“And now it's so much worse,” I replied with a sigh. “Great. No pocket rides and that’s final. Stay out of my pants.”
With a huff, she snuggled back into my shoulder and didn't say anything.
Two hours later, while we were all under the cave, the storm was in full swing, and all the villagers were muttering about how they could still see their crude houses.
“Is that really working?” Breena asked, peering at the waves crashing against the rocks I had piled up.
“It won't be a perfect fix,” I admitted. “They'll still have a bit of flooding get through. But most of their stuff should survive. Best I could do,” I shrugged helplessly. “Sorry.”
“To be honest, we weren't even expecting you to do that much,” Breena replied, looking out at the storm curiously. “We figured you'd just help people evacuate so that they could rebuild later. What did you call those piles of rocks again?”
“Depending on where I placed them, they're either called rock armor or groynes. The rock armor will deflect or absorb the wave energy while the groynes will help trap any dangerous debris the storm brings. And afterwards,” I said with a tired sigh, “unlike more permanent coastal protection, the rocks can be moved elsewhere so that the drift can return its natural cycle, to prevent any long-term damage to the beach. Not that I'm going to get started on that today.”
“Wow,” Breena squeaked in an awed voice. “When did you learn all of that?”
“I've tried to study erosion in the past to have a career in city-planning,” I replied. “But since I was rusty on most of the stuff, I had to go over everything again online.”
“What's 'online'?” Breena asked. “Is that some kind of library you can go visit?”
“Exactly,” I said, rotating sore muscles. “Get Stell to tell you about it sometime. It's something you can read anywhere, anytime you want as long as you have access to a special tool called the internet.”
Her little fairy eyes popped open.
“What?” she shrieked-or squeaked, because she was in super-tiny size. “That's amazing! That means anybody can learn anything!”
“I guess,” I replied. “Provided they can read or hear and have access to the internet. And they go to the right places.”
“But why were you going to school before if you could just use the internet?” the little woman asked with a tilt of her spiky, pink-haired head.
“That's... a good question,” I realized. “I guess because not everything you learn online is necessarily true, so it's a little trickier to figure out. And school provides people who can help you learn things that are hard for you, called teachers. There's also a lot of people there, so it helps you learn to interact with others.”
“Oh, okay,” the little fairy said. “I guess those things are all good, too. Good thing you got all of that.”
“Yeah...” I said slowly. “Sure I did.”
I didn't, I realized. I had teachers like Mr. Jammers lie to me. I had a lot of other people do me harm. Except for Ms. Sprinsen, maybe school really had been a waste of time for me.
In the end, the village had survived with only minor damage from the rain and wind. The people were all shocked when they discovered just how little their damage was and they thanked me profusely for saving them months of rebuilding. I had wanted them to thank me by handling the boulders all by themselves, but then I remembered how most of these boulders had come from another world anyway. That had led to another back-breaking couple of days that had feeling completely miserable until I realized that my Constitution and Strength had both risen by not one but two points.
“Breena,” I asked while resting on the beach. “How fast is a Challenger supposed to Rise?”
“It depends, I guess,” the little fairy wondered as she hovered next to me. “How hard you work, how valuable the work you do is, how many people are affected by it.”
“Do I have to do it by completing Challenges from Avalon?” I asked.
“No,” the pink-haired woman snorted. “Then no one would Rise but Challengers. Plenty of people do it at least once or twice by overcoming personal goals of some type or another. It can be almost anything, as long as it's at least somewhat difficult, important in some way to someone, and makes you grow in the process.”
“Grow how?”
“Grow in any way.” The pretty sprite said with another shrug. “Be a better swordsman. Get more exercise. Figure out how to stop burning your bread or what your friend needs from you when they're sick.”
“Is it normal for a Challenger to grow as fast as I can?” I asked. “And could I Rise from overcoming Challenges back on Earth?”
“I don't know,” the little fairy admitted. “It's much harder for us to track how you change back on Earth. And we've never needed to either. As for how fast you're growing, I don't know because you're a special case. We have a lot of extra time to train you because you came to us much sooner than most Challengers. But so far, yes. You've been within parameters. Barely. But if you were to suddenly Rise any time soon, or right now, that would be crazy fast. We've never... wait, why are you getting up?”
She asked, watching me suspiciously.
“No reason,” I said cheerfully, standing up and stretching my arms. They felt exhausted, but with a 'good burn' feel to them. Far better than they should have felt. “By the way, 'ding,'” I said as I reached into myself, grasped that inner weight and pushed.
While Breena started chattering in surprise, I looked at my stats once again.
Wes Malcolm
Race: Human. Origin: Earth (Challenger)
Growth Level: Third Rise (Spark)
Path: Unknown
Saga: Unknown
Profession: Unknown
Vital Pool: 520 points
Stamina Pool: 520 points.
Mana Pool: 560 points
Strength: 26
Dexterity: 26
Constitution: 26
Intelligence: 26
Wisdom: 28
Charisma: 22
Speed: 30
Deftness: 30
Wits: 31
Will: 32
Rise Points Remaining: 0 (can increase the six primary traits at a 1:1 ratio, or the four secondary traits at a 1:2 ratio.
Insight into the Following Ideals
Earth: lvl 3
Air: lvl 3
Lightning: lvl 3
Skill List truncated
Spell list truncated
2 skill points available.
Signature Spells have improved since last viewing.
I took a second glance at the screen to confirm it had the changes I had wanted to make and nodded in satisfaction. I had decided to put two points into Dexterity, one point into Intelligence and Constitution, and converted the remaining two points into four points of Deftness. I also increased the spell level of my Ideals by one each, bringing them all up to third level. Then I left two skill points free for future discoveries.
“Already?” Breena squeaked. “Seven frazzled fairy gumdrops, Wes! Slow down so that the rest of us can breathe! Now I have to come up with a whole new type of training! Good grief, you'll be past the first five Rises before I run out of things to teach you!”
I shrugged.
“Sorry, not sorry.”
That comment earned me a tiny, sparkling punch to the face.
Chapter 22: Owning Progress
About a month had passed. On Earth, at least. Time flew much faster in Avalon. By now I was going to Avalon almost every night.
I was scheduled for another appointment for my therapist soon. My test results were still up in the air, although my English teacher still insisted I did a marvelous job on the writing portion and Mr. Jammers still insisted I failed both my Math and Science portions and shouldn't be allowed to take the test a fourth time. We were waiting on the scholarship program to make the final decision.
I had gone to Ms. Springsen's class a few times to say thank you and goodbye. She was just the same as I
remembered, a beautiful and kind woman who brightened other people’s lives and proved to me that not everyone in this town was rotten.
I still played tabletop games with my sister, Himari, Andre, and her other friends from the Drama club. Davelon had actually come a few times as well. He tried to hide it, but he was actually a lot nerdier than he cared to admit. But that was okay. It just made him more fun.
His dad was still looking into getting my attackers and the football coach prosecuted, but he had hit a stone wall in the investigation for now. And Davelon quietly confided that he had been drinking more heavily. My own dad's death had hit Davelon's father, Thomas Brown, pretty hard, and it came out whenever the man got drunk. When he was drunk, he blamed himself for Dad's death, saying that he had failed a friend that he had already owed his life to. That didn't make sense to me because Davelon's father wasn't even affiliated with the investigation into my dad's death and Davelon didn't have any more light to shed on the matter. He was glad to see me doing better, though. He hoped that fact would help his own dad move on. I didn't begrudge him that. Davelon had watched my back for years when everyone else hadn’t, and if he hadn't shown up on school that day I would have been even worse off.
That gaming journal still hadn't released my interview. The game admins ruled conclusively that I hadn't cheated, but someone local had gone online and leaked all the personal stuff about my father and insisted that I also was involved in those girls getting abused, even though they had no way to prove it. But online no one really needed proof, since they could say whatever they wanted, as often as they wanted, and if a few of them did get banned from a few forums the rest would just holler all the louder.
I was thinking about all that as I sat on my bed and wiggled my toes in front of me. I had tears in my eyes.
But the tears didn't have anything to do with bad memories.
They had to do with the fact that my leg hung in the air in exactly the way I wanted to, without making my head spin. I was naming fact after random fact without my memory locking up. I probably looked like a total idiot, waving my foot in front of my face and constantly muttering to myself, but I didn't care. With a heave, I put both feet on the ground and pulled myself off the bed.
The pain rose up suddenly, like it usually did these days, and I could swear it was a living thing that I was infuriating with every degree of progress. Again, I didn't care. It's not like I owed my pain any favors.
And I was standing without my cane. After I fought through my pain, there wasn't even any dizziness. I had to shuffle a little to stand more comfortably, but that was it. So I took in a deep breath, and took a step forward.
Dizzy for half a second. No other problems.
I started to laugh and took another step forward. Dizzy for a whole second. Other than that, I was fine. The time kept increasing slightly with every additional step I took. Five steps resulted in about three seconds of dizziness and walking ten steps meant a whole five seconds of dizziness. I had to stop after that, because five whole seconds was my limit at the moment.
I'd have to wait until I stopped laughing before I could see how are far I could really go. Because if I kept laughing while dizzy I'd throw up.
“Honey?” My mother's voice called from down the hall. “Are you okay?”
“Yes!” I screamed while laughing. “Yes! Yes!”
When she opened my door to see me, I made her stop about five steps from me and wait for me to stop laughing. She had a worried, I-think-my-son-has-gone-crazy-look, but she did what I asked anyway. Her eyes went wide when I started walking toward her, having to stop for a second or two every time, but still doing it cane-less, and when I was right next to her my arms spread wide. A brief spike of pain screamed through me so hard I thought I could hear words again, but I fought through it almost immediately, and as soon as it passed, I was able to hug my mother normally for the first time in two years.
Internal scans finished. Please review recent report.
New Log of Subject Anonymous. Triple-Flagged Entry.
As everyone as no doubt noticed, test subject had become increasingly, and dangerously, stable.
It has been acknowledged by the lab that there are signs of Containment becoming increasingly ineffective, despite its escalating-and autonomous- attempts to inhibit and control the subject.
It has also been recognized by the lab that Containment becoming strong enough to break parameters is no longer the least optimum result. The lab is aware that the subject's discovering, conquering, and harnessing of Containment would result in total failure of all long-term goals, both for the project and for the organization as a whole.
But the lab has also confirmed and, more importantly, begun to duplicate, the subject's entry into the location designated Alpha- Zeta-Avalus. Actual human visitation of the location is still impossible, but previous openings were successful enough to grant ocular access to world resembling the description of Avalon. The openings should be stable for human passage in less than a month.
We've done it, Rhodes. Divinity is less than a season away. Then we activate Malus protocol without restraint.
Team Lead Out.
Chapter 23: Win While You're Ahead
“I've searched around your community out to ten miles,” I told the man in front of me, an older man in a home-spun tunic of wool. “Those were the only dens I could find.”
“I believe you,” The man replied, nodding his head at me. “Had there been any more of those monsters, we would have lost our entire harvest by now. Instead you have ensured we will have a bounty for seasons to come. We are grateful, Challenger.”
I smiled and shrugged at the man's praise.
“You're welcome,” I replied. “It's kind of my job, though.”
“No, Challenger,” The old man shook his head. “The legends say your kind only saves us from great devastation, and then we will find our own way afterwards. But you have taken what the heavens would consider a small devastation and turned it into a great abundance. Most of our fields have been saved, as well as all of our flocks. Not only will we have enough food for the year, but we will have additional hides for clothing, additional meat for feasts. The remainder we will sell to bring greater wealth to our village, allowing us to sow an even larger crop next year, as well as purchase better goods and build better homes for many families.”
“That's really good to hear,” I replied. “I had no idea those things were so valuable. I thought I was just helping delay the problem.”
“No Challenger. Again, we thank you for everything. We wish you great fortune, as great as the fortune you have provided us.”
I bid my goodbyes to the village and left for a convenient place to portal back to Avalon. We probably could have done it there, but it always felt weird asking Breena to teleport me in front of other people.
“Aaaand we're done. Early. Again,” Breena said, flying to rest on my shoulder while we walked. She landed with a whumph this time, crossed her arms and scowled.
See, that was why teleporting with people watching was awkward now. Because whenever I finished a Challenge in a certain way, Breena would get an attitude about it.
Apparently, that 'certain way' had happened again. For like the fifth time in the row.
“Is that really a bad thing, Breena?” I asked patiently. At least I thought it sounded patient. But everyone's a critic these days.
“No Wes,” the little fairy grumbled. “It's great that you got to help these people so fast. It's also great that you found a way to solve a community's problems so quickly. And it's just fruitin' peachy that you bypassed a whole curriculum of teachable experiences that I worked on by turning the problem into the solution!”
“Isn't that what I was supposed to do?” I asked slowly. “You were really big on the fact that this was another Challenge with a time limit, like that one with the storm coming. That was why I tried to fix the problem as quick as I could. I wasn't even expecting my idea to work.”
�
�Your 'time limit' was how long it takes a person to starve to death, Wes!” My fairy companion retorted. “I thought that would have been obvious! Do you know how long it takes one of you humans to starve? At least three days, for the weakest, sickest child! And that's only after they run out of food! Were they out of food, Wes?”
“Well, no,” I sputtered, “but...”
Downfall And Rise Page 40