I ran my bare feet stinging as they got cut on broken twigs and rocks.

I sniffed the air taking a large lungful threw my nose trying to smell the ants. They always had an odd smell to me, ants. It was always a very distinct smell as well.

I caught a sent like a black mist made of chemicals and dung.

I turned toward it running sniffing at the air and noticed that I was getting better at following the trail and using my nose.

'fuck im becoming a dog.' I thought then crouched to jump as far, as hight, and as fast as I could toward the opening in the trees I noticed ahead.

I flew passed the trees and rose up noticing a few warrior ants and soldier Ants standing by a darker part of the large base of the pyramid or whatever it was that they were going to be building.

I used an arrow to drag one of the warriors threw the soldier ants then I riped the other warriors apart.

I landed holding the last warrior in front of me and sweeping it over the stairs killing the ants that started to gather there. I tilted the ant and spun it putting it just above the ground in the tunnel.

I noticed with little emotion that the blue thorns on the ant really glowed in the dark as I headed down into the tunnels using the warrior ant as a bulldozer and bounded threw the tunnels killing the ants as I went.

If it was one of the warriors who bounced off I ripped them apart and tossed them to the side where there body's would melt holes into the tunnel walls.

The stink of ants was everywhere and I had to just wonder threw the tunnels hitting dead ends and wrong terns.

Once or twice I considered just using the Ant I held to dig threw a wall but that seamed to wrisky and if I dug the wrong way I would just be running like a fool. So just back tracking was faster and i've always ben good at guessing directions.

One of the times I hit a dead end I stopped and held the ant spinning sideways so that it would cover more area and waited looking for the boxes to appear and tell me how many iv killed and if iv leveled up again.

The blue boxes appeared

"quest complete kill 100 ants. rewarded exp and not needing to breath."

"Quest complete go into the ants tunnels rewarded exp and not needing to sleep"

"you have leveled up"

"you have leveled up"

"you have leveled up"

I felt a light water sprinkle over my eyes and the cool soothing fill my lungs for a second it felt uncomfortable but then it wasn't it was just a cool feeling in my lungs.

The ant I was holding dropped when I lost concentration on it. I growled in annoyance and said to the screens. "put points into making my vectors set it and forget it types."

"3 points placed into vector performance."

I lifted then spun the ant again then just thought about it not going away and then dropped the power the ant stayed in the air spinning.

'how long can you spin an ant like this before it just fucking dies?' I wondered then started thinking again on were to put my points.

'If I could use my vectors on my own body then I could just fucking fly, maybe even move at super speed, and possibly have a from of fake super strength.' I thought then told my screen.

"I want to use my vectors in my own body as if they were part of my body."

"3 points put into intrinsic vector manipulation."

I felt the water fill me up like I was a cup and then just settle there.

'What if I try and punch something with high speed vectors and just rip my hand appart. It would be better to move the object before it got to my hand and for that I would need some sort of aura.' I thought as stretched feeling the power in my body.

"extend the intrinsic vectors to slightly outside my body as well" I said

"2 points put into vector aura."

I felt that feeling of bing full of water grow out from me and fill the air a few inches away from my skin.

"good" I said to my screen, moving the air around me a little to get the feel for it.

'maybe the arrows were a mistake before.' I thought frowning 'but I couldn't be sure how this shit worked before... There's also this problem with these stat windows not showing up while im in battle and the fact that they pop up at all really. If reading is just a way to put ideas into your head then I should be able to make this thing just skip the boxes and tell me things in my head.'

"upgrade the stat boxes so that I just know the information but I still want to be able to pull up the boxes when I want." I said

Then I just knew that 2 points had ben moved into making the boxes just a part of my thoughts, that I had 20 points left, 2 ants left in my quest to get the upgrades, and how much exp I needed to get to the next level.

'good.' I thought then tried to think about what other things I would want to do with my points.

More exp per kill, a bigger training boost, more exp per quest, less exp to level, discount on things I buy with points, and being able to pull points or exp out of nothing along with being able to give myself quests were all met with the firm idea that I could not do that and that it was a bad idea in the long run.

I thought about making my own monsters like taking a rat or a cow and pumping it full of mana to be able to gain exp from that.

I got the thought that right now it would be worth 50 points and that all powers like that one would cost a lot and that my ant quest was not yet complete.

I frowned at that wondering again just what the hell the upgrades were.

"Fine then give me a vision boost so I can see in the dark or something better."

I knew one point had ben moved to vision boost darkness and wondered if I had just waisted a point on something I could have just trained to do.

'whatever its not like I can take it back...'

I got the thought that no no I couldn't.

I sighed even though I didn't need to breathe anymore and then used my vectors to just rip apart the spinning ant and then just used my internal vectors to lift myself up and fly into the tunnels searching for the last 2 ants.

I didn't bother killing any of the ants I didn't have to and when I did I used my aura to make sure they didn't touch me and then made my aura like a blender pulling apart the ants tiny chunks at a time.

I finally entered a larger chamber that was filled with ants working and moving around a huge ant that was glowing bright blue from inside with its feelers having bright blue lights on the tips and what seamed to be squirming blue orbs inside of her thorax.

queen ant found 5/6 ants found.

'fuck.' I thought looking at the large pile of ants around me and the queen waving her antenna at me and sending the swarm of ants at me as more came from other tunnels and blue thorns lighting up on ants that had ben dark to protect there sisters.

'i was hoping the last ones would be right here to and that I wouldn't have to kill all of them I mean what am I supposed to grind on now?' I thought in annoyance thinking that I would now have to kill all the ants other wise they would just keep trying to kill me or Eva.

I used arrows to pick up the 2 closest warrior ants then spun them length wise then locked them into the spin before making them rotate around me and locked them into that orbit so that any ants that got close to me would be cut apart by the thorns.

The queen's anti twitched and the thorns quit glowing blue making it so that it wouldn't cut threw anything anymore.

I frowned looking up at the queen and then tried to just rip those off of her head.

When I knew that the queen had to powerful a level for me to use my power on her directly.

I gave a mild glare at her then stopped the ants from orbiting me and spinning instead moving them in front of me.

then put my hand against the back of one of the thrashing ant heads and used my vector aura to blast the head off at high speed crashing into the queens head and nocking it back.

If ants could roar with rage im sure she would be as she clicked her mandibles at me as the swarm closed in on me.

I smiled the smile that should say to anyone "im annoyed but also just figured out this one trick that will fuck up your day so fucking easily."

I pictured a swarm of arrows picking up and twisting around pushing to the queen, in a twister turned on its side that funneled any ants that got to close to me right into the queen.

Then I locked it into place and formed arrows that were going from just behind and around the queen right into the start of the vortex that was right in front of me.

Making a repeating loop of ants that tried to attack me being used as stones to pelt the queen then being flung back into the twister to pelt her again.

After the first couple of loops the ants being flung around died and then started to break apart just becoming pieces and chunks of ant carapace that acted like spikes that chipped away at the queen.

I looked around hoping that the last ants would start appearing now that there queen was bing hurt but it didn't seam to be working as more ants given the signal to attack by a queen who couldn't tell them to stop were being sucked into the attack loop.

I went ahead and added another layer of arrows to pull in all the ants in the cave to the loop.

I leveled up 3 times waiting on the queen to finally die by the second level I had added more powerful arrows to increase the speed at witch the ants would hit the queen.

Some of the first ants had ben reduced into sand that still kept pelting at the queen.

Now that I had night vision I noticed that the red ants had a gem quality to there bodys and while looking at one that I hadn't tossed into the loop I suddenly knew that the red ants were made of garnets.

'fuck... iv ben turning gemstones into dust just to kill this fucking queen?' I thought annoyed watching the swirling mess of ant body's as I finally knew that the queen was dead and her death had given me another level up all by its self.

'good but where the fuck is that last fucking ant?' I thought dismissing all the vectors I had set up to kill her.

And then I noticed something I hadn't seen before just behind the queen's body was 5 ants that were solid glowing blue and I knew they were the final ants Slime Ant drone, and my quest was complete.

I felt the water sturr in me then some of the water seamed to flow off of and out of me and then a Red shape started to take form in front of my eyes first turning into an egg then hovering in the air for a few moments before it changed shaping itself into a small statue made from one chunk of red marble smooth and shiny its shape was that like a pixie and its little face seamed feminine but it didn't seam to have many other curves to its body.

Little nubs grew on its forehead turning into spikes that grew longer into horns about as long as one of its hands a slender ribbon of a tail dropped out from its back as a small set of bat wings grew from the shoulder blades that was clearly just for show as it floated in the air. It opened its eyes witch glowed with a bright red light.

"quest complete. hidden rewards your stat screens being changed into a familiar. based on your actions and other quests the familure's shape has ben chosen as Imp. further hidden rewards your Imp will be uploaded with powers of its own. Including the scan ability and the ability to see into souls and to know what powers they mite posses if exposed to mana." it said in a soft almost musical voice. "it will also be given a personality and thanks to your other upgrade will not be seen or heard of by any others but you... Beginning personality upload."

The Imp glowed bright red making me want to tern away from it but I glared into the light trying to train my eyes to get used to bright lights.

When the light faded the Imp smiled faintly and then began floating around looking at all the bodys of ants and at the few remaining ants that were trying to get organized after my attack.

"you are an evil greed greedy man." it said with some satisfaction in its voice.

I just narrowed my eyes at it. "you had better ben worth this shit. I just left Eva alone on that beach thinking this quest could help me with her."

"Oh I am and I can." she said lazily turning to me with a sly smile.

I just glared and shook my head starting to focus on where I had left Eva on the beach the little bubble portals forming and growing a lot faster this time and soon the portal was opened Imp flew threw just ahead of me as I stepped inside.

Imp looked over Eva not touching her but just looking at her face, toe and then chest.

"You shouldn't have done that." she said a little more solemnly "giving her points while she was still undergoing the transformation."

"I didn't know what else to do." I said wondering if I was going to be able to live with this Imp as my stat screens from now on or if I would have to spend a lot of points into shutting her off.

"Yes... thats why I am here. That and your growing quickly much faster then expected. They weren't sure what to do with you. So I was sent to talk with you and to help you be or do what it is you want to but with out breaking all the well made worlds found inside the portals." She said watching my face closely.

I frowned at her. "so there are other portals? and who are they?"

"yes there are more and more portals appearing every day each one leading to one of these little worlds were people are sent to train and level up." she said then seamed to have to think of the right words for what came next "they are powerful mana users... you mite want to call them Game Masters they build these worlds and then seek out people to explore them. Like an artist hanging there painting they symply want others to experience and enjoy there creations while at the same time letting them in on the power of mana."

"Thats nice of them." I said looking around at the beach that I honestly did find so much beauty in.

"is it?" she asked quietly then shot me a grin. "they have a saying in all the worlds with mana. Mana always has a plan."

I frowned both at the question and about how she talked about Mana "so who gives me quests?"

"Mana mostly but the Game masters can sometimes ask for quests to be given and typically by the time people move up to game master they trust Mana enough to know that they should just trust Mana to move you newbies along." she said

"but if that's true then what are you doing here?" I asked.

"well that's because you mess things up for everybody if someone isn't there to answer some of your questions and help you on your way." she said this time her grin was nearly all teeth and I could see a few of them were sharpened. "so im here to help you grow quickly and with out smashing things before you find out you needed that or that some thing will come to help you far better then what you thought."

"Your being vague." I said.

she nodded with her little smile back on her face. "absolutely. But thats because you hold exact words against people."

I had to admit she was right but I didn't have to like it. "will Eva be ok? I mean she seams fine now but did I fuck her up to much?"

"Yes she will be fine but just her power will have to be modified and her conversation with Tutorial will be different and she'll have to make some choices while she is out, also it seems her power will be different than it mite have ben had you not forced her to take so many points." she said watching me again as if waiting for something.

"but you said Mana allways has a plan. So it knew I would do what I did and give her the power that I did." I said a little confused.

"exactly." she said with a little laugh. "I was made because I was supposed to be and because even the GM level Mages can still be tricked into giving power to nubies."

I gave her a distrustful look. "Are you really going to be worth all that?"

"Now were going in circles" she said floating by my head then grinned. "I can tell you where the other portals are, what powers people are going to get and that you can take them."

"...how many points?" I asked

"40 to completely take there powers, 10 to get just a small shard of there powers that you will grow and shape to how you see fit, and 20 to just not let people ever use there powers but also never letting you use them either." She said looking like she was about to start laughing.

"So there will be powers I don't even trust myself with." I said thinking of a few off the top of my head then had a thought. "dose that me you could stop me form using some powers for a time to help me level up the others?"

"Yes. I can even, once you buy the upgrade can make it that you can never use a power again or at least lock it away until you really need it." she said "but of corse not with out your say so."

"Good." I said looking at Eva using an arrow to lift her up gently and starting to make a portal.

"STOP" Imp yelled and I dropped the portal.

"she needs to be here so Tutorial can help her complete her transformation. If you take her out of here her connection to Tutorial will be cut off and her body will just have to try and fix its self on its own." Imp said looking a little scared.

"What am I supposed to do then? Just leave her here?" I asked annoyed

"kinda." she said "There is no weather here at least until you make it, she should be safe from the ants if you keep her in the air, and the bird-men wont be back for at least another week"

I frowned at that. "the bird-men come back?"

"yes there is a life cycle here built into the world so that even if everything is killed the cycle can start again... as long as some one dosnt kill everything and destroy the whole island." she said.

I took that in looking at Eva floating there then made vectors to surround her like the aura of blender that I had used in the ants nest then locked it into place around her so I could move her with out having to move the blades 2.

Then I moved her out of the way of the portal and just a little above the beach so when she woke up she wouldn't be freaking out about being up so high.

"Ok tell me about it. the life cycle of this world" I said looking at Imp.

"first the ants rise and build the temple then the bird-men hatch and eat the ants taking over the temple killing nearly all of the ants but the Drones escape and hide as the bird-men fight amongst themselves gaining levels and power until only one bird-man remains then the bird man kills itself putting energy and exp its earned back into the moon witch forms the slimes that come down to clean away all the damage caused by the bird-men fighting and the slimes are eaten by the ants as they regrow in power." Imp said

"so the whole world is just this island the moon and the water?" I asked to be sure looking to see if I could find the edge of the world.

"yes if you were to fly far enough in one direction you would just find yourself coming back from another way." she said.

"and what if I tried to go to the moon?" I asked looking up at it.

"it is something like another island but it has no value other than the ability to make slimes." she said also looking up at it. "and that it is far away from any monsters but has air and is always at the same temperature as this beach."

"so its perfect for building a house on." I said looking up at it.

"...well for you yes, but for anyone else who cant fly it would be much to far away from the portal." she said

"unless I move the portal" I said and headed for the hole in space time or whatever it really was.

"really? here I thought you'd just spend points to make the portals you already make permanent." she said watching me.

"No I just killed nearly all the ants I could find so I don't know when il be able to get exp from killing things so I need to be careful how I spend them." I said

Imp began giggling. "Don't forget Lu he is still changing and has no access to Tutorial.

A bit annoyed. "I better go get him"

"quest started" she said still smiling.

I made one of my own portals back into my apartment and stepped threw then headed to Lu's door it was locked witch made a lot of sense and I hoped he wouldn't be angry that I moved him.

I left my hand on the door nob and then used my vectors to tern the lock that was on his side of the door I heard the fait click then opened the door.

'wow..-' My thoughts were interrupted by Imp floating next to me.

"We should totally go steal some shit. Look how easy you got into that door, and with a little practice or some points im sure we could get you picking any lock or safe you wanted" she whispered excitedly.

Im sure I looked annoyed as I opened the door to Lift Lu out of his bed.

"Yeah then what? Go to jail for stealing or have to run from the cops" I said opening a new portal back to the beach to bring me and Lu threw with it.

"no don't even say it, I know how stupid that sounds." I said stepping onto the beach and putting Lu in the same blender shield and setting him up a little way away from Eva.

"Good" Imp said "quest complete exp rewarded, you have leveled up, and new power gained Imp can now make custom books, stories, and music."

she frowned looking at me "were you really that annoyed with me that I needed to get a power just to entertain you?"

"maybe. people can get on my nerves quickly but I was looking for a way to listen to books while fighting or questing anyway. So your already pretty fucking useful for me" I said looking for the main portal again.

"You never asked what powers Eva and Lu are going to get." she said clearly changing the subject.

"yes I know." I said looking up at the portal and trying to focus on making the portal smaller. "there is still 3 days before Lu wakes and 4 or more till Eva dose so im not sure how much it matters."

"a lot, a lot" she said softly looking back at them as I continued to try and use vectors to control the portal.

"well go on then" I said as the portal started to wobble and shrink.

"Eva will form a bond with that slime that attacked her. Her power will be listed as slime symbiosis." she said also looking up at the portal as I trained to control it, then she looked at me watching. "and Lu will have card constructs."

I thought my mind flickering threw all the TV shows movies and games where people used cards. "So what he could build houses of cards super well? ...unless."

I glanced at Imp who smiled a little twinkle in her eye.

"oh... fuck..." I just stopped to think about what Lu might do with the power to tern any cards into the real world. To take monsters and use them on people or to try and use spells on people.

There was a popular monster collecting game and he had a few monsters that he would love to have as pets.

Little fox like ones that could change into nearly any of the elemental types in the game.

But also Lu had a habit of saying that hed want to just light things on fire or use fire balls to just destroy anything that was even a minor inconvenience. He got the idea from some of the magic dramas we watched.

I wasn't sure if he would actually just indiscriminately destroy everything that bothered him even a little. I was pretty sure that he thought it would just be like the TV shows. A flash of fiery light a little scream then the thing is just gone for good. It was the shows way of just saying go way.

Thinking of it that way I realized how childish Lu sounded.

With his power he could do so much especially if given the points to make his constructs permanent or if the concept of cards could be expanded.

What if he could use steel sheets or bricks as if they where cards and build real buildings out of them.

I glanced up at the moon then went back to trying to control the portal it was already getting easy to shrink it slowly on both sides so I kept it up moving the portal nearly closed then back open then I started trying to treat each side of the portal as its own thing making one end bigger but the other small.

My mind kept going back and forth about Lu and if I needed to do something about him. It was making it hard to think along with nothing but the sound of wind and beach was starting to make my head tingle and buzz in the way that leads to me getting angry from boredom.

"put that power to use and tell me a book about modern demi-gods that find out in there 20s." I said to Imp

She started to narrate but her voice had changed to a deeper male voice that I knew I had heard before.

Not wanting to make an issue of it I started practicing on the portal again half an ear on the story and as it went along her voice changed for every character and even had some light sound effects like I was just listening to a tv show rather then a book.

It was satisfying and helped to shut off the part of my mind that had ben planing and plotting against Lu quiet down so that I could focus on my portals.

After I was sure that I could control just one half of the portal at a time I turned the portal so that it was standing beside me more like a door than a pit.

I also pushed at the portal on the earth side shrinking it so that it would be just big enough for my hand to get threw then tilted it turning it vertical and moving it around to find my keys reaching out to grab them from the floor of the car before moving the portal out side the car threw the window and to my front door.

I used my keys to open the front door and pulled the portal inside then closed it with a vector.

"you should just set up a chair here and just use your portal moving skills to interact with that world." Imp said trying to see through the portal as well.

"tempting." I said then widened the portal enough for me to walk through. I headed for my room to get changed.

"like you could just find safes full of money and drop them onto the beach" she laughed "imagine the look on there faces when they see its just gone. Then when they look at the cameras it just drops away like something from a cartoon"

I did smile a little at the idea as she laughed and honestly I thought about it. Free money and all that metal in the safe could be melted down for weapons. But there didn't seam much point in getting weapons with Lu's power... or Eva's either.

I thought of all the ways Eva could use her power or all the ways I could use her power all the ways it could grow and what I could change about it and of corse it mattered a lot what the power would actually start out as.

"sounds waistfull." I finally said putting on my jacket "id just be taking the money and have a whole safe left over with nothing much to do with."

"yes... I suppose thats true." she said with a small smile and little glint in her eye.

"so what is a card?" I asked her looking at my shoes closely before putting them on.

"a mostly flat rectangle typically with something imbossed on it." she said watching me leaning back as if sitting in a chair only she could see.

"good. Vague as fuck again." I said with a bit of a smile heading back to the portal and this time I shrank it down till it was as big as a dime then had to think for a few moments.

'i want to take this portal with me and have it everywhere I go. should I put it in my pocket? I should be able to bind it to me and then lock it in so everywhere I go it dose but what sort of problems would I have if I kept it in my pocket? Well losing things for one.' I thought then lifted the portal and turned it around to see what it looked like from the back.

I had expected to see some sort of swirl or ripple but just like the portal on the beach there was simply nothing there.

"I f I just pressed the portal against my skin would anything bad happen?" I asked Imp thinking that I could use it like an invisible tattoo.

"well its always 60F there so if you'll always feel a warm spot, and if you go somewhere really cold it might make steam come out." she said with a smile.

I nodded at that then tried to make the portal a little smaller before putting it on my wrist kind of like a watch but on the right then locked it into place.

I slowly moved my arm around making sure nothing weird would happen with the portal like my arm hitting it or it being left behind when I moved.

"Tell me are there any GM's out there that made worlds that were mostly modern?" I asked, heading out the door and trying to decide wether or not I should just fly or take my car.

"more then you would think. A few of the ones good with teck built worlds with improved technology, but there is only one were the creator wouldn't mind if you were to go there and do as you please in it." Imp said with a little smile "the DM's have ways of viewing other worlds and watching media from there. One of the GM's really wanted to go to new york but less dirty, less people, and less cars. You know like how it is in the movies vs how it is in real life."

"Ok and they wouldn't mind if I dropped in?" I asked locking my door and heading to my car to get my phone.

"No they actually got talked into going to the city by one of the other GMs and found out how badly they made it. So they wouldn't mind if you completely nuked it." Imp said looking over my shoulder as I txted my land lord letting him know rent might be late due to us taking a vacation.

"Good where is it?" I asked trying to decide if I was going to take my phone with or not I didn't want to risk it so I put my phone back into the car then just looked at my car putting a few thoughts together.

"should I just put the car onto the beach?" I asked imp trying to decide if that was a good or horrible idea.

"Why bother? You can just make portals back here at any time remember?" Imp said dismissively.

"Yeah..." I wasn't sure why but I didn't like just leaving my car here. "maybe I should just train my portal powers some more before I head out to this new world."

"Or you could just spend some of those 69points you just got." Imp said sounding a little annoyed.

"No I want to wait. I already spent points on some new powers I want to really learn how to use them before I just get new ones." I said opening up the car to pull out my wallet then used my phone to check how much money I had in the bank. "I think for now im going to work on getting Lu some metal cards so that he has an ok weapon as soon as he wakes up."

"quest received go to the portal leading to New Berk." Imp said with a smirk in her voice. "rewards vector crafting"

I turned back to her and stared for a long moment trying to see if I could tell if she was just lying, joking, or just the embodiment of a system that I would have laughed at.

"I d be able to use my vectors for all sorts of crafting?" I asked.

"yep." Imp said and slowly grinned.

"why did I just get this quest now?" I asked.

Imp just shrugged "im not in charge I just tell you when I get the message."

"I don't think I belive you." I said then put my phone in my left breast pocket that had a button on it then my wallet in the right one then buttened them to keep them safe, then frowned and just used a vector to lock them into place making sure they were safe.

"Fine lead the way, and keep up that story from before but no sex parts." I said

"Sure thing and its 6 hours away by car but I think we can get there in 2" she said then floated straight up

I flew up after her and she took me up high enough that the icy wind was cutting though my clothes and left me shivering in my light jacket. I focused on just ignoring the cold wishing I had more then just my 10% training boost so that I could over come it faster.

As Imp had predicted the portal on my wrist started to make steam that was quickly blown away in the wind.

She started back up on her story while pointing the way I used my aura to spin the air around me so that I could cut threw the wind better as we flew.