by A R Chen
“Ask him for a chicken!” Bonnie suggested. “You’ll need to absorb lots of energy if you’re going to be ready for your evolution. You get diminishing returns from just absorbing light.”
“I require a chicken for my glorious being.” Steve was certain this was a polite and appropriate way to phrase his request.
“Uh. Of course,” Ash replied. The boy had seemed shocked for a moment, but then hurried away with purpose. Steve watched him leave through the cloth-covered entrance as he let his thoughts wander once again.
I’m pretty great, aren’t I? Steve thought. On a whim, he tried to project the thought to Bonnie.
“Eh…sure,” she replied.
That had sounded sarcastic, but he was a magnanimous god, so he let it go. If only everyone could be as great as me, Steve pleasantly thought. There was no reply this time.
Moments later, Ash hurried back through the cloth-covered entrance with a small creature in his hands. Almost immediately upon entry, it began squawking and thrashing. Steve assumed that this was the chicken that he had requested.
“Wha—” Ash exclaimed as he tried to keep his hold on the chicken. With a frown, he flicked it on the head and it went still. He adjusted his grip on the chicken and brought it over to where Steve was floating. “Here it is, god Steve. Sorry for the delay!”
“It’s fine, really no trouble at all,” Steve replied, putting his merciful nature on full display. “Thank you, Ash.”
“Uh, what would you like me to do with this?” Ash lifted the chicken slightly for emphasis.
“Just put it down there, that’s fine.”
Ash quickly complied, and spoke as he backed away, “Well, if you need anything else, you can find me at the village center.” He then turned on his heel and exited quickly enough that the curtain which served as a door was left fluttering in his wake. Steve liked this human already; he was very efficient and respectful towards his greatness.
“What do I do with this chicken?” Steve asked Bonnie, only now realizing how it may have looked to the humans for him to be conversing with an unseen partner. Surely it only enhanced his divine allure.
“The rules don’t allow you to kill, but I can guide you in how to intentionally siphon energy from a living being, as you did instinctually to the centipede that entered your body in the clearing,” Bonnie answered readily, though seeming to sound a little less enthusiastic than before. She continued, “Focus on the chicken and visualize its energy in the same way you did your own energy when you shot the lightning bolt. Then, picture the energy flowing towards you. Just don’t take too much or you’ll risk killing it!”
Steve did as instructed. He figured it would be easy, so he focused on the chicken and its energy. Slowly, but surely, he saw the energy flow towards him in his mind’s eye. As the tendril of vitality reached and entered his body, he felt a heady rush of elation. Even the way he’d felt since meeting the humans was insignificant in comparison. He needed more!
“Steve-—I think you’re taking a bit too much!” Bonnie warned. “Steve, can you hear me? Steve?”
Can’t be bad if it feels this good, right? Steve justified his actions to himself. Latching onto the sensation, Steve kept going, drawing more of the cloud into himself. The chicken had been calm before, but suddenly squawked loudly. It flapped its wings in desperation, which sent feathers around the room, as it ran in panicked circles. Then it fell over as its legs kicked spasmodically.
The feeling built until it was a mind-numbing bliss. His glowing body felt ever warmer, but never unpleasant. Soon the flow of energy began to ebb away, and the chicken’s struggles became ever weaker. As the last shred of energy entered Steve’s body, the chicken struggled no more.
Bonnie’s voice suddenly bored into Steve’s mind, her tone inhumanly dispassionate. “Due to disobeying the rules, consequences will be applied.”
Steve felt a tingle, and everything went dark.
Chapter 3
4 Days 21 Hours 0 Minutes 0 Seconds
“Steve…your turn,” someone nearby nagged. “Are you going to make a move yet or what?”
Steve shook off his daydream, feeling confused. He was in the Grand Library, surrounded by other kids his age, all paired off and playing a board game.
“Come on, Steve, you know you can’t win this time,” the voice bragged. “I’ve got your rook and queen off the board already.”
He glanced at the person talking, a short, thin-lipped young man with sharp eyes and a nervous smile. With a slight frown, Steve turned his attention to the game. As he studied the board, he recalled the name Xander—that was his opponent’s name. Steve always played this ancient board game with his good friend Xander, during lunchtime in the chess club.
What a weird daydream, Steve thought to himself as he got his mind back into the game. After a moment of thought, he moved his bishop to check the enemy king.
Earlier he had sacrificed his queen and rook in order to get to this position. He only had two knights and a single bishop left, but the enemy king was out of position. Xander had castled earlier, which was often a good way to get the king into a more defendable position.
However, Steve had fully expected and even wanted this reaction to his advance; Xander was right where Steve wanted him. Steve’s analytical skills and sense of strategy had been honed over years of playing this game competitively. Multiple chess championships had earned him a high rating within the chess community. By this point, Steve liked to think he had mastered most of the many elements that went into playing chess at a high level. At the very least, he knew all of his strategic strengths and weaknesses.
“Checkmate,” Steve pronounced a few moves later, as he leaned back and stretched in his chair. When he checked the time, he realized the game had lasted for a good portion of the hour.
“Agh—what the heck, how do you do this, man?” Xander shook his head in defeat. Steve had to give Xander credit; he hadn’t played badly at all, just not well enough to win.
Steve tried to explain it to Xander. “Dude, you made a blunder about turn ten where you castled instead of pushing. Your loss of momentum left you wide open to my ‘pawn storm’ on your queen side. People think that going first as White is an advantage, and it is, but it also means you are given the chance to make the first mistake. If you—” Steve trailed off, midsentence. He couldn’t shake that weird daydream he’d had. Even now, it felt like it had been real; he’d never had that kind of experience before. Maybe he would need to go to the hospital; his head felt funny.
Of course, he wouldn’t speak a word of it to Xander, lest he wanted to be made fun of for years to come. They’d call him “Kooky Steve,” or something like that. He was confident that Xander would think of something.
Trying to settle his mind on reality, he tried to think of what he had for lunch, but he drew a blank. He thought of his classes, but again nothing. As frightening as being unable to remember what he’d been doing just before coming here was, worse was the definite sense that he had a memory, but something was preventing him from accessing it.
As soon as he put that thought into words, he knew it was true and felt a chill creeping up his back. He turned his head, glancing from person to person. Some of them still held pieces in their hands, but none were playing. They were all staring at him. Silence filled the room.
Was this even chess club? Had they always been looking at him? Steve couldn’t remember.
Has it always been like this? Steve wondered, as he silently looked across the Grand Library. Goosebumps tingled across his body. He vividly felt multiple realizations and fears cross his mind at once, like an emotional relay race.
As Steve turned back to Xander to ask what was happening, he heard a mechanical, and vaguely female voice in his mind. “Congratulations,” it droned. “You are the first to break the rules within three hours of starting.”
Steve remained silent, concerned about what kind of punishment he would receive for his transgression, and unnerved a
s everyone in the room continued to stare at him, unblinking. He knew that ‘daydream’ had seemed too real.
“You have been granted a skill due to your audacity!” the Voice continued. “For your boldness in defying the rules, you shall receive: Greater Mind, a passive skill which will allow you to resist mind control and mind-influencing effects to some extent.”
His surroundings blurred, then winked out of existence.
***
Steve awoke again in a flash of heat. His omnidirectional vision was back, and now that he had experienced what it was like seeing with eyes, he realized how unusual this was. Was being in that room, playing that game, one of his memories from before? He couldn’t be sure.
Steve focused in on the dead chicken, lying nearby in the beam of sunlight shining in through a window. To think, all this had started because he couldn’t resist draining that bird. Steve tried to access more of his memories but had little luck in doing so. Even some of the detail of what he’d just experienced was starting to fade, but what he did remember most clearly was the voice telling him he had gained an ability.
“Greater Mind,” was it? Steve thought to himself. A reward for being adventurous? Or bold? What does that mean? He remembered Bonnie and projected a thought at her. I have a Greater Mind skill now?
“Yes.” Bonnie’s reply was monotone. Something was different about her right now…whatever she was. Steve couldn’t pinpoint what was going on, though he had a theory, or maybe as he had no evidence, it would be more accurate to call it a hunch.
So, it seems like now I’ve recovered some of my reasoning ability, some of my old analytical skill from before I was in this form. I could be skeptical that the me in the vision was…me, but I think I’m right. Steve pondered further, remembering everything that had happened since he’d awakened in the clearing. I don’t think the entire change is related to that chicken. The last time I absorbed energy from something, I didn’t have weird visions and didn’t change. He thought some more. Maybe it’s related to the countdown.
He checked the countdown again.
<4 Days 20 Hours 40 Minutes 33 Seconds>
After carefully doing some math in his head, he thought he might be on to something. It seems like my mind underwent change at around four days and twenty-one hours, since I think I started at five days. The last big change was when those humans arrived, I’d thought it was because of them, but it was at four days and twenty-three hours. Could this be a simple pattern? he wondered. Working on a gut feeling, which was strange without a gut, he did some more math. If my hypothesis is correct, I should expect a new change when the countdown reaches 4 Days 18 Hours 0 Minutes 0 Seconds. Yeah, I’ll wait and see if anything happens then, I guess.
Bonnie announced, “Steve, you are eligible to learn new skills now that your energy level has risen.” The voice was Bonnie’s, but she also definitely still sounded weird.
She continued, “What would you like to learn? You have a choice—” At this point, her voice suddenly cut off. Then it came back into his mind, “—lowing message.”
“Please—carefully—” Her voice cut out again, then after one more blip, it was gone entirely.
Two spells came to the forefront of Steve’s mind immediately.
***
Blink – Flash instantly to a nearby point
Teleport – Channel you and three nearby willing beings to another place in memory
***
Well, this is a problem, Steve mused. I have no idea what to pick, and very little information to base a decision on.
Whatever was going on with Bonnie, she apparently wasn’t going to be helping him with this. Steve had tried willing a few questions to her, but there was no response.
He stared at his two choices, or what he assumed to be his two spell choices, for some time. Finally, he thought, Well, Blink then. He’d reasoned that Blink seemed more versatile and practical than Teleport, though he couldn’t put the reason into words. It seemed like it had something to do with that game he remembered playing in his previous life.
After he’d made the decision, information to execute the Blink spell instantly flowed into his mind. Now he knew that by expending the right amount of energy, he would Blink to a nearby location. Thankfully, its operation was just as simple as it had sounded in the description.
Steve tried to use Blink in the guest house. He cast the spell, focusing on a spot about six feet from his current location. Nothing happened.
“Uh…” Steve said aloud, confused.
Bonnie’s voice suddenly filled his mind again. Her tone had reverted to normal: chipper and upbeat. “Remember, Steve, your evolution path will be determined by what spells you learn, energy usage, and your innate disposition!”
“Okay,” Steve replied. That wasn’t very helpful in this situation; was she even paying attention to what he was doing? Well, that was the least of his questions regarding her, there was also who or what she was, and why she was here to help him. She’d seemed to respond mostly to direct questions but was now blurting out information, seemingly at random. As he thought on that, he realized how strange his own behavior was prior to his vision. What made him feel so euphoric, why had he been so confident or even arrogant?
He paused to center his thoughts, circling back to what he knew. His goal right now was to evolve into something worthwhile, as powerful as possible. Bonnie had said that he was the first one to break the rules, meaning that there must be others, and she’d dropped other hints about this before, too. For the time being, he was going to assume that he was in a competition of some sort. There was so much he didn’t know, so many things he hadn’t bothered to ask in his earlier state of megalomania, but if his thought that this was a competition was correct, he couldn’t afford to spend much of his limited time asking what might be pointless questions.
For the time being, nothing really made sense. Why was he a ball of light now, if he had been human before? What had changed him and why? Even the “consequence” applied for killing the chicken seemed disconnected from much of the guidance he’d received so far. From his perspective, he’d been rewarded for violating the rules.
Projecting his thoughts, he asked, Hey Bonnie, can you bring up the evolution paths listed that are best-suited to me? Mentally communicating with her was becoming nearly second nature at this point; the process seemed to include visualizing a space in his mind as Bonnie, then projecting his thoughts there.
“Sorry, I can’t do that, but I can show you the list so you can browse it yourself!” Bonnie replied. That was strange. Steve could’ve sworn Bonnie had done such things for him before.
How do I unlock the three question-mark evolutions at the top? Steve mentally asked. He remembered there had been three unknown evolutions at the top of his list, which had been followed by Dragon. Give me a description of the rest of the top 10, too.
Even as he formed the question, he realized that exploring his options might take a while. He quickly checked his mental countdown timer again, to make sure he had enough time to prepare for his next change, or vision.
4 Days 20 Hours 2 Minutes 30 Seconds
Bonnie replied, “The three evolutions at the top will be unlocked after completing specific unknown tasks!” This was the most Steve had ever conversed with her and Bonnie seemed pleased by the attention. After a slight pause, she reported, “Okay, you should be able to see it now.”
1) ??? – End Evolution – Undetermined
a) Initial Power – Medium
b) Energy Gain – Easy
c) Energy Consolidation – Hard
d) Innate Benefits – Copycat
2) ??? – End Evolution – Undetermined
a) Initial Power – High
b) Energy Gain – Medium
c) Energy Consolidation – Easy
d) Innate Benefits – Resistant Skin
3) ??? – End Evolution – Undetermined
a) Initial Power – High
b) Energy Gain – Diff
icult
c) Energy Consolidation – Medium
d) Innate Benefits – Worship
4) Dragon – End Evolution – Dragon God
a) Initial Power – High
b) Energy Gain – Difficult
c) Energy Consolidation – Difficult
d) Innate Benefits – Dragon Race
5) Undead – End Evolution – Undead Emperor
a) Initial Power – Low
b) Energy Gain – Easy
c) Energy Consolidation – Easy
d) Innate Benefits – Blight
6) Elf – End Evolution – Undetermined
a) Initial Power – Low
b) Energy Gain – Medium
c) Energy Consolidation – Easy
d) Innate Benefits – Leadership
7) Slime – End Evolutions – Undetermined
a) Initial Power – Medium
b) Energy Gain – Easy
c) Energy Consolidation – Hard
d) Innate Benefits – Indestructible Body
8) Turtle – End Evolutions – Undetermined
a) Initial Power – Low
b) Energy Gain – Easy
c) Energy Consolidation – Hard
d) Innate Benefits – Time
9) Goblin – End Evolutions – Undetermined
a) Initial Power – High
b) Energy Gain – Easy
c) Energy Consolidation – Easy
d) Innate Benefits – Goblin Clan
10) Human – End Evolution – Undetermined
a) Initial Power – Low
b) Energy Gain – Undetermined
c) Energy Consolidation – Undetermined
d) Innate Benefits – Tenacity
Well, that’s all the information I can get for now, I guess. It’s not enough to make any decisions, but I also won’t need to for a while yet, Steve analyzed. He focused his attention out the window of the guest hut, seeing that dusk was falling, the sun already half hidden below the horizon.
Steve came to a decision, sighed and said aloud, “Time to practice Blink…again.” He’d reasoned that he needed to have an escape mechanism for dangerous situations. It was likely that he would be tested in the future, since this was a game of sorts. Actually making the spell work seemed to still be a problem, though. Why wasn’t he able to cast Blink?