Bert turned back to his plate of food, when Brandon felt the man was not going to say anything else he turned to his new task. Brandon strained trying to interact with his menus. He could feel his cheeks growing red when he let out a sigh. Attempting a new approach, he tried to think of how he mentally swiped away his notifications but did it in reverse.
A red flashing window appeared in his vision and it took him a second to realize it was the message he had just dismissed without reading.
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Warning: You are in a safe area designated by -Kurt-. Activating un approved spells or abilities could have dire results.
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Brandon wondered how many of these notifications he had received throughout the day and a bell with the number seven in its lower right filled his vision. He leaned back in surprise wishing he could make the bell smaller and the image responded instantly.
After a few more tests Brandon realize the screens responded more to his will than anything else. He could shape and change where the images appeared in his view, how they reacted, and hoe they opened. But he had to think very carefully what he wanted and how he wanted it to act. Too vague and the interface either did nothing or things flashed in and out as random colors making his head spin.
He decided to take a step back, slow down, and start from the beginning. Remembering that Bert was an Elementalist he thought back to what his own classes were.
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Multi-Classer – This takes the place of two attributes. Multi-classing allows you to use skills and abilities from any number of other classes.
* Skills and abilities are leveled at a decreased rate
* Range and duration of skills and abilities is reduced
* The strength of skills and abilities may be reduced
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Bag Man – You have a dimensional bag that can store anything that you can carry for more than three seconds. Storage space is determined by your current level.
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He focused on the first one, Multi-Classer, and a shadowy gray fog filled his vision. Small circles and faint lines spiderwebbed out obscured his vision. In the center was a small area with two visible small points. When Brandon focused on the two points they raced toward him.
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Enhancement: Spells and Abilities in the Enhancement field will augment the users physical abilities.
Currently known: Stone Skin.
Elemental: Spells and Abilities in the Elemental field will leverage the powers of nature.
Currently known: Static Shock
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Brandon could see hidden, barely visible network of points and lines that made up each section as they spread and interacted with other unknown fields of magic. The only things truly detailed were two motes of light that detailed his two spells. He tried to interact with the shadowy sections but nothing happened.
He moved over to his other class, Bag Man. And a window appeared made of square boxes. Some were already full with odds and ends, some rope, rocks, and a few apples, all of which Brandon had picked up during his escape from the facility.
He found he could move and rearrange things. He was able to combine objects into single squares into stacks if they were similar enough. And after a little work he was able to pull things in and out of his storage with a thought. A small pop and snap sounded from Brandon’s palm the first time he did this. Brandon shook his hand with a small wince of pain. Bert just smirked and Brandon swore he heard Kurt grumble something from across the bar.
After some more testing Brandon found if he moved an item to its own single storage cell, then swapped the item in storage with the air where he wanted it to appear he could make it appear with barely any sound and pain. Brandon knew this is something he would have to train on. He figured if he perfected it, the skill could be silent, and from what he gathered it would be instantaneous.
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Dr. Janet Weimer: Level 10 Fighter has joined the party
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Brandon closed out the last window after reading the message. He scanned the pub and saw a woman walking towards them. She was short but held the air of someone not to be fucked with. She had a sword at her hip and a round shield on her back that reminded him of an ancient gladiator. Raven black hair was braided down behind each ear.
“Please do not tell me that you actually picked up that mission,” Dr Janet said as she sat down. “I don’t care what you are going to get from it, it is not worth it.”
“Brandon let me introduce you to Dr Janet Weimer. Former professor of Astrophysics, now she is one of the lost and hated, just like us.”
Brandon nodded at the woman and turned back to Bert. “So, you didn’t just help me out of the kindness of your heart.”
Bert pointed to a faded chalk board next to the bar. “That there, is the mission board. There are a few around town like it. It is one of the only ways that P.A.T. will interact with us directly. They give you a job, you finish the job, and you get a reward. There are a few others ones in town that are not run by P.A.T. but instead by locals. I’d steer clear of those if I was you.”
“What did you get for helping me?” asked Brandon.
“I’ll say this once, no one around here is going to help you out of the kindness of their heart. The more you know what they want, or get from helping you, the safer you are.”
Brandon frowned. He had never been the type of person to volunteer his weekends for some cause, but he had never gone out of his way to not help someone either. Taking another look around the room he could almost feel a weight pressing down on everyone, even in this supposedly safe area.
“Why don’t you tell Brandon how you ended up here Janet,” said Bert changing the subject.
“What didn’t I do is more like it. Bert, grab me a drink and I’ll fill in our new friend here. He might as well know if you wrapped us up in this already.”
“You know that each iteration P.A.T. changes up personalities a bit, yeah?” Began Janet. “Planetary Assimilation Team, they call themselves. From what we are told they have some war going on out in space somewhere.” Janet waved her hand vaguely in the air gesturing towards the sky. “From the little we gather during our indoctrination at the Facility after we are brought back, is that they need people to help them fight their war. Churning out identical clones can lead to certain problems, the same people tend to fill the same roles, the same solutions to problems, things like that.”
“On the other hand, make a few tweaks, set them up in a staging area like this, and make the only way out a portal that they control and you get your own version of a sadistic magical bootcamp with minimal work on their part.”
“There is time for that later,” said Bert as he dropped a pint in front of each of them. “Tell him why you are here.”
“I’m getting to it,” said Janet. “Well original me was a Professor of Astrophysics like Bert said at a little college out in the middle of nowhere USA with all the pomp and circumstance that came along with it. I was head of the department and everything. Well first iteration me, that is first after original me, shacked up with one of the local mob goons in exchange for some level of safety.”
“This isn’t your first time back either?”
Janet pulled her left sleeve up the show a red number one wrapped in thorny vines. “Don’t interrupt while I’m in the middle of a story, but yeah this is my second time back. Well one way or another I ended up dead. Fast forward to this me. I had been out and about for a few weeks at that point and some shmoe cat calls me. Must have known the old me cause I had never seen this guy in my life. Well, second iteration me at least. He comes at me trying to get handsy. One thing led to another and I had to chop one of his arms off.” Janet used her hand and mimed cutting halfway between the elbow and shoulder. “A lot of things can be healed, but everything I have heard regrowing an arm is way above anything people in this area can do.”
“So that is why you are an outcast too?” asked Brandon.
“No,” laughed Bert. “She is like us because when the guy came back with a few of his friends she did the same to them as well.”
“Figured if I let them live with one arm it would be a warning of sorts, no one else would bother me. I was half right at least.”
“Coincidentally,” said Bert. “Those fellows she maimed were part of Chet’s group. Until you showed up she was one of the more hated people in his organization.”
“So does your mission just say you need to get me here, or is there some way I can convince you to show me how to get out of here and somewhere safe? Living the rest of my life in a pub isn’t my idea of ideal.”
Bert’s smile faltered for only a moment. “We don’t intend you to stay here. Kurt only allows people to stay if they are actively paying for services, and he does not have any places to stay long term. Now that Janet is here to help out, and things have died down a little outside, we can get out of here and get you some real-world experience.”
Brandon opened his mouth to respond then closed it. After a minute of thought he said, “what do you mean real world experience?”
“We thought that it would be a good idea if you had a chance to flex some of your new abilities and learn how they worked.” Bert smiled at Brandon.
Somehow Brandon was not sure that Bert was looking out for his best interests.