The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 33

Chapter 33

The next month and a half of travel was spent making up for his delay, as Larek didn’t stop except to rest in between closing Apertures, eating, and sleeping while utilizing his Secure Hideaway Fusion to ensure he was relatively safe at night. He only stayed in a town he didn’t even know the name of once during the first week, as every other time night arrived he was nowhere near any population centers. As he moved further into the interior of the Sealance Empire, at least according to the new map he acquired back in Swiftwater, the more frequent the villages, towns, and even more cities were as he traveled, so after the first week he was almost always near someplace he could stay at an Inn for the night.

His ring, coupled with the local currency he had acquired from his work on the ferry boat Fusions, were enough to let him pass through most places without much of a stir. Restocking his supplies along the way, he made tremendous time and practically eating up the miles with his Agility stat-enhanced speed. He had even made it to the capital where the Emperor supposedly ruled over the vast reaches of the Empire, but he only stayed for the day before leaving again before he saw anyone he thought might be “important”.

Before he knew it, Larek was nearly to the border of the Empire, where he decided to slow down for a day of rest. By the time he made this decision, he found himself in a small town on the edge of a wide and flat plain, where the landscape was more than a bit drier than most of the rest of the Empire he’d observed thus far, and trees were few and far between. Dry dirt underneath his feet were accompanied by spiny plants and scrub bushes, and heat seemed to radiate up from the ground rather than descend from the sun overhead.

Striding into the town, which was encircled by high stone walls that appeared to have been in existence since the town was built, he immediately ran into a problem.

Along his journey, things had been fairly easy and straightforward, even with his quick pace and incessant drive to continue moving as fast as possible while still desiring to accumulate Aetheric Force. Only a few Apertures along the way gave him any bit of trouble, but they were more about access rather than difficulty in killing the monsters there. For instance, one of the Apertures appeared to have appeared in the middle of a cave system in a mountain range he passed through, and it took him a few hours to find a way inside; another was at the bottom of a lake and had Toothy Fish that attempted to bite him with their serrated teeth, but they were fortunately physically weak, and he was able to literally slap them away when they got to close, killing them almost instantly.

There were only two complications he ran into on his journey. The first issue that arose when the population centers of the Empire became more numerous was that it became more and more difficult to find an Aperture nearby that hadn’t been closed already. It was good to see in the sense that the Empire seemed to be understanding the danger that they posed and were beginning to get a handle on them, but it also made his accumulation of Aetheric Force stagnate. That didn’t mean that he had been unable to find any, only that he had to go out of his way a few times, delaying his journey a bit, but it was worth the extra trips. In all, he had accumulated just under 25,000 AF, allowing him to vastly increase the maximum Level of his Mage Skills.

Along the way, especially when he was safe and secure at night, he spent some of his time improving these Skills up to their new maximums, though he didn’t create anything new – only variations of what he’d already made before. He still had some ideas for new Fusions, but his head wasn’t in the right state to work them out while he was constantly on the move, and there hadn’t been any need of anything since he’d created the Directional Illumination Fusion.

Because he had made so much progress along the way, keeping up with his new maximum Skill Levels, he had also increased his personal Level not just once or twice, but three times, bringing him to Level 28 – and he now had 101 AP to spend on his stats, but he didn’t know where to put them. All of the battles against Aperture monsters also increased some of his Martial Skills, such as Unarmed Fighting by 1 Level, Throwing by 1 Level, Body Regeneration by 1 Level, and Dodge by 2 Levels – but he hadn’t figured how to get the latter past Level 19, where it seemed to hit a wall. A few of his General Skills also increased, including Axe Handling to Level 90, but they weren’t quite as impactful as the others.

His Status was starting to look pretty impressive, but he knew that he still had a long way to go before he was satisfied that he could protect all of his friends and family; whether it was powerful monsters that had opened Apertures in the Kingdom or the Gergasi, he wasn’t exactly ready to go up against either of them.

Larek Holsten

Combat Fusionist

Healer

Level 28

Advancement Points (AP): 19/20

Available AP to Distribute: 101

Available Aetheric Force (AF): 247

Stama: 1500/1500

Mana: 2340/2340

Strength: 75 [150] (+)

Body: 75 [150] (+)

Agility: 75 [150] (+)

Intellect: 117 [234] (+)

Acuity: 114 [228] (+)

Pneuma: 1,350 [2,700]

Pattern Cohesion: 27,000/27,000

Mage Skills:

Pattern Recognition Level 35/35 (350 AF)

Magical Detection Level 35/35 (350 AF)

Spellcasting Focus Level 35/35 (350 AF)

Multi-effect Fusion Focus Level 40/40 (400 AF)

Focused Division Level 45/45 (450 AF)

Mana Control Level 50/50 (500 AF)

Fusion Level 50/50 (500 AF)

Pattern Formation Level 50/50 (500 AF)

Martial Skills:

Stama Subjugation Level 1/20 (200 AF)

Blunt Weapon Expertise Level 1/20 (200 AF)

Bladed Weapon Expertise Level 2/20 (200 AF)

Unarmed Fighting Level 3/20 (200 AF)

Throwing Level 10/20 (200 AF)

Dodge Level 19/20 (200 AF)

Pain Immunity Level 20/20 (N/A)

Body Regeneration Level 32/33 (330 AF)

General Skills:

Cooking Level 8

Bargaining Level 9

Beast Control Level 9

Leadership Level 11

Writing Level 11

Saw Handling Level 15

Reading Level 17

Speaking Level 18

Long-Distance Running Level 20

Listening Level 43

Axe Handling Level 90

Still, it was decent progress for what he had been able to find as far as monsters and their Aetheric Force. He never thought he would be disappointed in not finding enough deadly creatures that were trying to kill him along his journey, but that was strangely the case. It helped that they were all still quite weak, and apart from a few unique challenges that he faced trying to kill them effectively, he was never in any real danger.

It was also why Larek hadn’t felt the need to place his available AP into any of his stats quite yet, because there hadn’t been anything that felt like it required a boost – though that could change soon. He was slowly but steadily getting used to his increased physical stats that came from his Martial side: dodging attacks became much easier when he utilized his incredible Agility, what few hits that made it through his defenses did less damage to him thanks to his Body finally adjusting, and he was getting better at managing his Strength correctly in combat. He was more than aware that he had a lot of work still do to improve, because he still had very little talent in a physical fight other than moving fast and hitting hard, but he figured that would come in time.

As he became more accustomed to those stats, he thought he was almost ready to start adding additional AP to them. Another few weeks would probably do it if he kept improving, but he didn’t want to add anything until he was comfortable or if it was absolutely necessary.

So, while finding enough monsters to kill to acquire Aetheric Force was probably a good problem to have, it was the other issue that came up that was the problem – which was what he encountered when he entered the current town on the border of the Empire.

“Hey! Who are you and why does my head hurt looking at you?”

Larek grumbled under his breath as he looked over at the guard standing next to the gate to the town, a wicked-looking iron mace with a wooden shaft in his hand held threateningly out toward the Combat Fusionist. His other hand was up rubbing his temple as if it pained him, which it probably did.

Why did it pain the guard? Because the man was also a Mage that had skewed his distribution of AP toward his Acuity instead of being more balanced between all three stats. That wasn’t normally a bad thing, as it would greatly increase their Mana regeneration rate (if they were planning on casting generally weaker spells more frequently), but the imbalance sharpened their mental defenses to the point that his Perceptive Misdirection Fusion actually hurt them slightly and made his appearance slightly blurry. The greater the difference between Acuity and the other stats, the worse the pain and blurriness would be – meaning that this Mage on guard at the gate had it skewed quite significantly.

Or at least that was what he had figured out thanks to a friendly Mage Protector he met a few weeks before, who was only slightly pained by looking at Larek. When the Combat Fusionist had tentatively explained what his ring did and why he had it, he was worried that the man would either want to steal it from him or try and take him into custody, but his worry was unfounded. In exchange for a brief Fusion-teaching session with the older man, Donald, he learned that the Mage was more interested in new knowledge about the wonders of magic and couldn’t care less about why he was utilizing such a mentally manipulative Fusion. What eventually came of that was that Donald posited that those with higher Acuity than the other Mage stats – as the Mage himself did – would be less effected by his ring’s Effects, and would attempt to see through the misdirection of their perception, which subsequently caused the pain and blurriness.

While he didn’t have any other proof that this was the case, he’d met at least a dozen other Mages – a few Protectors, but most not – that experienced pain and blurriness when he was around. Depending on the severity of the side-effects, the responses of those who experienced these maladies ranged from dismissing it as a temporary inconvenience to full-on accusing him of being some sort of monster in disguise sneaking through town and only they could see Larek for who he really was. Needless to say, the latter type of response had him fleeing from town sooner than he really liked, so as not to incite a mob wanting his head. It was unfair, but it was also a drawback of his Fusion that he hadn’t expected, and he wasn’t sure how to eliminate that type of experience in certain Mages.

As a result, he kept the ring and simply hoped that its benefits outweighed the negatives in the long run, and thus far that had proved to be the case. In fact, in the last town, everything had been going well before he triggered a response in a nearby Mage; recognizing what was happening, he quickly fled out of sight through an alleyway, took off his ring and placed it in one of his belt pouches, and then spent the rest of the time without his disguise. Lare received many more cautious looks from the residents, with a few deliberately avoiding him by moving across the street when he passed by, but he was able to finish his business – with slightly higher prices for supplies than he thought was normal – and then left without any problems after that. Unfortunately, it also meant that he camped outside that night instead of at an Inn, because he still didn’t trust the people there to behave correctly toward him when they knew where he was. It was minor inconvenience, but necessary in his mind.

But now it seemed as though Larek was already being confronted by someone who was fighting the mental manipulation of his ring’s Fusion and he hadn’t even entered the town.

“Uh, well, it’s because—” he tried to explain, before he was cut off by the pained Mage guard.

“Monster! It’s a monster trying to infiltrate Day’s End! Kill it!” the man shouted, and a Fireball spell pattern was formed in front of the guard. A second later, it was filled with Mana and the roiling ball of flames was shooting straight toward him. Thankfully, his speed and his practice at dodging attacks lately had improved his reaction time, so Larek was already moving out of the way. As he felt the heat of the Fireball pass by him as he stepped out of the way, the Combat Fusionist was immediately cognizant that the projectile wasn’t alone as a glowing arrow shot from the top of the wall slammed into the Repelling Barrier that Larek had instinctively activated as soon as he knew there was going to be a problem.

The glowing arrow was immediately shunted into the ground where it exploded in a spray of hard-packed dirt that was kicked up. A few of the clumps managed to make it through his defenses and impacted his lower legs, but he barely felt them as more than firm thumps against his skin. Unfortunately for the guards at the gate, the explosion of dirt – along with a few small-but-sharp stones – was much worse.

The other guard who was just barely starting to move toward him with her spear raised had her leather breastplate and part of her face pepper by the shrapnel of the explosion, causing her to fall back in surprise and pain. She wasn’t a Martial, so she had no stat-given defense against the force of the explosion, but he didn’t think she had been too harmed by it other than a few scratches and likely a few bruises.

The Mage that had cast the Fireball spell and flung it at him was a different story. He was only hit by a single shard of stone from the explosion, but that was bad enough as Larek watched it as if in slow motion suddenly smash through the Mage’s upper cheek before sliding through his eye socket and up into his brain. It didn’t penetrate very far, as most of its momentum had been arrested by the impact, but it was more than enough to drop the Mage bonelessly to the ground as his brain was impaled.

Larek thought that he might be able to heal the man if he was able to get to him fast enough, but another glowing arrow from up above – shot by yet another Martial archer on top of the walls – made him dodge to the side and roll out of the way rather than have it explode by his feet again.

By the time he got to his feet, the fate of the guards down below had been noticed – which was when a bell was rung from somewhere just inside the gates that he couldn’t see from his position, and he could see what appeared to be a few other guards and Protectors running toward the gate from inside the town.

Well, crud. Wasn’t expecting this when I came to town.

He went to move toward the fallen Mage who just had his brain impaled by a stone, hoping to heal him before he technically died, but another arrow – not powered by a Battle Art like the others – was interrupted by his Repelling Barrier as he took a step forward. His hesitation at the attack cost the man his life as he looked up to see that some of the Martial Protectors heading toward the gate were fast and would arrive before he could do any healing. Having been forced to pay for punching someone back in Enderflow and being partly responsible for the damage done to Swiftwater, Larek had no desire to be punished for something he had absolutely no responsibility for.

This was not his fault, even if his Fusions had played a small part, and he refused to let these people accuse and punish him for something that they ultimately caused.

So, Larek took that possibility away as he turned around and ran away. It didn’t take more than 30 seconds before he had pulled far enough away from his pursuers because his Agility was probably three times greater than any of theirs, and he cut a path toward the north to take the long way around the town. As he ran, he realized that he felt slightly guilty about what happened to the Mage, but not enough to return and turn himself in.  He’d been delayed long enough, and it wasn’t his fault.

Right? Yes, it wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t the one who attacked so recklessly, and if that Mage had simply waited for an explanation, he’d still be alive. Besides, it was one of the Martial archers up on top of those walls that technically killed him, not me.

He wasn’t exactly happy with his justifications, but there was a point where he had to let others take responsibility for their own actions – and this felt like one of those situations. It was almost more disappointing because he was running low on supplies and had hoped to stock up in the town, Day’s End if he heard the name correctly, though he knew that he was probably a little more callous than normal with the sudden and unfortunate loss of life that had just occurred.

Well, hopefully it won’t matter. As soon as I pass over the border into Lowenthal, I’ll find another town and restock there. Hopefully they’ll take the local currency, because I don’t really have anything else at this point.

Stopping and squatting down behind some scrub bushes about 15 minutes later, wanting to avoid being seen at a distance, Larek took out his well-used map and perused it one last time. While Day’s End wasn’t labeled on the map, the previous town he’d visited had been, which was how he knew he was getting close to the border. The only problem was that the space on the map where Lowenthal was located was pretty much a blank space without any defining features included in it, and then right on the edge of the map was the border with the Kingdom of Androthe. He hadn’t really thought to ask what kind of place Lowenthal was, because he figured it was similar to what he’d been traveling through, but when he looked off to the east all he saw was a vast, featureless expanse that seemed to change colors from the dry greyish-brown dirt from the current environment to a pale yellow punctuated by a few small hills.

It can’t be that different, can it?

Regardless if it was or not, he was about to find out.