SHIVERS-IN-SUNLIGHT

Shivers walked into the desert with the human, Skips-one-Step. Skips wanted to improve her foundational skill and Shivers wanted to help xir friend. Shivers had taken the Longstrider skill on level 5 and Skips had reduced her own skill to that level as well. Shivers noticed her facial expression about this. She seemed to carry a low but persistent level of annoyance about it being at about half the level it normally was. Xe could not fully understand it as xir snails had taught xir the value of patience, but if xe read the facial expression correctly, Skips was not a happy burrower.

“I think we are far enough out there to train but not so far that we can’t use the repository.” Shivers exclaimed.

“So, we can start here?” Skips asked.

Shivers confirmed: “Indeed. Did you already slot in some possible secondary skills? Or do you need a moment?”

Skips shook her head: “I don’t need more time right now. I had a while to think about what could be helpful. I took Accelerated Reaction Speed, Enhanced Spatial Awareness, Recovery,...”

Shivers nodded: “These sounds akin to what I have taken. I have also checked the repository and chosen Enhanced Agility.”

Shivers saw Skips having a rather vacant expression for a moment. Shen Skips responded: “Good call on that! I took that one just now.”

With the equivalent of a smile, Shivers said: “Then, we should race to the big dune over there,” xe pointed xir tail in the direction.

Skips wanted to be certain: “The wide one, or the large one behind it?”

Shivers wanted to get this over with fast. While xe liked helping Skips-one-Step, her fascination with levelling her foundational skill seemed strange and largely quixotic: “I was thinking about the wide one. The other one seems quite a bit away.”

“Okay then, If that is too short, we can decide to extend our run. If you wish, that is!” Skips suggested.

“I guess,” Shivers didn’t sound too enthusiastic.

Skips looked onto the ground: “Am I bothering you?”

Shivers wanted to say yes, but stopped: “I am not bothered, I am confused. I understand that you say that this is important for you, but I don’t get it. You could just use more strength and carry more supplies without trying to force this breakthrough. It seems kinda irrational to me.” Xe felt bad as soon as these words left xir mouth.

Skips paused for a moment, her expression seemingly taking the idea and turning it in front of her mental eye: “Maybe it is. But realising that it is kinda irrational and doing something against it is not the same. I guess, I want to have the ability to get myself away from things that are deeply harmful to my health or sanity – and help others to get out of harm’s way as well.”

Shivers looked pensive: “Is that a concern that you have?”

Skips nodded: “It is. I might have failed once. When I was very young. I remember very little of it.”

Shivers looked shocked: “You never told me.”

Skips nodded: “The problem is that I remember very little. And my father not only never wanted to talk about it, he wanted me to not know. He tried to make me forget. What I do know since then is that I always wanted to be faster. Even as a kid a long time before I integrated.”

Shivers put an arm on Skips’ weirdly exposed body. The human had no exoskeleton to keep her safe and yet, she insisted on running at speeds where every obstacle was a serious risk to her health. Xe could not understand this, but with the explanation, it shifted into a different shape: With no exoskeleton, maybe staying sometimes was far more painful than leaving. “Oh. I am so sorry. I didn’t know.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Skips hugged Shivers: “It’s okay. I never wanted to talk about this. I often prefer to run from my issues.”

Shivers smiled: “I get you. I preferred to hide from my vision issues in the snail caves and I got an ability that complements that. Sometimes the system is quite understanding of folks.”

Skips pondered that and nodded: “I guess so.”

A while later, they were exhausted and frustrated. What they learned during their runs was that they were missing something. They were not able to synergise these skills fully. It seemed that there was something missing. They had tried different sets of skills from the repository. Eventually, Shivers gave up and returned to the settlement to burrow and sleep.

JAARU ANIIK

The rank 62 Dungeon in Windrush was only delveable by appointment and while there was no level requirement, people looked at her as if she had a death wish. Yes, she was level 100, but she didn’t look the part and restrained her aura, mostly as a matter of courtesy. In fact, her equipment looked more like what you’d wear if you prepared to sleep rough, not fight things much bigger and stronger than she was before a certain harebrained trip across the spiral arm of the galaxy. An elderly, grandmotherly looking employee who was hiding a necklace with a pre-integration religious symbol, a cross, Riinjit, asked her into a back office to finish some paperwork. Jaaru asked the others to keep her sister safe and followed her.

She led Jaaru into a tiny room that looked like a mixture between an office and a broom closet. The room was so small that even laying down would be difficult and there were no windows. There was only one chair and she asked Jaaru to sit down. As she did, Riinjit used a minor calming social spell. The kind that retail employees would use to accompany deescalating demeanour with. “You know that this is voluntary, right? You do not have to delve this dungeon and even if you do, you can quit at any time. You are aware of that, I assume?”

Jaaru nodded: “I am, yeah.”

Riinjit proceeded to ask: “Is anyone making you do this?”

Jaaru looked at the employee and wondered what her deal was. Then, she responded: “I mean, this is Init’s idea, but not really.”

Riinjit’s eyes opened in shock: “If someone is making you do this, I can call the authorities for you! You don’t have to do this! I have resources to help you out of this… whatever your particular ‘this’ might be.”

Jaaru flared her aura for a moment: “I am aware that this is a rank 62 dungeon and it will have ranked threats. I am delving with the expectation of making it out alive and eating a bowl of noodles with spring onion later.”

Riinjit tried to take a step back only to hit the door with her backside. Her entire demeanour changed from the caring grandmother persona (or worksona) to a scared one: “I am so, so sorry! I didn’t know you were high level.”

Jaaru smiled: “No problem! Just maybe Inspect people before jumping to conclusions.”

Riinjit looked relieved: “I am only level 2. So, I am not able to see the level of folks more than 5 levels higher than me. With the level of the dungeon, I would be concerned for a Level 7 sauntering in. And, not to be rude, but…” she paused and Jaaru felt the social spell strengthen, “your equipment looks like it came out of the local charity shop.”

Jaaru did a lopsided grin: “It did. But it got me to level 100, so it can’t be too bad.”

Riinjit now actually trembled: “I… I was unaware! Please don’t hold it against me!”

Jaaru used her own calming presence on the woman, who seemed to immediately steady herself: “Please! Don’t worry! I won’t hold anything here against you. I am just here to help my sis level.”

Riinjit looked a bit shocked: “She is the lower-levelled one? She seemed much more confident.”

Jaaru breathed in. She could not disclose her insane levelling speed or her weird class. “I am just not much of a morning person.”

Riinjit nodded: “I understand. I am sorry to bother you. We just need to avoid Suicide by Dungeon as much as possible as it is bad publicity.”

SKIPS-ONE-STEP

The sun was slowly creeping over the mountains near the horizon. Skips felt tired enough to fall asleep in the sand right then and there, but she could not let herself go. She had to find a way to extend her Longstrider skill. She used her Recovery skill to heal the damages in her legs from the sand. “Ach, humbug! Not having an exoskeleton sucks!” she murmured. “The sand tends to be annoying. My legs always end up hurting after running too much and I ran most of the night!” She thought for a few moments, as she returned to the area of the repository. She had taken the nicks from sand and stones and taken them for granted, but now she wondered if there was something that could prevent this. It would only get worse at higher levels. Maybe this was the missing puzzle piece. As soon as she was in range, she checked the repositories for any hardening or repelling skills. Obviously none of the former existed as the Scorpions-of-Tsanh featured a formidable exoskeleton. There was a skill named Deflect, that, according to the description, was designed to avoid skitterbugs during their migration, if out in the desert. She decided to run one more try before she called this a night.