The village looked much different. An expansive fine mesh fabric spanned from the upper sections of the village to the edge of the bottom platform. It blocked out much of the sunlight, leaving the village dark.
It seemed like every villager was on the main platform. There were at least three hundred people of all ages. Some were standing in groups, and others were sitting on padded cushions eating in circles. The villagers seemed to be dressed in more formal wear, their loincloths replaced with skirt-like lower robes. Their top halves remained uncovered.
In the middle of each circle were clay fire pits with a spit that held two cauldrons each. The dozens of fires lit the dim area and cast shifting, slight shadows in every which direction.
Meat and fruits were skewered on sticks and held over the fire. The food sizzled as flames danced across them. Plates around the fire were filled with bread, vegetables, and raw meats to be grilled. There were people who seemed to be designated servers, carrying trays of extra food and clay pitchers of drinks. Some carried baskets of charcoal that they used to keep the fires going.
The aroma that filled the air somehow overpowered the dank smell of the bayou. It was a smoky charcoal scent, with strong sweet and savory undertones. Justus tried to spend as little money on food as possible. He got by mostly on cheap vegetables, dehydrated noodles, and bread. His idea of a nice meal was a sandwich.
Simon stared at a passing serving woman, who smiled at them politely. She was tall and pretty, and he ogled her exposed breasts with the subtlety of a dire-beast on a dance floor. Justus elbowed him hard on the upper arm, causing him to yelp in pain.
“What?” Simon asked.
“You know what. Show respect.”
In the center, outside the chief’s central hut, was a large bonfire set into a raised clay fire pit. The flames licked the air ten feet above. Roshesh had said they’d know where to go, and Justus didn’t see anything else as eye-catching as the bonfire, so he led the three of them over to it.
Near the bonfire there was a round wooden platform about a foot high. Chief Sho sat in the middle of a small half circle around the fire. To his right was a woman Justus assumed was his wife and his young son, Dashar. To Sho’s left was a girl who looked the same age as Dashar. They looked to be twins. Next to the girl was Roshesh.
When the chief saw them approaching, he stood and stretched out his arms, gesturing to the feast around him.
“A fine way to begin your stay after a good rest, is it not?” he said with a toothy grin. He gestured at the space around his fire. There were three cushions on the ground. “Come, sit with my family. This day you are honored.”
“Thanks. This smells awesome! What is it?” Simon asked, rushing ahead and taking the cushion to the left, next to the young boy. His small dog sat in between them. If anyone was bothered by the animal joining them around the circle, they didn’t show it.
Justus reached the middle cushion and took it. Katherine sat down to his right, next to Roshesh. Her body language betrayed her discomfort.
“There is fish, ridgeback chowder, fried fowl, and plenty more. Grab a bowl, a plate, or make kebabs as you will. The fire is meant to be shared. To drink, we have wines from Greatide as well as our own rum if you want a stronger kick. There’s also sweet tea with orange or water, if you would prefer.”
“We can have alcohol?” Simon asked.
“Of course. Why would we keep you from enjoying the feast fully?”
“I don’t think you need any alcohol,” Justus told Simon.
Simon looked at him with a betrayed look of disappointment. “Come on, it’s a feast!”
Justus stared at him.
“Fine.” Simon groaned. He grabbed a bowl and leaned forward to fill it with stew.
Justus began stacking raw meat and veggies on a skewer. He looked to the chief.
“Thank you for the food.”
The chief waved off his gratitude. “This is a celebration, not a gift. We all share in the joy of delicious food. Show your gratitude by sating your appetites and telling stories. Speaking of, I am curious about where you come from. What is your home like?”
“I’m from Talon, a city in Solidusk. I was visiting the city these two are from, a place called Parton.”
Roshesh looked down at Katherine. “Parton, what is it like?”
“It’s… not there anymore,” Katherine said, her voice barely audible over the sound of the cheerful laughter and voices around the other fires. There was a stretch of awkward silence around Chief Sho’s fire.
“Well, you are here now. This is a good thing. Now is no time to dwell on such matters. Eat, please.” Roshesh said. He looked to the chief. “Father, why not start us off with one of your stories?”
Chief Sho nodded with a smile. “A good idea. I’ll tell you all about the time my great-grandfather was stranded deep in the bayou and helped the Spirit of the waters.”
The mood shifted as the chief recounted the tale. He was a talented storyteller. Justus knew the story was either exaggerated or made up completely, but he couldn’t help but get invested.
When Chief Sho finished his story, Simon was the first to volunteer to tell another. He wasn’t as skilled at the art as Sho, but the story was entertaining. It was about a girl who was haunted by the ghost of her sister during a camping trip with friends.
After Simon finished, Sho began telling them about life around the village. Simon engaged the most of all three of them. Katherine, meanwhile, didn’t say a word and ate very little, even after Roshesh subtly handed her a bowl of the crocodile chowder.
Justus knew she was probably still reeling from all that had happened, but he wondered where the girl’s hotheaded and bossy attitude had gone. Now she seemed meek and mild: a far cry from the girl who berated him during a monster attack for not rushing into danger.
The food tasted as good as it smelled, although it wasn’t as spiced as the food he was used to. He wanted to pull out a few of the spices and the bottle of hot sauce he had stored in his inventory and splash a bit into his chowder, but he wasn’t sure if doing that would be offensive or not. Even if it wasn’t, the others might ask to try some, and that hot sauce was running low. It had been on his list of things to replace after getting paid for clearing out the sewers.
Simon shared a few stories himself. He obfuscated details so it wouldn’t be obvious he was from another planet. Justus had instructed them to keep that bit of information a secret. He was surprised at how well Simon lied and distorted the truth, twisting events and descriptions subtly so that he never told a complete lie, only half-truths and lies of omission. He made a mental note to remember that.
The feast lasted for several hours, long after they were all full. Eventually Justus excused the three of them. The two needed to begin their training as soon as possible.
“In the back of the village there are stairs that lead into a clearing,” Chief Sho told them. “We use it for our games and ceremonies, but it should serve as a suitable place to practice. I’ll spread word that you will be using it for the coming cycles. If anyone bothers you, let me know.”
Justus thanked the chief and made his way to the clearing.
It was a larger space than Justus had imagined. It was a flattened grassy area nearly two hundred feet across in any direction. The dense trees and foliage had been cleared away, and the dirt was compacted and dry relative to the swampy surroundings. Simon’s dog took off, running around the tall grass the moment its paws met the ground.
“Why is the grass red?” Simon asked.
“Why is your grass green?” Justus asked.
“Uh, I don’t know. Chloroform or something?”
“Chlorophyll,” Katherine corrected. “Chloroform is the stuff kidnappers use.”
“Doesn’t matter. Listen up. Before you start using skills, you need to learn how to fight.” Justus said, turning to face the two.
“Won’t we fight using the skills?” Simon asked.
“No, you’ll use skills while you fight. Throwing out skills without knowing the fundamentals of fighting without them is the mark of an amateur. If you rely solely on your skills, you’ll be killed by the first monster or person who can negate them. You need to become capable combatants with or without skills.”
“Aren’t we leaving in a few weeks? Or, um, orbits?” Katherine asked. “That’s not enough time to learn any kind of fighting style.”
Justus had done some digging and explained the planet’s calendar to the two. It turned out a quarter was almost exactly the same time as an Earth day. It was twenty-two and a half hours, but since Varkalus seconds were six percent longer, it was almost exactly twenty-four Earth hours.
Explaining orbits, phases, and cycles had been trickier. There were some odd parallels despite the differences. Justus found the similarities fascinating, but the other two hadn’t seemed interested.
Whether they were interested or not, they had to start using the proper phrases. Slipping up could give away that they weren’t from Varkalus. He didn’t want to think about who would come looking for them if that truth got out.
“It’s not enough time to master a fighting style,” Justus corrected her, “but I’m not going to teach you to be an expert. I’m just going to drill you on the fundamentals: stance, what to focus on, how to move, how to breathe, and so on.
“Independent of that, you two are going to practice your skills. You will not use them anywhere but here unless I say you can. Skills can be tricky to get the hang of, and using them when you aren’t familiar with them can be dangerous to those around you or yourself.
"After your physical training is done, you will practice your skills until your Spirit is nearly drained. Neither of you has a feel for your limits yet, so be careful whenever you start feeling Spiritually fatigued. Your guidance stones aren’t advanced models. They won’t stop you from hurting yourselves if you push yourself too far. You’ll have to learn how to avoid doing that yourselves.”
“There’s different models?” Simon asked.
“Not many. There are only three types: basic, advanced, and ascendent. The advanced models have safety features, detailed information on the user, and inventories. The ascendent models have even larger inventories, and they’re needed to form parties. We’ll see about getting you advanced Jade stones once we reach Talon, but for now you’ll just have to be careful.”
“What are parties?”
“To put it simply, it’s a group of connected guidestones that allows Spirit Artists to work more efficiently together. Now stop asking questions; let’s get to work. We have two orbits, and I’d rather you were both close to peak Opel before we leave.”
Over the next five hours, Justus drilled the two. He taught them a few stances and shoved them hard until they were able to snap back into proper form without thinking. He showed them how to throw punches, dodge, and block strikes. He had them practice with each other while correcting any mistakes.
“Why aren’t I as tired as I should be?” Katherine asked after the first hour. “I feel like I should be aching by now, but I’m barely feeling it.”
“Only unranked would get exhausted from this,” Justus said. “Now that you’re Opals, your Spirit can feed into your muscle and restore it as it fatigues. You’ll start getting tired soon, though. At your rank your Spirit endurance is slow and inefficient. Now try to hit me again.”
Katherine swung with a reckless and imprecise fist. Justus pushed her elbow and sidestepped, using her momentum to easily trip her legs and push her to the ground. To her credit, she rolled back to her feet and got into a ready stance.
Near the end of the five hours, Justus had the two practice explosive power. He had them do push-ups into jump squats until the two were shaking from effort.
By the time Justus decided they had progressed enough, both Katherine and Simon were sweating and gasping for breath. He told them to take a break, and both dropped to the dirt. Simon's dog walked over to where he lay panting and began licking at his face.
“Not bad. At least you two listen well. Simon, you need to practice on your stance work. You have a habit of shifting around too much and not dedicating yourself to your position. Katherine, your strikes have gotten much better, but you still need to work on your aim. Stop going for the first opening you see and instead wait until you have the opening you need.
“Take a short break, and then we’ll work on your skills.”
While they were recovering, Justus opened his inventory. While he didn’t like it, the two would benefit from a snack for energy. Luckily he did have some food items that were pretty cheap even by his standards. He searched for the items in his search bar.
He paused. While the stone had honed in on the word he was looking for, a flash of an item with a long name he didn’t recognize appeared for a split second. He cleared it, repeated the search, and saw it again. This time he caught the word that had made the item appear. Oasis.
He searched the word and stared in confusion at the screen, specifically the name.
Item: Amazon Kindle Oasis, 8GB 2017 Model
He had no clue what the item was or what the numbers at the end meant. The description didn’t help either. All the system said was, “Unknown item.” That usually meant that it wasn’t in the stone’s registry and that the item hadn’t been scanned before being stored.
He focused on the item and brought up a visual hologram of it. It appeared in front of him, hovering in the air. He quickly realized why he didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t from this planet.
Katherine had stored it in his inventory. Had she forgotten it, or—
- That was how many items he had in his inventory the last time he’d checked, back when he tried to use his sending stone. It was the same number that had been there when he’d gotten his guidestone back. If this item was in the inventory, that meant it had replaced something.
Katherine had taken one of his items. But what?
He wished he had admin controls. Unlike most of the settings, an inventory wasn’t tied to a user but to the stone itself. Only the admin could partition the pocket space for different users. They also had a log of every item that went in and out of the space.
But until he was able to transfer his mentor’s data, he wasn’t able to do that. There were too many items in his inventory, and he didn’t remember each one he’d collected over the years.
Katherine was currently sprawled across the grass, her eyes closed. She didn’t seem quite as exhausted as Simon. Her naturally strong Spirit was having an easier time helping her recover. He’d have to confront her eventually, but now wasn’t a good time. He would do it once they were on the road and when there were fewer people around. He doubted whatever she took was that important. Most of his items were useful but cheap: things that could easily be replaced.
He decided to finally check all the notifications that had been in his periphery for so long. He'd been pushing that back long enough. He mentally opened them, and the nine notification boxes appeared stacked on top of each other. Some were bordered with red: urgent alerts. Why hadn’t those appeared in front of him? They were supposed to. Had the lich’s Spirit interrupted the System alerts somehow? Or was it something else?
The stack began with the oldest on top. That was the alert about the Spirit interference from the lich. When it got close enough, it had disrupted the stone’s Spirit systems. It was urgent, but the System wasn’t able to send it, so it had stored the alert in the notifications.
The second notification was more ominous. It was also an urgent message.
Warning!
unknown System disturbance
automated defenses failed, foreign intrusion detected
That didn’t sound good. Was it from the lich’s skill, corrupting his Spirit? It was possible. Or, more concerning, it could have been whatever had sent him to Earth. The third notification, another urgent one, gave him pause as well.
Warning!
unauthorized spatial warp detected
So the system had sensed whatever force had sent him to Earth, but wasn’t able to identify its source. At the very least, it confirmed that the guidestone had nothing to do with the anomaly.
The next few alerts were expected. An alert after he was sent to Earth about his low Spirit, a caution notice about proximity when he’d left the stone behind, and another urgent Spirit interference notification that had been unable to go through from when the apocalypse-beast had manifested.
The seventh was identical to the third notification: a warning about a spatial warp. That must have been when he was transported back to his planet.
The eighth notification wasn’t what he expected, however. It was another urgent alert, another that hadn’t been able to reach him.
!Warning!
unauthorized system disturbance
alert system anomaly detected
transmitting unknown data to User: Justus Fahren
transmitting unknown data to User: Katerina Maria Duval
transmitting unknown data to User: Simon Blake Laine
That definitely wasn’t the lich’s doing. This all but confirmed to Justus that whatever had broken into his guidestone’s system was the same thing that had sent those strange messages. But it hadn’t just sent messages to him but to Katherine and Simon as well. Had it told them the same thing it told him?
There was something even more worrying to think about: the second alert. His stone had been tampered with. Could he still trust his guidestone? If it was corrupted—
A red alert message popped up in the middle of his vision.
System Alert
Foreign interference detected.
Intrusion contained and expelled.
Performing System reboot.
The message had a five-second timer at the bottom. When it reached zero, all the notifications blinked away. He felt his connection to the stone sever. A few heartbeats later, it reconnected automatically. A new alert appeared, this one a normal greyish-white.
Reboot Complete
All System functions nominal.
[New Quest] Accepted
Justus reread the last line, his worry giving way to a moment of confusion. He focused on the words, and a quest screen appeared.
Secret Quest: Save Earth
Party Quest
Party Members: Katherine Duval, Justus Fahren, Simon Laine
Quest Leader: Justus Fahren
Reward: Fifty Thousand Speers
Deadline: 2nd Curlas of Setus, 694 DE
Objectives:
Find a way to Earth - 0/1
Save Earth - 0/1
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Current (Optional) Objectives:
Help Party and Tradesman of Chief Sho’s Village reach Teshustoq - 0/1
Warning:
Failing Optional Objective will result in a penalty. Incurring too many penalties will result in the deactivation of this guidestone.
Failing the Main Objective will result in the destruction of Earth, and the ultimate demise of Varkalus.
Justus dismissed the message. He tried to steady his heart rate, which had elevated when reading the alert. A secret quest? How the hell had this thing given him a quest? Quests were only given by the Adventure’s Guild. It shouldn’t be possible for anyone else to give a quest.
And those penalties. Could it actually deactivate the stone? That was insane. Deactivating a stone was also something only the Guild should be able to do. Deactivation was permanent and would destroy all data in the System and all items in the inventory. That would mean losing Boris’s data.
The reward was equally ludicrous. Fifty thousand speers was too much wealth to even grasp for him. Most noble houses in Talon didn’t even have that kind of money. It had to be some kind of trick.
He knew that whatever had done this was the same thing that had infiltrated his guidestone’s system. It was the same thing that had communicated with him after leaving Earth. Did it really expect him to follow through with such a ridiculous quest?
Justus tried, but he couldn’t get the System to expand on any of the information. For now, he would keep this to himself. He hoped he’d be able to find a way to fix whatever that thing did to his guidestone. He wasn’t going to play whatever game it was trying to make him. He dismissed the screens.
“Break time’s over,” Justus said. “Get up, Katherine; you’re up first for skill practice.”
Katherine groaned but pulled herself up off the ground. She jumped in surprise when she looked up to see a small object flying towards her. She fumbled it but caught it before it hit the ground.
“Eat that,” he told her. He nudged Simon and dropped one in his hand too.
“What are they? Oh! Is it some kind of magic Spirit food that will bring us back to health and fill us with energy?” Simon asked, examining the brown bar.
“It’s an oatmeal bar.”
“Oh… thanks.”
Justus nodded. “I only have eight left, so don’t expect them every day.” He turned back to Katherine. “Alright, you have two skills. One was pyromancy, and you said the other had something to do with kinetic energy. Both are tricky to practice, considering they lean towards offense. Read off the kinetic description for me.”
After a few moments, Katherine responded.
“Uh, the kinetic one is a Null skill called Deflection. It says, ‘Use your Spirit to absorb and temporarily store kinetic energy, then release it in a powerful strike.’”
“Hmm… We’ll practice that one later. That sounds like it has a reaction window, which can be difficult to get the hang of. Focus on your fire skill today. Give yourself some space and try to use it.”
Katherine walked about ten feet away, then looked back at him. Justus gestured for her to go a little further. Once she was twenty feet from them, he called for her to stop and give the skill a test use.
She held out her hand, and the air around it shimmered. The shimmering turned into sparks. Justus cursed and Blinked to where Katherine was standing. He grabbed her and Blinked away just as the air around her hand exploded in a geyser of flames.
As they appeared next to Simon, they turned to see a fountain of flames that rivaled the massive bonfire of the feast. The fire began shrinking after a few seconds, black smoke billowing from its body as it dissipated.
“Why the hell would you use that right next to yourself?” Justus asked, turning to face Katherine.
“I—I thought it would, I don’t know, just spray out of my hand… or something.”
“Read your ability. Pyromancy conjures a burst of fire. It doesn’t say anywhere that you shoot it out of your hand. Why would you even think that?”
“That’s how Phoenix does it.”
Justus had to think for a moment before he could place the name. The hero from the roof.
“She’s a Ruby rank. She can do whatever the hell she wants. You, on the other hand, are an opal. Your skills are a lot more limited. All you can do for now is engulf things in fire. If you do something that stupid again, one of those things will be yourself.”
“It’s not my fault; you told me to try it, and I tried it. You’re the one teaching me, so maybe you should have warned me that my skill could blow me up!”
“I told you—” Justus clenched his fists and shut his eyes. There was no reason for him to be getting as upset as he felt. He took a deep breath. When he spoke again, his voice was under control.
“Go back and try again. This time, try to summon the fire away from you. And us.”
“I have to wait,” Katherine said. “It uses energy, and that took all of it.”
“Energy skills should restore around one point per second at their start. What’s the max energy of the skill?”
“Eighty.”
“Good. Go back and use it again. Energy skills are a bit unique. You can use them with no cooldown. If you have even one energy, you can use it; it just won’t be very potent. Try using your skill at different strengths to get a feel for it. Then try to use exactly ten energy. Do that until you can do it ten times in a row.
“The purpose is for you to intuitively learn how to put in exactly the amount of power you want. Precision is the key to making the most out of energy skills.”
As Katherine began walking back, Simon sat up. “I thought it was pretty badass, for what it’s worth.”
Justus glared at him.
“What? Yeah, almost turning yourself into a campfire isn’t great, but it was pretty cool.”
Justus shook his head.
Over the next ten minutes, Justus monitored Katherine’s progress. She learned from her mistake and conjured small bursts of flame a good ten yards away from herself. By her frustration and varying sizes of fireballs, he could tell she was struggling with using the amount he told her to. That was expected, though.
Once he was certain she wouldn’t accidentally carbonize herself, he looked at Simon.
“Your turn. We didn’t get to talk much about your skills, but your Affinities are Spirit, Artifice, and Charity, right?”
“Yup. I want to practice the Spirit skill first.”
“Which is?”
“Uhh…” Simon said, his eyes unfocusing as he viewed his guidestone’s display. “It’s called Familiar. It says it lets me—"
“No.”
“What? I didn’t even tell you what it does yet!”
“I know what it does. I know what you want to do, but you aren’t ready for that. That spell infuses your own Spirit into the Spirit of another living creature. Right now, you don’t have any training at all in Spirit control. It would be like attempting to carry someone on your back and run a race when you don’t even know how to walk yet. If you make a mistake, you could turn your dog into a brain-dead zombie.”
“Oh… that does sound bad.”
“Yeah. What is the other one? You’ll want to practice restoration, but that will be easy to incorporate into our normal training.”
“The other one is… simu— simulacrum,” Simon said, sounding out the word. “Not sure what that means, but from the description it looks like it’s a cloning skill.”
“Hmm, I’ve heard of cloning skills. They’re common illusion-type skills. What does it say exactly?”
“Create a Spirit clone of yourself. This clone can be reabsorbed along with any remaining Spirit it possesses.’ So does that mean I can suck it back into my Spirit?”
“I’m not sure how, but it sounds like it.”
“These skill things don’t really have much info.”
“It’s because they’re all unique. Every skill, even ones under the same name, has quirks unique to the person. Remember that the guidestones are just that. Guides. They don’t create the spells; they only detect what you’re best at and fit those into an archetype called “skills” and help you cast them. Once you practice and get experience with your skills, the stone will collect more information on your quirks and keep note of them for you.”
“So my clones might be slightly different from someone else's? They could be more durable or look way more charming?” Simon asked, smirking.
“Exactly,” Justus said, pointedly ignoring the stupid attempt at humor. “The best way to find out more about your skills is to use them. That’s why practice is so important. Unfortunately I don’t know much about clone skills or illusion spells in general, so you’ll have to figure it out yourself. What kind of spell is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“After the description, it should categorize the spell by how it’s cast. Like how Katherine’s pyromancy skill is an energy skill. My Blink skill is a variable cooldown skill.”
“Oh, that. It says Simulacrum is an ‘active passive.’” Simon narrowed his eyes. "Isn’t that an oxymoron? How can a skill be an 'active passive'?”
“That’s really good. An active passive is like a passive, only it requires you to activate it. Those skills usually lower your maximum Spirit capacity while they're active, but when cancelled, you might gain that Spirit back, or at least whatever is leftover.”
“Oh, so it’s like mana reservation.”
“What?”
“It’s a mechanic from a game one of my friends made me play for a bit. The idea is you can toggle the spell on or off at will, but instead of using mana that can regenerate, it lowers the total of your mana pool whenever it’s active.”
“I don’t know what you're talking about, but it sounds similar in concept.”
“Sweet. So how do I use it?”
Justus shrugged. “Each skill has a different feel to it. This is part of your Affinity, though, so it should feel somewhat intuitive. Just try whatever feels right.”
Simon nodded, then popped his knuckles. Well, he tried to pop his knuckles. Only one joint popped, and Simon winced and shook his hand. He shut his eyes and focused.
Justus bent down and picked up the small dog, then got some distance. It wasn’t likely that a clone spell could be dangerous, but it never hurt to be careful when it came to practicing new skills.
Unlike Katherine, it took Simon nearly five minutes before anything happened. Justus watched closely and noticed a shimmering in the air in front of Simon. Simon opened his eyes, wide with excitement. When he did, he lost his concentration, and the shimmering vanished. Thin, almost imperceptible, wisps of light unraveled and flowed back into him.
“Aww man. I almost had it,” he whined.
“Next time focus on following through instead of celebrating before you finish the spell,” Justus said.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Simon shut his eyes again. For some reason, he held out two fingers and crossed them in front of himself, with one hand pointing up and the other perpendicular. Sometimes physical movements helped beginners and even experienced Spirit Artists use skills, so Justus didn’t interrupt him with questions. Justus had said to do what felt natural.
The air began shimmering again. This time, Simon remained focused. The light grew brighter as the wisps of thin Spirit swirled into a vaguely humanoid shape. With a pulse of white, the shape snapped together, the strands of Spirit tightening into a much more familiar shape.
Simon opened his eyes, breathing slightly harder than before. It looked like the skill took a lot of Spirit. That was a good sign for an active passive, since it usually meant the skill was especially powerful or versatile.
“Aw man, what the hell is this? That’s not a clone!”
The silhouette was identical to Simon, even its robes, but it was a solid pale white. The clone’s head hung, as if hurt by the disappointment of its creator.
Justus set the dog down and approached the clone. It looked up at him. Its face was nearly featureless, but there was a slight bump at the lips and nose, as well as shallow divots where the eyes would be. It didn’t have any strands of hair, but its form shifted to the shape of Simon’s hair near the top.
The clone waved. Justus prodded it on the arm, and the clone swatted his hand away. It leaned towards him and puffed out its chest, as if daring him to touch it again.
“Hey, be nice, or you’re going back in the Spirit,” Simon told it.
The clone looked towards Simon, then crossed its arms and looked away in a haughty fashion.
“This is… impressive,” Justus said. “This isn’t a normal illusionary clone, or even a puppet clone. This is an actual Spirit replica of you. It’s hollow, but still, a skill like this at your rank is… not usual.”
The clone glanced at him and nodded its head, then held an arm up and flexed.
“Don’t be a showboat,” Simon said. “I think I’d prefer a clone I could control. Like a puppet or something.”
Justus reached out with his Spirit and studied the clone. He could feel faint Spirit channels connecting it to Simon. Both the clone and Simon looked at him, feeling his Spirit brushing against them.
“Trust me, you wouldn’t,” Justus told Simon. “This thing has its own mind and Spirit channels.”
“Okay…” Simon said, clearly not grasping what Justus was saying.
“That means with practice your clone will be able to use your skills independently of you. It can reason and strategize. It’s almost like having two of yourself in a fight. Your clone won’t be quite as powerful, but it has about a third of your Spirit to work with.”
Simon frowned. “Would a self-heal work on him? He’s made of Spirit, isn’t he? So there’s no physical form to heal. And if my other skill is a familiar thing, then I don’t see much use for having another me to do that. Seems a bit useless for my skill set.”
The clone turned to him and raised a hand with only the middle finger extended. Simon returned the gesture. From context, Justus assumed it was a rude gesture in his culture.
“Stop playing with yourself and think of the future potential.”
Both Simon and the clone turned to him. Simon wore a confused expression, and the clone tilted its head.
“Wording, dude,” Simon said. He turned back to the clone, looking it up and down. “It’s cool and all, but I just wish I had a skill that I could use with it now. How do I learn more skills? Am I stuck with these ones forever? Can I swap them out for something else? Healing is neat, but why can’t I create fireballs like her?”
Simon gestured back to Katherine, who, as if on cue, summoned a large ball of flames.
“You can’t unlearn a skill. Like I said, the stone is just creating skills for what you're best suited for. But you will unlock more skills as you get stronger, and your skills will evolve if you master them well enough before progressing in your rank. It won’t happen every time, but it’s pretty consistent as long as you don’t slack on training. So your heal spell might evolve to be able to heal others, and this clone skill might evolve to have the clone look more like you, learn to speak, or even create more than one clone. A lot of skills are similar at first, but after a few evolutions your unique variations become more apparent.
“As for learning new skills, you will, but these three will most likely remain your strongest. The first three skills you get at Opal are called your core skills. They’re the ones that are usually the bread and butter of your style: the ones your other skills build upon. Likewise, your first three Affinities will be your core Affinities.”
“Yours are movement, prudence, and, um…” Simon trailed off, thinking.
"Dissolution."
"Right, that," Simon said. "So what are your core skills?"
“Blink, which you’ve already seen, Absolute Awareness, and Decay.”
“Sounds pretty sick. What do they do?”
“Exactly what you’d expect. Absolute Awareness gives me just that in a spherical radius. Decay lets me pretty much vaporize anything I touch.”
“That’s… terrifying. So you can just straight up War of the Worlds people?”
“Again, I don’t get what you’re referencing, but if you’re asking if I can vaporize people, then no. It only works on inorganic matter. Enough questions about me; we’re way off topic. I’ve figured out how we’ll train you up.”
Justus snapped his finger towards the clone and pointed at it. The clone jumped back in surprise and maybe fear. It was hard to tell what it was thinking without a face to read. But it had been listening in. Had it been wondering if it counted as inorganic matter or not? If so, it was a pretty remarkable display of self-awareness for a Spirit construct. Of course, Spirit was incredibly resistant to most skills. Even at low Sapphire, he doubted he’d be able to do much damage to it with Decay.
“You,’ he told the clone, “I want you to hurt Simon as best as you can. Don’t try to kill him or anything, but a few broken bones are fine.”
“What the fuck?” Simon said, looking at Justus with wide eyes. He looked at the clone, taking a step back and holding out his hands. “Uh, don’t do that!”
“This is how you’ll train.” Justus said. “Don’t try to attack; focus on evading and blocking only. Then, when you’re in bad enough shape, heal yourself with your restoration skill. The more damage you can heal at once, the better it will be for future evolutions.”
“I really don’t like the sound of this training.”
“Do you want to get stronger?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Then this is the best way to do it. Your clone will get training in fighting, you’ll learn how to block, dodge, and focus while in pain, and you’ll get practice with your healing skill. One of the best and hardest to learn skills is the skill to persevere through pain in a fight. You should consider yourself lucky to get this kind of training. My mentor had to spend weeks of his salary, an Emerald rank salary, on healing potions to get me this kind of training. You get to do it for free.”
Simon opened his mouth, his eyes darting about as if searching for the words that would offer a rebuttal. The clone looked at Justus, then Simon, then Justus again. After a few long seconds Simon sighed.
“Damn it. I hate that you’re probably right. This is gonna suck, isn’t it?”
“Definitely,” Justus said.
He nodded to the clone. Justus wasn’t sure, but it almost seemed like the thing smiled despite not having a mouth. It faced Simon and raised its fists.
After coaching Simon and his clone for over half an hour and watching Simon use his restoration skill a few times, Justus left them to the training to catch up with Katherine.
Katherine looked like a different person than she had at the feast or when she woke up. Her face was etched with the determination and stubbornness that she’d shown back at her apartment, when she had squared off against him and chosen to help Simon over escaping.
She stood with her hand outstretched, her eyes focused on a spot of blackened grass ten yards away, one of many. After a few seconds the air around the spot exploded. She noticed him once the flames dispersed and relaxed her posture.
“What’s next?” she asked.
“I’m just checking in on your progress. You can move on to your other skill once you’ve gotten enough control of this one.”
“What more am I supposed to do?”
“I told you, do it until you can use only ten energy ten times in a row.”
“I’m not stupid. I remember; that’s why I asked what’s next,” Katherine snapped. “And yes, I’ve done it at fifteen and twenty too. Ten times in a row each. I’ve even practiced getting it at forty and using all of it at once. I’ve got a feel for it, so now what?”
“You’ve only been practicing for an hour. Lying isn’t going to help you get stronger. I don’t care if it’s annoying or frustrating. Do it until you can use any amount you try to within at least two points of energy.”
“I’m not lying,” Katherine said as she glared at him. “I’ve got it down.”
Justus looked back to the blackened grass. There were dozens of the sooty patches, each a slightly different size. Justus activated one of his skills.
[Perfect Awareness]
Become acutely aware of your surroundings in a spherical radius around you. When using this skill, you also become aware of others’ awareness of yourself.
Focus Skill
Instantly Justus’s senses flared to life. He could feel every blade of grass and every movement of his and Katherine’s clothing. He could sense every hair on her head and even the slight pulse of her skin where the blood pumped through her veins just under the surface. This was a focus skill, which meant every second he used it drained his Spirit. It was a fairly low-cost skill, and he could maintain it for over ten minutes before it began draining him to dangerous levels.
“Let’s see. Ten energy. Do it.”
Katherine nodded and got back in her pose. She spread her feet just further than shoulder width and took a bladed stance towards her target. She reached out a hand and took a deep breath, using her diaphragm as he’d taught her earlier while sparring. Before, she’d had a habit of breathing with her chest.
The air burst into flames. He could sense the changes in the air and had a perfect read on just how intense and large the fire was.
“Twenty energy.” He said.
There was a pause for only two beats of Katherine’s heart, and then the air erupted into fire again. It was almost exactly twice as intense as the last burst.
“Thirty-two.”
Another two heartbeats, and another eruption of flames. He sensed it completely. Nearly precisely sixty percent more intense than the last. Thirty-two. He stopped his absolute awareness spell.
He really wanted to hate this girl for stealing his stone and potentially stealing one of his items, but it was difficult to stay mad at her when she kept surprising him like this. She was right. She had incredible precision with the skill already. But he didn’t want her to develop an inflated ego. The last thing a novice needed was an arrogant sense of talent. She was good, but…
No. If he was being honest, she was incredible, maybe even prodigious. It wasn’t like he knew all that much about training; he’d never taught anyone, after all, but he had to imagine Katherine would be considered a genius at most training schools. It had taken Justus nearly an orbit to use his Blink skill as rapidly and accurately as she was using her Pyromancy, and his mentor had considered his progress impressive.
All the more reason not to let it get to her head. If she started thinking she was a genius, she would take risks, and risks were one of the leading causes of death for Spirit Artists.
“That’s good enough. From now on, try to pick a number at random and use that much energy, and do it while you’re doing exercises. You don’t actually need to pose or make any gestures to use skills. It’s all mental. Multi-tasking is an important skill to learn, and the sooner you do, the more natural it will feel.
“But for today, we can move on to your Null skill. What was it? Deflection?”
“Yeah. The description says I can use it to absorb kinetic energy.”
“What type of spell is it?”
“Uh… it’s a cooldown skill?”
Justus frowned. “Those are a bit harder to train, especially for a skill like that. That skill has a limited window effect. Meaning when you activate it, you’ll absorb kinetic energy for a limited time. How long that window lasts, how you store it, how long you can keep it stored, and how you can expel it, as well as what happens if you don’t expel it, are all open questions. The only way to find the answers to those questions is by using it. And since it’s a cooldown, you’ll have to wait between each try.”
“Well, finding out how long the window lasts should be easy.”
Justus raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“Just punch me in the arm really fast while I activate it, and I’ll see how long I can absorb the punches.”
That wasn’t very far off from what Justus had been thinking.
“Good. Figuring out ways to push yourself and learn more is important. But that’s a pretty reckless solution. I won’t be punching you, but tapping your back. Until you can safely absorb kinetic energy, punches or anything stronger are off the table. Unlike Simon, you can’t heal yourself.”
“I’m not fragile.”
“You’ve never been in a fight, have you? A good punch can bruise for days, and I can throw some really good ones. You want to be covered in bruises while training tomorrow?”
“Fine. Let’s do the tapping thing.”
Justus walked behind her. “Ready?”
Katherine nodded. Justus reached out with his hands. Using both index fingers, he began prodding her upper back rapidly. After around twenty seconds he felt an odd sensation. One of his fingers halted the moment it connected to her and a split second later was pushed away, as if someone had lightly swatted it back. He stopped.
“Pretty sure that was it. How did it feel?”
Katherine grunted, turning to face him. “I’m not sure. It was too quick. I could barely feel it before it pulled away. It was like trying to catch a fish with my bare hands.”
“How long is the cooldown?”
“A minute.”
“You can definitely hold more in. A cooldown that long wouldn’t be necessary for a skill that weak. Let’s try it again. This time give me a countdown. I’m going to use a bit more force. Maybe more energy will help you get a feel for it. Make sure your stance is solid. I won’t use all my strength, but I’m not going to go easy either.”
“Alright.”
The two waited for the cooldown. Justus really didn’t like cooldown skills. It made practice with them much more tedious.
“Okay. It’s almost back up. Five, four, three, two… Now!”
Justus struck Katherine in the back with his palm. Again, the energy was sapped out of the strike the moment it landed. Despite the speed and power, when he made contact, it suddenly felt like his hand only gently pressed against her robes.
Justus held his hand there for about a full second, then the force of the strike echoed into his hand and knocked it away.
“Better,” he said.
“I can still tell I’m not doing it right. It was easier with more force, but it was still tricky to hold onto. It wants to go back where it entered the moment it’s inside, but I think if I practice, I can redirect it and push it out anywhere.”
Justus held back his reaction. She’d gotten all that from two attempts? He’d expected her to have those kinds of insights after maybe a dozen attempts.
“This is so annoying.” Katherine complained. “I wish I could try it again while the feeling is still fresh. Is there any way to change a skill type? Could I make this one energy? Like the fire?”
“Possibly. When a skill evolves, it sometimes changes type, but it’s not especially common. If it does, it usually changes to a similar type. Energy is a pretty unique type, so it probably won’t be that. It’d be best to assume it will stay a cooldown skill.”
Katherine huffed. “Will the cooldown at least get shorter?”
“Once it evolves, usually. If it doesn’t, it will usually become a lot stronger or more versatile.”
“At least that’s something. Hey, Justus?"
"What?"
"Was Boris your mentor?”
The question struck him with more force than her skill had.
“What?” he repeated.
“Your emerald. It said Boris was the owner. You’ve mentioned you had a mentor a couple times. Was that him?”
“...Yeah.”
“Is he the one that taught you all this? You seem to know a lot. Or is all this common knowledge here?”
“Not for everyone, but it is for Spirit Artists.”
“Don’t most people do this, though? The people we ate with seemed surprised we were unranked.”
“Most people are ranked, but not everyone who’s ranked is a Spirit Artist. Spirit Artists are the people who specifically train to use their skills in combat, or at least professionally. There are uses outside combat too: construction, labor, stuff like that. But generally the term applies to adventurers or fighters.”
“Why don’t more people train? If they can get more power, why wouldn’t they?”
Justus shrugged. “They don’t want to. Most people train enough to reach peak Opal, but reaching Jade isn’t so simple. To do it safely can take years of discipline and meditation. For many people it's not worth the effort and costs.”
Katherine looked him up and down. “How did you do it?”
“I got into situations that were life or death. That’s when your Spirit matures the fastest.”
“Spirit matures?”
“Well, no one really knows what exactly they do, but that’s what my mentor called it. Experience, wisdom, maturity. There are various terms, but they all refer to the same thing. For whatever reason, your Spirit grows the most when you’re pushed to your limits.”
“Does it have to do with adrenaline?”
“Maybe. There are ways to do it relatively safely. Drugs can induce states that allow rapid experience, so some think it’s tied to a mental state. A lot of Spirit artists think that’s not good for long-term progression. Whether they’re right or not, who knows? Like I said though, no one knows exactly when it comes to Spirit.”
“Hmm.” Katherine looked up at the red sun, far larger but more pleasant than the terribly bright one on Earth. Its light burned the sky an orange-gold hue, like the whole sky was a sunset. The color shifted to a deep purple at the edges of the horizon. Through the dense tree line, the purple was hard to spot. While Justus had enjoyed the brief glimpse he'd had of Earth's skyline, he much preferred the subtle beauty of Varkalus's. Earth's sky had a garish nature about it.
“How did he die?”
“...Your ability should be off cooldown. Let’s try it again. This time, try to direct the release of energy toward your palm. Pick up a rock or something and focus the energy on it. Having a target might help.”
Katherine nodded.
Justus prepared a stronger strike. This time he would put some force into the blow. If Katherine messed up, it would probably leave a nasty bruise, but danger was part of training. Truth be told, he also wanted to blow off a bit of steam.