I felt the little click while I was tugging the pistol out of it’s holster when I knew that the pistol was fully ready to be fired. I carefully squeezed the trigger, in between my own heartbeats and energizing breaths, a feeling of mesmerism that meant I was going to hit EXACTLY what I was aiming at, and nothing could stop me, and a hundred feet away an explosion of wood from the same hole I had made on the last two shots let me know that I was right.
“That… was fast. Not quite as fast a charge as me, but your actual draw was faster. You first shot was extremely fast and accurate, but subsequent shots would be slightly slower.” she shivered a little, “I wouldn’t want to face you in a gunfight, but then, I am not a gunfighter, I much prefer my buss or a carbine for good reason.”
I nodded, “Good enough for delving?”
She smiled, “definitely good enough for delving tin-ranked. But now it’s time to figure out what to do in a real fight,” and she carefully pulled out a wooden sword.
I sighed, okay, time to get my ass beat. “I know exactly two weapons. Well, maybe three if you count the spear-staff as two.”
“Your little knife?”
I nodded, “Yeah. But I could probably go almost as big as a dagger. I know how to fight close-in with a knife or middle range with a spear or staff. A sword? If I don’t lop off my own leg, I count it as a win, and I am betting fists and knees don’t count.”
I wasn’t kidding. I had practiced fake lightsaber and Ninja moves when I was a teenager, what kid hasn’t? And the only thing I could guarantee was that if it had been a real laser sword I’d have left myself in several small and a couple of large pieces.
She nodded, “We can try your stick then. It’s not enhanced, but right now we are just practicing.”
“Am I allowed to throw physical fighting in as well?”
“Would you do it in a real fight?”
I nodded, “Yep.”
“Then go for it. I mean, there’s a big difference between fighting people and fighting monsters, but that kind of experience only comes through doing it. Delving means fighting monsters, but being a lawkeeper means you are almost sure to fight people.”
The problem was, I was fighting at an advantage, and it showed very quickly. She had some kind of trait or something that allowed her to react incredibly quickly, but while in a real fight, a sword would quickly chop a staff to pieces, in the kind of training fighting we were doing, it was a near perfect defense. Even when she started going for my knuckles, it took barely a twitch to have her blade against the wood instead of my hand, and I wasn’t playing nice… I used a knife, and so every time I locked her and could get my right or left hand free, I would tap my knife sheath, slap the side of my hand against a vital zone, and say, “Stab”.
It didn’t help that she was probably not particularly used to fighting human opponents. If I were a wolf, she’d probably have taken me out dozens of times, but wolves don’t trip you the moment you step off balance, bind your hands or hip-throw you, tuck you into a hold, or hit your wrist with an elbow or knee when you are trying to stab them.
Honestly, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Sure we were fighting, and every strike was supposed to be deadly, but her body was sweet and athletic, and I definitely noticed enough to be glad most of my torso was covered by thick waxed leather armor. And her tail… I’d thought it was soft, but I had NO idea.
She had caught me a pretty good one across the jaw with her sword handle, and at one point I had gotten so tangled up in her tail and distracted that she’d managed to land a serious blow across my ribs that might have disabled me through the leather if it had been a steel blade.
She panted, “You might have me beat in fighting people. You are kind of a natural warrior, and I wouldn’t bet against you if you were fighting low copper, even.”
I shook my head, “I am NOT a natural, not even remotely. I literally spent fifteen years fighting trained warriors all over the world, in an environment where it was impossible to gain stages or advance in levels. When I started out, heck, when I was your age, you could have easily beaten me from one end of the field to the other. You are FAST.”
“Not fast enough, apparently. Maybe I should be asking you to train me to fight. You don’t react incredibly fast, but no matter what I did, you always seemed to just be there, like you could read my mind and knew what I was going to do before I did it. No matter how fast I went, you were always ahead of me, even when I pushed essence into my traits. Now look at you, I am totally washed out and you don’t even have a sweat except from those burpee-things you were doing earlier.”
I sighed, “Beautiful, you clearly fight monsters, not people. You could probably take apart things that would turn me into tomorrow’s poop. But you telegraph… umm… your body language tells me EVERYTHING before you do it. You look at where you are going to try to strike, you shift and turn slightly before every blow, and you wrinkle your eyebrow right before you kick in whatever trait you use to go fast. You also tend to use the same three blows, and while they are very powerful, they are also predictable, and whatever you are using for your speed, once you commit to whatever action it is, you are committed, even if it’s countered.”
I sighed, “Sorry, I don’t mean to be overly critical.”
She shook her head, “No. You are right. If I want to be a deputy I WILL have to know how to fight people, even trained fighters. I don’t want to die the first time I have to bring someone to you for judgment just because I fought them like a swamp snake and looked at the wrong spot before I tried to hit. So yes, if you will teach me, I will learn at your feet, oh master.”
I grinned, “Watch out, I might enjoy you kneeling at my feet and calling me master.”
She laughed, “Still working on your slave harem? I will have to remember that.”
I smiled, really enjoying the way it had turned from snarky tease into an almost flirt. “See that you do. Slot one in the harem is still free, and I am a LOT more demanding than once a week.”
She half-opened her mouth with shock, and then closed it with a snap, narrowing her eyebrows. I thought I might have accidentally pissed her off, but she finally smirked, “Promises promises. If I do wind up in slot one, I might have to leave five minutes a day free for you.”
I looked down at me now-dry shirt. “Sorry, sweety, but I seem to have some kind of trait that keeps me from getting fatigued. Endurance? You might have to dodge slot one unless you want to make it five hours.” I sighed a little, “But now I have to do something I dread.”
I noticed that her look went from dramatically scandalized to worried in a flash. “What’s that?”
I held up my wristband with the copper face. “You sister told me that I might have… something similar to an aspect in here from before. Something I call Jessie, that might be able to help me see how I have changed and advanced, or help me figure out how to activate any traits or affinities I might have.”
“You mean like the fact that you didn’t instantly know what stage you are?”
I nodded sourly, “Yes, exactly like that.”
She smiled a little, “What’s wrong with that?”
I sighed. “Last time I looked, I was… truly awful. I mean, I was literally absolute human baseline healthy in every aspect everything was mediocre. Strength, willpower, it was like looking through a fog. IF this works, I am worried at what I might see… preconceptions I have held my entire life torn apart at a glance. Plus I was reborn, I have probably changed a lot since I saw it last.”
She nodded, “Is your bracer a continuing item or a burst item?”
“What do you mean?”
“Is it an item that you slowly feed energy to, or is it something like the pistol, where you feed it enough energy to activate, and it uses that essence immediately?”
“Continuing, I guess. I mean, I don’t think I just fill it instantly and it bursts out.”
She nodded, “Then think of it as slow-filling. If it needs more, if you keep up the connection, it should just draw the energy, but once you have connected it, the connection should stay stable without having to think about it, although if you run low you might have to sever the connection, and it might have a storage work that can keep going for a while when it’s filled.”
“What if it tries to draw too much?”
“Then you cut the connection off. If it draws faster than you naturally gain, you need to wait until your essence gets a lot denser, like maybe tin or copper. You already know enough to fight effectively, you don’t HAVE to power it now, right?”
I nodded slowly, “Yes, but it’s sort of like being afraid to look in a mirror because what you are going to see is going to be bad.” I remembered that feeling, feeling that way for damned near ten years.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
She smiled, “What I see isn’t bad at all. But if you have to wait until you choose the next step in your path, then wait.”
I shook my head, “Nope. Bravery is being afraid but fighting past it. Cowardice is letting your fear control you. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” I quoted.
“That’s deep.”
I laughed, “That was written by one of my favorite writers of all time. I read a lot, and I tend to quote what I read, so apologies in advance. It is good advice, and I think kept me alive a few times.”
I concentrated on that inner cloud. It had thinned slightly, but not enough to let me see the root at it’s center yet, so with a breath I set it spinning again to recharge. I cautiously molded a strand of the energy, which I was getting better at, and sent it towards the device on my wrist as carefully as I could.
After a moment, I felt the connection, and it began to draw on my essence. It was a very minor draw, and I felt like my natural gain was more even without spinning up my core, so I exited my own imagination, and felt the world around me once more.
“Did you do it?” the beautiful skunk-tailed girl in front of me asked.
I nodded slowly, “But I still need to test it to see if it actually works. Umm… Jessie?” Suddenly, hovering in front of me like some kind of magical hologram, there was a message that appeared in old-fashioned computer text.
Greetings, Program!
It shocked me so much that I fell over backwards, but the text seemed to hover in the same place in relation to my eyes.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
I pointed at the text, “Can you see that?”
She shook her head, “See what?” she asked. At the same time a new text message was typed out, like it was being sent from an old modem, one slowly-typed word at a time.
She cannot see this. I am using your mana pathways to connect to your optic nerve. What a clever way to defeat the protected planet subroutine. Please wait while I optimize the connection.\|/-\|/-
Much better. Hello.
I looked at Wandi. “Yes, I can connect to my Virtual assistant. And he’s a smartass.”
She looked doubtful, “Like actually talk to him? That’s not like an aspect at all. Aspects are part of us. They do what we need to do and make connecting with ourselves and out traits instinctive.”
I sighed, “I guess Jessie is not an aspect, then. It’s more like…”
A Golem.
“I guess like a golem, that speaks.”
She nodded, “Can you use… uhh… him to access your essence and trigger your traits?”
No. I can advise you, but I am not able to control your innate essence use. That you have to do on your own. Then again, neither can an aspect. They are not actually sentient, simply an innate essence formation that they apply instinctively to their environment. The humans on this world have a novel and interesting approach to essence utilization.
“He says no, but he can… show me how to do stuff? Or at least advise me. You can do that, right Jessie?”
I can help you find your own path, yes. In that way I can emulate their aspects, but I cannot grow long ears or a tail for you, although from what I can see, you can probably do that yourself. Oh, and you do not need to speak with me. I am monitoring your mana channels and can read your nervous system, much like a cybernetic limb or cyber-enhancement. Just think at me and I will read your intent. I was… hiding in your neural enhancement.
Cyber-enhancement? And what’s a mana channel?
Ahh, here they would call it your essence framework. And cyber enhancements are like… bionics. Not applicable here, of course, but if you had a super-strong robot arm, you wouldn’t want to crush an egg picking it up. A good prosthetic reads your intent from your nervous system, just like I do. So no, I am not reading your mind.
I spoke out loud, “Jessie, can you show me my umm...traits and stuff?”
Of course, in the future you can just think ‘character sheet’ and I will understand what you mean. My goodness, you have certainly changed!
Suddenly, in front of me spread a chart.
Anthony Michael Wilkins (Base Human)
Classes: Drudge (4) Tier: Wood
Essence Pool: 5(40) Energy Credits: 100
Essence Recovery: 5 Free points: 8
Chimera (physical affinity): 12
Melee training (Journeyman) Durability (amateur)
Bushwack (amateur) Endurance (apprentice)
Improvised melee (novice) Pugilism (professional)
Strength (novice) Flexibility (novice)
Imagination (mental affinity): 8
Survival (novice) Perception (amateur)
Empathy (novice) Core (novice)
Law (spiritual affinity): 5
Apparition (novice)
Firearms (apprentice) Restoration (novice)
Evolutions and Adaptations:
Re-engineered Big game hunter
Resist mutation Scotsman
Chimeric abilities:
Default
Whoah.
Indeed. Your Interaction is lower than it should be for your background, probably relative to the locals, because of your lack of understanding of certain customs. Your physical attributes, on the other hand, are quite impressive. The system giveth, and the system taketh away.
Correction, the system giveth, and the system changeth. It does not typically take anything away, but it does change them to suit local conditions. I suppose when it sent you here, it also restored you to your ideal state. Nice guns, by the way.
The guns are interesting, magic-powered railguns, basically.
Apologies. I do not currently have a personality pack, I was trying to use a human idiom for your increased body development. I am impressed by the way you used a local essence-powered artifact to retrieve me from your galactic database, that was a very clever way to circumvent the planetary technology restriction.
I didn’t do that, the essence turned my transtator into this when it dropped me.
Ahh, compliment redacted then. You were not very clever, but you were clearly very persistent instead, which is often a more useful personality trait.
Thank you.