Trying Ursula’s meds for the first time is bound to be one hell of an experience. An experience that I definitely want to have before I go back to the other world and risk the system throwing more curveballs at me. After a good night’s sleep, catching up on the info Call sent me and informing him that I’ll be unavailable for a while, and booking a room where someone with a healer class is on standby, I’m about as ready as I can be.
One of each pill sits in my hand like a trio of poisons, all staring up at me with tantalizing promises of pain and progress. In my other hand I hold my Class Card, a hologram of the workout routine Ursula made for me last night pulled up and ready to follow. Surveillance cameras blink periodically to let me know I’m being watched, and that if I royally screw this up, someone will be there to help.
Doesn’t really change how nervous I am, but it’s always nice to have a failsafe.
“Don’t worry Shelby–I’m right here, too.” Pearl assures me with a smile. “If things go the absolute worst way possible, Illumisia and I can just remake your body again! As long as you don’t, like, explode or something. That would be a little too hard for us.”
I hadn’t been worried about exploding, but thanks to Pearl, now it’s all I can think about. No matter how stupid and unlikely it is, there is the chance that I could have a horrible reaction to these thanks to my weird biology. Ursula thinks I’ll be fine, but what if…
No. Nope. Can’t be this pessimistic for no reason. I put the green pill in my pocket and pop the other two into my mouth. The tasteless capsules slide down my throat without the need for me to swallow, which is a really uncomfortable feeling, and unless I’m having a severe placebo reaction, the effects are instant.
My muscles twitch and flex under my skin, as if they want to rip free from my body and explode into motion. But those twitches don’t hurt at all, or even impede my ability to move normally. I can curl my fingers, keep myself steady, and stand perfectly fine even as my muscles look like they’re in the middle of giving me a full body charlie horse.
“Seems like it’s working.” I chuckle to myself at the understatement and walk over to the equipment “Alright, so the first step is… cardio. Cool. I can do that easy. Says here I need to set the incline… to…”
I swallow hard at the number printed right next to the speed and duration I’m supposed to run for. Sixty degree incline. Forty miles per hour. Five minutes. That seems… impossible. Especially when my muscles are going to be destroying themselves while I run. But with my improved body, I should be able to do this… right? Ursula wouldn’t give me something I couldn’t do… right?
Yeah. Of course. I nod to myself confidently; I can do this. I set the treadmill with Ursula’s specifications, lean down to make sure my laces are tied perfectly, and frown as a horrible screeching sound fills my ears. Cold sweat begins to trickle down my back as I slowly come to the realization that the sound is coming from the treadmill. The one I’m supposed to run on.
…This is going to suck so goddamn hard.
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Pain lances through my entire body. It’s like… the horrible feeling of waking up the day after you twisted your ankle and forgetting what you did, then stomping down on the ground with all your weight on said ankle. Except it’s my entire shitting body. I feel like I pulled my goddamn eyelids. I didn’t even know that was possible. Hell, I didn’t even work the damn things out.
I’m on the ground. My back pressed against a soft mat, every single part of me screaming that I made a huge mistake. Half an hour for the entire routine was a huge underestimation–it took me an hour and a half to get through everything, and that’s only because Pearl pep-talked me through the last half-hour. If this was a normal workout… well… I would have probably just caused permanent damage to everything in my body.
And, hey, if the pills don’t work right, there’s still a chance that I just destroyed myself for no reason. I try to laugh at the situation, but all that comes out is a strangled gurgle followed by a coughing fit that feels like my ribs are closing in on my lungs like a bony iron maiden. Definitely not doing that again.
I struggle to grab the green pill in my pocket, struggle some more to bring it up to my mouth, and drop it in without even trying to swallow. It slides down my throat–which makes a lot of sense now that I can barely move my tongue–and my eyes slam shut.
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“Shelby! That’s half an hour!”
Pearl’s voice rattles through my brain like a gunshot. I sit bolt upright, look around in a panic from a dream I can’t really remember, and wince as my back groans at the effort. But… it’s just exertion and spasms. The blinding pain and discomfort from before is completely gone. Sure, my head still feels like I just threw my brain in a dryer with a bunch of metal pipes, but I can live with that.
“Rrgh.” I groan and raise a hand to my face. “That was nowhere near enough rest time. I need a nap to recover from my nap.”
“No time for that! You have to do round two now!” Pearl chipperly reminds me. “Do you want to know how much your body has gotten better since you went to sleep?”
…She can tell me that? Is she, like, completely jacked into my body’s vitals or something? I almost open my mouth to say yes, but the blinking light of a security camera reminds me where I am. Instead, I push myself to my feet, make my way to the treadmill of suffering, and nod while doing so.”
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Pearl nods right along with me as I press the ‘on’ button. “Compared to before the workout, your body is ten percent better! I’m working on some stuff to help the rest of your body that you can’t work out to keep up with the stuff you can, but you’ve got a while to go before you’re breaking your own bones with your strength.”
“Something to look forward to.” I mutter as I stare down at the treadmill that looks more like a sanding belt. “And I have to do this shit every single day. Maybe I’m better off ignoring leveling up Body until I know I have a shit ton of free time coming up.”
“You could, sure. Or you could get better at doing the workout routine.” Pearl says without a hint of mockery. Even though it sounds like there should be some. “If I can tinker with your brain a little, I might be able to improve the speed at which it rests and rejuvenates your body. Maybe I could even bring it up so you only need four hours of sleep a night–then you could do your routine instead of the other four hours.”
That sounds like trading a nice part of my day–sleeping–for literal torture. Unfortunately, it kind of seems like if I don’t do this I’ll start falling behind pretty badly. Sure, all the class-bearers I’ve dealt with so far weren’t very strong, but they can’t be the best the world has to offer. And the other world… well… there’s bound to be others like Illumisia out there. Maybe even that horizonguard I saw for all of two minutes is a real danger.
“You’re stalling, aren’t you?”
I wince at Pearl’s blunt words because of how true they are. Then I swallow hard and raise a foot to get on the treadmill for the second torturous session of the day. When my foot hits the belt, and my legs nearly fly out from under me, it feels… easier than before. Not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination, but just different enough that my brain registers it as a little more achievable.
The feeling dies ten footsteps in, and the pain comes screaming back with a slightly lessened vengeance. But vengeance nonetheless.
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Days fly by in an uncomfortable blur. My time is spent split between trying to find something so I can bring Fleur along, tortuous workouts, and spending a few too many Worth trying to figure out what’s changed with my spells. The only fruitful thing of the three is the workouts, but even those have severely diminishing returns. Probably because my Body stat’s so shit.
I lean back in my chair and sigh at the ceiling. Noland and Ursula are already in the other world doing important shit, March is there too, and I have no idea what Gil’s doing. Part of me wants to go and check on Diane and Razi, but some minimal surveillance shows that they’re trying their best to fit in with the other class-bearers around here.
Leaving me with… pretty much nothing left to do. A dozen coins roll around uselessly on my desk, with my shellraiser forged items strewn about around them. The only one I’ve really used is the coin holster–the matrix and knife have seen next to no use at all. Something about them just… doesn’t feel worth investing a lot of time into. Which is sort of shitty, since my Soul stat completely revolves around them.
“Pearl, do you think I’m underestimating this stuff?” I ask and raise the knife into the light. “It feels like I can do more with just projectiles and shields than with either of these.”
Pearl looks up from her seat on four stacked coins and shrugs. “Only you can tell if your things help or hurt you. But you haven’t been using them a lot lately, so… maybe?”
I sigh and flip the knife around. “Yeah, I feel the same. It just makes my Soul stat feel like such a waste, you know?”
“I understand. You have the power core, too, and almost nothing to power.” Pearl purses her lips and scratches her chin. “I bet you could power a bunch of our machines with your Soul and that power core. But if you don’t have a reason to fight a war, then you really wouldn’t need it. Honestly, though, do you really need many stats as a Worth class?”
…That is a very good question. Body and Mind are useful, that’s for sure, and Fate is anywhere between the most important thing in the world and the least. Soul is the outlier–if I can get my hands on an extremely powerful Shellraiser artifact, I’ll need a shit ton of it. But for the things I have and never use, it’s pretty much useless.
“I’ll have to think on that. But for now… I think I should just level whatever’s cheapest.” I chuckle and send everything on the table to my inventory. “Shouldn’t be that much longer now. Let’s go see Fleur before the other world yanks us back.”
Pearl dusts herself off and scurries up my arm as I lean down to touch the table. She squelches into her shell as I latch onto my relocation coin on Fleur’s platform, and once she’s safely inside, I activate it. Relocation takes me to a very slightly improved version of the garden from a few days ago, with Fleur working tirelessly to ensure those improvements stick in the long-term.
She turns and brightens the moment I appear. “Shelby. Is it time already?”
I nod and toss her a relocation coin. “When I get there, I’m going to try and relocate my pills to us. If that works, I’ll relocate you right after. And if it doesn’t… here’s my Class Card contact. Give it to the woman from the tailor–Sami–and she’ll let you talk to me. I already hashed it out, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
Fleur nods and accepts the targeting, then hands me back the coin. “I truly hope it works, but after hearing your stories about the system, I doubt it will be that simple. Else you could simply return here the moment you reached the other world.”
“Can’t deny that, even though I wish I could.” I chuckle, then move in for a long hug. Fleur squeezes me right back instantly, and even Pearl hops out of her shell to get in on it. “I don’t know how long I’ll be there, Fleur. Keep the resort safe for me while I’m gone, okay?”
She sighs happily into my shoulder. “I will do my utmost.”
“Oh, and watch out for a guy named Gil! He might try to hit on you.” Pearl adds seriously. “He isn’t interested in humans, so you’re right in his strike zone.”
“You do not have to worry about that. I have no interest in other humans.” Fleur breaks the hug, and her warmth lingers for a moment. “Stay safe, Shelby. I will be here waiting impatiently for your return.”