The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

Have you ever tried to make something out of play dough? Have you ever watched a child try to make something out of play dough, trying their hardest to copy something?

That’s how Joram felt, looking at the “grates” over his windows. Instead of seeing a mesh-like window covering with diamond-shaped openings… he saw what looked like spaghetti noodles tangled up in- if he squinted just right- a grid-like… way.

He refused to look over at Avi, though. Mostly because he could practically feel the amusement rolling off the “VI”. Instead, he reached out a hand, gripped the monstrosity of a grate, and gave it a few experimental tugs.

At least it hadn’t fallen on his head. In fact, the “grate” seemed to be surprisingly sturdy. He smiled, then looked at the other windows and sighed. He still had those to do, but with the hit to his ego that this grate had managed inflict, he wasn’t sure if he was up to finishing today. In fact, he was now very seriously contemplating using the extra masonry that Altaea had left for him to just seal up the other windows.

No fuss. No embarrassing messes that he knew that he would have to clean up later. He looked back at the grate again and sighed. He was going to have to do a lot of practice to get anywhere near proficient at this.

Joram just shook his head again before heading back inside and closing the door behind him as he went. Once in the back hallway/storage room, he went over to the stack of cinderblocks that Altaea had probably salvaged from the surrounding apartments. Looking down at them, he wondered how many he could store in his inventory.

The two types of ingots that he’d stored each took up their own slot. But after storing away the rest of each type, he had been glad to see that the stack size was at least higher than ten. He quickly counted the cinderblocks- 96- and wondered if it would be like Minecraft where the largest stack was sixty-four.

Joram shrugged, then began storing them away, one-by-one. After twenty-three, he got bored.

I wonder if I can do more than one at a time? He mused, then gave it a shot.

So, he concentrated on the entire stack before placing his hand on the topmost block and willed them into his storage.

One disappeared.

He sighed.

Maybe he just wasn’t proficient enough? Perhaps there was indeed a limit? Maybe if they’d all been strapped together on a pallet or something, that would have worked?

Whatever the reason, it didn’t change the fact that he could only store things individually, no matter if they were all the same type of object.

Then another thought occurred to him, and he began trying to store the blocks away as fast as he could. Which worked.

Sure, it took a bit more “out of him” than doing it at a leisurely pace, but it was also kind’a fun….

When the entire pile was gone, he checked his inventory and smiled. At the very least, he was happy that the weird 64 item limit per “stack” didn’t apply here. All 96 blocks were in the same slot. Now, he really hoped that the item limit wasn’t something stupid like 99. He hated games that did that, as trying to make sure you had enough of things for crafting always meant that you’d have to make a final, smaller, stack to get that nice, round number.

Looking around, he didn’t manage to find anything else that he could test the limit with, so he filed that away for later. Instead, another thought occurred to him.

“Would a box of mixed items count for one slot? Or, would it even be able to be stored away…?” he mused out loud, much to Avi’s amusement given the slight smirk on her face.

‘Why don’t you try?’ She said, egging him on.

Joram just gave her a flat look, now more than ever convinced that she wasn’t just some VI. There was just too much… sass involved.

He shrugged, then went into his other storage closet and retrieved a box. A minute later, he’d filled it with random junk and was staring down at it in his hands.

“Here goes nothing,” he said, then willed the box into his inventory.

Nothing happened.

He sighed.

‘Maybe try closing-up the top? Maybe do that folding technique to keep the flaps closed? Or maybe tape it shut?’ Avi added helpfully.

Joram nodded, then first tried the flap folding technique. He then willed in to go into his inventory, and smiled when, for some reason, it worked.

“Well, that’s good to know,” he said, smiling through his misgivings with the System. Why closing the bloody box made a difference was completely beyond him.

‘Yes, I think that it will help when dealing with storage issues. Like during a dungeon delve, or some such,’ she added after a moment of thought.

The idea of actual dungeons threw him for a loop though. Would it be something like a standard D&D dungeon, which usually only consisted of ruins, caves, or some such that you had to navigate through, avoiding traps, and (usually) exterminating its residents/occupants? Or would it be more video game’ish? Like, one where only so many people could enter? Or, ones where it allowed more than one group, but only as separate instances?

Would there be some sort of recharge time on it? A limited number of times you could go through before it “emptied”? Or would they be a “one-and-done” type? Like, to clear the dungeon, you must find the dungeon core and destroy it! Or would it be one where you just defeated a final boss and that was it?

“Do you think there’ll be actual dungeons on this planet?” he asked, not sure if he loved or hated that idea.

‘Well, be they the video game style dungeons that you’re used to seeing, ones like in some popular media, or just plain ruins infested with “monsters”, I’m sure there will be,’ she said, nodding to herself at the end.

Joram shook his head, not quite sure about Avi. She’d entirely hedged her bets with that statement. Given that goblins were already attacking him, it was a no-brainer that they’d probably occupy any ruins that they found. Now, the other two options were much different, and also hadn’t existed in Altaea’s homeworld, so he was pretty sure that Avi didn’t think those other two options were likely… or possible.

But, hey. System. So, anything could be possible.

Shaking his head, Joram got back to the storage issue. He was reasonably sure that he could pack everything in his apartment away into bins, thus ensuring that stuff wouldn’t either be stolen or broken should another goblin invasion occur. It was just that the larger items like appliances, beds, and bookshelves were a bit harder to plan for.

“Hey,” Joram said, a thought occurring to him that made him smile. “Do you think I’d be able to make a portable hole or a bag of holding? You know, to store away the larger stuff?”

Avi gave him a blank look that told him everything before she spoke.

‘Of course, you can. Well, “can”, as in: you will have the ability to do so in the future,’ she said, shaking her head slightly. ‘For now, no. You need to study much more if you wish to make dimensional or spatial storage items.’

Joram nodded at that, then another thought occurred to him.

“Wait. Didn’t Altaea say that she made me ‘like her’?” he asked, suddenly very focussed.

‘Yes.’

Instead of doing the waiting game, giving her a Look, or sassing her, he just continued.

“Does that mean that I have a storage… place like she does?”

‘No.’

“Please explain in detail,” he asked, putting forth his best customer service persona that he could.

‘I would say that you’re more of a… an embryonic version of Altaea,’ she said, looking thoughtful. ‘Before you can become “like her”, you’ll first have to train up your psionic abilities. Once you’ve reached a certain threshold, I’ll instruct you further in what you’ll need to know before you can progress, or develop, further.’

Joram just about ground his teeth in frustration. But fun fact: when his jaw was completely closed, his teeth locked together so well that there was no room to grind his teeth.

Which didn’t make him feel better.

But then he started thinking about Altaea and her journey to becoming… her. That was a very broad way of describing her, and not at all descriptive, unless you knew her and her background. That said, he was sure that he was at least part of the way along her journey, as he was already and Elan. Heck, he was already a High Elan, the next step that Altaea had taken to perfecting herself and the people she’d come from…. Had been changed by? It was a long story.

All that taken into consideration, and he was reasonably sure that he was doing pretty damn good. That he could already “assimilate” magical or psionic items and integrate them into… his being, was already a huge step. That he would be able to, say, assimilate a…. Wait! If he assimilated a bag of holding or a portable hole, would that increase his Inventory capacity?

So, he asked Avi.

‘I have absolutely no idea,’ she replied, both to his great disappointment and unsurprise. Expectation? Shrug.

He didn’t let that bother him, though. It had been an almost impossibly slim chance that she would have known. He still shook his head, though, before heading off to the front of the apartment again and went outside after having a good, long, look through the window for any other visitors.

Once he was standing outside his second bedroom window, he quickly retrieved twenty cinderblocks… and frowned. They were much too large, well, wide, to properly fit into the window well. He’d have to use [Modify Matter] on them as well. With a sigh, he got to work.

It didn’t take him very long to first split, then smooth out the interior side of each of the cinderblocks, now just… cinderbricks? He shrugged, then got to stacking them up so they’d fit as best he could get them to. Which wasn’t all that well, if he was being honest.

There was a rather large gap between the bricks and the side of the window. Then, at the top, another gap that was about nine centimetres. He sighed again, this time dreading modifying the bricks further. They’d turned out all right, but he had definitely placed the bricks so that his modifications faced inwards, so that people wouldn’t be able to see the uneven side of the bricks.

He shrugged again when he realized, once again, that he was alone. No one would care. Probably. Well, he would care. But! He could just practice a lot more and fix everything later!

Nodding to himself after his little… pep-talk? Anyway, he got back to work and quickly shored up the gaps. It wasn’t the best work he’d ever seen, but at least it was done. Well, mostly done. His next task was to fuse them all together, and to the brickwork of the facade, with another application of [Modify Matter].

After another minute of being picky, he decided that it was good enough. It really just needed to be smooth enough that someone couldn’t get something into a crack and start going ham on it. Be it chiselling or using a lever, he didn’t want there to be a weakness that someone could exploit.

With that done, he looked to the living room window and nodded. Sure, it was almost three times the size of the bedroom windows, but now that he’d practiced a lot more, he was confident that it would go well. Well, reasonably well, anyways….

Once done, he was proud of the fact that it did look better than his first attempt. It had also gone a lot faster, the brick laying taking up the majority of the time it took finish.

Joram then looked back to his bedroom window and sighed. His OCD very much wanted him to go back and just replaced the spaghetti grate with brickwork, but the side of him that knew that he needed actual sunlight warred with it greatly. Then he nearly wet himself when Avi spoke up.

‘If you’re concerned about the amount of sunlight that you need, why don’t you just create a space on the roof? You can either just [Dimension Hop] up there, or create a stairwell to access the roof,’ she said, smiling at his reaction.

After taking a moment to allow his heartrate to calm, and to surreptitiously check his pants, he was once again both happy with the suggestion and annoyed that she seemed to be reading his mind.

Fortunately, or wisely, Avi didn’t say anything else. So, he looked back to his bedroom window and sighed. Ten minutes later, and with several lumps of steel added back into his inventory, he was done.

He took another look around, noticing that it was getting to be around noon or so. It really was a lovely forest, if you didn’t mind goblins showing up every now and then to murder you. The light that filtered down through the high canopy was pleasant, the air fragrant with the scents of a forest. He’d really missed being able to just wander in the woods.

The smell of the various flora had always calmed him, along with being alone. Sure, even back on Earth there’d been the risk of running into something that didn’t like you, or wanted to eat you, but that’s what having a riffle on you was for…. Man, he wished that he’d had his own gun locker. That way, he’d have had access to a few guns. He shrugged, then brightened when he realized that he’d packed away a few boxes of ammo.

Sure, that wasn’t entirely legal, well at all legal, in Canada-land. But honestly, he didn’t care. The paranoia surrounding guns had been on the ridiculous end of things before… all this. Anyways! He had ammo! Which meant that he could- eventually- [Delve] the stuff and get its pattern. Specifically, gunpowder and the exact measurements of the bullets which would give him what he needed to eventually make the barrels for the guns he planned on making.

He smiled again, thinking of just how useful that would be here…. Then he sighed again. It was going to take a long time to get to that point.

Joram looked around again, then decided to get to know his surroundings a bit better. He checked on his katana, making sure that it was positioned on his belt just so to facilitate ease of use. Drawing? Shrug. Then he double-checked his hunting knife and nodded.

Soon enough, he’d made his way around his little house-like structure, impressed. Altaea hadn’t just shorn up the outside of the building. No, she’d actually put in a bit more effort than that. The sides of the house were done in, what looked like, the local stone. He wasn’t sure how thick it was, but after tapping it with a rock that he’d picked up, it sounded solid enough.

Then he’d smiled when he saw the small exhaust port that led to the range inside. He’d always marvelled at the ridiculousness of someone installing an exhaust hood over a stove/range, but having it just vent back into the kitchen. Sure, having cupboards above the stove was useful and avoiding having various vaporized substances accumulating on the underside of said cupboards was a good thing…. But. Why not just have a little vent leading outside? That way you didn’t accumulate extra humidity that could prematurely age your ceilings, never mind the vaporized oils that’d slowly condense up there….

Aside from that nice addition, he also spotted a vent for the bathroom and nodded. That was good, for all the same reasons as the kitchen vent. He was also pleased to see that there was a fine wire screen in there to prevent unwanted guests. The flaps were also well made, designed to only open when the fans were turned on.

He then looked up and saw that the house was a good five metres tall. It looked like a flat roof, though, which worried him a bit. He wasn’t sure if he’d landed in a permanently temperate region, or if it snowed there in winter. So, a quick shimmy up the side of the house, using one of the nearby trees, and he was on the roof!

On the roof and catching his breath. That had been tougher than he would have liked.

“I’m gonna need a calisthenics routine,” he muttered to himself, not looking forward to that.

‘Your Prime version also had one,’ Avi said, nearly scaring him off the roof. Why he was so startled every time she spoke up was beyond him, but also beyond annoying.

‘If you’d like, I can provide you with the designs for the obstacle courses he used,’ she finished, giving him a curious look.

“That… might be useful. Thank you,” he said, trying very hard not to take it out on her. She was just… there. He would have to get used to that. Hopefully sooner, rather than later.

Avi just nodded, probably having felt his agitation.

Getting back to why he’d climbed up to the roof in the first place, Joram noticed that it indeed was a flat-topped roof. On the one hand, it would make having a rooftop patio much easier to make. On the other hand, potential snow accumulation might be an issue. Drainage, though? That was covered with the spouts on either side of the roof.

The question, now, was whether or not to make the roof accessible from inside, or to just make some stairs he could use on the outside of the house.