Ned trudged along beside the river. He vaguely remembered that back home, civilizations tended to spring up wherever there was natural water. He wasn’t sure if that held true for oceans, so his steps went against the flow.
Beast tugged at his shoulder.
Ned sighed and kneeled by the river. Neither of them had a precise way to tell time, but he figured it had been about an hour since Beast last ran out of moisture.
They had been taking advantage of the way physical state affected Parameters. With Beast’s currently inverted Moisture regeneration, every now and then he’d drink water from the river to replenish himself and continue the passive point grind. Ned worried about disease, but Beast assured him that he was created to survive off of any edible food source.
Ned was a little jealous of the convenience.
He’d quickly realized that his dominant hand was far less useful without a thumb. Though it would apparently regrow, the wait was excruciating even after upgrading Hydric Immortality to a 23 hour span.
At the same time, he hadn’t yet upgraded Lizard Sheds Tail. Both he and Beast feared it would increase the mana cost. However, he was beginning to think it would be even more worth it for him in that case.
Right now, whenever his Vitality fully recovered, he would take a stone in his left hand and crush a finger from the right. The first time, he wasn’t thinking too clearly, and immediately disconnected it with Lizard Sheds Tail when he felt pain. But Ned realized that his Vitality wasn’t acting as a simple measure of his health. For starters, there was no way breaking a single finger would put him a third of the way towards death.
Instead, it seemed more like Vitality was some kind of general body multiplier that reduced whenever he was damaged. A rock to the finger on 5 Vitality stung, but it wasn’t the end of the world. However, on 0 Vitality, it felt actually broken, at which point he’d needed Lizard Sheds Tail to remove the painful extremity.
So he was currently bashing away all of his Vitality and removing the injuries with 2 Mana. Since the regeneration rate seemed to be the same, that meant in the same amount of time he was generating 5 Vitality, he’d only refill 2 Mana. Worse, his low Mana Quality meant he’d already find it difficult to scale that Parameter.
His brows furrowed. It seemed he really did need to optimize this.
He opened his Status again to see what he was working with.
PUBLIC STATUS
-- Name: Ned Locke
-- Role: Caster
● Source Word: HYDRA
● Level: 0
SKILL LIST
-- [Passive] Hydric Immortality
● Cannot age from the moment you acquire this skill.
● Your body fully regrows over 23 standard hours.
-- [Active] Lizard Sheds Tail [1]
● Consumes 2 Mana.
● Painlessly shed a part of your body without losing Vitality. This part may be no larger than your thumb. [+]
PARAMETER LIST
-- Mana
● 5.8 / 6.0 Quantity
● 0 Density
● 1.2 Quality
-- Vitality
● 5.9 / 6.9 Quantity
● 0 Density
● 1.8 Quality
He’d already distributed his points shortly before Beast asked to stop. The expected pattern with Quality held true the whole time.
The biggest problem was that as far as Ned knew, the only means he had of spending Mana was his active skill. There was no shortcut - if he wanted to increase his Mana, he had to spend body parts and wait for them to regenerate. Thus, his biggest goal should be to reduce the regrowth time from Hydric Immortality to something reasonably close to an hour.
However, he wasn’t actually sure how to get Upgrade Points for Hydric Immortality. His current theory was that he would receive them from fully regenerating distinct components, much the same way fully regenerating a unit of Vitality provided its own Points. PACES was alien to him, but so far it seemed to reward the regeneration of provided resources. He hoped that pattern held true for his limbs.
But Ned was getting off-track. His forehead tightened in concentration as he silently shouldered Beast and continued walking.
The fact of it was, he had no way of increasing his Mana without spamming Lizard Sheds Tail. Frustrated, he read over its description again. His eyes widened.
“There’s no way it’s that simple,” he muttered.
Lizard Sheds Tail specified a maximum size, but that may have misled him. There was no minimum listed.
Ned held his breath as he activated the skill. A portion of his Mana was wrung out of him, dripping clear liquid that flowed over a black pillar that existed only in his mind. The pillar emitted a resonant hum, and within the hum was a question: What to shed?
He envisioned a fleck falling off his knuckle. The pillar made a sound somewhere between mechanical click and warble. Its coating drained away into the red ocean below.
Ned looked at his right hand. He brushed at the knuckle gently, jostling loose a thin layer of dead skin. Ned clicked his tongue. It really was that simple.
He figured now that he could spend Mana without lasting consequences, there was no need to bottom himself out on either Mana or Vitality. As long as he was regenerating, he was making progress.
Without warning, terror ran up his spine and to his brain.
He crouched warily, grabbing a rock and shaking Beast off his back. Vigilant eyes ran over the water, cliffs, and shore.
“Statement to Ned,” Beast whispered. “I feel it too. Similar sensation to when I encountered you, but something about it is...”
They shuddered in unison.
Smoke began to billow from the ground in front of them, coalescing into a body. Silently, Beast slipped into the shadows, circling the quivering creature pulling itself into existence.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
NOTICE
-- Condition satisfied.
-- PACES has collected data indicating transferred individuals periodically permit a local reality distortion. Believed to be a side effect of travel through the extraphysical, the “Wildlife” that emerges through such distortions will be vicious, confused, and utterly incompatible with standard existence. Transferred are urged to subdue “Wildlife” through physical or extraphysical means. There is an ongoing reward of Level Progress for engaging in this behavior.
Ned read the notice, but he couldn’t spare focus to think about it much. He was too busy locking his wide eyes onto the Wildlife.
The air shimmered and smoked, like a thin veil burning away. A thin, ribbon-like limb drifted from behind it. Diaphanous skin stretched taut over six lumpy clawed fingers. Ned watched, paralyzed, as they hooked into the ground and began to drag more of the sinuous arm free.
The spell was broken as Beast’s spider-like legs sliced into the Wildlife.
It reacted immediately, whipping about as if a flag in the wind, but Beast was already backing off. The arm was alert now. drifting through the air in search of its aggressor. Ned noted with slight satisfaction that its cut bled red. A good and normal color for such a horrible thing.
Beast was trembling, slowly being backed against the cliffside as the limb closed in. How did it know his general direction? Was it sensing body heat? Ned couldn’t risk throwing a stone at it, either, not when Beast was that close. He steeled himself.
Ned’s mana dropped precipitously as his left hand grabbed his ring finger and pulled it free. If it was sensing life somehow, he hoped this could act as a diversion.
He pitched it at the Wildlife.
His left hand wasn’t as coordinated as his right. Ned winced as his finger sailed directly towards Beast.
Before the finger could give away his friend’s position, the Wildlife jolted and snapped towards the projectile! The palm swatted it out of the air as its seemingly boneless length curled around the finger like an alligator in a deathroll. There was no time to wince at the cracking noises. Ned was already grabbing for a rock.
Beast rushed under the Wildlife, which thankfully paid no attention as it squeezed Ned’s leftovers to a pulp. On the way out, Beast landed another cheeky cut, widening its existing gash.
It thrashed wildly, but Beast was already running. He didn’t speak, but Ned saw the desperation in those eyes.
Furious and terrified, Ned flung the stone he’d picked up. This time, his aim held true. The smooth stone cracked against the monster’s existing injury, and from the noise, Ned guessed that it had bones after all.
It dropped, perhaps paralyzed, twitching like a fish on land. Ned refused to get near it, sending another two misses before a particularly plump stone crushed the wound completely. The monstrous fingers convulsed - then landed motionless.
Ned was gasping. Beast’s breathing was regulated, but more audible than it’d ever been. They shared a glance and nervously watched the hole in space.
Slowly, the Wildlife burned away like the rift that had spawned it.
NOTICE
-- Ned Locke rewarded with Level Progress.
-- Ned Locke’s level increased to 1!
NOTICE
-- Condition satisfied.
-- PACES is dedicated to completely analyzing Source Words, which necessitates some degree of bias towards unexplored outcomes when selecting progression rewards. However, the consumer’s desire for choice is a great source of ingenuity, and thus a priority. To mediate between these two opposed viewpoints PACES provides our revolutionary “Pioneer Rewards” program.
-- Some of the following choices are marked with [Pioneer]. This is done when the choice correlates to an underutilized or incompletely mapped path. If you select a [Pioneer] choice, PACES will provide compensation in the form of Dollars.
-- Dollars are a multiversal currency that can be exchanged with other Casters and Citizens, or even spent on Upgrade Points that will be delivered within one to two hundred standard hours as resources allow.
-- Note that PACES is not liable for any inviable or detrimental skills you acquire in pursuit of Pioneer Rewards. PACES claims only to enable and reward the study of extraphysics, not to arbitrate which skills or parameters are useful. PACES is also not responsible for the content of your skills in general, and cannot modify the choices available, as it is only an interface.
-- Because PACES was only recently implemented, it is likely that every choice will be eligible for Pioneer Rewards.
-- By accepting Dollars as payment, you agree to abide by the economic laws of Earth. A copy of these laws may be requested at any time.
Ned read all of the terms. His eyebrows collapsed inward. The last two lines... It was transparent that a secondary goal of this Pioneer Rewards program was to unify all Casters under the economic policy of PACES’ creators.
NOTICE
-- Please select one of the following Level 1 rewards.
● [Pioneer] One upgrade point for Hydric Immortality, and an additional function of “You may consume 10 Mana to complete the regrowth of one body part instantly. This part may be no larger than your thumb.”
● [Pioneer] One upgrade point for Lizard Sheds Tail, and an additional function of “You may consume 3 Mana to fire the part as a projectile. Its power will be equivalent to that of 3 punches.”
Ned frowned. Mana was looking to be an essential resource—which made sense, considering that Beast had it too—but his Mana Quality was low enough that it might hamstring his scaling. He wished there was a way to increase it, but that was looking increasingly unlikely.
He considered his options. The first seemed to perfectly make up for his current weakness - although his body was an essential resource, he regenerated missing parts extremely slowly. The second allowed him to sacrifice himself more offensively, but didn’t actually provide a solution to his consumable nature.
Ned grimaced. There was another part he didn't want to consider. The Hydric Immortality upgrade only provided its main benefit if he had 10 mana to spend. His current pool was a little over halfway there, but...
Ned recalled the ridiculous speed that the Wildlife had displayed. What good would a spare finger do against something like that? Worse, the only thing he knew would award Level Progress was subduing Wildlife. That meant if he locked himself into a nonviolent progression path, he may be stuck with only those abilities until he was killed.
No, his scope needed to broaden into something that could fight back. Ned thought back to Beast’s agile movements and sheer readiness for combat.
This time, he wasn’t jealous of the convenience. That was the sort of grace in battle you don’t get from instinct. Not for the first time, Ned wondered what Beast’s creator built him for.
Ned steeled himself.
-- Upgrade applied.
-- Ned Locke selected a [Pioneer] choice!
-- As compensation, Ned Locke has been paid 5 Dollars ($)
-- Opening Status...
PUBLIC STATUS
-- Name: Ned Locke
-- Balance: 5$
-- Role: Caster
● Source Word: HYDRA
● Level: 1
Ned frowned. His funds were public?
SKILL LIST
-- [Passive] Hydric Immortality
● Cannot age from the moment you acquire this skill.
● Your body fully regrows over 23 standard hours.
-- [Active] Lizard Sheds Tail [2]
● Consumes 2 Mana.
● Painlessly shed a part of your body without losing Vitality. This part may be no larger than your thumb. [+]
● You may consume 3 Mana to fire the part as a projectile. Its power will be equivalent to that of 3 punches. [+]
Ned relaxed when he saw the Mana cost remained the same. He felt comfortable upgrading Lizard Sheds Tail's second effect now... but he didn't see any actual benefit to it yet, given his only uses for the skill did not improve in effectiveness if he lost more of his body.
PARAMETER LIST
-- Mana
● 1.8 / 6.0 Quantity
● 0 Density
● 1.2 Quality
-- Vitality
● 5.8 / 6.9 Quantity
● 0 Density
● 1.8 Quality
Ned exhaled. Beast scuttled up beside him, beady eyes gleaming.
“Statement to Ned. I’ve increased my level. Allow me to brag.”
Ned grinned. “Me too, bud. Walk and talk? You can boast first if you use your legs.”
“No deal,” Beast said, already climbing onto his back.
The two travelers vanished into the night. Despite the cold wind, their eyes were both warm.