The Offer, the Ooze, and the Opportunity

1

“What is it?” Emma asked.

John held the mantis dagger he gained from his unwilling bet with the dead idiot. He still wondered how the rules of The Garden worked. It seemed that one’s word was unbreakable given the right terminology was used.

“It’s a soul weapon. I got for killing more stags than another kid.” John left out the part about Brandon being impaled against a tree and ripped into pieces, just for brevity.

“It looks sharp,” his mother said.

“It isn’t bad for a primitive soul. But I’m going to need a lot better than a dagger to protect myself in that place.”

“You’re going back?” His mother asked, sounding concerned.

“It’s that or ask you to do it. I would rather my sister have the comfort of at least one parent. I’ll go back. But first I need to make a trip into the city to find something. Where did you put my bag?”

John set out a few minutes later with his bag of genes. He drove the car to the nearest transition station. Since he was within two days of his last trip, he would not have any return restrictions on him this time.

Mostly that just meant he could come back within twenty four hours. But more importantly it meant that he could return without having to leave the base. That was convenient for him because his goal was within the safety of the base.

John entered the transition pad and found himself in his room at Emerald base. He quickly left his room and made his way into the widening streets toward the busiest part of the base.

He came to a courtyard he remembered passing the last time. It had numerous stands and lanes to walk, all haphazardly strewn through the area with no discernible method. This was his target: the market.

John moved silently from stand to stand. Some sold genes of primitive or awakened creatures. Most sold goods from Earth that would otherwise be difficult to acquire in the collapse of society. A rare few boasted soul weapons.

John stopped in the disorderly section dedicated to weaponry and looked around. Some vendors noticed him browsing. One asked him what he was looking for.

“I need arrows,” John said simply.

Immediately, John regretted speaking. People were all around him talking over one another to get his attention. He had to eventually call for quiet.

“Stop!” he shouted.

Everyone froze, all eyes were on John. He looked around at everyone deliberately before turning to the first person who spoke.

“Arrows.”

“Uhh, yeah I have some basic arrows. Aluminum shaft with broad head tips.”

“You,” John said, moving to the next man, “can you beat that?”

“I have the same aluminum shafts as everyone else here, but my tips are fish point.”

And so the procession continued. John asked each person who had approached him to name his merchandise before moving on to the next. When everyone had spoken their piece, John stepped back and looked between the men, trying to keep their respective offerings straight.

“Take my arrows, a whole bundle for just three primitive genes.”

“Don’t listen to Tom, bullet point tips are better for both stopping power and tissue damage. Two primitive genes.”

John listened as the cacophony rose once again. He was trying to settle on who he would buy from when another young person caught his eye.

The man was probably twenty or so, old enough to live alone, but probably didn’t command much respect around a crowd such as this. He stood out so completely that John’s gaze lingered on him long enough to see him subtly shake his head.

John questioned the man with his eyes, but was careful not to draw attention. The man answered with his gaze and a tilt of his head. He indicated the archway out of the courtyard.

“Sorry, I’ll have to think on it a while and do some research. I’ll return when I make a decision,” John said before turning to leave without hesitation.

He didn’t know why, but the man gave him a feeling in his gut. He had to find out what he wanted. If all else failed, he would come back to the market.

“Smart, kid,” the man said as soon as John walked out of the market and into the street.

He overtook John from behind, coming to walk beside him. John took the opportunity to examine the man as they walked.

He had brown hair, close cropped to his head. He had a shining earring in his left ear, which was visible as he walked on John’s right side. His teeth were white and on full display. He wore cargo pants and a baggy hoody from which an arm extended in greeting.

“I’m Jules.”

“John,” John replied.

“Well John, I hear you need arrows.”

“Heard that did you?” John asked sarcastically.

“Follow me, I might just have what you need.”

“Follow you where?” John asked, wary.

“Back to my room. You look like you’re carrying a pile of genes in that bag and I’ve seen people get mugged over just a couple. You should really travel more lightly.”

“How do you know I don’t just have water and rations in here?”

Jules smiled knowingly before giving the bag a hard elbow. John tried to edge away but was too slow. The bag gave off a crystalline clinking as the genes knocked together.

“I heard them when you first walked into the courtyard.”

“And this is your way of helping me?”

“It’s more than you think. You walked into that place like a rich sucker into a casino. If you would have settled with someone and opened that bag around all of those greedy eyes, it’s a fair bet that you wouldn’t have made it back to your room.”

“And how do I know that you’re not taking me somewhere shady to make me disappear?” John asked.

“A fair question but I assume someone as young as you carrying all of those genes must be some kind of badass.”

John didn’t respond, but his blank look seemed to confirm Jules’ suspicion. They walked in silence for a few minutes until Jules stopped at a door.

John looked at the room number, but it and every other door near it was blank. He was certain that every door they had passed had a number. So why were they all blank now?

“Built in security measure,” Jules explained after seeing his confusion.

He placed a hand on the number plaque and the figures were briefly revealed before he pushed on the door. It opened at his touch and the two quickly went inside. As soon as his hand left the door, the number faded from view again.

“So what do you have?” John asked impatiently once the door was closed behind him.

“Back in my first month, I went out with a group to a nearby lake. There were plenty of things to kill around the lake. We started out picking off the primitives.”

John listened to Jules with annoyed impatience. It really wasn’t necessary to make a story out of it. Since he still didn’t know what the man was offering, he kept his eye rolling to a minimum.

“After a while, all the dead creatures started to drain into the lake. I guess all the blood attracted the marine predators.”

“What happened?” John asked by way of hurrying the story along.

“It was chaos. A bunch of beasts burst from the water and started attacking everything in sight. I was a safe distance from the water, but then this massive beast splashed out of the water. It was so big that it actually lowered the water level when it emerged. I don’t know what it was, but while everyone was distracted by it, I noticed something had been washed up on the shore with the receding tide.”

“What was it?”

“Ever heard of Steve Irwin?” Jules asked.

“No. Who is that?” John said.

“Never mind. The beast was a sting ray. It was huge and flat, probably as big as a dinner table. But it was stuck on the beach. I saw it flopping around and decided to take my shot. I don’t really use a bow, but they gave us all gear to use, and I had no other option. Anyway, my shot must have been a lucky one because I pinned it to the ground with my arrow. It took about a minute to thrash itself to death on the blade. When it died, I got this,” Jules finally summoned a soul weapon in his hand.

It was about two feet long, thin and rigid. It was solid black and looked deadly. The last three inches of it were riddled with miniature backward facing barbs. It would both devastate anything shot by it and be extremely difficult to remove.

“Is it poisonous?” John asked.

“Venomous, and yes, very. Take care that you don’t shoot the genes you wish to harvest, or they will be corrupted by the venom and cause damage to you upon absorption.”

“How much do you want for it?”

“This is an enhanced soul weapon. As such I want five enhanced genes for it.”

“Five is too many.”

“I disagree. This arrow might even be able to pierce the hide of advanced creatures. You don’t think that’s worth five lesser genes?”

“It isn’t a matter of value. I only have one Enhanced gene. And without that arrow it isn’t likely I can gain any more.”

“Shame really,” said Jules with a sympathetic smile.

John resisted the urge to grit his teeth. He knew the man was right about its value. He was equally sure that he wasn’t leaving without it though.

“A deal then. You give me the arrow, and I will use it to hunt enhanced creatures. For every two I successfully kill, one gene will come to you until your asking price is met. How does that sound?”

Jules looked ready to brush the offer off, but as he began to speak, he zoned out, as if hearing something only he could. Then he smiled.

John heard no indication that he had just made a binding deal with the man, but Jules must have been notified. John was surprised. He realized that Brandon may have not known he entered a binding contract simply through his boast. And since he died for his hubris, he likely never found out.

“A contract? Interesting. You tempt me sorely. But what if you’re not as badass as I think you are. What if I give you this and you die before killing anything?”

“Then you can have this for your trouble.”

John summoned the Lunar Stag Bow into his hands. The second he did, Jules widened his eyes. John knew he had never seen an advanced weapon before. In fact, John may have been the only person in all of Emerald base to attain one.

“Is that… Advanced?”

“It is,” John said, returning it to its place in his mind, “so what do you say?”

“Six genes instead of five, strictly for the purpose of interest. So the one you have will be a down payment. The original asking price of five will be the debt. I’ll give you a year before the number goes up again.”

“These are acceptable terms,” John said, reaching out a hand to shake.

Jules mirrored his pose and the two closed the deal. As John let go of Jules’s hand, he heard the familiar voice in his mind. This time, it did confirm the terms he had just settled.

“You have received Enhanced Murkray Arrow. You have agreed to provide six enhanced genes in exchange for this. You have one year to complete this task before additional tariffs apply. Failure to complete your obligations will result in the loss of Advanced Lunar Stag Bow.”

John handed Jules the fangs of an enhanced jaguar. The only gene of that level he had taken from his mother. He was almost certain she wouldn’t be able to use all nine of the ones he left her anyway.

When his parents had absorbed the genes of the rodents, they got a message after the fifth one that no more genes from the same level and type of creature could be absorbed. If that was the case, she could take the remaining four and bargain with them for something nice. John was more than impressed with what he had accomplished with just one.

“It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”

John nodded in turn and then pulled out a small piece of paper from his bag along with a pen. He wrote his own room number down on the sheet before handing it to Jules. The other man took it and gave John a questioning look.

“If you come across any enhanced creatures and don’t want to wait, leave a message at my room. We can both benefit from working together in the future.”

“Okay, I might be able to find something,” Jules replied with some thought.

“Just… no snakes okay?”

“Are you afraid of snakes?” Jules asked with a tease in his voice.

“Of course not!” John said defensively.

“No?”

“No. I just hate them and wish they would all stay the fuck away from me and also die,” John said matter of factly.

Jules nodded, seeming to completely understand the sentiment. He agreed to send word and John bid him farewell.

2

John stood still and quiet. He stared determinedly at the target that rested fifty feet away. It was an easy distance.

He calmly pulled the string of the training bow to its full extent. He noted how much easier it was to pull than his first bow had been, though it was miles from the tension of his Lunar Stag Bow.

John released his breath slowly, releasing the string as he did so. He had found a basic string release. It was even magnetic, so he could attach it to the string with no effort or delay.

His new soul arrow flew in an instant to the target. It buried itself in the third ring of the target with a satisfying thump. John smiled at his progress. His first shot had almost missed the target, only catching the edge. His second was in the second ring from the edge.

He recalled his arrow to his mind and then quickly summoned it to the string once more. The process was a smooth one, taking no more than a second to complete. It was like having a refilling quiver of arrows.

John fired a few more times, each time coming close to his third shot. He was satisfied with the arrow. He found it even more convenient than any traditional arrow.

When he was getting tired, John put the practice bow down and started to walk back inside. Before he did, curiosity got the best of him and he summoned the Lunar Stag Bow.

He couldn’t even pull the string back before, but after absorbing several primitive and awakened genes, as well as the gene from the stag in question, John was curious to know what had changed. He had to manually attach the string release, as nothing on the bow was magnetic.

He summoned the Muckray Arrow to the string. With a groan of strain, John pulled the string with everything he had. Slowly, shakily, the string extended.

John’s breathing was strained as he tried to contain the tension of the bow. He quickly sighted the target. To his surprise, the neck of the bow split open and a red lens protruded. It was the same red of the Lunar Stag’s glowing eyes.

To John’s further shock, he found that it had several lines on it to indicate distances. As John looked through it, the top line began to glow.

He wasn’t familiar with a bow’s scope, but he supposed the target must be in line with the shortest distance the bow offered. John could feel the string shaking within his grip. He knew he couldn’t hold it much longer.

At just half extension, the string refused to budge and John was forced to accept defeat. He took final aim at the target. With as steady an exhale as he could manage, John pressed the button in the release.

Boom!

No sooner than the arrow left the string, it was already thumping into the target with a loud percussion. Only the arrow had no intention of stopping with the target. It plowed straight through the entire thing before continuing on to the tree line at the edge of his property.

A second percussion rode the heels of the first as the arrow seemed to obliterate most of the large tree it buried itself in. Wood chips and splinters went everywhere. The burn in John’s arms was immediately forgotten as his eyes went wide.

The target had an apple sized hole punched through the very top of it. The target was entirely gone at the very top, making a crescent moon shape with its absence. The arrow hadn’t even slowed down.

Before John could reach the tree, it began to creak under its own weight. He couldn’t tell why until he got closer. When he did, John saw that the arrow sticking out of the tree had blasted away a huge section of the tree.

Coupled with the fact that the tree already leaned toward the house and therefore, leaned into the shot, it was now struggling to survive its own weight. John carefully tried to remove the arrow, but he couldn’t make it budge so much as a millimeter. With a sigh, he returned it to his mind.

Without the improbably small wedge in it, the tree quickly gave a loud protest. It buckled under its own weight and toppled toward the ground. John swore and jumped away from the scene.

Dirt, sticks, and a couple larger branches of the tree broke in a shower of debris as the massive trunk slammed into the ground. John’s caution was well founded, as several smaller branches came close to his face in the chaos. When it was over, he looked at the remaining stump.

One thing was clear. His new weapon was insanely powerful. He would have to gain more strength to use it properly. That was the next step in the plan.

John went back inside after that, figuring he could hardly keep shooting at a target that had a bite taken out of it. He would have to take care exactly what he chose to shoot at in the future. Still, he was well pleased with the results of his experiments.

Inside, he found some food to ease his famine after such exertions. His mind was abuzz with the thought of hunting powerful creatures with his new soul combo. The amount of damage done to the tree made it clear that anything below advanced level wouldn’t stand a chance if he could take the time to draw.

That didn’t mean he was safe in The Garden, no one was. But at least he could survive most encounters if he could just find a tree to climb.

John went to sleep that night a few genes closer to his goal. He had collected several primitive and awakened genes from the aftermath of the stag slaughter. Including what he had absorbed on his way back from the hunt, he was able to use five primitive and five awakened genes from both stags and jaguars.

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It seemed to John that smaller and lower leveled genes gave less returns than the single advanced gene had. All of the stags combined gave a total of twenty four primitive genes and twenty six awakened genes. The jaguars added another twenty three and twenty four genes respectively.

Evolution status: 50 of 100

Primitive genes: 47 of 100

Awakened genes: 50 of 100

Enhanced genes: 0 of 100

Advanced genes 8 of 100

Maximize at least one type of gene to be eligible for evolution.

John was shocked that in just one traumatic venture, he had come closer than most other people to maximizing his genes. He didn’t know what evolution meant for him, but he could guess that it would be beneficial.

The thought of becoming powerful enough to fight back against the robotic overlords that had enslaved his planet became an overwhelming desire in John’s mind. He could think of little else the rest of the night. Only his exhaustion allowed his mind to calm enough for him to fall asleep.

3

John returned to The Garden the next day. He was hoping to keep ahead of his residence quota, so his mother didn’t have to risk herself. When he got to his room, he found the slot on the door for mail had already been used.

Picking up the folded paper, John found that it was from Jules. Apparently he had already found an enhanced creature. John thought it was more likely that he had already known of one before John made the offer.

The letter did not mention Jules coming along, it was simply a detailed description of how to reach the area and what the creature looked like. John assumed by the description that Jules was probably afraid of the beast. That was fine.

John only had a training bow with him, as he couldn’t confidently shoot the Lunar Stag Bow. His further increase of genes steadied his hand slightly when pulling the string, but he still could barely pull it halfway before it would stop moving.

John decided to check out the creature. According to Jules, it was a few hours from the base. This time, John would be exiting from the opposite side of Emerald Base and traveling to a small grove of trees on the other side of a large creek.

The hours traveling were beneficial to John. Since he didn’t join a group of people, his safety was both increased and diminished. He knew it was better to have people watch your back, but the Advanced Lunar Stag proved that safety in numbers only existed when facing inferior creatures.

John’s isolation lured many lesser beasts to him. His inexperience with a bow caused him to miss some of the shots at beasts. Others he could hit, but the shot was never fatal.

All of the creatures he shot at ran away. The venom from his Muckray Arrow did cause the death of two primitive beasts eventually. The problem was that he could not track them down for fear of losing his direction.

Only two shots that John took were immediately fatal. One on the chest of a large rodent similar to the ones his father had faced on his first excursion. The other was a rabbit almost twice the size of a normal earth rabbit which John managed to shoot in the eye between its jumps.

The rodent was a primitive creature. The rabbit on the other hand, was awakened. John smiled to himself as he heard the voice announce his victory.

Awakened Field Hare killed. Soul Apparel gained. Gene available for harvest.

“Fuck yeah!” John said exuberantly as he went to the hare.

He had killed a few creatures since coming to The Garden, but except for the Advanced Stag, John had not gained any soul weapons. This soul came in the form of apparel, but John was still pleased.

He broke off one of the rabbit’s large teeth, the gene he was seeking. He wasted no time absorbing it, just as he had when he killed the rodent. The two gains gave him five more primitive genes and four more awakened.

The rest of the journey followed a similar theme. He wasn’t able to kill anything else, but he did take shots at half a dozen more creatures that ventured too close. In each case, his missed shot discouraged them from coming closer.

When he reached the stream, John found that his course had indeed wavered throughout the day. He spotted the grove of trees Jules mentioned a fair distance to his right down stream.

John found the water shallow enough in this spot that he thought he should cross now in case it became more deep or perilous closer to the grove. He stepped from protruding rock to rock, finding the task to be a familiar and pleasant experience. He had often explored the wood land behind his home in a similar manner.

Halfway over the water though, John stepped on a rock that looked stable enough. When his foot touched it, one side dipped into the water precariously. The next seconds happened too fast to truly appreciate.

On all sides of him rose what looked like a fleshy tarp. The rock he had stepped on was perfectly positioned in the center of the mass. Other rocks tumbled down at John as they were displaced.

John lost his balance and fell into the water as large rocks jarred his shoulders, legs, and in one case his toes. Before he knew what was happening, the fleshy membrane had closed around him.

He pushed his hands against it, trying to resist the constriction he was feeling. Everywhere his skin touched the flesh though, it began to sting and sizzle. He had his hood pulled up, which was the only reason he hadn’t already been screaming.

His hands stung like nettle, but also a cold wet corrosion that felt like his skin was melting off. John quickly bowed his head and crossed his arms into his pits. He had to think.

With a burst of inspiration, he summoned the Muckray Arrow into his hand and began stabbing out at the flesh all around him in any place he could reach. The beast that swallowed him made a strange hissing noise each time his arrow pierced it.

Dark brown spots spread across the opaque membrane wherever his arrow prodded. After a full minute of this, John felt the whole creature shudder as it’s nervous system began to shut down. Then the membrane seemed to sag and melt down around him, revealing the sun again.

Advanced Flesh Ooze killed. Advanced Gene available.

“Holy shit,” John said in astonishment as the world revealed itself to him once more.

It hadn’t been long enough for him to consider anything besides his own survival. Now that he had a moment to consider it, he realized that it made sense. Only something sufficiently evolved would have the intelligence to lay in wait as a trap.

Looking down at the mostly dissolved ooze beneath his feet, John found something. It was the rock he had stepped on which had triggered the attack. The rock itself was the gene.

No wonder it had been able to react so quickly. He had stepped on a piece of its body. John grabbed the stone, this beast’s version of a pearl though it was neither symmetrical nor shiny.

As he was pulling his legs out of the water and onto dry land once more, John looked at the innumerable stones that protruded from the wide creek. How many of them could be similar creatures? He shuddered at the idea, but supposed there could be worse things to deal with.

John put the gene in his bag, increasing his load considerably, but not enough to slow him. He soon made it to the grove of trees he had come for. He didn’t enter, but waited at The edge, peering inside.

The stand of trees was too small to be called a forest, but John could still not see the other side through its expanse. He supposed it made up a few dozen acres. According to Jules, his target could reliably be expected to leave the stand of trees each day before sun down to drink from the creek.

That was why John stood sentinel against a tree. He peered into the grove, hoping his wooden resting post would hide his presence from anything within. After almost two hours of quiet waiting, he saw it.

Slowly walking from the woods was a hairy brown warthog. Huge tusks protruded from its mouth like stalagmites ready to gore someone. John held his breath as it approached the creek.

He pulled his practice bow and nocked the Muckray Arrow to its string. He pulled it as quietly as he could, but he quickly stopped. He could see that the hide of the boar was probably too rough to guarantee a kill unless he hit something vital.

Shaking his head at the potential risk of the next decision, John dropped his practice bow and summoned his Lunar Stag Bow. If anything could guarantee a kill, it was that. He took a steadying breath and pulled on the string.

Nerves, not the tension caused the shaking in his arms this time. He knew a misfire could land him in a dangerous situation. He slowly worked the string to the fullest extension he could manage before looking through the red eye lens of the bow.

To his surprise, not only could he see the correct distance to the boar, the lens also provided a glowing indication of any weak spots the boar had. The biggest of which was just behind the front shoulder, almost at the bottom of the hog.

John worked against the tremble of his arms to steady his shot. Just as the boar lowered its head to drink from the water, John released.

The boar let out an awful shriek of pain as it quickly toppled to the ground. Water splashed into the air as its head fell into the stream. John whooped and ran to his prize even before the voice told him what he wanted to hear.

“Enhanced Tusk Boar killed. Gene available for absorption.”

John returned his bow and arrow and dropped down to begin prying the shining tusk loose. He worked at it with a smile on his face until the tooth snapped free. As he swung his bag from his shoulder to store it, he felt his scalp prickle in the most peculiar way.

John’s breath caught. Standing as slowly and deliberately as possible, he turned toward the trees. Standing there, staring at him like he had just killed their mother, and he had, were more than a dozen smaller but still extremely dangerous pigs. Each had tusks, and each could charge faster than a human could run.

John didn’t consider, he turned and sprinted straight into the creek. His feet had been wet for hours anyway by this point, and trying to jump across the few rocks that protruded would have been too time consuming.

Instead, he plowed straight through, the charging squeals of a mob of pigs motivated him better than any shot of energy drink ever could. Soon he was across the water and looked back to see the mob already on the edge of the water.

They didn’t intend to let a little water stop them from killing him though. They all charged through the water as determined as he had been. John cursed and took off running. He knew for certain that there would be no outrunning them.

But he had been raised to never give up even when something seemed hopeless. Besides, one could hardly stand still and let themselves be mauled by a pack of pork chops. So, he ran in desperation with everything he was worth.

He wracked his mind to think of something that could save him. He knew the bow and arrow trick would be useless, but thinking of them, he remembered his newest soul addition. He was so excited to extract the genes of the kill that he had forgotten to examine what his soul apparel was.

The icon in his mind made him smile. The Field Hare soul icon was a pair of furry boots. John summoned them without a second’s hesitation.

They popped onto his feet with no delay. Instantly, John felt like he was jogging, where before he had been sprinting. The boots were clearly made for speed.

John picked up the pace as the boar pack squealed onto the shore of the creek. He was pleased to see them receding behind him. The boots were amazing.

John ran for several minutes without feeling fatigued. The pigs had long since been lost in the distance. John stopped and caught his breath for several seconds.

He smiled at his excellent fortune. It almost seemed like each soul took the form of what he needed most. Even if he didn’t need it at the time. If he hadn’t received the boots, he probably would have been trampled or gored by the wild hogs.

While he was thinking of it, receiving the bow had happened after he lost his first one. It wasn’t as if he specifically needed a new bow. Yet, the Lunar Stag just happened to take that form. It seemed too big a coincidence.

John contemplated the nature of things as he walked back to Emerald base. He was pleased with his excursion. It made him happy to think that on his second time leaving the base, he solo killed an enhanced creature.

That wasn’t even counting the ambush from the advanced flesh ooze. John felt giddy when he thought of the large gene weighing down his bag. He wanted to use it immediately.

Something had stopped him though. He wasn’t sure why, but he had the feeling waiting to use it would be better. That was why it still clanked around on his back.

John returned to Emerald Base just before sunset. The orange sky spanned the entire horizon. John checked in at the gate and using the number left for him on the note, made his way to Jules’s room.

Finally finding the right place, John knocked three times on the door. There was no answer. He didn’t want to wait around, and he had no other means of contacting the man.

Instead, John wrote a short note thanking Jules for his information. Then he wrapped the paper around the boat tusk and pushed it through the mail slot. It fell to the floor with a loud clink.

Satisfied, John turned to go back to his own room. He walked along the streets until he came to the main channel. As he walked down the street, he started to read the different signs. Just as before, he could tell the signs weren’t marked in English, but just like his room number, he was able to decipher them easily.

One pointed to the market courtyard. The next he passed told of housing units. There was one for exchanging genes for different soul weapons and apparel. That intrigued John, but he was fairly certain he wouldn’t have the genes to trade for anything good.

He did have the Advanced gene, but he doubted he could get a soul for a 1:1 ratio. It would be better to hold onto it until he had more if he planned on trading. He decided to walk on.

The next sign he read though, made him stop and think. It was similar to the last sign. But this one read “Genes for Cultivation Scrolls”.

John had never heard of the concept before, and he doubted the sign was referring to agriculture when it said cultivation. His curiosity drove him to walk down the road following the sign. When he reached the end, he became confused.

There was a single transition pad, similar to the one in each room of the base. This one was much larger though and it was accompanied by a chest high pedestal. John warily approached the setup.

At his touch, the pedestal lit up with all kinds of information. There were lists, categories, info boxes, and so much that John couldn’t process before it was swept away in the scrolling boxes of data. John was overwhelmed and started speculating to himself.

“How the hell do I understand this thing. Is there no menu?”

At that, the text all disappeared, replaced by exactly what John had asked for. A detailed menu of text appeared in front of him. John sighed with relief as he began reading the text.

Welcome to the Exchange Station. Here, you can offer genes for cultivation scrolls. All offerings are random and might never come again. Please select the level of gene you would like to trade.

John selected Advanced. The menu disappeared, replaced by innumerable boxes of text describing what Oliver could only interpret as martial arts. As it turned out, the categories were Mind, Body, and Soul. They were divided by difficulty. One gene was good for anything at the Advanced level.

That seemed immensely better than exchanging multiple genes for a single soul. John perused the list. He certainly wasn’t interested in anything simple. It wouldn’t be worth it if the exchange wasn’t top of the line.

Going to the bottom of the list, he selected an entry that intrigued him. It was called Blast. The details told John that learning it would train his body to expel massive amounts of energy through his attacks.

It sounded cool enough, but John wanted something more practically useful. The next one he inspected was another body cultivation called Frost Bones. The details explained that it developed an immunity to cold weather and ice-based attacks. John could see how that would be effective, but it still wasn’t what he sought.

Then he saw the one at the very bottom of the list. It was called Lunar Radiance. According to the text, this was a soul cultivation meant to balance all aspects of the user. It could maximize endurance, increase pain tolerance, elasticity the skin, and so many minute things that sounded exactly like what John wanted.

Considering it wasn’t even meant as a body cultivation, he could take his time looking for one that complimented Lunar Radiance in the future. If he found a powerful cultivation for his mind, body, and soul, well… he didn’t know what would happen. But he knew he wanted to find out.

John selected Lunar Radiance and the pedestal opened. It was hollow; the stand functioned as a large tube. He knew what it was expecting of him.

Despite his determination, John hesitated. If he threw his gene away, he could have been sacrificing months or years of progress.

The stag horn had given him eight genes. Another eight could make it possible to fully wield his bow. If he gave that up now, who knew when he would make up the difference?

The flesh ooze had been a deadly opponent, but it had no defense and no ability to run. John was certain he would not have such an easy time with any other creature of the same level.

He wrestled with the dilemma for a few moments before making his decision. He pulled the gene from his backpack. Sighing in resignation, he dropped it into the tube.

He knew he could eventually kill another advanced creature. He might even be able to find more flesh oozes in the stream if he was careful. But he would never be able to learn this specific cultivation again.

Perhaps he could find a similar one or even a better one. That wasn’t a sure thing though. And in any case, John really liked the sound of Lunar Radiance.

So he tried not to moan as the gene disappeared down the tube. It made a satisfied chime noise before speaking to him.

“Please proceed to the transition pad.”

John stepped to the center of the pad and waited for whatever would happen. Soon he felt the familiar tugging on his body that signified a transition. In the next second, John was gone.

4

John gasped as the new world materialized around him. He was in a strange artificial space. In front of him was a sunny landscape with numerous pedestals protruding from various angles. There was a pressure switch on each one, and John supposed he was expected to reach each switch through strength or agility.

At the far end of the field was an open doorway. It stood roughly thirty feet up on a rock cliff. The world ended there.

Behind John was a seemingly identical landscape from the first. The only difference was that where there was a sun in front of him, it had been replaced by a moon behind him. He was interrupted in his inspection by the monotonous voice all around him.

“Welcome to the Trial of Lunar Radiance. This is a nonlethal trial, but your safety is not guaranteed. To earn the knowledge of Lunar Radiance, you must first pass all obstacles in the sun district and reach the Hall of Knowledge. Failure of this trial will return you to this location. You may leave at any time and return to this space later. This space will become unavailable if you choose another Trial. Good luck.”

Then there was silence. John felt he was being watched. He took a tentative step onto the first platform in the sun section.

As his feet left the transition pad, John immediately felt that his body was much too heavy. His knees shook under his weight.

More than that, John felt the sun was much hotter than it should have been. Sweat immediately started to coat his face and arms. He felt like he was standing in a sauna.

“What the hell is this?”

John stepped back onto the pad as his knees threatened to buckle. He gasped a breath of relief as the heat subsided. He looked around in confusion.

He stuck his arm out. As it passed the threshold of the transition pad, he felt his hand get heavy. The temperature difference was also immediately apparent compared to the rest of his body.

“Very strange.”

John took a breath and stepped off the pad again. He tried to support himself as the weight pulled at him. It was like walking with sandbags tied to him.

There was no way he could reach the other side. Some of the obstacles were more than ten feet apart, with nothing but open space between them. Shaking his head, John nevertheless jumped for the first ledge.

He underestimated how heavy his body was though. As he jumped, his legs buckled just before he got the leverage he needed. The result was that John looked like one of those cats on the internet that forgot how to jump.

He flopped forward, falling at an alarming rate. His fingertips brushed the bottom of the ledge he was reaching for. Then he was falling like a rock.

Before he smashed ruinously into the ground, a near transparent net appeared under him. It flexed beneath his increased weight before evening out. John took a moment to breathe after realizing he wasn’t about to break anything.

As he panted from the minimal strain, John felt the net moving beneath him. It was raising him back up. When he reached the level of the transport pad, the far end of the net raised even higher.

It served as a pseudo slide. John rolled down to the starting point like a kid on a jungle gym. When he came to a stop, he felt slightly humiliated, but none the worse for wear.

Sure that he could account for the difficulty this time, John tried again. He leapt for the platform, trying his hardest not to mess up his spring. He met with more success, but only marginally.

His entire hand wrapped around the metal bar that served as a last chance to reach the platform before falling. He felt his fingers wrap around it, but almost as soon as his weight settled on his wrist, he fell to the net once more.

John sat panting in the net, frustrated as it returned him to the start. This was turning out to be much more difficult than he could have expected. It was like trying to juggle one handed while also blindfolded.

“What did you expect when you chose the hardest course available. Idiot,” John berated himself.

He knew he had overestimated his own ability. What hurt his pride more was the fact that he was stuck with his choice. That was, unless he wanted to waste the gene he paid to receive it.

John tried a third time, and a fourth, but he was no more successful. The sun was oppressive. The weight even more so. How could he possibly learn Lunar Radiance if he didn’t have what it took to reach even the first platform?

“Wait a second,” John said to himself upon that thought.

He turned to the darkened segment of the course. Again, it looked to be identical to the sunny section in every way. He had more trouble seeing everything, but the moon in the sky was full, so a fair amount of light was put off.

The moon. That was it. That had to be the secret. John had been so focused on the literal passing conditions of the test that he hadn’t taken the time to think about why he was here in the first place.

The skill was called Lunar Radiance. If he had a couple dozen more brain cells, he might have made the connection between the challenge before him and the seemingly unnecessary mirror effect behind him.

John took a step forward, this time entering the dark segment. The moment he stepped to the platform, he felt the difference.

John felt the chill of night air. He felt the cool breeze wash over his body like a tide. It soothed the sweaty fatigue he had accumulated over the last few minutes.

There was no increase in his weight. He felt himself. The differences between the two challenges were as clear as the difference between day and night. Perhaps that was the point, John thought.

With a steadying breath, John leapt for the first platform. Unfortunately, his attempts with increased weight had conditioned his brain to exert himself more. The result was that his jump propelled him further than he could have thought.

John cleared the distance easily, but he had been expecting to grasp the bar to stop his fall. Instead, he bashed his shins across the bar and face-planted onto the pressure plate that indicated his success. It pressed into the ground gently beneath his face.

John rolled over and grabbed his shins with both hands, cradling into the fetal position. He laid there blinking the tears from his eyes for several seconds. That was going to bruise for sure.

When he could stand to... well, stand, John got up and surveyed the next platform. This one was diagonally to the left of his own platform if he was looking from the starting point. That made it impossible to reach from the beginning.

John assumed that most of the challenges would prove the same. It would hardly be called a challenge if he could skip parts of it. Looking at the several platforms he had to reach and surpass, John got an idea of just how difficult a situation he had chosen for himself.

Still, he was no quitter. John took a breath, enjoying the cool air on his lungs. It felt like he was chewing mint gum. His chest seemed to hold onto the cool sensation long after he released the breath.

Focusing back on the task at hand, John saw that the next platform was higher in elevation than his current resting place. This time, he knew he would have to use the bar, no matter how hard he jumped.

His execution proved to be spot on. John reached the bar easily and was able to support his weight as it caught up to his jump. As he dangled from the platform though, the fatigue of his previous attempts in the bright section seemed to catch up with him as well.

He found it hard to pull himself to the top. Having spent no small amount of time on monkey bars as a child though, John knew how to hook a leg in the bar. From there it was a simple, if time consuming process to make it to solid ground.

There, John did his customary pant for breath. The trial was proving much more taxing than he could have possibly imagined. And this wasn’t even the course he needed to pass in order to attain what he came for.

John stood in due time and surveyed what lay ahead. His mouth almost dropped open when he realized what was expected of him.

Connected to this platform was a wall. This was already dissimilar from the first, which had simply been a floating floor. More than that, the wall extended for five feet past the edge of the floor. Another ten feet beyond that was the next island.

His target was, mercifully, lower than the platform he found himself standing on. That was the only thing that gave him any hope of reaching it. Nevertheless, doing so would not be easy.

John could tell at a glance that he was meant to run along the wall before jumping as far as he could to reach the next platform. John had seen people run on walls in movies and video games, but he assumed most of that was imaginative. Here was an opportunity to learn how correct his assumption was.

As it turned out, his assumption was extremely correct, at least for inexperienced teenagers who understood physics as well as a fish understands electricity. John’s feet slid down the wall faster than he could place them. Before he even made it to the end, he was falling.

The faithful net appeared under him just as it had on the other times he had fallen. That did little to reassure him. Especially when he noticed that the net was not raising him to return to where he fell.

The net continued to raise up well above the whole course. Then it tipped him forward. The obstacles he had conquered passed by underneath him as he tumbled back to the start of the course.

“God damnit!” John shouted as he realized he would have to restart the whole course with every failed attempt.

John just laid on the ground for several seconds, feeling his fatigue. He knew he was at his limit for the day. With resignation, John walked back to the transition pad.

“Would you like to abandon this trial?”

The voice spoke to John emotionlessly. Despite that, he felt the sting of the words that sounded oddly jagged in his ears. It was a self admonition that he had failed.

“No,” John said with some heat.

“Do you wish to save this trial for later practice?”

“Yes,” John said.

“Progress saved. You may return at any time by verifying your identity. Beginning transition now.”

John returned to Emerald base defeated. He felt like he should have accomplished something. But the task he unknowingly assigned himself was something no one could have mastered in an hour’s work.

John sighed and sulked his way back to his assigned room. Upon entering, he found another note from Jules. It thanked him for the expedited delivery of the Enhanced gene and even mentioned the location of another creature.

John suspected that like the first, Jules had already known of the beast beforehand. His first letter had been a test of sorts. He expected to have more business than he could handle in the coming weeks.

John supposed that was all for the better. Assuming he didn’t die along the way, he figured it would be great for his development. It also didn’t hurt to have an ally in such an unforgiving world.

John tucked the note away and went straight to the transition pad. His body melted away as he exhaled the stress of the day. When John made it back to his house, he barely had the energy to greet his family before finding his bed and collapsing into it.