Symon soon discovered that healing magic made sprinting through the desert only marginally more pleasant than it would otherwise be. He wasn't in pain, but that didn't mean he was having a good time. There was no muscle soreness, no blisters on his feet, no cramps. But there was sand. Everywhere.

"Keelgrave. I. Never. Want. To. See. Sand. Again," Symon gasped out between breaths. Said spirit had told him that he could probably just hold his breath as long as he had vitality, but he wasn't interested in wasting the precious resource. Although he had always wanted to go scuba diving...

came Keelgrave's echoey mental voice.

It did suck, actually. Sand was everywhere it wasn't supposed to be, although he tried to put on a brave face — no point in giving the spirit more things to mock him for.

Speaking of, he felt as if Keelgrave might have warmed up to him slightly. Well, he was frankly still a massive dick, but he had delivered some useful advice along with the insults, especially when it came to fighting. It was simple stuff, but Symon's sheltered life hadn't taught him the basics like how to make a proper fist so that he didn't break a finger trying to punch things. The thumb goes on the outside, apparently. He thought back to his ineffectual attacks against the first centipede he fought and cringed internally. He wasn't going to mention that fight to Keelgrave.

Monsters and beasts — there was a difference between the two, but Keelgrave only knew examples of each and not the actual distinction — were apparently common threats in this world. So common, in fact, that it was common for young teenagers to need to know how to fight off such threats. Symon hoped the years here were longer than on Earth.

Keelgrave taught Symon this fact and various other tidbits, seeming to accept his lie that he was an amnesiac. There was nothing else to do while he ran, so he let the spirit ramble on, giving interesting cultural facts in between outrageously exaggerated tales from his sailing days.

It couldn't be described as easy, but eventually, Symon no longer had to focus on his running despite how fast he was going over the difficult terrain. The exercise was oddly meditative, but he tried not to let his mind wander too much — after all, he still had to keep an eye out for centipedes. He'd been running at an all-out sprint for almost two hours — something that would have been completely impossible for Symon even a few days ago, let alone a trained runner — when he stretched and re-adjusted his posture. He kept his back a little straighter, pulled his shoulders back slightly, and stopped swinging his arms quite so wildly. Symon wouldn't have thought anything of it, if not for Keelgrave interrupting himself in the middle of his tall tale.

"Huh? What was what?" Symon asked, slowing his running to look around him for any threats.

He hadn't checked out his status after every centipede, but he wasn't sure why Keelgrave was making such a big deal out of it now. It was his fault anyway, considering he'd mocked him for wanting to check it after every little thing. Just what had changed? Right as he opened his mouth to speak, the sand at his now stationary feet began moving.

[You have acquired a new passive: Running]

[Running (0): Boosts running effectiveness and efficiency.]

"Oh, that's handy," Symon said with a shrug. It was helpful, but a little... bland?

Keelgrave started before trailing off.

That was a nice way of describing their forced merging, Symon thought. He still considered the question.

"Basically none, maybe a bit when I fought the bearcat. It was mostly just me jogging in a circle while it bled out."

"Err you know, that massive cat thing with the bear-like head?"

Symon blinked. That was a much better name. "Um. Maybe?"

Despite not having a mouth, or even a body, Keelgrave still let out a sigh.

Symon thought back to the first ever centipede he fought. He remembered the feeling of his lungs ignoring his commands, how weak his heartbeat felt as it slowed down to nothingness and he blacked out. It was a good thing he had plenty of distractions to save him from thinking about his near-death experience, like the slightly less near death by dehydration. Hopefully less near, at least.

"I'd say the danger was pretty extreme," he said softly. Checking his vessel, he found it a quarter full. "Anyway, this was full when I started my sprints. I'm not sure how much damage I'd caused to my own legs to use up six points of vitality, but it had to be a lot. No way I'd be walking around now if it weren't for my healing magic."

As usual, Symon rolled his eyes and did his best to ignore Keelgrave. He'd get bored eventually, right? He decided to distract them both by looking at the gains he got from killing centipedes to build up a full vessel.

[ Status:

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Name: Symon

Class: Cursed Healer

Strength: 0.77 {+0.07}

Constitution: 0.98 {+0.06}

Acuity: 0.78 {+0.05}

Intelligence: 0.74 {+0.01}

*Will: 1.00 {+0.01}

Vessel (Vitality): 2/8

Abilities:

Idealise (3) {+1}: Consumes Vitality to return a living target to its peak state. This ability automatically applies to the wielder and cannot be disabled.

Seize (6) {+1}: Absorbs Vitality from a target and stores it in the wielder's Vessel. This ability automatically applies to valid targets and cannot be disabled.

Essence Bond (1) {+1}: Permanently bind your essence to that of a spirit's.

Passives:

Poison Resistance (0)

Running (0) ]

Symon's eyes widened — these were some serious gains. In fact, he'd almost doubled his gains compared to the last time he'd checked! It turns out non-stop fighting and running around while carrying a heavy metal pipe is great for training your physical stats, who would have guessed?

Every ability had improved, even his essence bond. He had no idea what the ability did beyond representing that he had a ghost living on his vessel, and no idea what the ability improving would mean. Turning his attention inward, things were normal — inasmuch as being partially possessed by a snarky spirit could be described as normal. He couldn't even use the ability for anything, it was just there. So why wasn't it classed as a passive?

He'd been so focused on the impressive improvements that he'd skipped right past his will stat. What was up with the little star? Right as he opened his mouth to ask, Keelgrave cut him off.

came the strangely giddy interjection from the spirit. This only made Symon more confused — what was he supposed to be getting ready for? Thankfully, the words in the sand didn't wait to answer his question.

[Congratulations!

You have reached the pre-Ledger peak attainable in a statistic for your species.

As a reward for your efforts, choose any one statistic to evolve.

Reaching the pre-Ledger peak in further statistics will not provide additional rewards.]

Interesting, he thought. The sand, this Ledger or whatever it was called, hadn't spoken to him so directly since he'd woken up.

[Strength Evolution: Limit Break.

Gain the ability to overclock your strength beyond what is safe for your body.]

[Constitution Evolution: Last Stand.

Upon receiving a mortal blow, cling to life for a single second.]

[Acuity Evolution: Danger Sense.

Gain a passive and intuitive understanding of the danger posed to you by those you are aware of. Additionally, sometimes gain a subtle premonition of attacks if you are unaware of them.]

[Intelligence Evolution: Eidetic Memory.

Gain a perfect memory; this applies retroactively.]

[Will Evolution: Pain Resistance.

Gain a passive pain resistance]

"Damn..." Symon and Keelgrave said in unison. Every one of these options seemed incredibly powerful, so it was no surprise to Symon that he wouldn't be able to get them all just by improving his other attributes.

Limit Break seemed almost tailor-made for Symon; he would be able to effectively exchange vitality for a temporary strength increase. Instead of being a last-ditch emergency technique, Symon could use it almost freely, ignoring the main drawback as long as he had the spare vitality to heal himself after.

Last Stand was interesting and could potentially be very powerful depending on how it interacted with his healing. Was he always going to die after that one second, or could his healing kick in and save him from death? He didn't know and had no way to test it without picking it and risking death. Besides, even if it did work that way his healing was still low-level, an extra second of healing would be barely noticeable. It could be very powerful in the future, but Symon didn't think he should risk it, especially when he wanted immediate power to survive this desert.

Danger Sense was harder for Symon to see a use for considering he already found everything in the desert dangerous. The warning could be helpful, but against a sand panther — he still wanted to think of them as bearcats — a warning would only give him a moment to lament the unfairness of life before he got killed. He discarded this one as an option.

Symon's eyes travelled down to the next possible evolution. Having a perfect memory would be nice, especially considering it would apply to all his existing memories including those of his past life, but it wouldn't do much to help him survive. Maybe he could use the perfect memories of previously half-remembered facts and documentaries to recreate existing technologies from his past life, but he quickly discarded both the idle fantasy and this evolution as an option.

Keelgrave helpfully advised.

With the increase in his Strength stat, Intelligence was now the lowest of the bunch. That didn't mean he was stupid, he just hadn't been able to improve it much in this empty desert. There was no indication of which specific actions had increased the attribute, but he thought his minor Intelligence gains came from his planning and theorizing.

Being a paramedic wasn't as difficult as being a brain surgeon, sure, but it was still something that required intense study. It wasn't easy! He kept these thoughts to himself though, knowing Keelgrave was just being a dick and didn't actually believe his own words.

Maybe.

Either way, he wasn't going to take Eidetic Memory. Pain resistance also seemed nice, but it sounded more like something that would improve his quality of life, not help him survive. The bearcat was his benchmark for a proper threat — if it wasn't for his ambush almost immediately crippling the one he encountered previously, he wouldn't have stood a chance. Considering that, only Limit Break gave him a fighting chance considering it would make him faster and hit harder, especially with his big heavy pipe weapon. Pain Tolerance would make being mauled to death less painful, but Symon would rather avoid that altogether.

"So are you thinking I take Limit Break too? It's got great synergy with my other abilities, will give me the immediate power we need to survive, and should still be useful long into the future. Presuming we live."

To his surprise, Keelgrave took his time to think things over. Didn't he want Symon to be a big strong idiot?

Keelgrave trailed off, and Symon gave him time to think. He was in a rush, but he could spare a few minutes for such an important permanent decision.

He trailed off, as if unsure of if he should keep speaking.

When he continued, Keelgrave had an odd tone in his voice that Symon hadn't heard before.

Silently, Symon looked down at his options written in the sand. He made his choice after only a few moments and wasted no time before resuming his running. He told himself he was just eager to start improving his running skill, but his mind was too busy going over Keelgrave's words to be concerned with material gains.

Behind him, the words in the sand updated themselves before fading away.

[ Abilities:

Idealise (3): Consumes Vitality to return a living target to its peak state. This ability automatically applies to the wielder and cannot be disabled.

Seize (6): Absorbs Vitality from a target and stores it in the wielder's Vessel. This ability automatically applies to valid targets and cannot be disabled.

Essence Bond (2) {+1}: Permanently bind your essence to that of a spirit's.

Passives:

Pain Resistance (0)

Poison Resistance (0)

Running (0) ]