Magic Breaker Ch 28-30

Chapter 28: Proof of Strength

Instantly, all hell breaks loose. Norman sprints at Thatch to pull him back, as the young man slams his fist into the mayor one more time.

The guard is less merciful. He leverages the gun at my friend, and pulls the trigger. It clicks. Nothing happens. It doesn’t fire, can’t fire.

I draw my goblin axe and stab it through the policeman’s hand. He screams. The mayor yells at Thatch to step back, but I [Suppress] him, too. Inu uses her [Empathy] to project the effect onto her dad, and he staggers aside. Bay rushes to grapple Thatch, but Amelie’s threads wrap around her, pulling her back. Jess stands there, her body trying to move but her feet frozen to the floor by her own skill.

Inu holds her own dad aside with will and by physically putting herself in between. She’s wearing the armor again, pushing him back. She can, because she's a higher level, because she’s stronger, and he doesn’t know that. But he’s angry, and punches her, landing a hit on her cheek. She takes it without complaint, but I can see her eyes growing wet.

The mayor screams at Thatch, but it doesn’t matter. My friend [Rages]. 

Of course, I sabotage the mayor. Of course, I pull his skills apart. As Thatch pummels him, I stab the needle into the guard, dispelling the effect of the mayor’s skill on him, for now. It means I don’t have any solidified mana to use on the mayor, but I don’t think I need it.

All I do is pull apart the mayor’s skills. I know how they work, just enough that when [Suppression] weakens them, I can use that info to [Deconstruct] them. 

[Suppression 7 > 8] 

One after another, the commands rain in on Thatch, but fall apart. The mayor has more than two skills, because of his class. One to manipulate, one to make trades, and a third to inherit a part of the power of the people in his safe zone.

But he’s not angry. He’s afraid. One after another, I dismantle the commands. He tries to bargain, but it falls on deaf ears. He borrows more power, more health, more lifeforce, and yet, Thatch’s fist falls relentlessly.

Punch by punch, the mayor’s face turns bloody. His flailing limbs grow limp. His teeth are knocked in. Blood pools on the wooden floor.

And then, Thatch gets up, looks at me, and the anger is gone. He tilts his head, smiling awkwardly. “Sorry, Snow,” he says. “I got my clothes bloody again.”

Slowly, Norman stops struggling against Inu. He looks down at the mayor on the ground. “What?” he asks. “What did I… what just…”

There’s a red welt on Inu’s face where he smacked her. But instead of me, it’s Jess who acts on it. The ice on her feet breaks, and her head whirls around on Norman. She takes two quick steps, grabbing his collar.

“You fucking moron!” she screams in his face. “You absolute fucking idiot! How ridiculous can you be?! Dragging us in here was fine. I can forgive that. I can forgive getting manipulated. But no matter what, no matter what, how dare you. How dare you. Lay a hand on our daughter? Norman! Get yourself together!!” 

He flinches back, confused. Still slow. I solidify a tiny bit of mana, exploding it in his mouth to dispel the last vestige of the mayor’s influence. His eyes widen. “I- I’m-”

“I don’t care, Norman!” Jess screams. She’s pushing him up against a wall now. “Fucking think. For five seconds in your life, try not to offload that job. You wanna be a leader only to throw yourself into servitude again. You absolute asskisser. I don’t give a shit if it worked in your day job. I don’t fucking care if it’s all you know.”

No one moves to stop her. “This is how it is every. Single. Fucking. Time.” She shakes him with every word. “People in power. People like that. They look at people like you and see a friend. They look at people like me, and you know what they see, Norman? Meat. That’s all I am.”

“Over and over I’ve told you,” she says. Tears in her eyes, just short of sobbing. “And you didn’t listen. Not to me. Not to Snow. Not to Inu or any of the others. Because you’re blind. So I’m going to tell you this just once: You need to change. Your perspective, who you trust. You need to stop being a coward and do your fucking job as a father.”

With that she throws him aside, then turns to the bloodied boy. “You, Thatch.” She takes a long, deep breath. “Thank you. He deserved it. Snow,” she says, turning to me. “Thank you, too. For caring. I know you’re curious. I used [Dissect] on myself. As an analysis skill. It let me figure out something was weird, and that was enough.”

Then, without waiting for an answer, she goes and hugs Inu tightly. “I’m so sorry,” she says, crying. “For failing you.”

Inu tries to speak, but the words choke in her mouth.

“For being quiet. For failing you. I’m a sorry excuse of a mom. This has been… so much, but it’s been no easier on you.” She snorts a sob, halfway to a laugh. “You’ve been getting hurt. And me? Me? I’ve been watching. Just walking along. Doing nothing. I’ve failed you.”

Norman tries to say something. To scramble up from the floor, but I place Thatch’s hand on his mouth. He doesn’t get to talk right now. Just watch.

The guard also tries to interrupt, but a swift application of Amelie’s threads sees him dragged out of the room and the door closes. Just us and the corpse. And a mother and her daughter sobbing in each others’ arms. It’s sad. But she was trying to do better.

Either Norman learnt to do better, or he’d only get to spectate. An [Unassuming] presence in his daughter’s life. His damned choice.

I take a deep breath. Bay moves to hug Thatch, too. The moment lives on for a couple more seconds, a minute or two, and then it’s over.

Inu wriggles out of her mom’s hug. “It’s okay,” she says. “Thank you for apologizing.”

Jess snorts out a laugh, face covered in tears. “I owed it to you.”

“Yeah,” Inu says, shamelessly. “Yeah, you did.”

- - -

When we walk out of the building, the safe zone is in disarray. People are, unsurprisingly, less harmonious now, and less than thrilled at having been manipulated. Not that it mattered.

“Yo,” Opal greets us outside, sword draped over their shoulder. Dar and Richard are with them, as well as Sylves. “Got it all sorted?” they ask.

I nod. “Yeah. Dealt with.”

“Cool,” Opal says, letting the silence hang for a second. 

Then, Sylves chimes in. “Soooo! We’ve seen what integration meant, right? Anyone wanna figure out what essence is all about?” she chirps, floating in the air.

Inu snickers, then sniffles a little bit. “Yeah. I think I’d like that.”

This time, no one tries to stop us from leaving the safe zone.

Chapter 29: Normalcy and Magic

We spend the rest of the day kind of just… hiking around. 

There are more places to explore, but the world itself has largely lost its thrill. Sure, there are goblins. Even hobgoblins, but there is some amount of safety in numbers, and with everyone working together, we bring down the overly aggressive creatures. 

Norman stays quiet, mostly focussing on the ground. Because of [Unassuming] he’s easy to ignore, but he hasn’t run off into the middle of nowhere. So that’s a win. Maybe. Probably.

I feed my shadow a little bit more, using the wound to practice my healing spell. This time, I mess up my focus, and my little shadow-friend gets a suddenly much larger meal as the skin all over my hand cracks open. I don’t mess it up a second time, slowly knitting my flesh back together.

Another dungeon gets cleared, too. It’s lower level than the Dreadburg, this one being recommended for level eight. Inu gets the final hit on the boss. She gets a class, too, alongside Opal. Thatch got his when the mayor died. 

Sylves, for her part, spends much of our walking time stitching, and by the end of the day, picks up a job. “Oh!” she gasps. “I’m a tailor!”

“What?” Amelie asks, justifiably.

“The system has accepted my skill in sewing. I got a job! How wonderful!” she smiles.

Opal blinks at her. “Would you… mind explaining what that means?” they ask.

“Why, yes, I don’t mind,” Sylves grins. “I get to make clothing. Enhance it with skills. It adds an experience module for sewing, as well. But they aren’t coupled. A job may feed your supremacy, but your supremacy may never feed your job. Oh! They also enhance stats differently! Rather than going for pure volume, their points feed into control!”

At that, I raise my eyebrows. “Stats have different expressions,” I say.

Sylves nods energetically. “Bingo! With free points, you can push them some ways. Defense, offense, regeneration, volume, those kinds of things. Jobs generally prefer control. Letting you do something the best way, rather than letting you do as much of it as possible - though it depends on the job!”

Amelie nods. “Anything else we should be aware of?” she asks.

“Right, yes,” Sylves agrees. “Essence. It’s baked into jobs, a little more than classes. See, jobs are generally a little less specific! So, they have little knowledge packets included in them. Milestones. Every five levels, you get some general knowledge about your trade.” 

That explains what essence does, then. It’s… knowledge. The essence of a craft, of a skill. “It sounds a little like it might raise your talent at something,” I note.

“Kind of,” Sylves hums happily. “That does work, yes. It’s a bit of that, a bit of perspective, and a bit of like having a teacher explain something. And a bit of intuition, too!” she smiles. “You’ll figure it out!”

I smile, just a little. With that, my friends and I are kitted out. Four classes and a job, for now. I’m sure Sylves will get a class soon. And maybe I’ll get a job next, if I push my supremacy high enough. Maybe.

What would I want to do, though? I wonder, I wonder.

Opal grins. “Well, then. I volunteer to get a cooking job!” 

Amelie grimaces. “Absolutely not. I refuse. Rather would I starve than consume your vile creations.”

Inu laughs, for the first time today. Sylves and Thatch easily join in, and Opal eventually does, too. 

What precious critters my friends are, I think with a smile.

- - -

Eventually, we find a spot to spend the night. It’s a pond, from the Hiy’ht’s homeworld. Clear, large, and with an ethereal sheen to it. There isn’t much travelling to do, and right now, we lack a clear objective, too. But I have this feeling that things may get worse. And soon, too.

So, I spend my time practicing. Split between my skills, my botched healing spell, feeding and learning more from the shadow skills that I remember my dark friend using, and solidifying more mana… I’ve got plenty to do. 

Opal is swinging their sword in drills, manifesting a slight purple aura about it, practicing their class. Inu, too, is testing out a new skill, smacking her arm and watching her hand bounce away. Thatch, for his part, is doing breathing exercises, and I feel something coursing through his body. Sylves is magically stitching clothing together.

Everyone is keeping busy with something, be that practice, thinking, or moping, in Norman’s case. The sun slowly sets. People start drifting to sleep. The moon rises, and I see the water start glowing, just a little.

Curious. I look at Richard, but she’s already asleep, leaning against a tree. I look at Dar, and the large wulven is sprawled across Opal’s lap, who doesn’t seem to particularly mind at all. Sylves, though, is awake, and a lot less hesitant than me.

“What’s this now?” she asks, curiously floating up to the lake and eyeing it.

“Don’t eat that,” I say, half teasing and half serious. 

She looks at me. I see her floating over the lake, twirling in the air, and her dress spins, the edges of the leaves catching a bit of water. They spray it into the air, and the droplets sparkle in the moonlight.

“This is so magical,” she says, smiling brightly, looking at me with a glint in her eyes. “I’m gonna be a fairy, Snow.”

There is a somewhat sinking feeling in my stomach. I know Sylves. She cannot help herself with this. As soon as she decrees it “magical”, I know she’ll throw herself into the lake. Head-first, too.

Without hesitation, I step up. The moonlight reflects from the pond, but it glows brighter than that as the night deepens. Sylves gives me a smile. She drops her flight at the same time as I jump from the edge.

We both dive into the magical lake.

Chapter 30: Essence

The water feels smooth against my skin. It drenches my clothes and my hair, of course, but it feels soft. Almost silky. I open my eyes underwater, and the brightness is almost blinding. 

Moonlight spirals and twists in on itself. Ribbons of effervescent brightness twirl and spin and weave through one another. The radiance is bright enough to sear my eyes… and still, I don’t look away. It’s almost like mana, almost like the structures of skills, and I want to take it apart…

But I don’t. Because I look down and realize I am not falling. I am standing. On the surface of the lake, just submerged. My feet touch the top, but I cannot go above ground. I hold my breath, making sure to be patient, and see Sylves next to me. 

Grinning like an idiot as she swims through the water. My skin begins to tingle, and the light brightens some more, until the ribbons grow so wide it’s like a single plain of white moonlight.

Whispers of moonlight ripple through the water.

This is magic, alright. I can feel wispy tendrils of knowledge, no, of essence murmuring at me. Grasping at the edges of my mind, of my being, and it feels… strange. Like an open invitation. I slowly, tentatively accept.

Sylves, on the other hand, did so instantly. Already, the moonlight is pouring into her. I catch bits of it, too, but mine is different. I don’t wanna steal from here, so I pick at the outskirts of it. 

[Level Up! 12 > 13]

The world accepts my wish, my will supplanting that of the essence. The water bends and accepts that I am supreme, that I am deserving, and I take my piece. Essence floods into me, now, but not the same as what Sylves claimed. She claimed magic, and power, and all that is fae like.

What remains for me? Moonlight and sorcery. I feel it, at my fingertips. It’s not free, not an instant advancement, but I can feel the whispers of something, someone out there. That there is a purpose to this, to the light. That there are bits of it I can understand more.

I take that essence, sneakily. Stealthily. Like a thief. Sylves is probably going to gain a class from this. Me? I don’t even plan on getting a job. I can feel the system push me in that direction, but I push back. There will be no automatically assigning me a job. None of that.

When I get it, I’ll take my choice. The knowledge about ribbons of light fills my mind until I’m full, and then some. My eyes bleed a little, tainting the water, but I still steal more, making sure to memorize it all. Maybe I’ll need to create a knowledge storing bank or something, someday. 

The essence pours into Sylves and she laughs, bubbles of air escaping her mouth and drifting to the surface. My nose starts bleeding. Then my mouth. And then, when the pressure against my ears becomes unbearable, when my head is pounding - it stops.

It stops, all at once.

Sylves passes out, and instantly, I grab her, pushing her head above water.

The pond is just a pond again, and I walk along its shallow, muddy bottom, making sure my friend is solidly breathing. Then, I step out of the water, carrying her. For once, I wish I had a little more power. I snicker quietly at the thought, then place her down, breathing peacefully. The water didn’t hurt her, somehow.

My mana brushes against her. 

[Fairy lv. 10]

She’s not fully human. I take note of that, placing it aside, and then try the same thing on Opal. No response. None from Thatch or Inu. That’s fine, though. I try again, changing the way I test their auras. Slowly, bit by bit, poke by poke, I learn. While they sleep, I try out just what makes that screen pop up.

And, eventually, when I poke in just the right way, when I try to feel their mana, there is that notification. I smile.

[Echo Knight, lv. 12] 

That’s Opal. 

[Unshaken, lv. 11]

Inu.

[Channeler, lv. 13] 

And Thatch.

With that done, I lean against the side of a building that pops into the clearing. It’s funny, the way the soft grass jaggedly transitions into concrete and steel, but I don’t mind. I sort through the knowledge in my mind, and it feels… easy.

Essence is made to be absorbed, after all. I just took in a lot of it. So did Sylves, and she fell unconscious, probably still processing the details of her new class. I could have picked up a job. But no.

This was her treasure. She needed my help in it, because she’s an idiot who would have gotten her brain fried and drowned, but I don’t want it. The affinity is cool. I enjoy the intuition it gives me. It feels like the moonlight is familiar, like I could wrap it around myself in a cloak if I wanted to, but at the same time?

It’s not earned.

Now, that doesn’t mean a lot. People deserve a lot of things without decidedly working for them. Everyone deserves to eat. Everyone deserves shelter and recreation and to live a decent life. 

But I don’t care about that.

The world is full of magic. I want it. I want the parts that belong to me. I want to choose. Not just stumble across a pond and have it decide for me.

No. This moonlight isn’t good enough. Plain and simple. The job would be strong, I’m sure of that, but it would have been picked for me, and that’s unacceptable. I will rise to the top of the system. I will strike down the Eyes. And I will do it by my own power.

Essence? I’ll take it. I’ll memorize it, learn its secrets, and take it apart until all its constituent pieces are mine. I won’t just take it and accept what it wants.

Sylves is the same. Her class is fairy. Not “moonlight fae” or “translucent dancer”. Fairy. She did the same thing, twisting the essence to suit her. I’m doing that, too, just in my own way. I smile a tiny bit at that. Is this what it means to be human? Ah, Sylves is a fairy, now. Perhaps it should be ‘is this what it means to be a person?’

So, the essence gets to sit in my mind. Grant me knowledge, and intuition and slowly be digested and picked apart. Because my rise won’t be from a lucky windfall, it’ll be because of me. Because I want to, and no one else gets to take even a shred of credit away from that.

Not my circumstances, not my birth, not the people who “raised” me. My friends? Maybe they deserve part of the credit, because I choose to be around them, and that’s fine. But no one, nothing that is random or lucky is part of my rise.

I build a box around the essence. A wall of mana that contains it from influencing my actions. And then, I send a tendril of [Deconstruction] into that box. I pick it apart, I unravel the patterns. And then I do it again. And again. And again.

Over and over, until there’s nothing left for me to learn.