Knives & Levels - Chapter 84

CThe mist of New Nashville had never been this thick before. Colt could barely see two feet ahead as he trudged through the fog-choked streets, hands buried deep in his pockets.

Each breath drew the vapor into his lungs—a strange weight settling on his chest. He could feel it coating his skin, leaving a cold, slick residue that carried the unmistakable signature of both Mana and Edicts. That combination wasn't natural, and it was exactly why he needed to find Julia this morning.

Colored lights bobbed through the whiteness around him, held by civilians navigating the soupy atmosphere. The whole street seemed transformed, wavering between reality and dream. Guards hustled past occasionally, their faces tense, throwing wary glances his way before hurrying on. Most people gave him a wide berth—Nate's influence at work, no doubt.

=The guy had taken his desire not to put himself in a place of leadership seriously and sacrificed his time to get involved with setting things right.

Colt let out a puff of air, trying to clear his head and reinforce to himself that it wasn’t an avoidance of responsibility. He was here to deal with certain problems—letting him get too close to the matter at hand with the fact he’d slain the previous leader was a recipe to get people confused about his place in the world. They might assume that he was aiming to take over.

The justification had merit to it, sure, but yeah, he dearly preferred stuff like this.

Colt pulled up his status as he walked; the last few days had been restful. Refreshing himself after the big fight and letting his body and soul heal. With his Soul still unbalanced, he wanted to stabilize it as soon as possible and then approach the problem of strengthening and training Momentum.

———

Name: Colt King | Race: Basic Human

Icon: Nike | Class: Edict Carver (III)

Faction: None

Level: 59

Edicts:

Cut (Superior)

Movement (Lesser)

Momentum (Minor)

Skills: 

Inspect (Intermediate) - Level 19

Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Advanced) - Level 20

Meditate (Intermediate) - Level 16

Phantom’s Gambit (Intermediate) - Level 15

Soul And Mind Fortitude (Intermediate) - Level 20

Thread Weaver (Intermediate) - Level 12

Olympic Physique (Intermediate) - Level 12

Swords Proficiency (Basic) - Level 6

Hide Status (Basic) - Level 6

Stats:

Strength: 24

Endurance: 49

Dexterity: 108

Intelligence: 11

Willpower: 15

Soul: 163

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

———

He kept walking, sliding past a child who seemed confused and lost in the fog. His body reacted mostly on its own while his mind and brain processed the numbers in front of him.

Soul was high. Dexterity was the second highest stat—as it should be. In his opinion, Soul was the best stat since it let him advance and have control over his Edicts. Or could it be that his Edicts were just more tied to that direct stat than others?

Since they’d slowly confirmed with others that intelligence related to the more magical aspects of the system, shouldn’t there be comparably strong magic users? Julia was strong, sure, but Colt held no preconceptions he could fight her to a win if they were to spar. His speed and the complimentary Edicts that went with them had too much synergy.

Everything else was coming along nicely—his level was high, and his skills were well-balanced.

Colt paused and Inspected a nearby old man, rubbing his eyes and looking lost.

Nothing interesting there. No additional level in the skill.

Worth a shot. Colt shook his hand and pulled his hands deeper into his pocket. The vapor was cold, too. It was much too cold than it should have been. Had he been in his previous life, he’d have thrown a jacket on, as it was now with his superior body. He still felt the chill on his skin.

Soon, he reached where Julia normally started her mornings—a tea shop—a ‘bubble’ tea shop since the lady inside had magic that let her replicate the drinks on the outside.

The place was stark yellow, and there was an influx of people inside, happy to be saved from the ice-cold mist that pervaded outside like an uninvited guest, lingering and swaying with the wind. Even as he entered the door and sealed himself out from its ghostly grasp, he still saw the curling of faint white fingers reaching under the door as the mist tried to sink in.

Yeah, that’s not normal.

Julia was in a booth with a ‘bubble tea’ in hand. The bubbles, in this case, appeared to be gummy-like little beads of bright pink amidst the liquid.

Her eyes lit up the second she saw Colt—waving him over to her booth, where she sat alone, everyone too afraid to get near the blue-haired mage who helped overthrow Denny. Some people saw them as heroes; others resented what they’d done.

But everyone gave them a healthy dose of caution and respect.

“Julia,” he said, settling in in front of her and cutting through the shop, avoiding several patrons, folding his hands as she gave him a lazy grin.

“Colt! Why are you here? Are you a fan of tea? I thought Nate wanted you when you were done recovering. At least, that’s what he keeps muttering to himself about.”

Colt yanked on his collar and cleared his throat, “I think I know what he wants. You should, too.”

He wanted to deal with the proverbial elephant in the room between all of them. The question that had circled repeatedly in their discussions, and all four of them still didn’t have a solution. What to do with Nick?

The man had been thrown in a cell awaiting their decision, and the most they conceded was that they should decide what to do about the man between all four of them; that they should visit him, with all four, and hear out what he had to say in his own defense. It wasn’t a conversation Colt looked forward to, and neither did Sarah.

Well, maybe she did look forward to it, so she could yell at him and let him know what an utter scumbag he’d been.

“Then why are you here?”

Colt raised an eyebrow and looked back to the door. “I was hoping you might also be interested in the odd mist that is now infesting our town. Considering Nate is so wonderfully handling the election and getting this place functioning again, the least we can do is take a look at an oddity like this.”

“Ah, that.” Julia shook her head and sighed. She gave her tea a swirl, kicking up the bubbles inside as she looked left and right—people were everywhere, some of them definitely keen to listen into their conversation.

But what did it matter? If anything, if they knew powerful people were investigating the city's issues, they would be more liable to relax.

“It’s magical.” She said simply, waving her hand, “…also, it’s got a little bit of Edicts. But you’d know more about that than I would, right? Mr. Edicts.”

“The magic part is what I don’t understand,” Colt replied, letting the nickname slip by and hoping to god she never called him that again.

“It has mana. Water mana and ice mana—I know the second one doesn’t resonate with me, which is why it feels a bit weird.”

So that confirmed one thing: this wasn’t a natural phenomenon, which set Colt’s awareness up another notch. An Edict could be a natural thing occurring, with the weight of a universal law behind it; he felt Edicts in almost everything now, with his enhanced perception and understanding. The magic part he didn’t get, but if it had magic involved, then it meant this wasn’t from the world they’d come from and understood.

“Is someone in the city casting it?”

“Well, I felt it before when we were outside the walls, so I don’t think so,” Julia scratched the back of her head, “It’s hard to pinpoint, too, since it makes it easy to lose track within it; with mana and Edicts everywhere, it’s not so easy to figure out what’s going on. If I had to guess, though, I don’t think it’s a spell?”

“What if someone were more powerful than us doing this?” Colt continued, reiterating his suspicions and worries.

“Why would they be?” Julia posed the simple answer back.

Given the mist had been coming more and more frequently since they came out of their tutorial dungeon and throughout the entirety of his stay in New Nashville… He had to admit she had a certain point. If someone were causing this, then they would need an end goal.

Invading the city? That would have happened already.

Right?

There was an alarm—a call for people to shelter as bells began to ring, amplified by a magic system, a warning from the guards.

Ironically, Denny put this defense system in place to ensure a good response time in case Colt decided to sneak in again. Instantly, Colt stood up, as did Julia, her mouth going slack as she left her half-drank bubble tea on the table.

“Walls,” Colt said, his eyes studying her, looking at the people inside the tea shop.

Everyone was staring at him, slightly huddled. Their scared eyes and their fearful expressions rested on their faces as they gave their full attention to him. One of the strongest in the city. The person they were looking to now to defend them after he’d stripped them of Denny.

He felt the weight of those gazes as he looked back to Julia. Felt the pressure of the responsibility they’d invested in him to take care of their issues and to keep them safe in this desolate and awful world. If he failed to respond, who would?

It tugged at his heart and strengthened his resolve. Maybe he wouldn’t be the one to take over and lead them, but he would do his damnedest to ensure their safety.

She sighed.

“Go get’em, hero, go as quick as you can; I’ll catch up on my legs.”

“Thanks.” He said, and then sprang from the doorway, rushing out it and taking to the roofs of New Nashville; he didn’t pull from Movement, wanting to save his soul the ache of drawing on an Edict until it was absolutely needed.

Though he’d spent the last couple of days in as much rest as he could manage, that didn’t mean he’d recovered all the way to be in top fighting shape. Not that it mattered. When the call came, and he was needed, he had no choice but to respond.

He leaped from one roof to another, using them as a makeshift highway. He relied on his superior dexterity to be all the speed he needed, shifting forward as he covered pace in rapid succession. The issue with running on the streets with highly advanced dexterity is that he was able to hit and hurt someone. Up here, that risk had been stolen away, letting him lean into his speed and go as fast as he dared.

In a minute, he’d cleared New Nashville and made it to the stadium walls.

In another two minutes, with strategic use of Phantoms Gambit, he was through those walls and out into the misty day, smack dab into the middle of a fight that took a second to understand what was going on.

The guards were fighting monsters—swaying phantoms that looked like the top half of a human body, manifested in the mist itself.

New Nashville was under attack from monsters.