Chapter 2: With friends like these…
Progress down the beach was predictably slow. While it was certainly not the first time she’d had to buck up and get around on her own power, her sprained wrist and the uneven, soft sand of the beach made for hard going. On top of that, she wasn’t exactly in particularly good strength. Turned out a lifetime split between beds and a wheelchair did that to someone. Her arms were definitely her strongest asset but shoving herself awkwardly along facing backwards was using muscles she didn’t even know she had.
Altogether it was a grueling process and, within an hour, she was utterly exhausted. Sweat dripped down her face as she paused increasingly often to take breaks. She’d had to resist the temptation to pull the waterskin out of her inventory to gulp down mouthfuls of that clear, delicious water on more than one occasion. The beach was just miserably hot in the midday sun.
Glancing over at Sparkflint floating uselessly some dozen feet away, she wished bitterly she’d just chosen to be the human refrigerator instead. She probably could have drank from the summoned ice she’d have been able to make as well. Well, she thought, can’t drown in regrets so just move on. And so she did just that, returning to the process of pushing herself along. Thus, the day dragged on.
It was around sunset that she finally hit her limit. Laying on her back, panting in exhaustion and staring up at the darkening sky, Syra couldn’t help but feel a twinge of discouragement. She’d held her composure since her outburst earlier, but it was fraying at the edges again. It was all so…overwhelming. A new world, and if the system message had been correct it was a new life. It was unlikely she’d be going back any time soon and all illusions of this being a dream had been erased. She hurt too much for it to be a dream.
Shoving herself over onto her stomach and propping herself up on her elbows, she gasped as her aching back stretched. It was a good stretch though, and well deserved at that. Syra looked down the beach in the direction she’d been heading. She’d rounded the curve she’d seen earlier that day, and the beach stretched on what seemed like endlessly before her. But, in the dying light, she spotted something over the horizon.
Smoke.
She lay down, resting the side of her face on her arms. A light breeze had picked up, coming in from the sea. It felt nice, and the cool touch started to dry the sweat that had been dripping down her face.
Smoke most likely meant civilization. From the system messages and menus so far, she was almost certain civilization had to exist in this world. If she could just find it, maybe she could get help. Syra was pragmatic; she knew she wasn’t a storybook hero, some magical girl running around in wonderland. She was, by cruel definitions, a cripple, paralyzed from the waist down since birth. The only reason she’d ever survived was through the love and support of those around her. Love and support that she was now completely lacking.
Shaking herself, Syra pushed herself over and back up into a sitting position. Shifting around to lean back against the embankment she’d been following, she pulled up the system menu to get rid of her wandering thoughts. Surprisingly, there was a notification bell lit up with a small 2 subscript. Curiosity washing her negative thoughts away, she eagerly opened it up.
System Notification: Stat Increase
Your training has paid off!
Stat increase: +1 Endurance, +1 Strength
Training, Syra thought wryly. Yeah I guess we could call it that. She hit acknowledge and pulled up the next notification.
System Notification: Class Rank-Up
Your continuous usage of your class related skills has paid off!
Void Hand Rank increased to Wood-E
Stat Increase: +1 Vitality, +1 Endurance, -5 Faith, +10 Occult
New class skill options available
The rank up, Syra could only presume, came from her just having Sparkflint summoned. That was nice at least, considering having the demon out just blocked out a chunk of her mana, of which she seemed to have plenty. But she was more interested in these new class skills, and so she clicked the “Choose Now” option.
Standard Skill Draw
Option 1: Minor Void Melee Augmentation (Grade Wood-E)
Coats a chosen melee weapon in demonic energy, amplifying its damage dealt by an amount scaled by the casters Occult stat.
Cost: 10 Mana
This one wasn’t bad, especially since her occult stat seemed to be grossly outstripping all else. However she didn’t exactly see herself using many weapons, at least not if she could avoid it.
Option 2: Void Advisor (Grade ???)(passive)
[SYSTEM ERROR]
Ooookaay, She thought. Clearly the great “system” wasn’t completely bug free then. Void Advisor though…that sounded useful. She could use some advice.
Option 3: Minor Void Ranged Augmentation (Grade Wood-E)
Coats a chosen ranged projectile in demonic energy, amplifying its damage dealt by an amount scaled by the casters Occult stat.
Cost: 3 Mana
That one was slightly better than the melee one, but she still didn’t have anything that fired projectiles. Her finger hovered over it, resigned to her fate of a useless skill. Except…
She looked back at the second option. A part of her felt that this might actually be the better option. Her very class was apparently broken and likely “hated by the Great Roots”, which she took to mean the system itself. Would it not make sense then to pick the skill that was also obviously broken?
“What’s the worst that could happen?” And so she chose Void Advisor.
Turns out, the worst was quite a lot.
IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG MY KING, HOW FARES OUR LAND?
The voice was booming and powerful, and located directly in her skull. Her very teeth seemed to rattle with every word. She screamed, she couldn’t help herself.
Silence. You… The voice began again, softer this time. I see. Was it sadness she heard? And then silence again.
She sat there, breathing heavily, her heart racing. My mind is the only thing I can truly control. The mantra, repeated over and over again, and yet now something else inhabited her mind. She shuddered; her Void Advisor.
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“I should have just picked the ranged augmentation!” She gasped, struggling to hold back tears again. Mistake, after mistake, after mistake. And this one had cost her the one thing that had always been her own. Her thoughts. Her mind.
An indignant huff echoed through her head. Nonsense! I’ll not be compared to that trivial skill, I doubt it was even Topaz when it got offered to you!
Topaz? What the hell was the voice on about? “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!” She screamed.
I’m not in your head, I’m in the Void! I can’t read your mind, I only see through your eyes and hear through your ears. Damnation, lady, didn’t you read the description?
She calmed down almost immediately. It couldn’t read her mind. Her thoughts were still her own. Syra sighed, and leaned back, looking over at the floating ball of fire further down the beach.
Is that a Sparkflint? She nodded. Why the fuck is it unevolved? Wait…what grade are you?
“Uh,” She said. “I don’t remember?” She reached up and hit the home screen and pulled up her status again.
Syra Constance
Equipped Title: None
Divine Alignment: None
Class: Void-Hand Grade: Wood-E
Stats:
Vitality: 6
Endurance: 6
Strength: 4
Dexterity: 6
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 5
Faith: -30
Occult: 50
Engineering: 0
Manipulation: 0
Resources:
Health: 30
Stamina: 30
Mana: 310 (30 reserved)
Oh we’re fucked. What are you like 10 years old? How the fuck are you still Wood? You should be at least in the Platinum ranks to have summoned me.
“23.” She said hoarsely. “And just to get it out of the way, I can’t walk. I’m paralyzed from the waist down. I showed up on this beach around noon today and now here we are. I don’t know where I am, what I am, what you are, what I’m supposed to do-” Her voice grew more and more hysterical as she rambled on.
Shut the fuck up. I need to think for a moment. Her jaw snapped shut with an audible click. Silence again. Then the demon sighed. You’re what’s called an Extern. Someone pulled from another world and dumped into a random Leaf. It was stated as fact, and she wasn’t about to argue with it.
“I get that well enough, but everything else is still-”
Shut up, I'm still talking. Part of her flickered in annoyance. This advisor had quite the superiority complex.
Just my luck getting a crippled woman on a beach. Still, you dying means I’m probably not going to be seeing this world for a very long time so you better not fucking do that.
“Well I guess that cancels my plans for the evening.” She snapped irritably.
People fucking off themselves all the time lady. I have no idea how long it’s been since Co- since the Void King ruled with me at his side. None of this scenery looks familiar, so I don’t think we’re on branch 3.
“178”
Well fuck. The advisor paused. Ever considered visiting branch 3? Way fucking cooler than this shithole. It sounded strangely earnest, though the emotion was somewhat offset by its foul mouth.
“I’ll consider it when I suddenly have working legs. For now I can’t even get off this beach.”
Hmm. It sounded thoughtful. Well fear not Beach Lady, for with Groshog’no’dan at your side you can go wherever you want! You will be a Queen! A Queen of both Void and Humanity and whatever other races you feel like subjugating! We’ll be fucking unstoppable!
She groaned as the voice grew louder and louder in its excitement. “Listen, Groshog’nowhatever-” (GROSHOG’NO’DAN, the demon roared) “GROSH, I’m just going to call you Grosh. Anyway, Queen of the Void and Humanity sounds lovely, but I think you’re forgetting ONE KEY POINT here. I am stuck. On a beach. And unless you can clamber out of my head and carry me around then we’re both stuck here. On this beach. Until I run out of food and water and die horribly.”
The demon was, blessedly, quiet for a while. Then it spoke again, sounding somewhat mollified. Only somewhat though. Well, there are birds up there you can eat! Just have that Sparkflint shoot ‘em down. Hell, they’ll probably be already cooked by the time they hit the ground! And then you can drink their blood to slake your thirst! Grosh sounded much too excited about that last part for Syra’s liking.
But still, she hadn’t considered it. The calls of the gulls had been sounding all around her since she’d first woken up, and she couldn’t help but mentally slap herself for not even considering the possible food source.
With a small frown, she focused on one circling lazily above the beach nearby, and ordered Sparkflint to attack it just like she’d done with the driftwood. The effect was spectacular, a lance of fire in the darkening sky, a distant impact. The corpse of the gull fell to the beach some thirty feet away, smoking.
Aha! Grosh sounded far too pleased with itself. You shall not die today Beach Lady!
Rubbing her temple to ease her now pounding headache, Syra groaned. Some new life this was turning out to be…
_________________
I’ll have you know, Grosh grumbled. This is VERY difficult to watch. Kinda fucking pathetic if I’m being entirely honest with you.
Syra sighed, but didn’t say anything as she continued her short trip towards the corpse of the gull, shoving herself backwards several inches at a time. Her arms screamed in protest; the day had already been brutal on her body but she wanted to bring the gull up past the high tide mark and get to figuring out how to dress it.
You should just cut them off!
“What?” She said, confused.
Your legs! Cut them off! Have your Sparkflint cauterize the stumps! You’ll lose about a third of your health but that can be restored. Just think about it, you'll be so much faster!
“I am NOT cutting off any of my limbs thank you very much.” Her face turned crimson at the thought of it.
Oh don’t be dramatic, you’re not even Gold-ranked, you aren’t gonna find any healer willing to unfuck your shit. I’m sure we can find you some nice magical construct legs on Branch 3! In fact, I know just the place.
“It’s the principal of the matter,” she grumbled. “I don’t want to just chop half my body off!”
Listen, Beach Lady. Your legs are skinny, but they’re still heavy and awkward. You won’t even feel them getting cut off! I guarantee you we’ll be moving around at easily triple the pace!
“I’m not going to keep repeating myself Grosh, I WILL NOT CUT OFF MY FUCKING LEGS!” Syra shouted.
Grosh sighed in irritation, but said no more as she kept pushing backwards. Then she heard something in the direction she’d come from, and looked up. Yellow eyes in the dusk, peeking out from the tall grass. Multiple pairs of eyes, and all looking past her.
Wolves, and from the looks of it they want your gull. Best-
Its voice cut off as Syra raised her hand and let loose a Minor Curse of Necrosis at the middle pair of eyes. A black, foggy blur lept from her outstretched palm and struck the wolf directly in the face. The grass shook as it lept back with a startled yowl, and then lunged forward out of the grass with two others hot on its heels. Dashing straight for her, of course.
I was going to say just let the bastards have it, you’re not exactly in fighting condition Beach Lady.
“Too late for that.” Syra muttered, raising her hand again and flinging a curse at the one on the left. The wolf tried to dodge it, but it still brushed its side, leaving a rapidly darkening streak. The wolves were halfway to her already; the one in the middle, she noticed, had half its face rotted off by that point.
SPARKFLINT, YOU DAMN WOMAN, NOT THAT SILLY DISEASE CURSE!
Sparkflint, right. With a quick mental order, a barrage of fire bolts lanced out from off to her right, three of them directly impacting the rightmost wolf. It collapsed in a smoking heap. Another bolt hit the left wolf in one of its back legs, dropping it to the ground with a yelp of pain.
And then the middlemost wolf was upon her. She grabbed its fur on either side of it, trying unsuccessfully to push it away. Its rotting jaw snapped at her wildly, catching her shoulder in a flash of pain. Without even thinking, she cast her curse with both hands, once, twice, three times. The wolf thrashed on top of her, its jaws coming loose from her shoulder, no the lower jaw had quite literally rotted completely off. Finally, it was still, a weight on her chest so heavy she could hardly breathe. She felt agony from her left shoulder, and she couldn’t move her arm without sending blinding spikes of pain.
Finally, with agonizing effort, she was able to wriggle mostly out from under the wolf and prop herself up on her good arm. Grimacing, she felt blood streaming down her side. Not good, she thought. Collapsing backwards in a cry of pain, she pulled up her inventory and grabbed one of the health potions, chugging it quickly, hoping beyond hope it did what she thought it would do.
Warmth spread through her entire body rapidly, traveling to her shoulder. She felt the skin itself mending as the ripped flesh closed up and the pain faded. Her sprained wrist from earlier was gone as well, leaving her feeling a pleasant buzz all over her body.
Well would you look at that you’re not entirely hopeless are ya, Beach Lady?
“Syra”
Huh?
“My name is Syra, not Beach Lady.”
Grosh chuckled. Well Syra, I think we’re gonna have a real fuckin’ interesting trip.