Keynes was still trying to grapple with understanding what Lem Solaris was telling him about Talents and skills. Not everything was new to Keynes, some things had been explained by Alice but there was something about Lem Solaris’s way of talking—the utter certainty that Alice had always lacked—that made it feel more fundamental.
For the first time, Keynes looked at ordinary Talents like a fireball or his mother’s Soothing Talent with new appreciation. Things those Talents could do stepped far beyond the realm of spells. According to Lem Solaris, a Fireball Talent could bypass a person’s fire resistance, work even when an area had spell suppression or exhibit unusual properties normal spells didn’t have access to. Also, the Major Upgrades could significantly change the way a Talent worked. He questioned Lem Solaris about his Major Upgrade but she was reluctant to answer as it would affect his future choices. There was one thing she added about the Talent modification though. It was considered and Lem Solaris half-expected the System to stop her but it didn’t.
While there were only two ways to modify Talents, there was a certain margin Talents could be pushed beyond. In other words, the way Talents were presented in the Talent Interface didn’t tell the whole story and with ‘a bit’ of hard work the basis of a Talent could be expanded before it was modified or upgraded.
That was one of the first things Lem Solaris wanted to start with. The other one left Keynes numb because it required him to remove almost all his skills. And she didn’t seem to joke.
***
Keynes, Columbus, Kora and the rest of their team, accompanied by senior staff from the Resistance left New Columbiana the same day and travelled deeper into the jungle. Occasional rift monsters were usually killed by scouts that moved alongside them. Keynes suspected that it wasn’t their only job but he was in no rush to challenge the Resistance. Their distrust irked him especially in the face of him handing out 25 Level 4 rifts to them. For a short time, the Resistance would have more Level 4 rifts than Untainted Paradise.
The fact that Wagner had agreed to this meant that the 8 rifts they were getting in return had to be important.
Neither Lem Solaris nor Alice showed up during their journey, although Keynes could sense that Alice was close to her breakthrough and he waited with anticipation.
As they stopped a few hours later before three Level 4 sealed rifts, Lem Solaris appeared next to Keynes. His head whipped around, finding everyone frozen in time.
“Have you stopped time?”
“Don’t be silly,” she replied. “Stopping time is ill-advised. It is better and easier to speed up our perception. Now, focus.
“I want you to open these three rifts at the same time but without causing the outbreak. You can use your friend’s help this time around. But the next time would be all on you.”
“What?” Lem Solaris vanished and Keynes blinked. She wanted him to do what?
“This is the first rift,” Columbus said, pointing at the shimmering point in the air. The Resistance soldiers positioned themselves to enter the rift as soon as it was unsealed. “You ready?”
How would Keynes explain it to them? He raised his hand and shook his head, indicating that he needed more time. Then he realised that he didn’t need to explain himself to anyone.
He turned to Kora.
“Can you use your Talent on me?”
She frowned but didn’t question Keynes. He noticed the change in Columbus’s stance.
“Should we expect to fight?” Columbus asked, which prompted a reaction from one of the Resistance senior leaders.
“What’s going on? Why are you waiting?”
Keynes ignored him as he felt Kora’s Talent.
You are affected by Spell Enhancement Aura.
He didn’t question the name of the aura or why it worked on Talents but he suspected it was one of those differences between spells and Talents at play here. He also had a mental option to abstain from using the aura.
He didn’t dwell on these things as he reached the first rift with his Talent and this time around, the new option showed up.
Would you like to partially unseal the Level 4 rift (rare, volatile)?
Partial unsealing would rapidly drain the rift and cause it to lose the Overcharge modifier.
A partially unsealed rift would open on its own within 24 hours without a monster outbreak.
Finally, some extra info! But this wasn’t what Keynes meant to do. Lem Solaris asked him to open three rifts at once. He pushed his Talent further away, it vaguely brushed the second rift and Keynes received a ping informing him about the general properties of the rift. It lacked the option to open the rift. Also holding two rift interfaces at the same time was mentally challenging.
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“What’s wrong?” someone asked a question as Keynes forced his Talent to fully grasp the second rift. For a split second, he feared he would never be able to do it, then the spiritual message appeared.
Would you like to open the Level 4 rift (rare, volatile) and the Level 4 rift (common, variable) at the same time?
Yes/No
WARNING: Unpredictable result possible.
Keynes struggled. Just keeping these two rifts with his Talent was the limit of his ability. His mind screamed in defiance and his spiritual core was becoming unstable. If he pushed himself any further, things could turn ugly. He would blast everyone with his spiritual aura at the same time as the rift monsters would pour out of the rifts.
I…can’t…this, he said in his mind, expecting Lem Solaris to listen to his thoughts.
“I can’t believe you’ve reached Third Degree,” she said standing next to him. The world was frozen once more or as she’d explained, his and her perception was sped up to some insane level. “It’s okay. Two rifts for now should be a good starting point for you. Do it.”
Keynes picked ‘Yes’ and the hell broke loose.
***
Lem Solaris wanted to cry.
These children were hopeless and it wasn’t even their fault. They had access to Low Level rifts for less than two years, their population was too large for their current rifts’ output to make a difference. Only a handful of ascenders on the planet had access to a comfortable number of rifts but the absence of knowledge and understanding made that access worthless.
The truth to be told, Lem Solaris had never come across a situation like this where an advanced civilization suddenly obtained access to rifts. But despite its uniqueness, she knew how this would end. Every civilization with rifts and Levels needed an authoritarian superpower to keep the rest in check, otherwise the conflict wouldn’t cease. She could predict how the Solar Council and Untainted Paradise would keep struggling until they left the planet or one of them failed and was defeated. There was never enough space on one planet for more than one superpower.
It irked her because with a snap of her finger she could turn this world around, give it a strong structure and the basis of knowledge but Traveller had warned her. The system would intervene and stop her.
Her focus returned to Keynes Kid and the group. They might survive two Level 4 rifts, especially given the pathetic Level 7 with his absurd Talent but such a group would quickly perish in an encounter with most Level 5 rifts. Their complete reliance on Talents and attribute-enhancing equipment was dooming. None of them specialised in anything and though she was aware that ‘classes’ had been discussed across the planet, most of their conversations were crude and shallow.
It will take years for this society to learn the basics, she noted. Unfortunately for them, the way the System worked was cruel and unforgiving. It had many traps like Traits or techniques. They thought that blindly adding items of power to their repertoire would make them stronger. For a while it would. But it was a dead end and because they hadn’t experienced it or had any prior knowledge, there were going to be ascenders who would follow this path.
As the first monsters burst out of the rift, Keynes’s companion, Kora, unleashed her aura encompassing every except the monsters. It would help them overcome this at least.
Once he’s done with these three rifts, I have to start my lessons, she said to herself and immediately considered pulling Kora into it. For the Level 7, it was too late. Being a human essence ascender closed his door to Level 11. Finding enough Orb of Regrets before his time was up would be a challenge.
No. Human essence ascenders were not worth her attention, they would hit their ceiling by Level 7 rifts, by that point any Level 10 human essence ascender would perish even with a team of 10 ascenders. There was a tiny measure of justice in it. The human essence ascenders had ruled the planet before the outbreaks and now their time was coming to an end.
Lem Solaris actually liked that. Maybe that’s what drives the System intents? A purge of the weak.
It wasn’t impossible. Awakened systems were known to be odd and to behave in unprecedented ways. Wanting the System to leave the universe to organically rebuild itself made perfect sense. And it could be fun to watch. Things like this weren’t common. Assuming Traveller is going to let me stay.
The rare rift spilled several types of lizards with the rare variety being a Scorch-sided Lizard that burned everything around them. This particular specimen wasn’t anything unusual but without preparation, these lizards were deadly because their auras stacked. In a non-overcharged rift, the Scorch-sided Lizard wouldn’t be tightly packed like they were here so their threat would have been even less prominent but here and now, their combined auras exploded like a bomb.
At least, the soldiers weren’t completely defenceless. Several of them had common spells and in combination with offensive Talents, thinned the number of lizards before the worst reached them.
The Level 7 human essence ascender activated his Talent and with added enhancement from Kora’s Talent was quick enough to kill the rest, then entered the rare rift.
The other rift was common so it wasn’t even worth mentioning. Monsters from common rifts didn’t have any magical abilities beyond the innate properties of their bodies. She felt like she was going to need to explain the difference to Keynes Kid.
Twenty minutes later, all the monsters were killed. The Level 7 walked out of the rare rift, there were burns all over his body. Nothing he wouldn’t heal naturally over the next few days. While his Talent was powerful—doubling his attributes. And because the increase came from the Talent, the spike in attributes was natural and didn’t require adjustment.
But the time limit was harsh and required sound reasoning, which he’d failed to display. He had run out of his Talent’s boost before his encounter with the boss which almost cost his life. If the rift had had any dangerous modifiers, the Level 7 would have died.
That takes me to another issue. Their threat assessment doesn’t exist, she said to herself in her mind. She would have to teach him how to spot deadly situations long before they were unavoidable. Too many times she had seen ascenders from different universes taking on the thing they couldn’t handle because they lacked the most important tool - threat assessment.
She was about to pull Keynes Kid aside for a chat when one of the senior leaders of the Resistance approached him. She decided to wait.
“What the fuck was that about?!” he shouted. “Did you try to kill us?!”
His outburst mobilised other soldiers and they stood up on alert. A few actually aimed at Keynes Kid’s companions. Without the Level 7’s Talent, the soldiers had an upperhand, unless Keynes Kid committed his [Chaos Aura] and killed everyone.
Now, that’s another issue that has to be addressed. This aura must go.