“Do you mind recording, C.H.A.D.D.? I’d like to review your impressions of the skill, and better understand the way the mana flows when I’m using it.”
[NOT A PROBLEM AT ALL, DR. MAYHEW.]
Kyle grinned like a kid in a candy store. “Thank you.”
With that, he squared off a dozen meters away from one of the large stone pillars, took a breath, and then extended his palm toward the stone while activating Repel. A rush of power left him as a blast of force exploded from his whole arm, causing a gale wind that buffeted the pillar. The recoil nearly knocked him off his feet, but the smile never left his face. This is amazing.
Another palm strike, this time with his left arm, with the same result. As he learned during the trip to Railen’s Hope, Repel could be originated from any point on his body. It was easier to give pinpoint control when he wasn’t looking to fully activate the skill, much less when he wasn’t pushing much mana into it. When he did, the point of origin released relatively undirected blasts. For Kyle, that wasn’t enough. He wanted to focus the force, exerting control over the shape, power, and direction of the attacks.
He launched a few more blasts at the pillar to keep familiarizing himself with the skill, then tried something different. Using the principles he practiced with Resonance; he tried rotating the mana as it left his arm. Failure, failure, failure. On his fourth attempt, it felt like he was able to get some rotation, but the fifth and sixth tries couldn’t replicate it.
Unfortunately, Kyle discovered another drawback to Repel. It took a lot of mana. In combat situations, he felt confident that Ignition would be able to help mitigate that issue, but for the purposes of simple practice he’d already burned through well over half of his total mana reserves with those back-to-back strikes. There’s just too much waste right now, Kyle thought, reflecting on his experience. If I can just focus the blast, I’ll get a more targeted impact with less overall mana expenditure.
“C.H.A.D.D., what do you think?” Kyle asked, sitting down as he continued to take in the room.
[AS YOU HAVE NO DOUBT NOTICED, DR. MAYHEW, THE SKILL IS CURRENTLY QUITE INEFFICIENT. WASTE MANA BEGINS TO LEAVE YOUR BODY ALMOST IMMEDIATELY; AN ISSUE THAT ONLY MAGNIFIES AS THE SKILL TRAVELS THROUGH YOUR PATHWAYS AND OUT YOUR HAND. ASSUMING, OF COURSE, THAT YOUR GOAL ISN’T TO BE WASTING MORE THAN 60% OF YOUR ENERGY EXPENDITURE?]
“You’re assuming correctly,” Kyle said, trying to hide a smile at the drone’s sass. “Can you give me any insight into the difference between the third, fourth, and fifth uses of my last batch of attempts?”
Immediately, 3 images of Kyle were projected in front of him, his mana network highlighted as each moved in slow motion.
[IT APPEARS TO ME THAT THE ONLY DIFFERENCE WAS A SLIGHT CHANGE IN ORIGIN POINT, DR. MAYHEW. YOU STARTED THE SKILL APPROXIMATELY 1.4 CENTIMETERS CLOSER TO YOUR SHOULDER, WHEREAS THE OTHERS ORIGINATED WITHIN A MUCH NARROWER WINDOW.]
Kyle nodded thoughtfully. It was something he could chew on, and he knew that he would need time to keep practicing before making meaningful gains. He was about to step back into the house proper to get some rest, when C.H.A.D.D. spoke again.
[DR. MAYHEW, IF I MAY, WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO SOME TRAINING AS WELL?]
A little surprised by the request, Kyle took a moment before nodding. “Of course, C.H.A.D.D. What are you looking to do?”
[IF YOU’D BE SO KIND AS TO REMOVE THE PACK, I WOULD LIKE TO TRY SOMETHING.]
Kyle did as he was asked, setting the large pack on the ground with a heavy thump. The moment he did, vines emerged from the different holes in the pack, wrapping around the construction in an odd cocoon. The atmosphere seemed to shift for a moment, and Kyle’s eyes widened as the wrapped vines were suddenly covered in a thick bark, followed by sharp thorns. Then, a moment later, it all seemed to just melt back into the simple green vines again.
Kyle stared at the pack slack-jawed, taking a moment to find his words. “What was that?” He finally managed.
[I HAVE FINISHED 3 SEPARATE FORMATIONS WITH THE KNOTTED VINE CORE, AND WANTED TO TEST THEM. I AM CONFIDENT IN MY THEORIES, BUT HAVE YET TO PUT THEM INTO PRACTICE. I HOPE TO SHOW YOU THAT I WILL NOT BE A LIABILITY, DR. MAYHEW.]
“C.H.A.D.D., you’re the farthest thing from a liability.”
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[FOR NOW, PERHAPS. BUT I REFUSE TO BE LEFT BEHIND.]
Kyle felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth at the drone’s words. C.H.A.D.D. is a stubborn one, he thought. “Then we’ll have some practice to do. Before anything else, have you found solutions to retract the vines back into the World Tree Seed? Or will we need to dispose of them more directly?”
Rather than answering, C.H.A.D.D. slowly retracted the vines into the pack. It took a few seconds for the process to get completed, but when it was done there was no trace of the vines remaining, only a hint of the nature-affinity mana that infused them lingering where they’d been.
“That’s excellent, C.H.A.D.D. How did you manage the retraction?” Kyle asked.
[UNFORTUNATELY, IT IS A MECHANICAL PROCESS AT THIS POINT AS I WIND THEM BACK INTO THE PACK. HOWEVER, I HOPE THAT THIS CAN BE IMPROVED OVER TIME TO A MORE DIRECT CONTROL OVER THE MOVEMENT OF THE VINES.]
Kyle nodded. “Without a stronger tie to the mana type I imagine it will be difficult. You remember how challenging it was to control growth using Parasitic Resonance, which is about as good as it gets without properly attuned mana.”
[CERTAINLY, DR. MAYHEW. I HOPE THAT WILL BE ADDRESSED WITH MY NEXT CLASS UPGRADE.]
Their methods of progression were very different, with C.H.A.D.D.’s path being tied to external resources. Kyle had taken to viewing it in 2 distinct components.
One was the “hardware,” which was comprised of the equipment and arrays that dictated much of the drone’s functionality and overall ability to draw mana. The last meaningful hardware update was done aboard the Corthian Mining flagship when he carved the new inscriptions. The pack he purchased from the Emerald Armory helped supplement C.H.A.D.D.’s functions, though it was far from enough. This was what he hoped to upgrade when he met with Marcus Kulhavey after this job was done.
The second component was the “software,” which was tied directly to the quality of the drone’s mana. The natural treasures that C.H.A.D.D. archived and stored inside the World Tree Seed all served to deepen C.H.A.D.D.’s bond with the seed, in turn opening up more and more possibilities for what could be achieved. This is also what was directly upgraded by his class. Creating the first iteration of the Knotted Vine Core was one of those direct applications, coupling C.H.A.D.D.’s studies with application of different plant life tied to the seed.
C.H.A.D.D.’s class touched on both. Upon reaching D Grade, the Adminstrator Weevil class had evolved to something called a World Tree Weevil. Instead of normal skill selections or normal attributes, C.H.A.D.D. could instead invest in higher degrees of attunement to the World Tree Seed. Kyle knew between the natural treasures and other plant essences that the drone liberally devoured, there was a massive amount of potential that C.H.A.D.D. could tap into, given enough time to figure out how.
Unfortunately, the limited hardware and imperfect attunement to the seed meant that C.H.A.D.D. hit a bottleneck. It was akin to Kyle studying to understand high-level teleportation formations. Even if he was able to understand them by some miracle, he would never be able to replicate their effects, or even power one up without being sufficiently powerful. And the inability to use the full potential was the least of Kyle’s worries. The backlash Ger’Sinh experienced using the C Grade mana weapon was a great example of the risks associated with using techniques too far above one’s grade.
“Your class system is still so odd to me,” Kyle said, his head spinning.
[IT CERTAINLY DOES APPEAR TO BE UNIQUE, AT LEAST BASED ON ALL THE LITERATURE WE’VE BEEN ABLE TO READ.]
One benefit to them being relative newcomers to the Collective was that it was expected that Kyle would have major knowledge gaps that would only get filled with intensive study. As such, they’d taken advantage of as much information as they could, with Jarberry making recommendations along the way. Despite all their research, an existence like C.H.A.D.D. seemed unprecedented.
“Well, what else would you like to practice?” Kyle asked, turning his attention back to the present.
[I BELIEVE THAT PRACTICING MOBILITY AND QUICK SHIFTS BETWEEN STATES WOULD BE ADVISEABLE. IN A WORST-CASE SCENARIO, I COULD PROVIDE SUPPORT SEPARATE FROM YOU.]
Kyle thought about it for only a moment before nodding his approval. He didn’t want to put C.H.A.D.D. at risk in live combat, but there were certainly times when giving C.H.A.D.D. more mobility could help. “That works for me. How much energy will you need to borrow?”
[I SHOULD HAVE SUFFICIENT MANA TO PRACTICE, DR. MAYHEW.]
“Then I’ll let you get to it,” Kyle replied.
Without another word, vines once more emerged from the pack, wrapping around it as thick bark formed. Dozens of smaller vines emerged from the cocoon, and soon C.H.A.D.D. was scuttling away, making a respectable pace as it climbed up and through the obstacle course. The drone got stuck a few times, and slowed as the vines it used to move extended faster than they could be retracted. Still, it was both amusing and heartwarming to Kyle to see his long-time travel companion making progress like this.
About an hour later, the drone returned to Kyle’s side, vines a dozen meters long trailing behind as they slowly got retracted back into the pack.
“What did you think about it?” Kyle asked.
[THERE IS MUCH ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT, HOWEVER I FIND THE INITIAL RESULTS TO BE PROMISING. LONGEVITY IS MY GREATEST CONCERN, AS THIS SMALL COURSE DRAINED ALL THE POWER I COULD MUSTER WITHOUT TAPPING INTO THE SEED’S RESERVES.]
“That’s alright, C.H.A.D.D. It’s a first test, after all.”
Kyle picked up the pack, with a few vines still protruding, and put it on his back before leaving the training room. “For now, I think we’ve done enough. I’m exhausted, we can start training again tomorrow morning.”
[A WISE IDEA, DR. MAYHEW. DO YOU INTEND TO PRACTICE WITH JARBERRY’S BOOKS THIS EVENING?]
He considered for a minute, before shaking his head. “I’ll get going on those again tomorrow too. For now, we sleep.”
[CORRECTION: YOU SLEEP, DR. MAYHEW. I HAVE THEORIES TO IMPROVE.]
Kyle yawned. “Whatever works best for you, C.H.A.D.D. Just remember, the work will be waiting for us in the morning.”