Sponsored Apocalypse, ch 9

Aldina almost stopped me when, after revealing Amanda’s horrible-looking injuries, I spit on her friend.  But then her eyebrows climbed into her hairline as the wounds began to visibly heal.

“First I’ve ever seen that,” she muttered.

As I carefully moved  Amanda to see another cut, I asked, “How did this happen?”

“Goblins,” growled Aldina.  "Little bastards can squeeze through small places.  Just left her next door for a minute.  I came running when I heard Amanda screaming. Almost was too late.

Amanda was able to help more as her condition got better, moving her body to allow me to spit on her.  By the last wound, what looked like a stab wound in her hip, she was easily pulling her clothing aside herself to show me.  I spit one last time and she let out a breath.  “Thank you, Miles.  Never thought I’d be happy for someone to spit on me, which is still gross, but…better than dying.I still feel weak and dizzy but so much better.  You can stop worrying about me now, Dina.”

I stood and stepped back from my patient.  "Okay. You’re welcome, Amanda.  I think that really is it."

Aldina critically inspected her friend.  "You good now?”

“Yes, thank God, yes.”   Amanda sighed.  “I think I can even start moving again if you give me a few minutes to rest.”

Aldina nodded.  Her calm mask cracked for a moment and I could see some worry come through, but she got ahold of herself quickly.  She turned to me and was all business again.  “Okay, I owe you now.  But first I need to pay my debt to the store owner.”

“Your debt?”

“Yes.  For helping us.  I don’t want to let debts linger. Best to square up quick.  Especially now.”  She left me and moved to Tom.

I followed her, mentally shaking my head.  Aldina’s mannerisms were strange.  Everyone else in the store was barely hanging on by a thread, or in Sarah’s case, fighting hysterics.  But Aldina was not just pretending to be mostly calm, I could tell she actually was.  Oh, she was obviously worried about her friend, but about the situation itself?  She seemed completely unfazed.  Like…professional, almost.

And it seemed like she really might have a better grip on what was going on than any of us.  In my case, someone who had a quest for years and knew something was going to happen ahead of time, I paid more attention than others might.

She came to a halt in the middle of the store, conveniently where she could watch the front, too.  “Okay listen up, folks,” she said softly.  “I am going to help you all out in exchange for helping us out when we needed it.”

“It’s okay, miss.  You don’t owe me anything,” said Tom.

Aldina shook her head.  “No, debts must be paid.  I know you are likely serious and probably a nice person, but trust me.  The world has changed.  Even if someone isn’t honorable, they should probably make sure they don’t screw anyone over unless they’re going for some sort of dark karma.”

“Huh?” said Tom.  I silently listened.  What Aldina was saying didn’t make total sense, but it was resonating with me, maybe with whatever had changed in me since getting my first quest.

Dark karma, I thought, and vowed to remember the term.

Aldina cleared her throat.  “Okay, I’m just gonna kind of shotgun this information at you.  I still have something to talk to Miles about and time is precious, so here it goes.”

Nobody said anything, just alternated between staring at her and watching the front of the store.  She nodded.  “First of all, you will probably want to stop using guns to fight the monsters.  The system does not award much XP for using guns to kill monsters unless you have a specific crafting skill for the ammo or a projectile skill, and another skill or two on top of that.  It’s really not worth it by the time you can get them.Most other ways to fight will be stronger.  Less conspicuous and more convenient, too.”

Matt began to say something in response, but Aldina raised her hand.  “Let me just get all of this out first, okay?” A glow of blue light surrounded her fingers and we all gaped at her.  “I swear on my mana that everything I am telling you now is true to the best of my knowledge, and that this is a more than fair trade for the supplies I have taken.”  Her hand dropped.  “However, I am not going to tell you how I know all this.  Just trust me about it.  You have no reason not to since I just took an oath on my mana.”

I got goosebumps.  Something told me with absolute surety that what she’d just done had some sort of deep significance.  The others must have felt it, too. Jeb even briefly put his hand over his heart like people might at a sports game during the national anthem.  Matt opened his mouth like he was going to ask a question.

Aldina just plowed on through the potential interruptions.  “So if you can, you need to stop using guns, at least right now.  The system we all have right now is sort of like training wheels and a loan all rolled up into one.  It lets us borrow power with the illusion of earning it.  The point is to actually learn how to use that power on your own.”

I blinked and said,  “So…it really is all a tutorial. But…all of it.  So what is the real game?”

She nodded. “In three months, invaders from other worlds will be able to visit this one in relatively small numbers.  They will be mostly here to hunt monsters.  A couple months later, their leaders will arrive.  About a month after that, the world will turn into a free for all.  Before that point, like right now, not much experience will be rewarded from killing other people, excluding the invaders.  The invaders will get lower rewards for killing us, too.  That all changes at that six month mark.  After that, the invaders will be coming after everyone on earth.  Murder among humans will be rewarded the same as against the invaders, then, too.”

Other than the noises of distant growls and screams coming from outside, there wasn’t a sound in the gun shop.  We all just stared at Aldina.

I broke the silence.  “Aliens?” I asked.

“Something like that.  The point is that none of this is going away.  It’s just going to get worse, so you need to focus on getting stronger.  Strength is everything.  Without it, you won’t even get to keep your own world.

“That means leveling up.  It also means using your points wisely.  The world is game-like, but is not really a game now.  It just…”  She paused and took a breath.  “For now, you need to use the system as much as you can to get as strong as you can.  That also means specializing.  Pick a path and stay on it.  People who try to be good at too much at once usually fail and die unless they’re super talented or super lucky.  Or both.”

She lifted a finger and made a shard of ice appear over her finger nail.  It spun in the air before disappearing.  “Choose a path, get good at it.  Right now you should wait for a day for the initial madness to die down, but after that, you need to hunt.  People who get a head start on raising their level will just pull farther and farther ahead if you let them.”

Aldina stopped talking and when we all just kept staring at her, she said, “That’s it.  I’ve already been generous with the information.”

“Miss, how can you possibly know all of…this,” asked Tom.

The mysterious woman pursed her lips.  “Let’s just say that I got a lot of information that came with my special skill.  I already swore that the information was true to the best of my knowledge.  It’s up to you to believe it or not, though.  It’s not my problem anymore.  Deal complete.  And I don’t plan to be here much longer.  In fact, as soon as I have a chat with Mister Shrug over here, I am gonna bounce.”

“But you’re so strong.  You can’t stay with us?” asked Sarah.  She had finally gotten herself under control enough to talk, but her voice still sounded pitiful.

Aldina’s expression shook a bit before her lip firmed.  “No, I’m sorry.  I…have to save my brother.  To do that, I need to stay moving.”

Everyone nodded at that.  Whether we believed everything she’d just said or not, a motivation that simple was easy to understand.

Before anyone could ask any more questions, Aldina flicked my shoulder.  “Come with me.”  I nodded and she led me over to the part of the store with the red light.

“Okay let’s make this quick.  Me and Amanda really do need to get going.”  She took a permanent marker and a folded piece of paper out of her pocket.  Then she shook her head.  “No, don’t need to draw it again. You can just use mine.”  Then she took a different piece of paper out of her pocket.  This one had a complex geometric shape drawn on it.

“Fire, water…ah, dust.”  She scooped up some dust from the back of a shelf and smeared it on the back of my hand.

“Hey!” I started to protest, but she just shook her head at me.

“Spit on your hand unless you want me to do it.”

I looked at her long enough to tell for certain that she was serious, then with a mental shrug I spit on the back of my hand.

“Alright.  Earth, water, air…”  She took a lighter out of a pocket.  “Fire.”  After sparking the lighter and starting a little flame, she said, “That should be close enough.  Can you feel the heat?”  She held the lighter less than a foot from my hand.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, good.  Now I am going to hold this pattern in front of your face.  I need you to focus on it.  Think about your name and who you think you are.  Really give it some concentration.  The more you concentrate, the less time this will take.”

All of this seemed very weird to me, shrugged.  “Alright.  I’m ready.”

Aldina gave me a weird, smug look before holding the drawing up in front of my face.  I stared and tried concentrating as much as I could.

Nothing happened.  I thought about my name, who I was, all my memories, and I concentrated as hard as I could.  Nothing happened for a while.  I thought about my entire life, from my crappy elementary school days, to my crappy high school days, to my crappy wage slave days.  In hindsight, preparing for the end of the world actually hadn’t been that bad in comparison.

Finally, Aldina lowered the paper.  “You’ve been concentrating, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

“This is weird.  I’ve seen this done dozens of times before.  Dozens at least.  Everything should be good to go.  I’ve seen it done with even worse totems.  Even if you didn’t get actual magic yet, no matter how untalented you are, you should be able to at least sense magic now.  And you definitely should have a horrible headache.”

Ah, that explains the smug look before, I thought.  She’d been expecting my brain to get the whammy.

She frowned and held up the paper again.  Nothing happened.  When she lowered the paper for the second time, she had a suspicious look on her face.  “The only reason this would not be working is because of something being wrong or something blocking it.  I think.  But I know I did it right, so maybe there is something wrong on your end.  Like a preexisting power or path to power or ability.  It should be too early for people to start getting high tier skills, but…do you have any abilities other than your spitting healing ability?

I immediately thought about the abilities I’d gotten right after the world had gone crazy.  Something must have shown on my face, because Aldina’s frown deepened.

“What is it?”

I held up a finger, telling her to wait a second.  Then I opened my status screens and brought up my abilities again.

Budget Lightning Greaves

Major physical reworking

Unique personal augment path.

Unlocked abilities:

Stat increases:

Will

Endurance

New ability:

Built Different: You are immune to negative status effects while in combat.

And

Meteors of Regret

Unique mystic path.  All other mystic paths are now unavailable.

Unlocked abilities:

Stat increases:

Will

Strength

Endurance

New skills:

Spirits of the Past: Communicate with and bond with physical, man-made objects if certain criteria are met.

Tsukumogami Embrace: Utilize bonded spirits.  Passive abilities and timed activations.

Although I still didn't fully understand [Built Different], now I knew it had some powerful benefits.  But it was not what was stopping me from learning cool magic.

My heart fell.

I stared at the offending skills.  [Spirits of the Past] and [Tsukumogami Embrace] both came from Meteors of Regret.

The next line of Meteors of Regret hadn’t really registered before.  I stared at it.  All other mystic paths are now unavailable.

Did I really trade ever learning powerful magic in exchange for a boomerang hammer? I wondered.

"Uh, I guess I really might have a skill that blocks it."

Aldina's eyes narrowed.  "What? Tell me. I still owe you. Maybe I can help."

“So, it’s two abilities, actually.  I kind of got them together, and other ‘mystic paths’ were closed to me.  They’re  called [Spirits of the Past and [Tsukumogami Embrace].”  Then I did my best to explain what they did.

Aldina blinked rapidly.  “[Tsukumogami Embrace] doesn’t  use mana, or any other resources?  It doesn’t even tire you out!?”

“Yeah, but some antiques or whatever will only have a few activations.  I think.”

“Do you have anything you can use with this ability right now?”

I pointed at my hammer.  “Just this.”

“And does it have any limitations?”

“Uh, I guess not.”

Aldina face palmed.  “It might be weak right now, but this is ridiculous.  You could have an entire set of gear with special abilities that you can use every day at no cost.  Sure it’s weird, but if you use it right, it could be… How the hell did you get such a powerful ability?

“Uh, you might not believe me.”

“Dude, look around you.  I am about as open minded as someone can be right now.  Not only that, I already know you’re a healer and plenty of people would want to exploit that in the future.  It’s hard for me to believe that whatever other secrets you have trump that one.  Just spill it.”

I shrugged. “Alright.  So I got a quest before everything happened.  I did what the quest said.  When everything happened, like, when the monsters showed up, all my supplies disappeared I got a ton of upgrade points.  Then, before a monster destroyed my house, I used my points in a special skill menu where the names were all messed up, and… I got this ability.”

She stared at me.  “What rarity was it?”

I slowly said, “Unique.”

“And you got all of these points from a special quest.  One only you could see.  How long ago did you get the quest?”

“Almost two years ago.”

“And did anything else odd happen?  See any new messages?  Get any new quests?”

“Well…sorta.”

She just looked at me until I shrugged and said, “A man with a weird mask kind of just appeared and told me some things.”  I relayed everything I could remember that the man had said.  Now that I was hearing myself talk about it, it sounded even crazier.

Aldina’s reaction was different than I’d expected.  She didn’t call me a liar or laugh.  Inste4ad, she folded her arms, breathing deeply.

“You know I still owe you, and you just heard me talk about karma right?”

“Yeah.”

“It means I’m not off the hook.”

She took another deep breath.  Then she began whisper-yelling, “Goddammit.  This can fuck up everything.  He’s sponsored, too?!  Christ.  The fucking karma, too!  Scratch plan C.  This is beyond plan D now.  This is like plan E.  No, fucking plan F!”

I had no idea what she was talking about and just waited for the angry whispers to end.  The truth was, I had an idea where this might be going.  Aldina owed me.  She’d tried to pay, but it hadn’t worked.  She was obviously very serious about settling her debts, and I could only imagine it had something to do with the system.  Or maybe with magic.

Even though now I was disappointed to learn that I couldn’t learn magic, maybe I could still get something out of this.  For some reason, Aldina was much better informed than everyone else, and I had already figured out she was like me, some sort of special case.  I’d just witnessed how powerful she was.  She had the ability to solo kill a monster that it took a group of people with guns a minute to deal with.

I was still a little bummed out, but now I was curious to see what Aldina would say after she got down glaring at the ground and growling to herself.