide him, he trailed his fingers under the cat’s chin and started scratching at his neck. The cat’s purrs turned blissful, and somehow Lucas knew he was in the throes of euphoria. He continued, itching a spot on Jamie’s fluffy chest he’d seen the cat struggle to lick, and kept going, finding all the good spots. It went on like this, practically doling out a massage to the creature, and by the time it was done the feline was a happy puddle in his lap, lazily batting at his hands.
Okay. So he was really good at petting a cat. Really useful. If the gift really was limited and this had taken up a slot, he’d cry.
Lucas sighed.
He knew he had to plot his path forward sooner rather than later. The beast had been one thing, but what if he ran into something bigger? Or, worse, hostile people? As much as he hoped he wasn’t the only man in the whole world, there was always the possibility of encountering people who wished him harm.
Or, indeed, the people who had brought him here in the first place. Quite apart from being able to defend himself, he wanted to ensure he had the ability to seriously hurt someone if and when he found those guys.
For now, he figured his best course of action was to mostly keep on as he had been: improving his internal vitality manipulation, opening sub-channels and whatnot, while seeing where his stick would take him. It was crude, and there was no guarantee he wouldn’t pick up bad fighting habits, but he needed something to physically defend himself, and the way of the stick was all he had. Hopefully, it would translate to bludgeoning weapons in general.
On top of that, he’d put time into his plant magic again; it made sense to grow his skill with the magic he already knew, at least until he found other disciplines to pursue. It had been through plant magic that he’d accidentally discovered the existence of another branch of magic, after all. Even if that branch was necromancy.
After drying himself off, Lucas gathered his things and set off, following the river. He practised manipulating vitality as he walked, but today he was pushing it faster through his channels. Recently, he’d mostly focused on slowing it for the strength boost it gave him when he wasn’t trying to expand his network of sub-channels (he’d managed to open and maintain twenty at this point, all in his arms). Now, his mind was more occupied with magic, and external vitality was more important here.
His vitality formed a sphere around him, and its range doubled and doubled again with the speed of the flow in his channels. He kept it up until the flow was getting mildly uncomfortable, and kept it there. The surrounding plants lit up in his mind’s eye for at least twenty metres around, far more mundane than he was used to seeing in the overgrown city, just a few different species of grass and weed, with some more slimy things beneath the river’s surface.
It took but a sliver of will to tweak the plants, though his options were far narrower without a network linking the different species. He couldn’t graft traits from other plants, so he set them to things they could already do on their own; the grass grew a few centimetres longer, flowers swayed and flapped their petals, and weeds shifted to darker shades of blue under his command.
It was fun, if a bit mundane. With his current skill, he couldn’t really do more than that. He picked a few blades of grass and sharpened them with his vitality to the point they could cut through weeds and flowers, but without a dangerous adversary he wasn’t confident he was going to pick up anything impressive from wielding them, so he let the breeze carry them out of his grip.
Evidently, improving his plant magic would require more creativity. The network linking the foliage back in the overgrown city had been a crutch, and his capabilities were far more limited out here.
But he didn’t let that dishearten him. There were other things he wanted to try.
For example, last time he’d discovered a new magic, he’d done so by accidentally ‘tuning in’ to something else by pure accident. In unknowingly imbuing a bone with his vitality while thinking it was a stick, he’d stumbled across necromancy and permanently unlocked the ability to tap into a different ‘channel’ of vitality.
Could he find more channels? Lucas looked around, surveying the surrounding scenery. There… wasn’t really much of note, aside from the village far behind him, little more than a speck now. Maybe the river? Or some underground stone? Or perhaps even the wind itself? Really commit to the elemental magic idea.
As he was lost in thought, he’d stopped walking. Jamie, being a rascal, took this as an opportunity to claw his way up Lucas’ front, blissfully ignorant or uncaring of the pain he was dealing out. The little shit probably thought Lucas’ gasps were some kind of affection, judging by the purrs rumbling in his chest once he’d settled in Lucas arms like a baby.
Lucas’ ire didn’t last long, because the cat had inadvertently given him an idea. Last time he’d discovered a new branch of magic, it had been through holding something and imbuing it with his vitality. He was hesitant to try that on a living thing, but he was willing to bet the contact would make it easier for him to tune in to the frequency of Jamie’s vitality.
Closing his eyes, Lucas sped up his vitality at the nearest points to where his skin was in contact with the cat, letting the rest of his channels return to a normal speed. Vitality flowed out of his body, and he kept it close rather than spreading it out around him, shrouding it over the warm body in his arms.
The cat went still as Lucas’ vitality surrounded him. His purrs stopped. But he didn’t feel uncomfortable, or afraid. Instead, he had an aura of… curiosity? He was content, comfortable. Maybe a little hungry. A nap wouldn’t have gone amiss, either, since he didn’t need to walk.
Lucas’ vitality was like a cloud, and he could feel an empty space in the shape of a cat. Second by second, the vaporous vitality slowly seeped into Jamie’s body. Jamie welcomed it, pulling more actively than the bones had, embracing the vitality.
A moment later, a whisker of the cat’s own vitality rose from one side of its face and twisted through the air like a thread. It curled towards Lucas, aiming loosely for his heart and, out of curiosity, he let it.
When it touched him, the empty space in his senses filled in, and Jamie’s body appeared in Lucas’ mind as clearly as his own vitality channels. Lucas opened his eyes.
“Well,” Lucas said, staring down at the creature in his arms. “You are definitely not a cat.”