“Hey, I think I’m alive,” I coughed out, noticing just how dry my mouth felt. A cloud hand pushed a flask of sothing to my lips and poured it down my lips. It burnt slightly as it went down, though the pain couldn’t compare to what was quickly and thankfully growing into a distant mory of what I had just experienced. Flavor-wise, it reminded of barbecue sauce, which wasn’t sothing I had ever considered drinking before.
“Get down as much as ya can, Dave. It’ll help get your body back together after the mana channels form, which let be the first to say, amazing job. We all saw those orbs disappear into the sockets. Sohow, ya did it. This is one for the history books,” l said enthusiastically as he tipped more of the strange drink into my mouth.
“Assuming there will be history books. The Triox council has been growing far too powerful—sorry, now isn’t the ti to focus on my problems. Dave, you’ve done wonderful, and I am glad to have t you. What we’ve accomplished here could change so much, and as much as I would like to stay around and watch how you grow, I’m already pushing my luck by waiting for you to wake up. Good luck to all of you; my further presence will only endanger you all more, and none of you, save l, are ready for those battles.” The sorrow in Elody’s voice was plain to everyone, even . I knew she would be leaving us soon, and I had grown so used to her presence as one of the few regular things in my new life that her absence would hit hard.
“I’m sorry to see you go so soon after eting. I hope we see each other again,” I said between gulps of the liquid.
“We will, Dave, I’m sure of that. Goodbye, everyone.” Elody smiled as she spoke these words. I watched her form disappear from the room.
“She was really worried about you, Dave. She was supposed to have left yesterday, but you were unconscious for two whole days, man. How do you feel?” Cecile asked. Two days? That explained the dry mouth and extre thirst. I’m surprised I felt as good as I did, considering that.
“That explains how I feel. Which, all things considered, not terrible… I think. Hey, did you get ranks for your affinity or just your core grade?” I asked, curiosity as always pushing through.
“There are affinity ranks for cores? I’ve never heard of that before at all,” Elicec said; he sounded intrigued by the discovery.
“There are, kind of. I thought Dave might get one, but didn’t want anyone to get their hopes up fer nothing. Sotis people from unincorporated worlds get affinities that can be raised. This is a thing most people don’t know about because it’s pretty rare fer anyone unincorporated to have a chance at a core before System incorporation happens, but I’ve seen it before. What’s yer rank, Dave?” l asked.
“Uh, well, not sure, there’s a lot of room for growth. I got an S-ranked engineering affinity along with an F-grade core,” I said, a little embarrassed at my core grade.
“Holy shit! An S ranking already?” l stared at with what I thought was shock. “Keep that to yerself as long as ya can, Dave. You don’t need that attention yet. I ain’t surprised by the core grade, though. With what we did to ya, even forming a stable one at all was a miracle,” he continued. I’d already been planning on keeping it quiet. Standing out was never the best idea when you didn’t know anything about the environnt you were doing it in, and I didn’t even like doing it when I was completely familiar with my surroundings.
“Yeah, nothing wrong with a bad core grade; we can get that up. I bet we can get you caught up to us before we’ve gotta head back to your ho even. Plus, now that you’ve got that core, do you know how many levels we are going to gain? Pryte might have said there weren’t many dungeons here, but there’s a lot of unexplored area in the wastelands. We can hit that as soon as you’re up and ready!” Cecile said this with such enthusiasm in his voice that I almost tried to roll off the table and join him imdiately. Sothing else he had said hit before I could do that, though. He and Elicec were planning to co back to Earth with ? Why?
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“My brother, in one of his rare monts, is entirely right. It’s ti to start really running ourselves ragged to get as much improvent as we can before your insignia is discovered and we fight an orcish invasion force,” Elicec added to his brother’s comnts, also affirming their desire to join . When had they decided that? I appreciated the intention deeply, but they could do so much more without potentially wasting their lives stuck on Earth. There was no telling what happened once the planet was saved.
“Not that I don’t appreciate it, I really do. But are you really sure you want to stand by my side? I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen or even what state Earth will be in when we get there,” I said after finishing off the drink l had provided. Pins and needles were spreading through my extremities as everything continued to co back to life.
“Oh, we never even discussed it. Once we ford the team, there was no way we were ever abandoning you. Rember all those stories you’ve heard about our ho? Well, there are just as many, if not more, horrible ones, and a billion sad ones in between. Soday, we’re going to make our people safe, and honestly, Dave, you seem like the right man to help. So we aren’t going anywhere,” Elicec said, giving one of his very rare smiles as he did so. That told all I needed to know. Even if I could stop them, what right did I have after how much help they had given ? If I could find a way to help them, of course, I’d repay it all.
“Thank you, guys; you have no idea how much I appreciate it,” I said, doing my best to smile.
“Alright, alright, enough of the sentintal crap fer now. Dave, ya need to stand yer ass up and try unlocking one of the mana orb skills. We still need ta make sure it all works. Ya likely don’t have anywhere near the core energy today ta do more than one, so more can wait fer now, but get up and pick one so we can get so food in you,” l said. His tone was full of a caring that didn’t match his words. He reminded of one of my ntors back in school, probably why I trusted him as much as I did.
I forced myself to sit and slowly dragged my legs over the side of the table. The brothers had moved in front of , likely to catch if I couldn’t stay stable. I pushed my feet to the floor and lifted my body up off the table. I felt different, like I weighed a lot more than I did before my core. Was this normal? “Should I feel heavier?” I asked, a little worry escaping into my voice.
“Yeah, happens to everyone, probably more so ta you. Quit wasting ti and pick a mana skill already,” l said impatiently.
Already knowing which I needed to start with if I wanted any chance of fixing this old body of mine, I flipped the switches to my Life orb and focused on learning Inner Vitality. I wasn’t entirely sure how this worked. The books had described it as my core being a key that unlocked a mana orb’s skills, but what that ant exactly, I couldn’t determine. The mystery quickly revealed itself to as I felt my core energy release and a burst of mana flowed across my artificial mana channels into the mana orb, filling up the bubble that had been next to the skill on the tree. Once it was entirely full, the bubble changed, gained the number one in the center of it, and a ssage appeared in my vision telling I had unlocked Inner Vitality. This also answered a second question of mine as I pulled up my System nu quickly. I still had no access to the skill nu, and it appeared that it included mana skills as well as my own developed ones. I needed to hit level twenty-five soon.
“Done, no issues. Though until I hit twenty-five, I’m not sure if we’ll know for sure,” I said. I wondered if I’d feel good enough after eating to try a dungeon today. I really wanted to get access to that system.
“Yeah, I knew that would happen, but the fact that ya were able ta learn it at all is a good sign. Alright, boys, ya should get so food into Dave here, and if he’s feeling up ta it afterwards, co see in the Adventurer’s Hall. I’ve got a monster-hunting quest I think should be perfect,” l said, winking in the direction of the brothers. What did he have in mind to cause that?
“Perfect! Co on, Dave, let’s go get so eggs in you. That’s what you eat for breakfast every day, right?” Cecile asked as he pushed forward gently, staying behind as I walked.
“Yeah, with how hungry I feel, I wonder just how many servings I could eat.” I checked the ti as I said this and realized it was still before lunch. Even if I had been unconscious for two days and now had magical orbs inserted in sockets that I grafted into my system, attached to a core attached to my soul, I still wanted my eggs. I have a routine, after all, even if that routine turned out to include ten tis as many servings as before. Just how hungry was I?
Does the ranking of affinities even matter? Sure, people often get them when their core forms, but as no link can be found for their evolution, what exactly does the rank an? It would help if we had a complete study of a person before and after gaining their affinity, but the logistics of doing that seem like a nightmare.
Taken from Karlinovo’s submission to a newspaper.
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