“We don’t know how high level they are, but they’re clearly not afraid of us,” said Cole. “Maybe they’re here as challengers and we’re a target of opportunity, or maybe they’re hunting DOR or Beth specifically. I’m betting they’re here for us. Either way, we need to get out of town and track down Beth.”
“Agreed,” said Roxy. She was reclined on the couch, next to their host, who had panicked a lot less when Cole pulled out a handful of Babel-bucks and shoved them in his hands. The guy had even made them some sort of hot tea—the perfect drink for the scalding atmosphere of the fourth floor. “But after that shit at the casino, we’re not exactly Tallorax’s most favored citizens.”
It was true. Over the last hour, they’d watched guard patrols increase dramatically in the nearby area, more to maintain order and a curfew than to find those responsible, thankfully. But anyone could describe Cole and the others as the perpetrators, and they’d definitely get chased out of town or thrown in lock-up if they started showing off their faces too much. The animalistic armored otherworlders (who Howie had annoyingly dubbed the Beastie Boys) had also fucked off when the guard presence increased. But they were around. So much for buying extra water or supplies here.
“More like public enemy number one,” said Cole. “Think we should have handled that a little more politically?”
“Nah, fuck that sicko,” said Roxy. She scowled. “I wish I could have healed him just so I could have a turn killing that sick freak—if putting my hands on him wouldn’t have made me want to vomit.”
Cole huffed a laugh. “Still, we need to beat feet.”
“Wait til night, maybe,” said Besson. “Better cover.”
Cole looked at the hovel’s owner. “Does this floor have a night?”
“Oh, yes sir. The cycle dims soon, and the sun shall be occluded. Twenty harups.”
Cole pinched the bridge of his nose. He had no idea what the unit conversion for that could be, and he wasn’t about to play anthropologist. Soon was soon. “Alright. We’ll be in your hair until then, then we’ll fuck off.”
“Very good, sir.”
Soon turned out to be about an hour, after Howie got curious enough to willingly do math, which, well, Cole had never in his life gotten that curious about anything. But it gave Cole time to check his updated level. He’d hit fourteen, which his analyzer had predicted as his next evolution.
Level 14 – 06%
Primary class: Meteoric Valkyrie(3) – next evolution predicted at level 20
Secondary Class: Arquebus Engineer(2)
Path Alpha – Meteoric leap now marks targets in a small area, visible to nearby allies, but increases kinetic energy of attacks applied from all sources by 25% plus 2% per acuity. This bonus is doubled for your enhanced projectiles and thrown weapons.
Path Bravo – Meteoric leap now redirects excess kinetic energy of your enhanced projectiles and thrown weapons against marked targets toward another marked target – one bounce per evolution. Adds one enhanced projectile per point of Acuity.
See meditation guide for divergent evolution selection process
Strength 3.8
Dexterity 4.5
Acuity 6.6
Resilience 3.1
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Speed 5.2
Intelligence 4.5>
Cole settled back, brow furrowed in thought.
“What happened?” asked Roxy, coming to stand next to him.
Cole looked up at her concerned face, not realizing how hard he’d been scowling. He forced his expression to relax. “Oh, nothing, just trying to decide this divergent class evolution stuff. I don’t know enough about choosing between the two options. How do you guys decide?”
Roxy shrugged. “Whatever makes me tougher or use a shield better, I take. My last evolution let my skin take on different defensive properties after I burn my ability, depending on the type of metal my shield was made from.”
Howie perked up from across the room. “We talking evolutions?” He got up from where he was watching out the window, grinning ear to ear. “Mages get like six paths per evolution so it’s really easy to fuck up and pick things that look good in a vacuum but don’t complement other skills. I’ve been crawling Termlink trying to plan my build out based on what other elemental mage evolutions have been found.”
“What was your last one?”
“Elemental mixing. You saw it on Vael when I made that snow mortar. It’s only possible since I took the multi-charge munitions evolution on Curahee. I’m hoping to get a cluster evolution next, where my warheads can split into multi-element munitions that saturate a wide area with whatever cocktail our enemies are most weak to while still being strong enough to pack a punch.”
“That’s… really smart,” acknowledged Cole. Intelligence being Howie’s prime enhancement was always showing itself.
“Did you check to see if anyone else had your Mario class?” asked Roxy.
“It’s a Meteoric Valkyrie, not Mario,” said Cole. He considered. “I saw there were at least two other Meteoric prefix Kickers. One struck it rich early and retired, the other was critically wounded and took his disability exit clause. I didn’t think to check their evolutions, but the highest one was only level eighteen.”
Howie frowned. “Doesn’t sound like a class with longevity. Or maybe it’s just hard to build for. What were your first-ev choices?”
Cole thought back, recalling the wording. “I could either take my kinetic energy and add it to five bullets, or instead of a leap, I could have shot across the ground at much higher speed over a longer distance.”
“Did that ground shot replace your leap? Or just give it additional functionality?”
Cole pulled up the history on his analyzer, looking at the previous evolution. “It doesn’t say. When I was meditating, though, I got the impression it would have replaced it.”
“In general, trust your instinct when meditating. We use the analyzers because we’re stunted compared to the locals when it comes to interpreting the mental signals a Lewis Field sends. But we’re in close contact with our attunement cores when meditating. Those sensations give a more conceptual path. Order vs chaos, focus vs wide area, blazing fire vs soothing water, that sort of thing. The analyzers give their best guess at what’s going on inside you, but it’s not perfect at interpreting functionality. The Lewis Field doesn’t talk to them.”
Cole tilted his head and shot a glance at Nona, who was listening, though looking elsewhere. She’d shared her story with the rest of the squad, with Bricker’s permission, so he felt comfortable asking about it.
“Nona, the Lewis Field talks to you?”
She didn’t look their way but still answered. “Not like a voice in your head. It’s just a knowing. Like a muscle memory with you since birth.” She struggled to find the words, lifting her hands like a scale. "You know how to breathe. You know hot and sharp things hurt. Otherworlders know how to look inward at their evolution cores. Earth humans are missing a critical sense. Like a cave newt that’s never seen light, and so its eyes are weak and atrophied.”
“Well, thanks for comparing me to a cave newt,” said Cole. “That really helps me make a decision, here.”
Howie chuckled. “She turned me into a newt!” he squeaked. Then cleared his throat when no one else laughed. “You made the right choice on your first-ev, I think. The leap’s vertical functionality makes it super versatile, and trading that for going faster over ground when you’re already fast would have really limited you. It’s not flight, but true flight is extremely rare, and only a few Kickers have ever reached an evolution path that allowed it—all mages, by the way.” He winked. “What are your current options?”
Cole looked down at the analyzer. “Alpha path makes it so I only mark a few enemies, but increases kinetic energy applied to them from all sources.”
“Ooh,” said Howie. “That’s really good. Especially against single strong enemies. Imagine if we’d had that against Ram-head. Our guns might have actually punched through his armor. Only kinetic energy, though? Not ephemeral too? So it wouldn’t boost my or Nona’s spells. Still, guns are decent at applying kinetic energy, but it’s not actually that much when you consider how concentrated the…”
Howie trailed off.
“Howie,” said Cole.
The Kicker looked up. “Hmm? Sorry, I was thinking about depleted uranium. Like I said, that path is really, really good, especially when coordinating fire with a team vs a single strong opponent. What’s the other?”
“Bravo path is bouncy bullets,” said Cole.
Howie raised his eyebrow. “Like, it makes your gun non-lethal?”
“No, not rubber bullets. Like, I shoot someone, and if the round has enough energy to punch through, it bounces to the nearest enemy. Just one, at first, but it says that number will increase as I evolve more.”
Howie stopped and stared at him. “Cole,” he said slowly.
“Howie,” Cole replied.
Howie put a hand on each of his shoulders and gave him a flat stare. “Take the bravo path.”