In answer I cast two of the spells at half power, making sure it was stable and released it. From my feet.
I was launched seven feet straight up in the air and when I came back down I had the spell ready to go again. This time with a bit more power.
I jumped ten feet, then twelve feet. Higher and higher and higher like a coked up kangaroo with flubber feet. My clawed hands grasping for the sky as maniacal laughter spilled from my fanged maw.
“Is… this normal behavior for his kind?” the Centaur asked without taking his eyes off me.
Aeria and Taren exchanged looks, shrugged and went back to watching me.
I stopped jumping, my laughter lessening to dribbling giggles.
“Sorry! It's my first spell! The first one I learned! Well, the first I learned all on my own. It's a bit of a magic hog at the moment but I can fix that with a little practice. And tweaking. And Luck. I need to shape it into a modulated casting. Right now it's modulated and channelled. Its… ah. Hmm...”
I continued tweaking it while David watched me, as if he was afraid I was going to do something crazy or something.
I summoned my Soul Tome and David pointed his weapon at me as he asked, “What? Is that?”
“It's called… a book,” I said, turning the black pages. "You don't have books in this world?”
“We have books! Books bound in leather with pages we get from trees! Not… books like that!"
“You mean you don't have books bound from the shadows between the stars. Pages congealed from cold empty nights, written in moonlight and shaped by nightmares?”
“Of course not!”
“Well that's boring. What do you use to raise your stats?" I paused. "Can you raise your own stats?"
The talking Wolfman Centaur looked at me like I was the strangest creature in existence. Well the jokes on him. I've seen a platypus.
"Yes, we can increase our own stats. Originally it was done while dream walking. Then we learned to do it through meditation."
"Huh, I think that's how the people from Rath do it."
"Well, that was how we used to do it. Now however, we use enchanted scrolls soulbound and contracted directly to our character."
"You… mean like a Character Sheet?"
"Yes, that is one term people use for it."
"Well, to each their own but I prefer my book."
I turned to the Abilities page.
Learned Spells:
Force Spike: (Cast On Release) A short spike of energy, that causes damage at close range.
Rank: Competent. Level 5
Note: This spell was imprinted upon you in the realm between, as you reshaped your soul.
Force Spike 2: (Channelled) A short spike of energy, that causes damage at close range.
Rank: Basic. Level 3
Unnamed Spell: (Channelled) (Modulated) A burst of energy used for blasting away objects.
Rank: Adequate. Level 10
“Unnamed spell? Can I name it?” I pressed and held a finger over the central part of the spinning paragraph where the name was and a blinking cursor popped up. A glowing spiral keyboard appeared on the page, superimposing itself over the smaller text.
“Ha! I can! Okay, what should I name it? Magic Jump? No. Power Jump? Hmm, Rocket Jump? Burst Jump? Trick Jump? Crazy Jump. Cray Cray Step. Super Jump. Super Duper Jump. Gravity Jump. Telekinetic Jump. Double Jump. Poleless, Pole Jump. Two Stepping, Up Jump. Up Up And Away Jump. Frog Jump. Frogger Jump? Magic Hop! Battle Toad Leap? Bouncing Super Ball Jump. Vertical Hype. Short, Quick And Very Temporary Levitation Jump? Hey! What do you guys think?”
Everyone was quiet for several long seconds before Taren said, “I think you're insane.”
“Hey! That's insulting - “
“No, no,” Aeria said, “He's got a point.”
I looked at David and he gave a slow nod.
“Just because my perception of reality is more interesting than yours, doesn't mean I'm crazy,” I explained reasonably. "And it doesn't matter what you or my psychiatrist or what that one leprechaun told me that one time. I know, I'm not crazy. Oh! I got it!”
I changed the name, unsummoned the book and started walking down the road, humming a song I couldn't get out of my head.
After a few seconds everyone followed me in silence. A silence that persisted until Aeria blurted out, “Well?!”
I turned to look at her. "Well, what?”
“What did you name the spell?!”
“Oh, I named it Bounce. So at the beginning of every fight I can say," I lowered my voice to a more growly register, "Lets Bounce!" Then I spoke regularly. "It's my new catch phrase. Like 'Revengers Disassemble!' Or 'Ooh, my common sense is tingling!" or 'I am vengeance. I am the dark. I am. Horny Man!'"
Taren was doing that thing people do when they try to massage a headache away by rubbing their temples. "How about you stop talking before I pull a Devilboy on your horns and cut them off."
Aeria spoke up saying, "They weren't cut off, he ground them down. And, you have to replace the 'Devil' with 'Hell' to get the name right
We looked at her, more surprised than we should of been and she glared back at us as she said, "What? I can't read graphic novels? You think that because I'm a girl I don't know what I'm talking about?"
"No, no. It's just that, um, nevermind," Taren said.
"Nevermind what?"
"Nothing! I just, ah," he looked at me and said, "You explain it to her."
Aeria focused her glare on me.
“Oh! Hey! Speaking changing the subject. Apparently the spells I learn myself don't need to be awakened but I'm not sure how ranks and levels work. So, uh, David! How do ranks and levels work? Tell us. Now! Please?”
He gave me one of those looks. You know, the one that says, "This common knowledge and it's weird you don't know about it". I used to get those looks all the time when people talked about politics or the news or social skills.
"Well, I guess Fallen had a different system but… do you mean ranks and levels for spells and abilities? Or for combat and profession skills?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
He scratched behind his furry ears and said, "Well, they're all the same anyway. There are seven ranks and ten levels for each rank. For abilities, spells and skills.”
Aeria asked, “Does Body, Vitality and Spirit increase at a linear or geometric rate?”
Her and Taren's magical, glowy interfaces were open as they walked and the Centaur looked at the pretty lights with much less trepidation than he had with my interface.
“I'm not sure what you mean by ‘linear or ‘geometric but the ranks of spells, abilities and skills increase with practice. The essence required to advance your Body, Vitality and Spirit increases at a consistent pace."
I thought about what he said, how my level had progressed and what I had read about this world back on Earth.
"I don't think we grow stronger when we level. I think we level when we grow stronger."
Taren looked at me like I was an idiot, then insinuated the same with his tone of voice as he said, "Yeah, that's great. That's some real 'Control your anger before your anger controls you' wisdom right there."
At first, Aeria looked like she was about to agree, but hesitated before reluctantly saying, "No. He's right. In our world when we hit a level we get access to new spells and more magic. Here, in this world, your level is just a measurement. Gaining a level doesn't do anything but show what you've accomplished."
I nodded. "This world is more like mine than yours. At least in that respect."
The Centaur held up his hand, half like he was asking a question and half like he was calling a halt. "Hold on. I thought all the Fallen were from the same world?"
Aeria and Taren looked at each other, then turned to look at me.
I took the hint and I tried to explain. "Our bodies all lived in the same world. In a place we called the Grey Hell."
David looked concerned. "I have heard some talk of this place you cal
l Hell. It has a lake of fire?"
I laughed, Aeria smiled and Taren shook his head.
"No, that was a different place," I explained. "But anyway, our bodies were there but our minds were sent into other worlds. Aegis, Midian, Rath and Neon. These worlds were artificially created and while we existed there, we could only see and hear things. We couldn’t taste or smell or feel whatever we interacted with. Our minds lived there while our bodies were forced to work, day after day and year after year."
We went on to explain the differences between the worlds and David actually seemed interested.
When the conversation went around to game world mechanics I remembered my original questions about ranks.
“I have one spell that is competent and another that is adequate. What order do they go in and what are they called?”
David now had a better understanding of just how different our world's were and seemed more willing to explain.
“Ranks are: Basic, Adequate, Competent, Skilled, Expert, Master and the highest rank is Grandmaster. I am ranked as Level 6 in Expert, with polearms and it's taken twenty years of hard work to get that far.”
I glared at my Competent, Level 5. "And of course the higher your level the more difficult it is to raise your… everything.”
“Yes,” he said simply.
I summoned my book and flipped back to my stats page.
Name: Ruin The Heartless
Race: Savage Kin (Midian Wood Elf)
Class: Force Mage (Rank: Basic. Level 2)
Level: 1
Body:
Strength - 2.9
Speed - 3.2
Agility - 3.8
Dexterity - 3.4
Endurance - 2.8
Vitality:
Resistance - 2.0
Regeneration - 2.0
Spirit:
Spark - 2.0
Regeneration - 2.0
I only had about ninety essence to invest and I needed every bit of it to unlock the rest of my racial skills. Unfortunately, I needed to increase my stats as well.
When I asked David if there was any way to do so without investing essence he said, “Training helps. But not when it comes to Vitality and Spirit. You can increase them with spells, potions and enchantments but all those are temporary.”
I groaned. "I need to kill something bigger than Whatsits.”
The Centaur frowned and asked what a "Whatsit" was. I explained, with my straightest face (which meant my smile was only a little bit crooked) and he said he'd never heard of them being called that.
“What do you call them then?”
"All such creatures are called the Nilum. They are spirit without soul, instinct without thought. When destroyed they dissolve back into the spirit world. When they are strong enough, they recreate bodies out of the world around them. They attack people and animals, consuming the spirit and some of the body, to grow stronger.
"The stronger they become, the bigger they grow. Until they change, mutate other, more dangerous forms. The stronger and older a Nilum is, the more physical aspects they consume, the more they can incorporate into themselves.”
“That's… neat." I was sure I heard this same premise on an old television show once. Or maybe another game? No, it was definitely from a documentary about ancient folklore. Or an anime.
David continued. "Long ago, Nilum had shapes that were seemingly random. As if they were made of forgotten nightmares and broken dreams. We didn't name them, we ranked them by levels of strength.
"We routinely culled them. Which caused only the smallest and weakest to spawn around villages, towns and cities. The farther away from civilization you go, the older, stronger Nilum you will face."
It was interesting that they used the word "spawn". But I couldn't think of a more applicable word for it either. They weren't born really.
“What about the burning eyes?" I asked. "Do they do anything?”
I hoped so since I had, like, fifty of them.
“Nilum create bodies of non magical materials infused with their spirit. When this happens some alchemical changes occur. All Nilum have pieces that can be used in crafting. The more powerful have bigger pieces or more pieces. Or both.
“Many adventures make a good living hunting them. Occasionally you can find jewelry or coins or various other things inside them. Of course the really good stuff is found in the most dangerous Nilum. They are the ones that eat the strongest people.”
It sounded like a perfect set up for grinding. Too perfect to have happened naturally.
I didn't want to think about the implications of that right now, though. I needed to focus on growing stronger, a lot stronger.
I resisted the urge to raise my body's stats to whole numbers. I knew that wasn't what I needed right now. I needed to focus on getting more magic, which would increase my ability to practice. Which would make my spells more efficient and more powerful.
"Okay!" I waggled my fingers at my book like I was a magician about to perform a trick. "Let's level up!"
I pressed a finger to the emblem showing my experience and dragged it to the part of the blue spiral showing regeneration as per the instructions.
I slowly spilled essence into Spirit regeneration and my experience points disappeared at a horrifying speed.
It took a little under a third of what I had accumulated to get to the three mark.
From the dismayed expressions on the Elf and Dwarfs faces they discovered the high cost, too.
Clearly this wasn't one of those "play for two hours to get to level 10" game worlds. Apparently we have to actually work to get OP.
After that depressing revelation we continued down the road. Only this time were weren't the cheerful bunch we had been before. Well, Taren hadn't been cheerful to begin with.
I started practicing in earnest. Using my Bounce spell to do the craziest, gravity defying acrobatics I could think of while trying out various catch phrases.
As I practiced I continued trying to shape Bounce into a more modulated, energy efficient form. The acrobatics were to train agility and the catch phrases were to help motivate me.
Taren was swinging his axe around as he walked, turning it this way and that. Trying to get a feel for a few basic attacks I assumed.
I asked how the auto assist worked and he said, "When I hold it wrong, swing it wrong or attack wrong it just feels… wrong."
I guess that meant a lot of trial and error. Similar to the spell shaping I was doing.
From the way Aeria's hands kept lighting up and the smell of magic she kept giving off, she was practicing as well.
I may have been serious about training up my skills but I couldn't help enjoying myself as I did. I mean, you try jumping twenty feet in the air while doing backflips, somersaults, kicks, punches and ancient fighting game poses without having fun.
I reenacted scenes from ancient high wire, superhero kung fu action movies while imagining myself being attacked and having to dodge dozens of Whatsits. I focused all my attention, my entire being on practicing my newest spell.
I did this until my magic was exhausted and I had to wait for it to refill. Then it was rest and repeat. Over and over and over until I collapsed, face down on the ground beside the road.
Aeria walked up to me, stared at my twitching and panting body for a few seconds before nudging me in the ribs with her foot. "Ruin, stop playing around! I want civilization. I need civilization. Or as close to civilization this world gets."
“Would… you mind,” I panted, "a… tiny… little… short… stop... for… a… small…itty bitty… teeny… weeny… short… short…”
“Fine!” Aeria interrupted. "We'll take a break!”
“Mmm, soft grass…”
I stretched out my hands, palms up and summoned my Soul Tome.
Still laying on the ground, I weakly flipped through the pages until I got my stats. I continued to the ability page and after reading both I flopped over on my back and weezed a triumphant, “Huzza…”
My speed, dexterity and endurance had been raised by .1 and my agility was raised by .2.
Sarcastic yay.
But on the bright side, I was now Competent, Level four, in my Bounce spell.
Non sarcastic yay!
When I shared my news with the others David actually seemed to be impressed. Evidently it was really hard, not only to increase body stats, but spell ranks as well.
Then Aeria to put a lid on my bubbling pride when she said, “When you develop an alternate version of a spell from the one you already have, it will level quicker until it hits the original spells level.”
“Wait, how did you know? That wasn’t in the data packet.”
“David told me,” she explained. “While you were busy hurting yourself trying to make that silly spell, I was gathering important information. Like how knowing the short sword skill will level a new sword skill faster due to the overlap. So raising your new spell as far as you have isn’t really that impressive."
“Booooo! I do not appreciate having my fragile male ego shattered like a glass slipper the anvil of feminism!"
Aeria stared at me with a bemused expression and said, "What?"
"You heard me!"
Ignoring her put upon sigh I sat up and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm good now. Wait! I have a great idea! Taren! I have this totally amazing plan!"
Taren closed his eyes and said, "Oh Gods…"
I kicked to my feet, ran over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Lets fight!”
“What?” He gave me a startled look.
“You need to practice your axing people skills and I need to practice my Bounce spell. Don't worry I won't hurt you. I'll just get as close as I possibly can to you while you try to kill me.”
He scowled. "No.”
“Oh, Come on! You know you wanna piece of this.” I winked.
He shuddered, for some reason, and started walking away.
I stepped right up to him, right in his face, walking backwards and keeping pace as I stage whispered, "Shh! Don't worry. I have a plan. It will let you try to kill me, guilt free."
He glared up at me. "You're going to say something that makes me angry, aren't you?”
“Who? Me? Noooo,” I leaned in until our faces were inches apart. "I was going to hit you with an uppercut while shouting.” I hit him with an uppercut and screamed, "SHORYUKEN!!!”
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