Saturday, April 27th, 2069

Error!

Endurance Pool—error.

[Locked] does not exist, unable to apply buff to [Locked] Regeneration.

Staring at the Demonic Vault’s red screen, I tried to focus on it, but my mind was currently occupied with categorizing the incredible flavors playing over my tongue. The smell of the cooking Mirror Fishes didn’t do the taste justice.

Normally, the consistency would have caused me pause, since it literally didn’t require chewing. Instead, the tenderness of the fish could be pressed with my tongue, and practically melt. Melt because eating the fish this way released so much ‘juice’ or ‘blood’ or ‘husking fantastic flavor’ that my mind felt confused. How could it feel like a mouthful of the juices came from a tiny ‘forkful.’

I didn’t have the ability to compare the tastes to anything I had ever eaten. I’d only experienced this palate shattering moment once before. One time, relatively early in my budding attempts to become a Mana Bank to the Stars, I had attended a Meet and Greet with ‘up and comers.’ The Meet and Greet took place at a restaurant I could never even hope to make a reservation at, let alone eat an entree from. The price for an hour long timeslot was a thousand dollars. At least for people like me. The few Canapes I managed to snag off of servers trays while trying to stand out from the crowd, had been the best food I’d ever tried.

Those Canapes were Canned Spam when compared to unseasoned Mirror Fish. A part of me wondered what a trained chef could do with meat of this quality. I only managed to stop my thoughts from focusing on the flavors when I’d finished eating my current Fish Steak. And even then I eyed the other cooked pieces hungrily.

How many of them could I fit in my belly without dying?

“You need to cook the rest and take some to Jarred,” Smegma interrupted, having returned from the other room unnoticed.

He startled me out of my hyper-focus and I checked the doorway wondering where everyone was. “They’re eating that entire batch of Fish Steaks. My guess is that they are going to pass out right afterward.”

“Pass out?” I asked, not understanding how food could cause people to fall asleep.

“Take a moment, and let the food settle in your stomach. You’ll understand then.”

As instructed, I took a moment and placed a few more Fish into the Huge Frying Pan. Only after the first flip, did I feel what I suspected Smegma was talking about. It was like someone had placed a refreshingly warm and heavy lead weight in my stomach. Part of me wanted to sit down and relax into the sensation. I closed my eyes, as a contented smile rose onto my face.

“Dumb-dumb!” Smegma shouted from right beside me, startling me enough that my eyes flew open. I realized I was halfway to easing myself to the floor. “You need to take that fish out of the pan in a minute. So, no sleeping!”

Sweat broke out on my forehead as I managed to straighten my legs and stop myself from focusing on the comforting sensations coming from my abdomen. I only managed to stay standing thanks to my hands bracing me on the side of the stone pedestal. As I fought my own body I asked, “What in the hell is going on?”

“The Mirror Fish is one of the most nutrient dense foods that Crendalar ever found and studied. Similar to the Mana Apple, a single filet can provide a creature with enough sustenance to maintain function for more than a day. However, unlike the Mana Apple, it actually holds all those nutrients. Basically your stomach is working overtime to break down hundreds of grams of fat, protein and even carbohydrates."

“Husk!” I swore, even as I started to win that internal war with my own body. Knowing why I felt this way went a long way to helping me in that. Maybe even Mental Fortitude had a part, as my brain began overriding my stomach’s desire to nap. I pulled the currently cooking Fish from the pan and studied the cooking instrument.

It already looked markedly improved. The dent from it falling to the floor was no longer visible, and while there were still a few dark black patches of ‘crust’ in the pan, a great deal of the bottom shone, like it was seasoned cast iron.

Before starting the next batch I did check in on the other three. I found each one in a different ‘comfortable’ position, but all of them were napping.

How could I be sure?

Dave had Mirror Fish oil smeared across his chin and cheeks, his back against the Lab Table and was snoring softly. Willa, was somehow planted face first into said table, her front and face resting in remnants of the food, and while she wasn’t snoring, her tongue was lolling out, like she’d passed out in the process of licking juices from the surface. My father was snoring the loudest by far, but also was the ‘cleanest’ of the three. He didn’t have any fish oils on him, and also hadn’t fallen asleep in what I would deem an uncomfortable position. No, he had climbed into one of the grow beds, and had passed out atop the weeds and soil.

To further distract myself I returned to the notice that Demonic Vault had sent me, even as I returned to cooking the remaining Fish Steaks. “Smegma, Demonic Vault tried to notify me of a buff to Endurance Pool but created an Error. Did you see it?”

“I did,” Smegma answered. “From the wording, there is a resource pool that may be similar to Endurance but not the same. I can’t even guess what the system has done to change it, though.” Smegma finished with an open-palmed shrug.

“Can you explain how Endurance Pool could be used?” I asked, curious as to how it differed from Mana, but also what this [Locked] Pool might be capable of.

“Finish cooking, and filleting that last Fish. We can talk on the way to get Jarred.”

* * *

As soon as we entered the cave halls that led to the first caverns, and the cave in I repeated my question eagerly.

“Okay, okay!” Smegma answered like an annoyed parent. “Endurance had a huge number of uses. It could supercharge physical stats, making the individual twice as strong, fast or accurate. It could be pushed into a weapon, increasing the things durability, damage and destructiveness when released. Some experts could use it to power skills in place of Mana, but only if those skills were physical in nature. Like a bow skill or sword skill.

“We ran some studies on those Demons and discovered that not only was it more efficient to use Endurance, it also jumped the skills level by a letter tier or more. Endurance was a strange pool, in that it always was on a value of a hundred points, and didn’t grow—but higher ranked individuals with more points in it, could do more with a single point of their pool then a newbie could do with all one hundred. If that makes sense?”

“So, it was a power that could be concentrated?” I clarified.

“Yes and no,” Smegma said. “That was our first hypothesis, but we dismissed it eventually. It was more like it could evolve and rank up. Like it was a skill, and had grades. It was also tied to the physical world—unlike Mana which we determined was tied to the Soul.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“What about the last pool you mentioned, what was it again? Force?”

“Look at you listening and remembering stuff!” Smegma said condescendingly. “Force was something intangible. Like Mana could be considered a power that came from the Soul but was effected by the intentions of the Mind. Force, was a power that existed all around us but could be manipulated by the Pool that we had.

“How it could be manipulated was drastically different for each person. As I’ve already told you. My research team couldn’t figure out where this pool resided, nor could we say it was effected by intentions of the mind. It had to be felt, and intrinsically understood by the wielder. Our best guess was that it was like Muscle Memory.”

At the end of Smegma’s explanation we were nearing the final chambers before the ‘entrance.’ With a sigh at the lack of ‘new, useable’ information, I stopped walking. Turning to Smegma I asked, “Can you make yourself invisible for this next part?”

I felt bad asking, right up until he answered, “Way ahead of you Brodie.”

I’ll admit it took me a few extra seconds after that admission to get my feet to take another step toward Jarred. I’d known the man my entire life, but I wasn’t exactly a fan of his decision to return to the entrance because of Smegma’s appearance. Sure, the Demon was terrifying, annoying and verbally abusive, but—

I realized I didn’t have a true reason for why I trusted the Imp, turned human-sized Demon. All I could say, was that through all of his actions he had proved to me that he was at the very least here to help me. The fact that Jarred, firstly didn’t trust me enough to take my word on that, and second didn’t give an intelligent creature the chance to prove itself, didn’t speak well for him.

Still, he was my Uncle, and from what I’d recently learned, had gone through a lot. Was still going through a lot…

I walked through two more caverns before I found Jarred. The first thing I noticed was the stack of rocks that had clearly been moved from the entrance. The next thing I made note of is where Jarred was. He had climbed the cave-in and was attempting to roll some of the bigger chunks of stone off the pile. The man looked alien, due to the gray stone dust clinging to his gleaning sweat covered skin.

It was like someone had painted him gray, and peppered his hair, and clothes with a textured paint as well. He noticed me entering the room and stopped pushing at a Stone easily the size of himself. Between large intakes and exhalations of air, he managed to ask,“No Demon with you today?”

“He can never go farther than a hundred meters from me,” I answered and then continued before Jarred could react negatively. “We discovered a safe place to sleep, and it has a lake with fish. I came to get you to come back with me.”

Jarred shook his head sadly. “While you’re all down there sleeping and hiding, I’m clearing this cave in. If I had more people—“ he said even as he placed both feet on the stone and heaved, with an accompanying weightlifters grunt. “We could probably be out of here—“

What he was saying got drowned out at the stone seemed to jump free. The accompanying rockslide easily covered up his words, but didn’t manage to override a human shriek that rose in the center of the cacophony.

Before the stone and dust settled my heart was already racing, and I was moving. Smegma clearly had gotten the jump on me cause he shouted, “Over here!”

With the newly kicked up dust, it took me a few moments to locate the winged shadow, but when I did, I sprinted to his side. I saw a leg, with worn miner boots and ripped cargo pants sticking out of a pile of fist sized stones. It wasn’t moving.

I began clearing the stone by hand, but quickly realized that it was deep, and that Jarred’s body was buried vertically. I’d seen documentaries where Hunters got stuck in avalanches, and mudslides during missions. One thing they always harped on was not to pull the person out by a limb.

You just couldn’t know the state of the persons body. So to yank with superhuman power on a broken limb, or on a pinned body part—could cause worse injuries. Still, it was either pull on the exposed leg or risk letting him suffocate. Smegma gave me a nod, confirming his agreement to the direction and conclusion of my thoughts.

I had exposed Jarred’s pelvis a bit, and chose to pull him free from there instead of the leg. That did take another couple of seconds of clearing to get a grip, but thankfully he came free easily with one Strength assisted heave.

Where he’d been glistening before, he was now caked in stone dust and chips. Looking more like a Golem than a human. I carried him away from the still shifting stones, and placed him down gingerly only to discover he wasn’t breathing.

My mind screamed at me to start CPR, but Mental Fortitude came to my aid and reminded me to clear his airway. Opening his mouth found it full of stones and dust. I ran my finger around inside of it, and even pulled a great deal out from his nostrils. Only when I had his mouth and nose relatively clear did I start CPR.

It had been a very long time since I’d learned the technique in high school, which made me start off tentative and slow. Still, parts of the teachers instructions came back to me, as I worked. Move to the beat of a popular song. Check. I hadn’t checked for a pulse before starting. There wasn’t one. Plug nose and give rescue breaths. Only two. Check.

Reassess. Still not breathing. Pulse. None. Chest compressions. Rescue breaths.

Check for—a cloud of wet stone dust rocketed into my ear as Jarred coughed out a cloud of the stuff. I flinched but immediately celebrated as well. Smegma had watched the interaction quietly but now sent over a red screen.

Miscellaneous Potions

Weak Healing Concoction

Low-F-Rank

Durability: 1 Use

Heals: 30 Health Points

This mix of herbs, fruits and liquids will stimulate the body of the imbiber to heal itself at an increased rate. Warning: This increase to healing factors will cannibalize the body if insufficient nutrients are not available.

Cost: 100,000 mC

I frowned at the screen, knowing my current total of Mana Coins was under a hundred thousand. But not by much. I sold the Mana Crystals in my Necklace of Holding, and still not seeing enough of a balance looked to Smegma helplessly. I could hear the wheeze, and rattle from Jarred that likely made Smegma send this over.

“Sell the fish!” Smegma suggested. I nodded hurriedly and watched as the total for Mana Coins climbed to ninety-nine thousand. I was about to start swearing when I saw Jarred’s Mining Pick leaning against a nearby wall.

“Can I sell that back?” I asked.

Smegma grimaced but nodded. I rushed over and sold it, realizing why Smegma was grimacing. I only got twenty-five hundred mC for it. Despite the fact that it was purchased at ten thousand and had repaired itself significantly.

“Are you certain you wish to buy Weak Healing Concoction?” Smegma intoned.

“Yes!” I shouted as I rushed back to Jarred. His breathing was becoming shallow and fast. The bottle fell from the Mana Cloud and I was twisting off its lid and pouring before the sloshing pinkish water had even settled.

Jarred sputtered, and I began to massage his throat and Adam’s apple. Thankfully, he swallowed, once, twice and a third time, emptying the bottle. I didn’t know how much thirty points of Health would do, but it wasn’t like I could have gotten anything more.

I held my breath, listening and hoping for a change in Jarred’s struggling breaths. For a moment it got worse. Then he coughed, and coughed again. Gray sludge beginning to foam out of his mouth. I leaped forward and turned him onto his side even as I continually cleared his mouth and nose, which also ejected bloody gray stone dust.

Finally, when I thought my heart was going to burst, Jarred stopped coughing and spitting. He took in a deep breath, and sighed, before starting to breath normally. Or at least much more normally than he had before. I sat back on my heels for just a moment before deciding I would carry him back to the group.

He could yell at me later, when and if he woke up.

Smegma floated beside me, silently as I slung Jarred up into a princess carry and began walking. Whether it was the adrenaline of what just happened, or my Strength stat, it felt to me like my Uncle weighed nothing.

Everyone was still napping when I returned. So, I took Jarred down to the Lake first, and attempted to wash off the crusting stone dust as best I could. Once he looked a bit more human, and had less of a chance of inhaling more caked on stones from around his mouth and nose—I returned to the Herbalist Room and put him down atop one of the planter boxes and its weeds.

Then and only then did I tiredly collapse onto my butt, sliding my back down said planter box. Smegma stared at me, worriedly before he came to join me.

“That was impressive—“ he began but the froze as a red screen popped into existence.

Class Awarding Feat Achieved!

Class Available.

Common Healer

You have used your knowledge of the human body, potions and hard-work to save someone’s life. You can now select the Healer Class.

Healers are granted two skills:

Minor Heal (1) - F-Rank

Weak Cleanse (1) - F-Rank

No stats are unlocked or increased by Healer Class.