“Did we survive that?” I asked, the adrenaline still coursing in my veins.
“I think we did.” Sam nods in response.
I held out my fist, and after a second Sam bumped his to mine.
“Screw you, you dirty rats!” said Sam, in a Cagney style. I couldn’t stop myself laughing in response.
We decided to take a moment to regenerate our health and resources from where we were. A bench had been placed against the cliff, it offered an excellent view of the harbour. To get to us, any creatures would either have to come out of the perfectly clear blue sea, out of the harbor masters building or traverse the full length of the arm of the docks in full sight of us. So we decided to take the risk, and sat on the bench to enjoy the view and recover from the fight.
My HUD was indicating new notifications, so I accessed it to see what impact the fight had had. I wasn’t disappointed.
‘You pushed yourself beyond your limits in combat, endurance point gained’
‘Your injuries didn’t kill you, they only made you stronger. Constitution increased’
‘Your extensive use of magic has reinforced your pool, allowing the Aether within you to grow denser, Aether point gained.’
‘Your intensive experience in battle with your spells has brought a deeper understanding of your magic, resonance point gained.’
‘As your resonance with magic deepens, so does your knowledge, refer to your spellbook to select a new spell.’
‘Your experience in combat with a battlestaff has made it more comfortable in your hand, Battlestaff skill enhanced.’
A new spell? I opened up the spellbook page to see what option it would have.
When Wendy had talked me through this before she had said that ‘beyond what I gained, I would be able to find and learn new spells either out in the world or from other spellcasters.’ At the time I had assumed what I gained was from her, but now I wondered if she meant gained from the system.
Before the spellbook was themed a lot like a paper book, I could move forward and back through it’s pages, with each double page being for one spell. Short description and then most of the space being taken up with the casting instructions. Now though there was a new tab at the top. ‘New*’
I selected it and was given three choices.
‘Static Field’
‘Release a surge of static around you that shocks anything nearby.’
‘Ball Lightning’
‘Shape your will into a wandering sphere of crackling stormlight. It drifts forward, spitting arcs of lightning at anything it draws near.’
‘Updraft’
‘Stir the air into a snapping vertical gust—a brief column of wind that kicks upward with surprising force.’
“Something good?” the person on the bench next to me asked. “You just started grinning.”
“I just unlocked a new spell, a choice between Static Field, Ball Lightning and Updraft. You?”
“Err, I gained an increase in strength, dexterity, endurance and constitution, I also unlocked Flint lock pistols and a linked weapon type called Mana charged pistols, only at rank 3.”
“Only rank 3?” I asked surprised, “I just leveled Battlestaff to 3, and it’s my highest.”
“Really? Rapier unlocked at 4 and hit 5 after my first proper fight with it. I got longsword to 4 in the fight against the swordmaster…I’ve fenced since I could walk…you don’t suppose the game is basing the skills on some kind of assessment of our ability with them?”
“My friends think there might be a link. A streamer who was a professional chef unlocked a high cooking skill…it would make a lot of sense though…you do know how to hold a weapon, move it, you have that muscle memory…but then how does that explain my level 3 in Battlestaffs? Ok, sure I have a few hours using it now…but what is a few hours?”
“That’s true…but then again. No offence, but that fight with the Sword Master, it was clear that was your first time wielding a sword, most of the others I saw there were similar. I also saw you drilling and you were taking it seriously, unlike a lot of the other players who were just going through the motions. The first fight here though, when you were throwing spells out, you didn’t come across as amateur. And considering what we just did…Ok, granted, I don’t know how to mix in spells with melee, but I’ve seen quarterstaff fighters with years of experience, sparred against some of them, and you would give them a run for their money…could there be a scaffolding system in place? Something which sort of tweaks players so they learn how to do these things quicker? Still rewards those of us who come in with skills, but helps out those still learning? If they have worked out how to do that…” he trailed off in thought.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I flexed the fingers of my left hand, thinking about how quickly I picked up the spell casting, and how quickly I was learning how to use a quarterstaff.
“Then again…maybe there is something to be said for throwing someone in the deep end…it’s not like most people learning weapons in the real world do much more than training exercises and a few minutes of sparing…and you could be a natural with the old long stick.” Sam continued.
“It would make sense though…it’s not like these are our real bodies, the interface could be reading our intentions, and not just the raw signal output…I look different in real life, and I’’ve had no issues adapting to this body…”
“That’s true…I added a few inches to my height and it hasn’t actually impacted on me at all, and you would think it would...”
I looked over my spell choices again. Not the greatest of descriptions, but it kind of looks like a defensive choice, an offensive choice and a utility one… I selected Ball Lightning. The ‘anything’ nearby could include allies, which excluded the defensive. We fought too close too often. Maybe if I was solo. Knock up was tempting…control skills were often beneficial for a caster…but an area of effect spell…after the swarms, it could be a game changer.
The new tab disappeared, but in its place I had a new spell page.
‘Storm School’
‘Bound by the will of its caster, Ball Lightning condenses the raw forces of the storm into a devastating natural effect.’
‘This is a channeled spell, as long as the spellcaster continues to maintain concentration they will be able to manipulate its size and position, loss of concentration will result in the spell dissipating.’
The somatic gestures and verbal spellcasting of this spell were considerably more complex than either of the other spells I knew…
“You have the mana for that?” Sam asked, I looked at my mana bar, it was just over a third. Then I realised what he was talking about.
“Not yet, but I’m just going through the words and gestures.” Considered for a moment and then channeled my inner Wendy. “Casting spells is more than just the words and gestures, you also need to force your will upon the world. The words and gestures are merely tools to help shape your thoughts in such a way that the world has no choice but to respond.” I reverted back to myself. “Or at least that is how it was explained to me…hopefully I will have it in my head by the time my mana is full, and then I’ll give it a go…If it is anything like spark though, I'll need to fully get my head around it before I even consider trying to cast it.”
I didn’t, the first half was pretty straight forward, but the second was not. I’d need more time to practice it, and it wasn’t the sort of thing you do when another player is waiting for you.
“Check out the office while we are here?” I asked, standing up.
“Makes sense.” He responded and tried the door. “Not want to try and use your new spell?”
“I need more practice. It can wait.”
The harbour master’s office was a squat two story building, built to survive stormy weather, it looked robust, like it had weathered the greatest of storms and laughed in its face. The thick metal door opened outwards. We stepped into a small reception area. A wooden counter, a few metres across in both directions, fenced off the entrance area from the rest of the space, with a counter flap directly opposite the door leading into the rest of the open plan room; it was presently up.
A flight of stairs led up in the far corner. With 3 pairs of desks taking up the rest of the room. A short long window runs along both the seaward side and the pierward sides of the building, filling the room with plenty of natural light.
One of the desks had some hastily scribbled notes in a rough hand, and a log book. A quick look revealed a log of weather reports, ship arrivals and departures. The latest entry was from, at a guess, five years ago, acknowledging the arrival of the HMS Theseus. Between the age faded ink and the bad handwriting, most of the notes were illegible, on one though in a slightly different, but almost equally bad hand, I managed to make out ‘blown…reset…all green…’
Upstairs was a lot more interesting. The short fifty centimeter window circled most of the way around the building. Offering visions from the edge of the break in the bay heading out to sea, all the way around to the walkway along the docks to the building. Anyone stationed here would be able to watch any vessels coming and going. There was a counter underneath the window and seats every couple of feet or so for people to work there. Some more of the dead terminals we had seen dotted around the town, and one, in the furthest corner from the stairs, had a small blinking green light.
Sam and I crowded around it. I reached out and touched it. The screen lit up.
‘SHIFTE Harbour Master Access terminal’
‘Warning!’
‘SHIFTE Primary Generator, Offline.’
‘SHIFTE Emergency Generator, Offline.’
‘SHIFTE Harbour Master MHK power source at 5% capacity’
‘Damage detected on MHK power distribution network, please redirect power to restore Harbour Master basic systems.’
The screen then shifted to an overhead view of the harbour, and the nearby sea channel. There was a network of cables running to various different places in the channel like a tree’s roots stemming from the harbour masters office. Some of those routes had breaks on them. There was a single route coming from one of the generators to the building which was green, the rest more a greyish colour.
At each junction I was able to redirect the flow in different directions. Seemed simple enough, just merge and direct all the power into one line…and no…a big red cross indicating the simulation detected an overload that would blow that cable. Ahh, different cables have different throughputs. Interesting. So I would need to loadbear the cables, and try to keep it spread out as much as possible while still bypassing the broken sections…ahh I can split it between branches and then recombine over here…oooh this might work…
“Annnnd Done!” I exclaimed happily when I finally figured out the trick. A sharp beep beep beep. Preceded the whirl as system fans around the room started up and the other computers around the room powered on.