Chapter 10

  Memories Of Having Been

  Class Options Available!

  Congratulations! You have unlocked Adventurer class options!

  Please select from the following!

  Barbarian

  An unarmored fighter that enters into a berserker rage

  Divine Knight

  A tank of a warrior who offers healing and judgment

  Druid

  A staff wielding nature skill user with taming abilities

  Elementalist

  Elemental skill specialist weak in melee, but with high damage output

  Ranger

  Utilizes a wide range of survival and combat skills

  Thief

  Sneaky hands and feet, unique stealth and poison abilities

  Warrior

  Able to use any weapon and armor, well rounded combatant

  Nik ignored the messages, while he checked to make sure Ryan was safe. His hood was still purring, that seemed a good enough sign if nothing else. He went ahead and looked at the barrage of words on his screen as the voice described the choices he had displayed before him. It was a lot to take in. Not just the classes, but the fact that it said, “Adventurer” specifically. In the end, he decided to hold off on the decision and consult his mentor.

  He also had a quest that he might be able to complete now that he was thinking about it. He hadn’t hunted anything at all, but he could still try to loot an enemy that he had killed.

  He was about to go collect his spear, when Pearl said, “Oh, are you done staring off into the distance already? I assume you were looking at your system thing?”

  “Can’t I just look off into the woods in peace?” he said in jest, and got a mocking, tired expression from Pearl in return. He laughed in a poor attempt to veil his worry in humor. “Yes, it was the system. I leveled up again. I still have a quest to loot a creature that I’ve killed. So, let me work on doing that and then we’ll have a bit to talk about with the level up,” said Nik.

  “Fine, but we should try not to tarry for too long,” she replied as her wary eyes scanned the forest.

  Grabbing up his spear, he returned to the segmented beetle and stabbed at the place where one of the legs was attached. It did not work as well as he had hoped. Pearl watched on as he made puncture after puncture around the base of the limb, doing a terrible job of separating it. Eventually, he gave up and used a Wind Slice to finish the job. He picked up the severed insect leg and inspected it. He waited for any sign from the system to announce that he had looted something. Nothing happened. Huh, well maybe it did want me to go hunt something, he thought. DING! Nik dropped the bramblestag limb as that cursed bell rang out again.

  Quest Succeeded!

  Congratulations!

  Experience gained 25!

  Feature Gained:

  Inventory access granted.

  You can now store items in a personal pocket space.

  Congratulations! You can put your pouch in a pocket. Maybe even keep your gear this time!

  XP 45 of 400 to Level 4

  Okay, that’s... something… My intelligence increases and this system still makes no sense. I guess this means it’s time to consult a faery, he thought to himself. “So, this is gonna be a lot to sort through,” Nik said in Pearl’s direction. He had an idea before moving to join her, though. He placed a hand on the limbless center chunk of the broken beetle and thought, Inventory. One of the boxes that had always contained text popped into existence. Except this time it just contained a series of squares.

  He thought about placing the hunk of shell and flesh into the first slot, and it vanished from under his hand. There was now a strange phantom image of the item filling a square in his inventory screen. Pearl hadn’t seen, she was still keeping an eye out to the trees. He did the same for the severed leg before moving to stand next to where she hovered.

  “We have a lot to talk about this time. No putting it off and forgetting. It might be a long conversation, but we need to have it,” he told her, a slight quiver trying to sneak its way into his voice.

  She rolled her eyes and replied, “Stop it. You are only prefacing the conversation to stall. We will speak while we move. Come on.”

  Nik shook his head, grimacing at himself. She’s right, I am stalling. I don’t know how I feel about receiving these class options in the first place. I feel like I keep getting closer to being like one of the adventurers. Pearl definitely doesn’t like them, and this might be too much for her, the thought sat in his mind. As their footsteps began, Nik continued the conversation.

  “So, let’s start with the less crazy part, the quest reward. I can place items into the system and store them in what it called a ‘pocket space’ thing,” he said.

  “I am sorry, but none of that made any sense. We can probably put all questions of logic aside, your system does what it wants. It might be better for you to just show me this pocket space.”

  Nik pulled up his inventory and reached out with a hand. He pressed a clawed finger against the flesh, mentally trying to switch to the easier to handle leg, but he was too late. The large chunk of beetle flesh fell into existence before them, thudding on the ground and splattering blood onto them both. Pearl let out a longsuffering sigh as Nik apologized, “Sorry, I meant to do one of their legs instead, but my claw was already on that one.”

  “Just pick it up and we will move on. As much as I did not want my feet covered in insect blood, that will be a useful ability for you to have,” she conceded. “Now what is the reward that you consider even crazier than that?”

  She had known him long enough now to read his features. When he hesitated, she asked a second question, “You are afraid to talk about the level up reward. Why?”

  “This part is hard for me to sort out for myself. I don’t know how I feel about it, and I don’t know how you will feel,” he said, avoiding eye contact.

  “It is okay. Go on,” she encouraged.

  Nik braced himself for whatever might come next as a result of his words and told her, “The system is offering me a choice of adventurer classes. I’d be one step closer to being the same as them. I’ve already killed, and now,” he paused to breathe in.

  His voice broke lightly, saying, “Now, I might wear one of their titles.” There, he had admitted it, letting his fear out into the open for his friend to see.

  Pearl was stunned. That much was obvious even to Nik. She hadn’t even realized that she’d forgotten to respond until she looked over at his weary face.

  He was still waiting for her to turn her back on him. His hands were shaking. She took as much as she could hold of his hand in her tiny fingers, and said, “It is ok, Nik, you are not alone. You also are not one of them. I do not fear or hate you. This system you have is only a tool, a weapon to use for your own survival and growth. It cannot change who you are in any way that you do not choose for yourself. I don’t care what title you hold, so long as your goals remain the same. Get stronger, and find a place of safety for us, if one exists.”

  Nik had anticipated much less acceptance than he received. He wasn’t certain how he had managed to find such a capable mentor, trusted ally, and loyal friend.

  “Okay, let’s do it,” he said with a less than confident smirk. After explaining what his options were and the descriptions below them, they had narrowed it down to the three potential choices best suited for him. They were considering the druid, elementalist, and ranger classes.

  Druid made some sense with the nature abilities, and having an extra beast on their side could be a boon. Meanwhile, Nik already had access to two separate elemental skills, and having more from the elementalist class could give him options in combat. The ranger class might just help with a lot of the various challenges they would face in their journey in general.

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  “Looking at these I could see some logic behind each of them, but my mind keeps on pulling to one of them in particular,” Pearl stated.

  “I don’t know if we are narrowed down to the same one or not,” Nik replied. Pearl cocked her head at him, trying to guess where his mind was going.

  “You are selecting ‘ranger’, are you not?” she asked.

  Nik’s smile grew a bit wider as he responded, “No, that would make a good amount of sense, but I suspect you already have more knowledge and skill in a lot of the areas that I believe that class would give me. I don’t want to just double up on what you can already do. Nature skills could be interesting too, but there has only been one reason that I have survived with you so far, outside of luck. More than anything else it has been by using elemental abilities. I’m choosing the elementalist class.”

  No sooner than the words were spoken, his display proceeded from the class list to skill and ability options. He hadn’t even gotten to confirm with her that she agreed he was making the correct choice or not.

  Congratulations!

  You are Now a Level 3 Kobold Elementalist!

  Hey! More skills! Maybe you can use a new skill to stay conscious for one whole day!

  Please Select Class Specialization

  You may select one skill and gain three abilities under that element

  or

  You may select two skills and gain one ability from each

  Earth

  Flame

  Lightning

  Water

  Wind

  “That’s interesting, flame and wind are a different color. It looks like they’re not selectable,” Nik said, a bit confused.

  “Perhaps because you already have those skills,” said Pearl.

  Nik informed her of his next dilemma. “So I have earth, lightning, and water to choose between. I can get three abilities from one skill or one each from two different skills. I don’t know how wide I want to spread my abilities out, but that variation could also be incredibly useful at the same time.”

  Pearl considered before offering her viewpoint, saying, “Would getting three abilities from one skill just be a shortcut to ones that you might gain anyway from leveling the skill? I am not certain of how you were able to learn your flame skill, but I am certain that it could not be a simple process to replicate it for the other elements.”

  Nik allowed himself a few moments to mull over her argument. “I don’t think you’re wrong,” he finally said. “Now for the two that I’ll be choosing. I think you’d agree water is similar enough to wind that it is the least appealing of the three elements for me.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Alright, so that is it then, earth and lightning?” he questioned, looking at her for approval.

  “Earth and lightning,” she replied with a smile and a nod. With no more time than it took for him to think about it, the system displayed his new skills and abilities.

  Skill gained: Earth Level 1!

  Rocks in your head, eh?

  Earth ability gained: Stone Bullet!

  Mana Cost: 5

  Skill gained: Lightning Level 1!

  What a shocker, you chose the flashy element.

  Lightning ability gained: Shock Armor!

  Mana Cost: 10

  Nik noticed there was an interesting little twist to this; it was like the exact opposite to how he had learned the other elements. The others he learned to understand before gaining the skills; these he now understood innately after gaining them. Looking over his skills, abilities, and stats he remembered that he had yet to use his point from leveling. Given his choice of class, he put the point into intelligence to increase his elemental damage further. This raised the stat to an 8. With the stat point placed and the box closed, Nik was able to walk more easily without fear that he would trip on something blocked from view by the system’s display.

  The longer they walked on, the more desperate Nik felt to try out his new abilities. One might think that watching leaves fall on repeat would teach someone a bit of patience, but in this case, one would be wrong. He could already picture himself launching rocks at enemies instead of losing his spear at the beginning of any given fight. Shock armor sounded like an incredible defensive ability, too. He smiled at the mental image he was creating for himself.

  The claws of one foot caught on the heel of the other, sending his steps off balance. He flailed his arms out to his sides regaining control before he would have fallen. His own thoughts had thrown him off balance.

  Am I excited about fighting something? he asked himself. The thought was followed immediately by another, is this about survival or power? I need to be careful. This was starting to feel like a problem for him to keep in mind for himself. Power for power’s sake was not something that he had ever sought before, not that it was ever a viable option for him before he had gained the system.

  It was another hour into their travel that his hood squirmed around on his back. Tiny claws gripped the red cloth and tugged as Ryan hauled himself up onto Nik’s shoulder, wings beating furiously but doing little to help his ascent. Yawning and stretching his whole body one part at a time, as he smacked his lips together.

  Nik panicked, remembering Ryan’s last meal. He reached his hand down, shoving it into his pouch, and feeling for his metallic button. As soon as he felt it make contact with his fingers, he sent the button into his inventory. He breathed out a sigh of relief as he watched its image appear in the display.

  He pulled a bit of mushroom from the pouch when he withdrew his hand. Holding it up to his shoulder, he offered it to the tiny fae-dragon, who sniffed at it before taking it between his teeth. Ryan tilted his head back and let the bit of mushroom drop into his mouth. He chewed it slowly and then swallowed it down, looking every last bit unenthused by his boring meal.

  “Well, it looks like Ryan will eat mushrooms, he just doesn’t seem all too excited by it,” Nik said looking up towards the flitting Pearl.

  “That is something at least. Coins should be more of an occasional treat, I should think,” she said, trying her best to not return to the fit of laughter that had caught her so firm in its grasp earlier that morning.

  Nik shook his head and said in a tone of mild resentment, “I still can't believe he ate my coin.” Ryan for his part sat happily on Nik's shoulder, eyes wide as he watched the trees go by. As sad as he was about the loss of a prized piece of his collection, he still couldn't be mad at the little guy.

  He was well aware that he was new to taking care of another creature, and he thought, I'm sure it won't be the last surprise I will discover. That’s going to be even more true in this case with how rare this little guy is. Nik chuckled at the novelty of him calling something else, little guy. Until he met the sprites and pixies, he had always been the smallest person in the room.

  Trekking along through the forest paths was more than just beginning to make every mile look the same as the one before it. The trees, rocks, and underbrush had been bordering on blurring together for days now. Nik hadn’t even seen a new species of animal yet today, Ryan aside. By the time dusk had begun to fall over their cloudless sky, Ryan had already napped on seven separate instances, and Nik was ready for a break from what he felt was becoming an endless journey through the Emberwood.

  They continued until Pearl found somewhere that had, what she had called, a modicum of shelter. It was in simple terms, two large rocks leaning against each other.

  The three of them had a quick meal of mushrooms with a side of mushrooms. Nik tried toasting his portion with Candlelight to test its effect on the flavors, and he was not disappointed. The mushrooms that he had cooked were significantly more flavorful and even a touch sweeter. After they were done with their meal, they bid each other goodnight. Settling in for the evening, Pearl took the first watch as usual, and Ryan curled up, for some reason unknown to all but himself, on Nik’s ankles of all things.

  What felt like a dozen heartbeats later Nik woke to the sharp pain of Ryan biting and yanking on his index finger. He hissed a sharp breath in as he yanked his hand away from the offending party. Ryan looked up at him innocently before moving over to nudge at Nik’s pouch. He wanted food, of course he did, Nik had only just fed him before going to sleep himself. After giving Ryan another bit of mushroom, they returned to their respective positions to let sleep claim them once more.

  After Pearl had woken Nik up, Ryan took up his post on Nik’s shoulder to help him with his shift of the night’s watch. The night was quiet, if you didn’t count the sounds of insects, frogs, or nocturnal birds of prey. Each sound was a potential threat and that idea had kept Nik awake. It did not do the same for the fae-dragon who spent a good few portions of the watch hunkered into Nik’s neck for one of many naps.

  He considered doing some nighttime skill training, but then he also didn’t want to abandon his focus on their surroundings. The hours went on through the night and there were moments when Ryan’s purring almost lulled Nik back into sleep, but Nik fought the drowsiness back with memories of having been attacked by the chimpanther.

  In the end Nik failed, and even as he stood with his back against one of the large boulders that formed their shelter, sleep took him. He was walking through the forest again, just like he did every day, but there was nobody beside him, not on his shoulder or in the air above him. He was alone. He kept walking forward because he was heading somewhere important, but he couldn’t remember why it was so important that he got there.

  Nik thought, Pearl must have gone ahead to scout. As he traveled on, he heard a snarl behind him. He remembered clearly the sounds that the chimpanther had made.

  He rolled to the side and then continued forward in a sprint through the trees. He could hear it crashing against tree trunks as he rounded them. It was gaining on him. He was too slow, and it would reach him soon. The forest ahead of him opened up, there was a clearing encircled by mushrooms. If he could make it to the clearing, then he might be safe.

  He was struck from behind. The beast’s claws sent him tumbling forward. The distance left to the faery ring was so very close. With the vicious predator leaping for him, he rolled to the side and dove for the ring.

  He made it. Each breath carried the weight of a fallen tree even as it burned his lungs like fire. But it wasn’t the effects of having run that were causing the burn. Nik turned to where the beast had been, only to see it consumed by flames. Smoke filled the air with the scent of charred wood. It was already beginning to turn his throat raw, but the beast grew closer still.

  It walked, slow steps with its body low to the ground as it began to circle the ring. The predator was now a creature of black cloud and red fire. Something screamed in the distance, and it tugged at Nik’s mind. This is just a dream, he realized. Even with the realization that this was a dream, he could not wake himself. The beast continued along the edge of the ring, as the world around him was being consumed by its fire.

  Calm yourself, Nik, he thought. He made himself close his eyes and told himself, “Think of the leaves. Think of the leaves.” It was his own mantra to attempt to calm his own mind. Eyes shut, smoke filled his lungs, the leaves fell one at a time behind his closed lids and caught flame. The heat of the fire emanated through his body in waves and his scales stung from errant sparks.

  The screams in the distance were getting louder, and the leaves were burning as they fell. None made it to the ground except as embers, and the ring was gone. Nik turned as the chimpanther made of burning coal leapt for him, a goblin-like scream emanating from its throat. Its screaming maw opened unnaturally wide and devoured him.

  Nik gasped in waking, as the goblin screams reverberated through the trees. The beast was a dream, but the screams… The screams were very real.

  by Daniel Newwyn

  He can’t conjure grief, can barely levitate a pebble, and once submitted a stanza instead of a spell schematic.

  Fabrisse Kestovar: aspiring thaumaturge rock collector, confirmed pastry enthusiast, and perhaps the least emotionally competent student in the Order’s seven-hundred-year history.

  PRAXIS NODE, a long-dormant, possibly AI-driven interface that delivers cryptic quests, sarcastic prompts, and calibration objectives measured in light-years. He has a Legacy Token, no combat thresholds, and a growing collection of useless rocks the system insists are ‘historically significant.’

  He’s also the only one who can see any of it.