Icarus Awakens

Nine days later, Daniel sat in the shade provided by a sturdy tent, opening and closing his hands. Each time they opened they became bird-like, before reverting as he closed them. He’d been at this for an hour with his eyes closed, otherwise unmoving. It had taken a day or so to build up this much patience, assisted by the previous efforts he’d put into exposure therapy with Hunter. The aim of this was different, however.

The genesis of this exercise had come when his friends consoled him over his imprisonment and later kidnapping the day following his escape. Daniel had commented that being shot in the back wasn’t as bad as being trapped in a cell when Lograve had given the innocuous reply which had started everything.

“Magical suppression can be like that if you aren’t prepared. When we were just starting in Rikendia I’d find myself in such a cell after a rowdy night or two. It’s worse than the hangover.” Lograve grimaced.

“You had rowdy nights?” Evalyn asked quietly, across from the campfire.

“It was a while ago. Having the mana within you forcibly arrested can best be described as falling backward and sideways down a hill covered in thorns, at least until you get used to it. It’s a good thing Khiat received her class recently, her sensitivity wouldn’t have been high. Gods know she’s suffered enough.”

Daniel had definitely had a spike of claustrophobia during his imprisonment, in addition to everything that had piled on, though he had no idea what Lograve was talking about. “What do you mean? I felt that I couldn’t use certain powers, but nothing was weird with my mana.”

One discussion later, a crucial fact was been learned. Put simply by Lograve, “Your seventh sense is atrophied. This is what you get for taking so many damned shortcuts.”

What they had discovered was that Daniel had failed to grasp something so basic about having a class that even Hunter had known about it. No one had mentioned anything because for anyone else, no one ever needed to. When a person began to develop their powers and grow familiar with them, they would also begin to sense how using them related to the flow of mana within their bodies. Daniel had been able to know about how much mana he had left, judging it like a reservoir with a depth gauge.

The others could use the seventh sense more holistically because of how they advanced and awakened their powers. The trance achieved through advancement allowed for focus and exploration of the self, which involved mana flow. With time, the flow of mana for each ability and feature could be distinguished. Lograve could theoretically use his Sense Magic power to guess what another mortal was about to do based on recognizing these patterns, though that was a talent typically developed at a higher level.

On the other hand, Daniel advanced with the push of a button. Daniel learned about his powers not through testing and discovery, but by looking them up. All of the opportunities others had to develop this sense he’d skipped over. When in magical suppression, instead of being hit by the same sensory deprivation that made Hunter hate Moment of Clarity, Daniel had only been uneased of the enclosed space.

It wasn’t that the topic hadn’t been broached before. Lograve had mentioned something about the mana from one ability blocking out others when they’d discussed the limits of active powers. Daniel had just thought it was a rule of magic, rather than something he should also innately feel. It had taken someone directly referencing this seventh sense for the discrepancy to be realized.

That led to the present. While the rest of his team were finishing their advancement, Daniel was training his seventh sense. Claw Strike was a rapid use ability with a low mana cost and no cooldown. Endlessly repeating it allowed for a constant circuit of mana to flow within his body which corresponded to the ‘shape’ of the ability. Initially, all he’d been able to feel was the draining of mana like always, and Daniel had burned out after ten minutes from the lack of progress. Despite the relatively relaxing conditions, inner peace was hard to come by, and Daniel wasn’t in the mood to beat his head against a brick wall until he started seeing lights.

He’d killed someone. Not knowing who exactly helped, but Daniel had his suspicions. The official count was 14 of the attackers dead and two survivors, the rest escaping. In a way, it reminded him of how the firing squads of old wouldn’t all carry live ammo to absolve them of certainty. In his case, it was the uncertainty of who he had and hadn’t killed. Regardless, blood was on his hands.

Strangely, he was only moderately disturbed by that prospect. With the imprisonment happening soon after, the events hadn’t seemed quite real. The pain of the arrows blurred the memories, jumbling who he’d hit first and when he’d been cut. At times, Daniel wondered if it’d even fully hit him yet, or if he was just numb to it after becoming used to killing monsters. At least there had only been a few nightmares.

A few minutes later, Daniel stood up. He didn’t want to exhaust all of his mana with these exercises. He was making a bigger breakthrough with Hunter, now able to control the ringcat for short bursts of time. The hope was that this seventh sense had been a hidden barrier preventing him from fully tolerating the shared senses. That, and the Empathic Link, were the only benefits of his bond to Hunter still unique now that Tak was in the picture. Daniel wanted to develop the former to the best of his ability, and then maybe revisit the second one at a later time. As for his other bond? Daniel had a combo attack now and was very eager to see it in use.

The others, barring Thomas who still refused to fight when unnecessary, and Lograve who hadn’t journeyed this far out from the city with them, also had new powers to test. Hunter’s first power granted by the Awakened Ringcat class wouldn’t be of much help, despite how humorous Daniel found it.

Leonine Charm* (Feature, Charisma, Domain: Illusion, Level: 2):

You possess the Power to improve your appearance and presentability to observers. This effect scales with your charisma and the target’s affinity for Creatures: Feline.

- Level 2 (Automatic): This feature is acquired at level 2 and receives no additional benefits at this level.

The feature had been crucial to calming Khiat. Despite not knowing Hunter had a mind, she was fond of cats and the feature was able to reach her despite the disparity. It could affect others as well depending on how much Hunter leaned into it which, in most cases, he didn’t. Its only passive effect was making Hunter’s face more expressive in terms mortals could understand, and softening the feel of his fur. After Daniel had teased Hunter on that end the ringcat had tried to reverse the effect, but to his dismay it was permanent.

Most notable of the powers that had been discovered were those with asterisks. Since Daniel’s phone was the only device that displayed information on powers the way it did, there was no telling what the asterisks were supposed to represent or if they even mattered. His phone might be labeling something that already existed in this world in an odd way, and someone had Unidentified the information. Either way, everyone in Daniel’s team bar Thomas had allowed him to scan their powers like Khare had, only to discover that they had marked powers as well. Valor Song for Evalyn, Avianoid Monstrosity for Tak, who was still unaware of the power, and the others already detected on Khare. As for Hunter, every power the ringcat awakened had an asterisk.

After the initial scan, his further attempts to keep track of the marked powers were forestalled by a mutual agreement that even Hunter had joined on the urgings of Tak. Initially betrayed, Daniel came to understand as Thomas explained for the group.

“Look Guy, powers are personal. Letting someone know every single one you have is, well, I didn’t say you could look at me did I?” Thomas half-smiled in apology. “But it’s important to find out what we can do for ourselves. Isn’t that why you have to keep doing that thing with your hands?”

When roughly put that way, Daniel had wondered if he should do the same. As it stood he didn’t have to make a decision now, as he’d already used the advancement gained from fighting off the thieves to round out his charisma. As he’d done that before the discussion of seventh senses, he’d already read the notifications regarding the power he’d received.

Your Attribute: Charisma is now 20! You have gained Ability: Personal Mark. Powers derived from your charisma no longer suffer from Level Disparity. Features derived from your charisma may be Heightened to unlock additional benefits.

-

Personal Mark (Ability, Charisma, Spell, Domain: Enchantment, Level 2):

You possess the Power to imbue Items you create with a Mark of your design. This mark can be visible or hidden, and will identify you as its creator. Formulae and Affixes of an item marked by you are protected from powers that would Identify them. This is a Magical ability that does not function in an area of Magical Suppression. Marks created by this ability that enter such an area are only temporarily dispelled.

-

Bartering, Level: 2: Improve the effect of this feature to a minor degree, and add a minor degree of protection from deception-based Abilities for a minor Mana cost.

-

Beast Friend*, Level: 2 (Automatic): This feature now counts as level 2 for the purposes of forming a bond. No additional benefits are granted outside of those from improving the bond itself. This is an automatic improvement that requires no Mana.

Overall, his last attribute reaching level 2 had turned out to be underwhelming. The only new ability, Personal Mark, seemed dangerous if his recent experiences were any indication. None of his legacy Totem Warrior powers had improved either since the majority of his climb to level 2 charisma had come after Rorshawd had been separated from him.

Even so, there was a sense of togetherness that had washed over him when he’d committed the advancement. It was like he’d removed a splinter he hadn’t realized was there. Gadriel’s devout insistence that his attributes be equal was beginning to make more sense.

Exiting the tent, Daniel found himself in the late afternoon hour by an oasis. Following everything that had happened he’d been told that the Commander of Aughal would personally intervene, again, if anything suspicious were to happen to him. Letting one of her hunters be kidnapped twice would hurt her authority, something she seemed more concerned with than punishing the ones responsible for the first attempt. Thomas had said the nobility would take care of that themselves and Daniel wasn’t keen on making sure either way.

That changed nothing about the unease the prospect of returning to that city held now. Instead of continuing to advance in the city, his group decided to leave together and go to friendlier ground. Khiat was also adamant about returning home and had spent each day resting with her family. Something was wrong with her, but Daniel had a lot going on himself and was in no real position to help. Evalyn and Thomas both tried to join in consoling her but were only allowed when Khiat was willing. Either could force their way into Khiat’s dwelling regardless, but that wouldn’t solve anything.

The rest of the village were grateful hosts, and they largely benefitted from the arrangement. Daniel and his friends just received a safe place to rest, while they got an on-call hunting team to respond to any potential threat in the area. That Tak and Hunter also went off to look for game passively was another mutual benefit. Daniel had considered joining them but decided against it. He was getting over his earlier jealousy and didn’t want to intrude. Besides, in the next day or so, almost all of them would be departing together.

Looking around, he noticed Evalyn wasn’t joining the others in meditation. “Out of potential?”

“Yes,” she sighed. “I thought I had another one in me, but, no. How about you, any progress?”

Daniel flexed his hands, nodding as they shifted. “Kind of. It’s just a trickle, but I’m getting something out of it. Nothing from my other abilities or features though. It’s like trying to walk after being paralyzed.”

“You’ve been paralyzed before and seemed fine. Granted I did give you a little help.”

“Uh.” A familiar awkwardness came over him as they broached a sensitive topic. “I mean from your nerves being hurt. Permanent paralysis, or physical paralysis I guess.”

“Nerves?” In fairness to Evalyn, she was quick on the uptake, but few in this world had a strong grasp of biology. Thomas probably knew what he was talking about.

“They’re small threads that connect your brain to everything else. If they’re injured or cut it’s hard to move. I’ve heard people can recover but it takes a while.”

“I’d imagine healing is far more difficult where you come from,” Evalyn commented knowingly.

“Yes and no. My mother worked as a, uh, a healer so I picked up a few things. Nothing really.” I’d say I learned more from TV shows.

Evalyn glanced over to the tent Thomas was still burning off an advancement in. “You could probably teach him a thing or two then. Now that you’ve told Khare there’s only two left if you want to count Thomas.”

“What about Khiat?”

“I don’t know.” One of Evalyn’s arms crossed to hold the other as she looked down. “I think if you hadn’t gone through what we all had in the Thormundz you’d be in the same shape as she is. Honestly, I’m glad she didn’t take it well. It means the rest of you were probably right.” Daniel raised an eyebrow. “What? I admit I reacted a little strongly when I heard about her class. Most people would object to traveling with an Assassin. I never considered that, if you got to someone before they became drunk on the power of murdering people, you might be able to stop them from walking that path.”

“She wasn’t the only one that got stronger.” Daniel looked at his hands. “I didn’t get to see the notification, but I know I got advancement from fighting the thieves. From killing them. I thought that was just monsters.”

Evalyn didn’t quite meet his eye. “So did I. It might be everyone can advance a little from the activity but only Assassins can keep doing it. We don’t all have a magical box that tells us when and why we get stronger.”

“That’s probably a good thing,” Daniel agreed. “I just feel bad. I couldn’t imagine spending my entire life in a place like this.”

“You miss the city?”

“I miss cities in general. When people weren’t trying to make me their slave, I enjoyed Aughal. For the ten hours or so I was there.”

“We can go back in a few weeks, once things have calmed down.”

“Maybe we should get to level 3 first.” Evalyn gave him an odd look. “What?”

“Daniel, we’ll all be lucky to reach that in a year, unless you neglect your other attributes.”

“It’s that slow?”

“Normally, people don’t go around killing dragons until they’re at least on that level.” She brushed past him in the direction of the oasis, pulling out a flask. “Unless we’re suicidal, our days of quick advancement are over.”

…

With a few hours left until the rest of the village awoke, Daniel went to where Hunter and Tak were finishing their advancements. Khare found him on the way and they nodded at each other. Bonds were a topic that eluded understanding both in the world in general and within Daniel’s Encyclopedia. He was fairly sure several key pages were Unidentified since there were no entries on either of the bonds he possessed. Regardless, Daniel could tell the difference between his two bonds. With both there was trust, although the familiarity and connection with Hunter was contrasted with a strangely comfortable feeling he got around Khare, like two travelers from the same home who’d found each other on the road.

Of all of the benefits of the new bond, Tactical Network was the most game-changing even though it was competing with a combo attack. They could now communicate by tagging nearby creatures. The system wasn’t sophisticated and Daniel’s attempts to both remember and implement Morse code had failed. In this instance, though, he was able to ping Hunter, remove the mark, and wait for Khare to reapply it to confirm.

“Hunt?” Khare said with the subtle infection of a question. It was probably a function of repeated exposure to the gestalt than their bond, but Daniel was ever improving in his ability to converse with them.

“Tomorrow, maybe. We still don’t know about Khiat.”

“Froze.”

It took him a few paces to figure that out. “She didn’t want to kill anyone. She doesn’t want to be that kind of Assassin, which, I guess is good? Maybe there’s a nonlethal kind of Assassin she could bend towards, sedatives and stuff like that.”

“No.”

“No? That kind of Assassin doesn’t exist?”

“Frozen.” Khare backed away from him before returning.

“You’re trying to say cowardice?”

“Close.”

Daniel ran a hand through his hair after unconsciously licking it. The bad habit had been picked up from his Empathic Link to Hunter and still occasionally manifested if he wasn’t paying attention. “She was a hunter before this, though. Not for monsters, sure, but when that horde attacked she didn’t run.”

“Distance.”

“Ooooh.” Khare nodded along with his understanding. “Sucks they stole my crossbow then. I still have those special weapons Murdon let me copy. I could try making a bone crossbow, but maybe I’ll give them a try instead.” Several knives worked their way to the surface of the mass of vines underneath Khare’s humanoid form and Daniel laughed. “Yeah, I’ll make you some more daggers too.”