Two very long, very exhausting hours later, Terry settled back, his body aching from the wicker chair, his mind from the vast aura architecture he had cataloged inside the dead space between the two portals. But as he read the new notifications rolling in, a weary smile touched his lips.
Metaphysical component cataloged…
Partial Skill acquired—High-Efficiency Matter Transportation (F)
Genetic Analysis required before Affixation is available.
Aura Projection: E5 → E6
Aura Control: E6 → E7
Aura Perception: E8
Presence Average: E6 → E7
“I’m done,” he muttered, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. “I just need to catalog your genetic material and…”
He drifted off, the stacked ten-hour analysis session with Silver, then the multi-hour session with Marlon proving too much. He fell into a deep sleep without realizing it.
Images flashed inside his mind. His mother fighting against Sol as the man begged her to listen. His father’s burning eyes as he stomped the Siren to death. The draugr staring at him with open contempt, its aura smashing into him like an avalanche.
The blood-coated blade in the Awakening Chamber was in his hand, that woman’s terrible screaming echoing in his ears.
A squelching sound at his feet, bits of brain and blood oozing from the stone helmet as Terraform squeezed the Hypnotist’s brain to pulp.
He awoke with a strangled scream, pushing away from something that was pinning him down. It was dark, the barest illumination lighting the space, disorienting him as he tried to figure out what had happened.
A hand went to his shoulder and he spun around, flinging his arm out blindly. Silver’s familiar face stared down at him, his hands up in a calming gesture.
“You’re okay, Terry. You’re safe.”
His heart was thudding in his chest, trying to break free from the flesh and bone. “Wh-what happened? Where are we?”
He looked around and realized they were on a moving platform of rock inside a tunnel. There were a handful of people on the edge of the platform, casting hooded gazes toward him, then quickly looking away as he caught their eyes. One of them was standing at the very front of the platform, his hands raised, his aura flared. It took him a moment to realize that the man was an Earth Elementalist carving their passage through the stone.
“We’re not in the Market anymore?” he asked dully.
Silver shook his head. “No, your father messaged me and asked us to return. It’s a multi-hour trip, so I pushed back saying you were sleeping. But I thought it best if we headed back sooner rather than later.”
Terry nodded, then was hit by a sudden realization as he spotted the notifications still flashing before his eyes.
“The Skill!” The people near the edge of the platform looked over at his words. He lowered his voice, though the panic was still very much present. “I only got half of it,” he hissed. “I still need the genetic component.”
All that time wasted. When was he gonna get another opportunity to visit Marlon to finish the cataloging?
Dammit, why couldn’t I just stay awake!
A smile touched Silver’s face and he pulled out a small vial from his pocket. “Don’t worry bout it, kid. I got you covered.”
Terry gasped, then reached out to grab the vial. There was a bundle of hairs inside and as soon as his fingers touched one of them, the Genetic Analysis Skill tried to activate.
“Wow, thank you.” He was hyper aware of the glances flicking toward him from the six people on the other end of the platform. “Who are they?” he asked quietly.
Silver looked over and smiled. “Your team.”
His eyes bugged out and he regarded the six Awakened in a new light.
My team…
A new notification flickered into view and his eyes widened.
[Feed Wichita] Quest Updated
Team Acquired…
Calculating Next Step…
Quest Updated
Next Step: Begin Your Operation
He read those words a few times, his eyes bleary and his mind slow to process. Then, the realization that the first impression he’d just made on his new team was of him waking up screaming from nightmares.
Great…
Rising to his feet, he risked a glance over at the six people that were likewise sneaking looks at him. He felt a flush of heat hit the back of his neck at the attention, but forced himself to stand upright—the illusion of control, even if all he wanted to do was slink away and let someone else take charge.
With a steadying breath, he started over to the cluster of people, his limbs vibrating from adrenaline. One of the men noticed his approach and got the others’ attention. They turned to face him, various looks of curiosity and skepticism on their faces. The Elementalist actually transporting them spared a quick glance over, then turned his attention back to the task of parting the stone.
Terry gave a quick wave to the other five, his stomach flipping anxiously as he approached.
“Hey there, I’m Terry.” The words felt hollow, lacking any of the gravitas or command he’d seen his father and grandfather possess.
They shared curious glances, none of them speaking for a moment. After the silence began to grow awkward, they looked to one of their members in unison. Of the six, two were women and four were men. The person they all looked to was one of the women and she acknowledged the expectation with a nod.
“I’m Fluorescent,” she said, stepping forward with a hand held out. She was slightly taller than Terry, with an athletic build. She had a confident posture to her that made him guess she was the B-ranker Terraform had promised. “People just call me Flore.”
Terry gratefully accepted the handshake, some of the tension easing from his shoulders.
“Nice to meet you, Flore. Can I assume from your name that you’re our Light Elementalist?”
She grinned, shrugging casually. “You caught me.” She thumbed over her shoulder. “Rest of these grubs are Earthies, ‘cept for Alan and Tristan.” She pointed toward a heavyset man in his mid-twenties. “Alan’s good with pulling water from the ground.” Next to him was a smaller woman with mousy features and bangs nearly obscuring her eyes. “That’s Katie—she’ll handle nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and so on. Next to her is Peter.” She indicated a tall, thin man who seemed to wither under their attention. “He’s our plant-whisperer,” she added with a smile. Peter returned her smile sheepishly and Terry realized that Flore wasn’t just the highest ranked member of the team, but also the de facto leader. The way they all looked to her as she introduced them made that clear. “Tristan’s my apprentice.” She indicated a younger boy, probably only a year or two older than Terry. Peach fuzz lined his upper lip and Terry didn’t envy the acne outbreak working its way across the boy’s forehead. At the sound of his name, he flinched, as if he’d been called out for doing something wrong. “He’s gearing up to work with light, but he’s only an E-ranker right now.” She cast him a bright smile that turned his cheeks red and he looked at the ground to hide the obvious flush.
Terry couldn’t help but feel a bit of heat rise to his own cheeks. How would they react if they knew he was only an F-ranker?
He hoped to glaze over that fact, but the sixth member—the man who was parting the tunnel and ferrying them so effortlessly—turned to look over his shoulder. He was mid to late-twenties, tall with hawkish features. His nose was large and angular, his eyes narrowed skeptically as he regarded Terry.
“And what’s your power? You don’t feel like a D-ranker. High Es, maybe.” His accent was subtle, but distinctly Russian, his tone clipped and borderline aggressive. It was unusual to meet Russians outside of their country, given the hostility between them and the North American and European supers.
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But he didn’t give the man’s origins a second thought. What bothered him was the accusatory tone and the demanding nature of that question.
He saw Silver’s head snap toward the man, his aura flaring to life. Terry put a hand on his grandpa’s arm, giving him a look that said volumes. A wry smile touched Silver’s face and he nodded in acknowledgment.
Turning toward the man, Terry forced a smile to his face. “I’m Terry Fairway. What’s your name?”
The man’s lips set, his chin rising haughtily. “Vladimir Petronovich. C-ranked Elementalist.” He proclaimed his rank like it was a title of nobility.
“C-rank. Amazing,” Terry said with a fawning tone. “Very impressive.” He turned toward Silver, nodding enthusiastically. “Isn’t that impressive?”
Silver scoffed, but otherwise didn’t reply. Vladimir narrowed his eyes, examining the man in a new light. But Terry could tell his grandpa’s aura was held in tight now, hiding his power so that he looked more like a D-ranker. At Silver’s age, there were only two possibilities. Either he was a high-ranker or he’d reached a bottleneck at either his Midmark or Capstone. Given the aura he was projecting, it wouldn’t be unusual for Vlad to assume the older man was a D-ranker. He’d be dead wrong, but it wouldn’t be unusual.
The stone platform ferrying them came to a grinding halt as Vladimir turned toward the two of them.
“And what’s so funny, hm?” He took a step forward, his chin raised as if to look down on them. “Something to say old man?”
Flore reached out, a look of concern on her face. “Vlad, don’t! You heard Terraform—”
He kept his eyes locked on Silver and Terry, but his tone softened as he replied to Flore. “I won’t be patronized by an E-ranker and his Midmark-trapped grunt.” His lips pursed in thought. “Maybe if they apologize now, I won’t leave them stranded under miles of stone.”
“Vlad!” Flore started, but cut off as Alan—the Water Elementalist—gasped.
“Terry Fairway? As in Terrence Fairway!” He looked around, waiting for others to recognize the name. Blank stares met him and his eyes bugged out. “Terrence Fairway, otherwise known as—” His eyes cut toward Silver. “—Emperor Necroton.”
Even Vladimir blanched at the name and for once, Terry was happy to lean on his grandfather’s reputation to elicit a bit of respect.
“Oh, you must be confused.” He indicated Silver with a wave. “This isn’t Emperor Necroton. The Emperor’s in Wichita right now.” Vladimir’s face drained of color, his mouth hanging open. The others shared shocked looks. “This is Silver, my…bodyguard. He’s a Duelist…S-ranked.”
Flore gasped. Vladimir licked his lips nervously. Alan, Peter, Katie, and Tristan shot glances between Silver and Vladimir, as if waiting for their teammate to be eviscerated any moment.
“You were right, though. My name is Terrence Fairway, prince of Wichita. And Emperor Necroton is my grandfather. You were wrong about something though…I’m not an E-ranker.” Vladimir’s haughty posture and upturned nose had degraded into the hollow look of a man approaching the gallows. But as much as Terry enjoyed watching him torn down a peg, and though he couldn’t forget that the Elementalist had threatened to leave them to die, he didn’t want to start off their partnership with bad blood. “No, I’m just a lowly F-ranker, newly Awakened less than forty-eight hours ago.”
Now, he did enjoy the looks of utter surprise that filtered among the six of them. He let that realization percolate, staying silent as the shift in their demeanors settled in.
After a few moments of silence, it was Tristan—Flore’s light apprentice—who spoke up.
“Pardon, sir, er, prince—”
“Terry is fine, Tristan,” he replied easily.
“Um, okay. Your pardon, Terry, but if you’re an F, then who’s our boss?” He looked toward Silver. “Is it you, sir?”
Silver shook his head with a soft smile. “Me? No, I’m not a people person.” His eyes locked onto Vladimir, a true predator eyeing the pretender. “I’m just the enforcer.”
In a move that appeared so fast it might as well have been teleportation, Silver was behind the Earth Elementalist, his hands placed on either shoulder. Vladimir yelped in surprise as the wind of Silver’s passage ruffled his hair. He clearly tried to whirl around, but Silver’s grip held him fast.
“My charge, Terry, is the boss. As far as you’re concerned, he’s God himself.” He leaned in so that his mouth was right beside Vladimir’s ear. “Is that clear?”
A shiver traced up the Elementalist’s back and he nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, sir!”
Silver turned to regard the others. “Clear?”
Frantic nods and ‘yes, sirs’ were his answer from the group and he nodded, a bright smile replacing the grim expression from a moment before.
“Excellent!” He clapped loud enough to make Vladimir wince and throw his hands over his ears, then looked toward Terry with a wide grin. “They’re all yours.”
Terry winced himself at the ham-fisted intimidation, though he had to admit that it was effective. But he wanted to cultivate a team, not a dictatorship.
“Listen, everyone. I’ve commissioned you from Terraform for one goal and one goal only. And that is to grow food for the people of Wichita. The conflict with Topeka has left our farms irradiated and our sun obscured.” Flore’s face shifted, fear and hesitation replaced with a furrowed brow. He held her gaze, knowing that she was the most important person to convince. With her on his side, the others would come on board. “I promise that I won’t ask any of you to do anything morally questionable. We’re farmers, plain and simple—superpowered farmers, but farmers all the same. Now, if any of you have an issue with our mission or with a lowly F-ranked teenager running the show, speak up now. I’ll let Terraform know and we’ll have you returned to the Market.” He cast his eyes across the six of them, lingering the longest on Vladimir. “But tell me now.”
They all shared looks with various levels of concern, before turning toward Flore to see her reaction. Terry also looked to her, wondering if he had misjudged the woman.
After a moment, she seemed to recognize that the others were looking to her for guidance. She pursed her lips in thought, then nodded.
“I trust Terraform and he vouched for you.” Terry felt his anxiety begin to ease, but a frown formed on her face. “If it really is as simple as growing food for hungry people, then I’m in. But I want no part in the politics of Emperor Necroton or the fight with your neighbors. If it seems like you’ve misled us, then I’m out.” She looked toward her team, her eyes lingering on Vlad pointedly before turning back to Terry. “I can’t speak for the others, but those are my terms.”
Terry nodded slowly, taking in the other five Elementalists. “That works for me. My only caveat is that you all agree to keep our location and mission a secret.”
Flore nodded, then looked to her team for their answers.
At her side, her apprentice, Tristan, shrugged. “I’m with Flore. If she’s good, I’m good.”
Alan and Katie—the water specialist and the nutrients specialist—both echoed agreement. Peter, the plant-whisperer, as Flore had called him, didn’t speak, but instead gave a shy nod. All eyes turned toward Vladimir, whose face was set like the stone he so effortlessly moved.
After a moment that stretched uncomfortably long, the man finally gave a short nod, his lips stretched tight just short of a frown.
It’ll have to do, he thought. But I’ll break you down and make you like me. And if you won’t like me, you’ll at least respect me.
Vladimir was like the element he controlled, rigid and inflexible, but brittle under pressure. He’d eventually warm up, so long as Terry acted in good faith and demonstrated a tireless work ethic.
“I appreciate your faith. I’ll make sure you don’t regret it. In the coming days, I’d like to sit down individually and get a better understanding of your capabilities and role within the team, but for now, I need to recharge.” He gave them a self-effacing smile. “As you probably noticed, my nap wasn’t exactly restful and it’s been…a stressful couple of days.”
Some of them chuckled softly, which Terry took as a victory.
“Vladimir, would you mind telling me how much longer until we reach the surface?” Terry very carefully modulated his tone, making sure his words sounded more like a request than demand.
The Elementalist didn’t sneer or turn up his nose as he answered, which was already significant progress. “Two more hours if I follow our current trajectory. The plan as given to me by Terraform was to head up and ask for directions when we were a mile below the surface. Now that I know we’re heading to Wichita, I can divert directly. That’ll add another hour.”
Terry nodded, forcing a smile on his lips. “Excellent. Thank you, Vladimir.” He turned to encompass the group. “Let Silver know if you need anything.” He flashed his grandpa a grin and the man glowered back, clearly irritated at being on liaison duty.
He typed out a quick message.
> [Terry]: I wanna finish cataloging Marlon’s Skill. Try not to kill any of them please.
>
> [Silver]: What do you take me for? Plus, we’re too far from the surface for me to teleport us out. If I did kill this Vlad character, not saying I would, but if I did, we’d be stranded. And these other Elementalists don’t seem up to the task of getting us home.
Terry rolled his eyes at the man. As far as promises went, it was lukewarm, but it would have to do.
Fingering the vial filled with Marlon’s hair with anticipation, he moved to the end of the rock platform and sat cross-legged. The platform groaned as Vladimir started them up again, causing some of the others to yelp in surprise. But Terry barely noticed, his mind already turned to Marlon’s genetic material.
Now that he was more familiar with the process, it wasn’t too difficult to match the data flashing across his mind to the mold he’d made of the teleport Skill. It had been a much more complex variant than the Body Tempering Skill he’d learned from his father, but significantly less so than the E-grade telekinesis he had been cataloging with Silver. Still, it was complicated enough that he couldn’t fully trust his memory and had to refer back to the Skill catalog that was lodged in his mind. He found that he could access it by thinking upon the component intentionally, pulling up the mold with a thought.
The identification process went relatively smoothly once he got into a groove and he was able to identify all the matching genetic components to the corresponding metaphysical mold within less than an hour.
When that familiar notification appeared in his vision, he couldn’t help but grin like an idiot.
Genetic-Metaphysical component cataloged…
New Skill Cataloged: High-Efficiency Matter Transportation (F)
New Affixation available. Revert previous Affixation?
He indicated yes with a thought and immediately felt his skin and aura shift. The sensation was eerie, like bugs crawling through his muscles and bones, while his aura pulsed uncomfortably. The process only lasted a few minutes, but he had to force himself not to grimace through the irritation—he didn’t want the others to notice what he was doing for obvious reasons.
When the process was done, a new notification appeared.
New Affixation available. Affix?
He confirmed the request, the changes spiking a new wave of skin-crawling discomfort before settling into position. His new Skill was affixed only a few minutes later.
New Skill Affixed: High-Efficiency Matter Transportation (F — Upgradeable)
Use aura to part space and create a bridge to another location. Distance and duration of the bridge are dependent on the mass of the entrants and the caster’s mastery of space and aura manipulation.
Note: This is an upgradeable Skill. As caster’s rank, understanding, and aura control increase, so can this Skill.
Terry’s eyes widened as he read the Skill description. Upgradeable! Why hadn’t anyone told him about that being a possibility? He turned toward Silver who was sitting cross-legged beside him, his eyes closed. Terry felt his grandfather’s aura shifting subtly and wondered if he was body tempering. He thought about waiting until he was done to bother him, but barely a handful of seconds passed before his impatience won out. Instead of speaking where everyone could hear, he typed out a System message.
> [Terry]: I just finished affixing Marlon’s Skill and it says it’s Upgradeable!
Silver peeked one eye open to look at him, the corner of his lip turning up in a smile before he closed his eye again.
> [Silver]: Excellent news. I suspected it would be. The Traveler was clearly a master, even if he was stuck at the Ds.
>
> [Terry]: What does it mean? Well, I get the surface level meaning, but is there a clear way to upgrade it or is it just something that happens with time?
He was itching to start experimenting, but forced himself to wait for Silver’s answer.
> [Silver]: An Upgradeable Skill is typically a sign of mastery as I mentioned. It’s incredible you’ve been able to copy over that aspect. The way to improve it is both simple and incredibly difficult at the same time. You’ll need to work on the matter condensing tips he gave you to solidify your understanding. Getting your aura control and projection higher will help, too. But even an upgradeable Skill won’t evolve to the next tier until you get your overall ranking there first. Once you become an E-ranker, it’ll just be trial and error to rank the Skill up.
Terry nodded. That all made sense. As eager as he was to see what upgrading the Skill would do, he’d only been an Awakened for a few days—he had a lot of things to improve and work on before then. Still, he had to at least test out his new Skill.
With a thought, he accessed it, feeling his aura shift away from him to begin tearing a hole in space.
Here goes nothing!