Chapter 93

“First things first,” Luke said, “System, how do I make it so that Zea can see you too?”

“You will first need a skill that lets you modify other people’s systems called [Remote Access],” System told him. “It will cost you 15 AP, and is necessary for any other bloodline skills that affect anyone besides yourself.”

Considering he only had 33 AP to begin with, that was going to sharply limit his options for taking anything else if he chose that. “What does it do on its own?” he asked.

“It would allow you to make any changes you can currently make to your own status, except on someone else’s.”

The cheapest bloodline skill he knew about was 20 AP. He should have held onto a few AP from that last rank of [Butchering] after all, but Zea had made some compelling points about the money. That was Luke’s fault; he knew that greed was her biggest vice. He didn’t blame her, of course. Anyone who’d lived as poor a life as she had would be fascinated by the idea of never running out of money again.

“Okay, so good news and bad news,” Luke said. “First, I do have the AP needed to allow you to see System and to make adjustments to how you interact with your status and notifications. However, if I buy that skill, I don’t have enough left over to buy anything else.”

“And if you don’t buy that skill, what are your options?” Zea asked.

“[XP Mask] and [Analyze] are 20 AP each. It looks like [Stat Assignment] is also available, but it costs 50 AP. Everything else is still locked.”

“[Analyze],” she said immediately. “It’s way more useful than anything else right now. You won’t need [XP Mask] until we get to Sicanti anyway, and if you can’t alter skills, stats, and XP yet, we don’t need [Remote Access] anyway.”

“Before I buy this, System, are there any restrictions or limitations I should be aware of?”

“The skill will show you the level and stats of a target living being. It cannot show you their skill list without further bloodline purification, but if and when you manage to accomplish that, you will not need to spend further AP to obtain the new functionality.”

“What about the other skills, stuff like [XP Mask]. It blocks others from sensing my XP, but also blocks me from sensing theirs. Would that change with a purer bloodline?” Luke asked.

“Yes, that is possible. You would need to purify your bloodline at least two more times to gain that functionality.”

Considering how much effort had gone into one single purification, Luke didn’t see getting two more anytime soon. It turned out that all the bloodline skills operated that way, with a base ability that got stronger the purer his bloodline became. Some of them were still locked, and he suspected there might even be a few that System couldn’t or wouldn’t tell him about at all.

Finding a way to further increase his bloodline purity was going to be key to making this whole plan work. Everything shared a common theme of allowing him to manipulate the system to his benefit, and sometimes to others’ detriment.

“One last question,” Luke said. “Is there a bloodline skill to mess with the total XP someone has?”

“I am not able to answer that question,” System told him. Predictably. “However I can confirm that console access will grant that ability.”

“Alright, I think [Analyze] is the clear winner,” Luke said. “[Remote Access] and [XP Mask] next level. Or maybe not [XP Mask] until we get to a place where I need it. No point in blinding myself now.”

He took the skill, then looked over at Zea, who was holding his little dog carving in her hands. “Ready?” he asked.

She blinked and looked up at him. “Sure,” she said. “What is this thing?”

Luke activated [Analyze], then skimmed the new window that popped up about her.

[Name: Zea Stenter]
[Level: 18]
[Strength: 7]
[Agility: 12]
[Stamina: 12]
[Perception: 14]

That didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know since they regularly swapped status sheets every time they leveled up, but it was going to be extremely useful when used against various monsters and animals. Just knowing their stat spreads was going to go a long way in helping him determine exactly how he needed to approach a fight.

“It works! Did you feel anything?”

“Not at all,” Zea said. She held up the dog carving and said again, “What is this?”

“It’s a dog. Do you guys not have dogs?” Luke asked.

Judging by the way [Thalian] didn’t translate the word ‘dog,’ Luke was guessing the answer was no. For the language not even to have a word for that animal, maybe they didn’t exist on Aros.

“I’ve seen plenty of animals with similar shapes, but not one like this,” she said.

“They’re kind of like wolves, except smaller and nicer. We keep them as pets, or sometimes train them as work animals. When I was a kid, my neighbor had a really friendly dog I used to play with.”

“It must have made quite an impression on you,” she said, still looking over the carving. “You told me your family was the reason you were doing this, that they’d all been pulled to this world and died.”

“I- yeah. Why?”

“You’ve never really talked about them,” Zea said.

“Not much to say, I guess. Mom got sick and died when I was a kid. Dad basically worked himself to death for the next decade or so, not that there was ever enough money. We moved around a lot, stayed where we could. My sister got heavy into drinking early. I think the stress of playing mother to my brother and me got to her. And my brother did his best to look out for me. He was the one who pushed me to finish school instead of dropping out when I turned eighteen.”

“School? How could you afford to go if… I think there is something I do not understand about your culture here.”

“Everyone goes to school where I come from. It’s compulsory. The government funds it and you go until you graduate or you’re old enough to be considered an adult and drop out. Or maybe you drop out a bit earlier if your life has sucked particularly hard.”

“Strange,” Zea said. She set the dog figurine down and shook her head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get us sidetracked there. Your world sounds pretty interesting though, with your tame wolves and your noble’s education for everyone.”

“Not half as interesting as this place,” Luke told her. “The system, and then there’s actual magic. Other species that can think and talk. We don’t have that at home. It’s just humans. Nothing but humans and animals that can’t talk and generally aren’t all that smart all the way around the globe. No dwifkin, or ostols or anything else.”

“Weird and interesting,” Zea said, amending her previous statement.

Luke wondered, once they were all done and his family was back, if Zea would like to go with him back to Earth. She didn’t seem to have any attachments to anyone or anything in Aros, but it wasn’t like their relationship was all that deep. He knew a little a bit about her, learned a few more things every day. She was pretty cool, shared his sense of humor. But he suspected the answer was going to be a firm ‘no’ if he asked.

Well, there was a lot of time between now and then anyway. He’d worry about that some other day. For now, it was time to see just what all this purification had been good for.

“Ready to go find some monsters to kill?”

“Like a little boy with a new toy,” she muttered, quietly enough that he wouldn’t have heard her without all the AP he’d put into perception.

“Exactly like that,” he agreed shamelessly.

“Alright, fine, let’s go test it out.”

* * *

[Name: Sandstone Burrow Rat]
[Level: 14]
[Strength: 2]
[Agility: 19]
[Stamina: 7]
[Perception: 28]

Luke stared at a two-foot-long rat he’d spotted scrabbling along the base of a ravine, its whiskers twitching as it looked around. [Analyze]hadn’t done anything to alert it to his presence, which he’d wondered about. It had a much higher perception than Zea, and he’d thought maybe it would work kind of like XP sensing did. The fact that it wasn’t reacting at all was strong evidence that the skill was undetectable.

Level 14 monsters weren’t worth that much XP, and that rat was half a mile away. Luke had chosen it specifically because of the distance, and was pleased to see the skill functioned anyway. He didn’t bother to go chase it down though, both because of the low XP value and because Zea wouldn’t get a cut of it. There was no way she was making a shot from that range on that small a target, and no way she’d get close enough to avoid it noticing her with its perception so high.

“This is a really cool skill,” he said. “I can already tell that it’s not worth the effort to go after that giant rat down there.”

“Congratulations,” Zea said dryly. “Do you happen to see something that is worth the effort, preferably with a lot of meat on it. You did a number on our food stores today.”

“Oh, well, sorry. But that’s why we have them, right?”

“Uh, no. We have them because we like not starving, which is what we’re going to do if we don’t get some more.”

“Alright, alright. So something… tasty. And big. I suppose. Let’s see what we can find…”

* * *

They spent the next week hunting monsters and restocking supplies. Eventually though, the hides were all processed, Zea got herself a nice new fur blanket that Luke was responsible for carrying, and it started getting harder and harder to find new monsters to fight.

They both managed about 8000 XP out of it, not quite enough to push Luke up another level, but more than enough to send her up to level 20. She dumped 15 each of her new 39 AP into agility and stamina so that they could travel faster, with another 5 going into her perception to help her navigate better in the dark.

As prepared as they were going to get, and with little left in the way of monsters to hunt, they abandoned their cave and started walking again. It took a few days to get into the rhythm, but with Zea’s physical effectiveness increased immensely, they made good time and were far more efficient in the hunting and killing of various monsters on the way.

“I think I know now why Zammin specialized in agility,” Zea said one night. “It is insane how fast I can react to things now.”

“Yes, your newly enhanced agility and stamina are perfect for quick traveling. And… other things,” Luke agreed.

“Shut up,” Zea said, but she smirked when she said it.

“The monsters are starting to get stronger again,” Luke said after a minute’s silence. “I’ve spotted four of them that were over level 30, and the average level is getting up towards the low 20s now.”

“You still make it look easy.”

“I need to start upgrading my skills. I was hoping they’d rank up on their own, but it doesn’t seem to be happening,” Luke said.

“That’s because it takes years of practice to get skills up to rank 4. We’ve been on the road for a month. Don’t be so impatient.”

“Yeah, well, it might be time to start dumping AP into skills instead of stats. I don’t see too many monsters that outmuscle me, even now. And I’ve been putting off some rank ups for a while now. It’s time to fix that.”

“What are you thinking first?” Zea asked.

“Getting [Tactical Foresight] like I originally planned, which means I still need rank 4 [Unarmed Martialist]. Then after that, I was considering saving up to get rank 2 [Life Surge]. I bet it lasts longer and is less debilitating when it ends if I rank it up. Could be a life-saving rank up.”

“That’s a good plan. How much is the second rank?”

“100 AP,” Luke said with a grimace.

“Ouch. Better get to work.”

It might be time to let Zea move forward on her own while he hunted. He was still faster than her and could catch up easily, and splitting the XP had cost him quite a bit, probably multiple levels of his own. There were risks to that plan though, so he wanted it to be something they mutually agreed on.

“So I have a thought…”