Hugo stared at the four elements on his Acomarian screen. He hadn’t gotten to choose any of them, they had just appeared on his element list. At rank two he should only have one element, not four. The first two elements, mithril and titanium, were his standard choices, but why did he have porcelain and spider silk now? He didn’t want those elements. Why did the system choose spider silk of all things?

He suddenly remembered his previous life. Those four elements were the ones he had chosen as Florin. He had chosen spider silk to help with his murder-free heists. For some reason, the Acomarian glitch had given him the elements he had during his previous go around.

He really hoped that he would be able to change elements as he ranked up. He would be disappointed if he couldn’t choose better elements than porcelain and spider silk.

Without thinking about it much, Hugo hopped out of line and approached the mountain guide leader. “Hey there. Remember me and my predictions? I got another one for you. The southbound train will be attacked by an airship. You need to send Fermi and Feynman with it. Their toy will take care of the train jackers. The northbound train will be attacked too, but they can handle it, no worries.”

The leader stared at Hugo for a few moments. Then he turned his head and yelled, “Feynman, get your brother and your toy. You are taking the southbound train. You can get the details from future boy here.”

Hugo nodded smartly and hopped on the train. It wasn’t long before the train started heading south to Tallinn. When the brothers came to ask him about it, Hugo decided to keep his full disclosure thing going.

“When we are about a half hour away from Tallinn, an airship full of train jackers will head our way from the left. You have a mana seeking runic bomb in your possession. You can use it to take them out without endangering anyone,” Hugo said.

Fermi looked at him suspiciously as they unpacked the runic creation. He said, “How did you find out about the airship and my little toy here?”

Hugo shrugged, “I am a time traveler. I have done this before.”

Feynman said, “Pshhh, yeah right. Prove it.”

“Your ruinic bomb is working perfectly, but if you set it off like that, it won’t explode. You haven’t activated that part yet. Not that you need to. Your piercing runes will work just fine, going through the shield and the float envelope. Honestly, I would recommend taking the explosive out, that way you save yourself the expense.”

The brothers were still suspicious of him, and left the explosive in. They just activated it, having their attention drawn to it. A short while later, an explosion of bright white lit up the sky. Hugo was the only one that wasn’t temporarily blinded. He had looked away in time.

Once everyone had gotten over their shock and blindness, the train started moving again. Hugo was still deciding on what to do next when they arrived at Tallinn. He didn’t need to go anywhere. There was no family expecting him to come with him, nowhere he had to be. He couldn’t even talk to Mia or the dean yet since school wouldn’t start for another few days.

His only pressing need was mana stones. Apparently they were as important as food now. He needed to volunteer on the wall. Or rather, he needed to fabricate a weapon and then volunteer on the wall.

“Here,” Rebane said and held out a bag.

Hugo looked up at him and back at the bag of money, “You sure?”

“Don’t make me regret this,” Rebane said, “You promised to pay me back.”

Hugo nodded seriously and said, “Thank you. I will pay you back, no worries. I know where to find you in Reval, so I will come find you and pay you back sometime in the next few weeks.”

Rebane headed off to catch his connecting train. Hugo stayed in Tallinn. There was no point in paying to travel to a different city with his limited funds. Rebane may have given Hugo everything he had, but it still wasn’t a lot. Thankfully, the handful of copper in the bag would be enough to pay for food and somewhere to sleep. He hefted the bag. Enough money for one day at least.

Hugo headed over to the inn first. He had seen a few cheaper options when he drove by them as Florin. Once he had a room, he sat down and started fabricating. He didn’t attempt to remake his best crossbow, he didn’t have the mana for it. With his small pool, it would take several days to fabricate all of the parts necessary, let alone enough bolts to make it useful.

Instead, he fabricated a large thin bow out of titanium. He made himself a porcelain grip and a bowstring out of spider silk. He had to make the string twice. The first time he had forgotten to make it non-sticky.

He couldn’t afford to make mithril arrows, despite that being his best weapon. Instead, he took the time to calculate out a titanium shaft and fletchings with a screw on mithril arrowhead. By the time he made four of them, he was out of mana. He slumped back on his bed. Having a small mana pool like this was going to be tough.

Now that his mana pool was empty, he concentrated on how he felt. He felt fine. Even though his body seemed to partly run on mana, his mana pool seemed to operate on a separate level. Full or empty, it didn’t affect him. That was good at least.

Hugo wanted to go out and take a shift up on the wall right away. They probably wouldn’t let him. With only four arrows, he would be more of a nuisance than a useful defender of the city. Instead, Hugo walked down to the tavern connected to the inn and spent the rest of his money. The beetroot soup and potato pudding weren’t tasty. They were filling though, and that’s all that Hugo needed right now. After dinner he went back to his room and fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, Hugo emptied his mana pool, using all forty points to make eight more arrows. With no money for breakfast, he headed straight for the wall. It took him a while to walk to the nearest tower, the sun was fully risen by the time he walked inside.

“Hello, I am a formation mage, and I would like to volunteer for a shift on the wall,” Hugo said. He fabricated a small porcelain ball in front of her to prove his claim.

She knocked the ball off her desk and into a trashcan nearby. “The first available shift is in three days. You have to volunteer the day of, we might not need you at all depending on what sentinel coverage.”

Hugo bit back a swear and said, “I need a mana stone, and I am happy to kill monsters for the city. Can’t we work something out? Maybe a half shift and you keep half of the stones I earn?”

She shook her head, “We just don’t need you today. All of the nearby monsters got killed yesterday, it will be a few days before the monster surge really starts.”

“I really need a mana stone, please can you help me out?” Hugo said.

Her face scrunched up, she wasn’t happy that she had to deal with him. Before she could reply, a different voice cut in.

“It’s alright Sofia, I’ll take it from here,” the man said.

Hugo turned around to see a sentinel captain. He seemed vaguely familiar. Hugo said, “Hello Captain, I hope you can help me out.”

“Yes, I overheard,” the sentinel said and gestured to have Hugo follow him. The captain said, “She is right, you know. We don’t really need volunteers today. I can make an exception for you, assuming you are willing to help us out where it counts.”

Hugo followed the captain up the stairs and said, “What would you need me to do?”

“I let you earn whatever you can with your ten arrows, but you promise to come back in a week and take a few night shifts. We always have problems filling the night shifts at first,” the sentinel said.

“It’s twelve arrows, and sure. I promise to volunteer for a few night shifts next week,” Hugo said easily. He wanted to continue to rank up after today, and by next week he would have his favorite crossbow fabricated.

Hugo followed him all the way to the top of the wall. The captain showed him to his spot and told him to come see him before he left. Hugo had to wait ten minutes before a target came into range. It really was slow today, despite the fact that it was just after the heartbeat.

Sighting down the shaft of the arrow was rather different from the crossbow he was used to. He took his time and lined everything up right. His increased strength let him hold the heavy draw on the titanium bow. Finally when the poison jelly snake was close enough, Hugo loosed his special arrow.

He missed.

His strength might be up to the task, but his dexterity wasn’t. The second shot missed as well. Thankfully, his third shot hit the monster in its bulbous head. The mithril arrowhead sunk deep into the creature and exploded a few moments later.

Congratulations

You have been ranked up to rank three. You have been granted two free points.

His Acomarian screen popped up, letting him know he had two free points. Interesting that it didn’t automatically go to strength, despite the fact that he had the formation domain listed on his screen. Hugo groused at the necessity of assigning points right away. He wished he could just make up his mind about that stuff later. To his surprise, the screen disappeared.

Had that worked? A quick check showed that the points were still there, he could just assign them later. Hugo shook his head. It was like learning an all new system. What would it surprise him with next?

Hugo had to wait another twenty minutes before suitable targets came into range. It was a pack of dire wolves. He waited until they were closer than last time and sent three arrows downrange. Two of them hit the sprinting monsters. A couple of muffled explosions later, and Hugo had another blue screen pop up.

Congratulations

You have been ranked up to rank four. You have been granted two free points.

That was going to get annoying. Hugo quickly closed the notifications as they came up. He kept at it, shooting the rest of his arrows. When he shot his final one at a fire hedgehog, he ranked up to eight.

A wave of magic washed through his body. He felt different. A check of his Acomarian screen revealed what had changed.

Hugo Ersatz [Formation, Barrier Domain]

Strength 21

Dexterity 21

Resilience 10

Regeneration 10

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 12

Charisma 10

Perception 10

Rank 8

112/900 Points

Health 10/10

Mana 8/84

Skills: Mana Sight, Mana Bolt

Elements: Mithril, Titanium, Porcelain, Spider Silk

Frequencies: 400-700, 1016-1032, 8-200, 800-900

Free Points: 12

He had another domain back. Now his screen showed both of his domains and his dexterity had gone up by ten. He noticed there were no parenthesis, all of the changes had been effective immediately. The higher mana pool was a blessing. The listing for the frequencies was frustrating. He didn’t get to choose again. It was just the same four frequencies from last time around, when he was Florin.

Was the Acomarian system trying to get him back to that point? Back to where he had been when he did the ritual? It seemed like it was. If this pattern held, he would gain his runic domain when he hit rank sixteen. Then the ritual domain would come at thirty-two and the life domain at sixty-four. He had never been that high. He would have to kill tier four monsters to get that high, and there weren’t a lot of those around.

With all of his arrows spent, Hugo went to see the captain. He had enough mana to make one more arrow, but he wanted to keep some mana in reserve.

The captain nodded at him and said, “My newest friend. Here are two mana stones, you killed enough to earn that. Come back in a week and we will put you on a few night shifts. Spend all of your mana between now and then on arrows, alright?”

Hugo saluted to be funny and said, “Yes, sir. See you in a week.”

The captain smiled and waved him off. Hugo happily walked down the stairs. It was almost lunch time and he had missed breakfast. Sadly, he was still out of money. So he ducked into the closest harvester store and sold his bow. He got way less than it was worth, but twelve silver was better than nothing.

After a filling lunch of meat pies, Hugo boarded the train to Reval. As he sat there, head pressed up against the window, he thought about first impressions. He needed to put his best foot forward. People in general and Mia in particular tended to keep their first impressions of people.