Forever

“How does magic work?” Salim asked, not really expecting a reply as he talked to himself. They had been walking for an hour before he tried to start up conversation, only to be stonewalled by their silence. So to pass the time, he had mainly been throwing out any questions he could think of to get them to respond.

Fallon stayed quiet and for a while before surprisingly responding, “It is instinctual, I harness my knowledge and will to effect the world. However, I am a bad frame of reference given that our experiences differ. The only source big enough for me to take in is the sun, which seems to have differing effects from the energy produced by the trees or myself.”

It was more than he could hope for, and thinking about it, the differences between a giant ball in the sky and himself were a tad large. Thinking about their first explanation of how they see magic, Salim decided to try and shoot a fireball using his memories of every fireball he had ever seen. The result of his effort was a tingling sensation in his arm and Fallon staring intently at him in what he could only imagine was amusement.

Shaking his head, Salim ignored them as his ears slowly reddened, pushing back a branch as he walked past, letting it swing back with a smack, that never came. Slightly confused, he still didn’t turn around, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of… something. He wasn’t sure why he even cared about their opinion, maybe them looking so close to Nadalie was effecting him.

Choosing to also ignore the growing concern about the effects of a moon monster impersonating his girlfriend, Salim continued onward, hiking over fallen trees and precarious boulders. Fallon never seemed to have any issue navigating the terrain that he stumbled over, any time he snuck a look he would see them traversing with unnatural grace. Their body would shift in unnatural ways, a slip would be correct by legs moving at incredible speeds, shifting with so much speed that it almost looked like their legs blurred.

Clearly, Salim was outgunned and needed to level up fast if he wanted to feel safe in any capacity. While mana was always being produced in his core, with his low stats the amount of mana created was incredibly low, with only a couple drops being produced a day. He began using the tree sap as much as possible, keeping [Energy Sight] activated for as long as possible, while still attempting to cast fireballs from his hand.

It only took around four days for [Energy Manipulation] and [Energy Sight] to max out with constant usage, finally hitting max when Salim was trying to fall asleep in the entrance of a damp cave. Fallon had assured it was mostly empty, but he wasn’t going to fully believe them unless he could check for himself.

He knew that the risk of the moonlight wasn’t as great anymore, but he didn’t want to take chances, especially since Fallon wasn’t entirely sure of the moonlight’s effect. They had explained to him that while they were an offshoot consciousness, they were only able to relay information when the moon was out, which Salim was slightly interested in seeing. The sky was completely dark when he decided to try and peer out of the cave at Fallon, watching them stand arms outstretched to the sky.

As his companion's ritual continued, Salim said nothing as magenta walls reached down to envelop Fallon. Turning away as Fallon was fully blocked from his sight, several boxes appeared in his vision.

You have worked hard to increase your skills.

Event has been Logged.

You have gained a Level!

Energy Manipulation has reached Max Level.

Event has been Logged.

You have gained five stat points.

Energy Sight has reached Max Level.

Event has been Logged.

You have gained five stat points.

With a small smile, Salim pored his attention over his stats.

Lvl. 5

Stats

Confirm

Might: 13 (18)

-/+

Finesse: 11

-/+

Resilience: 18

-/+

Acuity: 12 [15]

-/+

Resolve: 14 [17]

-/+

Depth: 6 [10]

-/+

He wasn’t paying attention the first time, but all the stats from maxing out his skills got distributed along his mental stats, most likely increasing the stats that benefitted them the most. It made sense that if he maxed out any [Wanderer] skills, they would most likely give a physical bonus instead. The stat boosts also triggered his gamer instincts, he wanted to max out all four skills before he reached level ten.

An extra five stats was nothing to scoff at, of which he had already gotten two sets, and he was making good progress on the third.

Skills

Energy Manipulation (Class)

Lvl. Max

Allows a finer touch with contained energy.

Energy Sight (Class)

Lvl. Max

Lets you see the unseen world.

Energy Toleration (Class)

Lvl. 2

Tolerate the stress of the unseen world.

Wayfind (Innate)

Lvl. 7

Guides you to where you want to go.

While [Wayfind] would most likely hit max around the time they reached their destination, Salim was having a few problems with [Energy Toleration]. The tree sap didn’t hurt like the moonlight, and because of that, the skill leveled up at a snails pace. While Salim ultimately concluded that trying to absorb the moonlight was a bad idea, he did entertain the idea for a short period of time.

He wasn’t committed to gaining stats, to the point of consciously inflicting pain on himself, and even if he didn’t max out that skill he had two others. While maxing out the skill could make him stronger, it wasn’t a big deal, especially since he could always max out the skills in his next life.

Next life… What a strange way of thinking about death.

It was hard to push the thoughts out of his head after walking for days, but he could tell that his perspective had changed, since he last thought about death. When had he stopped seeing death as the end? After his first death? The second? There was no discernible moment where it had happened.

How much did it change him.

If he looked his past self from two months ago in the face, would they even recognize each other? It wasn’t scary, just disorienting, he didn’t have a problem with changing, but the fact that it had happened, so quickly, threw him off balance. He was used to taking his time with things, planning things out, and sitting on ideas, not beating wolves to death with his bare hands.

A stick snapped behind him, knocking him out of philosophical contemplation by the sudden noise. Glancing back, Salim just saw Fallon staring at him, a blank expression on their face as they navigated around a bush.

“Your legs bleeding.” She pointed down, small red lines and trail of blood making their way down his right leg as the stinging pain began to register.

“Oh, yea. I’ll be fine, thanks.” Salim nodded and turned back to blazing the path forward. He knew that he was getting tired, he had felt the thorn scrape past but hadn’t thought much of it until he looked down. Not having anything to bandage it with and not wanting to repeat the fiasco with the leaves, Salim decided to rely on his stats to clot the wound and fend off any infection.

Thankfully, his stats seemed to have come through, as two more days went by before Salim finished maxing out [Wayfind] and got a level for his troubles.

You have been traveling on foot for a week.

Event has been Logged.

You have gained a Level!

You have gained a Skill!

Wayfind has reached Max Level

Event has been Logged.

You have gained five stat points.

Salim wasn’t sure if he got the level because of the skill, or if he had just gotten the level through hiking like he had before. The level ups were strange, what decided if an action qualified for a level up, were there any ways to cheat it? He already knew several ways to gain levels, at least below level ten.

His train of thought trailed off as he had the thought that [Channelers Mind] didn’t hit him the same way it had the first time. Instead of taking the impact of a bunch of forgotten memories, it was more like they trailed back to his head, slithering back into place before solidifying. Considering that he could still remember the memories the skill had shoved back into his head the first time around, it was a nice benefit knowing he wouldn’t have to suffer each time he regained the skill.

Lvl. 6

Stats

Confirm

Might: 18

-/+

Finesse: 11(16)

-/+

Resilience: 18

-/+

Acuity: 15 [18]

-/+

Resolve: 17 [19]

-/+

Depth: 10

-/+

Limbs stretched and bent as they gained new flexibility, the sensation like a long stretch after sitting in a car. Yawning, he turned to Fallon, “I’m going to rest here for the night, can’t be much longer till we reach water.”

They looked at him, an emotionless expression that Salim had gotten used to after the first couple of days.

“Alright.” Nodding their head, they sat down on a pile of leaves and leaned their back against a tree trunk.

Salim’s resting place was a rotting tree that was big enough to fit into, he was able to find it because of occasional checks that he did every couple of hours or so with his skill. Gathering some acorns to chew on, Salim fit himself snugly into a nook at the base of the tree and tried to fall asleep. Keyword being, ‘tried.’

Sleep seemed to run away from him, even after a day of roughing it through overgrown bushes, even his exhaustion seemed to fail in its job. So he sat, stuck tightly inside a tree, until the sun rose in the east and the moon fully disappeared behind the horizon. Fallon wasn’t in his line of sight either, they typically found a clearing to reside in every night, and Salim assumed they had left for an area with an open sky.

Thinking on his past conversations with Fallon, Salim felt more than a little conflicted. In the middle of the hike, Salim had turned and asked, “So what’s the deal with my body, I get that you want to study it, but you have all my memories. What’s so special about it?”

Fallon paused for a moment, eyes and expression unreadable.

“The most human emotion I can relate to is boredom. Your body holds the secrets to sentient life. I have an inherent capacity to create life, so I have decided to alleviate my boredom by creating life.”

Salim thought that the idea was straight out of Frankenstein, but he could sort of see the reasoning. He had been on the planet for only a month, and it had already started to make him feel crazy, and he hadn’t even realized how much it was effecting him until he was able to talk with Fallon. But on the other hand, how do I respond to someone talking about creating life with my corpse?

“Cool. Got any other plans?” Wincing at his attempt to sound casual, Salim tried to spot the cells of a nearby leaf.

She smirked, “Rule as a god, get statues made in my image.” Their sarcasm surprised Salim, generally they seemed stoic with their responses, he wasn’t sure if this was proving him wrong, but he wasn’t going to question it. While he wasn’t sure they actually felt most emotions, they said they felt boredom, and that helped contextualize what their goals might be.

Working near Fallon was still awkward, however, as he would begin doing a menial task only to see Fallon staring intently at him, watching his every move. The opposite was true too, sometimes they would ignore him, choosing instead to observe their surroundings even when he tried to talk to them. So for most of the hike, he typically let them speak up first, or otherwise he would ask leading questions in the hopes that they would respond with helpful information.

It was frustrating, and eventually he gave up unless he really had something he genuinely needed to ask, so most of the journey had been done silently. Quiet hikes weren’t a bad thing, he had even enjoyed them before he had been abducted, but not talking or listening to music made the trips an exercise in mental fortitude. It led to him not talking much with Fallon but ending the day feeling like his social battery had been completely drained and still being unable to fall asleep properly.

He needed to figure out something, or just ignore it and try to complete the journey as fast as possible. All the thinking did was lead to him setting his own record-breaking pace in order to not think about the uncomfortable situation. I have all the time in the world, I’m even immortal, but I’m afraid of some awkward silence.

He laughed at himself.

In the present, the moon had finally passed the horizon as Salim woke from a single hour worth of sleep, vowing to try and talk his mind for the entire hike until Fallon finally responded. Stretching out his body as he exited the tree trunk, he looked around, not finding Fallon anywhere. Slightly concerned, Salim kept searching for them, calling out to catch their ear.

As noon struck, Salim tried to figure out what was happening. Did she just ditch me?