Somewhat despondent and deep in thought, I made my way down Main Street, pushing the bike next to me, when I suddenly was shoved forcefully to the side. Completely unprepared, I lost my balance, stumbled over the bike, and crashed into a car that was parked at the side of the road.

It hurt. Not like being cut by a sword or torn to shreds by a giant shadow cat… but it was still painful, and the raucous laughter didn’t help.

Slowly, I picked myself up from the ground and turned around to see who had just attacked me like that, out of nowhere, without any provocation whatsoever.

Turned out, it was one of the bikers. A huge fellow, with shoulder-length hair and a leather vest that was almost bursting at the seams from the strain of containing his enormous, bulging muscles. He must have been close to seven feet, and his overall bulk made him quite intimidating. Like Gregor Clegane on steroids.

And I immediately hated his guts. Not that I needed another justification to hate those guys, but frankly, I hadn’t really thought all that much about the bikers during the last few days. Those feelings now came back with a vengeance.

He wasn’t alone, either. To his right was a bored-looking chick that seemed almost normal, but was completely disinterested in the ongoings, instead opting to clean her teeth with a toothpick while waiting. And then there was another biker guy, this one more sleek-looking, like a snake somehow, with sinuous, lightning-quick movements.

“Don’t get in my way, cretin,” the big biker barked at me, once he had stopped laughing.

“Or what? You gonna shove me again?” I asked, not willing to just back down. You give some asshat an inch, they will take a yard. Not with me. If he was trying that again, he would meet a few inches of steel instead of my skinny bones, that was for sure.

“I might,” the giant said, utterly oblivious to my attempt of standing up to him. Somehow this reminded me of some of those Calvin and Hobbes comics where Moe, the bully, was too stupid to get the smartassery of Calvin. Not that I had tried to be facetious. But I was almost sure that it would have been lost on the big fella anyway.

“And the next time might be more painful, little ogre,” the biker continued before turning around and continuing to walk down the wide street.

Little ogre? What the fuck was he talking about? That didn’t even make sense. The way he had said that it was supposed to be a belittling insult. Did the guy even know what an ogre was?

I was about to shout something flippant at the back of the guy when I heard a whisper next to me.

“Don’t do it.”

“Fucking hell,” I cursed while whirling around. Twice in a row, I had not noticed anyone approaching me. I was getting really sloppy. Spatial awareness my ass… In the dungeon, that would have easily cost me my life. Luckily, it was just a skinny guy, with a few too many piercings and some tattoos, that, instead of making him look tough, somehow managed to make him feel geeky. “Who are you? And what the fuck do you care?”

“Whoa, hey, chill down. I am just trying to help ya here. Peace, dude!”

I glanced back at the disappearing group of three and took a deep breath. Probably the guy was right. There was no point in picking a fight at this point. I’d deal with the bikers when the time was right, I swore to myself, and not before.

“Sorry, I just got a bit freaked out by you appearing practically next to my ear,” I said, turning back to the guy.

“Nifty, huh?” The guy smiled. “It is called ‘Ghost Step,’ bro.”

“Ghost Step? Like you turn into a ghost or something?” I asked, suddenly curious. That would be pretty close to my incorporeality spell. And if some random person could control that type of magic… I might have to revise my opinion about the power level of the average Placidian.

“Na, that would be wicked. It’s more like, ya know, making ya real quiet and sneaky-like.”

“Ah, I see… what mana type is that?”

“It’s like white mana, my man. The best mana type, by a lot!”

“For sure,” I agreed, not seeing the need to argue the point. There were some more important questions, I needed to inquire about. “So what’s up with those people? I mean, are they just walking through the street shoving people around all day long?”

“Nope. Just sometimes. How come ya don’t know them? Have ya smoked like weed the whole time?” the guy almost looked hopeful at me.

“Nope, I haven’t. I just was out and about most of the time. Soooo…?”

“Oh, well, the big guy is Lil’Pope, stupid as a log. He has a bit of a temper. He likes pushing people around, it improves his mood… Just don’t cross him, at least not to his face. He is seriously strong. Like for real.”

“How strong is that? Like strongest-man-competition type strong?”

“Well, dude, I don’t have the faintest. But I heard rumors of a strength of like twenty-five. I have seen him shove a car to the side. Just like that. So, I’d say… don’t get into a shoving match with him,” the guy grinned.

“What about the others? The chick and the snake-guy?”

“Bad news, them. Bad news, I say.”

“Like in what sense,” I asked, interested in finding out more about my potential adversaries.

“Well, like the dude is called Cobra. The first one to make it into the EFU, if ya know what I mean.”

“The what?”

“Dude, the EFU! Elite Fighting Unit. Seriously? Man, you’re so chill…”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that and how to even interpret that. Was it a compliment? Or criticism? And, of course, I had remembered about the EFU, but I wanted this guy to tell me a bit more.

“Sooo…?”

“Yeah, like the best fighters… elite fighting unit, best fighters… makes sense? Anyhoo, he got in first. Fast, mean, smart. Don’t mess with him, seriously. The right-hand man of Big Pete.”

Ah, that was useful information. So Big Pete was still around. And he still was on top of the pecking order. Which would make it all the sweeter when I’d take him out.

“The hoe is Wendy. She’s been around if ya take my drift. But she is deadly too. More the sneaky type. I have heard that she disappears sometimes, and the next thing you know, she has a knife on your throat. I’d know…” the guy was nervously touching a thin scar on his throat, before continuing. “Shadow mana, based on the rumors. Nasty, nasty little bitch. She is really fast too.”

“So, no one opposes them?”

“Dude, no one dares to, for real. Some people did, but they disappeared. I remember that chick… damn, she was cute. She told them what was what, and next thing ya knew she was gone. Never seen her again.”

“What about the rest of the EFU? I mean, there should be others that are equally strong, right? This cannot be it!”

“Uh, there are others, alright. But they just don’t care. Or they only care about their friends, ya know what I mean? No, the best thing is to stay out of their way, keep your distance.”

“Hmpf, well, I can’t say I like that… so how come you prevented me from getting killed? Are you like an altruist or something? A good Samaritan?”

“Duuude, I am like, seeing this skinny guy, all bones and whatnot, amble down the street, walking straight into Lil’Pope, and I was like, respect, no fear, nothing. And then I saw ya fly into the cars, and you know, I felt with ya. I have been there, ya know? And we bottom dwellers have to stick together!”

“Uhm, ok. That makes sense,” I managed to respond with a straight face. Bottom dweller… that was a new one. But whatever. The guy had actually been helpful, and he was nice enough, if in a slightly weird way.

“Thanks, man. I am Daniel,” I said, holding out my hand.

“Dude, no worries. I am John,” the guy responded, shaking my hand vigorously as if his life depended on it. “The John!”

“The John?”

“Yeah, like the John-of-first-encounter with Chad.”

“The what?”

“Duuude, so, ya don’t know? I HAVE to tell ya. So, I was just strolling down the street, ya know, just like ya did now, not a worry in my mind, thinking about the next smoke I was gonna have. The sun was shining, and the cicidas, no cicadaes, like, those insect things, they were like chirping all over, ya know, all peaceful and whatnot. Like real chill. And then there are those people walking toward me, all geared up fancy and full of weapons and stuff. And I am like, dude, those are so cool. Like reenactment people, for real. And so, I am like, hey, what’s up, yo? Do you have a smoke for me? And they were like-“

“John, that sounds totally fascinating, but I actually have to get somewhere…” I said, trying to extricate myself from the tale before John got even more animated and engaged. “You can tell me next time. It sounds awesome, though.”

“Sure, Dan, sounds like a plan. But hey, if ya wanna hang out sometime, I ha-“

“Yeah, John, we’ll do that soon. Take care for now. Uhm, peace!” I made a peace sign while moving backward out of the immediate range of John, and then hurriedly walked away, down Main Street.

“See ya soon then,” John shouted, sounding almost hopeful.

Shit, after that barrage of words, I was almost ready to leave Lake Placid behind. I liked having company, but… it could get a bit too much if I had to deal with people like John. Luckily, Ben and the others weren’t like that. At least not out in the wild.

But, as annoying as John might turn out to be, he also had given me some good initial intel. I was sure that I could have obtained the same from other people. But the more I could spread the information gathering around, the less I’d reveal my ignorance. Not that Sue and the others would be worried about that since I had already told them that I had only been here the very first days. But other people didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to volunteer that information either.

Soon enough, I reached the High Peaks Resort. The hotel and that is what it was, despite the fancy name, had a swimming pool upfront, somewhat dirty by now, and a set of glass doors leading into the lobby. At least, it wasn’t one of those cheap-ass motels that had small rooms accessible from the outside - to reach the rooms you had to cross the lobby and then follow the hallways spreading out from there, or climb up the stairs. It made the whole thing much more defensible, which, since the transition, had become a significant consideration.

Tentatively, I made my way inside, somewhat worried that I would be perceived as an intruder.

The air in the lobby was stale and hot. At least, the building was made out of concrete, which kept things relatively cool compared to the wooden houses that made up most of Lake Placid. But there was almost no way to create a nice draft through the lobby because none of the windows could be opened. If it had been me, I would have already broken a couple of them just to get the air to circulate, but since I wasn’t in charge here, I wasn’t going to take the initiative… I just hoped that the rooms were a bit less stifling than this.

The entrance area of the hotel was still in reasonably good condition, but I could see dirt starting to accumulate on the carpet and some discarded items that would have been cleaned away just a couple of weeks earlier.

Luckily, no one was there, saving me from the awkwardness of having to explain myself to a stranger. Then again… I had no idea where to go from here. I mean, there were about fifty rooms, and I didn’t fancy the idea of going through one after another to try and find Sue and the others. Assuming that they were even in.

Waffling for a moment on what to do, I finally resolved myself to sit down in the lobby and wait for them to come around, or at least for someone to show up that I could ask. If nothing happened for a couple of hours, I could still go around knocking on doors.

And I wasn’t going to get bored either. First off, I needed to stuff myself yet again. I had eaten some cereal bars almost continuously. Still, I needed to have a substantial meal every few hours, ideally with some meat.

While I was munching away, I began to think about my training. I needed to get more robust, faster, more agile… you name it. I could feel that my body had yet again regained some physical attributes across the board, continuing the crazy recovery speed since the change. I wasn’t anywhere close to where I wanted to be, but the much-improved food, at least in terms of calories and proteins, coupled with much better rest and no injuries, had done wonders for my physical development. Well, not quite wonders… but the change was noticeable.

As I mechanically chewed on my food, I decided to take a look at the changes to my body. Not in terms of stats and whatnot, but internally. Where did the muscles come from? Was the energy drawn from my fat reserves? Or the blood sugar?

I focused on the ebb and flow of the energy in the muscles in my arm. At first, I didn’t see much at all – there was the flow of silver, amber, black, and red mana, as was the case with any other part of my body. But there was something else as well… I wasn’t sure what it was, but I could see things change that shouldn’t change. My arm was resting on my lap, completely still. Yet, the muscles seemed to transform, ever so slightly. And there was a wisp of mana that I could see with my peripheral vision. Whenever I focused on it, I wasn’t able to notice anything unusual, but then, the moment I looked elsewhere, I could… feel something change.

It was an aggravating feeling not to be able to see what was going on, to be able to analyze what was happening inside of me.

Did I need more perception?

That was probably a wise investment anyway because it would not only allow me to notice useful stuff, but also react better in combat.

Somewhat reluctantly, but also almost unreasonably excited, I decided to go ahead. I’d put one point in perception and see what would happen. After all, it wasn’t as if there was an easy way to train perception. For that matter, investing a point with its immediate impact on the body might also make the process of how these mana-driven physical changes happened a lot more visible. Assuming, of course, that a standard recovery, albeit sped up, would work the same way as changing physical or mental features using characteristic points.

Time to find out.

Immediately after spending the point, I felt something change in my brain. Suddenly, I had a blinding headache out of nowhere that made me want to bang my head against the floor, just to escape. And then it got worse. It felt like an army of ants marching inside my mind, biting and tickling me all over - and there was nothing I could do to get them out. I scratched my head hard enough to draw blood, curling up in a tight ball on the faux leather seats in the front lobby.

I started moaning and rocking back and forth in a futile effort to manage the discomfort. When that didn’t do diddly-squat, I tried to distract myself by checking whether there were any visible changes going on, some type of process that I could observe. After all, that had been part of my initial intention.

And there was. The area inside my skull was a hive of activity. Obviously, I couldn’t see it, per se, but with my meditation skill, I could perceive it like a third-person observer floating around my body. Multiple types of energy were churning around each other, dominated by green mana, which partially was drawn in from outside my body, but the bulk of it came from… my stomach area!

That was good news because it implied that the energy did not actually have to come from built-in fat reserves. Just having enough organic fuel in the stomach would allow me to use those characteristic points. Granted, changes in the brain were probably going to require much less supplementary physical substance… like a few more neuron connections perhaps, slight alterations in the brain structure, the nervous system, maybe a few glands. I had no idea what exactly could make someone more intelligent or perceptive, but surely it was some combination of those things. This meant that the energy required was probably relatively low, compared to creating denser muscles, increased muscle mass, or revamp and strengthen the whole body to increase vitality.

So perhaps putting food in the stomach would work just fine for the mental stats, but I was less sure about changes in physical stats. At least via points invested. I could see that a somewhat slower buildup through exercises might be perhaps supported by drawing in ambient mana and whatever was in the stomach at the time.