The storm inside subsided, somewhat, leaving Jerome with the clearest focus he’d had in years.
He must get stronger.
He must raise his skills.
He must become nigh unstoppable.
Then, and only then, would he be able to rescue the humans from their cruel, torturous captivity.
Anything that distracted from the mission was to be tossed aside, or at least postponed. For example, the looks that Krystyna kept giving him despite the ugly gnoll body he wore… those would have to wait. He wouldn’t see more human lives snuffed out because of frivolities.
There was a mass of +1 attribute notifications he’d ignored in the heat of battle, as well as some +1 skill level notifications. They were too numerous to count easily, and since his stats were merged with the gnoll’s he couldn’t get a good look at his own personal totals right now. He’d worry about that after he transformed back into his own body.
For now he had all the human forms he’d touched: each set to expire in less than a day, each with a unique skill. Skills that he could make his own and use for his mission.
He transformed into the first one.
You have reached Level 3 in Transform. Intimacy bonuses available.
Jerome brushed the message aside. ‘Intimacy bonuses’ sounded weird and not at all like something that could help with rescuing the humans.
What would help: this form’s unique skill.
Stormcalling (unique)
Timing: Heavy Channeling. Effect grows with time spent channeling.
Cost: No cost.
Effects: Causes a thunderstorm to form around the user.
Limit: The thunderstorm can take a long time to summon, especially at lower levels. The type of thunderstorm can change depending on environment — temperature, amount of water available, etc.
That could be useful. A cost-less skill. Sure, it required heavy channeling, and thus not getting hit, but if he found some sort of protective spell or skill that wouldn’t be a problem.
He tried it.
When he channeled his concentration was pulled strongly inward, sort of like when he got sucked into a video game, but his focus was a mix of his internal state and the sky above him. He lost track of time. He saw small animals moving in the periphery of his vision but payed them no attention. More important to him were the clouds that formed in the sky. Some were pulled from nearby cloud formations. Others formed in the air, ambient moisture collecting and forming into something visible.
Rain fell gently. Then a crack of thunder, which surprised him enough to break the channeling. He’d have to get rid of that reflex if he wanted to use this skill effectively.
Still, he’d done it! He’d called a thunderstorm! He wasn’t sure how useful that would be in battle, but it was a nifty skill nonetheless.
The ground turned to mud beneath his feet. If only he had a skill that could make storms go away, then things would be great.
He saw the messages that had formed while he was channeling:
You have gained the skill Stormcalling.
You have reached level 2 in Stormcalling.
Checking his stats Jerome saw he was already halfway to level 3. That was quick! Such leveling in only… three hours?
Three hours?
It had taken three hours to summon the storm?
The countdown timers on the other human forms didn’t lie. He had been channeling for three hours. Hopefully the other skills wouldn’t take this long to learn. If they did he might not get through all of them.
He transformed into the next human. There was no more time to waste.
This human’s unique skill seemed more immediately useful.
Magic Pulse (unique)
Effect: Takes any channeled spell and applies X seconds of it immediately.
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Timing: Immediate
Cost: 2x the usual MP cost in MP. 1x the usual MP cost in SP.
Limits: High cost. At level 1 can only apply with 3 seconds worth of channeling; at higher levels the range of channeling times increases. Initial cast times are taken into account. Using this interrupts any other ongoing channeling. Magic of any kind cannot be used for five seconds afterwards.
Now that was a skill! The applications were immediately obvious.
Healing was one. Refill HP and Refill SP were both channeled skills. They were moderate channeling, which meant he couldn’t do anything fancy while using them. He could jog, dodge, and take minor blows, but sprinting or doing any actual fighting was out of the question. With Magic Pulse he could throw emergency heals to himself or a teammate that was in trouble all while continuing his part in the battle.
Crystal Overload was another application. He’d only get 1 seconds worth of damage and effect, since initial cast time would eat up 2 of the 3 seconds he got, but that would be plenty. It would interrupt a caster who was channeling something, and — if he leveled up his Flows skill — it would paralyze a fighter for 1 second, giving him time to get inside the foe’s defenses. The only trouble was the massive cost.
He tried it out. There were no ensouled creatures nearby he wanted to hurt, so he settled on casting it on a nearby tree.
It worked! Not very well — his skill level in Flows was low (2 in this form, although his base skill level was 3), and a tree trunk was not ensouled — but it still worked!
You have gained the skill Magic Pulse.
The cost, however, was great. 82 MP gone. 41 SP gone. He’d only be able to use this once per non-caster form, and maybe two or three times while in a caster form. And that was only if he didn’t want to use his MP for anything else, and if his SP wasn’t critical.
It was clearly a limited-use tactical move, but it was still one he was glad to add to his arsenal.
He tried using it with Stormcalling, hoping to be able to use it to cut down on the massive cast time, but found that using Magic Pulse interrupted the long-term channeling. That combination wouldn’t be much good unless he could somehow figure out to call a storm in 3 seconds or less.
Hopefully there were more skills this good buried in his stack of transformations.
The next one was interesting but not great for battle.
Mood Enhancement (unique)
Effect: Enhances an ensouled creature’s emotion
Cost: None
Timing: Immediate
Limits: Can only enhance emotions that are already strongly present. Hard to control. Works by stripping away other emotions, which can be dangerous.
He might as well pick it up. His primary emotions right now were determination and a desire to help humans, so no harm in trying it right now.
He cast Mood Enhancement on himself.
Your mood has been enhanced.
Which mood? Which emotions had been amplified and which emotions dampened? The message didn’t specify.
Then he saw another set of messages.
You are unable to learn more unique skills.
You are limited to (2 + transform skill level) unique skills. Currently: 5.
Would you like to forget one of your other skills so you can level up in this one?
Fuck!
It was always something in this world. Always a fucking limit.
He punched a tree in frustration, sending waves of pain radiating down his arm. He lost a couple points of HP but the tree looked just as solid as ever. Still, it made him feel a little better. He put both palms against the tree used Recoil Burst, sending it tumbling into the woods.
Jerome smiled. Explosions were therapeutic.
The World Government had said that violence was never the answer (except against fascists and harmony-breakers), but while he’d been in this world it seemed like violence had been the correct answer almost every single time.
Was this entire world populated with fascists and harmony-breakers? Without the World Government’s civilizing force that could indeed be the case. But then again, why would a tree be a fascist? That didn’t make any sense.
None of it made sense. Weren’t the Afghans religious fascists? Wouldn’t the correct violence be against them rather than to protect them? And as far as breaking harmony, it seemed that Jerome had been the one doing that the most.
The simplest explanation was that the World Government was just as wrong about violence as they were about what women wanted in a man.
Violence felt good.
The exercise of power felt good.
Had this world thrown limits in front of him?
Sure. It threw limits in front of everyone.
Denying limits, denying reality… that was for losers. Raging against reality was no better.
He would train. He would fight.
He would make reality his bitch, limits or not.
He grabbed a rock and shot it at a tree with Recoil Burst. It ripped through the trunk, causing the upper part of the tree to topple over.
Jerome smiled at the destruction he could cause, but then he frowned at the time he’d wasted, first raging and then at soothing his rage with wanton violence.
Why hadn’t Mood Enhancement fucking worked?
The answer didn’t matter, of course. He wouldn’t be keeping that skill.
Time to forget about what was past and focus on the hard path ahead of him.
There was work to do.