Sarah woke up, feeling like she had been hit on the head the other day. She felt groggy and weak, and actually just wanted to go back to sleep to recuperate from her brain mutation.
But her stomach grumbled, like it would soon start to digest itself. A look at her near-empty Magic Power told her that this was actually not that far from reality. With her constitution, empty Magic Power led to her digestion system consuming her own body. Pretty nasty way to go.
So even though she felt like lying on the ground for at least another day, she had to stand up. Contrary to her expectations, she didn’t feel any vertigo at all. She even had the feeling that moving felt entirely different than before.
She couldn’t put a finger on it, but it definitely had to do with her mutated brain and the raised dexterity. She felt like, up until now, she had moved like a duck without legs.
This strange but enticing feeling made her forget her muddled state, and she wanted to experience more. So she ran towards the exit of the cave and made her way down the steep cliff.
It was amazing. It felt completely effortless to climb down the cliff. She felt every movement of her body and somehow knew exactly how to shift and position her body.
"That’s definitely worth the lost point in intelligence." Sarah tried to somehow see the positive side of this particular position on her status screen.
She jumped down the last few meters and landed with a loud thump on the ground. She heard a shocked gasp from the side and noticed a guy on the ground, with a basket full of mushrooms next to him.
Sarah gave the man a smile, which she thought should be very friendly. "Mind if I snag a few of them?"
Humming happily, she left the exhausted looking man behind while holding the basket of mushrooms in her hands.
"You mustn’t eat them raw!" The man shouted behind her, but she just ignored him.
"So delicious." She mumbled with a full mouth, already gorging on the raw mushrooms.
Though she had already made the effort to collect some food, she went to the kitchen area anyway. She was looking forward to eating something cooked.
The people she encountered while walking through the camp had mixed reactions towards her. Some seemed to be afraid of her and hurriedly went out of her way. Others respectfully nodded, and some even came over to thank her for what she had done. It felt really good to be appreciated.
To her disappointment, it seemed like the last mealtime was already over and the kitchen team was taking a break. But not everyone.
Xavier was sitting next to a large pot made out of stone, heating it up with his bare hands.
Even though she wouldn’t get something cooked for now, she would get something else.
"Hi Xavier." She greeted the lanky man, standing directly behind him.
He shot up with a high-pitched screech and nearly toppled over the big pot.
"H-h-hi S-Sarah." He stuttered and tried to back away. "You see, I h-have something important to do. See you around."
With these words, he turned around and already wanted to run away. But Sarah grabbed him by his collar and held him in place.
"Where are you going, my friend?" She told the gagging Xavier, who was dangling in her grip, "You still have to show me how to do your fire thingy."
She let down the struggling man, who rubbed his sore throat with a despondent look on his face. "Can I go when I show you?" he asked with an insecure voice.
"Sure!" Sarah promised him and put an arm around his shoulders.
Xavier surrendered to his fate and led her to a pile of wood some distance away from the kitchen area. He took one large piece and laid it down in a circle of stones.
He sat down with a sigh and held his hands above the wood. "What do you want to know?" he asked in a lifeless voice.
"So I already know that you really wanted to make fire. Is it always necessary to have a strong wish to be able to do something to gain a specialization?" Sarah asked curiously.
"According to Tobias, yes. But I am really no expert in this area. I just know how it was for me, and it is just as you described." Xavier answered her, with a bit more energy. He seemed to like to talk about himself.
"And when I use the skill, I kind of… channel the magic power through my hands outside of my body. I also change the… uhm, how to say this." He scratched his head and squinted his eyes in concentration. "I guess you can say I changed the… structure of the magic power somehow. Before I use the skill, the magic power is raw, like before you cook something. And with the use of the skill, I refine the magic and change what it does. Does this make sense to you?"
Sarah thought about it for a moment, then nodded in understanding. She knew this feeling very well from her invasion skill.
"Now show me." She demanded from him and fully concentrated on her magic sense. A second layer of reality seemed to superimpose itself over her vision, and she started to feel the errant energy around her.
Xavier nodded and started using his skill. Colorless energy gathered in his hands and started to press out of his palms. Something was happening there as it changed colors to a dim red. The energy disappeared from there on, and instead, the air started to distort a little and the wood started to heat up.
When the wood started burning, Xavier already wanted to stand up.
But Sarah grabbed his arm and held him back. "Do it again." She demanded, and Xavier held his hands up with a sigh.
She let him do it over and over again, but she wasn’t able to understand, what exactly happened with his magic power. She also tried a few times, but she only managed to gather a miniscule amount of magic power in her palms.
"Can I go now?" Xavier asked in a weak and raspy voice, after having used his skill for the twentieth time. He looked pretty pale by now and had difficulty staying upright.
Just as Sarah wanted to demand that he do it one last time, another voice interrupted her.
"You can go now, Xavier. The kitchen team will need you later."
Sarah looked to her right, and saw Andrew walking towards them. Xavier didn’t wait a second and scrambled to his feet. He staggered away as fast as he could.
"You can’t just do things like this to the people here." Andrew told her with a frown on his face.
"But you can do to them what you want, it seems. Including ordering me around every time you see me." Sarah retorted, stepping right in front of him.
Andrew flinched and averted his gaze. "This is different…" he started but was interrupted by Sarah.
"How is this any different? Explain to me, how do you think it is okay what you are doing."
Andrew sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. "Listen, why don’t we talk about it some other time? I have…"
Sarah interrupted him again. She wasn’t going to listen to him make excuses again. "Now listen, fish-face."
"Fish-face?" Andrew asked flusteredly, but she didn’t care to answer.
"You are super sketchy. Objectively, it seems like you are helping everyone. But you are manipulating everyone’s feelings behind their backs. Give me a good reason not to believe that you are some power-hungry pervert."
Andrew opened and closed his mouth a few times, unintentionally giving his recent nickname credibility.
His expressionless face seemed to crack when he sighed and sat down on the ground. His shoulders were hanging down, as if a large weight was pressing down on him.
"Everybody knows what I am doing. They trust me, and I will only use this ability to calm them down or to help us get over difficult situations."
"And do you only use it for that?"
Andrew looked up at her, a pained expression in his eyes. "I’d love to say yes. But honestly? Sometimes I use my skill without knowing it. It often suffices for me to want someone to feel a certain way, and it is activated by itself. Apart from that, I have another skill that is always active, passively influencing the people around me. And I can't turn this one off."
He held up his hand, just as Sarah wanted to say something in response. "I know that this is not a justification for doing it. I am doing my best to avoid situations like this. But I am only human. How am I supposed to just…"
He looked at his hands, trying to somehow find the answers he was looking for. "How am I supposed to lead these people? How can I avoid abusing my skills? And these questions only matter, if we survive winter."
Sarah looked down at the slumped-down figure. Andrew was looking so small and frail right now. If she hadn’t known it was him, she would have never recognized him.
Sarah sat down next to Andrew, who was still looking at his open hands.
"I know that these are no answers. But I honestly don’t have any for you." Andrew told her, and let out a joyless laugh. "I don’t even have the answers for myself."
Andrew hesitated for a moment, then let out a small chuckle. "You know, this is the first time I've told someone about these thoughts of mine. And it honestly feels good. You are the first person I met who doesn't expect me to be a perfect person and to have all the answers."
For some time, they just sat silently next to each other until Sarah punched Andrew in the shoulder.
He shouted in surprise and held his aching shoulder. "What was that for?!"
Sarah looked at him with squinted eyes while rubbing her chin. "You see, I first thought you were just a sly goody two shoes. But you seem to honestly care about the people who trust you. So now you are a slightly likable fish-face."
"Thank you… I guess." Andrew said with a crooked smile on his face. "But why fish-face?"
"I can not help you if you don’t know for yourself." Sarah answered with a sigh while shaking her head.
"You are very strange, you know that, right?"
"Oh yes, I know that."
The two of them looked at each other before laughing out loud. They laughed way too much, as the situation wasn’t very funny to begin with. But they both had a lot of tension built up inside them, and the laughter lessened their burden a little.
When they both calmed down a bit, Sarah reached out a hand to him. "Let’s be friends."
Andrew nodded with a slight smile and shook her hand. "I’d love to."
"So now that we have that out of the way," Sarah told him while pulling him closer to her. Their faces were very close now, and a furious blush crept over Andrew’s face.
"Show me your status screen."
"My.. my what?" Andrew stuttered while trying to gain some distance from her.
"Show me your status screen."
"I don’t…"
"Status screen."
"Can’t we talk about…"
"Status. Screen."
Andrew gave up his efforts to free himself of her grip and sighed. "Alright, alright. But please let go of my hand. It feels like you want to squeeze the blood out of it."
Sarah let him go, and shortly after, she saw the status screen of another person for the first time.
Details:
Level: 9
Name: Andrew Gruber
Class: None
Race: Human
Status: Equilibrium (Permanent)
HP: 120/120 SP: 30/50 MP: 110/130
Achievements:
* Medicine can be poisonous.
Affinities:
Soul (High) Body (Low)
Specialisations:
Soul (2/3)
Equilibrium
Domination
Body (1/1)
Adaptation
Basic Stats:
Strength: 6
Dexterity: 9
Endurance: 4
Resistance: 4
Intelligence: 26
Force: 11
Special Stats:
Magic Power: 9
Soul Power: 11
Life Force: 4
Active Skills:
Emotion manipulation (Equilibrium): For moderate magic power consumption, you are able to influence another person’s emotions to a certain degree.
Emotion overdrive (Domination): You are able to overdrive certain emotions in another being. This might permanently cripple their mind.
Passive Skills:
Equilibrium (Equilibrium): You are unable to feel extreme emotions and are always in a state of equilibrium. In a certain area of yourself, people will be slightly influenced by this skill.
Poison resistance (Adaption): You are slightly resistant to various poisons. Higher effectiveness if the substance is in your digestive system.
Fast recovery (Adaption): You need less sleep and rest to recover from mental and physical fatigue. Regeneration is also slightly increased while sleeping.
Struggle (Conditional passive)
Sarah looked up from the status screen after studying it for some time. Andrew stood there and scratched his head in embarrassment.
The basic stat Force that had confused her for so long finally made sense to her. While she only got more points in it after reaching level ten, Andrew already had eleven points in it. So logically, it must have something to do with the soul. Or in this sense, with the strength of the soul. Whatever that meant.
Sarah forcefully ignored the fact that Andrew’s intelligence was a few points higher than hers and went closer to him.
"Domination sounds really badass. You've got some nice skills there."
"You don’t think it sounds too… evil?" Andrew asked her with an atypically insecure voice.
"Ohhh yes, it definitely sounds evil." Sarah answered him with a wide smile, which prompted Andrew to press his lips together in frustration.
"But that’s not something bad. I seriously doubt that you would come far in this world without having the means to scare the shit out of everyone who wants to harm you." Sarah explained to him. For some reason, though, he still didn’t seem all that happy with her view. "And I also don’t trust people who are only good. There is no bright side, without a dark one."
Andrew finally smiled a little and patted her shoulders. "Thanks… I guess. I feel a little less like a hidden villain now. Or no, scratch that. I don’t feel bad about it anymore."
"That’s my boy!" Sarah shouted and slapped his back so hard that he nearly fell over.
"You really have to work on that." Andrew reprimanded her while he was coughing and wheezing.
"You’re fine." Sarah told him absentmindedly while looking for her mushrooms. But they were nowhere to be seen. This sneaky Xavier must have taken them with him.
"You can’t just… You know what? It doesn’t matter." Andrew resigned and looked at her with a complicated expression. "I was actually looking for you. I need to ask you for your help. We are honestly in a really desperate situation. And no one else is as strong as you are."
"Let’s hear about it." Sarah answered, intrigued by what Andrew could want from her.
"I want to ask you to find Kevin and his men. And I want you to kill them."