The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Despite the warnings given by Verne and Norde, nothing attacked them that night. The next day, most of the students woke up cranky from either too little sleep or the early morning, because the caravan was up and ready to go just after the sun came up – which meant that everyone else had to get up, break down their tents, and then shove them into the back of the same wagon they had come from the night before. Larek was glad to see that a handful of students volunteered to stow them away once the tent packs were brought to the wagon, so that he didn’t have to be the one to do it. Very few of them appeared to have much more energy than the night before, but they seemed to understand that this was simply what was the way things were going to work; if they didn’t at least attempt to work for themselves, then they’d never get back to the comfortable Academy setting.

A new attitude still didn’t mean that most of the students were capable of traveling far distances without collapsing in exhaustion by the end of the day. Still, Larek was pleased to see that they lasted for at least another hour before they refused to go on; unfortunately, that also meant that they weren’t able to make it to Garventon that night, as had been predicted the day before.

“We had better be able to send at least a few of the students on a SIC Transportation Network carriage,” Nedira said later once they had pitched their tents and were gathered around eating dinner. This time, they weren’t near fields but had camped in a forest clearing adjacent to the main road, reportedly 5 hours away from Garventon at their current speed. “Otherwise, it’ll probably be the start of year two for most of those here.”

It was a bit of an exaggeration, but Larek knew that she wasn’t that far off. Their slow speed was even starting to annoy him, because he wasn’t able to stretch his legs in their walk as much as he wanted, making the shuffling pace uncomfortable.

“We’ll be there tomorrow, at least,” Verne noted. “We just have to get through tonight.”

“Now who’s inviting danger?” Larek asked with a smirk toward his roommate, who blanched when he realized what he had just said.

“No, no, I just meant that, uh, sleeping in a forest isn’t as comfortable for some people.”

The former Logger chuckled. “Sure, sure. Anyway, you’re not wrong; we should be keeping an eye out for anything tonight. We’re far enough away from another city or town that it’s probably not as safe. See?” Larek waved toward the caravan guards, who were patrolling the perimeter of the camp. “They know something could be out there.”

He didn’t want to scare the others, but he’d seen the behavior of the hired caravan guards on his way to Crystalview, and this was what they looked like when they were on edge. Granted, it could also be because of what happened in Peratin, making them more cautious, so he could be wrong. Either way, he didn’t think a Scission was suddenly going to open up in the middle of the tents or anything, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious.

Now that I’m thinking of that….

“I never really got a chance to ask, but did anyone seem to have an explanation for what happened a few nights ago with all of the Scissions,” Larek abruptly asked, looking at his roommate in particular. The boy somehow seemed to know most of the rumors throughout the school, so it was a good bet that he had heard something.

He was wrong.

“No, not at all,” he said, shaking his head. Norde shrugged as well, indicating that he had no other information, but Nedira spoke up.

“I, uh, well, accidentally overheard the Dean speaking with some of the other Professors behind closed doors,” she admitted with a soft voice, just barely loud enough that even Larek barely heard her over the conversations coming from the other students. “While they didn’t have a specific explanation, they talked about the increase in Scissions and their ballooning Category strengths all over the north – and not anywhere else. There was even a report that a village somewhere was overrun, despite the fact that they didn’t have enough people nearby to draw the attention of a Scission.”

A chill shot through him at the mention of a village. “It wasn’t Rushwood Village, was it?”

She cocked her head to the side as she thought about it, before shaking her head. “No, that doesn’t sound familiar.  I can’t remember the exact name, but it had something like ‘Hart’ in the name.” Larek breathed a sigh of relief; not for the village itself, of course, because he couldn’t care less about them, but because his family was located so near to the village. “Anyway, the general consensus was that something is beginning to upset the natural process of the Scissions, but none of them seemed to know how or why. I don’t believe that there is a general panic in the northern cities yet, but the fact that multiple Scissions opened up inside of a city is making the Nobles in charge more than a bit nervous.”

“Anything else?” Verne asked.

She shook her head again. “No, that’s all I heard. They were quite tight-lipped about the entire thing in public, so I was lucky to overhear even that much.”

Unfortunately, Larek didn’t know as much about Scissions and their origins as he would’ve liked; in fact, the only thing that had been taught in his classes were what to expect from them, as well as information about different Categories strengths and gestation periods. As such, his lack of knowledge about them gave him no clue about why they were acting so strangely. The most he knew about them was when Nedira told him about something called “The Transition” where the giant people that had enslaved the people of the Kingdom disappeared and then the Scissions began to show up. He still wasn’t exactly clear about what this Transition thing was that apparently happened a long time ago, but perhaps he could ask Nedira more about it during their journey to the other Academy.

He didn’t really have any chance to ask her about it at the moment, however, because it appeared as though it was time for everyone to head to bed. The conversation quickly died down as students found their sleeping mats in their tents, where many of them fell asleep swiftly after yet another grueling day of walking. For Larek, he had difficulty getting rest immediately as multiple thoughts raged around his mind, from the strangeness in the Scissions to what awaited him at Copperleaf Academy. This was the first time since they had left Peratin that he’d had the opportunity to really contemplate his future, and he spent at least an hour or more wondering if he would be able to find another Professor that would be willing to teach him like Fusionist Annika.

That, of course, led him to thinking about the tragic death of the diminutive Professor, and wondering if he could’ve prevented it from happening. Broken memories of that night swarmed through his mind’s eye, as he attempted to put together a timeline of events after he had somehow tapped into a portion of himself to initiate a Battle Art. Thoughts of the Stama-focused ability then caused him to look at his Status, something that he hadn’t checked since just after he had woken up in that Noble’s house back in Peratin.

Larek Holsten

Fusionist

Level 12

Advancement Points (AP) : 1/13

Available AP to Distribute: 40

Mana: 760/760

Stama: 200/200

Strength: 30 (+)

Body: 20 (+)

Agility: 30 (+)

Intellect: 40 [76] (+)

Acuity: 104 [198] (+)

Pneuma: 104 [198] (+)

Pattern Cohesion: 1,040/1,040

Abilities:

Battle Art – Furious Rampage

Spell – Fireball

Spell – Ice Spike

Spell – Stone Fist

Spell – Minor Mending

Spell – Repelling Gust

Fusion – Acuity Boost

Fusion – Area Chill

Fusion – Healing Surge +1

Fusion – Healing Surge +3

Fusion – Healing Surge +5

Fusion – Illuminate Iron

Fusion – Illuminate Steel

Fusion – Illuminate Stone

Fusion – Illuminate Wood

Fusion – Intellect Boost

Fusion – Pneuma Boost

Fusion – Sharpen Iron Edge

Fusion – Sharpen Steel Edge

Fusion – Sharpen Stone Edge

Fusion – Sharpen Wood Edge

Fusion – Strengthen Iron

Fusion – Strengthen Steel

Fusion – Strengthen Stone

Fusion – Strengthen Wood

Mage Skills:

Spellcasting Focus Level 9

Pattern Recognition Level 9

Magical Detection Level 11

Fusion Level 20

Pattern Formation Level 20

Mana Control Level 20

Martial Skills:

Throwing Level 4

Dodge Level 5

Body Regeneration Level 7

Pain Management Level 9

General Skills:

Cooking Level 1

Bargaining Level 1

Speaking Level 7

Reading Level 8

Beast Control Level 9

Leadership Level 9

Writing Level 10

Long-Distance Running Level 10

Saw Handling Level 15

Listening Level 40

Axe Handling Level 80

He had forgotten how lengthy it was, but from what he could tell, nothing much had changed since a few days before. Even with all of the activity in journeying south, away from the city of Peratin, there hadn’t been any Skill Level-ups, nor did he learn any new abilities. He noticed that he still had 40 AP to distribute to his stats, but he continued holding off until he could determine where they might be best spent. He had some thoughts about that, of course.

Now that he had a Battle Art that used Stama, Furious Rampage, in addition to his Body Regeneration Skill using the resource, there was a temptation to increase his total Stama in case he discovered any others. The issue with that was that he had no idea how to activate the one he did have, as his use of it before had been entirely instinctual and his recollection of how it worked was fractured or blurry in his memories.

I need someone to teach me how they are supposed to work. Perhaps one of the Martials that came with us?

The problem with that was he’d probably have to admit that he had an Art and Martial stats, which was the last thing he wanted to do right now. He was aware that such a secret wouldn’t stay a secret forever, but he wanted to see if he could discover if there were any like him first. That way he would know if there was a danger in revealing his abnormal nature.

He also thought about increasing his Mage stats, as he used them for creating Fusions, but did he really need any more at the moment? With the stat boosts from the Fusions on his armlets and anklets, he seemed to be doing fine, and while a higher maximum Mana might be useful to complete Fusions faster, he wasn’t planning on creating anything really Mana-intensive while they were on the road. His process would likely draw too much attention if it were a powerful Fusion, while he might be able to get away with relatively lower-Magnitude ones.

Distracted by thoughts of Fusions, he ignored his Status and the available AP that he could spend as he considered asking Nedira to demonstrate some of the other spells she could cast as a Naturalist. He thought that he might be able to devise another Fusion or two by applying the concepts behind them, though he wasn’t sure about that until he saw them.

With so much on his mind, running around in loops, it was no surprise that he was still awake when a shout erupted from the eastern side of the camp.

Book 2 Chapter 5: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-81392830