I sit back on my heels and smile at her as well, almost giddy. I saw her wounds healing under the potion’s effects, but something about hearing her speak makes it hit home. I did it. She’s going to live.
“I’m Kira,” I begin. “Thank you. I- You saved my life earlier when I was under the effects of the flower. I couldn’t even tell that I was being influenced. Everything it wanted me to do made so much sense at the time. If you weren’t here, I would’ve delivered myself to it on a platter and not known any better.”
Triss lets out a jagged laugh, which quickly turns into a sob. She says, “You’re the one who killed it. All I could do was sing, and I could barely even do that. When I came here earlier with- with the group I was with, we didn’t know what we were walking into. I wasn’t affected like them, so I only realized something was wrong when we got to the hedge and no one seemed surprised by it. They began attacking me when I tried to shake them out of it.”
“I tried to help them, to make them realize what was going on, but I didn’t know any songs to do that, and the closest one I had wasn’t meant for that, so I had to figure out how to make it work, but I- they just wouldn’t stop walking, and I-”
She latches onto me, burying her face into my shoulder and continuing to cry. Surprised, I look down at her but awkwardly put my arms around her and try to soothe her. I’ve been calling her a girl in my head, but she looks like she’s around fourteen or fifteen.
“I didn’t figure it out in time for them,” she finishes, sniffling softly. She raises her head and meets my eyes again, this time with a glint of determination in her eyes. “I kept trying, though, after. I tried to throw rocks at it or even get to it so I could tear it apart, but it seemed to know that I wasn’t under its spell. If I tried to get closer, it would attack me. This was as close as I could get,” she gestures at the broken line of roots around her. “So, I decided to sing. If it caught someone else, I thought I could help them escape. I thought I wouldn’t be enough again when I saw you stop running away, but you actually killed it.”
She sits back, wiping tears away with the palm of her bloody hands, smearing red everywhere, and gives me another beaming smile.
I tilt my head at her, surprised. She had come with a group and decided to stay after they died on the off chance that another person would wander into the flower’s web and need her help. I mean, I did end up needing her help, but that was still a stupidly selfless decision.
“You said you know a few… songs. Is that your affinity?” I wonder.
Triss’s expression changes again, becoming guarded. Is that how I looked when the waterbender asked me?
I raise my hands and lean backward. “Nevermind. That’s your business. You saved my life; that’s all I need to know. Although,” I hesitate, but she’s right there, and my need for answers outweighs my desire not to spook her. “You said the flower didn’t affect you at all. Would you mind telling me what your Willpower is? I’m trying to get a feel for the different stats.”
She blinks a few times, relaxing. “It’s 20.”
Ah. I fight to keep from snarling curses, even though that’s what I feel like inside. 20? And I hoped adding two to four would help. Fuck. If a 20 is what you need to be immune to a Level 6 monster’s mental effect, how the hell am I supposed to fix that deficit? I only get three status points per level- wait.
I bring up my status again, a stray thought reminding me of something half-seen earlier when I was desperately praying for a healing skill.
Name: Kira Uhrmacher
Level: 5
Race: Human
Affinity: Time
HP: 24/24
Mana: 3/54
Time: 0/51
Stats:
Unassigned Points: 2
STR 10
END 11
PER 14
INT 20
VIT 12
WIL 6
AGI 13
WIS 22
Titles: [N/A]
Traits: [Passed Down Through the Centuries], [Nothing But Time], [In a Split Second], [Badge of Participation]
Abilities:
Passive: [Weight of Time], [Split Second], [Horologist’s Hands]
Active: [Unbound Eyes of Time], [Extended Moment of Clarity], [Improved Mana Manipulation]
Skills: [Restorative Meditation],
[Novice Archery] (New)
[Analysis] (New)
I glare at the Unassigned Points box. A measly two. What, will it drop down to one next? And then nothing? Is there another way to raise stats I’m unaware of?
“What’s wrong?” Triss asks, an edge of worry creeping into her voice. I focus on her, only to realize the System box I was staring daggers at was right in front of her face.
“Nothing, I was just looking at my Status,” I apologize, an uncomfortable warmth rising in my chest. I avert my eyes, gaze landing on the open box, still containing the iridescent liquid, reflective red coin, and ebony blade. I didn’t know about chests or potions, so maybe there is something I’m missing. My eyes flick back up to Triss, my newly acquired source of information, which I’ve desperately lacked.
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“How did you know there would be a System chest under the flower?” I ask casually.
She tilts her head at the box, curiosity in her eyes. She hasn’t seen the contents, considering I administered the potion, so the dagger and other things in it are new to her.
“I didn’t know, really. More like I was hoping there was. We- the group I was with found a tree outside that was taller than the rest. Wider, too. There was a guy; he said part of the ground around its roots was fake. He stuck his hand through it to show everyone else, and it looked like he was sticking it through solid ground. He pulled out a chest like that, and we all saw the pop-up. I thought, maybe since the flower was crazy big too, there would also be a chest by its roots.” Her eyes snag on the coin first, then the dagger, before drifting up and landing on my bow.
That’s… odd. Triss seems to be one of those people who always show what they’re thinking on her face, but why would she look at the coin first over the dagger?
I open my mouth to ask, but before I can speak, she cuts me off, words pouring out of her in a rush.
“You can have it.”
I blink at her in surprise. She sounds almost… scared. Of me?
I’m about to correct her, tell her she has nothing to fear when something ugly rears its head inside me.
Just take them. She already has a dagger, and you blunted your claw freeing the box from the vines. Whatever the coin is, it’s also clearly valuable.
My hand reaches out and picks up the box. Triss gets up, then looks towards the moat. Her jaw clenches, “They… I need a few things they had.”
She stalks off.
I look down at the box’s contents, something almost like shame eating away at my gut. Societal instincts tell me I should follow after her, apologize and offer to share, but my newer - yet far stronger - survival instincts tell me to look over my hoard.
I check the timer for the SAD challenge.
[00:01:08:07]
And I’ve already reached level 5, with over an hour to spare. Does that mean the System was being generous, giving everyone eight hours? I briefly entertain the thought, then dismiss it. The System is many things, but generous is not one of them. Around 30% of people had gotten to level 5 by the halfway point, so I’m still nowhere near the fastest. All I have to do now is wait out the timer without managing to get myself killed.
I look around at the tall, thorny walls of vines. At least this seems like a better place than out in the forest.
I sigh, then decide to start by checking out my new skills. ‘Analysis.’
[Analysis] [Common] [Tier 1]: Knowledge is power. You have begun to take note of the people and items around you, able to take glimpses into what they truly are.
* This skill cannot be used on those with higher levels than you.
The potential cause of me being ousted as a murderer someday.
I walk back over to where I dropped my bow and pick it up, thinking about the skill. I can hear Triss moving around in the moat, but she hasn’t asked for help, and I don’t entirely know what to do around her. I head towards the hedge wall, positioning myself where I can see the entrance to our little enclosure and lay out the things I want to use [Analysis] on.
First, look at the bow. This is my first time getting a skill without already having done the associated action, but the name and description give me a little idea of where to start. I run my hands along the wood of the bow, focusing on trying to figure out how it was made. It takes me a few seconds of heavily bow-themed thoughts, but it works.
[Bow] [Common]: The basics of projectile weaponry, formed out of natural materials.
Nothing I didn’t already know, but using my skill to form a blue box sends the thrill of progress through me. I pick up my sleeve and repeat the same process.
[Mage Robe] [Common]: An unpractical piece of clothing for most close range fighters, mages prefer it because of its comfort and the enchantment it holds to attune to the color of the affinity of its wearer, allowing them to sort themselves into schools easily.
So I’ve been unwittingly declaring my affinity ever since I put it on. The description has to refer to inhabitants in the greater universe, but if mages wear clothing that colors them by affinity, were my fears about being hunted down for my eyeballs unfounded?
I run a finger along the edge of my sleeve. Regardless of how affinities are treated outside of SAD, I have to worry about how humans react to things here, and those who want to grind each other up for parts and experience are a concern. Considering how little information about affinities there is, I doubt anyone will know gray = Time. For now, I need clothes, so the robe serves my purpose.
I pull the glass of shimmering kaleidoscope of colors out of the box. I tilt it in the full moonlight, watching it glimmer softly.
[Basic Universal Mana Potion] [Common]: A simple unaffiliated potion, meant to restore mana to whoever consumes it.
It was paired with a health potion, and mana potions are another concept I’m familiar with. The fact that unaffiliated mana potions exist implies there are affiliated potions - what would a time mana potion do? I’m tempted to drink it now, recover my mana fully and carry out tests on all the ideas I’ve been shoving into a corner of my mind labeled ‘try later’, but Triss hadn’t even looked at the potion when she peered into the box.
I pick up the dagger next. The edge seems to cut through the air, so dark is the blade, with a reflective shine flicking across it as I move it around. There is gold in it, seemingly forming lines parallel to the blade, branching out regularly to intersect with the edge.
[Voidstriker’s Dagger] [Rare]: A dagger used by a Voidstriker, lost in a rift. Made to complement their hit-and-run fighting style, complete with channels to carry the Voidstrikers’ proprietary mix of paralytic poison to their victims, a Voidstriker is never found without their dagger.
I read through the description, greedily drinking down the context-less scraps of information it is feeding me about the universe. I turn the dagger over, full of new appreciation for what I had previously thought of as decorative gold. I examine the dagger’s hilt and find I can twist off the top - there is a little compartment, presumably just big enough for a vial of poison. I don’t have any convenient bottles of poison, but the option to use them is always nice. A guerrilla fighting style is something I can get behind.
And, finally, the coin. I pick it up, having mostly overlooked it in my cursory examination the first time I opened the chest. It’s the right size to fit into the center of my palm, probably double a quarter. It’s not made of anything I’m familiar with, bright red and shiny, but not outright metallic. It’s also completely smooth; the only feature it has is an infinity symbol embossed onto both sides.
[Obol] [Rare]: A reward for those who can do more than bash their heads against their enemies. SAD raises all boats.
* Can be consumed for [2] unassigned stat points
* Cannot be used to raise stats above a certain limit
* Will expire at the end of the SAD process
Oh.
This is what Triss was looking at. She knew the coin was literally edible power. I look up, back towards the moat, where the girl who saved my life is looting the bodies of her dead comrades.
I place the coin in my mouth.
You have consumed [Obol] [Rare]! Seek out more [Obols], experience more flavors!
It dissolves with a taste not unlike cherry kool-aid, although as I keep my eyes trained on the moat, the flavor soon turns sour on my tongue.