New System, Who Dis?

Monday, April 29th, 2069

River, Dust, Magnetism, Heat, Heavy, Growth, Bubbles, Fairy, Pink—wait what? I put back the pink Core and blinked at the description on screen. It actually read Pink. [What the hell is Elemental about Pink?]

Smegma’s face soured and he shook his head as if to shake off cobwebs. Then after swallowing what looked like vomit the Demon said, “If that is something similar to our Card System on Crendalar—then it’s probably an accent Element. People collected Skill Cards to match colors of the back together. Then to everyone’s surprise, they merged and created color Elements. They were totally useless too. They just allowed the users to throw pink Fireballs or turn their Stamina Aura pink—that sort of thing.”

The Demon shuddered again, and even brushed taloned fingers over his arms to brush something off.

[Okay.] Was all I could manage to think. Sure that sounded utterly frivolous but to have such a strong reaction—

“If your world was ending—no—did end, and you had people who were essentially trading potential to win a popularity contest. How would you react?”

That made me duck my head in recognition of his point. I wasn’t fully on board with disgust at people who chose this path—but I could definitely see myself being frustrated, especially after the fact. Like what if some Demon could have saved Crendalar and instead frivolously wasted Skill opportunities on something like ‘Pink’…

Still, if it made those same people happy—wasn’t that kind of the whole point of life? I shook my head, dispelling a bit of the empathetic distaste that clearly was coming from Smegma’s feelings on the matter. Finally, I admitted to myself that I agreed with both decisions. Intelligent creatures could choose for themselves, and Smegma was allowed to feel a certain way about what those decisions might have led to.

I returned to changing the Elemental Cores, still just daydreaming on what the combination of Draconic Portal and Monster Cores, might give me with the Space Element. I did find a few other ones that sparked my imagination as well, though.

Time, Metal, Magma, and Inevitability. Two of which I thought I could at least imagine Skills with—two of which I found difficult. Space was the same, though. What would Space, Time or Inevitability do in a Skill?

By the time I finished slotting all the Elemental Cores, those three were set aside. I looked to Smegma who had been watching and reading over my shoulder. [Any suggestions?]

“I think you’re right to go with one of these three. I personally think Time might be best but…” Smegma faded off, looking at Space and Inevitability. After a time he shrugged. “I’ll admit that Time would only be great if you could go forward or backward—see the future or something along those lines. Often Time Elemental Cards were things like Haste or Slow, though. So, maybe Space or Inevitability has a better chance to be something truly powerful?”

[I mean Time Dragon, Space Dragon or Inevitability Dragon all sound plenty powerful,] I mentally commented but found my eyes drawn once again to the black orb with white dots contained within. [Still, I think I kind of understand Space—maybe? No, that’s probably not the reason why I’m drawn to it. It’s like it resonates with my Mental Universe.]

“Brodie, there is always something to be said for instincts—and as long as you weren’t drawn to something like Pink—I’m not going to fight what your soul is telling you.”

Low Rank Skill Altar Activated.

Cores Offered.

Ex: Eborisk Dragon Core

Ex: Faneral Dragon Core

S+: Drake Portal Core

A+: Drako-Lich Core

B+: Dragonkin Core

C-: Komodo Portal Core

D+: Quasi-Croc Core

D-: Kobold Portal Core

E+: Wyrm Leech Core

Elemental Core:

Space

Proceed with Skill Acquisition?

| No

I took one more look at the other two Elemental Cores, then inhaled deeply—holding my breath.

Then pressed yes.

The Altar screen vanished, and I blinked in confusion as nothing seemed to happen.

Just as I exhaled, the black of the Space Core did something. I assumed it was the first to react to my confirmation. Or maybe it was the first thing I noticed, because it was right in front of me in the slot that opened up on the central pillar.

I became more sure it had reacted before the other Cores, because the color inside expanded out. Once it reached the circle of Cores in the floor, it simply washed over them, and they looked the same as they had before. The two largest red Cores were the only notable exception. Since they were not only glowing brighter but lifting up into the air.

When the Space Core ‘swallowed’ the entire interior of the hut, the two red Cores seemed to jump into action—rushing toward me. I flinched and jumped backward, terrified that the cannonball-like orbs would simply carry on through me. They of course weren’t even targeting me. They moved to a spot where the Support Pillar of the Leader Hut had been—before the Space Orb took over.

Then they began circling each other. My eyes were fixed to them, but in my peripherals I noticed the other Cores had lifted out of their recesses and slowly formed an orbit around the two large sun-like cores in the center. I also noticed that the orbits were ranked. Having the highest ranked cores nearest the center.

Those closest to the two red Cores moved through the oval circle faster than the green cores furthest out from the pillar..

A new blue screen appeared in front of me and Smegma.

Low Rank Skill Altar

First time use bonus. Skill Altar Rank increased to Mid Rank.

Cores inserted far exceed maximum Skill Altar Rank. Are you sure you wish to continue?

| No

I turned my head to stare at Smegma. Unsure if I should push yes. He motioned at all the Cores, and then pointed emphatically down in the general direction of the Lake and massive Snake.

[Good point. Anything I don’t use will just go back to it…] then I realized what I mentally sent and held my breath. If the Snake could hear me, now would be the time it would react.

My exhalation was beyond relieved, and I took a moment to catch my breath before I clicked yes and the screen changed.

Mid Rank Skill Altar

Due to Cores Value exceeding Skill Value, a High Growth Rated Skill is being selected.

Scanning intended recipient…

Two Skill Synergies Available…

Demonic—Rejected

Draconic—Chosen

Optimizing Skill Selection…

Skill Selected

Imparting…

I spun to Smegma, my eyes wide. [Is this like the Card Sets you—]

Smegma wasn’t there… I scanned around myself, looking up and down. Nothing remained of my Demon Companion and I highly doubted he’d floated into the floor as such and important time. The fact that there wasn’t White smoke likely meant he wasn’t involved in the Skill formation—so then why had he vanished?

Maybe he was putting together the Skill the System was imparting? But I doubted it. Perhaps, whatever gave him form couldn’t maintain him and take the pressure of a forming Skill? I looked around the Altar Room, and realized that all the Cores were increasing their orbiting speeds—while also collapsing toward the two red Cores.

Did that mean the System hadn’t imparted the Skill yet?

I closed my eyes and checked on my Mental Universe. Immediately I discovered what was happening. A new planet was forming around the Demonic Vault’s ‘sun’. I assumed it was Cooking, since it was the only other option for where Overdraft could be receiving Mana from.

There was an instant I felt torn, between watching that Skill form or the System Altar outside—and then I opened my eyes. System Skill versus a Profession one, and all that…

The ‘planets’ spun ever closer to the central two, which were now circling each other so fast, it looked like a single-larger donut. Still, if I squinted I could see the small space in its center, and it was shrinking fast.

As if I was watching a Galaxy collapse into a Black Hole—the timing where the two Suns touched was perfectly in sync with when all the outer orbits reached them. The Space Mosaic grew brighter, as all the white ‘distant’ stars pulsed.

And then the entire tapestry of Space and collapsing black hole sunk into me at a rate I couldn’t describe. I expected pain, heat, or maybe even a terrible cold—but instead only felt a small prickle of what could have been electric shock.

I was about to close my eyes and see what happened inside my Mental Universe when a screen popped up.

Releasing [Locked] Dragon Body.

Available and necessary energies vastly exceed safety thresholds for chosen Vessel.

Vessel destruction imminent upon release of [Locked] Dragon Body.

Assessing Options…

Upgrading Soul to Contain [Locked] Dragon Body…

Error!

Upgrading Soul to Contain [Locked] Draconic Physique

Error!

Upgrading Soul…

That small shock of current inside of me grew. Making it feel like I had accidentally forgotten to turn off a breaker then touched both sides of an outlet. It didn’t stop there. Growing worse with each millisecond—forcing my diaphragm to freeze.

My heart followed shortly after and finally, every muscle in my body. I had never experienced pain like this in my life. There was a component of physical pain, as my entire body convulsed and flexed so hard that I thought I might actually break my own bones—but no, that wasn’t the sensation that threatened to consume my sanity.

It was like something was both digging around in my brain, body, and…was it my Mental Universe? An agony so deep inside of me that it had no source to pinpoint. No, remedy that could ease it. No consciousness to shed in order to escape from it.

Simply put, it felt like something was ripping me apart over and over again—but simultaneously putting me back together just so it could keep creating Brodie confetti.

The worst part—since the pain wasn’t actually inside my body, or mind, I didn’t pass out. Instead, my brain tried to analyze the sensation and give me comforting logical solutions. Like simply ignoring what was happening. Surely, the System wasn’t going to kill me. It even consoled me with the equivalent of a ‘there, there.’

I in turn swore at it—and was actually surprised when that seemed to help. So, I just kept going.

I hoped Mental Fortitude would be able to keep me sane after this.

My mind broke.