In the darkness of my own mind, I spun in a slow circle without having to move. It was like being trapped in a pitch-black whirlpool, but never being sucked down into the dark water.
Images played out in strange colors that were both dark and glowing at the same time.
Fights that I’d gone through, challenges that I and the girls had overcome.
How close I’d been to dying several times already.
The kobold ambush, the flame serpents, the kidnappers who had been after Rieka, the crag hunter, everything to do with the underground complex.
I heard something skittering in the darkness behind me and felt my heart lurch. The sound was familiar, talons on stone, and I lashed out with my right arm on instinct before I even turned.
My right arm shifted to the same bony club held folded tight to my forearm as I turned, but my upper arm elongated, gaining the segmented look of a scorpion’s tail and adding six feet to its length. A spike like the stinger at the end of that tail sprouted from the front of the bony club as the limb lashed out, venom already flowing.
A crash and squeal of pain, then skittering again sounded, this time retreating.
The whirlpool that had been calmly spinning me faded, and I was standing alone in the dark now. I needed light, something to shatter this absolute black.
Animals that hunt in the absolute dark…
The thought flowed past me like oozing honey. A moment later, my forehead began to glow a dull green. I didn’t look up at it, not wanting to blind myself, but I knew what it was.
A glowing orb sat at the end of a short antenna, like an abbreviated version of an anglerfish lure. It didn’t shed a ton of light, but enough that I could tell I was in a familiar stone room. The floor had broken stone scattered over it, with faint lines drawn on the ground.
The scampering noise came again, this time to my right, and I lashed out again with my hammer-tail arm.
No yelp of pain came this time, but the blow threw my balance off enough that I stumbled. The glowing light hanging from my head sent shimmering illumination over a pool of blood nearby.
I felt a chill race up my spine as I saw that red fluid, and I took another step. I knew what I was about to see. I didn’t want to give it space in my mind, but I couldn’t look away. So I tried to steel my heart, to resist the horror of what I prayed was just a nightmare.
My resolve lasted for about two seconds when I saw the mess of red hair intermingled with a blood-stained, fluffy white tail.
And nothing else but blood.
Screaming echoed in the darkness, and my form flowed and changed. At first I thought it was the girls, or the monster, screaming. Then I recognized my voice in the echoes and realized it was only me screaming, but with a dozen mouths.
Claws raked through stone while stinging tails sprouted from various parts of my body as I thrashed through the darkness, looking for the threat that had taken from me the only things I cared about anymore.
I found it hiding along the ceiling on the far side of the room, venom oozing from a weeping injury in the sack-like monster’s side as it tried desperately to stay out of my reach.
A dozen arms ending in snapping mouths tore the creature down from the wall and pinned it before a hundred porcupine quills as thick as spears pierced it.
The monster screamed in pain as it bled.
I screamed in pain as its corrosive blood ate away at my body.
But I continued to pummel, shred, and destroy this threat until I could barely heft the smoking stumps of my two arms, the others having melted away in the bloody carcass.
Pain buzzed in both of them, but in my right arm the most. A buzzing, vibrating sensation that went beyond the searing of my corroded body, so strange that it overrode my pain response because… it felt like the vibration of a cell phone.
Like my bond tattoos would do if the girls were messaging me.
The darkness fled at that realization, flowing away like spilled ink before a river. The world blurred around me before settling once more into my apartment, lit by the dim rays of the morning sun.
Blinking owlishly, I stared at the faded stucco wall across from my couch.
A brief flexing of my arms revealed that I was whole once more.
Thankfully, my flailing in what I was now understanding was a dream had not transferred into the waking world.
Last thing I need is to trash this shithole apartment and get the cops called for a domestic disturbance, I thought with a sigh, wincing as the act of thinking sent ice-picks through my head.
A shooting pain that was further reinforced by the sudden silver flash of light as the System decided it was time to bombard me with messages.
Congratulations, Traveler.
Enhance Self boosts have been applied to your mental statistics and the coma state has been lifted. Fully realizing these gains will still take time, but this action now will help insulate the Traveler from future problems if the act is repeated.
It is recommended the Traveler consumes sugar-rich foods to help restore expended glucose in the brain, as well as fat, nuts, and eggs, to help restore lost nutrients from expanding your mental capabilities.
Congratulations, Traveler.
You have passed a major threshold in the System store.
By expending more than five-thousand points total, you have shown commitment to your role as a Traveler.
In appreciation, the System has opened a new power to you and will be granting you one power, selected at random, from the following available to you:
Enhance Self (Moderate)
Mana Reservoir (Lesser)
Drain Reservoir
Empower Reservoir
Manipulate Element (Lesser)
Stand by for selection.
Blinking my eyes open, I flinched as a particularly evil ray of sunlight that had crept past by blinds stabbed me in the eyes before I could close them again.
A spinning circle of light, reminding me of a loading circle from a video game, rotated in front of my interface. It changed through five different colors rapidly before fading away. A block of text in the normal font of the System messages came next, followed by a skill description.
Congratulations Traveler.
The System has awarded you: Mana Reservoir (Lesser).
May it serve you well going forward.
Mana Reservoir (Lesser) - Cost: 0 SP (Threshold Reward) - Grants the Traveler a lesser mana reservoir equivalent to 50 mana. This mana will regenerate at a fixed rate, depending on ambient mana of the environment. Spells cast by the Traveler will pull from this reserve first, then any other mana reservoirs in the Traveler’s possession.
“Okay, that’s… moderately useful,” I mumbled to myself.
As I watched, the mana counter that had read ten of ten before rapidly spiraled upwards as the pressure point in my chest where I could feel my mana nestling flared for a moment. It settled on ten of fifty a moment later, before ticking up from ten mana available to eleven as I watched it. About ten seconds later, it ticked from eleven to twelve.
What the hell? That’s really fast, I thought while watching the number slowly but steadily click upwards.
The number continued its rapid growth, gaining a point every ten to twelve seconds, until it hit forty-one. The wait to hit forty-two was almost a minute long, but it still vastly beat out the thirty-plus minutes it took to regenerate a point of mana back on Cortha with the girls.
Well, that is interesting. But, I guess it makes sense? Their world has a lot of people who use magic, and it crystallizes in things. Earth doesn’t have that. So I can count on my mana regenerating quickly then, right? At least here?
Ideas immediately flooded my mind of what I could do with my power to move and shape stone and earth, now that I had that extra mana.
A brief throb of pain shot through my skull as the vastly improved mental scores went to work, while my mind-meat wasn’t quite ready for duty yet.
I could easily burrow down into the earth and excavate a tunnel system to live in, if it came down to it. The idea of just wandering into the national forestland and excavating myself a home to hang about until the girls summoned me was amusing. However, I still needed money for things like groceries, gas, and my phone.
One thing at a time, I reminded myself, slowing the whirring of my brain. System mentioned that it had opened up a new power for me. Check that first.
I delved into my interface once more, intent on checking the Powers tab to see what it was. It didn’t take long to find the new entry under the Mind sub-tab of the Powers menu, just below my very basic Manipulate Element option.
Grant Power (Minor) - Cost: 100 SP - Able to grant specific abilities to contracted partner for a short window of time. Power is reduced two tiers from what the Traveler has mastered. Parameters are preset at time of grant.
“Huh,” I mumbled intelligently. “That… could be useful. Says it reduces by two tiers though, so only things that I have at moderate rank or above?”
I flipped to my character sheet to check it. Currently, the only Moderate level skill I had was Shape-Shifting, but the idea of being able to grant basic effects to the girls was intriguing, so I made a mental note to talk to them about it.
I could tell that the Grant Power skill evolved as it grew, since I could see it linking to several others in a chain that were blurred out, as was normal for a skill that I had not mastered yet.
Spending a moment, I considered what the later ranks might turn into. Either not lowering the ability as much, or expanding what I could grant a partner.
With the addition of my new rank of Mana Reservoir, the idea of giving my girls something similar to draw from in emergencies was quite appealing. And I remembered the elf who had taught me the initial parts of earth magic, Rachel Cedarfall, saying something about wanting to talk to me when I could help her expand her magic.
With that thought, I flipped back to the main screen to check my mana levels, finding the readout was sitting at fifty of fifty now. I had another rush of giddiness thinking about what I could do with that much mana on tap, but I noticed the dull glimmer around the Message tab that indicated I had a message waiting. Not something I normally missed as the edges of my vision would flash, but it must have come in while I was unconscious.
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This realization reminded me of the vibrating on my forearm from the girls, and I immediately opened my eyes once more. That same beam of light stabbed me in the eyes again, but I didn’t wince as badly this time. The headache was already receding, so it only hurt for a second.
Tapping my bond tattoos, the first message came from Kassandra, and then was followed quickly by one from Rieka, both in their familiar voices echoing in my mind.
“Love you, my Liam. We both miss you lots already. Going back to classes sucks, but that is life. A series of sucky experiences interspersed with actual fun.”
“Liam, miss you already. Never thought I’d enjoy just sleeping next to someone, but I miss having you here. Kass is being an extra pest because I know she’s missing you, too.”
Several more messages came through that felt roughly like everyday texts from a girlfriend might, with the girls commenting on how their day was going. The messages began to get more worried in tone after the first four, when I wasn’t responding.
The last message made my heart ache. It was from Kassandra, but she was speaking for Rieka, too.
“Liam, are you okay? You haven’t responded to any of our messages and both of us are concerned. I hope we aren’t being too clingy about this and haven’t offended you. Please let us know if you are okay?” The worry and fear was thick in her voice, though held mostly in check by her iron will.
Growling in irritation at myself, I snatched my phone from the couch next to me and checked the time, which made my stomach do another set of flip-flops. I had left the girls shortly after noon on Sunday.
It was now almost seven in the morning on Tuesday.
Shit, no wonder they were worried, I chastised myself mentally before pressing my fingers to my first bond-mark and sending a message to Kassandra.
“Hey Nugget, sorry I worried you two. I passed out in the wake of spending some of my SP and boosting myself a bit more at once than I probably should have. The System had to put me out so that I didn’t burn out my mind. Everything's fine though. I miss both you and Rieka tons. I think I started missing you as soon as I got back. Don’t worry, I don’t mind you messaging me with this, I love hearing from you both. Just don’t let it distract you from your classes. Be a good noodle and I’ll make sure to reward you when I see you next.”
Sending that message off, I swapped over to the bond-mark for Rieka and took a moment to compose myself before sending her a message as well.
“Miss you too, my gorgeous princess. Sorry that it took so long to respond. Did something a bit dumb that I should have known better and ended up unconscious for a bit. Telling you the same as I told Kass, feel free to message me on this. It helps train the power and never, ever, worry that it will annoy me. The only reason I didn’t respond immediately was because I was literally unconscious. Keep that chin up and I’ll make sure you get lots of ear-rubs when I see you next.”
With that done, I relaxed into the couch with a sigh once more.
“So much shit going wrong at once,” I grumbled under my breath.
Speaking aloud reminded me of just how dry my mouth was, so I carefully got to my feet and shambled to the kitchen to get a drink. While I was filling the glass, I looked down at myself.
I’d worn my tattered and dirty clothes back to Earth, and they stuck to me with old sweat from having basically slept in them for almost two days straight. Grimacing, I finished draining the water, set the empty glass in the sink, then stumbled my way to the shower.
Hot water on my face helped restore me. I was in the middle of scrubbing myself all over with the rough loofah cloth when I remembered that I hadn’t checked the Messages tab yet.
“It’s like ignoring your email or instant messenger back in high-school, just makes it worse,” I mumbled.
Leaning against the shower wall to steady myself, I reviewed the tab to see what was waiting for me. Several messages from Cariad flickered into view, starting Sunday afternoon and going through Monday as well.
Cariad
Liam, we finished up clearing that ruin you found. The DSR has completed its investigation there, and we have removed all the dangerous information that we could locate. We have cleared your girls to return, but we would prefer if you went with them and made sure to scour it one last time before allowing other natives in. Second set of eyes and all that. Let me know when you are free, as there is some other information that I want to go over with you in person.
Cariad
Liam! What the hell is this alert I found sitting on my desk? Are you trying to give yourself a stroke?! Boosting all your mental stats to over double their current values in one sitting is a way to do that! I’m just glad the System caught it. You have got to do this slower, a few points here and there, no more than half the current value in a week if you have to rush, a month if you can wait. The body needs time to adjust, and you have been racing up the power level of the Travelers because of your girls summoning you all the time. I’m proud of you, but also furious at you for taking this risk!
Cariad
Okay, I calmed down since my last message. Sorry for yelling at you while you were already unconscious.
I know that the System doesn’t have warnings on the powers, and that you don’t have the familiar support network of a lot of the established Travelers, as their slots are hereditary. I should have been the one to warn you about this more stringently.
Message me back when you are awake so I can come check on you. Also, congratulations on the System milestone. Since I’m your caseworker, I have access to the message log from the System directly. Mana Reservoir (Lesser) is a heck of an award. Most folks end up with getting a single use of Enhance Self, and usually of a low tier since they aren’t boosting all their stats like you are.
Stepping back into the spray of water, I rinsed the soap off my body with a sigh while working the shampoo into my hair.
Finishing with a mound of bubbles on my head, I rubbed at the stubble clinging to my chin. I knew I could shift it away, but it would occupy the ‘slot’ of one of the three types of animal changes I could make to myself. So I slathered some shampoo on my face and grabbed my razor to give myself a shave in the shower while composing a response to Cariad’s messages.
Liam
Hey, sorry about that. I had a feeling it was a bad idea before I did it, but just pushed through like an idiot. I know better now, or at least I would hope so, since I’m supposed to be so much smarter now. Really, I don’t feel like I’m that much smarter. I mean, I don’t just suddenly have a genius level IQ. But, I’m making a lot of logical connections that I wasn’t before. Like how if the System is adjusting my body in response to the stat increases, I need to give it time to work. It’s not just doing magic, it’s also feeding into my genetic code for information. Anyway, I’m up and about, so come on by whenever.
I sent the message off and ducked into the spray to rinse the shampoo out of my hair while scraping away at my neck. A shower shave like this wouldn’t get everything, but it would get most of it and I could tidy it up in the mirror.
“Liam?” Cariad’s familiar voice sounded muffled as it came from the other side of the bathroom door when I pulled my head out of the water.
Blinking, I slapped the shower off and listened. I could hear the quiet sound of footsteps in the hall, so I called out.
“Cari? Crud, I didn’t think you’d come racing over so fast. Hang on, I’m in the shower right now. Be right out.”
“Oh! Sorry, Liam. I was just… worried, I guess.”
From the experience of spending the last week with the girls, I was fairly certain I could hear the embarrassment in Cariad’s voice now, and that brought a smile to my lips.
It only took a minute to finish rinsing off and completing my shave in the mirror. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring clean clothes with me, having been so used to living alone at this point.
Shrugging, I opened the door and stepped out, nearly running into Cariad in the process.
Cariad was many things: A friend, my caseworker, and my go-to person for when I needed help to figure out something complicated. She was also a Daemon. An extra-dimensional creature that lives in the membranes between realities, a place that was physically corrosive to creatures from the worlds they separated.
Creatures like me.
Just touching Cariad’s bare skin would have caused portions of my body to dissolve. Not quickly, but it wouldn’t have been pleasant to experience. Something I’d learned after dealing with that creature I’d just had a nightmare about earlier, as it was apparently also a native of the barrier between realities.
For all the danger that Cariad posed to my physical health and survival, she was irrefutably cute and endearing.
Cariad stood shorter than me by several inches, coming up to somewhere around five foot six or eight.
Her long, strawberry-red hair fell behind her back in a solid wave, its weight holding it down until just the tips bounced upwards in a slight curl. Wide hips tucked into a narrow waist that was clad in a tight black pencil-skirt. A neat, white blouse covered her upper half, tented by the swell of her modest breasts but still leaving the top few buttons undone to reveal a hint of their curves. Sea-green eyes glimmered in her cute face, with a little nose that was just slightly upturned and a ready smile.
She also wore long, black opera-style gloves over her hands and matching stockings. She had explained to me in the past that they were to limit the idle danger she posed to natives. Cariad’s clothing was made of a type of material that prevented the corrosive energy of her touch from harming me, or anything else she touched with her blue-gray skin.
“Liam!” Cariad yelped, stepping back suddenly as I surged through the door. One hand going up to her heaving chest as she stared at my bare body.
Since I didn’t have any clothing with me in the bathroom, I’d just slung a towel around my hips. I would have been self-conscious about this before, but between my girls’ easy affection, open appreciation of my more fit body, and the fact that I was about as covered up as when I trained with Cerebaton left me more relaxed than one might expect in the situation.
“Hey Cari, scuse me while I get some clothes. Didn’t expect you this quickly.” I shot her a quick smile and squeezed past her to head through the door to my room. “Sorry again for worrying you. Apparently, I freaked the girls out since I wasn’t responding to their messages, either.”
“Messages? Oh, that’s right, the System also awarded you access to the Guardian skill track. Glad that it was also recognizing the dangers you were facing. Though, I wish it would have told us ahead of time. Would have been far better if we could have gotten access to the ruins before you and your girls even went in,” Cariad huffed irritatedly from behind me.
I could just imagine her puffing her cheeks out cutely while I dropped my towel and changed. A quiet yelp of surprise from the hall brought a grin to my face as I heard the patter of her footsteps as she made her escape.
It’s amazing how much good a little confidence can do, I thought while dressing. I don’t think I would have survived the embarrassment of nearly running into an attractive woman while I was in a towel, let alone flashing my ass at her. I smirked while thinking about how Kassandra was going to react when I told her about this. My mischievous Nugget is clearly rubbing off on me, in more ways than one...
Dressed in a pair of shorts and a tank-top, I hurried back out into the living-room to find Cariad sitting at my chipped kitchen table, her blue-gray skin going even darker as she spotted me emerging from my room.
Rather than tease her about trying to sneak a peek at me, I just waved and pointed towards my battered French-press.
“Coffee? How are you doing, by the way, Cari? Hopefully Cerebaton isn’t working you too hard?”
Cariad blinked at me a few times, first her sea-green eyes, then the electric-blue set that opened just above her temples. Those bright eyes with their slitted pupils gazed at me before flicking closed once more.
“Yes, please, on the coffee. And Mr. Cerebaton is working me as hard as I can handle. He’s good like that,” Cariad replied primly, flipping open a dark-blue folder on the table in front of her and making a note. “And it looks like you are fine as well. No aberrations or problems, as far as I can tell. Though I am sure that Mr. Cerebaton will be giving you quite a harsh training session later today.”
I just laughed while heating water to make the coffee, focusing on the steps needed to make the most of the middle of the road ground coffee I had. Cerebaton had started teaching me to fight as a favor back when this all started, but I think the big daemon was enjoying himself now.
“Isn’t he always harsh on me? Every time I finish a training session with Cerebaton, I feel like I’ve been used as a punching bag by a heavyweight boxer.”
“He just wants to ensure you can defend yourself as best as possible. Especially now that you are expanding your knowledge of the Shape-Shifting power.” A small smile worked its way through her stern guise, and Cariad’s regular eyes twinkled as she looked over at me. “It’s been fascinating watching you adapt to it over the last few weeks. I can only imagine how that is going to change with your newest additions of power.”
“Yeah, Cerebaton is going to be in for a surprise tonight. There’s only so much I can do out in public though, so nothing egregious,” I replied before glancing at her notes. “So what’s up? You said you wanted to talk to me some more about the events from the ruins?”
Cariad coughed into one hand and nodded, shuffling through the papers in front of her before finding what she was looking for. She studied the sheet for a moment before nodding and looking back up.
“So, the DSR cannot fully disclose all that we discovered in those ruins, but the experiments going on were very dangerous. Thankfully, there weren’t any other living samples of entropic creatures. As I mentioned in the message earlier, the DSR is requesting that you and your contracted check the complex over once more before allowing uninformed locals in there. Any reference to summoning, binding, or studying entropic beings needs to be contained, and either destroyed or turned over to the DSR for security reasons.”
“Makes sense, I guess?” I muttered thoughtfully, sorting through my cupboard for a mug I didn’t like.
I had been meaning to buy paper cups for when Cariad came by, since drinking from the container meant her lips would touch it and that would cause it to dissolve, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.
“It is to do with the safety of the world. Specifically, summoning entropic creatures is extremely dangerous and could damage the fabric of that reality. Also, Daemon like myself qualify as entropic creatures, and none of us want to end up on an operating table…” Cariad grimaced before squaring her shoulders. “So yes. The higher ups have restricted most of the information, but I can tell you that the complex is, while not safe, cleared of entropic threats as far as we can tell. And before you ask, yes, it is different when one of us comes to a reality like I do to visit you. We follow the proper paths and ‘don’t walk on the grass’ as you said before.” Cariad topped her statement off with a smirk I shared.
“That’s good. Thanks for letting me know. I know the girls wanted to go back and keep sifting through the place from an academic standpoint.” I poured the coffee into two mugs and carried them over to the table, setting one in front of Cariad. “Sugar right?” At her nod, I retrieved the jam-jar I kept the sugar in and set it on the table with a spoon.
Cariad took a moment to prepare her coffee the way she liked it. She then took a sip to test it, the lip of the mug dissolving away a moment after her mouth left it, and nodded before continuing. I’d seen it before, but it was still so odd to witness.
“So, whenever you return, please check the ruins over. Keep in mind to not mention it to other locals just yet, outside your contracted companions, that is.” Cariad’s brows knitted, and she sighed. “Sorry about all the mystery going on. There is just certain information that I’m not allowed to share.”
“It’s fine,” I said, taking a sip of my black coffee. “I’ll let the girls know to keep it a secret, too. I know Rieka wanted to share it with her mother, but she’ll understand the security thing.” Cariad sighed in relief and nodded, glancing down at her paperwork before back up at me, a smile on her lips now.
“That’s good. We would also appreciate you keeping an eye out for any other complexes that were experimenting similarly and alerting us of their existence. To that note, though, the DSR has approved a bounty payment to you for handling the situation. We can’t pay you in SP, as only the System can award those and it did not deign to weigh in on this.” A thoughtful look crossed Cariad’s face for a moment before she continued. “Maybe that’s why it unlocked the Guardian track for you? Anyway, here you go.”
Cariad fished out another sheet of paper, this one a long, squat rectangle like a cashier’s check. Which is exactly what it turned out to be when I took it and looked it over as Cariad spoke.
“I know that Traveler’s would prefer to be paid in SP as they already have their fortunes made, but since you are not a normal Traveler? We figure this will help you get your feet under you…”
Cariad continued to talk, but my head was buzzing in confusion. The check she’d handed me had a lot more zeros than I was used to seeing on a check, and I had to read the number several times to get my brain to compute.
“Is this accurate?” I heard my voice ask, echoing oddly in counterpoint to my ringing ears, looking up from the check to meet Cariad’s smiling gaze.
“Yes, it’s accurate, Liam. The DSR appreciates you bringing the whole situation to our attention, and then vacating quickly so the teams could handle the problem. Trust me, most established Travelers would consider this a pittance.”
“Cari, you just said before I’m not a normal Traveler,” I coughed and took another sip of coffee to try to clear the lump in my throat. “This check is for fifty thousand dollars…”
Cariad just continued to smirk at me.