“So, what now, Charlotte?” I asked, making it clear that I doubted that was even her name.

“That much was true! And what do you mean, what now? I get you closer to your city, obviously?”

“Wait, that's it? You want me to believe you took the whole effort of finding me, before whoever the horsed dude was, just to get me closer to a city?”

“Unless you want me to change my mind?”

The passive aggressive conversation was a refreshing experience after the whole situation we had just lived. Our hands being still together made it all the more funny.

“Well, no? But I want answers.”

“But you haven't asked anything?”

“Where am I? What is the system? Why am I blind? Is there anything I can do about it? Is there any purpose in summoning me? Am I supposed to do anything? For now this should make it.”

I was a rapid-fire cannon spitting out questions as fast as my mouth could move.

“It's always the same, isn't it? Let go somewhere safe and I'll answer you.”

I was under the impression that everything has played out too well for Charlotte. She found me. She got all the information out of me right on time for someone to find us and spill over the beans. And now, we were conveniently just a few minutes away from her house. Whether it was really hers or not, I didn't care.

What matters was, I wanted answers to my questions. And she sure got them.

Apparently, I was in the planet designated FH6A, affectionately called Fixum. Part of a bigger set of planets that composed a largely habitable galaxy.

Sure, aliens, lots of them.

What was a bit more concerning, though, is that she didn't know how the summoning quite worked. No one did, actually. The system was a gift from the Abyss, which sounded ominous but it was just the name of the planet where it originated.

It was called system, because well, it was. Someone, or multiple someones, had pulled it hours, days, months, and years to create a complex framework that would allow the general population to use enhanced powers. Apparently magic was not the right term, though it would be for me.

And destiny has it that Fixum, along many other planets, has enough access to the system and its inner workings that they can alter certain things. Not just anyone, but certain individuals have the authority to force changes on how the system operates.

It wasn't clear why I was summoned. It could be a personal request, King's orders, purely for experimental purposes, or even someone's whim. Whatever the reason, they wanted me to have a particular set of abilities; and we all know how that ended.

Me being blind was one of the many common aftereffects of being summoned and tinkered upon. The system was too complex for its operators, and while trying to make some part of me stronger, or to imprint certain abilities, they messed up another part of me.

Lack of understanding. Lack of proper preparation. Not properly following up and assessing their changes. My judgement was right, they were a bunch of morons.

And no, the blindness would stay with me no matter what. Even if I could potentially access the system and somehow change it, it would touch on too many parts of me. Parts that were now fundamental.

Likewise, given that the reason I was summoned was lost in the dead bodies of the lab researches, or how they fancily call it summoning facility, I had no particular reason to be. I was free, as long as I didn't misuse my powers.

“As for your purpose from now on? I'm afraid you will have to discover that for yourself.”

I suppose my crestfallen demeanor, and perhaps something in my eyes, compelled her to continue.

“Saints… don't look at me like that!”

“I… don't know how I'm looking at you?”

“Sure, sure. Stop it! Okay I get it! I'll teach you the basics!” Whether my looks changed or not, I don't know, but I suppose I had a big question mark drawn on top of my head. “Don't tell me you pretend to find your destiny while not being able to see?”

“I though you said I was going to be blind forever, or was that also bait?”

“You are going to be blind forever. But are you going to tell me you cannot see?” I froze. “That you just accidentally pierced the workers at the summoning place at just the right places?”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“I…”

Words wouldn't leave my mouth, but my brain was frantically going over the events. So she knew. And I'm still alive. If she knew and I'm still alive, it's okay? Stupidly, and slowly, I was trying to convince myself that if she wanted to kill me, that would have happened long ago.

“I have [passive] Enemy sight. They appear on my vision as black spots. The closer they are, the more defined they become. Wait!”

[passive] Enemy sight

Those that harbour ill intentions towards you will appear augmented in your field of vision.

The level of detail will depend on their intentions, power, closeness, familiarity with species and race, and skill difference.

“Yes,” I continued. “Long story short, it augments those who want to hurt me. I guess black over white is a pretty good highlight.”

“As I was saying, you can see. It's just a matter of using your powers in the right way. Now, if we want to get anywhere, show me what you can do!”

Nothing to lose, right?

I let two of my pure energy extremities free from the hole in my chest, and I reproduced to the detail the maneuver I did in the lab. And yes, no matter how many times they said summoning facility, it was a fucking lab where they experimented with humans.

I compressed and let go, jumping up straight to the ceiling. I wasn't planning on crashing, though, so I let yet another of the arms probe for the height.

Once I hit, I reverted the process and bounced back at even a greater speed than before.

“Nailed it!” I said once my feet touched ground once more.

“That's impressive,” Charlotte was not kidding, she was even applauding! “What's your class then?”

“That's… complicated? I am a pure-blooded, bloodless bloodshaper.”

“Yo-what?” I would have paid to see her face; I'm sure it was a poem. “That's your actual class?”

“Well, it's more the combination of my skills than the actual class name. Is it unique?”

“Unique?” I could clearly hear the pungent sarcasm in that word. “It's so unique that you should be dead.”

“Yup, guessed as much!”

I mean, I knew for a fact that I should be dead. If anything, because those “technicians” said so aloud when their experiment went out of control. The experiment being me. But I guessed from the point of view of the combination, I should also be quite dead.

Either way, as much as I had grown to like Charlotte in the past few hours—especially the part where she didn’t really want to kill me—I decided not to reveal my real class. It felt like saying my class is [Error #46] wouldn’t bring anything good to my cause.

She breathed, audibly so.

Then she sighted, whatever was on her mind unspoken.

One more deep breath.

“We can work with that, I guess. Is that all you can do?”

Was it all I could do? Well, I assumed so. It was, at least, all I had tried to do. For my purposes so far—killing and not tripping—a solid form seemed like a good call. But I hadn’t stopped to think about it. It just came natural the first time I tried to do anything at all.

As such, the next few hours we spend brainstorming all kind of ridiculous ideas. Could I send small bursts of energy? Would the energy be maintained if I was not in direct contact with it? Does it lose power as it travels? Can it be pure radiance instead of solid?

They stayed at the idea level for two main reasons. One, my energy was not limitless, and trying any of those was more exhausting than I first assumed. And two, I didn’t even know how to get started with them.

Bursts of energy? No such thing. Did that mean I was incapable of doing it? Most likely it just meant I lacked the ability.

Instead, we focused on the last point. Could I emit pure radiance instead of solid energy? She had her reasons to pour our resources in that one, and I just decided to trust her one more time.

Making something solid become pure light was not easy. It was like telling my arm—the real one—to suddenly turn gaseous.

“Just imagine it.” Charlotte encouraged. “The system needs you to have a full mental picture of what you are trying to do. Only then will it lend a hand.”

Apparently, I had been wrong all along with how the system and the skills worked. You were not offered to pick something and then, suddenly, you were an expert on that.

It was the complete opposite. You showed interest for something. Then you demonstrated you cared about it by adamantly trying to make it happen. And only when you had proven yourself would the system reward you with the skill.

Summons were different. They just played with the system and the subject. Sometimes things went wrong. Oops, now you are blind.

All that to say, I played along with the mental image theory.

If light could be described as both a wave and as a particle, why wouldn’t my pure bloodless blood be more than one thing? Actually, wasn’t it already a liquid when it was circulating inside me? I was already doing this conversion without even realizing.

So, it is a liquid. But then I needed something solid, something I could use to propel myself, to sense my environment, and to kill. And for that… I imagined an arm! Just one more extremity to my arsenal.

But why would I sense my environment through the limited contact point that one of those extremities are? What I needed was to spread it. A single surface, composed of millions upon millions of the liquid particles had to be divided.

Each particle would be tied to others; but in a loose way. Everything was still mine. Everything would still be tied down to my hole. It was all still my energy, unfocused, intangible…

I opened my eyes. Yes. I did open them because I had closed them when I started thinking. Yes, I was still blind. And yes, it was a stupid thing to do. But it was so ingrained in my behaviour, that it just happened.

But I opened them, and I willed my energy to spread around me.

[You have learned the skill <[passive] Shapeless>]

[passive] Shapeless

You have learned to control your... energy in a way that deviates from its normal form. In doing so, you have managed to make it intangible. 

When in Shapeless form, your energy can't be touched, heard, or smelled. 

“Charlotte,” I ventured, hesitation clearly leaking on my voice, “am I as bright as the fucking sun?”

There was a brief silence.

And then she broke into an ugly laughter mixed with frequent and loud snorts.