[Elsewhere, Omniscient Point of View]
“I am surprised you let him live, Priestess. He essentially called you a ‘bitch’.”
“You have been with me over thirty years, vizier. If you had not realized long ago that I was a bitch, I would have had you flayed alive for incompetence. He was not insulting me so much as acknowledging the obvious.”
“You mean I could have -”
“No. Your position demands decorum. I expect you to be open and direct, but not crass. What other adherents and outside people say about me is of little consequence. Accuracy and understanding are virtues. As is their ignorance when I wish it so.”
Vizier was used to her way of thinking, often in a chaotic and seemingly contradictory manner. Somehow it generally formed a cohesive whole, a thought pattern he had come to admire. They had just witnessed the interrogation of Farkwun Rose via a scrying glass. It was a two-way mirror, allowing them to pose questions interrogator had not. With gods very likely tracking his travels, appearing before the lord personally would have been foolish.
Acolyte had hired three men to accompany her. Only one of the four remained alive to report the results of their investigation. She had broken her vow, and Lord Rose had killed the two mercenaries. Priestess agreed with his decision to eliminate the bona fide scum; they would only have been trouble in the future. And with both acolyte’s recording crystal and the deep-scan interrogation the lord underwent, they had received more than enough information.
It both surprised and impressed Priestess that the villagers had gone out of their way to allow the men to successfully complete their mission. She found the choice that boy made to speak directly to her to be an act of sublime genius, worthy of her own self. Instead of threatening her representatives, he treated them with undeserved respect. He achieved his goal of not antagonizing her and not marking his village for retribution. Her only regret was that the inept agents in Capital City were long since dead.
“Should we be concerned about the Skawa jackets?”
“No. They served their purpose in assuring we know the village of Cottages has significant friends. I admire the subtlety the men used in informing us.”
Vizier then asked, “Does it make a difference if Forrest Rhodes is a born or unborn awakened?”
“Yes, to me it does. He is certainly an unborn. Lord Farkwun failed to realize that a born awakened 16-year old with such a mature demeanor should have been significantly beyond Level 6. He could have been Level 10 within five months of his 15th birthday. It is clear he spawned recently at the age of 16. I too am an unborn from a world without interfaces. We have much in common, Forrest and I, and the strands of fate bind us."
----------------------------------------
[The Void. Forrest Rhodes Point of View]
‘He awakens.’ You slept for about four hours on Heere and two hours in the Void. I took the liberty of slowing time to 10 seconds per second, so we have ten more hours here unless you wish to change it. Your statuses have all been healed to 100%
“No, ten hours is good. I didn’t know I could sleep here. Isn’t a body necessary for that?”
Generally, yes. However you were exhausted – body, brain, and mind. I believe the strain of Share Health, added to the two months in the vortex, caught up with you as you began to digest the cookies.
“Yeah, I went out quickly. I remember thinking about the smell of the pouch, and the next thing I know, here I am, nowhere.
I told your friends that you would be fine and that you just needed sleep. They re-affixed the empty pouch to your belt and carried you to your apartment.
“Thank you. I am glad you are conscious even when I am not.”
“Can we talk about my thresholded attributes now? I already know vitality allows extra virility, wisdom integrates intelligence and perception into a sort of enhanced awareness, and perception gets a 10% boost when used as part of a skill. Intelligence improves my recall significantly as well as adding a degree of mental discipline. Is my understanding of these basically correct and complete?”
Yes. I cannot yet reveal the thresholded capabilities of charisma and luck.
“I didn’t expect to discuss those. Mysteries remain for agility, dexterity, endurance, and strength. I think my limited physical capacity after leaving the vortex might have masked any enhancements to these.”
Did it?
“Heh. You wouldn’t be asking if I shouldn’t have realized something. Let me think.”
…
“Sleep! And tiredness. I functioned well for hours after my body spent two months in the vortex, then sparred, used Share Health, and all through that I didn’t notice being tired until after I got something significant in my stomach. Endurance has got to have something to do with that, right?”
Yes. Your body needs a little less sleep each day. With your tuesday’s wildcard existence, that may not prove very noticeable over time. But what you did notice was that you could remain alert for extended periods.
“Do you think I should have noticed anything concerning agility, dexterity, and strength?”
Failing to notice the thresholded capacity for those is understandable. Would you like me to reveal them now, or figure them out on your own when sixdays is over and you have almost your full capacity back?
“What do you mean by ‘almost’? You said my statuses had been healed to 100%.”
They have. But 100% of what? All attributes are relative to their base values. Would you expect a frog with a strength of 20 to be equal to a bear with a strength of 20?
“I guess I never thought of it before. No, I would not. You are implying that one of my bases degraded. Then I would not be back at full capacity, even with my gauges at 100%.”
You are incorrect.
“... that one or more of my bases degraded. ‘More’ or you would not have corrected me. Let’s see. My body experienced two months of time. During that time, I took about eight running steps and grabbed hold of Norrus. That is not a lot of exercise for a two-month period. It would not be surprising then if my base strength and agility degraded due to an insignificant activity level. I am not sure if dexterity would also have degraded. I can still thread a needle even if I have not done so in months or even years.”
Effective analysis. I agree your dexterity would have felt minimal impact. In your favor, both Boost Armor and Dodge were consuming stamina, providing your body with some degree of overall exertion. Plus the underlying dynamics of the vortex were for some reason designed to minimize the impact to living beings inside of it. You were not a total couch potato for the last two months.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“That is a relief. I conclude I have lost a little body strength and general muscle tone. Perhaps the reason I didn’t notice was not only due to the effects of starvation and growth, but whatever the thresholding of agility and strength improved ended up masking the degradation.”
You are correct. There is a relation, but it does not fully inform you of the improvement to your strength and agility. Would you like to discover them on your own?
“For those two, yes. I have never really considered dexterity, however. I see the word and I think ‘fine control’ as opposed to agility’s general level of control. I would like a better picture of what it is and how it was improved.
‘Fine control’ is an adequate understanding. Threading a needle, sculpting, painting, precise positioning of an attack – those are all heavily impacted by your dexterity. Thresholded, you have gained a better awareness of position. For example, you not only are able to guide the thread through the needle, but have an additional feel for where your fingers are, where the thread is, and where the needle is. Even when not looking at your arms or legs, you will know where they are better than you could before.
“That is going to be fun to check out! It might even help me gauge how much weaker and uncoordinated I have become.”
“There is another thing I wondered about. Well, I sort of know, but it would be useful to read you explain it. I couldn’t heal starvation damage. Even the gods could not heal Norrus, just assure that he would fully heal. Why is that?”
Starvation and dehydration have natural and effective cures – food and water. You can even make water, adding to your healing flexibility.
“I need to rank that up. I’m not really going to help anyone with thirst right now.”
Add it to your To-Do List?
“Please.”
1. Don’t die
2. Bring plumbing to Cottages
3. Don’t bitch
4. Plan your days
5. Spend quality time with Swagger
6. Learn mind discipline and play Straight Face
7. Train with Abbie
8. Rank Make Water
“Let’s put the two ‘Don’ts’ together. Switch 2 and 3. With Share Health, and both Onre and Norrus being Ki Healers now, I expect to be spending regular sessions with Abbie, so we can eliminate item 7.”
Items 2 and 3 switched; item 7 deleted and 8 moved up.
“Thank you.”
Since we have extra time this sixdays, why don’t we each choose something to watch? Between the two I can train and study. Mine is Back to the Future.”
Time travel. Really?
“Yep. And Marty didn’t even need to age or de-age by 20 years.”
Very well. I will follow it up with Back to the Future Part II.
“You’ll love it!” We watched my movie. While it was playing in a full wide-screen theater aspect, I kind of wished popcorn was available in the void. I don’t think it is a thing on Heere; at least I don’t know of a word for it. It completed, and Interface made sure I knew what was real.
That was an entertaining and fun movie. I am sure you understand that time does not actually work like that. There is no time travel as presented in much of Earth’s fiction. Time is simply now, and the next now, etc.
“What about the relativistic effect of time, like when traveling near maximum speed?”
Or moving through time at two hours in six days? Or two months in six seconds? Yes, relative time exists. In physical reality, though, only the latter is possible. The former, as we are now, could be used to enable interstellar travel. It was disallowed, along with the slowing of maximum speed.
“I remember you telling me that.”
I did, much of it, but you brought it up again.
“I am going to plan my first aid lesson for Sixthday. We’ll talk about helping a young choking child to breathe again. It follows logically from the Heimlich maneuver we discussed last Tuesday. The lesson will be short, giving a lot of time for review of previous topics.” Interface acknowledged, and I went to work. With only about ten minutes of new material, the lesson plan developed quickly. I included specific review topics in case no one brought them up in questions. In thirty minutes, that task was complete.
Are you going to study now, or would you like to play some Chess or Think?
“How about two games each? It will be interesting to find out if my thresholded intelligence will make a difference. My skill in Tactics will probably be the primary factor, but I would think enhanced memory should help some.”
We shall find out.
The two games of Chess were first. Better memory did not seem to make much of a difference, although I was sure I could have played blindfold chess very well. My memory didn’t help noticeably with Think, either. Interface won one game of each. We drew one of the Chess games, and I won a game of Think. I appreciate the way he can keep up the pressure so that when I win, it feels earned.
It is earned.
“You could easily beat me every time.”
But what would that earn me? It is much more fulfilling to be able to observe your talents grow.
I spent about three hours researching and studying anatomy, including comparative anatomy. The books and videos all concerned Earth Humans and animals, although Interface would sometimes add information related to how specific beasts of Heere differ from Earth. I was accessing his records from Earth, and he was accessing galactic-net’s wiki concerning Heere.
We decided it was time for Part II. A plot point stood out that I never thought about before. When it was over, I asked, “Marty went backward and forward in time without aging. When Biff does it, he gets very old. What’s with that?”
I assume you mean beyond inconsistent plotting. ‘Plot armor’ for Marty was likely a significant factor; he was the protagonist. Biff was the antagonist, deserving of punishment. I found the weak plotting concerning Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer to be particularly egregious. He had a girlfriend that they didn’t know what to do with, so they forced her to sleep in an alley for most of the movie? I generally enjoyed it, but that element was deeply flawed.
“Yeah, that was pretty dumb. They even recast the role between movies and got a second actress to do just about nothing. Give her a humorous fish-out-of-water, shopping-in-the-future subplot – something!”
“I’m going to make sure I have plenty of time to make my diary entry. When I’m done, I’ll spend the rest of this sixdays meditating.”
Okay.
----------------------------------------
[Ninthday, 8 Sixmonth 726 KE, 15.261]
Well, today was two months, at least for my body. I leveled to 7 and am braked at 8 and 9. A young friend of mine, Norrus Loruste, had gotten trapped in some sort of temporal vortex. Using a running start and Dodge I was able to run into it and push us out the other side. He was in there for less than a minute, and he aged from 11 to 21. I was inside for about five seconds, which is where my two months came from. The experience ranked all three of my regens to B, Meditate, and Dodge to C, and Boost Armor ranked by two to B! Later that evening Norrus was able to achieve Level 1, choosing Ki Healer and Shapeshifter as his classes.
The aging, along with a degree of starvation and dehydration, have left Norrus in a very depleted state, and he can barely move on his own. Skawa says he will recover his full health over time, though. His positive attitude is inspiring. He calls it ‘seeing the full picture’. I had noticed it more than a month ago as an ongoing trait of his which I have adopted for myself as ‘Don’t Bitch’.
Oh, for Level 7 I chose the skill Share Health. My other choice was Cure Disease, which I expect to take at 10. I’m thresholded (minimum 26) in all my attributes except charisma and luck.
The day started ordinarily enough with me playing the card game Straight Face with Asiel, Orian, and Ronkel. After an hour or so, Arrjee got me, and I followed him off campus and into the woods toward the orchard. We came to a campfire where they were cooking breakfast – Mom, Carrie, Onre, Kossa, Sun, Ferret, and Norrus. The pup had joined us because he had been staying at our house for a few days while his Mom took a trip to Capital City. There were horses for everyone, and of course Swagger for me. He was excited to tell me about his training. In six days he advanced a lot!
Anyway, we were gathered to go on a day trip. Mom would be showing us her postal route. It would bring us to the villages of Fork, Hilltop, River, and Trees. They do not form a loop with Cottages, so Mom has to travel through each one and back again each workday. Almost all of us ended up clearing a fair bit of fog from our maps. In River, Swagger was interested in visiting the stable Rahun Borrel had owned and ran for much of his life.. We met Rahun’s grandson and daughter and conversed with them for quite a while.
It was on the way back that we encountered the vortex. Our group stopped between River and Hilltop to gather berries (or ‘foraging’ as Arrjee thinks of it). We had scattered around the area searching for them. After twenty or so minutes I heard Norrus scream for help, located him on the map, and ran there as fast as I could. The burgundy vortex was located down in a ravine. It was accompanied by a low powerful rumbling. As I got closer, I could hear a melodic chirping as well. Interface could not identify what was happening, but when I saw Norrus frozen inside, I knew I had to get him out. I did, which loops back to the start of this entry.
Share Health is a very awkward power to use. Probably especially so for someone just starting with it. I literally give up my health, at 25 HP/minute to heal someone at 10 HP/minute (Rank F). It is really stressful and hurts all over. It also makes me very dizzy. I expect many of the side effects to diminish as I get practice with the skill, and probably especially as it ranks. I’m very glad I took HPR Boost first, because I can run it for a lot of the time that Share Health is active, meaning my actual health loss is less than 25 per minute. It didn’t seem to help with the overall stress, though.