Dyani looked down at her hands, then over to where she’d started advancing. The crystal was nowhere to be seen. She was ready to start panicking and searching when she noticed a blinking icon in the corner of her vision.
When she focused on the crystalline circle, it floated to the center of her vision and unfolded into a five pointed star. Three of the points were bright with the labels: ‘Status’, ‘Identify’, and ‘Connections’, while the last two were grayed out with percentages, each of which were at zero.
Dyani assumed the grayed out sections were connected to the damaged functions from the interface description. Hopefully, when she had some spare experience to funnel into them, they would repair themselves and become useful.
“How do I open a section?”
“Just stare at it until it opens. Once you’ve used it for a while, you’ll just have to think about it, but most interfaces take a few days to bond fully.”
Between the three options, there was a clear winner. She focused her attention on ‘Status’, until the system unfolded that point into a rectangular window.
* Name: Dyani Farlight
* Level: 2.1
* Experience: 0%
* Attributes:
* Mana Capacity: 0
* Mana Regeneration: 0
* Magic Power: 0
* Strength: 0
* Speed: 0
* Endurance: 0
* Vitality: 1
* Mind: 1
* Toughness: 0
* Perception: 0
* Talents:
1. You gain two skill slots per level, instead of one. You cannot absorb skills.
2. Analyzing (1%)
* Talent Skills:
* None
* Skill Slots:
* Empty
* Empty
* Empty
* Empty
She flicked her eyes past what she already knew, and found her second level talent.
“One percent? What does it mean, one percent?”
Pikawon smiled wolfishly.
“Still analyzing? That isn’t surprising.”
“The item the priest used when I awakened worked instantly.” That wasn’t exactly true. It had taken a few minutes, but that was much faster than her interface was working. Despite glaring at the Analysis percentage, it refused to increase.
“Well, it was a better item. Does your interface have an analysis function?”
Dyani shook her head, closing her status so she could see her other functions.
“It just has Identify.” When she focused on that function, it unfolded as well, but all it displayed was a mass of gibberish, including ordinary letters and numbers, alternating with unfamiliar symbols that resembled runes, but were much more complicated than any she knew.
The characters changed and moved as she read through them. Even with her noticeable increase to the speed and clarity of her thoughts, she couldn't make any sense of it.
Working out of instinct more than anything, Dyani closed the mess and focused on the first magical object she saw, the knife on the tip of her spear.
A small box appeared under the stiletto.
* Knife (Unknown Rarity)
* Level: 1
* Condition: Good
“I can see that,” she said to her interface, “Anything else?” As she focused more intently, the description slowly changed, flickering through those same runic characters until it eventually became more detailed.
* Stiletto of Bloodletting (Uncommon)
* Level: 1
* Condition: Good
* Description: A stiletto fashioned from a Marrow Drinker leg. It contains the same insatiable hunger as the ravenous spider it was sourced from, but has been altered to absorb blood, rather than bone marrow. Has a repair function fueled by absorbing fresh blood.
She repeated the process on her armor.
* Cuirass (Unknown Rarity)
* Level: 1
* Condition: Very Good
* Crimson Alder Cuirass (Artifact)
* Level: 1
* Condition: Very Good
* Description: A combined chest and back plate carved from a living Crimson Alder Tree. This armor is enchanted to repair itself from nature affinity ambient mana or mana from the user and adapt its fit to the wearer.
* Attributes:
* Soulbound (Toughness Attribute / Unbound)
* Self Repair
* Adaptive Fit
* Growth
* Levelbound
The resulting description was not quite as detailed as what she’d read on the card that had been packed with it, but it got the important points across.
“Do you have any enchanted items?” she asked.
“I literally enchanted the floor. You just used it.”
Dyani rolled her eyes, but privately scolded herself for forgetting the cleansing runes. She identified them, gaining a very basic description, but no matter how long she focused, it refused to expand.
* Various Runes (Unknown Rarity)
* Level: 2
* Description: Unknown Runes.
Confused at the lack of information, she compared the result to the only other runes she had access to, the three runes on her arm that had appeared along with her talent. She pulled up her sleeve to identify the purple, tattoo-like runes.
Like with her knife and spear, they displayed little information at first, but their descriptions filled out as she waited.
* Rune of Spirit (Uncommon)
* Description: The most basic rune related to spirit magic. This rune is most often used to alter the parameters of other runes to target the spirit, instead of the body.
* Rune of Self (Common)
* Description: A targeting rune, which specifics the self as the target of an effect. When used on enchanted objects, this rune may be altered to designate the user, or the object itself, as the target of the enchantment.
* Rune of Isolation (Uncommon)
* Description: Isolates the targeted area or object from magical interference. This rune is most often used to protect delicate items or enchantments from ambient mana.
“Why can’t I identify your runes?” she asked Pikawon.
“Were you able to properly identify anything?”
“Yes, my armor and knife on my spear, and my talent runes. They only gave a bit of information at first, but they filled in while I waited.”
Pikawon whistled and raised his eyebrows.
“Let me guess, you already know a lot about them.”
Dyani nodded. The cuirass had come with a paper with its description, Hoss had given her the description of the stiletto, and she’d researched her talent runes in a desperate attempt to get around her level 1 talent’s restrictions the day after getting it.
“That means your interface is pulling information directly from your mind. The real Identify skill can do that, but most manufactured copies can only compare what you try to identify to an internal database. You can enter what you know about an object into it, but it takes forever and you already know that stuff, so most people don’t bother.”
“If your interface can do that, it must’ve cost a fortune. Too bad it isn’t new.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“How do I add more items into it, if I don’t want to do it manually.”
“Most people buy an identification database at the same time as the interface, but you can get new ones from logomancers or at some high end enchanting shops.”
“That sounds expensive.” Dyani was looking forward to earning an actual salary, but it was barely enough to scrape by on. There was no way she’d have enough to buy anything like that.
“They can be, but you have another option.”
Dyani glanced up at him hopefully, but tempered her optimism when she saw his mischievous grin.
“Since your fancy interface can access what you know and what you’ve seen, all you have to do is go to every store you can find, read all their item descriptions, and hope they’re accurate. It should only take you a few years to learn the same amount as a low end database.”
“That…isn’t a bad idea.” Dyani could do that at Hoss’s pawn shop the next time she sold her loot. There weren’t enough items there to get much information, but it would be better than nothing.
“You’re not serious.”
“Why not?” Dyani asked, “Besides, who cares if it takes a long time? You have one of those databases, right? I’ll just have you identify everything and read me the description.”
Pikawon tried to scowl, but it was spoiled by the twitch of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
“As if you’ll be around after today. You’ll probably be off training to be a Slayer once you figure out what your amazing talent is.”
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily. I’m relentless.”
“Like a fungal infection?”
Dyani didn’t dignify that with an answer.
The mention of her talent prompted her to open up her status again. The analysis had progressed…barely. It was now at 2%. After a mixture of staring, concentrating, and hand movements, Dyani managed to convince her interface to display the percentage over the translucent circle in the corner of her vision, so she could keep an eye on it without opening up her entire status.
She would have her answer soon.
“We should go fight those fungal rats that we skipped past.”
Inspectors weren’t actually required to fight the monsters down here, and Dyani had been eager to finish their route and level up. Pikawon had been surprisingly easy to convince, but maybe he’d just killed enough of those rats that their experience wasn’t any good for him.
“Why?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused, “You said the only reason you came down here was to get your next talent, and you have it. All you have to do is wait and see what it is.”
“Just because that’s how this started, doesn’t mean it’s the only thing I want to get out of it. A couple rats worth of experience might not seem like a lot to you, but I’m planning on climbing higher that level two.”
Pikawon shrugged, but didn’t bother arguing.
The rats, being living things with plans and goals of their own, weren’t waiting in the same place the two inspectors had initially seen them, but Pikawon’s enhanced senses found them without much effort.
“So, what’s the plan? A double pronged attack with me in front and you flanking? You could strike alone and lure them back for me to ambush.”
“Or we could just kill them. They’re a couple of rats.” He strode forward without a care in the world. The rats spun and hissed at him, but both their necks were split open with a flash of silver before they could attack.
Pikawon stepped to the side, wiping blood from a single claw and gesturing to the pair of thrashing monsters.
“All yours.”
“That wasn’t very satisfying,” Dyani said, but she wasn’t so offended that she’d give up free experience. She drank it down from each rat in turn as they died. the energy resisted her pull more than usual, and she only managed to get about three quarters of it before the rest was sucked up by the mountain oak.
She assumed it had something to do with her spirit recovering from her recent advancement, but a dark voice whispered that her new talent could involve reduced experience gains from killing monsters. She glanced down at the percentage in the corner of her vision. It was at 3% now. If it progressed at the same speed of about 1% every 10 minutes, she would have her answers in 970 minutes, or about 16 hours.
She couldn’t worry about getting reduced experience for that long, but it was an easy enough hypothesis to test.
“I want the next ones.”
After a few more fights with rats and a lopsided shambling mass of mold that Pikawon identified as a Shambling Bloom, a kind of decay elemental that was as unpleasant as it was easy to kill, Dyani had a working theory. It helped that Pikawon refused to take any experience for himself, with such fine control that even the experience that brushed against his skin remained unabsorbed.
She could absorb around 90% of the experience from any fight in which she actively participated, while she could only manage between two thirds and three quarters from Pikawon’s solo kills before the rest was sucked away.
When she asked her partner about it, he was as baffled as her.
“I don’t know much about absorbing experience.”
That seemed like the perfect opening to confront him about refusing to absorb any experience.
“Maybe you would if you took some for yourself. You don’t owe me anything and I don’t need charity.”
“Actually I do. I nearly forgot,” Pikawon waved off to the side, “Remind me to give you your half of the reward for killing the False Hydra when you come by the base. And don’t argue that you didn’t earn it.”
“Oh, I won’t.” Dyani had no hang ups about receiving proper compensation for her work, “But that just means you owe me money, not experience.”
“What if I just don’t want experience from such lowly monsters in my core?” Pikawon said haughtily.
“Then I’d call you an idiot. A warrior can’t always choose their battles, but they can choose to take the benefits they bring. If they don’t, they won’t survive the next one.”
“Is everything a grand story with you?”
“Not everything,” Dyani sniffed, “Sometimes I stop for lunch.”
Pikawon snorted and silence stretched between them. She sensed the building tension from him, but opted against breaking it.
“I don’t absorb experience like you do, like most people do,” Pikawon finally admitted, “I get it from eating my kills.”
Dyani was forced to reevaluate. He hadn't been giving her charity, nor did he have inhuman levels of spiritual control, he simply couldn’t absorb free floating experience. She could see several advantages to the talent, since anything that altered the spirit at that level was obviously a talent, but one major disadvantage.
“What level were you when you got this job?”
“Same level as now.”
Dyani took a moment to consider that before giving a firm nod.
“You’re an idiot.”
Pikawon let out a sharp laugh and gave her a pointed look.
“And why’s that?”
“Any Slayer team would be thrilled to have a member that didn’t take from the experience pool. Assuming you get a reasonable amount of experience from eating monsters, you could all grow faster. But instead you took a job alone where you fight the nastiest monsters in the world.”
“I can’t argue with that. I don’t usually bother fighting them for that exact reason.”
“Then why do you work here?” she said, gesturing to the omnipresent filth, “You’re good at fighting and the experience thing. Even if you don’t want to be a slayer, you could be a crafter or enchanter.”
Pikawon shook his head.
“Either I eat monsters, or I don’t gain experience.”
“But why here?”
Pikawon looked supremely uncomfortable, but Dyani kept pushing.
“This is the worst place in the city for someone with your talent, unless you’re totally immune to poison and disease, and I know you can get poisoned, since I treated those monster bites.”
“Let’s just say the sewer has one thing going for it. It’s an easy place to disappear, especially with the smell.”
Dyani had already suspected that Pikawon had secrets, so finding out he was hiding from someone wasn’t too surprising.
“If someone’s hunting for you, you can go to the city guard. They might not be the most benevolent, but you work for the city. That’s got to count for something.”
Pikawon grimaced.
“No guard’s gonna help me. And don’t go telling them about me either.”
Dyani had no intention of going behind Pikawon’s back to do that. What would she even say?
‘Please, help my friend escape an unspecified threat.’
‘No, he won’t come to you or share anything about it, but can you please help?’
She was about to say that when several puzzle pieces in the back of her mind started clicking together.
The city guards scouring the streets for someone, overturning entire districts.
Pikawon’s mention of the sewer’s smell, and the guard’s hundreds of sniffing beasts.
Even the crazy noble and her son that had shouted out Dyani and her mother in the streets came to mind. Hadn’t she said something about finding that ‘beast of a boy’?
“Oh my Goddess. You’re the one everyone’s been looking for, the one the guards are turning the city over for.”
Pikawon flinched, then dropped into a combat crouch, claws brandished and sparking with silver mana. His eyes were narrow, burning with yellow suspicion.
***
There was nowhere to run. Pikawon could escape Dyani relatively easily, he’d allowed her to catch up with him before. But she wasn’t the real danger, it was what she knew and who she would tell.
He cursed himself for letting too much information slip. He hadn’t thought the simple admission that he was hiding from someone would be enough for anyone to realize that he was the prize the city lord was hunting for. It had probably been Dyani’s ridiculous obsession with seeing everything like a heroic tale that had propelled her to the most extreme explanation.
Too bad for him that this time, it was correct.
Pikawon was contemplating just killing the girl and claiming she’d been caught by a powerful monsters. It wouldn’t be the first time an inspector died down here, not even the first time this year.
But Dyani surprised him once again. She screwed up her face in disgruntlement.
“Breech this, I’m the sidekick.” Without so much as a moment of caution, she turned so her back was to him and kicked the wall. “This is not fair.”
That was so unexpected that Pikawon let the silver light of Sundering Claw fade from his claws.
“Sidekick?”
“Obviously,” Dyani snapped, kicking the wall again, “A social outcast, forced to flee to the sewers to escape the most powerful man in the city. I don’t know what you did to get the Squirrel Lord so angry at you, but whatever it was must’ve been pretty extreme. Meanwhile, I’m just bumbling along down here to fight a monster or two. It's interesting, but definitely B plot compared to you.”
Pikawon rose from his crouch, any thoughts of violence or fleeing banished before the sheer ridiculousness of it.
“You are…quite possibly…the weirdest human I’ve met in my entire life.”
“You should’ve met my dad.” Dyani looked down at the slowly moving river of sludge.
Pikawon wanted to give her a moment, since her late father was obviously a sore spot, but there was one question that he desperately needed an answer to.
“Are you going to turn me in?”
Now it was Dyani’s turn to look at him like he was completely insane.
“Are you kidding? First of all, that’s not what friends do, and second of all, what would that get me? Maybe a bit of money, maybe not. But if I stick with you, I’m guaranteed some kind of adventure. I’m not thrilled about being the sidekick, but you’re cracked in the head if you think I’m giving any of that up.”
“It’s quite a lot of money. And the world isn’t a story. There’s no one making sure everyone gets what they deserve or dishing out satisfying endings.” Pikawon couldn’t fathom why he was arguing for her to turn on him, but her reasoning was so flawed that he didn’t feel like he had a choice.
“Maybe,” Dyani said, “But I’d rather live in a world that makes sense. I’m not saying underdogs with strange talents on the run from powerful political figures always win, but I’d rather bet on you than him any day.”
Pikawon was really struggling between feeling touched and running as fast as he could away from this girl, if not for his physical safety, for his mental state.
“Soooo,” Dyani said, drawing out the word, “Are you going to tell me what you did that made the Squirrel Lord so mad at you.”
Pikawon wanted to refuse on principle, but any way he looked at it, the truth was more likely to keep Dyani on his side than anything else. He settled on telling her, but wanted time to arrange his thoughts.
“Not here. Let’s get back to our base.”