by David Burke
Eventually she placed her hands on her hips and said, “I notice that you didn’t mention one of your skills.”
“I just don’t know what it has to do with combat, so I didn’t say anything about it.” Jay felt his face grow a bit warm.
“Oh, I’m so sure that was why. What I want to know is what Sensual Projection does? And did you use it on me last night?”
“Relax, I really have no idea what it does, and I couldn’t have used it on you last night as I didn’t even get it until I experienced the next Awakening after the battle.”
“So what? Are you saying you aren’t going to try to develop it?” Amelia asked in an accusatory tone.
Jay just stood there staring at her for half a minute till something dawned on him and he burst out laughing. “Oh you wanna find out what it does. This is priceless.”
As he said that it was Amelia’s turn to blush, but she overcame it as she placed her hand on his shoulder and said, “I guess I have to share my Status with you too.”
F49312
Level: 1
Awareness: 1
Clairvoyant Sense: 1 - 82%
Eagle Eye: 1 - 97%
Durability: 2
Ectoplasmic Embodiment: 2 - 0%
Kinesis: 2
Shadow Bolt: 2 - 0%
Metabolism: 1
Reflexive Burst: 1 - 84%
Formation: 4
Visual Shroud: 3 - 12%
Shadow Sheath: 3 - 18%
Psi Pts: 70
Stamina: 30
Shop Credits: 82
“Impressive, so I know you can use Visual Shroud to become invisible and I assume that Shadow Sheath is the black energy that you put around your dagger. What about the other abilities?”
“Clairvoyant Sense is exactly what it sounds like, it allows me to spy on things from a distance. I can see but not hear what is going on in both places I have been before and places within a short distance of where I am at. Eagle Eye just makes it so I can see further than I could before, maybe twice as far.
“Reflexive Burst allows me to enter a heightened state of responsiveness. It doesn’t make me move faster but reduces my reaction time so that it seems like I am acting or moving faster. Shadow Bolt is one I haven’t had much luck with but I also haven’t spent much time on it. I think I can use it for a ranged attack though if I can learn how to control it without it draining all of my PSI so quickly.”
Jay said, “That only leaves Ectoplasmic Embodiment. Any ideas about that?”
“Honestly, no. I have been a bit nervous about experimenting with it. I guess I watched Ghostbusters too many times as a kid. I worry it will end up turning me into something like that green floating slime thing from the movie.”
Laughing, Jay said, “I suppose that is always possible but so far each ability has been useful.”
“So what now?” Amelia asked, causing Jay to stop laughing.
“Now we go in, practice, kill some stuff and make it back home in one piece so we can try out my new skill.” After saying this, Jay walked through the doorway which placed him into the jungle which was still too impossibly big to be inside this ziggurat. As he phased through he could have sworn he heard Amelia say, “Maybe if you're a good boy.”
Chapter 23 - Welcome to the Jungle
The humidity of the jungle hit them first followed by the chatter of small animals in the trees. The jungle seemed even more alive today that it had been in prior visits. Something was off though. Jay had to search for a moment but finally realized what it was. They were not in the same location. There was no cliff at their backs, nor any large opening in the trees. Rather they were surrounded on all sides by vegetation within arm’s reach.
“Shit, where are we?” Jay asked out loud but more to himself. The next panicked thought was to wonder if the doorway was still there to leave or if they were now trapped here. As he scanned all around, he couldn’t find the exit. Eventually his eyes fell on a carved wooden post. It had four red stripes painted on it and an assortment of images of animals that they had fought so far, including the owlbear, six-legged lizard cat, and then on top of those images one of an ape-like creature with three legs and two heads.
“I think we came through in a different part of the dungeon.”
“Ya think?” Amelia snapped back. “I swear if you get me killed in here I will haunt you.”
“Well you're already in my dreams,” Jay retorted.
“Cut it, not in the mood. I like sexy banter as much as the next person, but I’m too scared now. That post is marked with four stripes. Does that mean we got sent here because you’re level four now?” She was talking too fast for him to get a word in edgewise so he just let her rant on. “And if those three creatures are marked does that mean they are the dangers in here. Like the first two weren’t bad enough. Now we have some kinda ape thing.”
Jay felt bad as he partially tuned out her ranting so he wasn’t sure he heard all of it. He wasn’t thrilled with this but complaining about it wouldn’t change anything. Besides, his mind was stuck on trying to figure out better names for the other creatures.
“Look, we can either panic or we can get busy figuring this out. Nothing's really changed. If we want to survive long term we still have to figure out how to get stronger and how to keep the stuff in here from killing us.”
“Then lead the way.” Her words took on an ominous tone as she pulled out her dagger and her eyes darted from side to side.
“Okay, let’s find an open space where we can practice our skills. Maybe we should try climbing one of the larger trees.” When Amelia didn’t say anything in response he took his spear out and started moving through the brush in the direction of the largest tree he could see rising out of the jungle.
He sent a quick pulse of PSI into his Life Sense skill and found that it was almost blinding. The density of life forms around him was overwhelming so that everything around him lit up for as far as he could sense. At least he didn’t see any large life forms, nothing bigger than a rat, anyway.
They were making good time through the underbrush, when Jay got another tingle of what he was calling his spider sense. It wasn’t accompanied by the same level of intensity or dread but he definitely knew that there was danger around. At least that was what this tingle had always meant in the past.
Then there it was. He whirled and thrust out with his spear, trusting in the pre-cognitive skill. Instead of any large beast though, his spear tip pierced into a piece of fruit about the size and weight of a coconut but with a soft exterior. In quick succession a couple more pieces came flying his way and he now could see that they were being flung by twin-tailed monkeys in the trees.
The ruckus the small creatures were making was impressive as they stopped throwing fruit but kept yelling at the two intruding humans. Jay had been able to dodge the fruit but turned to make sure that Amelia had been as fortunate. Apparently her increased reflexes saved her too. Looking at his spear, Jay pulled the fruit from the spear tip and felt the juices run down his hand. It smelled like a mango but the insides looked more like kiwi.
“So should I taste this?”
“What are you kidding? There is no way to tell if it’s safe.” Amelia looked at him aghast.
“The monkeys are eating it.”
“You mean the clearly alien monkeys are eating the clearly alien fruit and you are using that as a rationale to determine if they are safe to eat?” This time Amelia was shaking her head. “Maybe I was wrong, maybe you are the bonehead and I should have picked Liam as an ally.”
Jay just laughed before saying, “Maybe so, but the question is why the monkeys threw the fruit at us in the first place.”
“I’m not sure why you would be surprised to see monkeys fling stuff. I for one am just glad that it was fruit.”
“This tree is probably a good base of operation for us to explore and practice our skills. If we run into anything too tough for us then we can climb the tree for shelter. I would climb up now an
d get a lay of the land but I’m not the one with super vision,” Jay said.
“Now you want me to climb a tree filled with alien monkeys? What are you going to do, lounge around down here?”
Jay looked up the tree and realized Amelia was right. He was sure that she could climb it at least part of the way. The branches were wide enough to stand on and there were plenty of hand holds, but what happened if she hit a gap that she couldn’t cross or worse, if she fell. “How about if I carry you up?”
Amelia stared at him as if trying to figure out what his angle was so rather than wait for the inevitable critical comment he simply said, “My enhanced strength has gone up from 1 to 3 and even at 1 you barely felt like you weighed anything. If I leave the canteens on the ground then I should be able to carry you up easily. You may just need to hang onto my back sometimes.”
Still seemingly unconvinced Amelia alternated her gaze between Jay and the tree, growing more skeptical by the moment. He decided to just shortcut the argument and dropped his backpack, scooped her up in one arm and took two running steps before he leapt high enough to grab the first branch.
It wasn’t the intended purpose, but Jay didn’t mind one bit how tightly she clung to him as he climbed. He hadn’t been sure but since the last awakening he felt so powerful. She really must not weigh much at all because she was barely slowing him down, not that he was going to ask how much she did weigh.
After about 10 minutes of climbing they reached a high enough vantage point that they could see for miles in every direction. Only once had there been a big gap in the trees, but Jay had pumped stamina points into Enhanced Strength before jumping the 15-foot span. Amelia’s squeal of terror had been priceless. When they stopped Jay said, “Me Tarzan. You Jane.”
“Very funny, just ask permission next time. Ok?” Jay nodded but her smile told him that she wasn’t truly upset.
Now it was her turn to use a skill he didn’t have. After she focused in every direction she said, “The original cliff where we first came in is over 10 miles back that way.” She pointed in one direction before saying, “But there appears to be another cliff face in that direction only a few miles away. And it's hard to say for certain but I think there is another terminal there.”
“That’s great. Did you see any openings where we can practice skills?”
“Yeah there is a stream with an open area around it maybe half a mile over there,” she said, pointing in yet another direction.
“Hmm, water will mean more animals, I assume.”
The climb down was a bit harder, but Jay just thought about how every effort served to increase his skills. For whatever reason the monkeys would howl at them occasionally but no more fruit was thrown. Maybe they were accepting them as fellow tree dwellers or maybe they were just intimidated by how much larger Jay was.
Chapter 24 - Learning New Things
A few small animals scurried away from the stream when the two humans entered the clearing. Jay sent a pulse of Life Sense out and didn’t detect any large animals. He told Amelia as much, who replied, “If I wasn’t worried about dying, this could be a nice place for a picnic.”
“Yeah, if only,” Jay replied. “Well, I guess we should get to it. I want to see if we can learn how to use our ranged attacks better. So Shadow Bolt for you and Kinetic Bolt for me as well as practicing Accelerate. Then we can work on some of the other skills.”
The next few hours were both pleasant and entirely draining. Amelia learned her skill before Jay did but at first she could only shoot out one long streak that drained all of her PSI. The effect was impressive though. It blasted a two-foot-deep hole that was three inches in diameter into the unlucky tree serving as her target. With more experimenting she learned that her attack’s penetrating power was tremendous as she could put holes into rocks and trees alike. The tougher the material the more shallow the hole of course but she hadn’t found anything that could resist it.
Jay on the other hand took forever to master his Kinetic Bolt. At first it came out in a wide cone that knocked over small bushes and rattled branches but didn’t penetrate anything. Just like Amelia it was hard for him to moderate at first. He found that he would use a full third of his PSI on one of those wide bursts before he could shut the skill off.
This did lead to one other interesting observation. The PSI pool regenerated from empty to full in what they estimated to be 10 minutes. They both filled up in the same amount of time even though Jay’s was 5 times larger than hers.
When Jay got tired of trying to focus his Kinetic Bolt they worked on Stamina-based skills. Amelia practiced Reflexive Burst as she was still scared to try Ectoplasmic Embodiment, while Jay alternated between enhanced strength and speed. They learned that just like PSI, Stamina would regenerate fully within 10 minutes.
“I’m gonna try putting Stamina into 2 skills at the same time. Last night I was able to do so but I passed out shortly afterwards. So, please keep an eye on me.”
“Okay, but I can’t promise I won’t do anything to you if you are passed out. If you wake up shaved in certain places, don’t blame me.” Amelia being who she was, Jay wasn’t sure if she was serious or not.
Still he had to trust her at some point so he went forward. She watched him practicing speed and strength and moving around like a beast all over the clearing. As his skills had increased in level he found he got more value from each point put into them. When double pumping both skills at once it drained his Stamina in just a few seconds but he could move faster than a cheetah and leap into branches twenty feet off the ground.
While Jay was resting he suggested it might be time for Amelia to try her ectoplasmic skill. She was hesitant but finally when he said, “You could just try it on like a finger or something,” she gave in and tried. It took her long enough that his Stamina had fully regenerated before she managed it.
When she finally got it to work, her finger turned translucent and took on a gel-like texture. She was able to move it still but it was flexible in ways that just weren’t natural. Once Amelia realized that she was not going to be hurt by it, she moved up to doing her hand and then an entire arm. She could make it stretch out to more than double its normal length and could make it fit into the tightest of spaces.
“Now we need to try something else with it but I don’t think you are gonna like this idea,” Jay said hesitantly.
“What is it? Just spill it.”
“We need to see how durable it is.”
“Okay, so you want me to hit stuff with it?”
“No, we already know it just spreads out all squishy-like.”
Amelia glared at him like he had insulted her in some way. He just pulled his trademark Jay shrug and said, “Well it does.”
“Then what?” Amelia asked.
Jay winced as he said, “We need to try and stick stuff through it.”
Jay wasn’t sure what she was gonna say as she just stared at him with that ‘you can’t be serious look’ but she finally asked, “Why is it that it always comes down to that for guys?”
After laughing it off, they tried an assortment of things from leaves which were too soft to push into her arm to sticks which they could push all the way through without it causing her any pain. “It feels a bit tingly but doesn’t hurt at all.”
“Just make sure that you don’t shift back to your normal self with something stuck in your arm. So, now I want to try something else, if you are willing.”
“What now?”
“Just need to see how it affects living things, so I want to stick a finger into you,” Jay said with a schoolboy grin.
“I can’t decide if you are really kinky or really juvenile, but let’s get it over with.”
“Neither actually, I just noticed a peculiar effect on the leaves and twigs that were still alive when they came in contact with the ectoplasm,” Jay said, trying to sound matter of fact.
“Huh? What effect?”
“It’s no big deal. I just think that we need to d
o some more testing.”
“Okay, now you are freaking me out. Tell me what you saw,” Amelia said. Jay couldn’t help but think it was kinda cute the way her nostrils flared when she got worked up.
“I can’t be sure, but it looked like they started to wither a bit while in contact with the ectoplasm. Maybe I was just imagining things though.”
Amelia stared at him as if not comprehending at first before asking, “So you think this turns me into some sort of life-sucking monster?”
Jay shrugged and laughed, “Isn’t that what all girls are?” Then before Amelia could slap him silly he added, “No seriously though, I just want to test it out. I want to make sure it is safe for you and for others around you.”
“You know you're crazy, but go ahead,” Amelia said as she trigged the transformation of her arm again.
Jay reached out and placed a finger against her arm. It was just the very tip of his pinky finger. At first he didn’t feel anything but after counting to 10 his finger was starting to become tingly and the tip got numb. The longer he held it there the more the fingertip felt cold and after about 30 seconds the skin seemed to lose some of its color, starting to become grayer.
That was enough. Jay pulled his hand back. “I think that proves it. There is some sort of effect from contact with your ectoplasmic form,” he said, while shaking his hand. Then as the color returned he added, “But so far it doesn’t seem very significant or long lasting.”
Amelia almost looked concerned as she asked, “Do you feel okay?”