New System, Who Dis?

Monday, April 29th, 2069

I’ll admit, I didn’t know what to say in response to that bombshell. Was the massive Snake saying that there was an altar inside the White Goblin village that just granted Skills in exchange for Monster Cores? Surely, I’d heard wrong…

“An altar that exchanged Monster Cores for skills, Great One?” Smegma asked. “So, these Cores have taken the place of Card Shards?”

“No, and yesss,” the Snake answered. “The Sssyssstem removed the Cardsss due to functionality issssuesss. Sssincsse I never usssed them I don’t know the particularsss, but sssurely you’d have sssome guesssesss.”

“Problems with the Card System, Great One?” Smegma answered and then began tapping a talon to fang. “Well, people hoarded the Cards, in attempts to get Sets and sell them for more. Others complained about the lack of chances to find the Skill they needed to complete existing Sets. The variability on what got created even from ‘high rank’—“

“I do not care,” the Snake cut in. “I jussst want my Fisssh and you to clossse the Portal. If I Assscend now I would need to begin by breaking the Sssyssstem Time Bubble, which would impossse sssanctionsss and make my Assscensssion Trial more difficult. Take the Coresss and go. Or ssshould I partake of the… appetizssersss.”

Everyone shivered. Except Smegma, who only smiled and bowed. “I can see that I was quite right that the Great One would be adept at motivating his subjects.”

Husking teacher’s pet.

I saw Smegma give me the middle of his three fingers behind his back as I jumped forward toward the pile of Cores and began summoning them hurriedly into my Necklace of Holding. Smegma had floated just as quickly behind me. I could see the Demon twitching, and blinking as I stuffed more and more of the pile into my Necklace.

I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even realize why Smegma was reacting until I got into the center of the pile. The Cores were growing in clarity and size. Even more strangely, many of the cores were iridescent, containing no color but hints of every color as the light refracted through the perfectly clear circular cores.

My hand began to shiver as it approached the largest Core in the pile, easily the size of my entire head and chest. Clenching my teeth, I summoned it into my Necklace, and kept going.

Soon, there were only the Cores with metal attached remaining. What I assumed were Mana Batteries. I reached out and summoned the largest of those into my Necklace, hoping I could use it to fuel Skills or items like Dave was for Fishing.

“You will give back what you don’t ussse,” the Snake said as it slowly began to curl in on itself. My quick glance at it made me shiver again. While the action and its half lidded reptilian eyes gave the impression of laziness, I recalled just how quickly it moved—when it wanted to.

I nodded, unsure how I could return the ‘excess’ if I closed the Portal, but willing to do whatever the thing wanted if it kept everyone alive. With a shaky bow, I stuttered, “We’ll head out, then, Great One.”

“The timer already ssstarted,” the Snake said offhandedly.

I couldn’t rush from the Lakeside faster, unless I broke into a jog or sprint. I didn’t want to do that, in case it would look like I was running away, so I held myself to the speediest walk I could manage.

Passing through the Animal Pens, I found my father walking the other way back to the Lake with a stack of Mirror Fish Steaks balanced on a large stone. I wasn’t sure where he’d found the brick or chipped piece of wall, but was happy he wasn’t burning his hands to get the food to the Snake.

My walk froze as I saw him. I could see him stop as well. We stared at each other for a stretching minute before his jaw visibly clenched. I swallowed hard against the lump in my chest. My hands, and jaw clenching as well.

“We don’t have time for this,” Smegma stated. “Get moving. We don’t know what’s left in the Village!”

My father’s eyes and my own were locked on each other. As if we had planned it, we both nodded in near unison, which unfroze our legs. My father walked by me toward the Lake and I resumed my speed-walk to the stairs.

As soon as I was through the Smithy, I turned the walk into a jog and then a sprint. My lungs screamed at me, even as I used my increased Strength to climb the stairs two and even three steps at a time—thanks to my hands also pulling on the stone railings.

“Slow down, getting there tired isn’t going to help—“ Smegma shouted after me, but I didn’t listen. I just continued to sprint. I needed to be doing something and the screaming from my lungs at least made it feel like I was trying my best.

My mind told me the same thing as Smegma, but I ignored it too. Sure, I knew they were both being sensible, but sometimes action is needed. Sometimes, talk, and planning can wait. My lungs and muscles continued to scream at me, and I continued to run.

Stamina Increased by 1.

Stamina Stat Unlocked.

—-

Stats

Strength: 10

Stamina: 2

Locked.

Locked.

Locked.

Locked.

Locked.

The red screen jumped into being in front of me. I blinked at the color, and white words on it—trying to understand why Smegma had sent me a shop item. Right up until, I realized that my lungs, and muscles had stopped screaming at me. Then between one blink and the next surprised one, I read the message.

“What the husk?” I exclaimed out of surprise. “Simply sprinting and fighting my own body unlocked Stamina?”

“No, you moron!” Smegma said from beside me. “Look at your Mental Universe.”

I realized I’d stopped all forward progress in my shock, and resumed a light jog even as I attempted to fall into that Soul Space Smegma wanted me to. I failed and was forced to wait, despite my desire not to. I guess running while navigating hallways I wasn’t fully familiar with wasn’t a mindless task like Sharding.

Once I stopped and my heart rate grew slightly calmer, I was able to enter my Mental Universe. What I discovered was a Fishing Skill that was easily the same size as the Mining Skill had been at level ten. Just like the Mining Skill, moons were beginning to form around the planet, even as wisps of blue smoke entered a space where I presumed another Moon would eventually form.

“It’s from Dave Fishing?” I asked, even as I opened my eyes and kept moving.

“And Willa,” Smegma added. “No way, a single Enchant fed Overflow enough in that amount of time. If she truly never used her Pool before this, and picked it up that fast, that woman might be a prodigy…”

“Really? She would have had to cast her line right after we left?” I said, glancing over a shoulder as I jogged up another set of stairs, toward the courtyard.

“Well, the Fishing Skill was probably already level ten before they started. Still, Stamina as a Stat and not a Resource Pool? You humans are weird.”

Shrugging, I started sprinting again, making it to the courtyard, and then into the side caves before climbing toward the stalagmite. Smegma remained silent, clearing examining his own earlier thoughts. I did recall the Demon claiming that Stamina was a Resource Pool like Mana, but while it was interesting—I wasn’t interested in it—at least, not at a time like this.

What I was interested in was just how long I had been sprinting and climbing stairs at what I would call my top speed. I had never been considered athletic in High school—even gym class cross country never saw me finishing even a short race in the top half.

Now, all I had to do was reduce my pace for a minute or two and I could resume my full on sprint again. Thanks to my new-found ability to maintain a fast jog, I was quickly able to exit the stalagmite and begin jogging through the large cavern lit by green moss.

Eventually, Smegma’s silence had stretched too long—if only because I could use his guidance or reassurance that I was jogging in the right direction. “Smegma, am I going the right way?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Try using your Heat Sense dumb-dumb.”

I felt like slapping my forehead. Right, Heat Sense. I toggled it onto a body part and instantly felt the heat sources of the Goblin’s Village a little to my left. Adjusting course, I slowed my jog to a walk and waited until Smegma glided even with me.

Then watched as he floated right by me, Demon Bat wings flapping as he cradled one elbow and tapped talon to tooth. “Smegma!” I hissed. “Kind of need to start planning the infiltration now!”

“Oh sure, now let’s start planning. Earlier you just wanted to husking run!” Smegma sneered at me, but after running his tongue over fanged teeth he shrugged. “I think it’s pretty simple. I scout it out. You sneak in—kill anything that gets in the way.”

“I think you overestimate my ability to kill things!” I hissed, and then hearing my own words echo back to me from a nearby wall switched to thinking my words at the Demon. [What do you want me to do? Pickaxe the things to death?]

“I don’t see why not?” Smegma said, tilting his head in a gesture that looked like genuine confusion.

[What the husk? I’ve never killed a monster before, moron!”]

“What about the Mana Leeches and the Golem?” Smegma asked.

[You know that’s drastically different!] By this point any forward progress toward the heat signatures had stopped as I mentally screamed at my Demon Summons.

“Why, because you could kill those insects with a swat of your hand and had a group of helpers on the Golem?” Smegma asked, and at my stupefied look of confirmation, Smegma continued, saying something I didn’t expect. “With your current Strength Stat you should be at the very top of F-rank. If you slap a non-warrior Goblin, I’m guessing you’ll break its neck.”

For the briefest of moments I was taken aback, feeling a swelling of something in my chest. Was it pride? Confidence? The rising sensation turned to nausea as my brain clued me in to what bothered me in the Demon’s statement. [Wait! Am I fighting women and children?]

“Holy husk! They’re monsters, you batty, selfless, stupid idiot. They are created by the System, and will die when the Portal closes and they’re exposed to the things the Bubble is keeping back.” Smegma paused, and studied my face, which I could tell was paling by the word. Then in a much softer tone he added, “It isn’t like I’m telling you to slaughter all of them. Just ones that are between you and the husking Altar.”

When I didn’t immediately start moving again Smegma sighed.

“It’s them or your family, Mana Battery!”

I flinched back from the derogatory term for what I had dreamed of being. Then my face began to heat up, as blood returned, and my jaw clenched.

Hadn’t I told Evelyn I wanted to be something more?

If I was going to be a Hunter, wasn’t it my job to close Portals—to kill Monsters? I nodded to myself, and was about to take a step forward breaking my momentary paralysis.

But the Demon’s words made a connection I had clearly realized but not fully bridged. I had a Mana Battery that was filled with an abundance of Mana. I also had a Skill that absorbed Mana and gave me Mana Coins. I could probably suck this thing dry and buy a Weapon finally, or if the thing held enough Mana, maybe even a Combat Skill.

I pulled the Mana Battery out of my Necklace of Holding and saw Smegma float closer to it, clearly having listened in on my realization. We both stared at it, prompting me to ask, “How do you know how much Mana these things have?”

“Connecting it to your Mana Pool should give you an idea,” Smegma answered in a whisper.

That lent itself to the question of how I ‘connected’ something like a Mana Battery to my core, but Smegma gave me a look that told me just how stupid I was being. Just in case, I asked, “Opposite of a Fishing Rod, I’m guessing.”

“Wow, it has a brain,” Smegma said with a slow clap.

It wasn’t difficult to connect the Mana Battery. As soon as my Pool and it made contact, I could tell and see in my Mental Universe just how abundant and huge the Constellation of Mana Stars were, on the other side. Hundreds of thousands at a minimum—maybe even millions of yellow stars spun around each other in a distant orbit so tight that it almost looked like a Sun more massive than Demonic Vault.

Smiling, I sent my fifty Mana to the Sun through my Soul Nervous System, and then mentally commanded the Mana in the Battery to feed Demonic Vault as well. It vibrated and started moving down my straw-conduit to my Pool, before my Soul Nervous System immediately funneled it onward to the Vault.

The slow siphon started to increase in speed as the two connections were made, and like a Water Tower feeding a culvert, the Mana rushed into my Pool and then onward—right up until the Sun that was Demonic Vault pulsed—hiccuped, and then increased ten folds in its luminosity.

“Ouch,” Smegma said. “Husking ow! Stop, shit—stop!”

My eyes flew open even as I tried and failed to cut the connection I had made between the Mana Battery and my Pool. Smegma had cracks forming on his body. Cracks that looked like a planet's magma core were trying to erupt through his skin.

Husk—husk-husk! I internally swore as I tried and failed to cut the connection three more times. It was hard to return to my Mental Universe in my current panicked state but I had to thank whatever God had orchestrated Mental Fortitude falling into my hands. With its help I managed to force a connection to the Soul Space, and then cut the Soul Synapse connection off by blocking a Way Gate.

I felt the Mana Battery in my clenched fist, morph before ‘vanishing,’ allowing my fist to clench closed into a fist—surrounding, sand?

I opened my eyes and found the ‘Mana Battery’ or the coarse glass-like sand that was left of it, falling to the ground to make two piles. That… couldn’t be good…

Wasn’t I supposed to return that—I mean, the Snake did say to return anything I hadn’t used. So this counted, right? Right? Smegma?

When I did get a concerned or even flippant response, I checked on the Demon, and found the cracks slowly closing, as he stared down at himself. He looked like a vain bodybuilder, right after they finished a session at the gym. However, instead of checking his pump and vascularity in a mirror, he was trying to make sure the cracks that covered him were vanishing without leaving a trace.

To me it looked like they were. He heard my thoughts and looked at me. His voice was a bit high-pitched again, like he was still that same Imp I first ‘summoned.’

He ordered, “Never do that again!” His squeaky voice ruined the tone he was trying to go for.

“What just happened?” I asked, not feeling the need to answer or tell him I wouldn’t. That shit had scared me just as much as it had him.

“Remember the Yellow Mana Crystals, and the incompatible Mana,” Smegma answered. I nodded and he made a gesture that connected the sand on the floor, to himself. “Incompatible…”

“Shit,” I answered eloquently.

“Yeah. Shit is right. Let’s hope the Snake didn’t see—” the cavern rumbled—which I presumed could only be from one source. Smegma swallowed visibly and then said. “Let’s get going to the Village, and close this Portal.”

I still wasn’t totally on board with killing noncombatants, but Smegma had never said that the Monsters in camp were actually women and children. He’d called them workers and warriors.

“Exactly,” Smegma encouraged my thought process. “The ones in camp cook, gather, and clean. I didn’t want to tell you this but that stew pot on the lake shore. It had human meat in it. That’s what the workers cook!”

My stomach gurgled a nauseating warning, I now knew what happened to the Hunters. Like my mind wanted to torture me, with perfect clarity I both pictured the White Goblins around their cook pot and recalled the smell.

Surely, it hadn’t been appetizing at all, right?

Mental Fortitude seemed to realize that clarity in the current situation was causing distress and shut that shit down. It was fast enough that I managed not to eject the contents of my stomach—instead, I used the new information and theft of the dead Mirage Hunter’s weapons as fuel to flatten my momentary empathy.

All these Monsters deserved to die.