CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
The warm light of rising dawn broke through the sparse cordon of deciduous trees, burning away the early morning mist blanketing the clearing. Streams of light, like spun gold, pierced the swiftly retreating gloom. Illuminating the myriad beads of dew that speckled the long stretch of emerald green. Making them gleam and sparkle like miniature diamonds, where they clung to vibrant blades of grass.
Robin exited her tent to the airy trill of birdsong. She stomped her feet a couple of times, trying to warm up her toes. Rubbing her hands together to better ward off the brisk morning chill, she nodded her greetings toward Eva, Maya, and Marlene, who were just now exiting their own tents.
Maya and Eva sporting particularly egregious cases of bed hair, as if she were any better, while Marlene, surprisingly, looked rather well put together. Hair combed and everything. Currently, they all wore their system assigned clothing—what effectively amounted to grey t-shirts, hoodies, and jeans. Still rubbing sleep from their eyes, they all converged upon the fire pit as one—the fire having apparently gone out quite some time ago.
After the excitement of last night, she thought she’d never fall asleep, and yet here they all were, up bright and early. A weighty decision hanging over their heads. Denise was already there by the time they arrived, trying, and failing, to light a spark from the fire starter kit they’d been provided. She could hear the woman mumbling curses from here, as she repeatedly scraped a piece of flint against a steel rod.
“Shirt…! Shirt! Forking-! Shirt!” she threw the flint and steel down with a huff, angrily rising to her feet. “Fork this!”
And so saying she stomped over to her camping chair and promptly threw herself into it. Pulling the drawstrings of her hood tight and huddling in on herself, clearly shivering beneath the less than thick jacket. Suddenly, before the woman, a second pair of folded clothes appeared. Hovering midair for a second, before flopping to the ground. Denise reached forward and snatched up the hoodie that’d appeared, roughly pulling it over herself with a sigh of relief.
“Do you think that was the best use of your points?” Robin couldn’t help but ask.
The woman’s only reply coming in the form of a glare, and a couple of rudely raised fingers. Robin just snorted, then set about scraping out the fire pit. In less than five minutes she had a decently crackling fire going. With a grunt, Robin got to her feet, dusting off soot stained hands. She caught Denise looking at her.
“Girl Scouts,” she shrugged. “It isn’t all just selling cookies, though that is most of it.”
Denise snorted.
“Why am I not surprised?”
They didn’t say much after that. Merely sat with their thoughts for a time, and tried to wake up properly. Eventually though, that silence was broken.
“I would seriously, like, kill for a cup of coffee right now,” Eva groaned.
“Your parents let you drink coffee?” Marlene asked.
“Yours don’t?” Eva was surprised.
“Mary Mary Mary, what are we going to do with you girl? What else have you been missing out on?! No, wait. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen Star Wars!”
“I… have.”
“And?”
“It was fine. I thought the droids were funny.”
Maya stared at her for a time. Marlene stared back, nonplused.
“Huh. You know I really thought that was going to be a whole lot more of a thing than it ended up being.”
Once more, relative silence blanketed the glade. A silence that was promptly shattered by Denise.
“Hey! Could we maybe acknowledge the elephant in the room now please? Preferably before I freeze my forking tits off?”
Robin grimaced. Took a deep breath, then responded.
“After some time to think it over, I can’t say that I disagree with you-”
“Finally!”
“But! I still have reservations. Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to at least check what class options you have available first? I mean, classes mean skills right? We’ve managed to dig up that much. Actual, honest to god, super powers! Just think about what that might mean for our chances of survival!”
At her words, Marlene shifted in her chair, while Denise merely looked even more smug than usual. Robin narrowed her eyes.
“Look, you’re free to do whatever you think is best when you reach level fifteen. Until then, I don’t want to hear it. I have a hunch that the payoff will be far better if I sit on my selection for the next little while, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. If you don’t like it, no one said you had to come with. You can stay here with the kiddies and keep them company, while we get stronger.”
Robin scowled. Turned toward Eva and Maya, both of which looked like they’d have preferred to be anywhere else.
“And if they get hurt because of your inaction?!”
“Then we’ll stick ‘em with one of those glowing green syringes, and they’ll be good as new in no time! Besides-”
The world rippled around her with a dulcet chime, and in her hands appeared that same elegant rapier from last night.
“It’s not as if I’m helpless. Even without a class.”
And to that—feeling the waves of invisible pressure coming off the blade—Robin found she could not argue.
“Okay,” she sighed. “When do you propose we leave?”
“Oh, it’s we now is it?” Denise smirked.
“Just answer the stupid question.”
Denise rolled her eyes.
“Well, the sooner the better. As soon as we’ve brought the kiddies up to speed, for instance. Did you purchase the safe-zone token yet?”
“No. I was waiting till everyone was here so we could split the difference.”
“Again?!” the woman whined, as if she weren’t the richest out of all of them.
Robin just glared at the woman till she acquiesced. Grumbling, she and the others hit the confirm button on her proposed purchase. One hundred Participation Points left her point balance, and in the next moment a shiny silver coin appeared before her. Snagging the coin before it fell, she opened her palm and read the system description.
?—|-1 Week Safe-Zone Renewal Token-|—?
?[Common]?
By planting this token in the ground, create a dome of safety that lasts for one week. Only one such safe-zone can exist at a time.
Promptly following the instructions, Robin dug a coin sized hole, plopped the token inside, then filled it in once more. There was no grand spectacle that followed. One second there was open sky, and the next, there was a semi-transparent dome which ran the full diameter of the clearing.
Robin dusted off her hands.
Well, that was easy enough. Now, all that’s left is to somehow break it to the children that the “sensible adults” would be haring off into the woods to hunt monsters for experience points.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
She grimaced.
Definitely not looking forward to that particular conversation.
Irregardless of her reservations, however, she and the girls began to make their way towards the children’s tent nevertheless. Maya skipping ahead, while Eva and Marlene casually chatted about shows they’d watched. Mind still on the kids, even despite the safe-zone, Robin tried to wrack her brain for a second solution that didn’t make her feel like she were abandoning her charges.
Yeah. Great stuff. By all means, leave the kids to fend for themselves. William Golding eat your heart out.
It was as she’d just about finished convincing herself that, no, in fact it was in everyone’s bestinterests for her to stay after all—even if it meant their group would be weaker for it in the long run—that she caught the telltale glimpse purple from out the corner of her eye. Turning, she managed to spot their chronically flaky tutorial guide, what was becoming an increasingly rare occurrence. The bobble headed tabby mascot trampled in from the woods without a single explanation for where he’d been, or why he’d gone. Although that was more or less par for the course at this point.
It’s steps were completely silent, despite the massive bell hanging from its collar.
Robin locked eyes with the expressive mascot, to which he proceeded to spin around, do a little dance, before finishing off with an elegant bow. A tinny “Ta-da!” sound effect playing from who knows where.
Robin’s mood brightened instantly. Perhaps there was a solution after all.
Less than a minute later, Robin was just nearing the children’s tent, some much needed pep in her step after her quick chat with the mascot, when Maya lurched away from the barely opened flap, pinching her t-shirt collar around her nose, and audibly gagging. Robins steps quickened, heart beginning to race. She reached the tent just as a train of kids rushed through the large flap with laughing cries of “eew!” and “gross!” and “he made a dookie!”
Little Jimmy Yoon, considerate kid that he was, having taken the time to grab the, as yet, unnamed baby girl before making his escape. The rest, meanwhile, merely fell to their hands and knees after creating sufficient distance, relishing the crisp morning air with deep, gasping lungfuls.
Robin’s steps slowed. Instead, she sidled up somewhat apprehensively and gradually reached for the tent flap. Pulling it aside, she was immediately assaulted by the most indescribable stench she’d ever experienced. It sprung actual tears from her eyes. She didn’t shy away however. Closing the flap for a blessed second, she took a deep breath, before plunging in headfirst.
She didn’t know exactly what she’d been expecting.
All she did know was it hadn’t been a one month old child sitting in a strange meditative pose, a small smile of purest satisfaction on his face.
Yeah, Denise might be on to something. Something is definitely off about this kid.
+++
Minutes Earlier
Right! So. There’s good news and then there’s bad news.
Good news: I have successfully achieved one of the first in a long line of monumental milestones, I’ll need to reach, in order to save humanity from its inevitable extinction—the complete and total removal of any and all impurities from my sprightly one-month old body!
Bad news: I still have about half of the energy left, and I think I’m going to explode.
So, you could say it was a bit of a mixed bag.
Much like he’d predicted, the process of purifying his more… sensitive areas—spinal column, sensory organs, and brain—proved stressful, tedious, time consuming, but altogether doable with the right preparations and proper mindset. Oh, and the nearly decades worth of experience in exactingly precise energy manipulation, of course. That bit most definitely helped. Now though, he was left with a bit of a dilemma. Simply put, he didn’t have any more impurities to throw all this life energy at.
He was only G Grade after all, which meant he didn’t have a set of fancy life meridians with unblocked nodes he could toss at the problem. Nope, just soft and supple flesh, currently being scorched to the point of hard-boiling the longer this heated standoff went on. Which ultimately meant one thing. One terrible, perfectly dreadful thing.
He would have to improvise.
Ugh! But I hate improvising! Give me a rigorously detailed plan, with a multitude of interchangeable contingencies independent of attenuating circumstances, any day of the week! Leave the improvising to the improvisers, I say!
Let them indulge in the sordid depravity, and whatever else they got up to in their free time. Other nefarious misdeeds, he wouldn’t be shocked to find out. Tasteless slapdash nonsensical tripe! He would be having none of it! None! Except for in the rare instances where he was given no other choice, that was. He would’ve sighed, but then he was afraid he’d pop like a water balloon.
Now then, what did he know? What were the facts? Number one, his body was filled with excess amounts of life energy. Number two, he was drained of all his impurities. So, on the one hand, life energy, he had a lot of it, and on the other, impurities: a lack thereof. Completely devoid of impurities. Devoid. Void.
Huh.
He suddenly wondered how much space all of those impurities had taken up. Given his age it couldn’t have been much, but he definitely felt at least a couple pounds lighter. Of course there was always the chance whatever crevices they’d leaked out of had been taken already. It only made sense that, all that free real estate had to have been appropriated by something. Though, for the life of him, he couldn’t think of what.
This is a stupid idea. There’s no way that’ll work!
And yet, he didn’t really have time to come up with anything better.
Already he was beginning to feel more than a bit light headed—the levels of heat he was experiencing, sustained for so many hours, quite literally slow-cooking his brains to mush inside his skull. And so, bracing himself for immense pain, he directed the mindless red energy to permeate his entire body, and then, for lack of a better idea, urged it to slip into the spaces previously occupied by the impurities. Braced for just about anything he could think of, the waves of euphoria which washed over him nearly succeeded where hours of intense pain had failed. He struggled maintain his concentration.
From that point onward, he barely even had to act.
It was as if he’d poked a hole through the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and now all the water was funneling downward in droves. It was inexplicable. He could only sit and stare in dumbstruck stupefaction as his very cells—now rid of that black, oily gunk, and so, effectively, wrung dry—soaked up the eager strands of life energy like a giant sponge. More and more of the life energy was drawn to where he could not easily follow, cracks and crevices on the microscopic level, only to seemingly vanish into nothing at all. Absorbed by his increasingly voracious constitution.
Faster than he’d even believed possible, the blazing abundance of life energy that nearly burst him like a soap bubble moments earlier, drained away until nothing was left.
Until all that remained was a sound body and mind, strangely well rested and filed with crystal clarity respectively. Richard opened his eyes. He noted the black gunk that clung to the inside of his clothes only as an afterthought—his Liora’s Blessing passive working on the stains even as he watched, though it was far slower with filth that wasn’t directly touching him.
Opening up his status, he gave it a full read through for the first time in what felt like forever.
-|—Status—|-
Name: Richard Penn
Level: 15 [Locked]
Age: 1 month old
Class: None [Pending]
Body Grade: G [Pending] [2 Star Prestige]
Soul Grade: G
Core Grade: Blank (1st Level Purity)
Master Formation: G
Peerage: Lowly Serf
Noble Regalia: None
Strength: 14
Endurance: 13
Resilience: 90
Regeneration: 13
Control: 30
Mana Capacity: 8
Free Points: 0
Abilities: (0/2)
Class Skills: (0/3)
Equipment: (0/7)
Title: |Liora’s Embrace| [Legendary]
Richard couldn’t help a self satisfied grin.
Nyehehehe!
Not only had he managed to gain two levels of body prestige in one breakthrough session, something he hadn’t even thought possible—draining the remaining life energy directly into his cells, though improvised, had clearly been the right thing to do—but he’d also received a rather hefty bonus of ten points to all stats. Well, all stats but mana capacity and resiliency of course, but those were really their own things anyway.
He was fairly confident by now that, of all his attributes, resiliency was the only one to have stuck with him through his trip back in time. Given everything he’d gone through in his past timeline, having his resilience jump up to the maximum value for his grade and prestige was only to be expected. In a way, his status sheet was simply catching up to his adult mind. That being the case, he also highly doubted this was the last time it’d skyrocket in value.
His resiliency score had been in the tens of thousands after all.
One thing all this did confirm for him, however, was the idea that 30 points was the natural stat cap for G Grade. Good to know, though it was still pitifully little in his opinion.
Nothing for it I suppose.
He’d known there would be some stat growth, of course. Like he said, his attributes were as much a representation of the state of his body, as it was a tool to facilitate his body’s growth. He just hadn’t known how much. Ridding his body of its impurities likely doubled his previous capabilities, and suffusing his cells with raw life energy had only exacerbated the change.
He felt… good. Like really really good. For the first time since he’d woken up in that crib, confused and uncoordinated, he actually felt in control of his own body. It was an intoxicating sensation. Almost enough to make a grown baby cry.
And of course, that was when all the children woke up in unison, took one good whiff of the impurity laden air, and ran screaming from the tent as if fleeing for their very lives.
And so it begins…
