Chapter 7: Unwanted Visitor

If not for the timer going off, Zach would’ve fallen into a deep sleep. Since they knew the mobs took thirty minutes per respawn, they’d changed the timer from a stopwatch to an alarm. And now, it blared loudly in an annoying, repetitive chirp as both he and Kalana groaned and sat up. For a brief instant, Zach forgot where he was or what he was doing. Then he shook his head and, realizing that this would be the last spawn needed to level, quickly regained his energy. Kalana…not so much. She merely rubbed her eyes and lazily extended her arm to shut off the alarm.

Zach had gotten little sleep the night prior, and Kalana was simply exhausted in general. So it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the previous few hours had been pretty rough. The past few spawns in particular had taken a whole lot of willpower; for the last three in a row, the two of them had dozed off together during the thirty minutes it took for the mobs to respawn. No matter what happened today or how excited it might make him, Zach knew he would get a really, really good night’s sleep when he got home and showered.

“This’s the last one, right?” Kalana asked with a yawn, stretching her arms.

Zach was so exhausted that he almost didn’t care that she’d napped with her head on his chest. This kind of thing would normally have sent his heart rate into overdrive, but because he himself was so close to collapsing into a sleep-coma, it was merely something he’d observed, stored away in his head for later, and then ignored for the moment.

“We’re going to level-up after we take these three down, Kal. This is the big moment.”

“Yep,” she said with another yawn.

She really isn’t in this for the power, Zach thought. It wasn’t that he’d doubted what she’d said earlier, but it was more that it was just something that was hard to appreciate—or rather understand. The idea that someone could be given the opportunity to become stronger than almost everyone on the planet and…and still the only thing she cared about was the adventure of it all? That was amazing.

She’s special. No more lying to myself. I’m falling for her bad. Tomorrow, I’m going to ask her out on a date. Not a friend-thing but a real, actual date. That’s it. I’ve made my mind up.

Zach chuckled to himself as he realized he’d exhausted himself to the point of accidental honesty. He could no longer deny these powerful feelings he had for Kalana. He liked her: really liked her. He almost wanted to use a stronger word than “like,” but his brain fearfully blocked that off and shut it down. He couldn’t go there. He wasn’t ready to even think, let alone say that.

“What’s so funny?” Kalana asked. Zach stared at her in confusion a moment before realizing she was referring to the fact he’d just chuckled.

“Nothing,” he said.

“Weirdo.”

She again stretched, yawned, and briefly stood on her tiptoes while arching her back. “Let’s finish this. I’m gonna pass out soon. We’re never doing this again.”

Alarmed, Zach asked, “What do you mean? Leveling?”

“No, no,” she said, waving her hand at him. “I mean this. Trying to…what’s a good word to use? I’m too tired to think and you’re the book nerd. I’m talking about sitting here and doing this all day and night in one shot.”

Zach shrugged. “Grind?”

She smiled at him and her eyebrows rose slightly. “Actually, yeah, that’s the best word for what this is. You nailed it. Yeah. Grind. We’re never grinding a whole day in here like this again. Especially since I think it’s gonna take us way longer to get to level 4. Neither of us are Dwarves. It’s bad to stay in a place like this all day, you know? And yuck! We’re probably gonna smell like river moss and dirt for a week. I don’t think people were ever meant to fight level-1s over and over like this.”

“True, but it’s not like we have a lot of options—or any.” He grinned. “But I’m happy enough just to have anything at all. Now, let’s go get ‘em.”

She gave a thumbs-up, and then the two of them moved towards the three mobs that had now respawned. Even though he knew it would only be temporary, Zach was now wide awake, alert, and gushing with energy. Kalana, though, was still just as haggard and sleepy. She lifted her dagger and called forth her lightning even as she continued to yawn a third time. Then she immediately took a seat on the ground with her feet kicked out in front of her.

“Okay, those two are all yours,” she said, handing him her dagger. He half bent forward and grabbed it, not even worried about the two roaring, dog-sized frogs that he knew were rushing towards him.

Having done this literally all day, Zach was now so accustomed to the movement of the two giant frogs that he could probably dodge them with his eyes closed. That wasn’t an exaggeration, either, as he actually had sort of closed his eyes at one point during the last fight and still managed to get out of their way. He’d had to borrow Kalana’s dagger because he could no longer be bothered throwing full-strength punches at them. Two spawns ago, he’d been so tired he’d actually struck one for 0 damage. He hadn’t even known that was possible.

Thankfully, the dagger, combined with his pretty-much expert knowledge of all things giant frog, meant that he could swiftly circle around their air-jump attack—which was the one and only attack they ever did—and slash a few times to easily dispose of them. First, he took down the one on his right, using the bare minimum exertion needed to hit for 2 damage per slash, and then, suddenly becoming far, far more awake, he slashed the second frog four times quickly then paused. By now, he and Kalana had long-since figured out that the rat could only take 10 damage and the frogs could only take 11 damage before dying. The next attack would kill the frog.

“Kalana, stop dozing off. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for.”

To her credit, she did seem to become more alert, her eyes snapping open immediately. After all, Zach knew for sure that she did care about this. When not fatigued, she could almost be as excited by the idea of leveling up as he was. It was just that she seemed to view this as more of something “fun” for them to do together, which Zach reasoned was why she lacked the sense of urgency that he had.

Standing up to her feet, she stood close enough to Zach that the two of them were now shoulder to shoulder. For whatever reason, this caused the frog to roar at her instead of him, jumping in the air and kicking out at her. But like Zach, she’d been at this all day too, and so she merely pivoted on her feet and spun her body out of the way.

“Okay, here we go.” Zach handed her back her dagger, which she took with a nod. Then he ran forward, kicked out with his foot, and with the heel of it slamming into the giant frog’s face, he ended the creature all on his own. Briefly, +2xp floated above the thing’s head, and then an instant later, two sets of those glorious words finally appeared before he and Kalana respectively. Zach held his breath as he read them, becoming giddy with joy and amazement.

Level up!

+1 str (3)

+1 dex (2)

+1 con (3)

Boundless Acquired!

“We did it!” he shouted in victory as he glanced over to Kalana, who smiled back at him. He wasn’t sure if it was real or imagined, but he actually felt more powerful. He straightened his back, clenched and unclenched his fists. His confidence grew. He felt bold, alive, sure of himself. And then…then he saw Kalana’s level-up, and his jaw dropped so low he was surprised it didn’t fall off his face like a cartoon.

Level up!

+3 dex (5)

+3 int (7)

+4 spd (5)

Falling Star Acquired!

Dagger Flame Acquired!

Lesser Lightning Strike Acquired!

Lesser Healing Acquired!

Kalana looked first at Zach, then back at her level-up. Then she looked at Zach a second time. Then her level-up. Then she looked at Zach a third time and then once more her level-up. Finally, she met his gaze, smiled innocently, and scratched her curly-haired head while delivering a stupid, awkward-sounding laugh.

“Um, um…yours was way cooler,” she squeaked nervously.

Zach sighed, then shrugged. “At this point, I’m still just happy to be the second most powerful person anyone will have ever seen.”

“Aww!” she said excitedly. Then Zach couldn’t help but widen his eyes as she came closer to him and kissed him. It was brief to be sure, but it was on the lips and it made him almost forget what a level-up or a stat point even was. He couldn’t believe how soft her lips felt. He couldn’t believe she’d even done that at all. It had all happened so quickly and so unexpectedly that he wasn’t sure what to say. She, on the other hand, had no problems finding words.

“Hey, I bet your new ability is super-duper cool.”

Zach smiled at her. She was trying so hard that he couldn’t even be mad. If she was right, then leveling-up brought out the true power contained within each person, and if this was how strong Kalana was, then he was just glad to know her.

“All right, let’s see what it is. You sure you don’t want to check yours first?”

“Nah-uh. You go.” She balled her hands into fists and raised them to her cheeks as if excited. “Boundless sounds so cool!”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Zach laughed, tapped his right shoulder four times, and then held his finger in place. Counting to five, he released his shoulder then gave another two quick taps. The names of his abilities appeared in front of him immediately in easily readable black text.

Wave Slash

Boundless

Even before knowing a single thing about his new ability, a tingle in the back of his head caused him to suddenly become aware that he could…that he could “do” something. He had no idea what that something might be, but it was simply there, in the back of his mind. It was almost like it’d always been there and he’d never noticed. It required as much mental cognition as wiggling his toes. He wondered if having a sword on him would awaken that same sense of awareness with his other ability, Wave Slash.

Let’s see what this new one does.

He lifted his hand, extended his pointer finger, and then touched the air in front of him where the word “Boundless” floated in bold black lettering.

(Inner Ability) Boundless (UNIQUE)

The next non-damaging, non-repeating spell, ability, equipment ability, or item ability can be used regardless of range unless a target is required, in which case the user must be within seeing distance. Cannot be used with abilities that aid in charming or card-capture. Cannot be used to target or affect card-based summons. Exertion Level: Very Low.

Zach couldn’t help himself. He didn’t know if it was the stress, the humidity, his fatigue, or even if he was slightly losing his mind: before he had even finished reading the description, he burst into a fit of laughter so loud that the power and loudness of it almost blasted him off his feet. He laughed so hard that it became an issue for him to breathe or even stand up straight. Worse, just as he thought he was going to get himself under control, Kalana’s cheeks puffed up, and then she too started laughing, which only set him off again.

“I’m…I’m sorry, Zach,” she said, laughing so hard that tears began to form in her eyes. “The next ability will b-b-be better. This was just bad luck!”

“S-st-stop,” Zach choked out. He needed to breathe. He backed away and leaned against the wall with tears forming in his own eyes. “Oh my Gods above, why am I laughing so hard? I suck so much it’s actually funny even to me.”

Wiping his eyes, he finally got himself under control, and so did Kalana. “Okay, look,” he began, “you’re probably right. I’m still happy just to be leveled up. Not everything is about me. Let’s check out your abilities. They’re probably amazing.”

She scrunched her lips. “No, I bet they suck.”

“Kal!”

“Okay, okay. But they’re probably not that good. Don’t feel bad.”

“I don’t. Sheesh.”

Kalana brought out the list of her abilities the moment that Zach removed his. Although it required a sequence of touches to bring forth information such as stats or abilities, oddly enough, the only requirement to dismissing them was to simply will them away. Moving closer so that he could see, Zach stood by Kalana’s side and watched as her list of abilities popped into existence in the air before her.

Torch

Falling Star

Dagger Flame

Lesser Lightning Strike

Lesser Healing

Kalana reached out to touch one of the ability names, then paused. “Zach, read it out loud for me. I wanna be surprised and hear it in your voice. It’s more fun that way.”

He nodded. “Sure, fine.”

“It’s not gonna be that good,” she said. “If I got four new abilities, they’re probably all really weak. They can’t be that great.”

Zach had to admit she had a point. “True.”

She tapped the words Falling Star with her right pointer finger, and then the names of the abilities below it moved downwards as if to make space for the letters that now began appearing in their place. “Okay, I’m closing my eyes. I’m nervous. I bet it’s gonna be so bad.”

“We’ll see.” Zach cleared his throat and began to read. “It says, ‘Inner Ability. Falling Star. The user calls down a…a…’” He gasped. “A meteor?”

Once more, Zach broke into a laughing fit at the exact same time as Kalana, which either intentionally or accidentally caused the entire explanation to disappear along with the names of the rest of her abilities. “I’m t-too tired,” she said, laughing even louder. “I can’t do this now.”

Zach shook his head. “No way. We have to read that now. Did it say you can summon a gods-be-damned meteor? What in all four layers of hell?”

“I’m tired,” Kalana said, her face once more looking so innocent that it was almost enough to fool him. “Can’t we do this later?”

“If you’re worried about my ego, don’t be. In fact, I’m not surprised by this at all. You did say you’re from some kind of like royal, super-ancient Elvish family, right?”

“Mhm.”

“So you probably come from a bloodline that has tremendous power in it. But wait. I’ve met your dad. He’s a construction worker and level-1 like everyone else. If he was really the son of the king, wouldn’t he be…?”

Kalana exhaled, and the look of sadness in her eyes immediately made Zach regret broaching the topic. “My family hasn’t had access to hunting grounds for over a hundred years. I doubt most humans have any idea what your kind has been doing to us in secret for a very, very long time. In another world, I would’ve grown up and had my own private grounds filled with spawn points to level off of. But neither my dad or my grandfather grew up knowing a whole lot more about leveling than you or the other humans around here do.”

As all the humor drained from Kalana’s expression, Zach decided to say nothing in reply. In truth, there were so, so, so many things he wanted to ask her. He had a million-and-one questions. He wanted to know more about her family, her history, and just about everything in between. Yet he knew the subject hurt her emotionally, so he decided he’d never again bring it up unless it was for a reason so important it was worth hurting her for. And what could possibly be worth hurting Kal?

“You sure you don’t want to read up on your new abilities?”

“I will, later. When I get home.”

“Away from me?” he asked her with a laugh.

She smiled, the pain evaporating from her face. She stepped forward, poked him in his chest and then said, “We’ll learn about them together.”

“But it’s the middle of the night,” Zach said. “And you just told me you’re going to read what they do when you get home.”

Kalana smiled at him, and there was something almost sinister in the grin that popped up on her face. “You could sleep over.”

Zach’s heart began firing off like a machine-gun. An acidic, nervous excitement swelled up in his belly that reminded him of how he felt before a big drop on a rollercoaster. With every bit of willpower he had, he made a casual shrug, turned over his palms, and muttered, “Uh, yeah, that could be fun.”

With that, Kalana spun around, giggled, and began walking back the way they’d come. Zach hurried after her and grabbed the duffle-bag. It was only then that he realized he loved her. He probably had for a long time but could never admit it. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how stupid he’d been for missing the signals she’d been sending him for these past few months. For these past two years, really. But especially these past few months. He knew then he would stay by her side forever. Nothing would ever take her away from him.

****

As the Elvish prince growled and screamed into his gag, Varsh cracked him hard enough across the face that his nose broke and blood began to pour out of his nostrils like an open-faucet. Yet still, his eyes remained wide with defiance and fury. Even as he dripped blood from his missing right thumb and his left pinky toe, which Seraphina had cut off him for refusing to answer their questions, he did not beg for mercy.

Varsh looked around this disgusting apartment that this so-called “prince” and his daughter lived in like rats. Like animals. The floorboards were old, squeaky, and not entirely clean. The ceiling lights flickered as if needing to be changed. The air-conditioning barely worked. The tiles in the kitchen floor were faded. Even the walls seemed ready to crumble. And the dust? Whew boy. Who would willingly live like this? The people who lived in this city were basically animals and not really worthy of being called “people.” That went for human and Elf.

“Being poor like this is a choice,” he muttered. “I know it’s not considered in good taste to say that, but it’s true.”

“It is,” Seraphina said with a chuckle. “They call you an elitist these days when you speak the truth.”

“Speaking of speaking the truth…” Varsh lowered the prince’s gag and then spat right in his face. “Where is your daughter, ‘prince’ Eldora Vayra? Tell me where she is or we’re going to have to hurt you some more.”

“She doesn’t live here,” he said, his voice weak. He almost choked on his own blood as it poured down his nose, over his lips, and then dripped off his cheek and onto his floor. Some of it got into his mouth, but he didn’t seem to care. He was a strong man for being a pitiful One. Seriously, the prince of his entire race, and he was level-1. It was so pathetic. It really was. He was apparently a construction worker of all things. It was laughable! Ones were such slobs and they lived like them, too. How could anyone feel anything other than pure revulsion and disgust for these so-called ‘people’?

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Varsh asked him. “I know she lives here.” He extended his arm behind himself and pointed. “That’s her Gods-damned room.”

“She moved out recently. Kill me if you must, but you won’t find her here.”

“I don’t believe you. And what’s more, I—”

“Varsh!” Seraphina called out, interrupting him.

He glared at her. “Don’t interrupt me when I’m—”

“There’s sounds coming from the hallway.”

“So?”

“It’s the middle of the night…”

His eyebrows rose, and he grinned. At the same time, a look of absolute, wild fear shot into the tired, run-down face of the Elvish prince, and that alone spoke volumes more than any words he could ever utter. Licking his lips, Varsh lifted his chin at Seraphina, gesturing for her to be ready. Just then, a knock came from the door. With another gesture to Seraphina, she returned a nod and then swiftly moved over to the apartment door, opening it.

“Hey, El, I know it’s real late and all but I saw your light on. I was just wondering if I could bum some beer off—”

Varsh watched as Seraphina grabbed a portly, bearded, and clearly inebriated middle-aged man by the scruff of his neck and then tossed him into the apartment like he weighed the same as a paperclip. The man stumbled forward, his hazel-colored eyes widening in fear. He fell forward onto his stomach as Seraphina slammed the door shut.

“The hell is this?” he shouted out, stumbling up into a crouch. “El, what are you—why are you all tied up to a chair?”

“Who is this?” Varsh asked. He spoke to the prince, as he would not demean himself by actually speaking words to a drunk idiot.

“He’s just my neighbor,” the prince-turned-construction-worker said. “He means you no harm. He lives across the hall with his son, Zachys. Please let him go.”

“Who’d’a hell are you people?” the man grunted, nearly falling in his attempt to get back to his feet. “I should smack you in your gods-damned teeth.”

Varsh recoiled slightly in disgust. “Seraphina, throw this subhuman trash out of the window.”

She giggled and rolled her eyes—then a moment later, narrowed them. “Wait, you mean literally?”

“Yes, literally. Literally throw him out of the window, please.”

“Awesome.”

Though she fought with a bladed weapon, her power came from her speed and dexterity. She was only a meager 15 in strength. Even still, that was more than enough to drag a One by his throat. Hell, she could probably carry him with a single finger. The man choked and gasped as she dragged him over to the larger of two windows near the side of the apartment that offered a decent aerial view of the city. In truth, Whispery Woods looked beautiful from a distance and decent from out of an upper-floor window. It was only when you were actually inside the buildings or standing directly in front of them that you could see just how poorly the city was holding up. Also, the streets were becoming filthier and progressively worse maintained by the day.

“G-g-get the hell off me!” he screamed his feet kicking as Seraphina dragged him. With a crack, he knocked a glass vase off a table, and then the apartment filled with the sound of it shattering. Then there was a lower, but heavier thud as he kicked out and knocked over a couch across from the TV. Finally, Seraphina had him just by the window, where his fate seemed to finally dawn on him.

“No, you wouldn’t,” he whispered. “Hey, look, I got a kid. I haven’t been the best father. I told myself I’d make it up someday. Planning to do it, too, so please. Please don’t—”

“Wow, shut up already.”

Seraphina did not even look at him as she casually tossed him over her shoulder and out of the window with a deafening crack as his body soared through it. Across the street, lights began to flicker on from previously dark apartments, likely at the sound of the man’s blood-curdling scream as he plunged dozens of stories to his certain death.

“Okay, so where were we?” Varsh asked. Now that some drunken trash no one would ever care about had been disposed of, he returned his attention to the prince.

***

“What…what is this?” Zach asked, falling to his knees on the sidewalk as his pants became soaked with a crimson red stain. People were running out of their apartments and into the streets. The sound of peacekeeper sirens began to grow louder, approaching from somewhere in the distance. Zach felt the tears running down his eyes even as he outright refused to believe that the bloodied, mangled, and deformed man lying in front of him with his arms twisted at impossible angles was his father. “Kalana…Kalana what…what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Zach, I…I don’t know.”