There was nothing like letting oneself get hit by a car to make you question your life choices.

But honestly, it was a little too late to worry about that right now.

So Jaclyn held up her arms as though she were trying to block a punch instead of a one-ton block of metal hurtling at her, and threw herself back in a split second before impact.

A pale-blue force field shimmered into existence above her skin, looking like it was covered in short, bristly, hairs. And then, the car slammed into her, shattering the energy field before hitting her, throwing her back until she landed on the side of the street, a dull ache throbbing in her forearms even as she rolled back onto her feet in a flash.

She grinned, her smile showing teeth.

It hadn’t exactly been pleasant, but she’d just walked off getting hit by a car moving at fifty miles an hour.

So she waved at Granger to bring the car back around for another try.

This was crazy, and decidedly not what the London Police Department’s vehicular training circuit was meant to be used for, but it was a place that had access to a whole bunch of cars, mechanics for said cars, and open road where they wouldn’t be disturbed.

And she did have a new power to train.

Spirit Projection

Your body may remain human, but your spirit is infused with the physical power of the Honey Badger and can now be projected outwards.

You have unlocked the following projection types:

Badger Fist (partially open fist -> badger claws projected from knuckles)

Fur Shield (arm intercepts attack -> skin and fur approx. 6 inches above skin)

Badger Fist essentially gave her spectral brass knuckles that let her tear through anything that wasn’t outright armor with relative ease. But that one had been easy to figure out.

Fur Shield, meanwhile, had only appeared after she’d fallen down the stairs and caught herself with her forearm.

The cool thing about Spirit Projection was how responsive it was.

For example, she could either catch the full force of a blow on her forearms and only have force transferred to her body until the shield broke and the attack impacted her directly, or she could treat it like a part of her body, being affected by the force of a strike as though the projection were real, physical, armor.

Or she could modulate her “Badger Fist” to position the claws to be of better use for slashing or punching.

And damage dealt to the projections would not affect her in the slightest, not unless she got hit with something that broke straight through and continued on to hit her directly. Like a freaking car.

But she needed to learn to use this power properly, she knew she could easily handle a car crash, and repeatedly letting Granger run her over was a better training tool than jumping down the stairs again.

And … she hadn’t been able to get her hands on a wrecking ball, no matter who she’d asked.

So yeah, here she was, “fist-fighting” a car.

After a little experimentation, they even strapped a sandbag to the front of the car so she could practice counterattacking even while airborne.

Things went well … until she somehow wound up underneath the car. She wasn’t entirely sure which part snagged on her nose or what it did, but it must have been important, considering that when it tore free, the car started leaking oil and only managed to drive another thirty feet or so before dying. Yeah, that car was done for. But at least it had survived until ten minutes before they’d had to leave anyway.

Muttering swear words, Jaclyn frantically wiped at her eyes to get the disgusting liquid from her eyes.

Bollocks!

At least her resistance to toxins had reached the point of near-immunity when it came to the non-magical stuff, which meant that she wouldn’t suffer any ill effects from this. But it was still the exact opposite of fun to have it in his eyes and some had even gotten up her nose.

However, the worst part was that it took her almost two minutes to remember that she had magic that was more than applicable to the current situation.

Upon increasing in Rank, one got the equivalent of a full Level-up’s worth of points to each Stat, including magic. Jaclyn had decided to make full use of that.

And she’d settled on Utility Magic. It would not only be useful in life in general once she mastered it, but was also fantastic for surviving in the jungle, ranging from compass spells, to cleaning wounds and extracting clean water.

But the main reason she’d gone for it had been her accidental discovery of a synergy between Gula’s access to potent contact poison and Jaclyn’s near-immunity to said poison. If she had the ability to completely erase the toxin once she was done using it, she could use it to its fullest potential.

And she practiced that magic religiously. Sure, it took her ten times as much to use magic to clean her coffee cup as it took her to wash it by hand, but it used to take her fifty times as long.

Slowly, bit by bit, her sense of smell returned as the oil was scrubbed from her sinuses and her eyesight went from non-existent to blurry to clear.

“Mind if I write in the accident report that I ran over my boss?” Granger asked her, gesturing to the no longer running car.

“Don’t do that,” Jaclyn sighed. She’d have loved to be able to write a report like that when she’d been his age and not get into trouble for it, but now, she was the boss in question.

Sure, they’d tell they guys at the motor pool what had happened, but eventually, that report would cross the desk of someone who didn’t know the full story and then, there’d be hell to pay because “someone tried to kill their superior officer”. Cue the shitstorm.

They wound up returning the car to the motor pool by Granger sitting at the wheel while Jaclyn pushed and checked her Status Sheet. And once the car was returned and she’d dipped into the changing room to put on fresh clothing, they headed out to the street.

She contemplated switching to her non-combat Skill set for a moment, then decided to stick with things as they were to keep Bullshit Radar active.

Upon gaining E-Rank, she’d gained the ability to switch equipped Skills every twelve hours, letting her have one set of six attached to her combat power, to be used when on shift, while a second set was for when she was off shift, where she’d use them as much as she could.

Name: Jaclyn Abrams

Race: Human

Class: Anima Monk

E-Rank, Level 1 -> 3/20

Class Abilities

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Spirit Bond: Honey Badger (F-Rank)

Spirit Projection (E-Rank)

Statistics (0 points available)

Body: 70

Magic: 5

Mind: 55 -> 65

Spirit: 54 -> 64

Skills

Pugilism 21

Fist of Indomitable Badger 25 -> 26

Athletics 19 -> 22

Situational Awareness 22

Bullshit Radar 13 -> 17

Martial Arts 23 -> 26

Alternate Skill Set (currently inactive, switch available)

Mana Control 0 -> 5

Utility Magic 0 -> 3

Ballance 10 -> 12

Breathing 5 -> 6

Inspect 0 -> 1

Movement 13-> 14

***

Inspect was the worst of her new Skills, and grew slowly, but eventually, she’d likely be able to name people at a glance or even see the powers of both man and beast.

Breathing was a simple Skill that everyone had in theory, though eventually, she’d likely be able to gain all the oxygen she needed by inhaling normally even when running at her top speed. It should do wonders for her stamina.

Movement was the same thing. Everyone had the Skill, and it would be useful, but neither was likely to be impactful enough to displace any of her “main” six Skills.

And Ballance was the exact same thing. Nice to have, and once she brought it into the realm of the supernatural, it would likely be insane, but not something she desperately needed. Especially when Martial Arts and Fist of the Indomitable Badger also had a minor balance component.

Mana Control and Utility Magic were obvious, as they, together, was what let her use magic. And she’d settled on full Utility Magic, as opposed to sticking with just a cleaning spell, as the Skill upgraded everything related to it.

She could distractedly zap away dirt while doing paperwork, and she’d simultaneously grow better at all spells in the category, including mending spells. And she’d once seen Gula make a trashed car run through magic and sheer force of will. It wasn’t the flashiest power, but it was one she felt far more likely to save her life than being able to cast a single fireball before her magic ran out.

“How are your studies going?” Jaclyn asked Granger.

“It’s tough, but awesome,” he grinned at her. “But I can’t wait to get my Class and have six Skill slots to play with.”

He was already a part of the same System she and the Orcs used, but only had two slots to fill with Skills that would grow at a vastly accelerated rate, which were currently occupied by Magic Knowledge and Mana Control, the latter of which he was training with an orcish children’s toy that was useable without any points in Magic.

The goal currently was to bring those two Skills to the point where they’d influence Class creation.

Most people had a ton of Skills between five and ten, which referred to things that they could do, but weren’t quite good enough at to use as a means to make a living.

Skills linked to a long-term profession or a hobby one had been doing for a while tended to be between ten and fifteen, and between fifteen and twenty, you’d start to enter into the realm of world-class experts.

Anything you got above would grow far slower but delve into the realm of the supernatural, actively bending reality in admittedly minor ways.

And once you got Skills into the tens, they’d start to influence Class creation, unless there were Skills that were far stronger.

The only reason why Granger was expected to be able to create a Class in a reasonable amount of time was the fact that his highest Skills were related to learning and multitasking, with regular stuff like housework, cooking, or job related proficiencies being low enough to not mess with things.

He produced a small stone with runes engraved on it.

“All someone has to do is pour magic inside and it’ll heat up. I know it’s just a magical handwarmer, but …” he trailed off.

“But you made it, so its automatically the most awesome artifact in existence as far as you’re concerned?” Jaclyn asked and he nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Do you know what kind of spells the Worldstrider Tribe can teach you?” Jaclyn asked. The orcs mostly used physical classes, just learning the occasional spell to not let the automatically gained magic go to waste.

“Fireball, Chain Lightning, Magic Missile, all the utility spells you’re learning, and basic telekinesis.”

Jaclyn thoughtfully tapped her chin. “How hard is telekinesis to learn?”

“It’s the hardest one,” he admitted.

And there went any chance of her learning it anytime soon. She’d been told that cleaning was one of the easiest spells, and she could barely cast it, let alone anything more complicated. She didn’t have enough mana to use magic properly in combat, so the impact learning spells had on her capabilities was minimal compared to her gains.

Granger glanced over at her with an expression that made it clear he had something he wanted to ask, but swiftly looked away with an almost guilty look on his face. As if he was afraid of her reaction. And it wasn’t the first time he’d thrown her that look since they’d started talking about magic.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. It might be private, in which case she’d back off, but if he had concerns about the current situation, it would probably be for the best to air the dirty laundry.

And if he was about to confess his eternal love to her, she’d obviously regret pressing him like that, but she doubted that was it. He knew better than to say something like that. And if he were into her, she’d have noticed, after all, she was a trained investigator.

“Can you make sure that I don’t get turned into everyone’s bitch once I learn magic?”

“I’m going to need some serious context here,” Jaclyn responded immediately. That could have meant a lot of things, and while she was pretty sure the most obvious meaning wasn’t what he’d meant, that didn’t help much when it came to figuring out what he was talking about.

“I’d be the only magic used in the department, the only one who can enchant stuff, who can fix enchantments, everything. And while the orcs could do most of that, most people are going to be more comfortable with another human …”

“If you’re concerned about the hours, you’re in the wrong line of work,” Jaclyn pointed out. “As a police officer, the hours are terrible, and your job doesn’t end when you clock out, all it takes is for someone to decide to do something stupid where you can see, make themselves a threat to others, and you’d wind up having to do something.”

She got what he meant, she really did, but depending on how attached he was to his free time, she’d have to temper her expectations for him going forward.

But Granger decided to regale her with a story.

“I went to school in one of those ‘tech inclusive’ schools that tried to use plenty of smart machinery, integrating it into lessons and ensuring that students learned to use all the stuff we needed for the information age,” Granger began in a tone that made her think he was partially quoting an infomercial. “But the teachers sucked with technology. Think of your grandmother trying to get a brand new laptop to work, every teacher except the one who taught IT was basically that bad.

“Speaker systems for assemblies, cloud storage, maintenance for the school website, hell, even getting Power Point presentations to work in class was usually a major production. Anytime a teacher tried to use technology, that meant at least five minutes of not having to listen to them yammer on.”

He laughed bitterly.

“There was exactly one teacher who could use technology, she taught IT, and had a whole afternoon program for tech aficionados, taught some kids how to make everything work, and then when it came time for assemblies, the kids would handle the tech side of things while the teachers sat around with their thumbs up their asses.

“Eventually, though, that teacher left the school, I don’t know why, and her replacement stopped holding the afternoon program. One by one, the kids stopped helping with the tech or got transferred. Until there was just one guy handling all the IT problems, to the point where he just wouldn’t come to class the day before a school event that used tech, and teachers would literally pull him out of class when they needed help. Why bother to learn to do stuff when they had someone to do it for them, why hire someone when it was being done for free, why change anything when the status quo worked? For them, I mean?

“And sure, the school eventually implemented a ‘person of the year’ award and gave it to him every year, but that was just recognition, it didn’t do anything to help his situation. Until eventually, he burned out before he even graduated. I don’t know what happened to him, but I know that I don’t want to end up like that.”

Now that, that was an understandable worry. Being a cop was hard work, with crap hours, and like she’d told him, you could easily wind up being required to do something even if you were no longer on shift, but this was something entirely different. Being burdened to such a degree, that was something she’d do her best to shield him from.

“Before it ever gets to the point where getting an hour of uninterrupted sleep is enough to make you cry with relief, I’ll put my foot down. Or up someone’s ass. Whatever’s necessary,” Jaclyn finally promised after taking a few seconds to think of a good way to phrase her pledge.

The corners of Granger’s mouth twitched upwards at her statement.

“Thank you”.

And a minute after that, they’d reached the street and drove off towards the place of the meeting they’d soon be attending.

***

The British Government had been gutted by the jungle, and the remaining officials had been forced to relocate.

Bristol had been selected as the new, and hopefully temporary, capital, due to its size and proximity to major military bases, as well as strong access to the world wide web, which allowed for a rapid flow of information.

However, Bristol was quite aways away, and while relocating individual politicians and ministers could be done swiftly, moving an entire government was a tough and involved process.

Therefore, the people and documents who weren’t yet there had all but taken over Cambridge, which was also near several military bases and likewise had great internet.

That was where she and Granger were going, to see the part of the government that remained nearby because someone had had a great idea. Or a terrible one.

No, the idea itself was a good one, but there were oh so many ways to fuck it up.