ARC1/C13 – Plan B

After confiding with the others and talking for a while, Drake related to them the only option he thought available to their team. This was effectively to become smugglers in the outer regions of the multi-verse.

“The Seracians may not be able to be beaten in a head-on encounter. In fact, as one of the top 100 factions, I think we, the Therulians, could have done nothing other than have played right into their hands. We were completely at their mercy from the beginning. And once they decided on their net worth, they merely went through the diplomatic formalities before taking what they wanted, which was everything.

However, there is a slim chance of using their predictability to our advantage. By knowing how and approximately when they will act, we may be able to organize getting some of the earth’s population to relative safety. I know this idea may be far from palatable to you. But I am afraid there is no way your world’s technology can pose any threat whatsoever to the might of the Seracian Kingdom.” Said Drake, leaning forward on his hands. As nobody interjected, he continued.

“Within the outer rim worlds, there are some small resistance groups that exist. It was one of our aims to contact one of these groups in order to save some of our own people. We still have contacts there and intend to meet up with them. This will mean we need to escape via the mirror realm as soon as the merger commences with the Saracens.”

The plan was simple but desperate.

“There are many resistance groups existing in the multi-verse. Naturally, the factions have made many enemies if we can get as many qualified candidates to one of these groups to help build up resistance from within. This will be our best chance. Your world might have more than two years before being destroyed or enslaved. But if you remain here, you will be trapped – unable to level sufficiently to pose any threat whatsoever.” Drake finished, knowing this was a bitter pill for anyone to swallow.

He also knew it was exactly the tactics they had started to employ with the Earthlings. Feeding them only a succession of low-level combatants, never giving them any chance to really grow before engaging and annihilating them with true combatants.

Sam sat in thought with the others, taking in Drake’s words. If all Drake’s words were to be believed, there indeed was no chance for an Earth deprived of resources. It was not hard to believe that the rest of the multi-verse outmatched them in technological advances. But at least in the wider multi-verse, they would have an opportunity. At the thought of opportunities, Sam chuckled mirthlessly to himself, remembering the empty words of the politicians on Earth, although no doubt they were duped too.

He looked at Sarah and Maria, “I think we will take any option that gives us at least some chance.”

Sarah nodded solemnly. Maria added, “Can we get back to the training now? Time would appear to be of the essence and all,”

“As we’re laying all our cards on the table can you tell us how you seem to manage to keep your illusions going 24/7,” said Sam.

“Ours is just a matter of a Psionic Usage skill and lots and lots of practice with skills. However, that does not explain how you are able to do it, Mr. Slait,” said Batholomew.

Sam didn’t want to lie, but it seemed to be the only card he held at the moment. So he chose a half-truth.

“This is all new to me, and I can’t explain it either as soon as I figure out how and why I can do it. I promise to let you know,” said Sam, hoping they would still share their knowledge.

“Are there any of those skills available at the depot?” said Sarah, immediately interested in the idea of finally getting some control over her flighty fire ability. She remembered there were supposed to be cores of different types that were available for enough credits at the compound depot.

“They do exist as it goes, but unsurprisingly not at the depot. Do you really think we’d hand out something that useful to Earthlings? But now we are both technically on the same side; we can make them available.” Said Lopez, pulling a multitude of cores out of nowhere. Yet more secrets.

“Here’s to the cores!” said Maria cornily, making all eyes turn to her, causing even her to blush slightly. However, it did lighten the mood some.

“I think you may already have enough offensive capabilities,” said Lopez, smirking at Maria.

Maria was tempted to say, “At least I don’t EAT people,” but held her tongue and instead put out her hand to eagerly accept the core.

[PSI FLOW – allows for the user to control the flow of Psionic energy being used]

Sarah reveled in the idea of finally having some control of her new power. She saw a number appear on the top left of her display; it was a decimal number next to the letters SPV. Focusing on it, she saw it allowed her to determine the amount of SP used per second, the SPV - Skill Points Value. Set to the lowest number she could, which was a bit fiddly, she got it to 1. This was about 2% of her total SP. Would this do anything? She would find out.

Looking up at Lopez, she asked, “What value can you get it to?”

“0.01,” replied Lopez smugly.

Eye rolling, she moved away from the others and triggered her [Pyrokinesis]—a thin laser-like jet of fire shot from her outstretched hand.

She fist-pumped the air, sending sparks flying in a cascade through the air seeing her [PSI FLOW] immediately level up. “Yes! That’s more like it.”

Maria looked like the cat that had got the cream as she was given two cores – one with [PSI FLOW] and one with [CYROKINESIS – control the ice with the power of PSI].

Maria turned a predatory gaze on the unassuming Sarah.

“Fancy a duel?” Each started immediately aiming at the other.

“Ok, now they can seriously hurt each other. Do you have any kind of healing abilities?” said Sam, thinking this was strange that now was the first time he had even thought about it.

“There is only one way to learn, and there is only one way to level up the [Tough] skill.” Said Lopez.

Sarah’s range was already far better than Maria’s, and she scored a hit. Maria fell to the ground screaming as the sleeve of her jacket caught fire. Sarah ran over to her, unsure what to do.

Maria held her wrist tightly and tried to bite back the screams as the pain slowly dulled.

“That was 30 health points gone in an instance,” she said, sucking in a breath as she kneeled, panting from the pain.

Maria dumped points into her stats so she could hopefully go toe to toe with Sarah.

Name: Maria Ray Level 9

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Health Points: 160/190 Skill Points: 69/69 Stamina: 170/170

Vitality: 7 + 20 Strength: 11 + 9 Endurance: 6 + 14 Agility: 10 + 20 Intellect: 14 + 6 Perception: 11 + 9

Free stat points: 0

Acquired Path: PSI Strand: null

Abilities:

[Cyrokinesis Level 3] [PSI FLOW Level 1] [Tough Level 3]

Putting all Maria’s stats at 20.

“Anything for the pain?” said Maria quizzically.

“Nothing. At least not at your level. But as [Tough] levels, you will take less damage from this these attacks,” said Drake, who had turned his attention to the sparring humans.

Well, if that was the only way to stay alive. The euphemism, no gain without pain, was really true.

Under the very quizzical gazes of Lopez and Bartholomew, Sam was allowed to take cores for [Pyrokinesis], [Cryokinesis], and [PSI FlOW].

Sam moved over to join the others and take some real pain.

They ran around the area, Sam using his PSI to shield, but he was just not quick enough to block Maria, whom he had to admit now had impressive agility. Sarah, on the other hand, was better at spotting an opening and attacking, catching him unaware. Sam was able to get the hang of using all his new abilities, though.

***

After an hour, they were all ready to quit, with their Health points all dangerously low. Pleased as they were with their advancements, they all were nursing wounds that would have been critical before the merger. Now they would just need to rest up sufficiently to get their health points up to full. Once they had done that, their bodies would start to regenerate at a greatly increased rate for humans. Lost limbs could not be regenerated, but wounds and even broken bones could be healed overnight.

All of them had got [Tough] up to level 5 and, with their careful control of [PSI FLOW], had managed to level their offensive abilities a little as well.

The Therulians were good trainers, and though they didn’t have any other cores, they were willing to part with them. Sam and the others felt their combat training was paying off.

Sam felt it was funny how they had all decided on different stat compositions, Sam with his int build, Sarah a more perception-based build, and Maria a far more balanced build.

He wished he could be back in the mirror realm where he felt almost god-like but realized that however god-like he had felt, he clearly was near the bottom of the food chain; doing normal training was a necessity.

***

Sam seemed to have healed up far quicker than the others. He didn’t know if this was due to his [Psionic Drain] being at a high level or what, but it left him wide awake at about 4 am.

He lay idly playing with his [Telekinesis] and decided to go for a little flyby of his surroundings. In the predawn light, the City looked as ghostly as ever, just a shell of its former self.

Wanting to check out something that had puzzled him for days, he went to inspect the now-defunct mirror closest to their camp. He stood before it, bereft of any security, looking intently at the mirror.

After a while, he noted that he could see various energy signatures around the edges of the structure. Nothing could be seen, however, through the translucent surface of the mirror. And why not? Thought Sam as he pressed his hand to the mirror. He felt resistance but also energy contained within the mirror.

As he continued to apply pressure with not just his body but also his psionics, he was able to pull strands of the energy from the mirror realm or at least this gateway to it.

Wrapping the strands into a film, he enveloped himself and was gratified to find the initial resistance dissipate.

***

Sam was nowhere. He had moved into the mirror realm and now could see nothing from within but a moving kaleidoscope of energies, as though he were submerged deep within an ocean, and perhaps he was. Was this pure energy or something else that he could not as yet perceive?

He pulled upon the energies surrounding him, feeling [Psionic Drain] activate, and felt the heady rush of incoming energy, using it to form a bubble around himself, using [Telekinesis]. Sam could differentiate it easily due to its hue and density. He continued to expand it, wrapping it in [Telepathic Illusions], as it expanded further and further in size. Using [Pyrokinesis] and [Cryokinesis] simultaneously like sprinklers in opposite directions, he started seriously leveling both.

Sam had messed about with [PSI FLOW], but this only decreased the speed of leveling for his abilities. Oh well, never mind, he thought it may come in useful for something.

Sam had never experienced any problem with this and intended to take this opportunity to level his abilities as much as possible. But as the bubble became very large (it was hard to say how large as perspective was very difficult to judge in this space), Sam’s mind began to feel a certain tension.

It had been explained to Sam that the System governed by the multi-verse that allowed him to level and see statistics and have these amazing abilities was not wholly virtual. That the abilities gained were ones that had been awakened and not purely given. Also that others, such as strength or SP, were gauges showing his actual progress.

Just as a higher strength stat meant an individual was stronger physically, a higher SP meant an individual had a greater ability to hold PSI energy. A case in point was that someone who tried to use an ability with a lack of SP would not be denied its usage but would damage their being and eventually die from doing so. This Psionic drain had the tell tail signs of bleeding from their ears, eyes, nose, or all three before potentially dying as their brains received damage and hemorrhaged.

And so it was with a certain amount of trepidation that Sam continued leveling and, to be on the safe side stopped increasing the size of his PSI bubble.

Finally, one of his abilities [Telekinesis] broke through to level 100.

[Telekinesis is Level 100 break through to Tier-F achieved]

[Processing… new abilities]

[Tier-F abilities available:

[Kinetic Tethering - The user can generate kinetic binding fields to surround a target with kinetic energy, allowing them to move the target.]

[Kinetic Cleaving – The power to cut things utilizing telekinesis]

[Kinetic Bolt - The user can create and project bolts of kinetic force and control the intensity/power of their projectiles. These bolts could be used to stun, burn, injure, or even penetrate/stab the enemy.

[Kinetic Flight – Users of this ability can fly, glide and/or levitate through the manipulation of kinetic energy. Users can fly at varying speeds, levitate, or propel themselves without taking flight, including enhanced jumping by a short burst of flight.]]

Sam was puzzled for a moment, then underwhelmed. Three abilities were presented for him to choose from. No doubt they were, in some way, superior to what he was doing at the moment. He presumed they would be stronger.

Though they were all things, he had achieved rather haphazardly by his own manipulation of energies.

[Kinetic Tethering] would be particularly useful for holding mobs still, allowing him to kill them more easily. And he was curious to see how fast it was in action. Would it allow him to stop mobs at a distance or at close range? The description was rather vague and didn’t state this, so he rejected this and moved straight on.

[Kinetic Cleaving] was the opposite, as definitely an offensive skill. Sam was unsure as this was definitely a good option allowing him to do greater and more precise damage, he hoped.

[Kinetic Bolt] seemed a bit lackluster; after all, he would want to kill mobs, and that was all. Why would he want to stun them? He could use his own tethering to create the same effect.

[Kinetic Flight] appeared boring to start with but oh so practical. Of all the things Sam had used, his ability to fly was the one thing that had kept him alive more times than not. Although he had mostly done floating, so again, flying would be a massive improvement. It had to be, surely?

He mentally chose [Kinetic Flight] as being able to stay alive was the best of the options, especially as now he had two offensive skills [Pyrokinesis] and [Cryokinesis]. He dumped his 15 remaining free points from before into Vitality and was gratified to see his Health Points jump up by 60 points to 228.

Name: Sam Slait Level 12

Health Points: 228/228 Skill Points: 312/312 Stamina: 144/144

Vitality: 22 Strength: 11 Endurance: 6 Agility: 10 Intellect: 100 Perception: 20

Free stat points: 0

Acquired Path: PSI Tier-F Strand: null

Abilities:

Tier-G

[Telekinesis Level 100] [Psionic Drain Level 93] [Telepathic Illusions Level 91] [Tough Level 5]

[Pyrokinesis Level 34] [Cryokinesis Level 34][PSI FLOW Level 23]

Tier-F

[Kinetic Flight Level 1]

Now the question was, could he really fly? Or would he still suck? His curiosity inside warred with his determination to level up his other abilities.

At least [Kinetic Flight] would be better, right? He mused.

[New Merger with the Seracian Kingdom will commence in 3 days 15 hours 24 mins]