POV - Tad

The weight of a gaze is a fearsome thing. Artistically, the gaze is a sort of disinterested appreciation. A supposedly impartial visual assessment. Often however, there is a very partial bent. The viewer imprints their own agenda. Their own prejudice and motivation. From the downright lecherous to that of a predator considering a tasty snack. Sometimes, concerningly, even both at the same time.

I felt none of that.

Thankfully.

No, I felt a cool, calm assessment washing over me. Judging me. Weighing me up. There was no animosity. But there was no friendliness about it either. It wasn’t that deep shiver I had felt when Cassette had [Inspected] me at the Bank. It was a lighter, more feathery weight, brushing gently across my senses. Consideringly.

[Observe] was still silent. Whoever, or whatever it was that was assessing me was very well hidden. Concentrating, I activated [Prospect]. Searching out hidden viewers. Aha, I oriented up high in the rubble. From that direction. Even as I turned, the gaze disappeared. I’d spooked it.

All was still and silent.

I was almost positive that this was the Waterprowler. Yet another strong pointer towards the sapience of this monster.

Should I seek it out? Force a confrontation?

No. That did not sit well with me. This was like a first contact situation. Ha, I laughed to myself, I was the alien. I was the invader. Greetings Oreolian. I come in peace. Take me to your leader.

Ah, and no again. I didn’t want to rush this.

Gently, gently, softly, softly. I would wait and see how this played out.

With [Observe] firmly anchored on the area of interest, I continued my way carefully across to the Shop.

I had over 16800EXP to spend so I was feeling relatively wealthy. First things first. I would stock up on [Campfires]. I was down to three and would use another tonight. If I budgeted for roughly two per 24 hours that would give me 16 hours of refuge and eight hours of action. I felt comfortable with this. I was not in a race and this needed to be sustainable in the long term. Of course, hopefully I would find or build a safe place and then these campfires would not be so critical. But until that happened, I wanted a good back-up supply, especially if I ended up well away from the Shop in the future. These [Campfires] would have been fabulous in the Dump. I bought 30 of them. With a base price 10EXP each they were expensive but then the 50% discount made them much more affordable and the peace and safety was well worth that.

Next food. I had water covered. Food was something I could possibly scavenge but I didn’t want to put myself in a position where I would have to find or hunt my dinner every single day. I would have to store any food in my backpack so it needed to be compact. I set up a search.

[MRE]s just did not sound that attractive. I didn’t need full meals anyway. This was just going to be a supplement. I searched [OSM]. Yes. Chocolate, almond with manuka honey, apricot and blueberry. I selected four of each and then another four chocolate to bring it to a total of twenty bars for 10EXP.

Now. That was the necessities taken care of. Time for the more exciting stuff.

Oh, first replace my lost throwing dagger. Good remembering. And they came in packs of four. Obviously these were things people lost quite frequently. Throwing them away and all. Four for 1EXP and, with the discount; four for 1EXP. Well, that was hardly a discount. I bought 2 packs for 1EXP. Excellent.

I had a ranged weapon so I didn’t need to shop for a bow and arrow. I would use my spade sling for now. But, maybe some specialist ammo? I searched out sling ammunition. And there were a lot of choices. Okay I had basic ammo in hand. Maybe some specialist stuff. Oho! [Exploding]; that sounded good, blow the sheep out of those exploding sheep before they did the same back at me. And then there is debuffing ammo; [Slow], [Confusion], [Smoke] to name a few. I like. I likey lots. 5EXP for a box of ten or 10EXP per pack of 30. This 50% discount was so dope. I queued up three packs of explosive munitions and one pack of each of the debuffs for a total of 60EXP. That brought my total spend to 220EXP. My shopping therapy was working wonders.

Now for some Skills.

Oh. My happy buzz dissipated.

That sucked.

A grey Base Skill was 10000EXP. After discount. That was bad. And very expensive. This was bad. Bad, bad, bad I say. I could only afford one grey Skill. I started a search anyway.

There were no grey Magic Skills. White Skills were 20000EXP. There were no common Magic Skills either. Glitch it all. I tried green Skills. And uncommon Skills cost at least 40000EXP. Man. I sighed. This was depressing. I searched up rare Skills. These started at 80000EXP. I could see the pattern. And to think I thought those undies were expensive.

And wow, I already had a Blue Skill and a Gold Skill. These were super expensive. And my Dream Skill could generate Skills too. Ha, broken. I stopped scrolling through the lists and lists of Skills. I didn’t need to buy them. So what; there were no Skill Trainers, didn’t matter, I would [Dream] up my own. I would not be held down.

But Magic. Magic. Magic.

I needed to open up my understanding of what magic was.

No, I corrected my tenses; of what it is. For yes, it surely is a very real and tangible thing in the System. Undeniably. Yet, I frowned, in a very intangible and amorphous way. It was illusive, tantalising and completely bewitching.

I desperately needed a trainer. A mentor. Some sage advice even. And there was no one here to impart such esoteric wisdom. I was floundering in the dark. Flailing even. Like an infant bundled in a cot. Totally ineffective in providing for myself.

Science had been so strenuously against magic. Diametrically opposed even. Magic was the mumbo jumbo of the uneducated, the crutch of the superstitious and the gulling of the gullible. And I had been so well insulated from all that in my cotton wool life. In a life of busyness, of business and of boredom. Magic was just a figment of imagination, reduced to entertainment, to fiction, to escapism. To tricks and cunning sleights of hand and clever cinematic brilliance.

Just the possibility of being able to manipulate the world in such a currently unknowable way was completely thrilling. It was marvellous. It is marvellous. And it will be even more marvellous still. Especially when I mastered it. Or even when I just tasted it. Yes, forget mastery, even just the simplest and most basic and novice of magics enthralled me.

I searched the Shop.

Spells were not for sale. Neither were spellbooks, tomes of wizardry, or Dummies Guides to Magic.

Surely there must be something?

The shop list populated.

Hmmm. Scanning down I recognised some of these. Armstrong. Baum. Butcher. Fiest. Hobb. Lackey. Martin. Mullins. Jordan. Plamann. Pratchett. Sanderson. Tolkien. Zelazny.

Absolute classics. Loved by generations.

And there were hundreds of names. If not thousands. Names from every culture, every time period. This was fantastic.

Was the System recommending I unlock my Magic by reading fiction? I was all for that. In fact I was totally on board. This was extremely sensible and obvious magical training. But where to start?

Ho. The System Shop had taken on board my musing and was now cycling through the screens and screens of names. And then it settled on one name.

William Somerset Maugham.

I had never heard of him.

Hmmm. Maybe William Shakespeare was a nom de plume? No. Wrong century. I knew Shakespeare was in the 16th century. But W. Somerset Maugham was born in the 19th century. How did I know this? The Shop had added WSM’s dob/dod. Slightly helpful. Yes, but still I was in the dark. I knew nothing of him.

And the book was called ‘The Magician’. Well that sounded promising and pretty definitive, if the System was endorsing this one over all else.

And even with the 50% discount this was going to cost 500EXP. Man. Books are never cheap but this was completely obscene. My brief dream of consuming fiction for the rest of my days fizzled slightly.

But, if this could open my eyes to the System’s Magic then this would be money well spent indeed. I begrudged none of it. What was money anyway. But a means to an end. And that end was magic.

I purchased the book.

Wonders awaited. My spirit was uplifted within me with anticipation. I was making progress.

And while not so straightforward as buying a Skill or getting training at the Mage Guild, this book was filled with promise. With wonder. And nothing so treasured is even half as valuable when there was no challenge in the seeking. In the obtaining and in the owning.

I was a dragon with the first of my hoard

I was on the cusp.