I decide to go ahead and get in on the next round of Chloe and her mother’s game. I’ve made some good progress on my class’s abilities, and I need to wait for my [Ether] to finish charging before I can move forward with the rest of my experiments. At least, that’s the excuse I’m giving myself. I’m also tired from that much exertion, but I need to keep pushing myself forward. Mostly to distract myself from everything out there that I can’t control.
Unfortunately, I proceed to get absolutely destroyed by drawing every bad card in the deck. Chloe wins, and her mother finishes a couple of turns after her. I, on the other hand, get absolutely skunked, with one of my pieces still on the starting line while both of them have long since finished. We play one more game, and somehow, I perform even worse! I shake my fist in mock anger as I turn back to the rest of my toys.
“Hey, Chloe,” I start. “How do you feel about exploring the dungeon you mentioned yesterday?”
“Absolutely not!” her mother interjects. “I am not going to let my daughter go into some monster-infested cave! She is going to stay here and be safe until this whole System nonsense gets under control!”
“Mrs. Jacobs,” I say flatly. “With all due respect, I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘safe’ anymore. My parents’ house was broken into last night and my mother was beaten to death in her bedroom, with more bruises and cuts than I really want to talk about. I know that crime isn’t as pressing of an issue in this neighborhood as it is where I used to live, but if it happened there, it could happen anywhere.
“The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t think we can rely on law enforcement, the National Guard, the army, or anyone else to keep us safe. And even if we choose that path, who is going to keep us safe from them if they decide to demand we give them clothing or shelter, or some asshole decides that you’ve got a daughter and an adopted daughter and decides he wants us for the night? And we want to say no and can’t?”
“They wouldn’t! And–”
“The courts? Our representatives? The law? Is that what you were about to say? You were just telling us this morning that they plan to ‘suspend’ the Constitution for an indefinite period of time. There aren’t going to be checks and balances and judicial oversight!”
I take a deep breath. “I know you mean well, Mrs. Jacobs. Really, I do. In my heart of hearts, I think you want only the very best for us. You have way more life experience than both of us and if we hadn’t just gone through the literal apocalypse yesterday, I promise I would take your words and advice with all the respect and consideration that you deserve. As the mother of my best friend, and as my adopted mother, in deed if not in law.”
“Sera,” she says.
“I know. It might just be my teenage hormones telling me to go take stupid risks because I think I’m invincible. I know there’s risk involved. I know it will be dangerous, and I accept that I might lose my life in the worst case scenario.
“And I don’t plan to go today. I plan to learn everything about my class and be as prepared as I can be. But I promised Chloe that I would protect her. And as I am, I don’t think I can fulfill that promise.”
I start sniffling, and I struggle to fight the tears. “I– I feel useless. I don’t want what happened to my mom to happen to you two. I want to make sure I can protect you both. Protect you from people who mean to do us all harm. And I think learning more about and further developing this power we’ve all been given, is the best way to do that.”
“Sera, you know I can’t-” Mrs. Jacobs starts.
“I want to go too,” Chloe says.
“Chloe Marie Jacobs, I beg your pardon!”
“Mom, I trust Sera on this one. She already saved my life from those Hellspawn this morning, and we wouldn’t have been able to do so had we not gone into the dungeon in the basement last night.”
“You did what?”
“Sera suspected we’d need weapons when the System arrived, and her insight has proved prescient time and time again. I know you don’t believe her, and I don’t blame you, but I do. If she thinks going to the dungeon is a good idea, then I’m inclined to believe her.”
“Chloe, you will–”
“Mother, I turned eighteen last month. Chloe will turn eighteen in five days. We are adults now, capable of making adult decisions, even if those decisions might be harmful to us, and even if they aren’t the decisions that you would make or the ones you would make yourself were you in our situation.”
“I was your age once, you know,” Mrs. Jacobs says. “Rebellious, thinking I knew everything, unafraid of consequences or the world. I did stupid things. Went to parties with older men who wanted to take advantage of me. Drank, and, as I was a stupid teenager, yes, I drove after. I’m not proud of it, but I understand that teenagers are exactly the same in every generation.”
She pantomimes lighting up a cigarette and smoking it. “I guess part of growing up as a mother is knowing that my daughters are going to go off and make mistakes. The same ones I made in my youth and that my parents and husband made in theirs. However, no matter how much you beg or plead with me, I’m not going to be complicit in leading my daughter into danger. You’ll have to find your own ways of getting there.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“That’s all we ask,” I say. “I would ask that you come with us, as I think increasing your own strength will do you some good in the long run. But it seems that you’ve made up your mind otherwise.”
“I have. I might not be able to do much in the face of a world changing before my eyes, but I still want to hold hope. That even with us now having access to what I can only describe as superpowers, people will come together and use them for good instead of evil.”
I don’t hold that hope. Never have. Some people will use these powers for good, maybe even most. But not everyone, and I’d rather get stronger to defend myself rather than rely on cops to protect me and mine. That’s the way it’s always been, even in the last world. Even if only the people who’ve lived in neighborhoods like mine had to learn that lesson for themselves.
We don’t discuss the matter further; Mrs. Jacobs has decided neither to help nor to interfere, and that’s the best I expected from her. Honestly, I expected her to put her foot down even harder and try to stop us by force. I wasn’t at all looking forward to that confrontation.
Chloe and her mother return to their board game. After two humiliating defeats at the hands of the cards, I bow out of the third round.
I turn my attention back to the Hellspawn Pitchfork. I think that all the tiny glyphs act not unlike miniature circuits, guiding the flow of Ether in various manners, twisting and turning it to create the effect of a fireball on the other end. Specifically, I hypothesize that there are some that act like logic gates and control mechanisms, while others manipulate raw Ether from its base form into various components needed for the end result.
In the case of flame, the pitchfork needs to be able to generate fuel, air, heat, and some sort of spark. The rest of the glyphs, I intuit, divert the flow of Ether not unlike how computers in modern internal combustion cars adjust the balance of fuel and air to ensure ideal mixtures of both while operating. It’s absolutely fascinating to see. I take notes of the patterns, marking down where I can.
I also notice tiny sluices connecting them that look like miniature sluices. I suspect that’s exactly what they are. I’d like to see if there’s a way I can selectively deactivate some of these conduits to get a sense of how each one individually modulates the overall effect. Those experiments will have to wait until I get a better sense of the basic functionality.
I head outside with the weapon— I’m about to test literal flame, so it’s the least I can do. I feel a bit of discomfort at being so exposed to the goings on outside. I half-expect to see supersized crows dive bombing me and ancient dinosaurs reconstituting themselves from bones to walk the lands once more in search of human prey, but it’s almost serene. Peaceful, as much as can be expected given the circumstances.
I grip the pitchfork and begin feeding it the smallest amount of [Ether] that I can. Nothing happens. I then try one tenth of a unit, then a fifth, then a half. But not until exactly one full unit of [Ether] is infused into the weapon does it activate. And nothing happens as I increase the amount until I reach two full units, when the size of the flaming orb suddenly increases. I observe the same behavior from two to three units, and then the weapon refuses to accept more than that.
I’m perplexed by this. My early experiments with the phones suggest that Ether is a continuous variable. My [Basic Ether Manipulation] allows me to manipulate and control the amount I use down to half a percentage point of a single unit, and this should only grow as my skill evolves in rank. So why doesn’t the weapon follow that pattern?
I next experiment with [Flash of Insight]. The methodology will be a bit crude since I have no exact way to measure luminous intensity short of the eyeball test. However, if I compare the difference between doing so with one and two units, the relatively large percentage increase should be easier to see.
My tests confirm that my Skill only accepts discrete, whole-number values of [Ether] as an input. Worse, if I try to use any fractional value of my [Ether], my [Ether] decreases by the next larger whole number, while the effect always rounds down! In other words, if I use my [Flash of Insight] twice and pour 1.5 units of [Ether] into it each time, I end up with each effect being the same as though I only used one unit. And, adding insult to injury, my [Ether] reserve will have decreased by not two or even three, but four units.
My current hypothesis is that Ethertech derived from the System relies on quantized units. Spells and Skills follow this principle as well. However, I currently know of no physical reason why any tech I personally build must follow this rule. I will note in my conjecture that it is far easier to manipulate integer values of [Ether] than fractional ones, and further conjecture that it is my [Basic Ether Manipulation] skill that allows me to do so in the first place. At least, not without extreme difficulty.
I head as far away from the house as I can, into the opposite corner of the backyard. I stand with my back against the fence, just in case this idea sends me flying back. I charge a single unit of [Ether] into my hand and compress it as much as I can. It starts resisting once I push it down to the size of a quarter, but I keep going.
Nickel size, then dime size. It starts to strain my muscles and tax my mind, but I continue down, forcing myself to the very limit of my capabilities. The expansive force builds and it takes everything I have to resist how it tries to blow up in my face.
I imagine the canister, and start to think about how the sluices and glyphs etched into it interact to compress and stabilize so much energy. I don’t know their exact individual function or how they should interact yet. But I can imagine my hands forming a binding cage around the Ether I hold. I mentally picture the glyphs together, and my [Tinkerer] Skill helps me start to envision some ways in which they might fit together better.
It’s a struggle. I’m sweating and my arms are cramping up. My mind wants me to give up. But I think of Chloe. I think of Mom, and how I don’t want Chloe to end up like she did. I keep pushing and forcing my will upon the [Ether]. And I power through. Once I shrink the mass down to the size of a pea, the Ether stabilizes and crystallizes into a solid mass.
It’s beautiful. It looks like a small diamond, except it glows a bright blue-white. I throw it over the fence. It hits the ground and explodes with a bright flash of light and sound. And I can’t help but grin as two System notifications appear.
[Your [Basic Ether Manipulation (Rank IV)] has upgraded to [Basic Ether Manipulation (Rank VI)]]
[You have developed the Class Skill [Ether Bullet]. Would you like to learn this Skill? (Class Skill Slots remaining: 4/6)]
[[Ether Bullet (Rank I)]: Your knowledge of tinkering with newly-discovered technological marvels has given you greater insight into the physical laws governing the interaction between Ether and technology. You can now mimic the effects of an Ether canister through a combination of your insights and force of will. These bullets, when detonated, will damage all enemies around them with a concussive mixture of light and sound. (Max Bullet Size: 1. Size will increase with the rank of this skill.)]
I will absolutely accept this new ability. Pleased with my discovery, I head back inside.