Deidre Cosgrave was nervous. She had received word that the contract she had put out on Lord Walker had been accepted. It would be several days until his training unit went into the wilds, and another few days until the attempt was made.
It was the waiting she was having a problem with. Every day she worried that her mother would decide that Derek was too large a liability to leave alone.
Wringing her hands, she stood on her balcony, lost in thought. She tried to force herself to calm down. But, it didn’t work. She almost jumped when she felt her link inform her of the incoming ping she had been expecting.
Opening the connection, she heard her contact say, “Darling, the team is ready to leave. They have the planned route I acquired from the army. I’ve done everything I can to ensure their success. Are you absolutely sure you want to proceed with the plan? This is the last chance to call it off.”
Her contact didn’t seem very nervous, she knew this wasn’t the first time they’d arranged something like this. Officially, they were a fixer. Whether it was finding someone, delivering a message, or anything else, they were an intermediary and facilitator. Every city in Oglivarch had fixers, they were even protected by law up to a point. Essentially, they were information mercenaries. Deidre knew that if the plan went south, the fixer would usually have no problem selling out their client. She could only hope that her personal connection with the fixer would be enough for her to avoid that fate.
Firming her resolve, she said, “Proceed as planned. I expect to hear the good news in a weeks time. Please make sure that everyone involved knows the consequences of failure or exposure. Even if nothing goes wrong, my mother can’t know that we were involved.”
She felt the fixer’s amusement over the link, as they responded, “There are very few who know any of the details, and I can vouch for them all. If everything goes to plan, you have nothing to worry about. I have even taken the liberty of ensuring that the team will not be able to make it back to Dorchester if they are captured. Regardless of the legal protections in place, I don’t want anyone associated with that mad-man knowing I was involved. I’ve heard enough stories about the ‘little lord’: the man who faces death with a smile.”
Feeling a shiver, Deidre said, “Well, let’s make sure there are no more stories to hear. And thank you for doing this. I know that you aren’t happy about it, but I need this to happen. House Cosgrave needs this to happen.”
A feeling of agreement along with affection came over the link, then the fixer closed the connection. Sighing, Deidre looked out over the city, hoping she hadn’t just made a terrible mistake.
-----
Nero woke up to a sense of pain. His entire body felt like it was sore. The sensation was becoming familiar, and Nero didn’t like what that implied. Maybe he needed to cut back on his training a little. It probably wasn’t a good idea to treat this level of pain as ‘normal’. The conversation going on around him was making his head pound.
“You’re not thinking about the individual streams! Yes, the spell-forms will pull in what they need if they were designed correctly. But! That is just because of an imbalance inside the spell-form which demands the world around it to fill in the blank. If you don’t consciously monitor the streams, any spell-form can easily be disrupted,” said Specialist Howard with an ‘I told you so’ tone apparent in his voice.
Nero heard Nick reply, “You’re just over complicating things. The likelihood that someone would have the required knowledge and ability to do that would make the fight a loss anyway. If someone could do that, they’d just seize the center of the fight and be done with it. No one would bother disrupting a spell like that.”
Cathleen’s voice interrupted the argument. “The little lord is awake,” she said quietly, but firmly.
Nero groaned and spun his legs off the bench. He adjusted himself into a sitting position and rubbed his temples. He saw that everyone was sitting on benches, surrounding him, apparently waiting for him to wake up. “What happened?” he asked with a raspy voice.
Rose walked over to hand him a canteen. She said, “Training’s over for the day. It seems you went a little too far during your combat casting class.”
Nero offered her a nod of thanks and took the canteen. Almost by reflex, he cast a purification spell on the contents. Ever since he had found the spell in one of his ‘hunter’ books, he had been casting it on anything he ingested, even if he poured it himself.
The moment he stamped the spell, he grimaced in pain. Although the spell-form worked fine, and the cast went off without issue, he felt like he had just tried to mentally split a check at a restaurant while suffering from a hangover.
Taking large gulps of water, Nero heard Nick ask, “You understand what happened to you?”
Nero finished his drink and breathed heavily. He felt out of breath from the effort required to drink. He said quietly, “I think I over-taxed my center. I’ve done it before. I just need to meditate a bit, I’ll be fine.”
Specialist Howard spoke up harshly, “What do you mean, ‘you’ve done it before’. Are you insane?”
Surprised at the specialist’s tone, Nero looked at him curiously. “What’s the big deal? I’m surrounded by medics.” Looking around the room, Nero spotted two green-shirts talking to each other on the other side of the room. He pointed at them and said, “See, there’s a couple over there. Worst case scenario, I kill myself by being an idiot, and then they bring me back.”
Rose gasped, and Cathleen said, “Nero, medics can’t bring someone back if the soul has lost its tether. If you empty your center, you WILL die. Then your soul will release itself into the upper planes, and the cycle of reincarnation will begin. Your mind will be taken to your afterlife, if you are promised to one. But YOU will be dead. That IS a ‘big deal’.”
Nero looked around at the serious faces, and said, “Huh. OK. Well, that would have been useful information… BEFORE I started training with magic.” He glared at Specialist Howard and Nick.
Both men looked sheepish, but Specialist Howard said, “You already knew how to cast when I met you. How was I supposed to know that you didn’t know the dangers.”
Throwing his hands up in the air, Nick said, “I don’t know what you don’t know! You just learn random crap, then do things that are insane. If you don’t ask questions, I don’t know what you are wrong about.”
Nero’s glare lost its edge. He knew Nick was right. Nero had been focusing on his reading. It was like he skipped the tutorial and just jumped into the game. He had been figuring things out on his own.
Looking at Nick’s worried face, Nero said, “Don’t worry, I don’t blame you. You’re absolutely right. I haven’t been following a lesson plan. I haven’t even opened the ‘Introduction to spell-forms’ book that Jennings gave me. I figured the spell books were more important.”
Rose spoke up, “I thought you were self taught? If you didn’t read how to do it, then who taught you how to cast? I don’t understand.”
Cathleen jumped into the conversation, “Let’s not get into this right now. Lord Walker needs to re-center himself. Let’s all head back to the dorms and get some sleep. I have some food for Lord Walker in my personal space.”
She stood up, forcing the conversation to end. Nick shrugged and went along with it. Rose looked annoyed, but didn’t say anything. Specialist Howard stood up and watched Nero struggle to his feet.
“Listen Walker, I’m sorry about what happened. I didn’t mean to push you hard enough for you to nearly kill yourself. I formally apologize for my part in what happened,” he said with as serious a voice as Nero had ever heard from him.
Nero smirked and said, “You’re just feeling crappy because I gut-shotted you twice in a row. Don’t feel bad, I tend to cheat. So, feel free to keep pushing me. My idiocy is my own, and I refuse to have anyone take that away from me. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Stunned faces watched Nero walk toward the doors like an old man. His steps were small, and he was hunched over in pain. Nick, Cathleen, and Rose soon followed him. Along the way to the dorms, Nick and Nero chatted about Nero’s clever use of embedded constructs. Cathleen even joined the conversation, as she found the tactic interesting. As usual, Rose kept quiet while listening closely to what everyone was saying.
Soon enough, Nero was in his room. He had taken the plate of food from Cathleen, then ignored her when she said she’d see him in the shower. Nero wasn’t in the mood to share a communal shower, and decided that he could skip a day. Even though cleaning spells weren’t as rejuvenating as a hot shower, they would work well enough for today.
Nero ate a quiet meal, while thinking about what had happened. He hadn’t realized that he had come so close to actually dying. He had ‘died’ so many times over the past few days, the feeling was weird. It was like he was a professional sky-diver and he had forgotten what would happen if the parachute didn’t open. Nero could barely taste the food, and mechanically ate the steak and potatoes.
After he finished, he put the dirty dishes in his personal space. He pealed off his destroyed pants, and threw them in the corner with all his other destroyed clothes. Looking over, he saw a fresh set of training clothes on his dresser and he almost smiled. ‘If they come in and drop off the new clothes, then why do they leave the old ones?’ he wondered to himself.
Judging the question ‘pointless’, Nero didn’t bother to think about it anymore. He got into bed and sighed in contentment. He was still feeling the pain as he opened his identity.
Name
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Nero Walker
Level
10
Race
Human
Growth
94%
Tier
1
Condition
67%
Age
14
Center
16%
Body
2
Mind
4
Soul
2
Confluence
10
Stars
0
Pillars
1 / 1
Grimacing, Nero looked over his identity. It was no wonder why he felt so terrible. His center was almost depleted, and his condition was crap. At least he was almost level 11.
Laying in bed, Nero debated whether or not he wanted to meditate. He knew it would probably heal him, but the effort seemed too great. It was so nice to just lay there and not do anything. As if he had made some ‘insight check’, he realized that his laziness was probably a symptom of his condition. His ‘center’ was what made him who he was. If he didn’t have a strong center, then he wouldn’t have a strong motivation to do anything. He felt like he was back in his apartment on earth, too lazy to get up and do anything. How many times did he feel like he should be out doing something productive, but ended up sitting on his couch ignoring something on his TV while scrolling through memes on his phone.
Summoning a great deal of will, he closed his eyes and slipped into his spiritual world. He was once again on his cobble-stone path, surrounded by images of his experiences. The world felt weak, insubstantial, and it was hard to hold it together. Focusing, Nero started going through his experiences.
He felt the level come, and the world snapped into place. The fire in his belly seemed to ignite, and Nero’s purpose was renewed. Proceeding as if he was in a trance, Nero categorized and re-experienced the past few days. He came to terms with his pride which had almost killed him. He saw the shady way Rose seemed to watch him, there was no doubt in his mind that she was still spying on him. He recognized Nick’s protective streak, and appreciated the man’s friendship. Nero basked in Cathleen’s pride in his accomplishments, she was amazing. Nero observed his life, and smiled at the adventurer he had become.
Eventually, the images cleared away, and the path was clear. Looking into the distance, Nero saw the path he was on led to a mountain. He knew this was all a metaphor or something, but it didn’t matter. He liked it. The open woods around him weren’t real, they seemed like a backdrop. The only thing of importance was his path, and where it led. Smiling, a renewed Nero opened his eyes.
Name
Nero Walker
Level
11
Race
Human
Growth
28%
Tier
1
Condition
100%
Age
14
Center
100%
Body
2
Mind
4
Soul
2
Confluence
10
Stars
1
Pillars
1 / 1
Body
2
Base
Operative
Level Stress
Presence
11
15.4
9.6
Durability
8
11.2
26.5
Recovery
21
29.4
29.1
Speed
13
18.2
18.6
Adaptability
32
44.8
21.2
Power
8
11.2
26.3
Mind
4
Base
Operative
Level Stress
Weight
26
46.8
9.4
Control
29
52.2
16.2
Field
23
41.4
21.5
Precision
39
70.2
27.6
Endurance
46
82.8
26.3
Focus
48
86.4
18.3
Soul
2
Base
Operative
Level Stress
Size
29
40.6
0.8
Density
101
141.4
0.6
Intensity
76
106.4
0.6
Pressure
27
37.8
0.5
Harmony
24
33.6
11.1
Adaptability
270
378
0.3
Nero felt amazing, and he looked at his identity and stats with pride. His efforts haven’t been wasted. If the books were to be believed, he should have a massive increase in his physical stats after using his star. Following the plan he had made, he pushed his star into his ‘body’ stat.
The feeling of ‘being’ was just as wonderful as he remembered. Reality seemed firmer, and Nero felt like he was becoming more solid. It was as if he were coming into focus. The world’s essence hugged him, letting him know that it recognized his existence. The feeling of belonging was marvelous.
Body
3
Base
Operative
Level Stress
Presence
15
24
0
Durability
18
28.8
0
Recovery
34
54.4
0
Speed
21
33.6
0
Adaptability
41
65.6
0
Power
20
32
0
Nero felt the sensation fade, and checked his stats. Just as he thought, his physical stats had sky-rocketed. While laying in bed, he flexed his arms and reveled in the power he felt. This was the first time that he felt like he really ‘leveled’. He couldn’t contain his excitement and hopped out of his bed.
While in his boxers, he stretched and flexed, the smile on his face was ear-to-ear. Nero dropped down to do a few push-ups and couldn’t help but laugh at how easy they were. Jumping to his feet, he felt energized. He spent a few minutes throwing punches and kicks, shadowboxing with an imaginary Cathleen. Nero couldn’t wait to put his new stats to the test.
‘Would it really make that much of a difference?’ he thought. Like a bucket of cold water, his enthusiasm was destroyed by the thought. He knew Cathleen was FAR stronger, faster, and more dexterous than he was. Not to mention her skill level.
Refusing to be discouraged, Nero calmed himself down. He needed to get some sleep. This was just one step along his path. He was better than he was yesterday, and if he continued improving, then one day he would be strong enough to meet any challenge. Hopefully, he’d level in a few days, and then he could improve his casting. ‘One step at a time,’ he reminded himself.
Nero fluffed his pillow, then got back into bed. He went to sleep with a smile on his face, as he imagined himself slinging spells and fighting monsters. Someday, he would do it all.