Interlude: The Sage
He walked beneath the snowy boughs of gnarled trees. His footfalls left no trace upon the powdered slope, and the light of the sun passing through a thousand gleaming crystals left no trace upon him.
In the end transcendent beauty was still merely another layer to the illusion, and as such, there was no room in his heart for such frivolity.
He pushed aside the veil of his senses and renewed his detachment before memories of distant days could claim him. Though not before a stray thought surfaced like the last gasp of a drowning man.
She would have loved this.
He watched the thought rise and fall from a distance, and meditated on the distinction between numbness and enlightenment, between inaction and despair, detachment and depression.
How is it that the pursuit of wisdom brings one closer and closer to the void?
The chains of his past actions weighed heavily upon him, manifest in the responsibility he had taken upon himself. How easy it would be to sever the burden and thus rise, ascend and dissolve. But he also understood the answer to his question.
That which is pursued will flee. I must abide in the trap I have constructed for myself, for every struggle to escape will only draw it tighter. What does it mean to escape one trap, only to create another by that very action?
Not for the first time, he wondered if infinite patience was a curse. If perhaps the true enlightenment he sought could only be attained by abandoning all the trappings of wisdom, rejoining the struggle and allowing himself to experience the pain of mundane existence.
Is it truth or temptation? Shouldn’t the difference be clear by now?
He sat down to meditate on the problem, only to hear the calls of his burdens echo up the mountain. They had been particularly active lately, as if responding on some level to the ferment within his own thoughts.
My brothers, he thought. How you have fallen.
He stopped himself, and watched the thought rise, carrying with it the chains of karma. Carrying more unwanted memories, regrets and recriminations.
No!
With a thought he cleared his mind, wiped away the demons of distraction and attachment and banished them. He emptied his mind of all but the faintest trace of motive and self.
He rose and began to walk back up the mountain.
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Chapter 22: Elevated
It took Lilijoy by surprise. One minute she was helping to coordinate the movements of thousands of root-tentacles, merged with the righteous wrath of the Greatwood of Averdale, and the next thing she knew she was standing in front of… really scary things, holding a long knife, her evil knife, by the blade of all things.
Uh, about that, said her other self. Some stuff happened while you were all tree-vengeance girl.
I can see that, she replied. So fill me in while we wait for them to...um, is it just me or are they moving way faster than they should?
She was accustomed to enemies drifting toward her like clouds on a lazy summer afternoon. These creatures were…
Before she could even finish the thought, three of them were upon her, and her body was lurching to the side.
Brain slow, no time to explain, her other self replied in a rush.
The creatures were hard to look at, disorienting even. One moment she could see a fair elven warrior, the next, a nightmare of foulness with corpse eyes and black oozing skin. The disorienting part was that the creatures weren’t changing their appearance externally, as much as she was seeing them differently.
Like that dress picture thing. If it was evil.
She didn’t have much time to think about it, even though she was in passenger mode, because her body had been crushed against broken stone and writhing roots and hands were tearing at her skin. Though the creatures had no more than long, raggedly broken fingernails she could feel fingers penetrating into her flesh, feel the physical presence of questing digits underneath her skin. Oddly, they weren’t inflicting physical damage, but instead ripping her mana and natural energy away.
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You have been drained
80 Mana (currently 24)
13 POW (currently 0)
7 STR (currently 16)
15 VIT (currently 0)
5 END (currently 54)
Effects last 24 hours
HP = 70
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It was a disgusting sensation. Horrifying. If she had to feel the associated pain… well if that were the case, she would leave the Inside and never come back, no matter how enticing the food was. As it was she wondered how Guardian could possibly think that Outsiders would ever voluntarily risk an experience so deeply traumatic.
Oh god… these things cultivate trauma, she realized.
She could feel her body thrashing around desperately as her other self tried to break free, but the creatures were heavy, so heavy that she felt the breath squeezing out of her lungs, almost as if the foul things were growing heavier by the moment. She realized that even her right arm, still holding onto the blade of the evil knife somehow and free to flail around ineffectively, was being crushed down against the squirming roots..
It didn’t make sense to her until she heard the voice.
“Playtime’s over, kids.”
She heard a crash, several thunderous steps, and then the creatures on top of her were ripped free. She thought she heard one land about twenty or thirty feet away with a rather horrifying squelching snap.
Her face was still crushed against a thick mat of roots and wood, and she could only turn one eyeball skyward to see the grinning face of her trainer.
“Hey kid! Punching a little above your weight there, eh?”
There was an uncharacteristic strain in Rosemallow’s voice, despite her casual approach. Lilijoy couldn’t draw breath to reply, even if she had been the one running her voice.
Probably a good time to merge? her other self suggested.
There was no need to reply. The process was a bit strange, and took longer than it ever had. Once she was alone in her head again, she understood that her memories had become a bit compartmentalized, and scrambled on top of that.
“So… this is a weird time to be doing this, but I need you to level up a bunch,” her trainer was saying. “I’ve run into a... minor issue with some of the wards here just now. I can’t keep the area suppressed much longer.”
What wards is she talking about? I distinctly remember crushing everything up here. Except the prisoners.
With that thought, a pang of regret passed through her. Why exactly had she done that? It wasn’t always easy to understand her memories from the Two Minds One Self state, but she could remember a strong urge to free the prisoners and let them feast.
That doesn’t seem like it came from me.
She could also remember centuries of a slow existence, the feeling of being cherished, loved and nurtured, obviously lingering remnants from the experiences of the giant tree. With consciousness, the Greatwood had not only become aware of itself, but also aware of what it had lost. And there was one other quality from those foggy memories, a feeling of… connection.
The Greatwood wasn’t just a home for the Elves. It was connected to them. Is still connected to them. Uh oh.
Her musings were interrupted by her internal awareness.
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Level Up! 1101 EXP Reached: Level 11
(10 more free points available: 11 total)
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“Quick! Raise Power, Invulnerability, Vitality, Flash, Mana Well, Charm: Plants, and bank the rest,” her trainer barked.
Lilijoy's thoughts were still a bit muddled. She couldn’t understand what the point was of leveling up at this precise moment. Why didn’t Rosemallow just respawn her? It would hardly be the first time.
Her hesitation had a strange consequence.
“Please, kid. Just do it. Do it until it stops.” Rosemallow’s voice was almost cracking.
Until what stops?
A quick glance at her trainer showed she was no longer grinning. The strain in her voice was now apparent in her face as well. Several blood vessels had ruptured in her left eye.
Alarmed and confused, Lilijoy pulled up her sheet and made the requested changes and banking the one point left over, while brushing aside at least a dozen other notifications pertaining to her character. Immediately she received a new notification.
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Level Up! 1201 EXP Reached: Level 12
(10 more free points available: 12 total)
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
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“Again!”
She repeated the process three more times. Even at her reduced speed it only took a handful of seconds.
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Level Up! 1301 EXP Reached: Level 13
(10 more free points available: 13 total)
Level Up! 1401 EXP Reached: Level 14
(10 more free points available: 14 total)
Level Up! 1501 EXP Reached: Level 15
(10 more free points available: 15 total)
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She could feel the strength returning to her limbs with each new level. Not enough for her to so much as raise her head off the ground, but enough for her to breath a little more easily. Her System was recovering too, or at least Stage Two was, at about sixty percent coherence and rising. Stage One would require more time, as the smaller flowers and vines wouldn’t regain a sustainable power level for another ninety minutes or so.
“One more now. Raise Gliding and Acrobatics, then do what you want.”
Do what I want? Now she was very worried about her trainer’s state of mind.
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Level Up! 1601 EXP Reached: Level 16
(10 more free points available: 16 total)
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She raised Acrobatics to Enhanced Journeyman and Gliding/Flight to Upgraded Novice.
I don’t like where this is going. The only reason she would have me raise Gliding is if…
“All right kid. It may be a while before I see you again. If you survive, try to break the array. If you can’t do that, see if you can help the tree.”
“What array-” she began.
She was interrupted by the sound of glass breaking, and all hell broke loose. Rosemallow released her grip on gravity, and the tree roots and the dhrowgos leapt back into action. Dozens of vials flew through the air and burst all around her, releasing hissing yellow vapor and Lilijoy saw human figures perched all around the edge of the caldera.
“Restrain the Tier Five.” she heard a man say.
Rosemallow picked her up with one huge hand. Lilijoy juggled the evil knife and had just gotten hold of the non-pointy end when her trainer spoke.
“Good luck,” she said, and hurled Lilijoy into the air with all of her might.
***
Anda breathed a sigh of relief. The fever, or whatever it was, had broken, and Lilijoy’s temperature was rapidly receding. He took away the cold packs and gently wiped the condensation off her pale features.
Looks like the worst is past. She’s still breathing.
He could also sense that she was still in communication with a satellite, her connection to the Inside in all likelihood, though he wasn’t in a hurry to make any assumptions. He checked to see if her sensory feed was still available to him, but the window in his display screen was dark, the connection ended.
Her system’s still working. If I’ve learned anything about Tao System users, it’s that we’re tough as nails, but not indestructible.
An image of Lilijoy as a Tao System zombie passed through his mind. He could almost see the scene, dropping her off to rejoin her tribe of lost souls, now as a true member, her journey come full circle. His breath hitched a little and he shook his head.
Let’s see if she’s in there.
He sent off a quick message. Now all he could do was wait.
Although… Deva, what would happen if I sent my system elements in directly? he asked his system.
There’s no explicit data available. Since our system is directly inherited from Lilijoy’s, I would estimate that the odds of a hostile reaction are diminished. Should we try it and see who’s brain melts first? Deva replied.
This is why I don’t ask you questions anymore.
Is that a feature or a bug?
Anda made a disgusted noise. He knew that Deva was some kind of reflection of his own mind, and he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the fact that she was a pain in the ass. He tried again.
Can you give me some odds?
No… if we’re going to do something dumb, it’s better not to know.
Is that your way of saying ‘don’t tell me the odds?’
Neglect of probability is a way of life.
You have no idea, do you?
Not a clue.
He sat back. If Lilijoy didn’t reply soon, he needed to know what his options were. Every second he waited, his leverage over the situation was diminishing. He slowed the hovercar to a pace the autopilot could handle and set his system to alert him of anything anomalous from the external world.
Then he put his forehead against Lilijoy’s and began.
***
Just under twelve seconds.
Not long ago, it would have been a comfortable amount of time, the equivalent of about six minutes at her fastest thinking speed. In her current state, Lilijoy thought she might have about a third of that time to figure out how she was going to survive a fall of over three hundred meters.
Thankfully, there were aspects of her thinking that could go much, much faster than that. Certain types of problems and equations could be solved in almost no time at all. Such as her time to fall, factoring in air resistance, once she completed the more parabolic portion of her current journey across the sky. Hopefully the parameters of the equation would change before the ground solved it for her with finality.
She pushed all thoughts of Rosemallow and arrays from her mind. She needed to figure out how to use her Gliding skill. Without a glider. Otherwise her final velocity would be about seventy miles per hour. Even with her new level of Acrobatics, she knew she couldn’t absorb anything close to that amount of energy merely with good landing technique.
What would a very low level magical gliding skill do? she asked herself. Hopefully more than just show thermals, or facilitate the kind of calculations I’m already doing. I need to increase my drag, or generate lift, or something.
She reached the top of the arc of Rosemallow’s throw, leaving the turbulent cloud of mana, miasma, and whatever gas the latest wave of Sinaloa warriors had been adding to the chaos in the caldera behind her. Now the air was clear and the sun shining again, and the forest of Averdale stretched beneath her in all its glory.
She was even with the tops of the trees nearest to the Greatwood, giants in their own right, now barely shorter than what remained of their superior. Unfortunately, they were far too distant for her to reach. She could also see the Bough of Life and the Bough of Burdens stretching out below her. It was unfortunate she could see both of them, as they were on nearly opposite sides of the trunk, which meant she wasn’t close to either.
Strategies for survival flashed through her mind, proposed and discarded. Slowing her fall by making her way back to the trunk and using her knife to slow herself would result in a tumbling fall, where she would lose both the knife and her life. The Top was directly on the other side of the trunk, which was a real shame. If Rosemallow had thrown her that direction, she would have a much better chance.
A message from Anda flashed through her awareness.
I’m sure it can wait eleven seconds.
Her real fall was under way now, and the wind was roaring past her ears.
It’s kind of lame that my gliding skill isn’t higher. Surely I know enough about the subject to at least eke out an Apprentice level. I bet that by the time I hit the ground, I’ll have enough experience. What can I do with only two VP worth of skill mana?
She pulled what she could from her core and sent it to her left hand, imagining it as a web between her fingers. That took an entire second of real time and didn’t work at all.
This is useless. A blacksmith can’t use his skill without tools. All I have is a flapping tunic for a glider. I guess I can try working with that.
She redirected the mana to her garment, trying to imagine that it was catching the wind. Immediately she felt a subtle jerking sensation as the material spread and stiffened, and she knew that she had just… bought herself one more second. And slightly reduced the final speed at which she would become splattered across the massive field of roots below her.
Still, it was a start. She quickly surveyed her inventory for anything else she could use.
Rope. Nope. Lots and lots of reeds and grasses – hey, I know, I’ll weave a parachute in the next ten seconds. Extra tunic… can’t hurt.
Even as she was reaching for the tunic, she had another thought.
Do I feel lucky?
She pulled out the Chaotic Gravity Grenade. Thankfully, her inventory provided it immediately.
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Chaotic Gravity Grenade
Created by a Master Smith and a Grand Master Earth Mage,
This grenade will randomly change the gravity in a 15
foot radius from .01x to 3x normal every 5 to 20 seconds.
Five minutes per charge, one charge remaining.
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She only took a fraction of a second to weigh the odds.
If I get the low end of the range, and it stays there long enough it could save me. If not, I’ll occupy a slightly larger area when I land. Here goes nothing.
She sent her mana to the item. Immediately the wind buoyed her up and her velocity began to diminish. She tracked her speed relative to the rapidly approaching ground and ran new calculations over the next second to determine her new fate before celebrating.
I really did get lucky! This must be around a twentieth of normal gravity. Taking into account my previous velocity, I’ve bought myself almost thirty seconds. Which is great. Except for one small problem…the gravity grenade changes every five to twenty seconds. So now I have at least four more seconds to figure out what to do if it goes higher.
She knew she could just throw it away from her if it went higher than normal, except she really hated to lose Rosemallow’s precious belonging. She had some foggy memory, to the extent that any of her memories were foggy, that you couldn’t put active items or highly energetic processes into inventory; no lit torches, no boiling oil, and certainly no activated Chaotic Gravity Grenades.
But now she had another option. She quickly moved her knife to her normal inventory and grasped the grenade in the hand with Nandi’s boon. Over the next second, she activated the boon, and saw her hand and the grenade turn white and then fade. Immediately her speed began to pick up, the effects of the grenade now applying to the other dimension, and she hastily reversed the process.
Yes! Now I just have to hope I can make it low enough before the situation changes again.
The five second interval passed, then eight, then ten. She almost regretted activating the grenade so soon. If she had waited a bit longer, she could already be on the ground safe and sound. Of course, that would have required foreknowledge of a random number, so she didn’t let it bother her too much. Still, she was now just under a hundred meters up, and if she was forced to abandon the grenade it wouldn’t matter much unless she was much closer than that.
Most likely, all I’ve done is buy more time.
She reached over to her inventory with her other hand and pulled forth the extra tunic, knowing it couldn’t possibly be enough to slow her fall if normal gravity kicked in. However, in her current lower gravity, the drag just from holding the tunic noticeably dropped her speed.
At that moment the grenade flipped its switch, and she felt as if a heavy hand had decided to swat her toward the ground. Even worse, her hold on the spare tunic flipped her body vertical. She moved her hand into the Trial space, dropping the grenade there in her haste as the rest of her body was flung about by the renewed winds rushing around her. Quickly, she released her hold on the extra tunic and stabilized herself, but the damage had been done. Seventy meters to go, and she was right back where she started in terms of her chances of survival.
Four seconds until splat. Sorry Rosemallow.
She considered speeding up her subjective time, just to get it over with. What kind of crazy idea could she possibly implement in well under a minute of subjective time? There were no loose ends, no alternate…
Wait… loose ends. The thought triggered a a new idea.
Why does the glove have a line I can pull from it, since I can just reach in and get what I can feel? And why do I need to feel around? No one would make a magic portal that worked that way. It must be for something else. Maybe...
She ignored the clock counting down in the background and forced herself to think faster. In a flash she pulled her mana fishing line from the glove and brought it back through her body, up to her face, where she imagined connecting it to her eye. Immediately a view of dirt and thorn bushes filled her view, along with a small pile of her old, lost items from the Trial.
Well, that doesn’t help much. I wish I could see more than that.
Immediately, her vision pulled out, and she was looking down on Fort Groveship from high above.
Nice. So can I see anywhere I want? Grab anything I want? Probably not anything. I’ll have to experiment after I finish splatting and respawning. I wish I could grab a lake, or a haystack to land on.
What’s the biggest, squishiest thing I could try to bring over?
She thought it unlikely she could bring anything truly substantial forth to land on, but as she only had about two seconds of real time left there was really no time to examine her idea critically.
She envisioned the fiery cavern deep below, and her vision spun and dived.
There. You’ll do nicely.
She grabbed hold and pulled with all her might, bringing her hand back to her from the Trial space. The next few subjective seconds were a tumbling chaos of horrible squishing and writhing, followed by a prolonged impact and a surprising rebound. She tumbled through the air once more, just able to survey the flattened mass of Nasty Hanging Tentacle Monster she had used to cushion her fall.