The moose proved the hardest part of finishing off the healing before breaking for the night. Eventually, though, it seed to understand what we were trying to do and finally allowed Elody and to clean it up as much as we could before Cecile offered it a few more enhanced carrots. The moose then trotted off slowly back into the woods, seeming to heed so of Pryte’s words as it stayed in view the whole ti.
I went to sleep that night comfortable, at least in one aspect. Progress was being made here on Earth, even if I wasn’t directly part of it yet. That did an, though, that I had to do everything I could before the final floor to make sure it wasn’t all for nothing. This also ant it was ti to start speed-running as many levels as I could dump into my class from the simulator. With my core rank up again, and Corey able to take a lot of the backlash into themselves, I could hopefully push a lot of advancent toward that.
After that, it would be ti to do a deep review of all my skills, core, mana and otherwise, because holding the points I generally do in reserve just wouldn’t be worth it anymore if I died on the floor. And it wasn’t just I was concerned with. I didn’t want anyone dying on the floor if I could help it.
As always, this brought back to my worries about letting Maud participate. Was she anywhere near strong enough for this? She had gained several levels, but she was going through the Arena without a class, thanks to her quest. I needed to get l’s honest opinion there. I added that to my growing list of things to do in the coming days as I let my eyelids grow heavy.
Why did my face feel wet? What was happening? I woke up in a jolt of confusion to a moose standing next to my cot, its tongue disappearing back into its mouth. Had the moose been licking ? No, wait, why was the moose even in here?
“Buddy, I know we just healed you up, and you did great yesterday, but I really can’t be waking up to a moose licking . Can we make that deal, please?” I said, looking up at it.
The moose cocked its head in response to my words, almost like it was trying to understand . Wait, how sapient did primal mana beasts get? Was it going to learn actual language? Not that I fully understood how my language skills worked anymore with the System in play. I rembered my earlier thoughts on finding a linguist or two to consult on that oddity and added them to my list of experts to find.
I realized my brain had jumped from the issue at hand. The wandering thoughts were always worse before I had breakfast, but right now, I had to focus on the moose-sized problem in the garage with . He was still staring down at , watching as I climbed out of my cot and as I started for the door to the soon-to-be repurposed kitchen. Behind , there was a popping sound, and I turned my head to see the moose, now the size of a small deer, still behind . Was he just going to follow all day now?
“Anyone have any idea why the moose has decided to wake up and follow around today?” I asked as I entered the living room, spotting John, Maud, and the kids already awake and playing a board ga.
“Aww, he just doesn’t want to be away from us after yesterday. Isn’t that right Mr. Moose?” Maud said, walking over to him and scratching the animal’s back, causing it to make a loud, happy whining sound.
“Well, then I’m going to leave it with you while I grab so leftovers and do so personal training,” I said, slowly backing away, hoping the moose stayed with them.
I got lucky and managed my food trek and return trip to the garage without the reappearance of the moose. After quickly scarfing down so of the leftovers, I checked over my level. I had three hundred and thirty-nine levels I could spare to this, and I could likely reliably do this several tis. So, what did I want to shoot for first in my class?
Looking over the options, I knew the reality of what I had to do first. The core interlinkages for each of the new cores had to be unlocked. They had been willing to work with , and even if that was their own way to gain freedom again, they had agreed to it, and that ant they deserved the chance to further develop. There was even a good chance the reason Corey was progressing in the way he was was because of our own increased bond there.
I opened a chat window to let everyone know the plan and to make sure Corey was okay with the dungeon runs we were going to do today.
>Dave: So, I think I’m going to unlock core interlinkages for everyone. That should get the three of you up to speed with Corey.
>Maud: I don’t know what that ans.
>Dave: Sorry, Maud, you aren’t included here.
>Maud: Is it because I let the moose lick my hair?
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>Dave: No, but let’s not encourage that any more than he already does, please.
>Maud: :(
>Corey: I agree with the idea. My awareness of the world has dramatically shifted the way I view things following our interlinkage. Will you be able to afford the level cost of three more of them?
>Dave: Only one way to find out. Are you ready for a day of simulations to get anything else unlocked we can?
>Corey: Yes.
>Dave: Perfect.
I closed the chat window and pulled up my class again, going to the Path of the Dungeon, and quickly realized it was a steep climb after I unlocked the first two. It seed each new core multiplied the cost by ten. That ant the third core was going to cost one thousand levels. I decided to throw the rest of the levels into soul infusions for my other mana orbs, linked actions, and linked reactions before pulling the chat window back up in my head.
>Dave: Alpha, Beta, do you two feel any different? Or you, Corey for that matter, now I added so other linkages?
>Corey: Sowhat, but not nearly as drastically in the past.
>Alpha: Feel sa.
>Beta: NOTHING CHANGED!
>Dave: Wait, oops, I forgot that I had to level you all up before you gained true access to those abilities. Give one second, I’ll put a level into each of you, and add getting all four of you to level ten before we finish this as well.
>Corey: Understood
I exited the chat and quickly moved them each up to level one. The chat window popped up before I had a chance to reply again.
>Beta: Levels? I can use levels?! I am free of another prison?!
>Dave: Then I assu that worked?
>Alpha: Yes.
That was good news. I added getting each of the cores to level ten to my planned activities for the day. I did the math, and assuming it went up by a factor of ten each ti in the experience count, that wasn’t that extre compared to the thousand levels I would need for Gamma’s linkage.
After four runs, I finally had enough experience to finish off the leveling of each core. I had saved that for next to last with only my own leveling remaining. I started with Corey, and the mont they hit ten, their physical form manifested in front of .
“Dave, I just gained a quest,” they said. I checked their status screen and saw that one of the previous unknown fields had been replaced with the word quests. That was interesting. Would it apply to all of the cores?
“What quest do you have?” I asked.
“It just says experience. I do not understand,” Corey replied.
“Huh, do you want to move the other three up to level ten as well and see if they get the sa?” I asked.
“Yes, please,” Corey replied, so I did. Seconds later, they confird that they, too, each had a quest that just said the sa thing.
I wasn’t sure what to make of it. There was the obvious interpretation that they needed to experience so sort of emotion, possibly, but Corey seed to already be doing that, so it had to be more.
“Corey, what do you think this ans?” I asked them.
“I do not know. I wish to not explore it further until I talk to Traveler,” they responded.
“Alright then, I won’t force you. You feeling up to one more simulator run?” I asked.
“Yes, but I do not believe I will be able to handle another for several days. This has drained dramatically,” they responded.
“Would you recover faster if we just stopped right now?” I asked, not wanting to push them if it just delayed their recovery ti.
“No, I don’t believe the effect becos cumulatively worse, at least for . I do believe it does for you,” Corey replied. That was another interesting point of the day. They did seem to handle the feedback much better than I did.
“Alright, well, let’s do this last one, and you can rest while I go see what l wants us to do for the last bit of training we have left,” I said.
“Understood,” Corey replied.
Many newly integrated worlds are surprised to find what they consider to be humble garbage collectors to be a well-respected career choice within the Spiral. One of the reasons behind this is the sheer amount of materials thrown away on a daily basis. Few factions have bothered to set up the infrastructure needed to process and recycle such waste byproducts, but the garbage collection services have done so. They scout and recruit so of the most talented shapers and crafters they can early as they are one of the only organizations that have dedicated schooling set aside for their recruits. Even more interestingly, they refuse to claim any faction title and remain a wholly independent path of the Spiral—one of the few of their size to do so.
System Paths, Careers in the Spiral by Glarppp
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