Jonah
Jogging South West, Feather-branch Forest, Savriâ
Although huffing and puffing wasn’t the most complimentary of ways to describe oneself, Jonah realized it was exceedingly accurate at the moment. After two hours of jogging, he’d been forced to find a way to disconnect from the slow agony burning in his chest. So, he found himself watching himself run using his RTS View. I’ll have to thank Willow for forcing me to spend some time training every morning, I guess… There was no way he wouldn’t have collapsed without her frankly insane ‘training’ sessions.
He’d heard of high intensity training before. To his knowledge, it usually it consisted of short bursts of high effort movements and workouts. Willow’s methods were more like the marathon version of that. Each morning that she convinced him to join her, she’d bark out orders and literally chase him around if he failed to meet her high expectations. It wasn’t like he could complain, though, given she drove herself three times as hard. For her normal ‘warm-up’ exercises in the morning she’d do ridiculous circuits without rest until she was literally trembling.
Every time her body got stronger and the exercises stopped forcing her to the edge, she shook them up. He was just grateful she didn’t expect the same dedication to training from himself or Naomi. When they declined to join, she’d complain and taunt a bit but in the end she’d leave them be. It’s a good thing she’s good at taunting, or I might not even be in as good of shape as I am now.
Noticing his stamina bar flashing, Jonah felt a jolt of shock run through him. Had he been controlling his body normally, rather than as a kind of point-and-click directed puppet master, he’d have stopped in his tracks. The stamina bar was empty, yet he hadn’t stopped. He’d assumed running out of stamina would either see him passing out, or at least losing his ability to strain himself. Instead, the bar just kept flashing at him in an apparently impotent warning.
A surge of guilt ran through him. Willow spent almost every moment not chatting, eating, or sleeping, in motion. She was always doing something. If she wasn’t so still and relaxed during the rare moments where she wasn’t in motion, he’d have assumed she had a powerful case of ADHD and needed to move constantly. Part of that motion was training with her new abilities. She chatted constantly about her magic, what she’d been testing, what had worked and what hadn’t.
In contrast, here he was, just coasting on assumptions of how his GameLIT system worked. She even asked him about things, which he answered as if he knew. Because I should know! This is my insight, isn’t it?! He grumbled to himself internally as he watched his little avatar-like self stumbling along beside Naomi below. I’ll take more time to figure stuff out after this fiasco. He promised himself. Although he was under no delusion that he could have done much more of anything to help against those giant monster that Willow was planning to square off against, he could at least do his part more effectively and with something approaching grace.
ATTRIBUTE INCREASED!
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Through hard work and perseverance, you have raised an attribute!
+100 XP
+1 Endurance
The timely notification almost seemed to be a taunt. Pointing out that, yes, if he had spent some time really trying, he could be further along. Seeing himself slowing down far below, he prodded his next destination viciously, unwilling to stop. If Naomi can do it, so can I.
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By the time night fell, Jonah and Naomi had been jogging for nearly eight hours. Given the time ‘OST’ time system the UICI let them use had every hour as 30 minutes and every minute as a hundred seconds, that was equivalent to 6.66 hours back on earth. An appropriately evil amount of time. They had to stop for breaks a handful of times, but forced themselves to continue on soon after each time.
“We need to make camp.” Naomi announced without preamble. Groaning in relief, Jonah let the heavy back fall from his back. He’d run out of mana to maintain his RTS View less than a half hour ago and had been forced to stay inside his body to feel every ache and pain. The exhaustion he was experiencing now was more intense than anything he’d ever imagined. I never thought I’d miss being wheelchair bound. He thought, before immediately taking it back. Even with every single muscle in his body screaming in pain, the joy of being able to move was exultant.
Removing the bedroll strapped to the outside of the bag, he rolled it out and dropped onto it. We should set watch. Looking over at Naomi, who was setting her own roll out a few meters to his right, he opened his mouth to ask who would take first watch. He was interrupted before he could utter a word.
HIDDEN QUEST: BEYOND ME, MYSELF - COMPLETED!
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Overcome your limits for an extended period of time. Push past your physical, mental, spiritual, or psychological limits to accomplish more than you should be able to within the confines of the GameLIT paradigm.
Variable reward based on: Performance, Duration, Amount by Which Limits Have Been Exceed
Completion Grade: Major Success! (6%)
Rewards:
* XP Earned: 1,000
* Attribute Increase: +3 Endurance
* Attribute Increase: +2 Strength
* Attribute Increase: +1 Agility
* Attribute Increase: +1 Dexterity (Macro)
* Attribute Increase: +4 Resolve
* Attribute Increase: +2 Will
* Attribute Increase: +2 Focus
* Buff: Unwavering (90.0 Hours)
* Buff: (Don’t) Feel The Burn (30 Hours)
* One Time Special Activation: Rejuvenative Sleep
* Special Ability Choice
* Hidden quests are non-repeatable. All rewards are final.
Staring, dumbfounded, at the quest completion screen through blurry eyes, Jonah couldn’t even let out the laugh that bubbled to the surface. He was simply too tired. Turning toward Naomi, he dismissed the screen while intending to ask her… Something… He saw her laying passed out on her bedroll, having neglected even to unroll the blanket she’d pulled from her bag. That looked nice. He’d just get his blanket, and-
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Waking with a jolt, Jonah sat upright, gasping for air. The dream he’d woken from had been tame by nightmare standards. Tame or not, finding himself stuck in his wheelchair again while Willow chased behind him wearing Madrick’s weird gothic getup shouting, “RUN NERD, RUN!” had been unpleasant.
Noticing that the suns had risen, Jonah slowly stood. He fully expected to feel as achy, if not moreso, than he had before falling asleep last night. Instead, he felt… Fine. Not amazing, but certainly not like he’d been running, or rather jogging, for hours and hours.
Noting that Naomi was still fully passed out, he began slowly stretching, testing whether he was really okay. Maybe he had some kind of nerve damage?
We got lucky… No one was on watch. Though, I guess watch has mostly been pointless on this planet anyway. We’ve never seen anything wondering around at night. Not to mention, as far as we know every single pop-hopper on the planet has combined into those super-giant titan things. There’s probably nothing around that would try to hurt us. Feeling a sudden pang from his stomach, Jonah quickly pulled out the bunch of berries and nuts which he’d managed to find while all three of them scrambled to get ready to execute Willow’s ‘brilliant’ plan.
He began scarfing down his meager feast as he tried to think through why he wasn’t in horrible pain. He was always sore the day after one of Willow’s training sessions, which is why he had only let her convince him to work out with her two days in a row once. It made no sense that a much more grueling experience would have less of a consequence. Small breakfast finished, Jonah went off from the campsite a bit to relieve himself.
Business completed, he returned and for the first time this morning noticed the slight chill in the air and the soft frost covering the ground, along with Naomi’s shivering form. He realized another oddity. Since the other night, when the planet had gotten cold and the mist covering it had dissipated, every night had ended up freezing cold. It was clear that the temperature was well below comfortable, given his companion’s violent shivering.
Getting up, he walked over and unrolled her blankets, tossing them over her. After a moment’s thought, he unpacked and unrolled his own blankets and put them over her as well. Watching for a couple minutes, he saw her shivering slow and then subside. She’s still passed out… She’s drained to the point even literally freezing didn’t wake her. Why am I awake? Why am I fine?
The niggling thought that something he knew about explained this kept poking at him. It sat just out of reach, annoyingly so. Finally giving up, he grunted and decided to check his stamina and health levels to see if he was going to keel over or something. Not that my stamina levels are a great indicator of that, given I continued jogging for hours after it bottomed out.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Opening his status screen, Jonah’s eyes went wide upon noticing all of his resources full, his experience overflowing and ready to spend on a new level, two active buffs, and a “Pending Special Ability Choice” alert. He flopped to the ground, not noticing the chill cloying at him from the earth he sat on.
JONAH LOCKE
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Level: 6 Experience: 1105.982129915 /1098.00907150453
RESOURCES
GSM (Gaming Systems Mana) 60/60 MP (Mana Points) 14/14 Stamina 80/80
ATTRIBUTES
Body Strength 10 Dexterity (Macro/Micro) 7/6 Agility 8 Resilience 10 Endurance 13 Perception 11 Mind Memory 13 Processing 16 Ideation 11 Spirit Ego 8 Will 11 Resolve 12 Focus 20 Presence 4 Connection 3 Soul
Note: Insight and related mana aspects lack conceptual linkage with the soul. This section cannot be managed by your ‘Gaming (life is) System’ ability.
SPELLS
* Predator Vision [Buff] - 2 MP
* Trick [Debuff] - 3 MP
* Creature Comforts [Utility] - 10 MP
* HP Siphon [Debuff] - 5 MP
ABILITIES
* Gaming (life is) System
* Overwatch (User Tag: RTS View)
* Party Up
* Character Interface
* Settlment/Camp Interface
* … ?
ACTIVE EFFECTS
* Buff: Unwavering (85.2 Hours)
* Buff: (Don’t) Feel The Burn (25.2 Hours)
ALERTS
* Pending Special Ability Choice
* Pending Level Up
A fuzzy memory of the previous night’s quest completion notification came to mind. Remembering attribute rewards, too, he quickly checked for changes. When he realized that his attributes had risen by 15 points, he was stunned. That’s five levels worth of attribute stats. He tried to find a way to pull up the previous quest reward screen, hoping to figure out exactly what he had done. If he could do it again… This might be a broken system! A way to power level! The thought was tantalizing. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any way to pull up previous alerts and for the life of him he couldn’t remember what it had said.
I guess it’s a good thing I had my stats memorized, or I might not have realized how many stat points I got! Sighing, he put the question of whether he could get the same or similar rewards again aside for now. Moving on, he focused on the buffs.
(Don’t) Feel The Burn was almost certainly the reason he wasn’t feeling the aches and pains from his exertion yesterday. He wasn’t sure what Unwavering did. Maybe that’s why he didn’t feel cold? It hardly mattered. After all, he had another level and an ability to choose!
Ability choice first. If the ability I choose relies on a specific attribute, I might want to use my stat points there.
Focusing on the ‘Pending Special Ability Choice’ option, Jonah found a new prompt before him.
SPECIAL ABILITY CHOICE
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Notice: This special ability choice was granted as a quest reward. As such, the abilities available are directly related to the quest you completed.
ABILITY CHOICES
EFFORTLESS MOVEMENT
Passive ability which reduces the stamina and physical strain cost of all forms of traversal to (0/free). This passive ability reserves 3 units of the holder’s mana permanently.
OVERCLOCK
Active ability which allows the user to cause attributes or resources to operate at 200% capacity while the ability is active. When the ability ends, the boosted resources will be penalized to a 50% operating capacity for 1/4th the time the ability remained active. This ability costs 1 mana per 15 seconds.
RESOURCE REDISTRIBUTION
Active ability which allows the user to redistribute attribute points on-demand. This ability costs 1 mana per stat point reallocated. Stat reallocation takes 30 seconds per stats. Large changes to existing attributes may cause unexpected consequences.
FAST TRAVEL
Active ability which allows the user to ignore the passage of time while traveling and will not require sustenance or biological waste removal, resulting in travel feeling inconsequential and instantaneous. All travel still occurs, and the user will continue to act normally during travel. When the ability comes to an end, the user will have full resource pools (except for the mana upkeep cost) and will be granted one or more buffs. The user will remember everything that occurred during the trip, without having felt the time pass.
An [Encounter] of any kind will terminate the ability early. The user may bring companions with them limited to [1 passenger per Connection/10 + Ego] rounded up. Current passenger count allowed: 9. This ability costs 10 mana to activate and 3 mana per hour to maintain.
For several minutes, all Jonah could do was stare. There are all too good. He thought, stunned. Any one of these was a game changer.
Noticing Naomi stirring, he buckled down to make his choice. They’d need to leave again soon after she woke.
Fast Travel is out. It was awesome in its own way, but was clearly the overall weakest of the bunch. It didn’t actually change anything, it mostly just let him avoid boredom and not have to eat or drink. The mention of full resource pools and a buff when it ended was pretty cool. Especially assuming those affects carried over to any companions he brought along with him. Really, it seemed like a fantastic ability for someone who was leading armies on long campaigns or something. I guess that would be useful for the next part of the plan… But… No. I don’t think I want this one.
Looking at Overclock, it was probably the least impressive overall to Jonah on first glance. It felt something like a berserker’s rage or something. Increasing his current strength at the expense of later weakness didn’t sound incredible. Until he read, and reread the description. It would let him boost multiple attributes and resources of his choice. So long as his mana held out. This meant he could boost his mana to increase the duration, along with whatever other stats he wanted. The description also didn’t say the cool-down period was mandatory or incurable. Given his history of gaming, this hinted to the possibility of a spell or sibling ability which would let him use the beneficial side without suffering the downside. He’d have to think about that one more.
I think Resource Redistribution is also out. It’d be absolutely incredible to be able to play with different builds. However, it doesn’t help me much right now and the warnings about large changing causing unexpected consequences is too ominous. I’ll just make sure to make sure I’m happy with my build… Maybe I’ll get this option again later? He groaned softly at passing this particular ability up. The idea that he could possibly re-spec himself as needed for any given situation was incredibly tempting. He could only hope he’d get something similar in the future.
Last, was Effortless Movement. This would be immediately useful, as it would let guarantee he wouldn’t flag before completing his part of Willow’s plan. Beyond that, while it seemed to be the simplest of all four options, with the most bare-bones explanation, he had a suspicion its potential was the highest. The description was clear, every form of movement would be free to him unless it had a mana cost. In which case, if the cost was hybrid, he’d still come out on top. Finally, there was an admittedly silly but powerful argument for this ability. If he could move without any of the discomfort, how incredibly fun would it be? It was already a wonder to be able to move around as he wanted, but if he could do that with no penalty… It was a tantalizing thought.
I think it’s between Overclock and Effortless Movement. He thought, agonizing over the decision. He continued to consider as he watched Naomi wake. She groaned softly and began to extricate herself from her blankets. Briefly distracted, Jonah couldn’t help but be impressed. He thought that if he’d woken incredibly sore with a couple blankets holding back the uncomfortably cold morning air, he probably wouldn’t be able to force himself awake and up quite so quickly. He’d probably lie there in the relative comfort, spending as long as he could manage before someone told him he had to get up. If no one was there, no one was counting on him to do anything, he’d probably just go back to sleep.
Given the winces and unhappy noises coming from her as she got up and began rolling the blankets, Naomi was in as much pain as he thought he should be. Unlike him, though, she didn’t seem to have any problem pushing through it.
Still not any closer to deciding, Jonah stood and went over to help Naomi pack back up. He offered a smile, “Morning, why don’t you eat while I get the rolls packed?” She nodded groggily and went to scrounge through her pack for her own quickly packed rations. Once she’d retrieved them, Jonah her bedroll, which he’d rolled up and compacted as best he could, into her pack. He did the same for his own.
Although he knew they needed to get going as soon as possible, he didn’t rush Naomi as she got herself going. He gave her privacy as she headed into the woods and said nothing as she sat back down beside her pack, staring into space. After a few minutes, he went and sat beside her and asked, “Dreading the rest of the trip?”
She nodded. A few more minutes passed.
“If you could stop feeling tired from walking, running, jumping, that kind of thing… Or you could make yourself twice as powerful for a limited amount of time, before becoming half as powerful for 1/4th as long as your power was doubled… Which would you choose?”
Slowly, she turned deadened eyes to stare at him. Normally, her eyes were mostly empty of emotion. Right now, though, they seemed mostly empty even of thought. She didn’t answer for a long beat as she stared at him. Finally, she said, “Probably twice as powerful. Maybe I could actually help Willow in a fight.”
Nodding slowly, Jonah made his choice. Her thoughts had helped, though in a different way than one might imagine. He didn’t see himself ever standing shoulder to shoulder with Willow, dishing out punches and smashing enemies. That wasn’t his style, or what he was interested in. The idea of winning battles and fights was certainly to his liking, but he didn’t want to be in battles and fights. Just win them. He’d been the team’s coordinator and buffer. Beyond that, what did he want to be? He wasn’t sure. What he was sure of, is that if he could run around without ever getting tired his allies wouldn’t have to worry about him being unable to escape something bad. They’d be less likely to get hurt trying to save him. That was good enough.
He mentally chose Effortless Movement. To offset the cost, he invested one stat point in mana, bringing his total to a whopping 25. The other two stat points went into Agility. If it didn’t cost him anything to walk, run, or jump, then he wanted to be good at those things.
Although he wasn’t sure how, Naomi appeared to have realized he was done and ready to go even before he moved. She stood slowly and held a hand out to him, “C’mon, let’s get to those Kobolds today.”