Chapter 41: Troubling Rumours

  The following six days went by at a glacial pace. There was always something happening, whether that be combat training alongside Angela, Emma and even Sophie, or if it was tracking the closest small groups of Hellbeasts in their immediate area.

  Sophie had decided that she should at least get some training herself since she would have to defend herself sometime. The standing orders were of course to run should she be in danger, but it was a good idea to learn some self defence either way. There were other dangers in the world than magical beasts, after all.

  The group had tracked and killed four groups of two Hellbeasts along the coast close by, and one additional lonesome hound. Three of the pairs were Erik’s and Jessie’s joint effort, while the last pair had been killed by Angela and Emma wielding Jessie’s swords.

  The information about Jessie’s secret sword-producing ability had been recorded in the book, and it was so much more than Erik had thought it was.

  Jessie:

  Major Ability

  Name: Ease The Burden

  Tier: Iron | Rank: 0 | Regeneration

  Type: Spell, Conjuration, Space

  Cost: Low

  Effect - Iron:

  Conjure:

  Able to conjure up to two different weapons, each with separate elemental effects. First-time conjuration of each weapon at Substantial cost. Maximum schema is two.

  Schema: A first-time conjured weapon is made a ‘Schema’. Schema cannot be changed. Schema can be destroyed from ‘Armoury’ at Excessive cost. Schema slot in ‘Armoury’ will be locked for 30 days.

  Armoury: Dimensional space for schema to reside in when in use. Has additional storage space.

  This was another ability Erik was highly envious of. As if summoning two magical weapons that even enhanced its wielders with elemental buffs weren’t enough, it also functioned as a ‘Bag of Holding’ from games.

  It was a magical space she could store whatever she wanted in, in addition to the weapons. Unfortunately, the space was limited, at least for now. She could fit most of their belongings inside it, but not the helicopter.

  With all their stuff inside, Jessie stated it was near capacity as well, though they hadn’t measured how much room there was yet. It was likely three-to-five cubic metres considering all their stuff. It wasn’t too convenient for everyone to have Jessie get whatever they needed all the time, so she’d kept only part of their food and drink supply along with their supply of weapons inside, amongst a few other things.

  She also stored her own things in there, to the chagrin of her sister, who thought they were sharing. While she hadn’t worn a single, black hoodie, Sophie was often seen with her sister’s hairbands, leggings and even make-up. Rather than having to ask her older sister for things, she instead wore more of her own stuff.

  Jessie’s weapons as singular objects were both ‘Schemas’. Jessie explained this as one type of weapon plus one elemental enhancement equalling one schema. The first-time conjuration of the schema was considered its creation, and after it had been created, it filled one schema slot in her ‘Armoury’,

  Each time that same schema was conjured, it was both faster and cheaper than the first time, as she didn’t have to create it from scratch but rather just summon it from her ‘Armoury’ space.

  The backside was the fact that if she regretted the schema, she had to delete it, and was locked from creating a new one in that slot for an entire month. The ability was vague in its wording and it wasn’t clear whether the thirty days started counting from the creation or the deletion.

  She was sure she’d find out if or when she deleted one, but it wasn’t something anyone was willing to test out right now. Emma and Angela were thankful for the chance to fight along with them and gracefully accepted the weapons as a loan.

  Erik had practised a bit with both weapons as well, having a clear preference for the longsword with a strength-enhancement from its fire element. It also made it burn hot—so hot it cut through steel like butter. The shorter sword’s wind enhancement increased his speed, but against his usual opponents, he didn’t need it. He wasn’t as good with any of them as the two trained soldiers were, and Erik wasn’t sure what part of their training equated to training with words.

  His other gifts considered, he had no problem letting the more talented people use them—so long as he, too, could do it if he needed to. It was an amazing power Jessie had got, and they would be idiots if they didn’t take full advantage of that fact.

  Hand-to-hand training was proceeding well. With Jessie’s ‘Replenish’ spell from her Core, everyone could train for hours upon hours each day, and with a little healing after, they weren’t even sore the next day.

  Jessie had even discovered a way to cheat the system when Erik and Angela were out for the count after that first brawl. She couldn’t use her ‘Replenish’-spell on herself. She had no problem with the other touch-range support ability that was her ‘Restore’, but the wind spell refused to do anything to her own body.

  The cheat was Grace. Her familiar shared the same abilities as Jessie, minus the Familiar ability. While Grace used abilities, it was Jessie paying the cost of the spells. ‘Replenish’ appeared to only lock out self-targeting, but Grace could cast the spell on Jessie without issue.

  While paying the cost of the spell whilst she received its effects, the gains were minimal, but Jessie hoped the effects would increase as she got stronger, while the cost stayed the same.

  That had been something Nana had told them, and that they were expecting to happen; it was even the reason no flat damage number nor damage-grading of any kind was available for their abilities. When ranking up, each ability would grow linearly. Though the exact metrics were impossible to know, a ten per cent increase in effect was a rule of thumb.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  An ability at tier 0, rank 9, or Iron 9, was therefore about 90 per cent stronger than it was at rank 0. Reaching the peak of rank 9 and breaking through to tier 1, or Bronze, would double the effects from the previous rank, an almost 200 per cent increase in strength from when the ability was unlocked. It wasn’t all that easy to measure their true strength, however.

  When tiering an ability up, it also gained additional effects. All of Erik and Jessie’s abilities were Iron-tier, having only Iron-tier effects. When tiered up, they would get Bronze-tier effects besides the Iron effects. It wasn’t called an ascension for nothing—the Bronze effects could sometimes override the Iron effects of an ability—but most often added to it in a major way.

  Erik’s ‘Unleash’ ability from Leviathan allowed him to change his body into an imagined beast, though he was limited. Right now, he could only change his feet up to his calves, and arms up to his elbows. While he could change all four limbs to four separate forms, he couldn’t change his entire arm no matter what he tried.

  He suspected that would change when ranking up, but he wasn’t sure. If it didn’t, it would be an effect from tiering up, though it could just as well be the ability to increase the size of his limbs or his body, adding an element to the shape he chose and so on.

  Leviathan, the spirit he’d gained this power from, explained that it would depend on how Erik used his abilities most, and how he ‘Contemplated’ on them after a battle or training. In short, the tiering up of an ability was the ‘Realisation’ Nana told them about made manifest. While some of Nana’s explanations had proven somewhat lacklustre, or straight up wrong in the end, at least this seemed to have another credible source to back it up.

  The previous day the group had moved camp further south, though still keeping to the coast as the beasts approached from sea. They had moved all the way to Tunisia, near a city called Sousse. Their reason for moving was simple; there were more sightings of Hellbeasts there.

  Along with their new camp came more heat, and though they were still along the coast, the lush forests and plains of northern Africa had now been replaced by sandy desert and rock.

  Their group had cut a deal with the local military force, which allowed them to refuel their helicopter whenever they needed. They had to pay for it, of course. In return, their helicopter and pilot, Amir, had to assist if an evacuation was ordered.

  The discussion among the group when getting the offer was short; if things turned out that way, they would stay and help, lending Amir to the city to evacuate these ‘VIPs’, whoever they were. Helping, in that case, would be fighting. If Hellbeasts broke through, it would only be a few of them at once. Killing them fast should keep the destruction and death count down.

  They also borrowed a car. It was over twenty years old, rusty brown and faded grey. It had no door, which was appreciated considering it didn’t have any AC. The car made it easier to visit the city proper from their camp some 40 minutes away by car on the bumpy desert roads. That meant shopping was made much easier, and the food no longer came out of packets.

  Erik and Jessie were in the city together that day, taking a much needed break from training all the time to see the sights and do some shopping. It wasn’t much of a tourist destination, but considering they both understood the native language, and everyone could understand them, they were the best option.

  This turned out to be vital, as they overheard more than a few rumours of a Hellbeast further inland. It wasn’t rare, but this seemed to be a special case; it was in the middle of nowhere. Unmoving.

  They tried to get the location out of the locals, but their information was second-hand at best. They at least got a direction and vague descriptions of where it was located. Radioing it to their group, the two Remnants decided to go searching for it. Although it was unspoken between them, both were on the same train of thought all the way to the area it was supposed to be: someone else had killed a Hellbeast.

  Both thought it odd that there weren’t a single trace of other Remnants around. Certainly, if there had been, at least one of them would’ve killed a Hellbeast by now—it had been over two months since they first appeared. With longevity one of Nana’s promises, it was almost a guarantee that at least one Remnant would still be on Earth. Why hide during an incident such as this?

  That might be hypocritical of them to ask considering their own wishes to remain anonymous, but they were fresh from the factory and still learning the ropes. A potential bronze or silver-tier? Maybe even gold? They could’ve finished this entire ordeal in a matter of days.

  Based on the directions they received, they had to turn the car off-road, which affected the quality of the ride quite a lot. The bumpy ground beneath them proved quite the test for the springs of the car, but it would hold as it always had.

  They reached the approximate area a few hours after they left the city and they both jumped out of the car. Jessie leaned back on its hot, rusty metal body and closed her eyes, inhaling. She was trying to sense where it was with her much modified and improved senses.

  She opened her eyes again, the emerald irises in the sea of blue turned a sharp yellow and an odd shape far from their normal circular one. After a moment, she swung around.

  “That way,” she said, pointing straight ahead.

  Both jumped back in the car, Erik driving off as Jessie’s eyes turned back to their new normal. He just had to turn west from the direction they had already been heading. It was hard for Jessie to know how far away what she had sensed was, as having to learn the distance of all her new kinds of senses proved difficult to say the least. Luckily there was little happening in the area, so she could extend her senses longer without getting too much input.

  About 600 metres from their first stop, Erik noticed a peculiar stone on the ground. Jessie pointed at it, saying that was what she sensed. It was cold inside, hot outside, was large enough and had something like fur swaying in the slight wind.

  Approaching the still Hellbeast on the ground, Erik and Jessie tread carefully. Its form grew clearer as they approached, and it turned out to be one of the magical beasts. It lay still, unbreathing. Erik had never seen a living Hellbeast that wasn’t shaking the earth just from breathing.

  As he approached, Jessie shouted something, but she was too late. Erik had seen it, though he thought it was just a fly at first. He caught the arrow racing towards his shoulder, but only just. The tip was an inch away from him, and his hand grasped the back end of the arrow’s fletching. Looking at the arrow with a confused expression, Erik and Jessie both looked around, but saw nothing.

  Erik spread his aura out as much as he could in every direction, a new trick he had been training with Sovereign on. This had no effect on Jessie, as Erik had also trained in keeping his aura and his aura trait, ‘Authority’, separate. It was easier than he’d thought at first, at least when he realised he had to force the aura to take on the trait.

  When he’d used it in the past, he had put everything into it, which included the domineering trait. As he spread it out with no intent of control nor anger, the aura was just like the steam he envisioned it to be. The heat from the steam wasn’t there unless he wanted it to be.

  When spread out into a wide area like this, Erik, too, could sense more than normal. It was slight, but it was perfect for finding hidden targets, or getting a sense of an unseen projectile. In theory. He hadn’t attempted this in the real world, just while training in his mindplace.

  Jessie reacted just as Erik did, sensing the projectile appearing from nothing, heading straight towards Jessie this time. It was from the opposite direction from last time, meaning there were either several opponents, or just a mobile one.

  Either way, it seemed invisibility was involved. Another the arrow shot through the air towards Jessie this time, and Erik slammed the arrow he’d already caught tip first into the ground.

  Jessie deflected the arrow with a short-lived wind elemental scythe. The ground opened wide in front of Erik’s arrow, tearing the earth open in a straight path toward the last arrow’s point of origin.