JESSIE : LEVEL 13+3

DAY 259 : C-DAY, FIRSTWEEK, AGNI, YEAR 2

JOULELANDS 1 : TRAIN 1 : FULGORA

So I made some friends.

Or something. We’re basically all just stuck together in a fast tube and some of us are making the best of it.

After we got back on the train a few days ago, we started a support group called Shame Walkers Anonymous. Meetings take place whenever we’re awake. The agenda includes excessive drinking, excessive laughing, and excessively not talking about what happened back there. All the while, none of us target each other. That’s what makes it anonymous.

Not to say it’s an exclusive club or anything. We’ve had a rotating line of guest drinkers ever since it was determined that we were the most entertaining thing happening on the train.

Turns out, Attunements can only be obtained from atop the Elemental Apexes themselves. It also turns out that at least half the people on the train already knew that. I know because they all told us so. But, as they also admitted, most of them have already completed their Attunement Quests, or else they apparently wouldn’t be able to get off at Fulgora just like we weren’t able to get off at New Shock City. Which is apparently the capital of not only Wattopia, but the entire Surge Kingdom. Except we’re not talking about that.

Most of our guest speakers are just going to cash in on high-XP Quests unrelated to Attunements in any way. Train stations don’t count as part of the town or city they’re in, so Quests don’t complete there. Or on trains, even passing through that very city or town. So as long as you teleport straight into the station itself, you can skip past walking through the town the station is in.

Even the smallest of Kingdom towns usually have at least one resident with a Skill like Teammate Recall or something. For a relatively large fee, you can send a team invite and they’ll walk to the station and teleport you straight there. Depending on how much XP we’re talking about, the reward could be well worth the cost and weeklong detour just to get that extra percentage bonus from the elevation.

A big reason Ascenders can get up to a higher level is that the closer to the sun you are, the more XP you get for doing the same thing. Also the more XP is required to level. But I guess the multiplier on that is less than it is on the XP itself? I dunno… It’s a weird balance that I haven’t totally wrapped my mind around yet.

What matters is that the cities atop the elemental beasts, specifically Fulgora, Boreas, Deimos, and Horus generally tie for average highest elevation of any Midgard town or city, at any given time.

While apologizing for making fun of us, more than a few of the Questies as they specifically don’t like to be called, admitted they’ll never ascend the planets. So atop the beasts is as close as they’re ever likely to get to the Sun. Which makes it the place where they can get the largest xp boost in the world.

But our meeting’s current guest speaker is a different story. Raijin, a man with quiff black hair, captured all our attention right away with a single sentence. “I fought in the Tournament this year.”

Clearly, not everyone is power-obsessed like me. In fact, most people just go straight to the nearest resort and don’t look back. But of those who bother getting attuned at all, nearly everyone has some level of interest in ascending.

The best Blessings are a match for the best Skills. So everyone has the potential to rise to the top based on that alone. They aren’t likely to go all the way, but at least they can get to max level. Or not. That particular dream doesn’t tend to fully die until someone’s Attunement falls flat. But we already talked about that. Now though?

Raijin shakes his head. “Of course there are scum here too. But why do you think there’s no rich nobles strutting around lording their status over those of us without power? Sure, spoiled brats tend not to wind up sacrificing their lives for anyone. But it’s not that there aren’t rich pricks. It’s just that they aren’t the ones with power. They’re the ones with money, sure. But the better the economy, the less power that equates to. And you might’ve noticed? The economy is pretty great. Both in Heaven, and the Surge Kingdom. So there was never a need for me to do anything like what you imply.”

I look past all the bystanders nodding as I narrow my eyes at the cards he’s trying to distract me from. “Yeah… I call.”

He tries to cover for his suddenly damp forehead by raising an eyebrow. “You’re sure.”

“I wasn’t. But now I am.”

He throws his single pair of sevens down on the table. “DAMN…”

I toss mine with a flourish, taking the extra subjective seconds to ensure they fall face-up and reveal my full house of threes and sevens.

He looks blankly at the only four sevens in the game. Then he laughs. “Oh, WOW. I know I’m new to this, but… What are the odds?”

I don’t know his name because that’s the point, but the blue-black-stripe-haired SWA member who taught us the game chuckles. “It’s more common than you’d think. Between all of us playing and the thirteen card values, randomness practically guarantees that all of at least a few of them will be in play for any given Texas hold ’em match.”

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Raijin folds his arms. “Don’t know if that math works…”

“Yeah, it’s unintuitive, right? That’s the thing with playing cards. Nothing about how they work is intuitive. Like…”

The SWA member shuffles the cards, cutting and re-ordering them several times over before setting the stack in front of Raijin. “Count to 13 four times and take a card from the top for each number. If you can get through all 52 cards without ever saying the same number as the one you draw, I’ll pay out a million FSD.”

Raijin raises a much less shaky eyebrow. “Do you… Have a million FSD?”

“Nope.”

“What about the face card-no, nevermind, I understand the numbering system well enough. And you would be willing to sign a contract to that effect-Oh… Nevermind again. I can see you trying to hide that smile. VERY WELL… I shall endeavour to wipe it from your face.”

“No Skills.”

“What?”

“Or Blessings. Or anything but drawing a card and counting the next number.”

“Oh…” Raijin just looks annoyed. “You honestly think I would cheat at such a… You know what? I already said ‘nevermind’… ONE.”

He draws a card. It’s the two of hearts.

Another. Ace of clovers.

Half the table chuckles.

Raijin glares disparagingly around the room. “Oh shut up. THREE.”

Jack of hearts.

“Four.” Seven of diamonds.

“Five.” Five of hearts.

He blinks at it.

The SWA member smiles, takes the cards back, and reshuffles.

Raijin starts the count over.

He gets to nine this time.

Then four.

Then he makes it all the way to twelve when he draws a queen.

As Raijin grows progressively more indignant, the train finally crests the ridge that’s blocked our view beneath the clouds for most of the day.

And then I see him… Her? However gender works with a Texas-sized wolf made all of lightning, I can finally see Fulgora. I’ve technically been able to see her, I guess, this whole last year. But I never actually SAW her.

Not until exactly. Right. Now. As I stare slackjawed at the still-far-off wolf, now close enough that I can make out all the twisting, chaotic arcs of lightning that never repeat, but always somehow resolve into the same colossal form.

Before I know it, I’m practically smashing my face against the window in a fruitless attempt to see her better. “Oh my god… That… Is the fucking COOLEST!!!”

At first, I’m entranced by her just sitting majestically over there on top of the highest of many, many floating geometric continents.

As Fulgora walks between several octagons and squares with each stride, the next ones rise up to meet her paws as those behind fall back down. Not all the way down, of course. None of the octagons or squares of mostly electrified environments are at ground-level. Not in the latter quarter of the Surge kingdom, anyway. At least not relative to those in the Jouleland spanning most of the interim distance between wolf and train.

Actually, looking closer, it’s not that the biomes themselves are giving off energy. They just become instantly and violently electrified whenever Fulgora steps on one. To the point where I can see the electricity arcing from all over the landscape, to the wolf, and back. And I’m… How many thousands of miles out? How many tens?

Fully entranced, I don’t miss it when Fulgora rolls on her back over a vast mountain range, rocking back and forth as though to scratch an itch.

My mouth drops open.

Raijin looks up from his 50-or-soth attempt at counting cards. “Something the matter, J-sorry, that is… Young girl by the window?”

I bristle at the near breaking of our group’s precious shame-based anonymity.

But it’s fine. He caught himself.

And I have bigger worries just now. “Fulgora has a city on her back, right?”

Almost as one, color drains from the faces of the SWA as they gape out the same window.

Raijin just laughs. “Oh wow… No, no, the city’s perfectly safe.”

Looking him in the eye, I point out the window to the wolf clearly grinding the whole place into what basically amounts to an oversized rocky bed of spikes.

He shrugs. “There’s a kind of barrier around the city that makes it phase through things.”

“Like… Mountain ranges?”

“Exactly like mountain ranges.”

My shoulders relax. “Oh… So what’s the view from the city right now?”

“I rather think you’ll be there long enough to see for yourself.”

I bristle as I turn back to him. “Meaning?”

“That you’ll be captured and imprisoned upon arrival.”

A moment of silence passes in which I make several plans with several casualties.

Then he snorts. “The wolf rolls over a lot. Be there for an hour and you’ll probably see the inside of more than a few mountains.”

I distinctly un-plan to slaughter him and most of the people here. “Oh… Wait, doesn’t that hurt the XP returns with the decreased elevation?”

One of the only two other lady SWA members, the one with the curly tan hair, chimes in. “They probably stay in the station until it’s upright again.”

Raijin points approvingly at her.

And with that, we get back to poker.

Later in bed, I fold my arms in a grouch. Today was great. I’m just mad at myself. And not for anything I said or didn’t say. Just…

Why can’t I stop automatically identifying people by hair color?