World Tree Online: The Mountain Valley War: 2nd Dive Concludes

by M. A. Carlson

  I wanted to say no and focus on more training, especially if the attack on Anvilton was tomorrow, but I could tell that wasn’t going to cut it right now. “Yay, pub,” I said sarcastically.

  Olaf grinned, “Now you’re speaking my language.” He was either ignoring my lack of interest or just didn’t care. Then louder, he yelled, “Alright boys and girls, we’ve got a day off before the final push! I’m going to the pub, who’s with me?”

  There was a loud cheer and the mob of players followed Olaf out into the streets of Hammerton. I followed along, not really in the mood for it, but I wasn’t going to abandon Olaf.

  “Minion Number 2, why do you look sad?” Vision asked, appearing next to me.

  “I feel like they left me behind this week. All that time trying to help your boss and now I feel like I’m not part of the group anymore,” I answered, voicing what I had been feeling since we arrived in the command center.

  “Want me to pet you? That always makes me feel better,” Vision volunteered.

  I chuckled, leaning down and giving the wolf a good scratch behind the ears. “No petting needed, you already cheered me up. Now, why don’t you tell me about your adventure with your Boss?”

  “It was so scary,” the wolf pup started, then began the epic tale of how Micaela convinced a perverted spirit to work for her. I couldn’t help but laugh when Vision told me about how hard the spirit worked to hit on Micaela.

  I ended up sitting outside the bar with Vision for a while, listening to his story and petting the wolf. When the story ended, I checked inside the bar to see Olaf and the other players looking rather inebriated and telling tall tales. He didn’t even notice I wasn’t there.

  “Not being stupid with the others?” an unexpected voice asked.

  I looked back to the street outside the pub to see Pwn Star69.

  I was surprised he wasn’t inside with the others drinking. I mustered my dislike for the man and stated, “I’m not in the mood.”

  “So, you’re wasting time sitting around instead? How the hell did you ever beat me?” Pwn questioned with a shake of his head. “Look, we’re not friends and generally, I could care less if you wanted to sit around and do nothing for the rest of your days in game. But we’ve got a big battle tomorrow and instead of sitting around like an idiot, or celebrating nothing, like the others, you could do something to prepare for it. Just a suggestion.”

  Pwn held up a hand forestalling my retort. “No, don’t care,” he added, walking away.

  “I really hate that guy,” I grumbled. I might hate him even more now. What the hell did he know anyway? I wasn’t just sitting around, I was . . . contemplating my next move. I glared in the direction he went. It was too late to actually respond to the jerk. Growling in annoyance that he might have actually had a point, I decided to head back to the barracks to see if I couldn’t find Master Sergeant Murdock.

  The barracks was a hive of activity with soldiers running every which way under the order of the various Officers and Sergeants. I asked around and was directed to the courtyard where the Master Sergeant was barking orders.

  “Good morning, Captain,” Master Sergeant Murdock said when he saw me, snapping off a smart salute in the process.

  I returned the salute. “Good morning, Master Sergeant,” I returned. “How is everything going?”

  “Very well sir, the men are excited for this war to finally be over with. Let us hope victory comes on swift wings,” Murdock replied. “Is there something I can help you with?”

  “I gained a skill that requires falling from a great height. Unfortunately, the one time I used it, it killed me,” I explained. Other than using ‘Meditate’ as much as I could, this was the only other thing on my ‘to-do-list’.

  Murdock chuckled. “And you need a skill that helps with it?”

  “If possible,” I said.

  “Well, I could teach you, but it will cost you four vouchers, Colonel’s rules,” Murdock answered.

  I cursed under my breath. I gave away the only vouchers I had earned, and even then, those two vouchers wouldn’t have been enough. “I am afraid I do not have any vouchers.”

  “In that case, I am afraid I cannot teach you ‘Body Control’,” the Master Sergeant replied.

  Did I hear that right? “Did you just say, ‘Body Control’?” I asked.

  “I did, do you know it?” Murdock asked.

  “I do, a Lieutenant Saaya in Root City taught me,” I answered.

  “Good on you. Then you are already halfway there,” Murdock said. “I cannot train you, but I can tell you what you need to do if you want to try to figure it out yourself?”

  “That would be great, thank you,” I said.

  “Okay, it is pretty simple in theory. Incredibly difficult in practice. I do not know how strong your ‘Body Control’ is or what subskills you have picked up, but you should at the very least understand the concept of reinforcing your muscles with your Stamina to make you stronger. For what you are looking for, you need to use your Stamina to reinforce your skin, muscles, and bones all at once,” Murdock explained.

  That was cringeworthy. It already took a good amount of focus just to make my muscles stronger, a conscious thought. This was asking me to not only make my muscles stronger but also my bones and skin, two additional steps.

  “Thank you for your time,” I said, completely unsure how exactly I should start.

  “Happy to be of assistance, good luck,” the Master Sergeant said, quickly going back to barking out orders.

  “Come on, Vision, let’s go back to Mardi’s,” I said, ready to start experimenting but not looking forward to it.

  Body Control

  Level: 95

  Experience: 6.11%

  Subskill: Sudden Boost

  Strength Boost: +1.95-Strength to a specific muscle group for 5 seconds (additional stacks reset timer)

  Skill Stamina Cost: 20 per boost

  Subskill: Pacing

  Stamina Cost Reduced: 1.95% Reduced Stamina Cost to all skills (excluding Body Control Subskills)

  Subskill: Amped Up

  Strength Boost: +1.95-Strength for 5 seconds (additional stacks reset timer)

  Skill Stamina Cost: 100 per boost

  Subskill: Sprint

  Run Speed Boost: Increase Running speed by 20% for 5-seconds.

  Skill Stamina Cost: 20 per boost

  Subskill: Jump

  Jump Height Boost: Increase your maximum jump height by 11.7-feet per boost

  Skill Stamina Cost: 100 per boost

  I already had a good number of useful subskills for ‘Body Control’ including one that would let me jump. I just needed one that said land, wishful thinking I suppose.

  So, first things first, strengthening bone. Hopefully it was like the muscle strengthening skill for Body Control, otherwise, I might be looking for a book on bones and then one on the skin. I closed my eyes and tried to remember how the SP in my body felt from the first time I trained to learn ‘Body Control’, that familiar heat. I directed it slowly toward the bone in my leg, I fed the stamina into it then felt a sharp jolt of pain and a loud crack as my leg seemed to suddenly have shortened and twisted.

  “I don’t think that was what I wanted to have happened,” I said, from my place on the ground after my leg would no longer hold the weight. “I’m glad I only tried it on one leg.” It took a single cast of ‘Beginner Heal’ to fix the damage.

  So, attempt one, not so good. Also, don’t start with a major bone like a leg.

  Naturally, I tried again, this time I started with just a finger. I slowly added SP to the exterior of the bone then started pushing into the center of the bone. Another sharp pain and my finger disfigured. Another ‘Beginner Heal’ to repair the damage and I was rethinking my approach. Outside in doesn’t work, so by process of elimination, inside out is next.

  I sent a little SP into my finger and directed it toward the bone, specifically to the center of the bone, the only problem was that it coul
dn’t get there without going through the outer layer of the bone first, and you can guess what happened next, crunch.

  I tried a dozen more things from drilling a hole to trying to go in from the ends. It became clear to me that there was no such thing as hardening the bones without some kind of magic I don’t currently know.

  “Okay, so the bone is impossible to harden,” I grumbled. Why would SP harden bone anyway? SP was related strictly to muscle usage. For that matter, why was the SP able to crush bone? It wasn’t tangible energy like mana was.

  I tried to re-examine the process, I tried to direct my SP again toward the bone. Then I noticed something new. My muscle was moving. My SP wasn’t damaging the bone, it was the muscles crushing the bone. So, if this was about the muscle, then I wasn’t trying to harden the bone, I was trying to harden the muscle. I was trying to compact the muscles, condense them around the bone. The Master Sergeant misled me, or so I thought at first. I replayed the conversation in my head. The Master Sergeant only said I needed to use my SP to reinforce my skin, bones, and muscles. He never said I needed to use it specifically on the bone, or the skin for that matter.

  I needed to rethink my approach. I needed to start over. So, how do I use SP to reinforce my body? SP only affects muscle, right? So, if SP only affected muscle, then I would need to make the muscle stronger, tougher. I had a feeling this was similar to ‘Sudden Boost’ or ‘Amped’ but also very different. How do I make muscle tougher? I could harden the muscle I suppose. Could SP be used to harden muscle? There was only one way to find out.

  I stared at the same finger, concentrating on moving the familiar heat of SP into it. The muscles there suffused with the energy easily enough, making it stronger. I poked with my other hand, feeling the muscle. It didn’t feel any different. I tried flexing the muscles. They felt harder but still had some give. I let the SP go. I needed to think about this more.

  I was trying to make the muscle harder to be able to take the impact better. I wish I had paid better attention in gym class back in high school when they went over all this stuff. The muscle was fibrous. Every time you broke a strand of muscle it healed back stronger. That wasn’t what I needed. I sighed in defeat. It was time to hit the archive.

  “Bye-bye, you are back,” Libre greeted me as I entered.

  “Hello, Libre,” I greeted the archivist. “How are you today?” I asked, setting the ‘Assassination Handbook’ on her desk.

  “All done?” Libre asked.

  “Yes, thank you,” I said.

  “You are welcome. Just . . . please do not abuse any skills you might have learned,” Libre requested, sounding a little nervous.

  “I won’t abuse them,” I promised.

  “That is good. Is there anything else I can help you with?” Libre asked.

  “Yes, I am trying to figure out how to harden my muscles to better be able to handle a fall,” I said.

  “Hmm, sounds like something from the ‘Body Control’ tree,” Libre said, thinking aloud. “I suppose there are magical options as well but for that, I would suggest paying Winslow’s Wizarding Wonders a visit.”

  That was a good point. I would need to check that out next. “Master Sergeant Murdock said it was a ‘Body Control’ subskill,” I said, trying to be helpful.

  “Okay, Section 10, row 5, shelves 2-8, it is with all the stamina management skills,” Libre said.

  “Thanks, Libre,” I said, making my way over to the section and row. There was a large selection of books about all kinds of stamina related issues. Some books were exercises for building up stamina, others were related to improving stamina usage, and dozens more covered various stamina topics. I ended up grabbing a book called ‘Your Body and Your Control’.

  Your Body and Your Control – The body is a powerful machine that can be mastered and controlled by applying the correct knowledge to improve the machine.

  Yeah, that was pretty much what I needed.

  I checked the book out with Libre’s permission and returned to Mardi’s. I had some reading to do.

  Chapter 31 – Rose

  Rose was annoyed with her sister. With the announcement of the day off and after her conversation with Bye-bye from that morning still fresh on her mind, she was really hoping for a chance to maybe sneak away with him for a little mini-adventure. Maybe find a rare beast to defeat, like the one they defeated together the first time they met.

  “Ooh, Baby, what do you think of this fabric?” Jay called from the other side of the clothier shop. He was holding up a bolt of cloth, it was red, almost pink in color.

  “Hmm, might be a little too pink,” Baby said, flying up next to Jay and the bolt of cloth.

  “Hmm,” Jay growled, looking between Rose and the cloth. “You might be right, perhaps a darker red . . . but that would be too close to her eyes and hair. I think we should stick with the whites, maybe an eggshell.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. She liked to look good, she really did. She had just never got into the whole fashion thing like her sister did. Usually, Rose would see something she likes, try it on, and if it looked good and she could afford it, she would buy it. This getting ‘a custom dress’ made thing was not for her.

  “I think you might be right,” Micaela added in. She was looking up from a book filled with different dress styles she had slowly been flipping through.

  “What are you doing here anyway?” Rose asked. Micaela looked hurt by her comment, so Rose quickly added, “Sorry, I just . . . I hate this. And you aren’t getting a dress, are you?”

  “I might, Ollie and I haven’t been out on a date night in quite a while. Plus, Jay was going to try to make me a blouse and pants with Spirit enhanced cloth,” Micaela said, the hurt expression replaced by excitement.

  Rose was happy Micaela was enjoying herself, now if only she could.

  “Sis, you need another dress,” Baby insisted. “You can’t keep wearing the same two dresses on every date you go on with Bye-bye.”

  “He doesn’t care,” Rose insisted.

  “But you should,” Baby, Micaela, and Jay all said in one voice.

  Rose knew she was a bit of a tomboy. It was why she took so easily to wearing heavy armor and fighting up close and personal they way she did. “Whatever,” she grumbled, knowing well enough that there was no dissuading her sister at this point, better to just get it over with.

  Honestly, Rose also knew that the sooner she let Baby get her way, the sooner Rose could hunt down Bye-bye so the two of them could go do something fun. She still felt guilty after realizing that they had indeed left him behind. It was worse because she didn’t even realize that was what they were doing.

  “So, Sis, I was surprised to find you and Bye-bye making out like that this morning,” Baby said softly, trying not to be overheard while holding up a few different bolts of white cloth, each one slightly darker than the one before it.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Rose asked softly, but with a little heat in her voice, also trying not to be overheard.

  Baby seemed to ponder her words for a minute before answering. “It means that I expected you to break up with him.”

  “Why would I do that?” Rose asked, feeling angered by the suggestion, her voice raising slightly.

  “Sis, I love you, you know that. So, I’m going to be honest with you. You have a tendency to run from anything serious, and Bye-bye is very serious to you. Normally, you find a way to self-sabotage every relationship that is not me or mom . . . and even then, you do push at times,” Baby said. “Inexplicably, you seem to be fighting against your natural tendency to run when it comes to him. I guess, I’m just trying to understand why?”

  Rose frowned. Baby wasn’t the only one that ever said that to her. Her therapist had said the same once . . . maybe more than once, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear it from her sister. “Yeah, well . . . I like him,” she replied succinctly.

  “Oh no, dears,” Micaela interrupted, clearly having heard the entire conversation.
“She lo-”

  Rose was across the room in an instant, her ‘Charge’ ability easily closing the short gap, her hand covering Micaela’s mouth. “Don’t even think about it,” she said with a glare, slowly removing her hand.

  Micaela’s body shook with laughter. “Just proves I’m right.”

  Rose turned away sharply, feeling her cheeks burning. She wasn’t ready to admit that or even think it. “I like him, leave it at that.”

  “That’s fine . . . for now,” said Micaela, smiling fondly at the younger woman who often reminded Micaela of her daughter.

  “Are you going to stop getting angry with him for taking stupid risks in the game?” Baby asked, giving Rose a hard look.

  “No,” Rose answered then paused. “Yes . . . maybe. Depends on the risk and how stupid it is.”

  Baby and Micaela both just sighed and shook their heads in unison.

  “Yes, this, this is the color,” said Jay excitedly, holding up another bolt of white cloth. “With this I should be able to make her a dress to look fabulous and a blouse and pants to wear under her armor.”

  “Ooh, cream, very nice,” Baby agreed.

  Rose rolled her eyes in annoyance but couldn’t help the small upturn at the corners of her mouth, it was a nice color.

  “I suppose, if you’re going to grill me about Jack, it’s only fair I ask you about Teddy,” Rose said, trying to steer the conversation away from her and Bye-bye.

  It was Baby’s turn to blush. “Don’t call him that,” she snapped. “And he is doing fine.”

  “Who? Your fiancé?” Micaela asked, looking to Baby.

  “Yes,” Baby answered.

  “Ooh, do tell,” Jay chimed in helpfully.

  Baby sighed. “My fiancé is a pro-gamer, a famous one so I’m not telling you anything specific.”

  “I do love nerd-love,” Jay said with a sigh. He had set the bolt of cream white cloth on the counter and was going through other bolts of cloth, this time, holding them up next to Micaela.