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HS Chapter 39:
🕑 Added 2024-11-01 17:00:08 +0000 UTCChapter 39:
Alice sat on the bar stool, her forearms resting against the wooden countertop, doing her best to avoid the sticky spots. She ignored the glass of cranberry juice, dripping condensation onto the napkin. In front of her was an unfolded napkin with Titus's full character sheet scrawled out on it.
Name: Titus
Titles: Ancient, Primarch
Perks: Enhanced Reflexes, Relentless
Level: 19 - E
Speed: 39
Power: 27
Control: 38
—
Physical: 5
Magic: 2
Eternal Predator
[Eagle's Vision] - lvl 3
[Nature's Cloak] - lvl 1
[Primal Marksmanship] - lvl 4
Gen Skills
[System Identification] - lvl 4
[First Aid] - lvl 3
[Critical Strike] - lvl 3
[Inventory] - lvl 2
[Map] - lvl 1
She looked at it, frustrated, and struggled to make sense of the problem. Several other napkins with scribbles of numbers were crossed out and balled up over her shoulder.
It had taken them a while to get away, but they made it a distance away from the anthill, but were still in the city.
While he waited for her to sort through her thoughts, Titus was behind the bar, playing barkeeper as he mixed himself another drink. He had offered her some, but she had never really tried drinking. She was only nineteen and didn't have that sort of friends. Her roommates had offered a few times, but she had always been too busy and never saw the point of the mental impairment that came with alcohol. Looking at the numbers on Titus's sheet, she wanted to scream. She pulled up her own status to compare.
Name: Alice Wright
Titles: Mother of All, Tertius
Perks: Quick Learner, Agelessness
Level: 14 - E
Speed: 14
Power: 29
Control: 14
—
Physical: 2
Magic: 5
Warlock
[Pact Bond] - lvl 2
[Life Drain] - lvl 4
[Communion] - lvl 1
Gen Skills
[System Identification] - lvl 4
[Mana Sight] - lvl 4
[Mana Bolt] - lvl 6
[Second Chance] - lvl 1
It really didn't seem fair in her estimation. Hopefully, E-grade would end soon, and the amount of points Titus got for having a higher rarity class wouldn't have that much of an effect if she could also significantly upgrade her class level during that time. But for now, every time they both got more powerful, he was pulling further and further ahead. Luckily—or unluckily—he wasn't exactly optimizing the same way she was.
He spread out his free points between speed and control, two stats that really depended on each other, according to Titus. At the same time, Alice put all her free points into power. Even five levels beneath him, her power was higher than his. Of course, the two used the opaque physical and magical stats, making it rather hard to do a direct comparison. But she figured that if their goal was ranged single-target damage, she might be able to outdo him. In five levels, she definitely would, as long as she didn't start to become lopsided. She didn't think she was in any danger of that yet.
Their focuses were so entirely disparate—her focus on mana and his apparent lack of comprehension in that regard—that even the way they achieved E-grade was completely different. Neither seemed to understand how he had done it.
But while all that was frustrating, the real frustration was why he hadn't gotten a skill or some sort of special reward at level 19. So far, everything had happened at odd prime numbers, but that wasn't the only pattern it followed. Alice could think of half a dozen others. Until they had more data points, it would be difficult for her to tell. It could be something class-specific, and she might get a skill at level 19 now that they were diverging separately. Perhaps she wouldn't get a skill at 17 like he had? It was hard to say, but there had to be some sort of pattern.
"Any luck?" Titus asked as he swapped out her cranberry juice, which she had taken a sip of and then pushed away, with an orange juice concoction with a few leaves and layered colors on the top. He made a show of stirring it before pushing it closer.
Reluctantly, she took a sip and was surprised by the flavor. It was tangy, but still sweet. "What is this?" she asked.
"I haven't thought of a name for it yet, but it's orange juice, club soda, a little bit of bitters, and some muddled basil with a mint garnish."
She sipped it again, trying to pick out the different bits. "It's not bad."
Titus frowned. "Yeah, well, I haven't quite figured out what sort of alcohol to add to it yet, but at least it's a nice kiddy drink."
Alice did not like that phrasing, and Titus grimaced at her displeasure. "Um, mocktail," he corrected himself. "It does taste a little bit like alcohol, but the amount that's in the bitters is negligible."
"I suppose knowing your drinks is something you just pick up along the way," Alice said.
Titus gave the shaker in his hand another couple of shakes before nodding. "Yes, and honestly, making new ones is more of just a hobby of mine. Most of the good ones have already been figured out. Every once in a while, I find a gem, but usually, it's either too niche or tailored to my specific tastes."
Alice didn't really care but was grateful for the distraction from the current problem. They had gotten away from the ants and still had one trapped in their trunk. They hadn't been able to find a way out, but for now, they were unwinding, cooking a little bit of food, and planning their next move. The basket of fries, half-eaten next to her drink, had been decent. Surprisingly, Titus had spent time working in fast food for a few months before he'd given up on it but learned how to operate all the equipment.
When she'd asked why he ever thought that would be a good idea, Titus said it was more about the new experience. Of course, his knowledge was a few decades out of date, but fryers were fryers, and potato chips and French fries hadn't really changed much at all.
The break had given them just enough time to be distracted and feel a little recovered and prepared for the conversation after their frantic escape, so she had no objections about talking about it yet. But at the same time, he hadn't let them stew longer than they needed to.
She had really underestimated his social skills. Perhaps most of the time, he just hadn't been willing to apply them, but she forgot that he did have lots and lots of experience. She needed to remember that whenever she considered his unique situation. So she went along with the change, ready to discuss the problem.
"The way I see it," she said, "We have two problems. One is the ants, two is the mana drain."
Titus frowned. "Is the mana drain really a problem?"
"Well," Alice said, tapping rhythmically on the table as she pulled her argument together, "Besides the fact that I will be of limited use inside the field if I can't replenish my mana to fight properly, there is the concern that mana is the medium through which magic interacts with the world. If there is no mana near the server, there might be no place for the AI to jump into some sort of magic construct to expand limitlessly like the first one did."
Titus frowned, his brows knitting together as he considered her words, and Alice took this as a cue to go on. "Of course, this is all conjecture, something in a field that I have no experience in, and neither does any human. So it's just guesswork, but it seems to make sense to me."
Titus shrugged. "It makes sense to me, too, but you could probably make up any sort of metaphor and have it work. But, well, I think this actually might be a plus."
"How so?"
"Well, if the mana is isolated away from the supercomputer, doesn't that mean that the System might not be able to touch it directly? It would only be able to fight the growing AI with the force it has in that supercomputer center."
Alice worried her lower lip between her teeth and thought. "Maybe. It'll really depend. I think we should still look into solving it because even once it's trained up, we need to have it connected. But maybe once it's powerful enough, it can bridge the gap. But then that would be true for the other system, too."
Titus objected, and Alice shrugged. "I don't think this is something we can really do much about. It's as likely to help one way or the other, but there is still the problem of me being useless after the first few encounters."
Titus tapped his chin and then scratched his beard slightly. "Do we need to find you a razor?" Alice asked. Luckily, they had been finding decent hygiene products along the way, but Titus hadn't shaved off his beard. He shook his head.
"No. I'm trying to grow it back in. In ‘not civilization’ having a beard is kind of useful. It keeps your face warm and can ever so slightly soften the impact on your chin. Helps in various ways. It's by no means a major benefit, but it is a habit I'd like to keep. But I agree, I can probably protect you on the way in and out. If we can find a way to divert the ants or only have to fight a limited number at a time, it's definitely suboptimal. Really, we just don't know about magic, the System, monsters, or anything."
Alice nodded in agreement. "Perhaps we should just power through to D-grade, then go back to the Luminaries to find more information. Or just get strong enough that we can wipe the ants out by ourselves."
"Going and learning more would be great, but I don't think that's what they were offering to teach," Titus said. "It seemed more like understanding the meditation path I was on. They might have had more than one reason why they ignored you, rather than you just being F-grade."
"You think maybe they don't do the mana thing, or you're ahead of the curve?" Alice asked.
"Or there's more than one way to power," Titus said.
Alice had to agree. The idea of there being more than one way to power made sense. The game was designed for many different archetypes, and not everyone would use mana how a warlock like her did. Besides, she felt like just using mana was probably not optimal. The [Life Drain] skill gave her several other resources, most of which she didn't have any use for.
"Okay, so we need to find out more information. So far, we know there's a bank, but we don't have anything stored there. We have a decent amount of money again, though. The Kraken certainly paid out well," she said.
Titus nodded. "True. Perhaps we should start by looking at the store."
"I hope the shopkeeper's different this time. More useful and less grumpy," she said as she sipped at her drink. It really was surprisingly good, and she was tempted to ask Titus to fill up one to go, but she was actually quite full. So when she pushed away from the bar, ready to stand up, she left it half-finished. Titus looked at it and cocked an eyebrow at her.
"It's good," she said, "But distracting."
He nodded and downed the rest of his drink before pouring a plastic cup of beer and carrying it with him as they walked out of the door and back onto the street.
"So," Alice asked, "Your map tells you where the shop is?"
Titus nodded and pointed down further away from the anthill that was still a mile and a half away, at least.
"Good," Alice said, relaxing. "Let's go see what they have."
