New System, Who Dis?

Thursday, April 4th, 2069

“Is this why you asked Ms. Stovall about if things might get complicated if you were no longer an F-rank?” My mother asked. Her expression was both disappointed and deadly serious. She too had been extremely skeptical at first about my ‘re-Awakening.’ The odds were just too small.

Either way I wasn’t about to admit that I may be a Cannibal…

Unlike my father, once I managed to convince her it was real, she was taking the news of my re-Awakening with far less excitement. Her reminder of my court case and the possible trouble I was in sobered my father’s excitement as well. He now wore an expression that was somewhat easy to read. He was trying to figure out why I seemed fine, even after everything I’d just been through.

I nodded in affirmation to my mother’s question, while giving my father a disappointed look. I had wanted nothing more than five minutes to myself so I could shower—maybe use the Spent Mana Crystal, but that didn’t seem to be in the ‘cards’. I’d even told my father that in the car—but I had barely made it to my room when I heard my mom’s very dramatic gasp.

Smegma had begun laughing, and moments later, I’d heard my mother calling my name. My mother’s next words echoed my fathers.

“It might be best if we had him reassessed,” my mother said while looking at Gary. Since only one person at the table had gone to post-secondary school for Portal and Hunters affairs, and she was cutting me out of the conversation a bit, I felt heat rise from my chest.

“No,” I said shortly. Both my parents looked at me with shocked expressions. My tone hadn’t exactly been soft, and it wasn’t often that I flat out refused something they suggested. Sighing, I explained, “It will only muddy the water. Right now, the case is of a—” I cut off just before mentioning the rank of the highest Skill I’d stolen from the man. I paused for a moment, trying to recall what Morgan Hallsbrad’s Rank was. I didn’t remember Ms. Stovall’s words through the hot buzz of my frustration. Smegma helped me out. “—C-ranked Awakened assaulting an F-ranked. Cut and dry. If I suddenly became higher Ranked, then my self-defense may get called into question.”

My mother’s face went red as her own anger was likely kindled. “He was a known criminal—who murdered so many people for their Skills! I don’t think it will go that way.”

She paused for a moment, studying me.

“How are you so calm about this?!” My mother demanded, tears forming in her eyes. I winced my frustration dying in my chest as Mental Fortitude asserted itself.

“Sweetie, he’s probably right.” My dad saved me from answering my mother’s question. “While we both think a repair Skill won’t change things, we don’t know.”

“The man who attacked Brodie was a murderer!” My mother said for the second time. My father stood up and placed both hands on her shoulders.

“That’s true, honey—but we know nothing about the law. Why don’t we tell Ms. Stovall after he confirms the Skill tomorrow?

“Surely the judge would take into account when the Skill Awakened!” My mother added, her voice growing higher in octave.

My anger simmered as they once again cut me out of the conversation. While they were making good points, it just didn’t feel good to not have any say. I tried to put a lid on it, realizing that it wasn’t intentional.

“We can’t know that,” I growled quietly, not fully managing to keep the aggravation in. “I agree we might want to consult Ms. Stovall and see what she thinks.”

My mother stared first at me and then imploringly at my father. My father winced in a near mirror of my own, thanks to our similar genetics. “She does have a bit of a point, son. Most Judges also have a truth detection Skill…”

I nodded. That was my greatest fear and why I wanted to keep this out of a courtroom. “You’re actually making a case against telling her, dad,” I responded pointing at him. “Keeping Ms. Stovall in the dark, may be best. While client confidentiality still exists, so does illusory truth.”

That had been covered in one of my introductory classes. The example the teacher used was of a particularly bad case of murders. A Hunter nicknamed ‘Slaughter’ had been running Portals with his Guild Anarchy for about five years before he was finally caught. The reason being is that he never spoke directly to someone with a Truth-Seeking Skill.

The UNMH courts had adopted the American’s fifth amendment right—and he used it to have his lawyers speak on his behalf. Cleverly, Slaughter had always explained his falsehoods to his lawyer who conveyed the incidents as ‘Portal mishaps’, on his behalf.

In fact, Hunter-death in Portals was more of a report, than a trial. So, he’d remained free, right up until the Anarchy Guild hired a lawyer with a Truth-Seeking Skill. There had just been too many incidents of Portal Mishaps surrounding Slaughter. The lawyer could tell that Slaughter wasn’t telling the whole truth, but nothing more.

This was practically an admission of guilt to the Anarchy Guild. and they had to make a choice. Slaughter was a high-ranking Hunter that brought Anarchy quite a high profile.

In the end, the Anarchy wanted to keep him on as a Solo raider—choosing to keep him active in the field, but taking other Guild members out of his reach. However, both Anarchy and Slaughter got extremely unlucky. The judge also had a Truth-Seeking Skill, and when the Lawyer came in to claim the most recent death to be Portal related, the judge knew it to be an omission of information.

It took a few more years for all the information in the case to be gathered, but when a survivor of Slaughter’s attack was found a media storm broadcast the case planet-wide. The entire Anarchy Guild, that operated in South Africa, was deemed criminal by the UNMH, and Slaughter was instantly put to the top of the UNMH most wanted list.

I could tell by my parents' faces that my use of the term was bringing back memories from ten years ago. The case was rather sensationalized, especially because the Guild and Slaughter were still at large. Everyone assumed they were hiding out in a Field somewhere in Africa, but despite their notoriety—no reports of their whereabouts were known to have been made.

“I feel like I’m missing something,” Smegma said while looking between everyone from his place on the dining table’s hanging light.

[There’s an entire streaming documentary about it. I’ll show you later.] I responded.

Silence continued to stretch at the table, and my parents looked between me and each other. Smegma hovered down from the light. “You could just buy an Obfuscation Ring,” he said as he landed on the table in front of me. “It would hide one of your Skills from detection. You’d have to get a mid-grade since Mental Fortitude is an A-ranked Skill, but I think it’s only a hundred thousand mC in the Demonic Vault Shop.”

Smegma tried to send a screen with the information, but I ignored it, which somehow minimized the window to a small red dot in the corner of my vision. I made a mental note to remember that piece of functionality. I desperately searched my brain for something to say to break this uncomfortable silence and thought I’d found something.

“Mom. Dad. You and I know that my new Skill Awakening had no impact on me defending myself from Morgan’s Mana pull,” both my parent’s faces drained of blood.

I swallowed, and realized this was one of the first times I had said the term aloud again since the Police Station or maybe even before that. For a moment I felt nauseous. A fire that I hadn’t felt since that day erupted in my stomach. Thankfully, something seemed to contain it—like a ring of stones around a campfire. Heat still wafted from it, but it didn’t allow the destructive part to escape.

“I did nothing wrong,” I said, my voice hot. “Stressful situations can cause re-Awakenings, and that husker attacked me unprovoked. I won’t let someone twist that to make me look like a bad guy.”

I realized I was shouting and didn’t continue. That hadn’t been even close to the direction I was planning to go with the conversation and frankly I was surprised by it. Somewhere along the way I must have stood up and I lowered myself back into my seat, face feeling hot with the dual emotions of embarrassment and anger.

Once seated, I looked pointedly at Smegma, my eyes wide and he inferred the question I wanted to ask. “The Mental Fortitude Skill doesn’t stop emotions, it just helps keep memories and situations from breaking you. Notice that you don’t have any fear while talking about your assaulter? That’s the Skill. Some say it contains strong negative emotions, but it doesn’t simply delete them. They’re still there, inside you. It’s believed that the Skill relieves those emotions back into your psyche over time and that won’t harm you, but they have to be expressed. Even the Skill can’t keep it bottled up forever.. Then everything just bubbles over, which is probably why you just shouted and it feels like it came out of nowhere.”

My mother rushed over to my chair and hugged me. My dad stood and moved over as well but only placed a hand atop my free shoulder, opposite my mother.

“We don’t think you’re the bad guy!” My mom blurted out, and I could hear the tears in her voice.

My anger slowly cooled—the Mental Fortitude Skill or my own calming breathing getting it under control.

I looked to my dad, who must have seen something in my eyes, because he nodded. “You can head up to your room, shower, and then hit the Mall. I’ll talk with your mother.”

Maybe he felt slightly responsible since he’d been the one to blab about the second Awakening right after we got in the door. I regretted not immediately hopping in the shower. Still, I couldn’t read the somber look on his face.

I gave him a tight-lipped smile but waited for my mother to stop squeezing me before I slowly stood up and hugged her back. As I hugged her, I apologized to both my parents, “I’m sorry I shouted. We can discuss again later if telling Ms. Stovall will be for the best.”

Something in their expressions instantly made me feel better. They clearly didn’t think I was shouting at them. “Don’t keep everything all bottled up!” My mom answered my apology. “Don’t hold it in, you’re going to give yourself an aneurysm. We’re always here to talk. And we weren’t trying to make a decision without you!”

Swallowing hard I squeezed her tight, expressing that I wouldn’t hold things in, but definitely not explaining that I was pretty sure that wasn’t how aneurysms worked. The entire time, I couldn’t help but wonder how I would be handling all of this without Mental Fortitude. That thought and Smegma’s earlier comment brought me to the stark truth of the situation. I had a whole lot more than the Demonic Vault Skill to hide. After a few minutes of hugs and promises, I was free to return to my room.

It shouldn’t be a surprise what my first question to Smegma was. “How high of a rank was Mental Fortitude again?”

“You originally said you’d gotten it at A Rank,” Smegma stated plainly, without even looking at me.

My stomach fell through the floor and back to the table downstairs. I hadn’t even considered how bad things could go if I was rescanned. While I was sure that the Awakened Assessment Machine wasn’t exactly perfect, I knew it wouldn’t be classifying me as an F-rank if I possessed four Skills, and one of them was A. Wouldn’t I then be classified as an A-rank Awakened?

Smegma landed on my desk lazily and slowly turned to look at me. I’d found my way to the floor leaning my back against my bed frame. He stared at me and then shook his head while rolling his eyes. “You think that they’re going to waste a High-Ranked Spent Mana Crystal on a F-rank?” I shook my head. “So, then what are you worried about?”

“As far as I know, people aren’t aware that Unspent Mana Crystals can be used to identify Skills.” Smegma gave me a condescending look and I rolled my eyes at him. “Even if we had them in abundance, which I don’t think Humans do. It isn’t like someone would think to send their Mana into the thing for five minutes.

“No, what we have, is a machine you stand in and it identifies your rank.”

“How?” Smegma said, looking interested.

“Huh?” I answered stupidly and then replayed the conversation and the question. “Oh, no one really knows but it measures the magic energy coming off of you, or something.”

“So, it can’t tell what your Skills are?” Smegma asked, sounding disgusted.

“Would I have needed a Spent Mana Crystal to see mine if it did?”

Smegma raised the ridge above his black eyes. Whether he was realizing that I had a point or if he was questioning my tone I couldn’t tell. “So, you’re worried that this machine will somehow feel more energy coming off of you?”

I nodded. Smegma began tapping his teeth with a talon. After a moment he returned his attention to me. “I’d have to see this machine but that makes my concerns about discovery far smaller. Tell me, is there some people who are misclassified?”

“Yeah, quite a few but it gets adjusted and caught by the more in depth tests,” I answered. “Most of those were the High-Rank Hunters that the first machine couldn’t read properly.”

“Ahhh,” Smegma said smugly. “A retest wouldn’t force you to take the more in-depth tests?” I shook my head and Smegma smiled. “I think the machine’s problem is an issue of Passive Skills versus Active. Mental Fortitude for example is a Passive Skill and gives off no external Mana signature. Recovery will only give off a signature when you’re healing. As for Demonic Vault, well, I am the magic energy signature. That and the windows. So, I would need to see this machine to be sure, but I think if I’m outside the machine, and you aren’t accessing the windows. I would doubt that it could sense anything. Do you know if the people who were misread couldn’t use their Skills while being tested or what it read?”

“Uhhh, I think they are read as Skill-less. Or at least that's what I think the read-it forum on Jax claimed.” I shrugged unhelpfully, not remembering something I’d read in passing properly. Smegma returned to thinking but this conversation brought me full circle to the Spent Mana Crystal I’d left on my dresser on the way out of my room. I slowly got to my feet and went to grab it. Then I moved to my office chair, which sat me in front of Smegma. He shook his head. “You know it doesn’t matter what rank your Mana Pool Skill Card is right now, right? With me here you can eventually upgrade it to something higher.”

“I’m telling you, it’s growing,” I answered. “While it isn’t full at the moment, I think I could probably get fifteen or sixteen points if I let it fill up.”

He shrugged. “Even if that’s true, it isn’t like sixteen points of Mana is something to brag about.”

“Husk you,” I responded, allowing just a touch of my frustration from my discussions with my parents into my voice. “Earlier you told me that Mana Pools don’t grow before Evolution. Now you’re saying it doesn’t matter if it did. Which one is it, you gaslighting son of a Greed.” The last bit I said teasingly, trying to lighten the mood and soothe my frustration.

“I am the proud son of a Felguard and an Imp thank you very much!” Smegma retorted just as cheekily. “Just use the damn Crystal already and prove me right.”

I changed my grip on the Spent Crystal to highlight my raised middle fingers, and then spun the chair away. With a deep breath I mentally dove into myself. It took me about five minutes of struggling before I found the trick of connecting my Pool to what appeared to be a small black dot between my physical hands. It was the straw conduit trick again, but finding the object in my Mental Universe was a bit of mental gymnastics.

Thankfully, Smegma was patient—not!

“You know children on Crendalar Five can do this at birth?”

“Demon children…” I countered and was rewarded with a black forked tongue stuck out in my direction.

Thankfully, my phone was on my desk table, and so while the five minutes of slow Mana seepage felt far longer than it should have, I could see the time and reaffirm that it was just my imagination.

A single blue dot spun inside the Crystal at the five-minute mark, and then it slowly grew and clarified. It looked like a red playing card, with an elaborate design on the back. However, I couldn’t make out the design or the front side of the card thanks to the distortion of the crystal.

That problem didn’t last for long, the Crystal shrank inwards, surprising me enough that I dropped it. By the time I thought of trying to catch it, only two cards were left fluttering to the floor like pieces of paper. I stared at the fractal patterns on the back that I couldn’t make out through the Crystal. It was hard to describe.

The images seemed to change. The red-backed card seemed to always have the image of imps, horned humanoids or the like—and I guessed that one was the Demonic Vault Card. The second Card was green and seemed to depict scenes of a multitude of people and creature’s healing from wounds. Eventually, the changing images made me close my eyes and look away.

Smegma saw my reaction and chuckled. “Disturbing, isn’t it?”

I swallowed and nodded before picking up the Cards. Smegma motioned to the table, indicating I should put it down in a place we could both read them. I ignored him and he huffily floated to my shoulder.

Demonic Vault

Skill Type: Summons (#$^~|)

Skill Rank: High-E-rank (Evolvable)

In exchange for Mana the holder can Summon objects once owned by the Abyss Sect on Crendalar Five. This Skill comes with a guide, and the ability to store Mana Points as Mana Coins.

Recovery

Skill Type: Self Activating

Skill Rank: High-C-Rank

In exchange for vital energy, the Skill holder’s body will heal at rapid speeds upon injury. Warning. This Skill will consume other body structures to prioritize your life if vital energy is insufficient.

Why wasn’t there a Card for my Mana Pool Skill?

“Do I have to get another Spent Crystal to show my Mana Pool?” I asked, not really complaining but still sounding exasperated at the prospect of trying to take another Crystal home as a ‘souvenir.’

Not to mention if this thing was random…

“No, that doesn’t make any sense. It should have recognized all Skills below High-C grade.” Smegma hopped off the office table and hovered around near the floor, clearly looking for a third card. A smile broke onto my face after I scanned the floor as well and found nothing.

“Got anything to say?” I gloated.

“Yeah, let your Mana Pool fully refill, then tell me what you’re at,” Smegma answered excitedly. Since I had been hoping for him to say something along the lines of, ‘I guess I was wrong,’ this response and the excitement surprised me.

“Okay, so you believe me now?” I asked.

“Not yet, but I certainly don’t think you have an F-ranked Mana Pool either,” Smegma answered, but continued to look around on the floor of my room. “Turn out your pockets,” he added after he still didn’t find a third Card.

I gave him the finger he was becoming so fond of.