Chapter 7
Matt woke up the following morning feeling fully refreshed. The naked, sleeping form of the woman he’d made love to the night before lay wrapped in the single blanket his bed had come furnished with. While she was certainly attractive, and he felt his body respond to his thoughts, there was nowhere near the overpowering and immediate need he’d felt last night.
Matt debated waking Staci, but ultimately decided on carefully extracting himself from the tangle of limbs and hair, before walking to the door and grabbing an MRE. Even tearing into a veggie MRE couldn’t bring his mood down, and before Matt realized it, he’d scarfed the meal he’d always considered his least favorite without even really noticing. He reached for another, and when he turned back, Staci was sitting up in bed watching him.
“Morning sexy.” Matt smiled.
“Don’t ‘morning sexy’ me while you walk around stark naked silly.” Staci replied.
“Now that you’re officially part of the system, you need to read the beginners guide and process your additional attribute points from leveling, assuming you did. You’ll find the process much smoother now that you have base 10’s, and aren't exercising any more sludge, unless you decide to spend them on Charisma. Once that’s done, we’ll head to the training room and put you through your paces. Most of the team is interested in seeing what you can do with your fancy subclass.” she continued
Matt sighed heavily “Straight to business huh? I was kind of hoping we could have an easy morning and I could bring you a breakfast in bed of chili mac with jalapeno cheese spread, then I could do that thing you love, and we could make a morning of it… but if you insist on being such a tease, I guess we can get to work. I’m going to spend a point on charisma, and one in strength I think. That way I can avoid extra detox but still bring my weakest stat up, while still progressing down the ‘dps’ pathway.”
Staci gave a distinctly unladylike snort “trust a man to have sex on the brain first thing in the morning. You do a nice job of standing at attention, I’ll give you that, and I don’t doubt that you’ll have other women lining up to trade energy with when you hit levels 10, 15, and 20 respectively, but remember to be careful about kids. Stick to level 20+ partners if you can. The extra level ups will help you and them. But honestly, as much as I’d enjoy a round 2, we need to get to work if you want to make it back to your company.”
Matt walked over to his folded clothes, and began to dress, destroyed shirt notwithstanding. “You are actually right. As much as this was fun, we did both agree last night that it’d just be a one and done kind of thing, and I do have a unit to get back to. I’ll leave first and see if I can find a replacement shirt, since my other one got contaminated during my initial mental attribute increase. I’ll come to the training room as soon as I get the shirt situation sorted.
Staci crawled out of bed, allowing Matt to savor the view one last time. “I’ll see you there, soldier boy” she called as she opened the door and headed down the hall, still naked, but carrying her clothes in her arms.
Apparently the Italian-American tease didn’t mind public nudity Matt mused as he finished dressing. quickly reviewing his system notifications, he realized he had in fact gone up a level, gaining 2 new unspent attribute points, access to the system store (once earth had a node), as well as the [system initiates guidebook], which he skimmed over briefly before realizing it was quite dry and didn’t immediately present any new information.
Matt spent the attribute points as planned, marveling at the lack of pain, but also missing the huge burst of new sensations. He felt his muscles grow slightly denser, but he had no way to guess what he was now capable of that he hadn’t been before. Instead of idly pursuing these thoughts, Matt left the room and entered the maze of hallways.
Matt didn’t wander the halls long before a pair of black clad operator types found him, presenting a bag with a sweat-wicking undershirt and a uniform top, and telling him to follow them. Shortly Matt found himself in a massive underground gym, and as the two security personnel left him, he realized he recognized most of the people in the room from the brief introduction he’d had with Strike Eagle on the video feed the night before.
Staci smiled and waved him over.
“Hello Matt, welcome to the team, even if it is a temporary assignment. You’ll be given a bunk in the communal room, but we’ll be spending most of our time here, training to see what you have with this new class combo. Let me introduce the rest of the team.
Matt nodded along, noting that as per their conversation, Staci treated him as if they’d never met in person previously.
“This is Gunter. He’s a Heroic Wizard with Mastery over fire. This is Amy, our Hunter with an Arcane Mastery, followed by Vivian, a summoner with mastery of the swarm, and finally Kyle, our Paladin who has mastered dual wielding war hammers. For now I’ll let you guess at my advanced class and mastery. When you get it right I’ll give you a prize.”
In turn Staci pointed to a massive blond haired viking, an all american girl-next-door type, a fiery spanish beauty, and someone Matt could only describe internally as the human embodiment of a leprechaun. Matt nodded to each and received nods in turn from each.
The huge Norse god looking man was the first to speak up after Staci. “We all already know about the exchange Matt, so no reason to bring it up now. The team is trying to come up with an information packet we can release to line units explaining what’s waiting at level 5, but the system is limiting us a bit. Regardless, welcome to the team.” Gunter walked over and extended an arm, but when Matt went for a handshake, the giant grasped his forearm, before firmly shaking once and letting go.
Matt didn’t let the odd interaction bother him. “I’m glad to hear it. The soldiers deserve to know about this before it hits them in the face, but Staci explained the reasoning, and I respect your desire to keep as much individual freedom as possible when it comes to these kinds of things.
Amy and Vivian both waved, and Vivian called out “when you reach level 10, know that I’m interested. Staci says good things.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Matt laughed awkwardly as he felt his face heat to what he knew were bright red levels of embarrassment before responding. “I’ll keep that in mind ma’am.”
Matt walked toward Kyle, but Vivian was obviously not done teasing him. “He’s such a gentleman Amy, maybe you should jump him at 15? You could use the level.” Amy just responded by sticking out her tongue in Vivian’s direction, and Matt decided to let it slide, realizing that Vivian was the sort to keep things going if you let her.
Kyle dropped the weights he’d been focusing on as Matt approached. He smiled and offered a hand for Matt to shake. Something seemed a bit off about the way the man was positioned, but Matt couldn’t identify exactly what, and decided to shake the feeling off, before extending his hand in turn.
As Matt’s hand met Kyles', he felt a strange sensation travel up his arm, causing tingles, and then his muscle and bone started to vibrate. Matt felt something happening around him, but he couldn’t focus on anything but his arm. He felt a system message ding, and thought someone was speaking, but he didn’t hear any of what was said. Instead a feeling of cold anger began to build in his chest. He could feel it welling up like a frozen geyser. Matt recognized the feeling from the meeting he’d had with his benefactor.
For a moment, Matt was worried he would freeze solid himself if he didn’t find a way to release the buildup. Then he remembered something from his character sheet. A spell called touch of the Icy Grave. As soon as Matt remembered the spell, he instantly and instinctively knew what to do to cast the spell.
Matt allowed the cold to flow into his arm, causing the vibration to still, and as the spell transferred from potential to activation, the freezing cold passed down his arm and gathered in his hand. Matt’s full consciousness returned, and he realized that he was holding Kyle’s hand, though the man was screaming.
Matt’s enhanced senses registered the sickly sweet smell of decaying flesh, and the cold radiating out of his hand into the other man’s body. The other members of Strike Eagle stared in awe, except for Staci who quickly rushed over.
“Let go of him” she ordered grimly.
“Of course” Matt replied, realizing he’d been holding the other man hostage somewhat with the death grip he’d adopted. He quickly released Kyle’s hand and retreated a few steps.
Staci pulled a slick pers-e-com device out of a pocket that hadn’t seemed to exist a few moments ago, and began hurriedly but quietly speaking into it.
Matt wasn’t able to make out much of what she said, but it was enough to give him a sinking feeling in his gut that things hadn’t gone as intended. As the other members of the returnee team came over, he wondered if he’d somehow injured the other man. Everything he’d done had been instinctual, and he hadn’t been the one to act first, so he’d assumed this was some part of the training.
As Matt tried to determine what had happened, the doors to the training room opened, and a short young woman with mousy brown hair, and huge, expressive green eyes ran in. she hurried over to Kyle who was still screaming, his right hand and arm obscured. She knelt next to him and began chanting quietly.
Matt smelled something his mind told him was freshly plowed earth, and a scent like clean mountain rain, but a sense of wrongness filled his gut, not about what had happened, but about what the young woman was doing.
After a minute of the girl chanting, she stopped and looked up, tears streaking down her face. “Something about the wound is off. It reminds me of when vampires feed, or the wounds inflicted by banshees from level 20. He’ll live, but it will take quite a bit of time for his arm to heal, and the hand may never fully recover.”
She looked accusingly at Matt. “What did you do to him?”
The rest of the returnees turned to Matt, grim looks on their faces. Obviously this was not something they’d been planning for.
“I’m honestly not sure what happened. I felt a bit of a shock when I tried to shake Kyle’s hand, and then it felt like my whole arm was vibrating and would fall off if I didn’t do something. I remembered a spell from my character sheet, called [Touch of the Icy (redacted)] and it just felt like a natural response. Either way I triggered the spell and them came back to full consciousness to find Kyle screaming. What’s wrong?”
Staci made eye contact with the others, and received a subtle nod in return that Matt wouldn’t have noticed before his improvements. He also felt there was some exchange taking place, but he couldn’t quite grasp why he felt that way, and he didn’t really have time to process that fully.
“I’m sorry Matt, but it seems we didn’t think things through properly. We agreed to the government’s request to train the first few SRG members to get above level 5, but we didn’t think you were capable of injuring us in any way. We’re going to have to discuss this as a group and re-negotiate our deal, now that we know there’s some danger involved. What did you say your spell was called again?” Staci asked
“I believe it’s [Touch of the Icy (redacted)], but I can check my character sheet if you want to be sure.” Matt replied, a bit confused.
“[Touch of the Icy] what?” Staci asked, sounding a bit worried.
Matt referenced his Character sheet again, a sinking feeling in his chest. This spell was likely something related directly to his benefactor, and there would be questions he couldn’t answer if he wasn’t careful with how he answered. Indeed, when matt reviewed the spell on his character sheet, a small pop up window emerged.
[Touch of the Icy (Error)]
Warning: Parts of this spell’s description and effect are being hidden by your Patron. It would behoove you to keep the specifics to yourself.
A spell that allows the user to cause the Frozen and (error) status effects to anything they touch while channeling the spell. Additional Cold and (error) damage will occur for every tick that the caster maintain’s contact while channeling the spell.
Effects may be countered by Heat and (redacted) damage depending on level of caster or the strength of the relationship the caster has to their patron.
May be used as a direct counter to other touch spells depending on damage type and caster level.
Matt Grimaced before conveying as much of the information as he was comfortable with. “So I checked my character sheet. It’s [Touch of the Icy (redacted)]. It causes the frozen condition and deals cold damage if I maintain contact while channeling. It’s a direct counter to Heat based touch spells, and I can use it to counter heat damage if I channel it internally depending on the caster level and mana spent.
Staci frowned and issued some orders “Gunter, check the system shop. Raphaelle, are you sure you feel necrotic damage? Double check to be sure.”
Staci returned her attention to Matt. “This may take some time. As you know, the system prohibits us from discussing certain things, and I get the feeling there’s more to your ability than you are telling us for one reason or another. Until further notice I recommend you use the equipment here to accustom yourself to your new body. Who knows what will be decided, so this may be the only time you have to train. Use it wisely.”
Matt nodded and allowed what was going on with Kyle to fade from his conscious mind. Whatever had happened was already done, and even if the other man was injured, Matt didn’t feel any guilt, as he’d acted out of self defense and instinct. Instead he began thinking of how best to test his limits.