Chapter 7

Daniel woke abruptly having not expected to fall asleep, and found himself looking straight into Ivey’s eyes.

“Hey you came back,” she said.

“I…” he thought about pretending that he hadn’t left. “Don’t sleep much so I went and did some stuff.”

“I know. I’m glad you’re here.”

Just at that moment, his stomach started cramping.

He fell out of bed. “Octopod,” he ground out the words. The pain bubbled outward from his guts, but was unusually restricted in where it went after that. Instead of spreading out it flowed to his head, spine, and core area. It ignored everything else, and it was completely different to every other core that he had experienced the effects of. There was no rampaging lightning, no instant unavoidable blackouts the sensation was intense but bearable.

A heal hit him and it helped, slightly. The pain receded as Ivey’s magic swept over him and then started building a little. “Another?”

Ivey waved a hand and more power flowed over to him. “What do you think it will give you?”

“Telekinesis is the hope.”

“I know that, but?”

“We’ll have to see.”

Abruptly, the pain faded.

She caught his confused look. “What?”

“It’s finished.”

“That’s great,” Ivey enthused. “Is that the best ever?”

“Comfortably. I hope that doesn’t mean it failed.” He held out his hands. “Can we?”

Ivey nodded, and they linked hands.

The ability screen came up with its normal amount of static and missing information.

“My level has increased by two. One point increase in agility and vitality.”

Across from him, Ivey nodded.

“No noticeable change in interface skills,” he told her. Seeing the same three jumbled words as usual. “I guess they’ve probably upgraded because Pricilla thinks I can get another pet now.”

“Now for the one I really want to check. Innate skills.” He could feel the pieces of interface heating. “It will probably take a few minutes.” he told Ivey.

“Good, because if it goes too fast, then it’ll fry you.”

“Yes, it does.” Daniel shuddered a little, remembering how his skull had heated. He really did not want to fry his brain. “Hopefully, the core worked.”

She just nodded. Both of them were studiously ignoring the feeling that was being transferred via the connection. Daniel knew that his attraction to both Ivey and Tamara was being laid bare and as for Ivey, she liked him a lot, but felt there were no genuine sparks between them. Almost without realising it he was sliding into her friend zone. Or that might not be true and his brain could not understand how she ordered her thoughts and feelings. There was still a hint of hope from her and Daniel wondered what could be done to spark it.

Across from him, Ivey blushed.

“What did you do last night?” she asked clearly, searching for innocent topics.

“I started killing the dark and fire moths. I have over thirty of the cores left, and I was wondering whether I should consume them.”

Her eyes, as he had grown to expect immediately went unfocused. “No,” she said finally. “The zombies.” She winced at his smile when she said the word. “The feral human cores are aligned to you already, so you can absorb them. The electricity bugs were a one-trick pony. The octopod was only possible because there was an existing overlap with the professor’s core. It also only had the single ability, despite its power, and that helped.”

“What do you mean?”

She held up her hand and her eyes went unfocused again. “Both the octopod and the bugs have a single ability. That means your own core can decode and organise the computational crystal easier and allow you to gain the experience.” Her eyes looked inward, but this time it seemed almost involuntary rather than deliberate like she usually did it. “Not experience. I didn’t mean that. Experience is a different concept. It’s an intentional power gate that the interfaces have put in for…” She waved her hand to show uncertainty. “Reasons. What you’re doing is taking a skill directly off an already established computational pattern engine. The cores grant you ability directly admittedly with some pain and then afterwards you need to learn how to interact with that new calculation engine. Basically, train yourself to use and then to customise the skill you’ve grabbed. Those moths had what? Three unique abilities? At least?”

“That’s what Tamara said.”

“That means they are more likely to do damage than help? They’ll tear you everyway till Sunday and could really screw up your insides.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“Keep them for crafting.” She shrugged. “Feed them to your club. How is the scan going?”

“I don’t know? Maybe another minute?”

“When you were wandering around in the night did you check the chest?”

His face went bright red, especially when he realised she could read his mind.

“Not standing guard over me?”

“I locked the door and was monitoring.”

Ivey laughed, and he sensed her amusement through the link. “What was in it?”

He remembered the chest and what had transpired on the way up.

“Wait. What was that thought?” Ivey said abruptly. “What else happened?”

Daniel considered about avoiding the questions and then remembered while she was helping him check his status she had a straight line to his emotions. There was no way that he could lie.

“I had to kill Marco because he was infected by a mind parasite.”

Ivey’s eyes went unfocused.

“Does anyone know?”

“No, he followed me upstairs, and the guard was on the toilet.”

Ivey nodded and he could feel her analytical mind processing things. “Well done. Are you ok?”

She could feel his emotions. So he only nodded. Marco had already been dead all he had done was to kill a mind worm.

“You’re tougher than I am,” she said.

He was not sure about that at all.

“About that chest?”

The innate senses finished, but he was happy to hold her hands. Like Ivey, he was not convinced about her suitability either, but unlike Tamara there was no boyfriend to contend with and despite what others said availability mattered.

Internally he winced he suspected that line of thought might have slipped through, which would be mortifying. He hoped she had not sensed that because it was not very flattering and Ivey did not deserve that. She had helped them thrive just as much as his magic had and sitting here even in someone’s else clothes; she was still beautiful.

Ivey released one hand and rubbed her forehead. “That was intense.”

“Wait, you didn’t.”

“Of course I did. But trust me I don’t want to unpick that brain dump.”

Daniel felt his panic rise. He had not meant…

“Stop!” Ivey said, holding up her hand. “It’s been a difficult few days and with slightly different opportunities we might be madly in love by now. The,” a distasteful look went across her face. “Mind sharing sucks, but despite that I can see it happening. You’re a great guy.”

“And you’re a great girl.”

She rolled her eyes. “A guy who is shit at flirting but enough of that. Stop teasing me. The chest.”

“I had a quick look. There were a lots of metal weapons and stones.”

“Stones?”

“Yep.” He let go of her hand and formed his thumb and forefinger into an O to show the size. “A little bigger than the hulk cores, polished with a variety of natural colours.”

She smiled at that information. “That will be very useful.”

“What? What do you mean? How do you know what they are from that description?”

“Nope. Not telling. You should have thought nicer things about me.” She was grinning broadly. “You can find out what they are with everyone else. Now, did you get what you wanted?”

He shut his eyes and mentally requested the innate skills screen.

Chapter 8

The innate skills popped up in front of him

Plant:

Power - Rapid Growth, Seed Germination (locked), Wild Growth (locked)

Utility - Growth, Wood Strengthening, Cell Specialisation, Sugar Generation, Plant Sense, Algorithmic instruction (locked),

Special - Sapient Seed, Consciousness Transfer, Wood Sense, Intelligence (locked) Energy Storage (locked)

Strength:

Power - Strength Boost (lvl 1 of 3), Strong Arm (locked)

Utility - Ally Boost (locked)

Special - Passive Strength Boost (0 of 4), Strength Aura (locked), Power Stomp (locked)

Speed:

Power - Speed boost (lvl 1 of 4), Arm Boost (locked)

Special - Speed Aura (locked)

Lightning:

Power - Lightning Bolt (lvl 1 of 3), Electric Storm (locked)

Utility - Lightning Infusion (lvl 2 of 3)

Earth Armour

Power - Earth Tiles (lvl 1 of 2)

Telekinesis

Power - Item Manipulation (0 of 3)

Thanks to his internal assessment of his core the question marks had been removed. Though that did not help, as he did not know how to use most of the skills and that locked status taunted him. What did intelligence under his plant special skill do? Was that a game changer? Or a disappointment? Then there were the aura abilities that were locked if they did what they implied? If they let him make everyone else around him faster and stronger. He could just imagine boosting the fighters around till they ended up getting the ability to super charge their movements like he could.

Not realistic, Daniel innately understood that, but even a five percent increase would definitely save lives, given how many battles they were going to be dragged into.

Turning question marks into names changed little, but the skills which he had unlocked but still had a low rank caught his attention. Lightning bolt was one of three and it was already devastating. What happened when he boosted that to three? As for speed boost, if that got up to four would it let him use it for four times as long or let him go even faster?

The screen created too many questions. And then there were the locked abilities. There was no text file help, so while Algorithmic Instruction description was pretty clear on what it did there were no instructions on how to use the ability. How did he trigger it? As for intelligence, how was that different to algorithmic instruction? Would that create living thinking trees? There were more questions than answers, which was an unfortunate theme that he kept running into. He figured that between Wild Growth, Cell Specialisation, Intelligence and Energy Storage he should be able to generate a plant monster. Hopefully, a golem that could single handily crush an Ultra. Yet no matter what the potential was till he learned how to use it the abilities might as well not exist.

There was so much work to do the (lvl 1 of 2) for Earth Tiles could be translated to spreading his armour over an entire arm or at the very least sustain it for twice as long. Given all the zombies with the ability could cover their whole body he suspected the next rank would be more than an arm. A rank of two would be more than twice as good as a rank of one, but it was only speculation. Despite Ivey’s help, he didn’t know.

He let go of his hands and abruptly Ivey was kissing him. There was still a tail end of their connection between them. He could sense the desperation and the need to be normal.

He kissed back.

Animal sense.

There was no one nearby.

“This is weird,” she whispered. “I’ve never kissed someone and been so certain of their feelings before.”

He felt the connection being reestablished between them. Ivey was hesitant and uncertain. How bad will this be if his thoughts strayed?

“I won’t let them.” He could feel what she wanted from him and he knew his own emotions were flowing the other way. He knew what she liked and what to do.

Stuff this, he thought to himself. The link did not have to be all bad. He abandoned himself to the experience just like Ivey already was.

An hour later, they slipped their clothes back on.

“Daniel, can I check something?”

She held out her hands. He hesitated a moment.

“Trust me?” She waved her hand impatiently.

“We can’t have a proper relationship if we do this all the time. It’s good for you know… but more of a problem for general life?”

She smiled sadly. “I’m aware.” She did not drop hands. “But we can probably be friends.”

“Really, we’re breaking up. Was it that bad?”

She laughed, blushed. “No. Come on, you can see for yourself firsthand.”

“This is the weirdest breakup ever.” He grabbed her hands.

Their respective thoughts were immediately obvious to each other. He had enjoyed it more than she had, but there was not much difference between their experiences. She had been a long way from disappointed. In fact on that scale, she ranked him number one out of her partners. That wasn’t hard, given their mental connection that had guided him. It had been close to mind blowing, but it had not reached that height. And before they kissed Ivey had already decided… unless the physical side was incredible beyond belief then there was no future.

Instead, it had only been excellent.

She liked him, respected him, but they clashed too much to be partners. It was subtle, but they would continue butting heads against each other. They were not a good match. Without this connection they would have muddled through, maybe for years, but that small disconnect would have eventually got to them.

The worse thing about it all was that Daniel agreed with her assessment.

She dropped her hands and looked fondly at him. “Don’t look so sad. I’m sure there are lots of chicks who will throw themselves at you.”

“I’m losing you of course I’m going to be sad.” he said with a small smile.

“You charmer… you.” She held up a hand to shake. “Friends.”

“Friends.” He agreed. He was happy with how this went.

Daniel admired her as she finished pulling up her jeans. “We could always do with benefits.”

“No.” She threw a pillow at his head. “I’m not that sort of girl.”

Daniel laughed. “Fine.”

“Eat, chest, and then fight the zombies downstairs.” Ivey suggested.

“Probably.”

“I know you were planning ongoing slowly until Tamara battered her eyelids.”

“Hey!”

“Don’t lie to yourself, mister. Remember, you don’t have any secrets from me.”

“Nor do you from me.”

“You would be surprised.” Ivey assured him. “The bond is not fully even.”

“Wait… what do you mean?”

Ivey smiled secretively then a pause. “This is definitely my weirdest break up ever.”

“Yeah, weird,” Daniel agreed. “Absolutely in the top dozen weird for me.”

Ivey laughed, and a pillow went flying across the room, missing him by a mile. “Liar.”

“This does not beat waking up to a pig’s head on my bed.”

Ivey giggled at that. “What?”

“I was young?”

“And.”

“I now have a firm rule of not dating daughters of local shopkeepers. The new butcher’s was an extra twenty minutes’ drive.”

Ivey was laughing at him. “Was she psycho or…”

“Umm, I probably deserved it.”

“How many of those stories do you have?”

“I was young for a long time.”

While he was getting dressed, Ivey had gone to look out the window.

There was a sharp intake of breath.

Daniel’s adrenaline spiked, and he abandoned the shoe and club in hand transitioned into a fighting posture.

Ivey was looking staring out between a crack in the curtains to help ensure she was invisible from outside.

Daniel rushed over and looked over her head through the gap she had created.

It was easy to identify what had got her attention. She was focusing on a multi-story car park. On the very top level, where the cars were exposed to the sun he could see the almost ant like people scampering to the far end of the car park. It had been nearly empty with a scattering of cars so there was little cover but they found a van and threw themselves behind it.

Ivey gasped again.

Daniel took a moment to find the source and for an instant he stopped breathing as he processed what he was seeing. The purple monster was coming up to the top of the car park via the ramp that was wide enough for two cars. Despite those dimensions, the space was a tight fit.

Ivey’s hand clutched his own. Daniel swallowed heavily. The four people behind the vans had clearly seen it or heard it.

“God no.” He whispered.

The people were yanking their clothes off and tying them together. They hugged and then three of them scampered over the makeshift rope to go down a level with the fourth tossing the rope to them once they had finished. Even from where they watched, they saw the brave man staying on the lizard level make a sign of a cross of chest. Then he sprinted across the roof to the other corner. The lizard had fully emerged by now. Ivey was gripping his hand tight enough that if he was not superhuman, he was sure it would have hurt.

It was a dino wreck waiting to happen, but neither of them could look away. The monster had seen the running man, but it took two more ponderous steps to extract its enormous body and get fully onto the roof.

He remembered the stories from the second day. This thing that defied physics by its size could also jump three stories. In person, it seemed ungainly and lumbering. The man ran all the way to the opposite corner from where his companions had snuck down. Then he turned to face the monster and a fireball shot from his hands. It was insignificant and splashed against the lizard’s face.

The deadly creature did not flinch back or even acknowledge that it had been hit.

It stepped forward.

Cat like.

Then it sprung.

The man, despite being on the fourth story, leapt backwards over the railing desperate to escape.

Instinctively, he grabbed Ivey covering her eyes and pulling her away. Trying to protect her from the scene that he couldn’t pull his own eyes away from. The lizard’s dipped its head over the edge came up a man’s torso and legs dangling out of its mouth.

Daniel looked away, unable to watch. How had the lizard reached him? That speed… it was. Daniel mind struggled to comprehend the sequence of events. The lizard had plucked the falling man from the ear even through he must have fallen metres before it had closed the distance.

Ivey fought him off and looked out the window once more. He did not want to watch someone get eaten but he watched anyway. There was no point pretending life was anything other than what it was. This world was beyond brutal.

At some point he might need to fight that creature. He hoped not but there was a conviction in his gut that he would end up having no choice. Luckily, that was a problem for another day because Daniel could not even imagine fighting it as he currently was. There was overmatched and being left weaponless with broken arms and legs and being expected to fight a pride of lions. Him against the lizard was that second option. It was so unimaginable that he did not even want to think about it. Instead, he could focus on smaller goals, ones that were closer. Secure his hotel, get stronger, then save the kids Tamara had talked about and keep getting stronger. Always the last and eventually he could consider the bigger picture and stopping that thing and when he did hopefully it would be indirectly courtesy of the biggest trap he would ever make.

The lizard was not moving. Instead it had crouched down and was chewing. Daniel looked away once more, but Ivey was observing intently.

“Why are you still watching?”

“I want to see what it can do and if the others escape.” She told him.

“Can you multitask?”

“Of course. Why?”

“What the hell do I do about the penthouse guys?”