Chapter 22 - Skill Rank

  "You are my son, and I love you. More than anything: You are my flesh; My blood; My will made manifest. The world is ours and ours alone. We will make sure that happens."

  - 'Father', leader of The Cult of the Celestial Heir.

  “Come on. Come on!” Solis hissed, straining against [Circulation], but unable to push it past the new limits he had found.

  Three separate streams of consciousness worked in tandem to purge [Corruption] into [Mana]. For the past week, he and Samir had been working on different mana regeneration methods, cataloguing, quantifying, and hell, even graphing the results for better data representation. It still irked Solis that one of the methods he intuitively felt was one of the best -- one where he had one stream of thought attacking corruption with external mana, one focused on gathering corruption into himself, and one creating whirlpools for his internal mana -- was actually one of the worst.

  He and Samir had argued about it for an entire day, and the man's weathered face actually looked smug after all was said and done.

  Frustratingly for both of them, the best regeneration technique was simultaneously the simplest and most dangerous. It entailed focusing every stream of thought on creating as many whirlpools in as large an area as possible, only occasionally having a consciousness flick over to open the mana membrane for a second or two. The next highest method didn't even come close across all levels of [Resonance] stat activation. They called it "Endovortic Mana Regeneration," or EMR for short. It was "safe", as long as Solis could take in any amount of corruption as long as more than 3.2 points weren't touching his membrane.

  They named it such because during their experiments, they found a second way to turn corruption into mana, which involved slamming the shit out of corruption into a solid surface. They stopped playing around with that method, which Samir named "Frequency Shattering," because of its inconsistency and the fact that it barely generated any mana at all.

  There were two additional boosts to Solis's mana regeneration capabilities, both coming from [Domain]. Despite the skill not having any levels, Solis felt more comfortable with it and mana as a whole now. It had started feeling like an additional limb; rather than wet sand, that he had to fight against forming. The second was that he could infuse [Domain] into his mana to give it some... well, [Negligible] properties like sharpness.

  The sharp mana did nothing to stone or flesh, but when used against [Corruption], he found that he could either pre-split larger chunks before taking them into his body, or infuse the entire whirlpool to have it shred the tar-like substance. The only issue was that if it touched his mana-membrane, it would also shred that, so he only infused the whirlpool in his chest -- the one far away from any other surface -- with his [Domain].

  Through his efforts, both [Mana Manipulation I] and [Simulate] had gained a rank, bringing both to (9/10). One more rank and the skills would be eligible for either reallocation or an upgrade. It filled Solis with giddy excitement.

  [Cleanse] had also increased from an estimated (1/10) to an estimated (4/10), but that mattered far less since it was a [Personal Skill], and the number associated with those just guessed proficiency.

  Shockingly, [Circulation I], despite his best efforts, hadn’t gained a single rank up, much to Solis’s chagrin.

  All in all, Solis could keep all ten points of [Resonance] active, with a net mana regen of 12 mp/s, if he focused all his attention on [Circulation]. If he wanted to keep consciousness to pilot his body, that number plummeted to around 4.67 mp/s, which was still more than enough for his purposes.

  Having [Resonance] permanently active was strange to say the least. Before, it had seemed like time had slowed down, but he soon learned that was only because he had been focusing on a specific task or detail. When he wasn’t focusing on anything in particular -- instead of time slowing down -- he seemed to just notice everything, no matter how minute.

  The downside was that he didn’t want to notice many of the minute details, either because he didn’t care or because they were useless. It made him consider taking a few points in [Discernment] after he got his class, just so he could parse useful and useless information better.

  Using [Circulation] in combat would still be dubious and of little benefit at the moment, since it was just another thing to keep track of, but he knew it wouldn’t stay that way. He saw the shape of the class he wanted more clearly now. [Mana Manipulation], [Anchor], [Simulate], and [Domain] all coming together at once. He’d create a tidal wave of mana that was all under his direct control, making it a living hell for anyone in his zone of control. He’d anchor enemies to his mana, hurling them away or pinning them in place. He’d never need to dodge because he could run [Simulate] constantly and just know where to be and where not to be. His [Domain] would turn from [Negligible] to [Minor], then [Nominal], and maybe even the classifications beyond, allowing infusions of concepts into his attacks.

  He wanted that power; maybe then he could get out of the mountain. Finally, after who knew how long, Solis opened his eyes, and the siblings who had been waiting in the wings instantly took that as him being safe to mess with.

  “Solis,” Hans asked, clearly fed up with watching Solis lie on the floor, seemingly doing nothing.

  “Yeah?”

  “Can we go find more crickets?”

  The three of them, Solis, Ana, and Hans, were in one of Solis’s domes. Officially, it was Solis’s task to create pathways along the cave wall of the jungle and look for more survivor groups, of which he had found three others. Unofficially, Ira and Dimitri found it impossible to get Solis to sleep in the cavern with everyone else, so they had made up this excuse when people like Johan asked.

  “What’s your level at? Both of you.”

  “Seven,” both replied.

  Anticipating Solis’s next question, Ana spoke up. “I took [Create Metal], that way I have more things to control than just your knife. It takes forever to make anything.”

  Hans nodded his head, “I took [Meta Magic I]. It lets me do all kinds of things to [Fire bolt].”

  “Huh,” Solis said after a moment of silence.

  “Huh? That’s it? It’s so cool!”

  “Yeah, I just thought you wanted to be a sorcerer, not a wizard.”

  “That’s a sorcerer thing! Have you never played D&D?”

  “No, not really, but it seems like a wizard thing. Taking control of magic and bending it to your will, how you want? Very wizard coded.”

  “That’s dumb. You're dumb. It’s totally a sorcerer thing. Right, Ana?”

  Ana thought for a moment, looking between her brother and him for a long moment. She came to a decision. “A chauffeur would never drift in a limo, but a street racer would.”

  Hans puffed up his chest and pointed at Solis, “See, even Ana agrees with me.”

  Solis shrugged, “Just means you’re both wrong. Ha!” He blew a raspberry and gave them a thumbs down, much to the children's outrage.

  “Anyway, the crickets! The crickets!” Solis hurriedly changed the subject as both siblings tried to drag him around the dirt by his feet. They relented and stared at him expectantly. “Not today. It’s about time we head back. Johan wants to talk to me about something, apparently.

  Both children grumbled, but relented. Ana took out the rest of her residual anger on the floor and literally kicked rocks, which Solis found amusing. “I’ll fill one of the larger domes near home base with mana for you two, that way you can practice more? How about that?”

  “If I practice any more, I’m going to throw up,” Ana said.

  “Go play with the kids your age then.”

  “How about you go play with the kids your age.” Hans shot back.

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  “Point.” Solis relented.

  Nothing more on that subject needed to be said, as neither party wanted to explain why they didn’t want to do that.

  With that, and talking amiably, the three of them made the trek back to the caves.

  Solis met up with Johan a little outside of their base camp, inside Solis’s tunnel system. The kids ran on ahead to see what Dimitri and Ira were doing, leaving the two men alone to talk.

  In the days since Solis had met Johan, he had confirmed that the man wasn’t some sort of horrible human being who wanted to collect women, and instead that he was just a horribly awkward person whose first instinct, when teleported into a room full of women and children, was to fight monsters to get away from them.

  The admission had made Solis laugh so hard his lungs hurt.

  That realization, however, had caused him to think more about the System. How did the System select who to teleport where? How did the System know who would “certainly die?” How did it decide it based on humanity's survival? In short, all the questions could be condensed into a single one: how did the system know?

  Solis had an idea, but it wasn’t one he liked. He could already [Simulate] a lot, but it was still limited to what he knew, even if he didn’t know he knew, but with his high mana pool and increased regeneration, he could simulate a whole day if that day was simple enough. Those simulations could only simulate “what would happen if you sat in a cave all day”, but still, the time itself was staggering even now.

  How far off could the System simulate? He knew he wasn’t in a simulation, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been before. Could it have simulated weeks in advance? Months? Thousands of times before selecting the path where the fewest people died? Solis didn’t know, but it seemed wrong to him; it also raised some uncomfortable questions. Apparently, he was the only one anyone had met who hadn’t been teleported to the mountain. All he had was conjecture and what most would call paranoid theories, but he didn’t like the shape all the sparse details were making.

  Solis sighed. He really didn’t know, plus it wasn’t like people weren’t still dying. The body parts they had seen getting carried away when they saw the [Curator Elite] belonged to people, and the second cavern he had found… he had to send Ana and Hans away.

  “Hey Solis!” Johan boomed, startling the young man from his stupor.

  “Yeah?”

  “How far do you think we’ve made it around this jungle?”

  Solis thought about that and replied honestly through a laugh. “I have no idea. This place is huge. Could be a fourth, could be as little as a drop in the bucket.”

  Blowing air out of his lips, Johan looked towards the domes. “It’d help a lot more if you weren’t the only ones making these things. If people would just take [Mana Manipulation I] like you, they could start from the other side and we’d be twice as fast.”

  They were just rehashing a discussion they’d had a few times, and that Solis had little desire to repeat.

  “If people want to do that, let them. It’s a hard skill to rank up, but I’ve found it useful.”

  “I agree. I’d take it, but I’m out of Enhancement Points and four ranks away from being able to get one back. No one else has volunteered.”

  “Yeah, man, that’s just how the dice fall. I don’t think anyone but me wants to be out here.”

  “That’s because we haven’t given them an incentive.”

  Solis laughed, injecting as much naive good nature as he could. “What incentive do we have man? ‘Your cricket soup will have extra water in it if you go into the jungle of death,’ like seriously?”

  Johan deflated, “I know. This whole thing is just so frustrating. It feels like you’re the only one doing anything. Hell, I’m just here twiddling my thumbs. Haven’t had to fight anything that wasn’t completely trapped in days.”

  “Afraid you’re getting soft?” Solis jabbed.

  “Soft? Hell no. But I was talking to Ana and Hans and they told me about this Dimensional Palimpsest they’re looking for. If other people would take over the scouting for you, we could go find it. Maybe that’s the key to this whole place.”

  Solis didn’t know much about the Palimpsest, just that whatever it was, he needed its core to gain his class… it just might not be worth the cost it took to get it. He didn’t express that exactly; instead, he gave a tentative “I agree.”

  “But that’s the— wait what? You agree? Perfect! Let's get started then.”

  Solis shook his head, “I agree on principle man, but finding the people is time sensitive. The Palimpsest or whatever isn’t.”

  Johan frowned. “It might be.”

  Quirking an eyebrow, Solis stared at the man, “What makes you say that?”

  “Ana and Hans only asked what was reasonable in a month. It never said the Palim– Paili— the big P had to stay the whole time. For all we know it will vanish after some time passes.”

  “Big P?” Solis questioned.

  “Look, I've never heard that word in my life. It’s hard to say.”

  “Hey man, I’m not judging, whatever works for you.” Sighing, Solis leaned back, “It’s not the only reason I haven’t pushed for it. There’s a monster further into the forest -- we didn't tell the siblings about it. Looks kind of like a giant orangutan. Massive arms, longer than some of these jungle trees are tall. It’s a level fifteen [Elite]. Could probably crush one of my domes without thinking. Hell, any level four could break this rock if they were smart enough. The only reason the bugs haven’t is that they’re kinda stupid."

  “Make them out of metal then,” Johan said

  “Still pretty sure the [Elite] could bend the metal, which to [Mana Manipulation] counts as breaking."

  “Look, Solis. I’m really trying here. Work with me, bounce some ideas at least, instead of shooting all of mine down. I just think that if we gather enough people, convince them to take certain skills, and really fight and help out, we could do something!”

  “Johan. I’m not—” Solis paused, struggling to find the right words. “I’m good with people, but I’m not some commander or leader, and I certainly don’t want to try my hand at it. People are going to do whatever they want, and so will I, and what I want to do is build these tunnels, some nice-looking stone apartments, and see how many people we can save. I want to help Ana and Hans, and I want to see what the Palimpsest is, but if it vanishes, that’s fine too. Because that’s not my priority. If people want to help. Great. If they don’t, that sucks, but I’ll keep doing what I have to.”

  A groan of annoyance escaped Johan’s mouth, “You’re a real difficult person you know that? Stubborn as hell. Tyrant of your own little kingdom of one.”

  Solis chuckled, “Better than a tyrant with a big kingdom, I say. We do what we want and what we can. I want and can do this, so I do. Everyone else either can’t or won’t. Nothing wrong with that. Just how things are.”

  Johan sat down on the hard jungle floor and scratched the back of his head. “You know, when I first saw you I thought things would happen fast. You kind of came in like a fucking meteor with that introduction of yours and the rest. It felt like we had no hope and then BAM.” He punctuated the word by crushing a rock. “Everything was fine. I thought you’d rally everyone and we’d trapse across the jungle like a wave of terror to the crickets, amassing an army as we went. But you didn’t do that. It’s like you just stuck your head in, told everyone, ‘Hey, it’s all gonna be alright now here’s food and water,’ and then fucked right off.”

  “Yeah. That’s fair. The whole hero thing wasn’t really my thing. That’s my friend Rick’s thing.” Solis laughed, looking off into the distance as if there was something there. “He’s probably out there right now doing just as you said. He’s got a real ego on him, too. Sports mentality, the whole ‘I’m the best, and if you beat me I’ll work until I’m the best again.’ That type of shit.”

  “Sounds like a real man. That’s what we need right now,” Johan nodded approvingly.

  Solis rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say.”

  “You kind of have a responsibility to those people you saved. A lot of them are confused and don’t know what to do. They’re just sitting there, waiting.”

  “I am responsible for them. Which is why I’m making these tunnels and trying to save more. Samir is providing them with food and semi-proper nutrition, and the ones that want to learn a little hand to hand combat are doing that with Ira. I’m— we’re not being passive here, Johan. Would it be faster if I forced everyone to help? Maybe, but I refuse to do that.”

  “Why?”

  “Nunya.”

  Johan blinked. “Did you just nunya business me?”

  “No. Because you ruined it.”

  Johan sighed, “Is there a reason you refuse to try this? I can do it, but you’re the first one they saw come save them, and I mean that literally and figuratively.

  “You literally stopped an invading army of crickets for three days and three nights.”

  “Two nights”

  “Whatever, that’s literally the stuff of legends.”

  “Aye, it might’ve been. Before I opened my big mouth, and everyone realized how awkward I am. Look, all I’m saying is that it would mean more coming from you than it would coming from me right now.”

  Solis paused, “Yeah. There it is.”

  “What is it?”

  Solis sighed. “Look, the reason isn’t important, just the fact that I won’t do it. You have my blessing to do it yourself, not that you needed it.”

  “You’re impossible.”

  “And you're nosy. Every second I waste could be another dead person. I’ll do what I can, and what I can do is this. What I won't do is lead. That’s all.”

  Johan hung his head in defeat and turned back the way he came. “Alright, man. I’ll trade off with Ira and Dimitri and see what I can do. Take a break until they get here.”

  Solis turned to the man and gave him a wide smile, “Sure thing. Good luck! You got this man!” and then turned back to his work.

  He waited until Johan was out of sight, and finally let his body react the way it wanted. His fist clenched so hard he thought it might draw blood.

  He wanted it.

  By the Gods, he wanted to be in charge more than anything. To have that power.

  'But it's right there. All for you. All of it, it could all be yours. It is yours, if only you'd take it.'

  Those thoughts filled him, and he had to fight every desire to walk back into the cavern and claim it. He had the power. He had the goodwill of the people there.

  But those thoughts were exactly what caused his hand to unclench. He knew who he was and whose blood ran through his veins. He wanted that power, so he couldn't have it.

  He wanted that power, so he couldn't have it."

  Pffft, yeah buddy, wonder how long that's gonna last bozzo.