… It ain’t me, it ain’t me ! I ain’t no fortunate one ! No, no, no...

It is often said that a man who is his own lawyer has a tool for a client, and I had to agree to that. Which is why Kurt was currently speaking on my behalf to the Hierarchy’s recruiter.

“So he already got a Trait ? Impressive. But worrying. If I were you I’d be more careful around him, he must have been in a lot of Vaults to obtain one. And you know what they say about Vault-nuts…” The alien looked up from his computer, pausing after meeting Kurt’s gaze. “Well, you wouldn’t, not that soon anyway. Sorry about that. Let’s just say that people who delve into those death traps repeatedly on their own tend to develop some… sinister view on life. It’s a well known facts in the higher realms, so consider this an early warning.”

He was of the same sort than the one who made the greeting speech at the central plaza, just a bit taller. Of regular height even. His red cap had tiny cavities in it, forming a coarse hemisphere on the top of his head. Couple that with greyish patches of fur and milky eyes and you get the picturesque image of an aging alien with an elongated white mustache.

“I’m already keeping a close watch on him, don’t worry. But what do Vaults have to do with Traits ? He didn’t share that with me.”

“Of course he didn’t. You know that crystal you get at the end of a Vault ? Well, if you’re determined and lucky enough to find a matching set, you can claim a Trait from the System.” I didn’t know if that piece of information was common knowledge where he came from, but to us it was invaluable. “Nobody does it that way. Those rocks aren’t worth anything more than currency nowadays, especially when you can get an incredibly potent Trait just by joining us.”

Kurt bounced back on this. “Speaking of, of what use is [Child of the Hierarchy] ?”

“It allows you to learn one more Skills for starters. As a new specie you are currently limited to four, but you will quickly fill them out. Skills are a necessity if you want to progress in the vast world, and nobody expects you to survive with less than four anyway. The Trait also offers you a boost in your learning speed, and as you progress in our ranks-”

Wait, four Skills maximum ? Then how did I have as much as twenty of them ? Even if I didn’t count the ones given to me by passing Stats thresholds, that’s still six more Skills than allowed ! That [ERROR] really did bug the System for me. Strange thing is, it had been given to me by said System… Or had it ? Did the System rather try to put into words something I had discovered by myself ? I was swimming in suppositions while Kurt continued discussing with the clerk.

“-All will be explained when you enroll with us. For now, are you ready to-” Accept our lord and savior into your heart ?

Kurt turned to me, forming a question with his eyes to which I acquiesced. I got closer to the front desk, and we started filling out the forms the alien contractor was handing us while he explained what we were agreeing to.

“We cannot ensure your safety during your first steps with us, you are in effect entering at your own risk. That is not to say that you will definitely suffer injuries during our newcomers-program, but still, don’t take security for granted.”

“That’s encouraging.” Kurt noticed with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“Well, complaints were made, and the higher-ups have deemed this footnote necessary.”

Finished with our applications, we were led to a backroom and told to wait there for a minute. I wondered at the engineering stunt erecting such a building overnight had been. It may be plain and stern, but you have to admit that constructing a three stories edifice made of what seemed like concrete in as little as six hours was a damn fine accomplishment. Few did, most of the towners had looked at it and dismissed it as an affront to the landscape, or another proof of the aliens’ desire to control us. Which made sense, I’ll give them that, but delayed our enlistment to the next night in order to go in unseen. Alyssa, Madison and Fletcher had stayed in town and were spending their time snooping around, listening to conversations and looking for a way to reach the army, wherever they were.

Suddenly, a door in the wall slided open, revealing a man in casual clothes. Jeans cropped to the knees, a colorful shirt and flip-flops collaborated to create an easy-going appearance. But what gave it away was the second pair of eyes on his forehead, black and bulging. They kept switching focus, always moving, as if constantly soaking in the entire room.

“Greetings, my dear trainees ! I am your new instructor ! My name being untranslatable in your language, you can call me Jarof, as in ‘jar of nightmares’ ! In the next few days we will assess your current capabilities and discover your potential. On to the presentations ! You, what’s your name ?” He declaimed then pointed to me.

“Neant… sir. And this is-”

“Let him answer for himself ! If he cannot even do that, he won’t live long enough for his name to matter.”

After a short break, Kurt spoke slowly. “I’m Kurt, pleased to meet you sir.”

“Good ! Now that that’s done, let’s skip the usual background recital, I’m sure Zodb cleared you when you checked in.” Zodb was the recruiter by the way. “As you are now under my care, I expect great things of you ! Train hard, and show us what you got !”

This guy was definitely enthusiastic about this whole training process. Despite my best effort, I was driven to follow him in his excitement. I admit, I did shout a vigorous ‘Yeah !’ while pumping my arm in the air. Kurt brought me back by grabbing my shoulder.

“So, what are we supposed to do ? Do we start now ? How are you going to evaluate us ?”

“If you’re up for it, sure. Let’s begin the tests !” Then, in a lower voice. “You’ll love them…”

He swiveled on his feet and swooped back the way he came. Naturally, we followed him in the dark corridor. It had all kinds of bends at weird angles, up, down, a bit left, slightly right, up to the right, down and a u-turn left… Got a bit lost in that maze. That may have been intentional. Soon, we arrived in a new room, brightly lit with a rack full of those metallic staves in their compact forms. They were the size of a hand in length but each one had a different width.

As he reached the center of the room he started speaking aloud. “This first test is to… test your physical abilities.” He seemed disappointed with himself, but quickly got back on track and gestured to the shelf. “You will each choose a Bo to your liking then attempt to activate it. When you do so, you will strike me with it. Simple enough, right ?”

I didn’t like that smirk. Not because it was insufferably cocky but… Well, that’s a part of it, but I was fearing what it would push me to do. If I was to go too hard on him then they would realise my strength was a bit odd, and questions would arise. So, no brutalizing the overconfident ass. But I wanted to so hard…

How would I solve this issue ? How would I even be able to control my force to such a fine degree as to appear to have only one or two points in Might ? Well, I might need to explain a thing or two. You see, those thresholds Skills I got were really nifty. You’d think having 25 Might would cause me to crush everything I grasped, but those passives helped for that. Contrary to its name, [Lesser Physical Strengthening] didn’t augment my strength. It allowed me to adjust it. Maybe the concept was lost in translation, I don’t know. I understood that fact when I had tried accelerating my deaths. I discovered that [Lesser Physical Regeneration] could work against my Constitution, and deduced that it was the same for the other passives. Still, I had to be thankful for that. I remember when I absentmindedly gripped the armrest of that bench the day I emerged from the void. It had collapsed under my pressure like putty in my hand. I won’t lie, constantly taking care not to use explosive force for every menial tasks of the day was tiring, but my Discipline helped tremendously.

Anyway, ready to duke it out - calmly - with Jarof, I headed toward the Bos, Kurt on my tail.

They look like…

Stopping my drifting thoughts, I grabbed one. It was light, extremely so, and had some sort of adherent polymer covering it.

“To deploy it, send your Intent to do so in it.”

Intent, huh ? Was it like Mana ? If so I feared I might fry the dild- the Bo in my hand. But Jarof quickly answered my worry.

“Intent is the very foundation of your being, of your very soul. You can’t think it, you must will it.” He said, a glimmer in his regular eyes. Looked like he really enjoyed his role here.

I tried to focus myself, to bring out my Willpower, but achieved nothing, the concept going far over my head. What was a soul ? Again, I was faced with this question. On the other hand, Kurt nearly blinded himself as the rod extended past his face in a brisk motion. It reminded me of the first rule of firearm. ‘Don’t look straight into the barrel’, not that I knew much more about them.

“You are fast to learn, disciple, but lack basic common sense. Your comrade on the other hand, seems to struggle quite a bit. Could you share your insights as to how you projected your Intent ?”

Wait, did he just switch accent mid-sentence ?

Until now, he had spoken like the rest of us, if with somewhat bizarre inflections here or there, but it begged the question, how did they know how to communicate with us ? It hadn’t been a month since the arrival of the System, so were they already listening on our coms and learning our language before that ? Or did they possess a mean to absorb knowledge quicker than we could ? The question of speech pattern distracted me for a bit, and I only caught the end of Kurt explanation.

“- with some sort of pressure, and that… well… I pushed inward and... Woosh !”

“I see.” Yep, completely lost.

I resumed my attempt, glaring at the object like it had insulted my ancestors, whoever they may be, careful not to point it toward me lest it respond in kind.

The soul… My soul… Poor soul… How mistreated and banged up it was. Still is. What could I do to heal it ? Time ? Social interaction ? Foreign concepts to me at that point. I could barely project myself in the next day, and the nearest people I could call friends had just started to warm up to me. This soul of mine sure had had it rough, and it wasn’t exactly looking up.

I realized I was viewing it as separated from me, as something added onto my mind. Maybe I had to consider it a part of myself… Meditation might offer some insight, I thought, and quickly fell into an awakened trance.

I felt something. A feeble tug in my head. Or was it my heart ? Or my stomach… I couldn’t locate the feeling, try as I might. It wasn’t diffuse, something telling me I was sensing it in my body somewhere. But Jarof had clearly stated not to think about it. So, I just did what came naturally, and by that I mean what seemed the most logically sound. I let the pressure in my body direct itself toward the rod, going inside of it but still being a part of me.

And it grew. Slowly. At a snail pace.

“Ha ! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone so miserable with his soul ! Reassure me boy, you do possess one ?”

His joke aside, he wasn’t wrong. My constant inner turmoil must have been at fault here, or I just wasn’t meant to be good at this. After an embarrassing full minute, it stopped expanding. I was finally ready. Jarof had watched me intently all the while with both sets of eyes, which was more than a little unnerving. He murmured something, the sounds throaty and rattling, surely his native tongue.

“Good. Know that those weapons are not to be taken lightly. In the right hands they can be as much if not deadlier than a blaster or a cutter.” Seeing my interested gaze he added. “You’ll learn about those at the appropriate time, and don’t be too hopeful. That little demonstration of yours tell me you won’t be particularly talented with them either.”

It stung, his smirk rubbing salt into my wounded pride.

I’ll show you if I’m talented or not.

No you won’t. Stick to the plan.

Had I just answered myself ? Yes. Yes I did.

Stunned by my alter-ego’s comment, I didn’t notice Jarof get in front me, his staff held like a spear ready to poke me in the gut. Only his shout drew me back to the present.

“Focus !”

I saw his attack coming, deliberated with myself on how I shall answer it, and chose to act as the naive pupil. The thrust took me dead center, right where my aorta split. I absorbed most of the shock and allowed the rest to spread to my inner organs. It would have hurt like a bitch if not for my Skills. Still, I had to show pain on my face and buckle over so as to not arouse suspicion.

“Do NOT ignore your master. Do NOT daydream while training. Do NOT disrespect the Hierarchy by thinking we will go easy on you. You decided of your OWN volition to join us. You shall now carry out that choice to the FULL extent of your capability.” Jarof hammered me. Figuratively and literally, punctuating his words with rhythmic blows to my back.

All the while Kurt had a frown on his face. He was just about to interrupt our teacher in his humiliating lesson when I stopped him with a look. This was necessary, we needed to swim under their radar, and what better way to achieve that than by behaving like an innocent weakling ? Well, not that weak, I still had to play the part of a Vault enthusiast. Thinking about it, I had to wonder which Skills I would reveal. A newbie without Skills couldn’t pretend to have survived multiple Vault runs after all.

I had the choice between my gravitational forces Skill or the raw mana shots, light manipulation not offensive enough to justify me already having a Trait. While my strongest affinity belonged in the control of gravity, I surmised it would be wiser to downplay my abilities. So I picked [Lesser Mana Throw] as my goto Skill in public.

“I hope you will keep that teaching in your heart, disciple, for I will not be as lenient the next time.” Finished with his rant, he paced around us, observing our stances with the staffs. “This will have to do, but I expect quick progress on your posture from now on.” Then, stopping in front of us. “Now, attack !”

Kurt froze, and I could see the memory of Knowles’ shout cross his eyes, followed by the ringing of a gunshot. I had to take the lead. As much to pull Kurt out of his stupor as to reinforce my image of an aspirant adventurer, I screamed and rose my Bo above my head while dashing toward Jarof. Of course he received me with a strike to my shin, toppling me over in an impressive semi-circle. I had voluntarily overreached, sure, but still, I had no idea how to correctly handle a weapon. This ploy of ours might help me learn a thing or two after all.

We exchanged blows for a while, or rather my body embraced Jarof’s strikes with an eagerness I didn’t know it was capable of. A dance of suffering took place between us, me playing the part of the tenacious training dummy and Jarof the relentless spinning dervish.

Did I enjoy it ? No, of course not. Was it instructive ? Absolutely.

By performing special actions, you have unlocked the Skill [Combat Sense]

[Combat Sense] Level 0 : The user will perceive which action best to take while in combat.

YATA !

I raised my arms in victory, only to find myself on the floor a moment later, the notification spinning inside my head.

“You seem to have received a Skill, good. You may now try to hit me, or at least swing in my general direction.”

Without a pause to gather myself, he made to pin me against the ground, preventing me from standing up with a flurry of jabs I had to deflect while on my back.

“A real fighter. Has no sense. Of ‘fair play’. As you call it. Don’t expect me. To let you. Off the hook. So easily.” He said in between strikes.

I sensed more than I saw Kurt’s motion. He had attempted to kick Jarof in the back of his knee but a dodge and a backward swing and he fell on his face.

“Initiative and treachery. Savvy warrior you may become.”

“Shut the fuck up, Yoda.” I muttered beneath my breath.

We got up, Kurt’s nose bleeding slightly, and exchanged a look. As one, we rushed Jarof, trying to overwhelm him with quick thrusts. Suffice to say, it didn’t go well for both of us. Once more kissing the stage, I felt rage bubbling within me. This had to stop soon, or I wouldn’t be able to contain myself. I feared as much as desired to see him bleeding, begging for mercy, the tip of my staff caressing his chin.

“Look me in the eyes, worm. This is you last breath, make it count.”

And with a fell swoop, I struck his temple, cracking his skull, popping his left eyes out of their orbits. I kept hitting his limp head, blood painting my gleeful grin.

Wow ! Where’s that coming from ?

I reined myself in, brought my mind back into its rightful state. This was... dangerous, and worrying.

“I see it in your eyes. The will to hurt, the will to kill. Not as impotent as I thought, hmm ?”

Get a grip of yourself ! Don’t let him get to you !

“Very well. It is now time for the next step. We shall train you two every night in this manner, and I will be the judge of your progress. Don’t disappoint me.” With a pointed look, Jarof slid his now hand-sized Bo in his belt and waved us to a now open door.

We got up, dusted ourselves more by principle than actual necessity, and followed him into another long corridor lit by yellow stripes on the ceiling. Having stopped projecting my Intent in the Bo, it folded into itself. Neat piece of alien technology, if a bit underwhelming in appearance. Kurt on the other hand had his still deployed, and I saw in his gaze he wanted to strike at Jarof while his guard was down. Bad idea since I doubted he was truly relaxed even with his back to us, and his speed was nothing to scoff at. I put my hand on Kurt’s forearm and shook my head, now was not the time.

Our ‘master’ led us to a staircase going upward, a metal-looking hatch above it. He raised it effortlessly and we discovered we were in the middle of the forest a mile away from town. Did we walk that far ? Another piece of alien wizardry surely.

“We will now head toward a Vault not far from here. This will be a good opportunity to see your reaction to true peril. Of course your dear teacher will stand watch, so don’t worry too much about dying. Injuries on the other hand…”

Yeah, not trusting this guy one bit with Kurt’s life. Push comes to stove - never understood this one - I’d crush everything in sight.

We meandered through the trees for half an hour before finding the blue crystal. It was the same size as the one in the prison woodshop but shined a bit less, as if signaling its difficulty rating. Which was actually just that.

“The crystal’s girth indicates the scope of the Vault while its radiance tells us of its content. The brighter it is, the more hardness you will face. The larger its size, the longer it will take to explore it. This one is just in its infancy, it won’t be of much trouble.”

“How did you know it was there ?” Smart Kurt, asking the right questions.

“We can detect their formation. They garner a lot of energy in that stage and radiate it quite strongly if one knows what to look for.”

“Last time I went into one, a trap activated when I grabbed the ruby at the end. You know what this one’s holding for us ?”

“You got a red one while in the first month of the Arrival ? You might be lousy with a Bo, but you sure are lucky…” He laid his chin in his hand and mumbled yet again with that rumbling language of his then looked back up at me. “What is your Trait by the way ? [Might is Right] ? [Inteligencia Arcana] ? I doubt it is the social one.” He said while looking me up and down. “Or maybe you got a rarer one. Tell me.”

Luckily, he offered the name of available Traits. Under his scrupulous gaze, I picked the one nearest to the personna I was trying to develop. “[Inteligencia Arcana]. As you saw, I’m no good in melee, but with magic in the equation I can hold my ground.” A fist to the torso, head up and a blazing look, the perfect image of a young and proud mage was formed.

“We’ll see. Let’s not blabber any longer. Form a party and join me.” And with that, he reached for the rock, and disappeared, just like that.

“Ready ?” I said while waiting for the invite to transmit.

Kurt looked at me, a slight mischievous grin spreading on his cheeks. “As much as can be. Don’t go killing everything this time, leave some for me.”

“If I recall correctly, last time you were kinda shitting your pants, right ?”

“Only because rats’ heads were popping left and right. What you gonna do this time ? Dismember them ? Churn their inside out ?”

I hadn’t expected him to be so graphic in his talk, but I guess after what he saw and what he did, he was starting to adapt to the new state of things.

“Meh. Plasma throwing will be enough for me.”

“Pff… As if.”

And as Kurt finally received the invitation to my party, we both put our hands on the crystal. One instant in a forest, the next in a white chamber of mysteries and menaces.

Not unlike our last delve, there was only one way out of the room, and whiteness encompassed every corner of our vision. Jarof, standing by the side, didn’t wait for us to get our bearings and headed for the hallway up ahead.

“Quickly, young apprentices. There’s no time to idle about.”

We caught back with his strides and advanced calmly along the corridor. After 30 minutes in an expectant silence we reached another room, empty if not for a dark hole in its center. Were we meant to drop down this sinister chute ? There was no other way forward.

Right as I was about to voice my pondering, a giant bird came out of the black gap. Jarof took a step back, Kurt and I had our Bos at the ready and the creature raised its head toward us.

It wasn’t a bird. It resembled more a harpy clad in scales with an elongated head. The sight disturbing and antagonizing, it wouldn’t look that way if it weren’t meant to be an enemy.

Before any of us could move, it shouted a cry so acute I think it ruptured Kurt’s eardrums. I could read pain on his face, but his grip didn’t falter, and he was the first to take a step forward. The harpy, undeterred by his bravado, flapped its wings in a hulking gust of wind. Its wingspan no more than twice my armsreach, I wondered how it could create such a strong force, not to mention float above the ground. Laws of buoyancy and aerodynamic and all that. But, this was no time for a sciency brainstorm, now was the moment to act.

I pointed the palm of my hand toward its head, aiming for a quick kill, but it saw my motion, and darted to my left, right in front of Kurt, putting him between us. He tried spearing it in the abdomen, but only barely touched its left leg as it rose in the air. Still, it allowed me a clean shot to its torso, right where I thought its heart should be.

Wrong, try again.

Shouting again a terrible piercing cry, it flew above Kurt and toward me. And collapsed right before me, its beak rupturing against the floor. It had a black rod embedded in his back, Kurt’s Bo.

“Didn’t expect that, huh ?” He exclaimed, gesturing at me as much as at the harpy.

“Again, good initiative.”

“What ?” Kurt shouted, his hearing impaired.

Jarof gave him a tiny flask of translucent liquid and after gulping it, Kurt seemed fine again.

“Striking at an enemy’s back will constantly reward you with a grievous wound, if not a kill. But be careful with losing grasp of your only weapon. Facing numerous foes is a lot more frequent than duels. Also, it’s impressive that you already understood how to change a Bo’s form. Normally it takes about two weeks before anyone attempt it, not even speaking of achieving such a transformation.”

“What’s he talking about ?” I asked Kurt.

He headed to the harpy, grabbed his weapon and pulled it out. It had been planted a good 10 cm in its spine and now I wondered how the flat end of a staff could pierce skin. Kurt showed me his Bo, the forward end having turned into a fine point, reflecting light as metal would. He had turned his staff into a javelin !

“Wow. You did that with Intent, right ?”

“Yeah. I guessed that if we could extend it by just willing it, we could change its design the same way. I worked on it while we walked here, you just didn’t notice.” His smile was more alit than the room we stood in.

I clapped his shoulder, proud of his resourcefulness.

“You, how did you learn [Basic Mana Throw] ?”

I wasn’t about to tell him I had actually ranked up the Skill, but a bit of truth wouldn’t hurt here. “Well, I just thought that since we have Stats and Statuses, the System worked like a game, so why not try magic, right ? So, I tried shooting fireball out of my hands, and, well, I ended up with this.”

“Interesting… Anyway, the main objective here is to get to the Trait crystal, not congratulating each other on insignificant achievements. Move on, disciples.”

And so we did. But not before exchanging an annoyed glance. A hidden door had opened in the back wall after the harpy’s demise, conveniently letting us push forward in our quest of experience. I had to wonder, were the Vaults comparable to dungeons in video-games ? Were the creatures guarding the end crystal ? How did they subsist in this black and white world when we weren’t there ? And more importantly, would there be loot ?

All those questions populated my mind, and unfocused as I was, I nearly missed it. A small depression in the wall at ankle-height. Should I mention it ? Wouldn’t it be weird to notice such a tiny inconsistency when I was supposed to have near zero Perception ? It was like rolling a natural 20 with a six-faced die. You’d be instantly cast away from the table. So I did the next best thing. I tripped on my own feet. Totally on purpose.

Jarof cursed in his language while reaching out for me. “How you still manage to breathe is the greatest mystery of all. Such a disciple…” His eyes ran over the white depression and he instantly perked up. “But as much of a klutz as you are, luck or fate seems to favor you.” He passed his hand over the gap and a panel in the wall opposite slid open, revealing...

A room filled with gold, ancient weapons and armors of bright metal crimped with precious stones, various treasures of all kind.

Until I payed attention to the actual objects. They all had a somber reflection, me with crazed eyes and my face messed up in a rictus of madness. This didn’t bode well.

“Disciples, what exactly do you see ?”

“No… Eli-” Kurt started, but I cut him off before he divulged anything. If my intuition was right, I didn’t want him to speak about what he was seeing.

“Gold! Wealth ! Shinies !” I shouted, playing my role and faking a rush to get inside.

Jarof stopped me just before the entrance. “This is a trap. Don’t be fooled, only death awaits you in there.”

Knew it !

“What do you mean, teacher ?”

Rather than answer my question, he grabbed a piece of round stone in one of his pocket and threw it inside. As soon as it hit the floor, its shadow started to move, to crawl, to stretch itself and gulped the rock.

“This is a Vault Deceiver. It uses your inner desires to lure you in his domain before swallowing you. A nasty death I hear, first it eats your legs, then your abdomen, and by the time it reaches your heart, you wish you were already gone.”

“So… What I’m looking at… Isn’t really there ?” I could guess at what Kurt was seeing, but left the matter unspoken.

“How do we kill it ?” Hey ! A man needs his priorities !

“I just did.” As he said that, the shadow that had absorbed the stone resurfaced, this time appearing slowly, with flecks splitting up from the main mass. After a few seconds, the pebble returned and the spot of blackness disappeared completely.

“Ow… Little shade got a tummy ache ? Poor babe…” Of course I got a disturbed look from Jarof, but I had to express myself, the pressure in my head due to performing as another person was rather strenuous to keep in check.

“Nevermind whatever… this was-” He said, drawing a circle with his index pointed at me. “-but you should enter the room and see if we got any reward. The place is safe now.”

I put one foot on the other side of the entryway, still not trusting Jarof, but didn’t get bitten or wrapped in darkness so I guessed that everything was A-okay. Inside, the ambient whiteness had returned and covered every corner apart from a pedestal in the far end. Atop of it stood a green crystal, reminding me of the last time we cleared a Vault. I had to admit, it was a bit monotonous. Go through white rooms, take the crystal on the white stand, go back through the white rooms and leave. Did those Vaults have nothing else to offer ? Sure, they had monsters, secrets and traps, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy my hunger for a full-on dungeon delving experience.

By the way, the day after I figured out why I saw those riches in that room, and not something more… personal. It was because of [Mental Shell] that I kept activated at all times. It got two levels from that little experience.

I grabbed the crystal and turned around. Oh stupid, foolish me. Obviously the panel would close itself the moment I would take the prize, of course the lighting would shift to red in an instant, and clearly there would be other panels opening to let those familiar giant rats in. I found myself alone in the chamber, surrounded by half a dozen human-sized rodents fixated on me as if I had stepped on their hairless tails. Oh well. Shit happens I guess.

*

* *

Rat boys ! Rat Boys ! What’you gonna do ? What’you gonna do when they come for you ?

“Didn’t think you would get away with it. Good for you I guess.”

After two waves of them, the panels had closed and the door opened back up. I was covered in gore. Bits and pieces of rat matter stuck to me like a ball of gum attracted dirt. At one point I had taken one rat by the head to hit another one but it had suddenly come loose over me and had showered me in its internal fluids.

Bummer. I liked those pants.

Jarof watched me suspiciously, but didn’t add another word. Kurt on the other hand didn’t even dare look at me, grossed out as he was by my appearance. And smell, I guess.

“Get away from me dude !”

“Heh, come give me a kiss Kurty !”

And like two kids in a playground, one having fallen in a puddle and chasing the other, we ran around. Just simple and basic fun, but one I hadn’t had in a while. Never before even, according to my barely functioning memory.

“Hum... Humhum… Stop this right this instant !”

Oh come one ! I almost tagged him !

“Don’t you realize you are in a Vault ? Don’t you have any sense of danger ? How did you even survive this trial ? You shouldn’t be alive right now !” I had definitely attracted my fair share of distrust from him. I now had to calm the beast.

“Dunno. I stayed in a corner and kept them at bay with my mighty stick while firing at them. It worked for the first wave then they just lost it and launched themselves at me. The rest is… fuzzy. But it’s always been that way since I first started coming in those Vaults.”

Jarof held his gaze pointed at me, judging my story as a fine connoisseur would a wine. A hefty silence settled between us. Then, as if nothing had transpired in that moment, he turned around and beckoned us to follow.

Come to think of it, why didn’t I gained the Skill [Trumpery] ? Did it mean I hadn’t been successful in my attempt ? Oh boy.

We arrived in front of another door flush with the walls, the same as last time. Jarof took out a small device in the shape of a handle, the sort that would expand into a laser saber. And, lo and behold, it was. Kind of. Well, there were some discrepancies with the movie prop. For one it didn’t project a tube of raw energy, it just expelled what seemed like plasma at extreme speed. Second, it didn’t glow, nor did it buzz. Rather, it spewed matter like a blowtorch, and made the same type of noise. To use it, he pointed it at the door and made a vague circle. After a simple push, the drawn circle just fell on the other side. Impressive technology, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving part of such a device.

We got in the room, white as always, and with the podium in the center waiting serenely for us. This time Kurt would be the one to pick up the crystal, a blue one this time, apparently the most common type. I would stand on the side and provide cover when the inevitable swarm of monsters would come, while Jarof would pick at his nose and scratch his butt.

He didn’t actually do that, I’m just adding some funk to this adventure, because even if I call it that, it was depressing of monotony. The fight with the rats or the harpy not challenging enough and the blankness of our surroundings blurring my awareness of the place. I understood now how Vault dwellers might be a pejorative term, as anybody who would spend any significant amount of time here by himself would inevitably turn crazy.

At the signal, Kurt seized the crystal. Cue the panels opening, but this time it wasn’t rats who came to greet us, but waist height globs of dark goop sliding on the floor and leaving a disgusting trail behind them.

Slimes ! Finally !

They were slow, that’s for sure, but I was wary of any special abilities, like suddenly extending a tentacle of sludge to slap us, or being impervious to physical damage. Luckily, none of that happened. They kept coming toward us as we swept the floor with them. But all our attacks did was split them in two, then four, then eight… Asteroid style. When they were small enough we started heel stomping them to great results. It still took a damn long time to get rid of them. That is, before I got an idea.

[Lesser Mana Throw] was a nifty Skill. It allowed me to expel matter out of my body, or in my body as I recalled the kill switch I had used. But nothing forced me to launch a tiny speck, or create an undirected explosion. I could, you know…

Become a living flamethrower ! Ah ! You didn’t see that one coming ! Right ?

The gist of it is, I just pushed flaming hot gas out of my fingers in a general direction and watched the results.

Burn. Burn. Burn ! BURN !

I lost myself in the flames. Pure abandon in the act. How exhilarating it felt to be able to produce five meters long flames just at the tip of your fingers !

But I had to come back to reality at some point. With soot covered hands, I approached Kurt, still crushing some remnants of the slimes.

“We can go now, don’t waste your time with those.”

Just as I finished my sentence, and as he squashed the last one, I sensed a notification coming.

For completing a Vault, you have been rewarded with an increased comprehension of the System. Train yourself and discover your true potential.

I then felt a flood of excitation and eagerness to work out travel through myself. It was pleasant, but it implied a more serious fact. The System could affect our mental state. How much of my current condition was caused by said System without my knowledge ? Was I chosen to be the fool, the damaged good ? How deep was it influencing me ? My surface thoughts ? My subconscious ? My very needs and desires ? Or did this bonus learning speed just skim over my mind, only touching upon my ability to pick up and develop Skills ?

I certainly hoped so.

*

* *

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

“As far as we could gather, the army’s in shambles. Part of them are staying in the cities, acting as law enforcement, but whose law one might ask. The rest took to the hills and has been engaging the aliens in guerilla warfare with poor results until now. Shit, my friend in Talem says there’s even some divisions who joined the Hierarchy ! They call themselves the ‘New Earth Forces’... And concerning the rest of the world, it doesn’t seem to be going any better.”

“The air is filled with calls for help or reinforcements.”

Alissa and Fletcher had scoured the town for any means of communication with the world, and apart from a few old telephonic lines and a jury-rigged radio, nothing had survived the blackout. No satellite nor global servers on the ground meant no internet, no smartphone, next to nothing to contact our acquaintances.

“But did you find a way to get in touch with the people still fighting ?”

“Well, if I can locate a transceiver for my junky radio, yes. But from here we’d need a bigger antenna to reach the mountains, and risk less wanted parties to answer our call. Or we could go there ourselves, but that would take a couple days of travel right in the combat zone, so not good either.”

Fletcher had been a communications operator in his last life, so his help was more than welcome. It seemed getting his hands busy had gathered his spirit back and he looked much younger now. Alissa on the other hand had had trouble contacting her friends in the neighboring cities, and her morale was tanking more and more.

“Madison, you heard anything else ?”

“Not much about the military, but there seems to be a militia starting to gather weapons and manpower in town. Not sure who’s in charge but I’m on the lookout for more info. Oh, and be careful when you go back there, I heard David and his posse have joined as well, and he’s kind of an ass.”

“Ok. It’s not over yet, guys. Fletcher, try to build that antenna of yours. Even if we don’t use it in the end, it’ll open us some possibilities. Alissa, try to get in touch with that budding militia and Madison, keep your ear to the ground. Kurt and I will keep training with the aliens. We need to learn as much as possible from them in the meantime. Anything relevant to them, really. So, stay sharp and safe, and we will get out of this unscathed. They will not.”

They all stared at me, a plethora of emotions on their faces. Confidence and fear. Calm and excitation. Questioning looks rivaled with smiles of complicity. Did a third arm sprout out of my forehead or what ? No, they were just surprised I had taken the lead so naturally. Come to think of it, I was surprised as well. Who would have thought I had it in me to stay focused long enough so as to not mess up our reunion or just fumble critically and blurt out a stupid joke that only I would understand ? Was I becoming… reliable ?

“I’m gonna… go. I need to do something… somewhere else… Seeya !”

It was too good to be true. I had to escape this oppressing feeling of people depending on me.

I wasn’t tired yet, so my brain thought it was a good idea to go wander in the forest while the sun was peeking above the mountains in the distance. We were in the early morning, the 17th day after the apocalypse. After leaving the Vault, Jarof had led us back to the aliens’ building. We were let off after yet another round of form filling, this time surveys on how we felt ensuing our first session with a Hierarchy tutor. They sure loved their paperwork. On actual paper, mind you, which was astonishing coming from a space faring organization.

My thoughts went back to the brain altering bullshit the System was probably pulling on us. How could I defend myself and others against such attacks ? I had [Mental Shell] to ward off any intruder but would it work against more subtle persuasions ? Nonetheless, I added teaching my group that Skill to my todo list. Also, did Willpower affect tempering of the mind ? If so, was mine high enough ?

I had to stay on my guard, ready for anything. Find a solution, and quickly.

After some time spent dwelling on such dire reflections, I came upon a small clearing. You know the kind, lush, green with high weeds in the middle of summer, splendid. I let out a sigh holding all of my worries, and, taken by a swift inspiration, started meditating. Truly meditating, on the ground, cross-legged with my hands on my knees. At least that’s how it was taught to me when I was young. I recalled a teacher - of what or when I do not know, nor can I remember their name or gender - had explained to me the value of meditation. Prior to the System it sounded like hogwash to me, but that person had been gentle enough to tame me, and with time, it had become an habit of sort, I think. The motion felt well-rehearsed at least.

I didn’t use [Meditation], I didn’t want to sacrifice yet another piece of me on the altar of the sacred System. I just… let go. It was difficult at first, my thoughts bumbling and buzzing around inside my head. But as time went by, calmness took me away. With spikes of distracting consciousness, I managed to focus on my breathing, emptying myself of worldly matters. Bizarre emptiness. Filled with greyness. Sound echoing through the snow. Shimmering after-lights in the wind. Hope and abandon. In the end, a strange feeling passed through me, but what was a feeling ? What is it to ‘feel’ ? What are those questions ? What is all of this ? What am I ?

It came to me as a blaring horn in the fog. A beacon in the silence of my soul. Jarring me awake.

Again ? Come on !

By improving your grasp of [Meditation], your Skill has ranked up to [Abnegation] !

[Abnegation] Level 43 : The user lets his mind float away, focusing on his soul. Based on Wisdom and Willpower.

For meeting special requirements, you have unlocked the Path [Independence]

And since good news come in trees, I had just about enough to complete that Path.

[Independence] 128/128 : The Skills are an impossible boon to all existence. For some they are a crutch meant to catch up their own shortcomings. One you don’t need anymore. You enjoy the feeling of freely using your abilities without the help of the System.

Traveler can now cast Skills with no delay nor assistance from the System.

Right at this moment, a lead blanket I wasn’t aware of was lifted off my shoulders. Instinctively I knew how to call upon my powers without first prepping my connection to the System, something I didn’t even knew I was needing. Fireworks escaped my hands faster than ever before, stroboscopic lights flashed around me and the tall grass swayed with me. A maelstrom of my fused Skills intertwining themselves with each other surrounded me, [Double Casting] working overdrive to support my unleashing.

Am I God ? Maybe not, but I sure feel like one !

Ecstatic, I kept at it until the sun rose above the trees and shun in my eyes. Afterwards, strolling back through the dense thicket, I revised my current full Status.

Status :

Physical = Tired

Mental = Joyous

Social = Insecure

Traits = ERROR

Current Path = None

Might = 25

Constitution = 35

Finesse = 27

Perception = 25

Intellect = 30

Willpower = 31

Discipline = 35

Wisdom = 35

Charisma = 10 [Unbalanced]

Stability = -7 [Unbalanced]

Fluency = 0

Wits = 20

Available Bonus SPs = 607

Available EPs = 80

Available PPs = 9

[ERROR] Level 0 : [Scrambled]

[Lesser Physical Strengthening] Level 1

[Lesser Physical Regeneration] Level 3

[Lesser Physical Agility] Level 0

[Lesser Physical Insight] Level 0

[Lesser Mental Enhancement] Level 3

[Lesser Mental Confidence] Level 6

[Lesser Mental Tolerance] Level 4

[Lesser Mental Acuity] Level 6

[Basic Social Influence] Level 0

[Lesser Social Acumen] Level 0

[Scrutinize] Level 10 : Displays a description of the object or being selected.

[Pain Tolerance] Level 86 : Propensity of the user to ignore pain and torment. Based on Willpower.

[Apnea] Level 59 : Ability of the user to hold his breath for long periods of time. Based on Constitution.

[Lesser Mana Throw] Level 66 : Shoots a piece of raw matter toward the target. Based on Intellect.

[Lesser Light Manipulation] Level 53 : Allows the user to control inside a perimeter around him. Based on Discipline.

[Minor Gravity Control] Level 60 : Allows the user to control gravity to a greater extent. Based on Intellect and Discipline.

[Abnegation] Level 43 : The user lets his mind float away, focusing on his soul. Based on Wisdom and Willpower.

[Mental Shell] Level 11 : Creates a barrier between your mind and every outside influence. Based on Willpower.

[Adaptability] Level 1 : The user is more inclined to develop ways of facing adversities.

[Double Casting] Level 11 : Allows the user to cast two spells concurrently.

[Combat Sense] Level 2 : The user will perceive which action to take while in combat.

[It’s a new World] 4/4 : This new world is full of wonders and dangers. You now feel ready to delve into it.

[It’s a new Life] 4/4 : This new life will be a boon and a curse. You now feel more able to wield it.

[The Inner Truth] 256/256 : Look further into your own self. Gaze upon the veritas of your soul. You may not be whole, but your persona will fulfil your core’s passion. Reflect upon your soul and discover your true self.

[Observe and Declare] 4/4 : A new environment surrounds you. What dangers will it bring ?

[Allies Better Oneself] 8/8 : Face adversities with allies, build a new world with them, and you shall never yearn for another life.

[Action Before Decision] 4/4 : Some situations need to be dealt with immediately, rather than with great care.

[Delver of the Depths] 8/8 : For the price of your life, you will get infinite power.

[Independence] 128/128 : The Skills are an impossible boon to all existence. For some they are a crutch meant to catch up their own shortcomings. One you don’t need anymore. You enjoy the feeling of freely casting your Skills without the help of the System.

Whoa, that’s an eyeful, right ?

Anyway. After this little bit of good news, I went back to the house and crawled lazily inside my bed, wondering what the next night would have in store for us.

I had to admit, I was feeling… at peace.