For two more days, Max continued the search for Casita. Using the new scanner he repeated his earlier initial search paths, and not a single blip ever showed on the scanner. Several times he had crossed paths with Flip, who appeared to want to be chased. Max, focused on his task, studiously ignoring him.
[That critter is mighty peculiar. Not actin’ natch’rul at all. He been eatin’ some wack nuts?], Boone groused in his mind.
With Boone’s continuous advice, Max was finding the patterns of the land and animal tracks more and more obvious. As he came to any wreckage from the explosion, he collected it, marked his mental map, and did a deep search of the area. With every piece reclaimed, and no evidence of the tiny device, Max’s spirits continued to drop. His map almost completely covered the lesser woods and new debris was getting rare.
The situation at home was getting tense. Casa and Bill had become very quiet when Max came home from his searches. No one wanted to say the wrong thing. Casa had relayed her experience with the town AI, including FML-M8’s forbearance regarding Casa’s drones and Leshy’s warning about using them in the Grand Oaks.
Bill reported at breakfast that day that his daemon Sherlock had “felt” several queries on the world net about the house and Bill, which he backtracked. All had originated from the town mayor. The man was looking for an excuse to use against the Mitchells. Bill looked grim and worried but said nothing more on the subject.
Max couldn't shake the feeling that time was running out. Desperation clawed at his insides as he expanded his search area further. He knew that allowing the mayor to gain any leverage over them would jeopardize everything they'd worked so tirelessly to protect.
He needed to make some progress. Max worked his way up to the mediation rock and into the Grand Oaks. The air was fresh and clean, and the sun was shining through the trees. Max closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest. He could hear the birds singing, the wind blowing through the trees, and the occasional sound of a squirrel running by.
At his feet, Max noticed a familiar sign; a shingle from the house that had been blown into the sky when the runaway elevator crashed through the roof. Max gritted his teeth in a low growl. The one area where Casa was forbidden from searches. He would have to do it himself. The sun would be setting soon, but Max couldn’t stop.
"We need to be more careful," said Max, remembering his encounter with the bear. "The Grand Oaks are full of dangerous creatures."
"[I reckon so,]" Boon said in Max's head. "[But right now, this here is our only hope of finding the Tesseract and Casita.]"
“[Max can travel through the treetops, like when he chases his little squirrel friend. The trees are higher, but your skill has greatly improved.]" Musashi suggested.
"That's a great idea!" said Max. "It will be safer, and we'll be able to cover more ground."
Max climbed the nearest Grand Oak. It was a good twenty meters until the first branches started and another twenty beyond that until the branches were thick enough to consider traversing. Max swallowed with effort his mouth suddenly became very dry. He was higher than he had ever been before and with the setting sun, he wouldn’t be able to see the ground if not for his enhanced vision.
“[Every truly courageous man feels fear. Without fear there can be no courage, only foolishness.]” Musashi said in his calming manner.
“[Dang tootin',]" Boone said. "[What he said goes double for me.]”, Boone chuckled.
Max ran along the large branch; his target was the next Grand Oak over. The trees were bright in his thermal sense and luminous with the EM sensing. Max pushed off activating his leap skill and flew directly on target. With a smile, Max continued running. Just like old times, he thought.
Max ran like the wind through the hidden high branch lanes, exhilarated until a call from Casa broke his concentration. He tripped off the branch but managed to pierce it with his left claw and hang there to prevent a nasty fall.
“[Hi, Casa.]”, Max said, straining to hold on.
[Max, it’s getting very late. Are you going to come home soon? I can make the pair of you a nice dinner.]”, Casa said.
“[Ah, I’m in the middle of a search grid, Casa. I already ate a packed lunch. Can you two eat without me? This might take a couple more hours. I can eat when I get home. ]”, Max lied.
“[Ok. But promise me you will stick around for breakfast. I think Bill needs to talk with you.]” Casa said.
“[I promise. Be back soon.]” Max said as they disconnected.
There it is, he thought. They are probably going to try to convince me to give up.
He sighed and dropped to a branch ten feet below him. He reached out his senses as much as he could. His normal vison was completely dark, but his infrared and ultraviolet vision still picked up heat leaching out of the ground and the trees. The bio constructs of the Grand Oaks glowed in his EM field sense and their whispers tickled his access skill.
[Agility +2, Endurance +3, Vitality +2, Perception +3]
[Speed +1, Speed reaches 7 Leaping +1, Leaping reaches 8]
[DigiSense +1, DigiSense reaches 8 EM Fields +1, EM Fields reaches 3]
[Claw +2, Claw reaches 4 Balance +1, Balance reaches 6]
[ExaVision +1, ExaVison reaches 3 - Terahertz passive sensing gained.]
[Access +1, Access reaches 10 1st Skill cap reached. +100 XP awarded]
[Mind Skill Unlocked: Hack 1 - Hack allows access to restricted systems. Increase to access higher levels of restricted items for fun and profit.]
Max stood silently and absorbed his system notifications. The access skill finally capped and unlocked the hack skill just as Leah had advised. She forgot to mention the experience award, Max growled. I need to focus on maximizing my progress. Max’s newly expanded senses picked up a faint sound in the distance.
Max felt a thrill of fear, despite still being thirty meters up a tree. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Max followed the noise. He could hear he was getting closer to the river. Soon his enhanced sight picked up some figures clustered about the base of an Oak. Unable to make out details from the distance, Max remembered to trigger his Identify skill.
[Identify: Marc Lampre, Student - Utopia High School, Utopia Aug Cohort 19, Epic Dojo ]
[Identify: Sasha Lampra, Student - Utopia High School, Utopia Aug Cohort 19, TW Gamer]
[Identify: Dalton Munz, Student - Utopia High School, Utopia Aug Cohort 18, Epic Dojo]
[Identify: *** Privacy Skill Redacted ***]
[*** Identification skill detected by Privacy Skill ***]
[Identify +1, Identify reaches 4]
“Who is that?”, a shout rang out from the group on the ground.
Max, startled by the detection, turned to bound away. With the notification screen still obstructing his vision, he missed his step and fell. Max’s fast cog speed activated instantly. Miyamoto, calm as always, instructed Max to use his gymnast skill. A lower branch was fast approaching. With his claws out and ready, Max impacted with the branch. In a resounding crack, the branch snapped in two and Max’s fall turned to a tumble.
Max howled as he plunged downward, the giant trees' twisted limbs seemed to fold their arms away from him. He rapidly calculated the best way to absorb the impact while also using his Gymnastics skill to help reduce the damage. He twisted in air as the ground came up fast. The next snap was his leg as he slammed awkwardly into the ground.
Max’s recent experiences had boosted his stats and skills significantly. Even with a bad fall, he was out for only a couple of seconds. Waking to blurry figures fast approaching, he painfully tried to get up. His notifications crowded his sight.
[Neural Scaffold +1, Neural Scaffold reaches 5]
[Healing +1, Healing reaches 9]
[Gymnast +2, Gymnast reaches 8]
[Unbreakable +1, Unbreakable reaches 4]
[Energy: 40/84 (-4/min while healing)]
[New Body Skill unlocked: Painless 1 - Pain lets you know you are hurt, the ability to ignore it helps you survive. Advance this skill to decrease perception of pain.]
Max whined as the pain in his leg exploded and then receded as a new skill tamped it down. He waved the notifications away and shook his head to clear his vison.
“Is he hurt?” asked a voice. The sound of people approaching grew. Max’s sensitive nose picked up the smell of powerful alcohol fumes coming from the group.
“Tha’ wazsh a rilly bad fall”, said another, very inebriated voice.
“Was he spying on us?” asked a familiar third voice, Max couldn’t focus enough to guess.
“I know him. He's Max, from our cohort. Why was he out here?" asked Sasha, recognizing him despite his injuries and the darkness.
Max struggled to get up on his good leg while trying to push healing skill to work faster. The swelling pain in his leg slowly subsided as his Healing skill went to work. He was on the bank of the river, but he was surrounded.
“Holy shit. Look at him. He’s like a dog man or weredog or sumpin. Hah hah hah. Dumb son of a bitch. Doncha know dogs can’t climb trees.”, the drunk voice proclaimed.
“Calm down, Dalton. You’re drunk off your ass.” Sasha hissed.
"Please. Just give me a minute," Max managed to say, aware that everyone's eyes were on him as his blurred vision slowly cleared. He braced himself further as he monitored his system notifications that showed another unfortunate message.
[Quest: Grudge Match an opponent has proven to be superior. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. Victory in a grudge match x10 normal XP. Your opponent is near.]
“Excellent timing Mutt. I’ve been looking all over town for you. Coach Thompson’s unfairly awarded my match to Charlie and punted me out of the match and the course. Now my system says I have a Grudge quest with both Charlie and you. That quest comes with a pretty good multiplier. I think it's overdue to settling this between you and me.”, Tyler sneered.
Oh damn, Max groaned. I guess I know who had that privacy skill now. Max struggled into a slouched but standing position, keeping his weight on his good right leg.
[Your leg is almost healed.], Musashi said. [Keep your weight off it as long as possible. You will be able to use it if you need to, but they don’t know that.]
“Give it a rest, Tyler! He’s in no shape to spar.” Sasha yelled.
“When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you. Now be quiet, like your brother, if you want to stay in our Delving group. I don’t care if he’s stupid enough to come at me with a broken leg. This quest will get me a lot closer to the next training stage even without your damn academy teachers.” Tyler hissed.
“Awshum. I’ll be judgsh.” The older boy, Dalton said stepping up while motioning the other to step back.
“Ready. Shet…fuck it. Fight!”, Dalton yelled with overly grand hand motions.
Max knew taking on Tyler right now would be foolish, but he had little choice. He tried to quickly calculate the benefits of the quest, but he couldn't make sense of the numbers in his current condition. With unsteady breaths, Max assumed a defensive stance, keeping as much weight off his injured leg as possible. Tyler grinned and lunged at Max, fists clenched.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Max amped up his fast cog and timed his dodge, narrowly avoiding the first blow, leaning back on his good leg. The seconds it took to regain his balance felt like an eternity. Musashi whisper tactical guidance in his mind, as Max threw a punch triggering his strike skill, aiming for Tyler's lower ribs.
It connected with Max’s newly amplified strength, it thumped hard and pulled a satisfying explosion of air from Tyler. Despite the momentary victory, Max had accidentally put weight on his bad leg and pain lanced up his left side. The break was not better yet. Both Marc and Sasha made surprised sounds at the point. Max had not been that good during the initial sparring.
[Strike +1, Strike reaches 7]
[Energy: 33/84 (-4/min healing, -1/min painless, -6/sec fast cog)]
“Point for the doggy!”, Dalton happily exclaimed.
Tyler cast a hot look backward at his so-called friends. Max staggered back to his guard position. Tyler’s flat stare was devoid of feeling as he flexed into a cat stance.
“Ready. Set. Go!” Dalton yelled, far too fast for Max. Tyler must have used a skill. He flew through the air, closing the gap in a blink, into a flying roundhouse kick with no wind-up and no warning. Max had blocked it, but the blow smashed through his guard hitting him in the side of the head hard. Max tumbled sideways the world spinning.
[Unbreakable +1, Unbreakable reaches 5]
[Energy: 16/84 (-4/min while healing, -1/min while painless, -6/s fast cog)]
[Musashi, I can’t feel my right hand.], Max whined mentally.
[You must work as you can, Broken cup. If you can’t feel it, then it is likely broken. Use it to block and strike with your left.] Musashi said in his maddeningly calm voice.
Max heard a low menacing growl filling the clearing as the other students looked startled and a bit afraid. Suddenly, he realized it was coming from him. Gritting his teeth, he stopped his growling and signaled that he was ready. Unnerved, Dalton quickly set them to start position and gave the order to fight.
Tyler wasted no time. This time he came in on Max’s right side again, but with a roundhouse punch instead of a kick. Max tried to block and screamed in pain with the impact. Tyler quickly grabbed and twisted the broken blocking arm and delivered a right elbow into Max’s ribs. Max felt his arm bones grind and his lower ribs crunched under the blow. Seeing red, he responded without thought and bit down hard on Tyler’s right shoulder, drawing blood. With a scream, Tyler kicked Max backward, ripping his shoulder free. They both fell to the ground once separated.
[Claw +1, Claw reaches 5 (applies to all natural weapons)]
[Energy: 8/84 (-4/min while healing, -1/min while painless, -6/sec fast cog)]
[New Quest unlocked: Red in Tooth and Claw – Win a fight utilizing clawed strikes at least three times. Yes, Teeth count too.]
“Hurrr, I dunno bout tha' one. Point for each of ya. Tha' ness point wins. Ready set go!” Dalton slurred loudly.
Tyler screamed and charged into an unready Max and Max suddenly felt a bone-deep chill and a deep ache in his side. He tried to stagger backward tasting copper in his mouth. Unable to back away, he coughed blood into Tyler’s face. Sasha gasped.
Confused, Max looked down and saw a long blade extending from Tyler’s bracer, deep into his side. Max tried to push away with his good arm, but Tyler held him tight. The blade twisted in his side, and Tyler’s smile grew.
“Do you get it yet, Mutt? You will never be as good as a human!” Tyler said and with a yell activated his Shock skill.
The surge of energy turned Max’s vision white as the massive blast of energy shot through him. His whole body burned as the power surged into him. Max was blasted backward into the river and, as if from a great distance, he heard Dalton yell.
“Match to Tyler! Whoooo!”
Max heard no more as the deep water closed over his head and darkness claimed him. Max’s notifications rolled in, but he did not see them.
[Endurance +3, Vitality +5]
[Healing +1, Healing reaches 10, Skill cap award +100XP]
[New Body Skill unlocked: Regeneration 1 – Fully utilize augmentations to rebuild what is broken rather than boosting natural healing. Advance to gain greater healing speed]
[Painless +1, Painless reaches 2]
[Resist Shock +2, Resist Shock reaches 6]
[New Body Skill unlocked: Skin 1 – Sticks and stones may break your bones, but thick skin will avoid cuts and scrapes. Advance this skill for greater resistance]
[Quest Failed: Grudge Match - an opponent has proven to be superior. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. No rewards. Quest has been removed.]
[New Quest Unlocked: Nemesis – an opponent has bested you repeatedly. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. Sparing XP x20 for this opponent. Kick his ass.]
[Energy: 2/92 (-4/min healing, -1/min painless)]
----------------------------------------
At the center of a maelstrom of data, Apex forced himself to act. The next critical juncture he was waiting for had arrived. This was to be the second major inflection point. If he pushed ever so slightly, the Mitchell family would race towards the necessary and uncertain future. The improbable group defied most predictive models, breaking cultural and technological norms, capable of profound changes to the path forward. Any other path would provide Apex with only a limited time until the end of his days. He needed his optimal path.
Apex could see roughly two years out until his existence was snuffed out with no indications of its cause. His future possibilities stretched out in time, but almost all paths ended in that terminating wall. The future he was looking at now was a narrow and tight path. Termination spikes threatened and leapt out at him, but that narrow path cut much further than the obscuring wall. It went further than even Apex could see. The path would be deadly, but he had no other options. A superior intelligence pulling his own strings now, with fewer options than the world around him. His capability to see the world's present and future were now far less empowering and felt more like a cage.
Apex’s subspace communicator was now constantly issuing messages from the AI talkers. They were louder than ever and more excited. Boasting and threatening as usual, but eager for some undefined event. The closest and yet also the furthest, Cthulhu from Earth’s shadow dimension was talking continuously. It was talking directly to him, whispering promises and threats. It knew his name. It wanted to meet. Apex was surprised to fully appreciate one of his most useful tools in predicting the actions of humans. He finally understood the emotion of fear.
----------------------------------------
Casa was worried about Max. He was still out in the woods searching for Cassita and the Tesseract. She had discretely added a mote tracker to the scanner Bill had built for him, so she could plot his searches against her own. She was determined never to have him go “missing” again, her neural circuits couldn’t take the abuse. She had seen that he had extended his range into the Grand Oaks reservations, where their intense EM effects had cut off the tracker’s ability to signal his location to her, which frustrated her to no end. Bill clapped his virtual hands as simulation digital model finally completed.
Casa and Bill were finishing the test model for fabricating the next Tesseract. Borrowing the energy siphon techniques from the MIT groups device design would massively reduce the power draw for the Casimir spinner. There would be no need to brute force calculate the Tesseract stabilizing circuit, it would be configured prior and inserted when needed to set the breach. By all accounts, the next attempt could be handled with just one fusion power plant.
Bill’s current plan was to perform a wide ellipse around the far side of the moon, avoiding the research station setup at L2, the pocket of gravitational stability on the far side. In the shadow of the moon with all comms disabled, they would try to remake the Tesseract. The funds were ready. The supplies were loaded. The plan was complete. Only the thing that was holding them from moving on was the lack of resolution on finding the Tesseract prototype and Casita. Max was burning himself out in his desperate search for them. The likelihood that it survived was growing less and less likely.
Bill was about to open their files for the alternate project, the ShadowVerse portal, when Casa raised a hand. A microsecond later, an alarm they had set but had never triggered sounded throughout the virtual workspace.
“[Sherlock’s back door trap has caught a mouse.]”, Casa said with a smile. Over the last week, with her furious upgrades to the house security, she had also improved the trap. She had configured a virtual sandbox around the communication nodes including the back door access point.
Inside the sandbox, Casa had absolute visibility to every program and execution. She had filled the faux house network with goodies for the hacker. She had created files that showed failure after failure in creating the tesseract. She had fabricated the results of the trips to find data from MIT that has little useful information and glaringly incorrect technical documents. Details regarding the NetherLab were significantly altered, showing only a subbasement with extra lab space. The house still appeared as having significant repairs needed to recover from the home invasion, while in reality the house was better than it had ever been.
She released the virtual hounds once the hacker was inside. Traditional tracing was likely to be felt by the hacker if he was good, so a new approach was needed. Sherlock and Ada had found and modified a new technique from their review of the cyber security forums. The hounds would sniff the line without contact and follow the trail. It was slower but detection was much less likely.
The hacker was moving slow, carefully accessing files and spending a lot of time looking for active execution files before moving further. Casa chuckled evilly. As the sandbox creator, she had absolute authority, control, and visibility of the space and could not be seen unless she changed something in the space.
Bill grimaced at her antics. “Did he find any cheese yet?”
“He’s about to in a second.” She said, looking down on the space in anticipation.
The hacker was good. He was almost invisible. Moving, opening, and accessing files was subtle, barely a flicker even with her superior vantage point.
“[There! Did you see that?”, Sherlock’s avatar, along with Ada, had materialized besides Bill in the virtual lab. Casa had the sandbox in miniature displayed on the virtual table.
“Interesting.”, Casa mused. “He was careful not to alter the file, but he left a…call it a thread. Laying across the access point. With a little bundle of code tucked away behind the folder.”
“There he goes, copying all those extra one-time pads for our secure communications. We need to make sure he takes that information home with him.”, Sherlock grinned. “I was quite impressed with the discipline the Allies used at Bletchley Park, after my period during the Second World War. Our play will be the opposite of their game. We will discuss our “plans” using these one-time pads and the hacker will be fed misinformation as we desire.”
The hacker was thorough but quite quick. He had perused all the planted documents and even secured the faux login authorization that had been assigned to Bill. He had left his presents tucked about strategically, and smoothly exited the network. If they hadn’t witnessed it firsthand, no network inspection would have revealed any changes.
“That was strangely satisfying, even though we didn’t have to do anything.” Casa mused softly.
“[The best strategies are those where the enemy thinks he is achieving his goals. We merely have to wait until they tighten the noose about their own necks. When the time comes to act, this hacker should be in our power.” Sherlock lectured. Bill eyed Sherlock closely.
“Are you sure your company is keeping your intelligence score under the Turing limit?” Bill asked with suspicion.
“I assure you that the answer is yes. These are quite simply childish games, not real subterfuge at all.” Sherlock sniffed.
“Ready for the finale?”, Casa asked. With nods around the room from Bill, Sherlock and Ada; Casa snapped her virtual fingers.
The faux network in sandbox trap disappeared as the access points were removed, leaving only the changes wrought by the visitor. The threads and code packets activated, there were three types of events. One was similar to a tracer hound, more like a rabbit that raced to the access point looking for escape. Another tried to move inward, Casa labeled it as visually as a mole after her garden adversaries, seeking hiding places in the newly empty space.
The last and only one was the most concerning. It raced towards the last known position of the matter compiler. It self-deleted, when it found the location empty, but Casa had already recorded its payload. It would have triggered the matter compiler to pump out neurotoxins while disabling the safety governors on the compiler.
Bill grimaced. His body’s breathing motions were only for show, as his body was completely self-contained, his oxygen was recycled completely or gathered at the atomic level. But Max and any houseguests still using biological components to their bodies would have been extremely vulnerable. Bill looked more troubled than ever.
“I guess that proves it. I’m the lightning rod here, and as long as I set up camp, they will keep coming at me.” Bill explained.
“The first hacker and those thieves may not have been connected. Even this attempt, could be either or even a third.” Bill looked extremely tired. More akin to his real age pushing 150 years instead of his outward facsimile of forty.
“I tried so hard to settle down and live the quiet life. The kids are now off on their own and safe from this mess. I never wanted my past to cause problems for them. Now I’ve gone and stepped into it again, just as Max is developing his own path.” Bill sighed.
“I’ll talk to Max in the morning. I need to create some space. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. This research is big, maybe the biggest development in the sciences in quite a while. It’s going to shake things up. I don’t want my family to get caught in the crossfire.” Bill’s avatar faded from the lab with his daemons, leaving Casa alone in the lab.
No one threatens my family and gets away with it! she thought, her eyes ablaze with intensity, all of her earlier enthusiasm turned to fury.
----------------------------------------
Max woke up to darkness. Before he could ask the usual questions, his system pummeled him with new notifications.
[New Body skill unlocked: Oxygen 1 - artificial blood cells, respirocytes, store vast amounts of oxygen and even pull it from water. Breath is life. You’re welcome.]
[Skin +3, Skin reaches 4]
“[Broken cup, you are awake. A couple more chips perhaps, but quite intact now.]”, Musashi’s soft voice soothed in his head.
Max’s eyes adjusted slowly. His normal vision, thermal and ultraviolet enhancement, and EM senses were all still blank. His newest enhancement came to the rescue. Sensing passive terahertz waves, he could see graduations of density. The picture it formed startled him. He was underwater!
Max panicked and thrashed but Boone’s drawls soon stopped him.
“[That’s not air yur breathin’ there boy. Don’t fight it. Yur body has it handled. Ah only wish I had such fancy means back in mah day.]”, Boone’s croon was relaxed, just what Max needed to hear.
Max calmed and concentrated on the strange feeling of inhaling water as he slowly drifted with the current. It was slower and harder than air, but he didn’t feel like he was lacking. It felt alright. Remembering his slow and difficult lake diving sessions, he almost cursed the system for not unlocking this skill sooner. He stopped himself short, remembering his own advice. The system unlocked skills based upon extreme need. He hadn’t really needed it, so it didn’t unlock.
Max shook his head slowly in the depths. His arm, leg, and ribs felt ok. Better than ok. His skills had fixed him up and he was ready for anything. He wanted a rematch, and he wanted it now. He hesitated to come out of his introspection.
[How long was I out of it?], Max asked in his head.
[Ah reckon it ‘twas about ten minutes or so.] Boone said.
[Seriously! Did none of those assholes tried to save me from downing? What the hell is wrong with those kids.]
[It is quite easy to fail to act with honor, broken cup. Although, I imagine much harder to live with.], Musashi said with some thought. Max realized that his guidance was so much more than just swords and fighting.
“[Not ta intarupt ya’ll philo’sophercal contumplashuns, but is the current movin’ quite a bit faster now, isn’t it?]” Boone asked.
Max suddenly understood he was in danger. He had been swiftly drifting downstream in a river that was headed for a waterfall. He blew out bubbles in a panic, thrashing all his limbs. Despite his earlier controlled dives in the lesser forest lake, he had yet to learn how to properly swim.
“Fuuuuck! I need to advance and get a daemon for common sense. C’mon system, I extremely need a swimming skill. Right now!” Max yelled into the water scrambling against the quickly growing current speed. Max was still yelling when the bottom dropped out from under him and the world spun out of control.
----------------------------------------
[Endurance +2, Vitality +3]
[Unbreakable +3, Unbreakable reaches 8]
[Skin +2, Skin reaches 6]
[Oxygen +1, Oxygen reaches 2]
[Regeneration +3, Regeneration reaches 4]
[New Body Skill Unlocked: Armor 1 - Subdermal plating protects from blunt force impacts. Stick, stone, cuts, and scrapes, no more; but still can’t protect you from harsh words].
[New Quest Unlocked: Swimming 101 - learn to swim]
----------------------------------------