I don’t wake up until sometime after dawn. Chloe’s still asleep as well, and frankly, I don’t blame her. If not for my burning need to use the restroom, I’d be right alongside her, taking the day low and slow after the absolute clustertruck of a day yesterday. Instead, I stumble down the stairs, still half-asleep, and make my way into the nearest bathroom to freshen up.
I half-expect to see the cops barreling down the front door any second, ready to arrest me for the multitude of illegal activities we committed yesterday, but I’m relieved to see they’ve managed to leave well enough alone. That, and they probably are starting to run low on fuel, assuming all the refineries are still offline.
Goodness, now I’m going down a tangent of how global food supplies and distribution are holding up. So far, we still have enough food for ourselves, but it’s the second full day of what I assume to be a global infrastructure shortfall. That means one day left until mass pandemonium starts breaking out.
I sigh. Things are going to get much worse than they already have, won’t they? And all the while we should be trying to use the power granted to us by the System to get our shit in order instead of burying our heads in the sand and thinking everything will go back to the old normal. Does no one have a [Farmer] or similar class?
In any case, time to actually sit down and actually deal with the levels I’ve gained yesterday, along with all the other notifications that I suppressed during the last fight.
[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 12 (From 10). [Vitality] +2, [Mind] +2. Please allocate remaining stat points. (6 Remaining)]
Despite the usefulness of a little bit of [Strength] on day-to-day tasks, my class is very much a [Mind] focused ones, like most mage variants. My focus needs to be on staying alive and making sure I have enough [Ether] to empower the sorts of blasts that were able to eviscerate the horror from last night.
At the same time, [Speed] is also incredibly useful on the staying alive front. In a worst-case scenario, I can try to outrun an enemy and slowly regenerate my [Ether] in the interim. [Vitality] likewise remains important, but I decide to prioritize [Mind] with these two levels. The stat also seems to help with manipulating my [Ether], as well as all of the other Skills that I’ve gained so far. I assign +1 to [Vitality] and +2 to [Mind] for my first level, then +1 to [Speed] and +2 to [Mind] with my second.
[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x2 + Current Level + Rand[1, 3] = (82, 87)]
[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0, 2] = (49, 54)]
[Level: 12; Experience: 5,330; To Next: 1,805]
[Current Stats: [Health]: 789 / 789 ; [Ether]: 419 / 419]
[Current Stats: [Strength]: 15; [Speed]: 19; [Vitality]: 36; [Mind]: 40]
More notifications follow as I sit down and munch on some dry cereal in the kitchen and try to figure out what the heck I need to prioritize for the day.
[Your [Basic Ether Manipulation (Rank VIII)] has upgraded to [Basic Ether Manipulation (Rank X)]. Your [Basic Ether Manipulation (Rank X)] has reached its maximum level. You have been awarded an additional +2 free stat points for maximizing a skill rank]
Easy decision to make, considering how my class is starting to evolve into some sort of Ether Gungeoneer? Gunslinger? Not sure what the term is, but I need more [Ether] to power my weapons in either case.
[[Mind] increased from 40 to 42.]
[Your [Ether Bullet (Rank IV)] has upgraded to [Ether Bullet (Rank VII)]]
Yeah, that tracks. I’ve been making a ton of use of the skill throughout yesterday’s battles. Evolving my abilities further under moderately stressful circumstances against a powerful foe was enough to give me three ranks in the skill. I condense the basic form of my [Ether Bullet] in the palm of my hand, and it forms into a sparkling, pea-sized marble with hardly any effort. I then toss it out the back door before Chloe sees it and gets on my case.
[You have gained the General Skill [Basic Glyph Manipulation (Rank I)]. Would you like to learn this skill (General Skill Slots Available: 5/6)]
I pull up the description for good measure, knowing full well I’ll be accepting the skill anyway.
[Basic Glyph Manipulation (Rank I): Your curiosity and study of Ether-based technology has led you to the basic understanding of how glyphs modulate and manipulate Ether into its nearly-infinite possibilities. Already you have developed hypotheses on how glyphs function, and your desire to push the limits of possibility will lead you to great fortune… or equally great ruin. Take this Skill, which will provide basic knowledge and insight]
Absolutely, yes, please, and thank you. I snatch that skill up.
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[Your [Basic Glyph Manipulation (Rank I)] has upgraded to [Basic Glyph Manipulation (Rank II)]
Well, hot damn. Probably for my work combining glyphs, even if it was in a hamfisted, inefficient, and ad hoc manner. I walk over and glance at my [Simple Lightning Blowgun] and immediately shudder. The sluices were too large, the connections between the glyphs were in the wrong places, and I completely neglected to introduce the correct linking runes along the sluices to ensure that the amount of [Ether] I used didn’t burst through the channels and rupture the whole thing. Had I put even ten more points of [Ether] behind any of those three shots, I would have busted the whole thing and possibly taken my face off in the process.
The effects of the new Skill now apparent, I decide upon my best course of action. I could try to build a generator or similar, but that would take weeks, maybe months before I understand and can properly build the combination of glyphs necessary to do something so complex.
Chloe steps downstairs a few minutes later, stretching as she does. I pour her a glass of water, and I get an idea. I rush over to my sketchbook and I pull out a star-shaped glyph that I suspect to be the one for [Heat] and test it out. The paper and the air around it grows warm and my palms start to sweat. Inverting the flow of [Ether] causes the air to cool around me. Fog accompanies my exhalation before I stop.
Chloe gives me a funny look as she starts rubbing her arms. “And what does my favorite lady of science have planned with the cold air on this chilly early morning?”
“Refrigeration,” I say. “I realize I’ve been thinking about the whole ‘preservation of food’ question wrong. Instead of figuring out how to power the refrigerator, I should have just been asking ‘how do I keep the refrigerator cold?’ A lot more efficient and far fewer variables than trying to connect a bunch of control runes and link them all to a [Lightning] glyph, when I could just use a reverse [Heat] glyph and get the desired end result.”
“Oh, by the way, it seems that some of the cell towers are starting to come back online. Signal is weak, no data or anything, just standard texts. Got a message from my mom a few minutes ago. Said she was doing okay, that they had enough food and a generator that would last another day or two, but that they didn’t think they’ve got enough fuel to power it past Monday.”
On the one hand, access to a generator would be valuable in so many different ways. Having light and heat and eventually air conditioning again? Absolutely incredible. But on the other, it would still be lean times for the next several weeks at least.
I shake my head at my utter hypocrisy from last night. Yes, the System has arrived and its changes can’t and shouldn’t be undone. But, thinking of the creature comforts that I’d taken for granted, like even a lukewarm shower, I guess I understand why so many people are eager for life to return to the way things were. I just… I wish we could use this opportunity and these new abilities to look for even better ways forward than just trudging along with our collective heads in the sand and pretending things are exactly as they were.
“Chloe, I owe you an apology,” I finally mutter.
“For what?”
“For being selfish. Again. I haven’t been considerate enough about how other people must be feeling about all these changes. I’ve gotten so caught up in trying to unravel all the mysteries of the System and Ethertech and I… I haven’t been thinking about how all this has been affecting everyone else. Haven’t been thinking about how hard it must be for you and all the people who don’t want to fight. Haven’t been thinking that I’ve had a whole second life to plan and prepare for this moment, and people are running around scared and hoping that things will come back to normal. And… maybe I’m just… I just want to be a hero instead of just some ordinary person who’ll live an ordinary life, then die an ordinary death.”
Chloe frowns, then laughs.
“What? We’re young, we just turned eighteen, we’re supposed to be naive optimists ready to take on the world.”
Chloe’s laugh intensifies. “Whatever happened to the Sera who was always ‘study hard’ and ‘stay in school’ and ‘go to college’ and ‘get good grades’ and all that stuff.” She speaks in a deliberately deep and mocking tone that I can’t help but laugh at.
“I don’t really sound like that. Do I?”
Chloe gives me The Look, then we both giggle at each other.
“And besides, I think I very much was all ‘study hard’ and ‘get good grades’. Except now ‘study hard’ is ‘experiment with Ethertech’, and ‘get good grades’ is ‘get higher levels’.”
Chloe gives me another evil eye. “So, we’re in agreement that we’re going to do what I want to do today for a change?”
“I mean, as long as it’s not ‘surrender ourselves to the law and check ourselves in to county jail’.”
“Okay, yes, fine, we will not turn ourselves in to be detained at the police chief’s pleasure. But, we’re going to try not to break any laws today, okay?”
“Agreed. We’re still bringing our weapons, for self defense purposes only.”
“Considering what we saw last night on the road, that should be a given. Now then, we’re going back downtown and to my mother’s work. I want to see her again, to let her and us both know that one another is still alive and doing okay.”
“Before we do that, I’d like to play around with the glyph of [Heat] and see if we can’t work the refrigerator that way.”
Chloe shakes her head. “You can do that while I’m in the bath. For now, I want to see if that glyph of [Heat] that you keep talking about won’t let me have a hot bath for a change.”
“But–” I sigh. “Yeh, Chloe Jacobs, Your Highness.”
“Now kneel, Seraphina Mortensen, and avert your gaze before your princess!”
“You do know that I’m not actually a [Knight] and that I did not take that [Divine Paladin] class.”
“And you know that I’m not actually a princess, but we’re having fun and that’s what matters. Now, my loyal retainer, my bath awaits.”
I grumble and grumble and grumble some more as I fill up Chloe’s bath. For three reasons. First, the glyph of [Heat] works perfectly. Second, it takes barely two hundred [Ether] to get it nice and warm for Chloe. And third, I could have done this last night or this morning and had a warm soak for myself. Damn my lack of creativity!