Ch: 19 Feeling the world in a new way

Edited

I know I said I was going to post the late DM chapter first, but this was almost finished so I finished it first before I started on the DM chapter. The new DM chapter is almost done.  I'm about 4k words into it. It should get posted sometime tomorrow. Enjoy.

Chapter 19

Feeling the world in a new way

Lily walked along the street, checking out her new auras. She had fifty-three of them and they all stacked together. It was probably why they were all listed under aspect auras in her status page. She felt it when anyone passed by her with some kind of magical object or an active effect. She could feel it on them as they passed and could even pinpoint where it was coming from.

For example, she felt it coming from a guy’s pistol as he walked past her. She knew instantly that the mana had wind affinity simply by feeling an odd non-physical wind brush up against her. She turned her head and her eyes tracked to his sidearm that was holstered in a cowboy-looking holster at his waist. It was like a magnet, pulling at her eyes.

Right after the cowboy, she felt the sensation of her hair standing on its end as a woman passed her by on the other side of her. The woman was going in the same direction as she was, but was walking faster. Lily’s eyes were drawn to the woman’s shield that she was carrying on her back. Lily reached up and removed her hat to pat down her hair only to feel it wasn’t standing up at all.

She replaced her hat, and was immediately distracted as she passed a guy who had his own table. She felt multiple sensations; from heat, like she was standing next to a stove, to an icy feeling, like she was standing next to an open refrigerator. There were so many sensations it made her dizzy, and it was all coming from the guy’s table. She couldn’t stop herself from taking a step away from those sensations, and as soon as she did she felt the sensation stop like someone had flipped a switch.

Standing in the middle of the road, she looked over at the guy and his table as she felt random sensations from people as they passed her. It was nowhere near as bad as those sensations coming from the table. For one thing, most people didn’t have magical weapons or skills coming from them. Those that did were usually only one type of mana and she didn’t feel the overwhelming sensations from them like she did from the table.

The guy was giving her a curious look as she stood there, and she felt her cheeks warm up. She took a step towards the table and the feelings came back. Now that she knew they were there she wasn’t surprised by them. She took a few more steps towards the merchant’s table until she was standing right in front of it. Lily stood there, pretending to look at the guys' wares as she withstood the onslaught of sensations. It wasn’t that distracting, she found, after a few seconds.

Smiling, she finally really looked at what the guy was selling and blinked in surprise. She expected… well she didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t a table full of bullets. They were placed on pieces of colored paper with small bent cards that had the description of the bullets and prices written on them. A quick count told her that they were twenty-two of the fifty-three aspects that she had unlocked. They were also the cheapest ones she had unlocked.

“What are you looking for today, Miss?” He asked, right before she felt a wave of mana, not a sensation like the aspects, hit her. It felt like he had just used Identify on her.

“That was rude.” Lily told him, looking up from the table. She did the same to him.

James Hunter, Human. Tier 2, Hunter level 61. Threat, Acceptable. Main class weapon: Gun.

She immediately noted that she got extra information. It wasn’t all that helpful, but she now knew that he used guns. She also noted she didn’t see if he had a title or not. That made her wonder if it was because he had none or if she had to increase the level of her Identify skill. She mentally made a note to ask Jules about it later.

“Sorry, Lady Wilson.” The merchant said with a slight bow of his head. “I was wondering why you moved away from my table.”

“Why are you calling me a Lady?” Lily asked, terrified that he might have seen her title.

“You have a prestige class, correct?” He said, looking surprised. “I’m sorry if I offended you. Please forgive me. I thought going with an honorific was better than angering someone like you. Was I wrong?”

“I… no. I guess not.” Lily replied, caught off guard. “Are other people with prestige classes that bad?”

“You people tend to be a bit hot-headed, if I’m being honest.” He told her with a smile then he looked down at his table.

“Do you see anything you like?” He asked, waving his left hand over his wares.

“Something for your backup weapon? I am a journeyman, but I was able to create a few tier 5 fire bullets, if you have the skills for them. I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with your class. Your main weapon says spells, but I don’t know if your class uses guns.”

“I don’t think so, at least right now.” Lily told him. “I'm just extra sensitive to aspected mana.”

“Ah, and you sensed my wares.” The man said with a smile, which turned into a frown as he looked down at his stuff. “Is there something wrong? Did I make a mistake?”

“No!” Lily quickly told him. “It’s just that they are pretty strong for their tiers.” She told him, not really sure if they were strong or not. She couldn’t tell, but she was too embarrassed to say that she was overwhelmed by all the sensations.

“Thank you.” The merchant told her with a big smile. “I only just broke into my journeymen bullet smithing, but I have been told that I have a talent for it.”

“Going by what I’m feeling, I think you do too.” Lily told him, feeling bad for lying to him. Then, wanting to leave, she continued. “Sorry to inconvenience you, but I must be going.”

“Oh, sorry for taking up your time.” He told her, forgetting it was she who came up to his table. “It was a pleasure to meet you. If any of your team or crew needs bullets, I am here from Tuesday to Saturday. Nine in the morning to dark most days.”

“Thank you.” Lily replied, then stepped back into the crowd of people moving up the street.

The sensation from the crowd of people was less distracting now than it had been a few minutes ago. It was still there, but it wasn’t overpowering her anymore. She wondered, as she walked up the street, if it was because of her exposure to the merchant's bullets or if she was getting used to the sensations. She shrugged and continued on towards the diner.

After a while, she summoned her Grimoire. She opened it to her new spells. They were listed on a single page with a description of what they did.  Right at the top was Portal, and she was already aware what it did, but looking at the description reminded her that she needed pieces of metal. She was not sure if they needed to have something special about them or not, but she made a mental note to buy some before she got to the diner.

The next spell on the list was Gravity Manipulation. The description was only kind of helpful. It only told her that it would push things away from her or pull things towards her. She was tempted to cast the spell, but knew that city spirits took a dim view on the use of unknown spells in public. Time Manipulation made the target go faster or slower. She did note it said the target and not the caster like Gravity Manipulation did. She also noted that it didn’t say being. She really wanted to experiment with it, but again she knew this was not the time to do so.

Fourth on the list and the first one she had bought without looking at the description was  Danger Sense. It read: ‘Aura,Weak: Gives a feeling of danger if a hostile being targets the spell caster. Current range: 5 feet.’ It also, she noted, said that it could be turned on or off at the caster’s whim. It was from the Probability aspect. She wanted to experiment with that spell really badly and nearly talked herself into it, seeing as it was only an Aura. She eventually talked herself out of it, at least until she could get to the diner.

The fifth spell she bought, also sight unseen, was Clumsy. It read: ‘Hex, Weak: Make a target clumsy for 10 seconds.’ It made her laugh at the thought of her target tripping over him or herself. Then she sobered up and really thought about what it would do if it was cast during combat. There was a lot that could happen if she cast it on her target. It could not only be a deadly spell for her target, but it could also be a problem for everyone else on the battlefield as well. She could think of a few ways someone could hurt their allies. For example, say a person fell because of the Hex, and, while falling, accidentally pulled the trigger on their gun. It could potentially turn very ugly for both sides, fast.

Her last spell was called Reduce Primary Sense. The description read: ‘Curse (Weak), place a curse on a target to reduce their primary sense. The curse will last until dispelled.’ The spell, or rather the curse, made her very nervous. From what she read, unless someone dispelled it, it would last forever. What made her even more nervous was she didn’t have the ability to dispel any curse. She hadn’t known curses were a thing until then. It made her nervous yet curious at the same time about what other curses were out there. That made her wonder, how would a person know they were under a curse? Thinking about that made her wonder if the System could remove a curse or would she have to find someone to dispel it? All in all, she found curses scary.

That was the last new spell she got. She turned the page, absently dodging a running woman with a huge pony-sized dog. This page and the next one after it had all her auras. They pretty much all said the same thing. Sense whatever aspect within five feet. The only difference was that the Demonic aspect aura was at six feet. She closed her Grimoire after briefly skimming through the long list. She was nearly at Jules’ Diner so she dismissed her book, then, feeling a bit ashamed about not paying attention to her messages, she pulled out her phone.

She quickly opened her message app and noted things had changed. Amber must have added all the menu files on the left-hand side of the message page. The top file was called priority, and it was written in red. Lily smiled at the folders on her phone and shook her head as she dodged by two guys carrying a huge chest down the street.

There were a bunch of other folders that stood out on her phone. One was titled, ‘Important people, read and reply’. Another was named “Might be interesting’. One that really stood out was a folder called ‘Why haven't you read this yet’. She clicked on that one, and started to read the messages.

There were a ton of System messages that sounded important and she should have read them a while ago. Most of them were outdated, but made her cringe at herself for ignoring them. There was a bunch about her apartment in Woburn from the housing association asking for her fees. The last few had the words ‘fines’, and ‘penalties’ in the title. Luckily, they were all dated before she had left to go to Lowell. She thought about selling the apartment, but in the end she decided not to. She did pay for the upcoming year a little early. She didn’t trust herself not to forget.

There were a bunch of monthly financial statements about how much money she was making through the System store. It was a staggering amount even after the fees involved. Most of the fees were city taxes. Woburn had taken the least while Lowell had the highest tax rate. The evil city had taken a pretty big chunk of what she had earned during her time there and when she left. The taxes only stopped when she became a citizen of Quebec. Quebec was taking some money, but it wasn’t as bad as Lowell had been. She didn’t mind Quebe’s taxes. Just looking around told her where her money was being spent. If emergencies like this happened more often than she expected, she thought she was getting off cheaply with the taxes.

There were also a few messages from just after she got drafted. One told her she was absent without authorization. The message warned her that if she was missing for more than three days she would be reported to the System for a System punishment to be handed out. There was a message that stated that she had been reported to the System after three days.

After that there was a message that said she was absent without leave. That one was because she had been missing for more than three days but less than thirty. She got reported once again. The final message within the ‘you’re missing, you better come back’ line of messages was her desertion message. The message was worded oddly. It told her that she was reported for desertion, but she would be given a pardon if she came back and willingly reported for duty. There were no more messages from Lowell after that. There was one final message that told her that an arbitrator had been assigned to review her desertion charges because an anonymous person had informed the System of an abuse of power.

She was really curious who came to her defense. The System said a person, not a city, so she could rule out Woburn reporting it. Then again she was not sure if Woburn could report it. She was still a citizen of the fort even though she wasn’t a citizen of his city. She couldn’t see Corrina reporting it. The only person she could think of who might have reported it was Herold the Wizard. While he seemed like the type of guy who would do that, there was the fact that his primary employment was for cities like Lowell. She was not sure he would risk his job like that, especially if it got around that he directly messed with a city like that.

A little annoyed yet amused at the same time, she deleted the messages then looked up from her phone to see that she had somehow passed the diner, and was almost all the way to her apartment building. Cursing, she turned around and started walking the other way. She put her phone away as she was mostly caught up with all the messages that Amber put into the folder titled ‘Why hadn’t you read this yet’. It was only when she saw the diner that she realized that Amber must have read some of those messages. Even if she only read the titles, she would get the story of a lot of what she had done.

She nearly turned around and ran for her apartment. If it hadn’t been for one of Jules’ cooks waving at her from a table that he was selling food from, she would have turned around right there and left. She still hesitated before she waved back. Taking a deep breath she made her way through the crowd, and up to the cook.

“They’re inside.” He told her with a smile.

“Thanks.” She said with a nod, not looking at him. She quickly went the long way around the table and pushed open the door to the diner. She had to retreat immediately because another cook was in the process of leaving the diner with a huge pot full of thick, brown liquid. He gave her a smile as he passed her before he put the pot down on the table.

“Soup’s up!” He called, and a line Lily hadn’t realized was there cheered. She waited to see if the cook would head back in, but he stayed out there with the other cook. She watched him start pouring the soup into wooden bowls before placing them down on the table. Knowing she couldn’t delay any longer, she turned and went inside the diner.

Inside was almost completely empty. The kitchen was a hive of activity as two cooks along with Jules were in the frantic process of cooking. Looking around, Lily finally spotted Amber. She was sitting on the floor on her knees and her hands resting, upturned, on her thighs. Lily thought she might have been meditating except that her face was scrunched up in a deep frown.

Not wanting to bother her, Lily walked towards the counter where Jules normally stood. She was about halfway towards it when Jules looked up and smiled. “Congratulations!” She called out with a big grin. “Tier 2 already. I’m not surprised, but still that was fast.”

“Thanks.” Lily said, noting the fact that she hadn’t felt Jules Identify her. That made her question just how high her skill was.

She watched as the water witch wiped her hands off on the apon that was tied around her waist, before she moved around the counter. She raised her arms with a grin and gave Lily a bone-crushing hug. She felt the other woman’s power flow over her. Her eyes were drawn to the several necklaces around Jules’ neck, and the four rings on her hands. It felt like she was standing in a river and the current was trying to pull her away from her friend. She was still processing the sensation when Jules spoke in a low voice.

“Sorry, I thought for sure the System would give you back your title.” The other woman whispered into Lily’s ear.

“It did. I bought a skill to hide it.” Lily whispered back, getting used to the strong river feeling. “It's more of a hassle than it's worth.”

“If you say so.” Jules whispered back then she leaned back so that her arms were straight but still held Lily’s shoulders. “That must be a powerful skill to hide it from me.”

“Oh, yeah.” Lily replied with a grin. It felt good to be in the diner with Jules and Amber. It felt oddly comfortable to be here. “I paid a pretty penny for it too.”

“So, arcane mage.” She said, gently guiding Lily towards a table near where Amber was sitting. “Explain. I never heard of that class before. Prestige too. Very nice.”

“Lily, you’re back.” Amber said, suddenly jumping to her feet. “You tiered up. Nice!”

“She has her title back, but is hiding it with a skill.” Jules told her in a low tone of voice.

“I knew it.” Amber cheered, throwing her hands in the air. Jules immediately shushed her and Amber lowered her hands, but Lily saw the other woman's mischievous smile.

Like her wife, Amber radiated magic, but it was a warm feeling of sitting next to a campfire on a cold day instead of feeling like she was in the middle of a river facing upstream. The feeling was coming from a bunch of different places. Like Jules, her power was coming from two necklaces around her neck and three rings on her hands. Unlike Jules, Amber also had power coming from the metallic-looking bands around both of her wrists, and eight earrings in her ears. Six in her left ear and four in her right.

Her cheer disappeared all of a sudden and she turned serious. “Lil, I need your help. I’m trying to find my mana well like it says in the skill. I can feel it, but I have no idea how to see it.”

“After she tells us about her new class.” Jules scolded her wife. Amber rolled her eyes, but listened in as Lily explained what she read in the System store along with how the auras felt. She went on to explain the prerequisite of her new class and how expensive some of the skills were. They both were shocked at how much she spent to get the demonic aspect, and how many skill points she wasted trying to raise the knowledge skill up.

“Don’t put any more skill points into it.” Jules warned. “At least until you get much higher in your tier. I don’t think you were supposed to get that skill yet.”

“I thought prestige classes were designed to help humans kill demons?” Lily asked her.

“They are, but you’re probably supposed to get the others up and get a much higher tier first before you get into that aspect. Hell, based on the cost alone that aspect is probably at least tier 10.” Jules told her.

“You think?” Amber asked.

“Yes, I think.” Jules said, as she gently bopped her wife on the head. “I’ve never heard of a skill or spell that cost that much, or cost more than one skill point to raise one level.”

“So why did a tier 2 class give it to her now instead of much later, oh great and smart one?” Amber returned.

“Prestige classes are weird?” Jules replied, sounding unsure.

“Sure.” Amber said, giving Jules a sarcastic ‘oh right’ kind of smile. Jules just shrugged in return. Lily went on to explain the rest of her class.

“So, never buy skills like that until you’re much higher tier.” Jules told Lily, when she stopped talking. “Either plan out what you’re going to buy in the future before you go to the Hub or wait twenty-four hours and go back. Never impulse-buy skills like that. You have no idea what you’re getting, and you could be making a mistake. Some classes have far too many spells and skills for you to buy them all. Those classes are designed for you to pick and choose the best spells and skills for you. It’s sounding like your class is very much like that. There is no way you can buy all those aspects. At least I don’t think so, unless that is all you get for skills and spells no matter what tier you are.”

“That would suck.” Amber said, sounding sad.

“Not necessarily.” Jules replied. “If the class is designed for you to pick and choose what aspect or aspects you want to specialize in, then it would make sense. You would just keep going until you reached tier 10 with more and more spells and skills coming off from that one or few aspects. This would also allow you to change your path at almost any time without changing your class.”

“See, this is why I love you.” Amber said give Jules a hug. “You’re so smart.”

Lily smiled as Jules blushed, but then Jules got a thoughtful expression on her face. “You know, if you’re going to go with the demonic tree, you might be better off doing that now.” She said looking down at the table. “It’s expensive, but I don’t see it getting cheaper as you level up, either. Waiting might be the last thing you should do. If you just look at the money aspect of buying the spells and skills, then no normal person could afford it, but you're not normal are you?”

“That she’s not.” Amber replied, sounding amused.

“Hush, you.” Jules said, giving Amber a dirty look before she continued. “You’re going to level fast. That means more skill points. If money is no object especially at your current tier, then the only thing that is holding you back is skill points. At your tier, if you work at it, I expect you’ll level fast. Much faster than you would at a later tier, anyway. So, if you're thinking of going Demonic, then this would be the time.”

It was Lily’s turn to look down now. Yes the skills were super expensive, but if she was willing to empty her bank then it would be fast if she leveled like she did at tier 1. Then again, getting prestige class made it so that she was only getting a third of the experience that she was with her old class. She sighed as she thought about it. Combat had been fun. Surprisingly so. What was worse was that she was good at it. She knew she had saved a lot of lives during this past city emergency. She liked that feeling. She liked how she felt when she helped out. It was fun. It had been scary when she was in her hellhole. So scary that she had hated going outside, but, with people around to fight alongside, it hadn’t been so bad.

She was still lost in thought when Amber suddenly changed the subject. “So about that help, oh great grandmaster.” She said then bowed, fluttering her hands in front of Lily.

Rolling her eyes, Lily muttered, “Fine.”

For the next hour or so, she guided Amber at first then, later, both her and Jules on how to see their mana wells. Neither one of them got it right, but Jules got the closest. She was, not surprisingly, less easily frustrated by failure than Amber was. While Amber kept at it the longest, Jules understood it faster and at a more fundamental level. Lily was not sure if it was because Jules was older and more experienced or if it was just the way she was, but Lily had a feeling that Jules would be the better spell smith. The only problem was that Jules didn’t have the profession and wouldn’t let Lily create the spell book for her.

An hour later, after Amber finally gave up, Lily found herself struggling with a huge metal plate that was full of sandwiches. She was definitely physically stronger than she had been, but nowhere as strong as everyone else around her. She passed Amber, who was meditating. She was trying to see her mana well. Lily had been guiding her, but stopped when Amber got frustrated. Jules put her to work after that.

“I am not a good teacher.” She thought to herself as she passed the other woman.

Lily slammed the plate onto the table with a relieved sigh. The cook, who was a younger guy, was in the process of taking money from a small family just outside the diner. Each of the family members already had wooden bowls full of soup and a large chunk of bread and cheese each. The cook accepted the credits then waved at the freshly-made sandwiches. Lily stood back as they quickly grabbed one each.

“Thank you.” One of the smaller kids said with a lisp. He gave her a gapped-tooth smile before he turned away, already eating his sandwich. Lily smiled as she wiped her hands off on the apron that Jules had loaned her.

The family was quickly replaced by a party of well-armed individuals. They were young but tough-looking. She absently wondered if they were all from her apartment building. They looked like they were. While they looked heavily armed, she noted that only one of the men had something that pinged off of her aura. It was a water effect that she pinpointed came from his boot or rather more specifically inside his boot. At a guess, she thought it came from his pinky toe. She had no idea what it did, but she could barely feel the mana coming from it. In fact, if it wasn’t for the water feeling, she didn’t think she would have felt it. The water aspect feeling she got from it stood out much stronger than the feeling of mana that came off it did.

The four men bought the meat plates. The meal was literally a plate of meat. It had chicken, sausages and other kinds of meats that Lily couldn’t identify. She watched them pile on the food while the cook accepted the money. She wondered if the cook was going to say something as they piled on all the meat, but he ignored them to look at the next group of customers. The well-armed guys wandered off, after stacking their plates nearly six inches high. Shaking her head at all the food the guys took, she stretched out her back as she looked over, past the cook, and noted that there was still a small line of people waiting their turn. She shook her head at how popular the diner was even when it was only serving the very basics.

Lily was startled out of her thoughts by a scream of frustration behind her. Startled, she turned around and peeked inside. She saw Amber banging her head on the floor. Chuckling at the sight, Lily turned back around to help serve the next customer. The man with a huge sword smiled at her as she handed him his plate so he could load up on the pile of meats in front of him. He looked amused at the scream. Lily smiled back and moved on to the next customer.

Another of the cooks came out and relieved her. “Amber says she needs you again.” The older cook said, after tapping her on the shoulder.

Lily smirked and nodded. She turned around to see Amber sitting at an empty table playing with her phone. Looking at the phone, Lily frowned. She hadn’t known Amber had a phone to go along with her watch. Still looking at the phone while she was wiping off her hands, she noted that it looked almost like hers. Then it dawned on her that it was her phone. She quickly patted down her pants, but her phone was missing. Cursing, she quickly rushed inside.

“How did you get my phone?” Lily asked her, a little annoyed.

“You left it on the table.” Amber said with a smile. Lily frowned, but didn’t say anything as she collected her phone from the other woman.

“So, I have a question.” Amber said, after Lily didn’t say anything for a few seconds.

“And?” Lily asked, when Amber sat there for a few moments with a small smile on her face.

“Me and my crew got a contract.” Amber told her, as her smile got bigger. “I was wondering if you wanted to get out of Quebec for a few days. There’s a convoy that’s well overdue. One of my people is taking a break to help rebuild and we need a sixth. I thought you might want to go with us.”

Lily shook her head no. “Sorry, but no. I got a lot to do. I want to do some more research, and there are a bunch of things that I’ve been putting off for a while that I need to get done.” She told her friend.

“Well we’re leaving early tomorrow if you change your mind.” Amber told her as she stood up from the table. “I need to go meet up with my crew now, but think about it. You need to level up, and fighting is one of the best ways to do that.”

“I understand and thanks, Amber.” Lily said, knowing that there was little chance she would head out with the other woman. She had been thinking about her cabin in the woods and the mushrooms she had run out of. Then there were her new spells that she wanted to test to see if she could break them down into spell balls. She also really wanted to know if she could acquire new spell balls from the shortcuts that the System had created. On top of that, she had thoughts on her auras and had come up with a few tests she wanted to do to see if there was more to her auras than just feeling aspect feelings from them.

Amber walked around the table and gave Lily a hug before she wandered to the kitchen to talk to Jules. A few seconds later, she disappeared through the back door by the steps to the second floor. Lily sat there for a few seconds, looking at her phone, then decided she needed to get going. She liked helping Jules out with feeding the people outside, but she was itching to get back to her cabin. She got up and approached the very busy kitchen.

“Hey, I’m out.” Lily said, as Jules looked over at her.

“Hey, before you go.” Jules said as she bent down and pulled open a cabinet. She reached in and pulled out two large paper bags and handed them to Lily. “This should last you a few days, but I’ll come looking for you if you’re gone more than a week. Check your messages and reply to them. It would make me feel better to know that you’re not dead.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.” Lily replied feeling an odd warmth in her chest. Then she felt her cheeks grow warm as the other woman hugged her. After a few seconds of hesitation, she hugged her friend back. After Jules released her, Lily took a step back and nodded to her friend.

“I might get caught up in… well everything, but I promise I will try to remember my messages.” She told the other woman, then, not waiting for a reply, she turned around and left the diner. She wasn’t sure why she was walking fast, but she knew it wasn’t entirely about getting back to her home.