NOVEL WEB CHAPTER 53: STRONG WILLED
Sarah Avery Vasilias, Great House Scion, Reborn Lvl 1
Skyland
Kimi-Lim put a finger to their metallic-golden lips and glared significantly at Sarah as she slid and slipped again on the loose gravel, rocks clattering against each other and echoing. Sarah choked back her sharp retort; it wasn’t the time or the place.
She wiped sweat off her brow with the long sleeve of her Training Tunic reflecting that the self-cleaning enchantment on the clothing was getting a run for its money today. Her whole body was caked in dust and sweat from the long hike.
The elf was leading her through a maze of tumble-down boulders, all strewn along a steep incline in the blazing hot sun. The boulders loomed over them like sentinels, their shade doing absolutely nothing for the constant heat. Once again, Sarah swiped at her forehead with her sleeve, at least wiping the sweat out of her eyes.
Why couldn’t we go from the hot and stuffy jungle into…oh, I don’t know, a tropical beach? Or maybe a ski lodge? Sarah thought miserably. Heat like this wasn’t meant for her New England sensibilities.
They had emerged from the jungle into a desert landscape dotted with huge sandstone boulders. Rough, ropelike vines with wicked, crimson thorns longer than her thumb and desiccated-looking, grey-barked trees clung to the boulders, their roots wrapping around them like skeletal fingers. The smell of stone dust and heat lay heavy in the air.
Kimi-Lim held up a hand and Sarah paused. The elf looked back at Sarah, their large orange eyes intent on her, “See the markings on those boulders?” They pointed to deep gouges in the stone made by a large set of claws. “That marks the edge of the creature’s territory. Remember the plan?”
Sarah leaned against the shady side of a nearby boulder, deliberately not looking at the gouges as she lifted her shirt to wipe off her face with it.
Her voice was muffled as she said, “You’re going to go in hot, lighting up the place with your light-based spells and grafts. Meanwhile, I go in, sneaking with my anima spread out in Blanket of Shadows and snag the Prize off the pedestal. Classic misdirection.”
Kimi-Lim nodded and craned their neck to peer off over Sarah’s shoulder, scanning the horizon for a while before they turned back to Sarah.
“I haven’t been able to slip past the manticore yet; it’s intelligent and territorial with a cunning that is worrying,” said Kimi-Lim. “But if we work together, I know we have a chance!”
The elf held out their hand to Sarah, “Let’s get your full set of Attributes unlocked; we’ll need you at full strength to help me with the Guardian!” Sarah nodded, clasping Kimi-Lim’s hand; they squeezed hands briefly, and then Kimi-Lim began their summoning song for Sunspot.
Sarah darted around the boulder with the claw marks, forming her anima in the Pool of Shadows configuration and getting her first look at the manticore’s territory. She stepped out of the boulder scree and into a small valley, just a tiny fold between larger cliffs around it.
The valley was littered with boulders of all sizes while thorny vines and brambles carpeted the hard, dusty red landscape. A twisting stream that was more like a creek meandered through the valley, coming from a crack higher up and spilling down the rocky slope. Here and there were little stands of trees with tropical fruits growing in enormous profusion.
Near the center of the monster’s territory was a glittering golden pillar with something that glinted in the sunlight with mirror brightness. It hurt to look at it for too long, so Sarah made sure she didn’t.
She immediately moved into cover behind one of the many boulders littering the valley, scanning for the manticore itself. She couldn’t see any kind of movement anywhere, but there was an area of the valley where the trees seemed barren and dead. The trees had either had a bad case of worms or there was something else killing them: maybe the manticore?
Eyes on the Prize, Sarah thought, grinning to herself. If the manticore is off hunting or sleeping, this’ll be easy. But that almost certainly means that it’s not so don’t get careless.
She left the cover of the boulder after taking a long look around and began picking her way through the valley, moving from bush to boulder to tree as quickly and quietly as she could.
They’d planned to do this at midday because Kimi-Lim had noted that the manticore was either absent or napping during the middle of the day. It was most active at night, preferring to ambush its prey from the dark.
When Sarah had asked what it looked like, Kimi-Lim had described the creature as a five-meter-long bat-winged beast with claws like daggers. They took great pains to detail its long, prehensile tail with a heavy club-like growth at the tip bristling with arm-length quills dripping with deadly poisons. It had a muzzle full of two rows of teeth on the upper and lower jaw with a mouth that could open nearly 180 degrees—they’d demonstrated with their hands, relishing Sarah’s look of dawning horror.
And I’m potentially gonna have to fight it, she thought, still moving from cover to cover and keeping her eyes peeled for the monster. Sarah didn’t see anything that matched Kimi-Lim’s horribly detailed description as she snuck along, feeling the heat of the sun beat down on her neck.
If the manticore doesn’t make an appearance, then Kimi-Lim won’t need to help me snag the Prize, Sarah thought. After all, it’s just right there out in the open on a golden pillar.
She had asked if there were any traps or other kind of security around the pillar or protecting the Prize, but Kimi-Lim had just shaken their head: the Prize seemed to be otherwise unguarded.
It made Sarah intensely suspicious, but Kimi-Lim had shrugged saying, “It’s a tutorial Quest intended to get you to your full Attribute set, so I wouldn’t expect anything too complicated.” When Sarah seemed to be a little relieved, Kimi-Lim reminded her sharply, “Don’t think the manticore isn’t enough of a threat on its own! Those are the kind of assumptions that get Reborn killed!”
With that admonition firmly in mind, Sarah was patient and cautious. Insects buzzed and droned on and on in the suffocating heat. It was a completely different kind of heat than the jungle had tormented her with, more like trying to sneak through an oven.
Insects that looked similar to locusts with bright red eyes and orange bodies clung to the branches of the brambles. She noticed that they were quiet and barely moved, even when Sarah got close to the brambles for cover. She made her way almost halfway down the valley, choosing a long, winding path that kept her hidden from every angle she could think of. Her Pool of Shadows anima configuration was smooth, blending her tensa signature into the surrounding environment so well that even the wildlife barely acknowledged her presence.
She paused when she was about thirty meters away from the Prize, taking her time to look around carefully for the manticore and try to figure out what the Prize was. It’s still impossible to see what the damn thing is, even this close, she thought, frustrated. Whatever it is it’s blinding me every time I even take a quick look.
It seemed to catch the sunlight and magnify it like a lens such that she had to shield her eyes to protect them from the glare. Sarah felt that creeping feeling of being watched, her instincts screaming at her that she was in danger.
No fucking kidding I’m in danger, she thought. But where is the ugly motherfucker? To all appearances, the boulder-strewn valley was empty.
The insects continued their mindless drone and Sarah crept ever close, taking another half hour to cross the last thirty meters. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was incredibly wrong. Kimi-Lim still hadn’t spotted the monster.
Or Kimi-Lim has spotted the monster and I’m just walking into its jaws, Sarah thought suddenly. They did just appear out of nowhere and offered to help while asking almost no questions about me. Sarah frowned. Stop it! It’s too late to be having second thoughts.
A sudden flash of light from the edge of the valley almost directly across from her caught her eye. Odd, she thought, it’s like getting flashed in the face by a mirror. Or one of those super bright signal lights. Oh shit, Kimi-Lim’s signal! She caught a blur of movement from her peripheral vision and dodged out of the way just in time.
Where she’d been just moments before were three finger-thick and striated quills. The quills had pierced the hard red clay ground and were as long as Sarah’s arm, still quivering from impact. Sarah kept running.
As she sprinted toward the next boulder, Sarah caught sight of more flashes of light from the edge of the valley, and this time, it was more than a signal. Multicolored beams of light coruscated through the air, flashing like a techno rave’s laser show but much brighter and thrumming with power. Sarah kept running, trying not to be distracted by the light show. More quills dogged her steps, nearly pinning her but she kept going.
She made it to a tall boulder and slid on the dusty ground, leaning back against the comforting weight of the rock and trying to catch her breath. Sarah didn’t dare wait more than a few seconds before moving to the next cover.
Just as she was moving, more quills blasted into the boulder, each one piercing the rock she’d just been hiding behind. More flashes of light came from the valley’s edge and the quills stopped. Kimi-Lim said her grafts were really tensa-intensive. They won’t be able to keep the monster distracted for much longer. She had to make her last push now.
The Prize sat on the golden pedestal in a little clearing, glowing with dazzling light and Sarah dashed to a waist-high boulder, peeking around it, trying to look everywhere at once. She still couldn’t see the manticore.
Sarah ducked back down behind her boulder squeezing her eyes closed. Kimi-Lim’s light attacks had stopped but they’d done their job: they’d gotten Sarah this close. The rest was up to her.
She dashed out from her hiding spot and sprinted across the short distance from her boulder to the pedestal, keeping her eyes averted so she wouldn’t be blinded by the brilliantly reflective Prize on the pedestal. Her feet pounded over the hard red clay, kicking rocks as she ran. Five meters. Three. Her hand closed around the Prize. Whatever it was, it felt smooth and slick like glass or crystal with hard edges and ridges.
Sarah planned to grab the Prize smoothly as she sprinted past and then make her slow way back to the boulder-strewn border of the valley. She felt a sharp tug on the hand and forearm holding the Prize and realized she couldn’t feel them anymore. She looked down at her left arm, the one that had been holding the Prize, and gagged while her brain tried to make sense of what her eyes were telling her.
Her left arm was pinned to the pillar by two meter-long quills. She felt her legs go weak and she stumbled, falling to the ground and scraping her face on the rocks. She tried to catch herself with her hands, but her left arm now ended four or five centimeters above her elbow in a clean cut that didn’t bleed at all for some reason.
Sarah gagged again but didn’t throw up. She didn’t know why she wasn’t fainting from the pain, but she wasn’t. It was excruciating. She felt herself slipping away into panic and fear, her reason starting to spiral away. But her training wouldn’t allow her that retreat: Gammon had been merciless in the techniques he employed, and this was not the worst pain she had felt.
She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed through her clenched teeth. Hot tears poured out of the corners of her eyes, tracing burning lines down her cheeks but in her mind, the pain had faded to the background. Only a dim part of her consciousness registered the heavy flap of wings or the large shadow that passed over her. Most of her mind was concentrated on the exercises Gammon had taught her.
Tutorial Realm
“You have been gifted with a very rare racial ability,” Gammon said.
They were in the parking lot of the strip mall where she trained every day. Sarah’s arms and legs were wrapped around the metal pole of a street lamp and she was halfway up the pole. The sun was high in the cloudless sky and she was already sweating, though her Training Tunic kept her mostly cool and dry with its minor enchantments.
“We haven’t explored it much because… well,” Gammon paused, looking up at her on the pole. Sarah waited for him to continue and he shrugged. “It’s a little problematic to help you develop this particular ability.”
“What…” Sarah grunted as she pushed herself up the pole of the street lamp, “racial…ability? Ow!” It was hot from being in the sun, burning her hands and ankles where her skin touched the metal. “Which one are you talking about? The Fast Healing one?”
“No.” Gammon laughed. “There are tried and true methods of training that particular ability, but they’re more direct and predictable.” He shook his head. “No, I’m talking about your Willful racial gift.”
Sarah grunted as she reached the top of the street lamp. This was now the twenty-seventh time she’d climbed it. She pulled herself up to the beam that held the light out over the parking lot, balancing effortlessly. She peered down at Gammon in the wan morning light.
Sarah asked, “What even is that ability for anyway? Willful; sounds like something my mom used to say.”
Gammon grunted, “Use the System.”
“Can’t you just tell me?” Sarah asked petulantly.
She was a good ten or twelve meters up: enough to make her feel a little light-headed if she were afraid of heights. Gammon didn’t answer her. Sarah stuck her tongue out at him.
Mumbling under her breath as she balanced on her perch like an overlarge bird, she held her arms out at her sides for balance and closed her eyes. It was still an effort to remember to call up the System. She never thought of it, and it felt weird to hook her anima into it. It was oddly artificial; limiting.
Most of the time, her anima was just circulating through her body or in the Ten Star Vortex configuration to help her regain tensa. Gammon had been working on teaching her other configurations and other ways to use her anima beyond manifesting her weapons. The first thing he’d taught her, after the Ten Star Vortex SynthSkill had settled, was the way Reborn interacted with the System.
She extended a tendril of her anima within herself and then, simultaneously extended a tendril up and out, leaving the end diffuse. It was meant to be a quick, effortless dual extension that was supposed to remain active at all times so she could have quick access to the System. She felt the System connect to her anima with a little jolt, like haptic feedback on a controller for a video game.
She frowned as she felt that little tug from the System. It was subtle, but she felt the gentle but inexorable pull while she was connected to it. Like she could take from the System, but it would always take a little something from her.
It was an uncomfortably transactional experience—she didn’t know what the price was every time she accessed the information. TANSTAAFL, Sarah thought, remembering one of Griffin’s favorite quotes from Robert A. Heinlein: There Ain’t No Such Thing as A Free Lunch.
Pushing her misgivings aside, she brought up her personal status, focusing on her racial ability, Willful.
Sarah Avery
Race
Human
Rank
Reborn
House
House Vasilias
Racial Gifts
Great House Seal, Enhanced System Access, Unlimited Inventory, Willful, Never Unarmed, Fast Healing
Attributes
Dominion
3 [Dimension] / 20
Speed
?? / 20
Precision
?? / 20
Growth
?? / 20
Arcana
?? / 20
Tensa Pool
120 sparks
Gear
Training Tunic, Sturdy Pants, Grippy Slippers
Grafts
The Edge That Cuts Anything [Dimension]
Willful
You have an unusually resilient mind. You can marshal your will to focus through distractions and your mental fortitude grants you extreme psychic resilience. Evolving ability.
Effect: You are resistant to Mind effects, including psychic damage. Gain improved focus. You have vastly increased pain tolerance.
Sarah frowned at the sparse description. “This isn’t exactly helpful, Gammon; except for that line about pain tolerance—which isn’t exactly encouraging.”
“Abilities like that—open-ended ones with the evolving trait—are incredibly valuable. They’ll improve as you train them and could even become something better, depending on how you use them,” Gammon said. “Willful has several evolution paths, including such powerful abilities as Mental Fortress, Battle Meditation, and Regeneration.”
They certainly sound more impressive than ‘Willful’, she thought. That just makes me sound like a spoiled child. I wonder what you have to do to evolve it?
“Now hang from the street lamp instead of just sliding down.” Gammon indicated the crossbeam she was currently standing on, “Just from there. I want to see how long you can keep your grip.”
“That’s crazy. If I let go, I’ll break my legs.” She judged the distance again and shook her head. “If I’m lucky I’d break my legs. It’s more likely to break my back.”
He grinned. “If you can hang there for thirty seconds, I’ll teach you a new anima configuration.”
Sarah groaned and yelled back, “You’d do that anyway!”
“True… true. A week of no dinner duty.”
“A month,” Sarah retorted.
“A month of no dinner duty it is!” Gammon laughed.
His face became serious and he reached into a pocket, pulling something out that he gripped in one hand. Sarah caught a glint of something reflective and she had only a moment to wonder what it was. Gammon placed the item onto his forehead and Sarah saw that it was a malicious-looking crimson red eye that glinted in the bright sun.
“Now, prepare yourself,” Gammon said ominously.