Chapter 27: Inspiration
Victor wanted to spend some more time cultivating and building up his smaller inspiration-attuned Core, but he hated feeling like he was being watched all the time and was having trouble concentrating. He took a look at his status sheet, for probably the thirtieth time in the last hour, marveling at the fact that he was finally making some real progress:
Name:
Victor Sandoval
Race:
Human - Base 4
Class:
Spirit Champion - Advanced
Level:
14
Core:
Spirit Class - Base 5
Energy Affinity:
3.1, Rage 9.1, Inspiration 7.4
Energy:
358/358
Strength:
31
Vitality:
48
Dexterity:
21
Agility:
21
Intelligence:
10
Will:
38
Points Available:
14
His Core was no longer “fragmented,” and he had a new affinity—inspiration. He didn’t know exactly how that would work or what he could do with it, but he was happy, nonetheless. His Energy levels were on the rise, and he knew that as he built up his second affinity Core, he should be able to get back to his old levels, if not higher. Victor contemplated the fourteen attribute points he was still sitting on. He’d gotten them from when he’d leveled fighting the beetles, and he felt like he was being dumb, not spending them.
“Am I dumb?” he asked himself, taking a second look at his intelligence attribute. He didn’t feel stupid; in fact, he’d always done well in school when he applied himself. “Yeah, but I didn’t apply myself very often—that’s not exactly smart.”
“Shut up, kid.” The gruff voice came from the other side of the boulder, and Victor clamped his mouth shut. He furtively glanced around, then stood up and briskly walked out of the “meditation cave.” There were a lot more people in there cultivating than when he’d started. As he walked down the narrow cleft leading to the greater tunnel, he wished for a more private place. While he was wishing, he decided to wish that Yrella was still alive and that he could talk to her for some advice. “Fuck it,” he said and dumped ten points into intelligence and the other four into strength.
He didn’t know if he was making a big mistake, but he felt like he could benefit from a little bit faster brain and some better decisions, and strength had never done him wrong. As the strange sensation of warmth flooded into his head, he almost fell to one knee, catching himself on the rough stone wall. It didn’t hurt, but it was disorienting, and when it faded, Victor felt pretty damn good. He didn’t notice any immediate changes in how he thought about things, but he hoped it would be a subtle difference that would pay off over time. He did see a sizeable increase in his maximum Energy, however. “Yrella wasn’t lying. Intelligence definitely bumps Energy up.”
As he strode from the crevice into the enormous mine tunnel, Victor almost wanted to whistle or sing or something; he was in an uncharacteristically good mood. He stopped himself, though, making sure not to make a spectacle. The last thing he wanted was for people to notice his gains. He slouched his shoulders and screwed his face up into a scowl, and kicked some rocks as he walked down the very slight incline toward the barracks.
He was coming at the barracks from an angle, and when he got to the rear-left corner of the building, he heard some soft murmuring and movement coming from the shadows near the far corner, and he directed his steps to take him closer. When he came around the part of the barracks that housed the low-ceilinged kitchen, he nearly stumbled into a couple of other delvers locked in an embrace and making out like they were outside a high school dance. When he saw Edeya’s eyes pop open and stare at him over the shoulder of whatever guy she was kissing, he blurted, “Oh shit! My bad!” and turned on his heel, quickly walking back around the other corner toward the front of the barracks.
“Well, that was fucking awkward,” he muttered, shaking his head. He was having a hard time finding privacy to work on his Core; he could only imagine trying to find a private place to be intimate with someone. “Poor suckers.” He wondered if there were rules about that. He very much doubted the mine operators wanted people running all over the place having sex and dealing with all the things that came with it. In the end, he decided it wasn’t his problem; he had enough on his plate.
Victor stood in front of the barracks, briefly vacillating between going inside or doing a bit of exploring. As far as he knew, he still had several free hours before he should hit the sack. He imagined Captain Lam would be back at it bright and early, so he didn’t want to miss dinner or lights out, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to explore a bit. He knew there might be some side tunnels or caverns back toward the main settlement area, but he figured his chances of finding some privacy would be better if he snooped around toward the deeper parts of the mine.
He took a few minutes to cross over the tunnel to the far side and walked along that wall, skirting boulders and piles of rubble that had been left behind during the mining process. Victor could see and hear groups of miners and delvers moving down the center of the tunnel every now and then, but he was concentrating on trying to find side tunnels or crevices that led away—something like the one that led to the cultivation cave near Lam’s barracks. After one promising shadow after another proving to be nothing more than an indentation in the tunnel wall, he was getting ready to turn back, but then he saw a jagged, dark cleft behind a large pile of boulders.
Victor poked his head into the crevice and saw that it opened up into a long, high-ceilinged tunnel with bumpy exposed-rock walls. He pushed forward in the dark for a while, but when he looked over his shoulder and could no longer see the light of the larger tunnel, he decided to risk taking out his glowing sunsteel ring. The ring was warm in his hand and gave off a friendly luminosity that only shone for a few feet in any direction. Using its light, Victor followed the tunnel for another hundred feet or so before it opened up into a small cavern with a ledge that hung over a dark abyss, the depths of which he couldn’t discern. “Well, it’s the end of the road for me, but at least I have some privacy here.”
“Oh, aye, it’s nice and quiet in here.” Victor spun around, adrenaline flooding his body as he heard the gruff voice coming from the tunnel behind him. A large Vodkin stood there, a wooden cudgel in one hand, leering down at Victor.
“Hey, man. Sorry if this is your space; I’ll head out.”
“Naw, this ain’t our space, but we figured we might see what you was doing here.” The Vodkin stepped forward, and two more men stepped out of the tunnel behind him. They both were wearing leather armor and wielding delver batons. Victor wasn’t dumb enough to think these guys wanted to chat; they were going to mug him or worse.
“Hey, guys. Don’t fuck around, alright? Captain Lam is expecting me, and I can’t be late, you feel me?”
“Oh, Captain Lam, is it?” the big Vodkin sneered. “She know you got that shiny bauble?” Victor’s heart almost stopped at the words. He called himself an idiot in his head, but he snorted out loud.
“Of course, where you think I got it, dumbass?”
“I don’t buy it, Chem,” one of the other guys, a narrow, tall Shadeni, said.
“Nah, me neither. Let’s see what this little pup’s got in his backpack.”
“Hey, asshole! I’m not little, and if you three come at me, I’m going to go fucking apeshit. I won’t be able to keep from smashing your skulls in!” Victor stuffed his glowing ring down on his middle finger and then hefted his baton, menacing the trio. The smallest of them began to chuckle, and Victor noticed the bright gleam of his collar. He held a hand out toward Victor and made a fist. Before Victor could do anything, the stone under his feet suddenly erupted and wrapped around his ankles and knees in a vice-like grip.
Victor roared and activated Berserk, panicking at his immobility. He screamed again, his vision going red, and he thrashed and pulled with all his might, trying to yank his feet out of the stone, but while he concentrated on getting free, sharp pain erupted over his left eye, then another spike of pain exploded in the back of his head, and suddenly he was drifting in blackness.
****
“Oh, Madre!” Victor woke in utter darkness with a throbbing skull and a cold, shivering body. He pulled his arms close to his chest, realizing he didn’t have his shirt on. “Where the fuck am I?” He tried to piece things together, but everything was jumbled in his head. He remembered waking up; hadn’t he gone down to the stone to turn in his quest? “Oh, man,” he reached up and rubbed at his head, gingerly feeling for what was wrong. The back of his skull was tender to the touch, but, other than that, the pain was mainly on the inside.
He felt around himself in the blackness, trying to get some idea of where he was. He was lying on hard stone, fragments of rock and dust everywhere. He patted along his body, relieved to find he still had his pants on, but his boots and socks were gone. That’s right! He’d bought socks. What else? He’d gone back to the barracks, and then he’d gone to find the cultivation cave! He started to remember snippets—his new Core, seeing Edeya kissing some guy, wanting to find a secluded spot to work on his Core and talk to Gorz. Oh, fuck! Gorz! Victor shoved his hand into his pocket, and there, like it was waiting for his grasp, was the cold disc of metal on its chain.
“Victor! Thank Baz-chemeil! I thought you perished, and I was doomed to lie in a dark hole for another millennium.” Victor pulled the chain out, hoping to shed some light on his situation, but none shone forth.
“Gorz,” he said in a dry, raspy voice. “Can you please turn your light back on?” Almost instantly, the silvery-blue light stabbed forth into his eyes, and he had to squint them shut for a moment. Slowly he peeled his eyes open to find himself on a stone ledge, not five feet from a black abyss. Was he still in the place where those assholes jumped him? “Oh yeah—now I remember. Fuck, but those guys fought dirty.” He looked around and was dismayed to see a sheer stone wall behind him. He looked up and saw, very faintly in Gorz’s light, another ledge about twenty feet up. “How the fuck did I get here, Gorz?”
“Those ruffians threw your body off after they stripped most of your belongings. Luckily, you told me that you weren’t allowed to have me, so I made myself very unnoticeable.”
“Ungh,” Victor grunted as he pushed himself into a sitting position, his back to the stone wall. “Well, that’s some good news, at least. Nice job, Gorz.”
“I was partially being selfish, Victor; I had no desire to have to spend time conversing with those brutes.”
“Alright, but why didn’t they kill me?”
“Oh, I believe they thought you dead. Victor, even in your pocket, I heard your skull crack. Then, of course, they rolled you into an abyss…” Gorz trailed off, obviously thinking his point was made.
“Yeah, I get it. Huh, I’ve never been knocked out while berserking, and I’m sure I’ve been hit in the head before.” Victor lifted the chain and slipped it over his head; he wanted both hands free. Gorz’s cool disc rested against his breastbone, and he shivered, suddenly remembering how cold he was. “At least those assholes left my pants on me. How long was I out, Gorz?”
“Just over four hours, Victor. Whatever kept you from dying wasn’t able to keep you conscious.” Victor felt his head again, unable to even find a lump.
“I think my Berserk ability was still active after I got knocked out; it mended the wound then wore off. Well, that’s my guess, anyway.”
“Plausible, Victor. Now, I detected a drop of around seventeen feet; can you see the ledge above?”
“Yeah, I saw it. Chill, man. I need to get my bearings.” Victor closed his eyes and rubbed at his neck, trying to remember the fight. Jesus, that guy’s fucking spell really screwed him over, and then he’d used Berserk too early; he’d been so enraged about his feet being stuck he hadn’t even tried to defend against their attacks. What was that big guy’s name? “Chem. Remember that, Gorz. I’m going to pay those guys a visit one of these days.”
“Noted, Victor!”
“Right, now, let me see here.” Victor stood up and stretched his arms up, pushing them against the stone, gauging how high he’d have to jump to grab the upper ledge. With his arms stretched out and him on his tip-toes, he was still a good nine or ten feet from the ledge. “Well, I’m a hell of a lot stronger than I was on Earth,” he muttered, shaking out his arms and squatting down a few times to loosen up his legs. He squatted and, with all his might, leaped up, reaching out with his arms, trying to grasp the ledge. He still fell short a couple of feet.
“Excellent effort, Victor, I felt your vertical traversal, and it was nearly six feet!”
“Yeah, if I can make it back to Earth, I’m going to have a hell of a career in sports. Well, unless I lose my new strength and stuff.”
“Is Earth the name of your homeworld?”
“That’s right; there’s no Energy there.”
“You’d keep some residual benefits, but without Energy to sustain your enhanced attributes and Core, you’d slowly return to something more typical of that world.”
“Alright, I need to jump higher; I think my Berserk ability will work, but I’m not sure I’ll have enough sanity to remember to jump up there.”
“Yes, berserking is a fraught talent. I’m afraid if I try to guide you while you’re in such a state, you’re as likely to throw me into the abyss as listen to me.”
“Yeah, good point.”
“Do you have any other abilities that might help?”
“Yeah, just a minute,” Victor replied, concentrating on his Sovereign Will skill and using it to boost his strength. Once more, he squatted, then jumped, reaching toward the ledge.
“Excellent, Victor! That was seven additional inches!”
“Not enough. I’m running out of ideas, Gorz.”
“Victor, perhaps share some information about yourself with me. What sorts of abilities do you have? Were you successful in mending your Core?” Victor realized he never spoke to Gorz again after getting his advice about his Core.
“Damn, I can be a prick sometimes. Sorry, Gorz. Let me fill you in.” He told Gorz about what he’d done with his Core and told him about his spells.
“So, you have some inspiration-attuned Energy?”
“Yeah, I do, but no spells that call for it.”
“Why not try a new spell? One way to innovate Energy abilities and spells is to cast a known spell with a different attunement. Reevus-dak used the exact same spell to cast Fiery Burst and Wind Gust; he just fed differently attuned Energy into the spell.”
“How do I give my spell different Energy? It just happens.”
“It’s an act of will. You need to clamp down on the Energy that your spell calls for and push forth the Energy you want to use.”
“Hmm, alright,” Victor said softly, turning his attention inward to his Core, where the two suns of his attunements pulsed next to each other. The white-gold orb of his inspiration-attuned Energy was about half the size of his smoldering red sphere of rage Energy. Still, both Cores looked rich and healthy. “Do I have more than one Core?”
“You have a multi-faceted Core. The shape of a Core’s manifestation is often determined by how a mind perceives it. Some people with multiple affinities might see swirling bands of color around a single sphere. Others might see multiple orbs rotating each other. There are as many Cores and shapes of Cores as there are people.”
“So these two pulsing orbs are my Core. Together?”
“Yes, that seems to be the type of Core you have, based on your descriptions, of course.”
Victor looked back at his Core and concentrated on holding the red, rage-attuned Energy locked down, and he pulled forth a strand of the warm, bright, inspiration Energy, and then he started to cast Berserk. He’d never watched one of his spells take shape before, but this time, while he stared at his Core, he saw the complex, wild spell pattern start to form in his pathways. He felt the rage Energy surge, trying to push past his mental barrier. Victor bore down with his will, holding the Energy in place and coaxing the tendril of warm, golden-white Energy toward the pattern. Suddenly the Energy was sucked into the spell pattern, and a torrent of it pulled out of the shimmering white-gold part of his Core to finish the spell.
***Congratulations! You’ve learned the spell: Inspiring Presence - Basic***
***Inspiring Presence - Basic: Prerequisite: Affinity - Inspiration. You infuse your being with the power of inspiration, filling yourself with potential and bringing forth the potential of nearby allies. Energy Cost: Minimum 75 - scalable. Cooldown: Long.***
Victor felt a surge of positivity and power pour into his limbs. His vision grew bright, the silvery-blue light of Gorz seemed to sharpen into daylight, and everything seemed clearer, closer, easier to reach.
He brushed aside the notifications, let out a whoop, and backed up two steps, so the backs of his heels were hanging into the abyss. He looked up at the ledge; it wasn’t even that far! He took one huge, jumping lunge, then leaped off his front foot, stretching out with one arm. His fingers curled over the ledge's stone lip, and he caught on, laughing. He slapped his other hand onto the ledge and pulled himself up, bounding onto his bare feet. He laughed again, danced a quick shuffle, and then ran back toward the main mining tunnel through the crevice.
Victor made it about a dozen steps outside the dark side tunnel when the Inspiring Presence wore off, and he stumbled to his knees, suddenly feeling very heavy and dull. “Oof! That’s a hell of a comedown, Gorz.” He slapped a hand to his face, feeling drunk and sleepy.
“Describe your spell to me, Victor!” Gorz sounded a little hysterical. Had he been trying to speak to him while Victor had been high on inspiration? Victor told him about the spell, and Gorz chortled, “Oh well done, Victor! Well done! I’m sure the effect will be incredible when you push it past advanced.”
“Alright, thanks again, Gorz. Hey, can you stay hidden if I wear you? I mean, like you hid from those assholes?”
“Most definitely if you wear me under a shirt, but I’d have a hard time hiding on your chest like this in the open.”
“Oh, alright, then I’ll put you back in my pocket. I’m about to go to the barracks, and I doubt I’ll slip in unnoticed.”
“Speak with you soon, then, Victor.”
“Right,” Victor took the amulet off his head and stuffed it down in his pocket, then he stood and stretched. He was starting to feel normal again. He broke into an easy jog, angling straight for the barracks. He knew he was late for light’s out, so he figured he’d be in trouble. He tried to open the doors quietly, but, of course, they creaked and rattled. Sergeant Fath was standing in the aisle between the bunks, arms folded and staring at Victor when he stepped inside. He raised one hand, beckoning Victor with one finger, then he turned and walked up the aisle and through the back door, where Captain Lam kept her quarters.
Victor followed behind, padding softly on his bare feet, feeling like he was walking to the principal’s office or something. Snorts, loud breathing, and farts sounded in the barracks as he walked between the bunks. When Victor got past the sleeping delvers and walked by the long, wooden table, he snatched up a half-eaten piece of bread someone had neglected to clear and stuffed it into his mouth. He was struggling to swallow the dry mouthful when he stepped through the doorway into a surprisingly well-appointed sitting room. Captain Lam lounged on a plush burgundy chair, her legs up on a matching stool. Behind her and on both sides of the room were bookcases positively stuffed with scrolls, loose papers, and books of all shapes and sizes. She was sipping from a crystal glass half-full with a thick amber liquid.
“Thanks, Sergeant. I’ll let you know if you’ll be needed again.” Sergeant Fath nodded and walked out, pulling the door closed behind him. “All right, delver. Explain to me why you’re late coming to my barracks, half-naked and caked in dried blood.”
“Uh,” Victor honestly hadn’t thought of what he’d say. He’d had a tiny sliver of hope that he could slip into his bunk unnoticed, but he supposed Fath had gone on high alert when his bunk had been empty. “Well, I was out looking around, kind of exploring nearby, when some assholes jumped me. Took all my stuff.” He gestured to his bare feet and held his arms out in a shrug. Lam sat up, setting her glass on the little table next to her chair. Victor noticed she wasn’t wearing her armor; he didn’t think he’d ever seen her without it. When she put her feet on the ground, her knees jutted up, reminding him how tall she was.
“Who jumped you?”
“Some delvers, I think. Not ours; I didn’t recognize them, but they had batons.”
“You don’t know who they were?”
“Nope.” Victor shrugged. There was no way he was going to rat out that fucker’s name—no way he’d let Lam have the satisfaction of dealing with him. Captain Lam studied him for a long moment, then she sat back, putting her feet back up.
“I hope this was a good lesson for you, Victor; life is cheap in the delve. You’re too weak to be wandering around alone, especially wearing nice clothes. I don’t like the idea some scum think they can lay hands on one of my squad, but I really don’t have time to take you around to the other delver units and try to find them out. We’re heading into the deep in just a couple hours.”
“Oh, I learned a good lesson, believe me.” Victor reached up and scratched at his forehead, sending flakes of dried blood fluttering down in front of his eyes. Captain Lam grinned at him and beckoned him closer.
“Alright. I’ll give you a new baton; I’ve had plenty of delvers die on me over the years and have a pretty good collection. She reached over to a sizeable rune-inscribed leather bag sitting next to her chair, and a dull gray baton appeared in her hand. It was larger than Victor’s old one and had a few strange letters carved into the metal. “This one has a momentum enchantment; it’ll swing faster than a normal baton, and you should be able to reverse your swings more easily.” She held it out, and Victor took it. The baton was heavy, at least twice as heavy as his old one, but it felt almost alive in his hand. He wanted to swing it around but knew that would be a dumb move in the captain’s sitting room.
“Um, thanks, Captain Lam.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you didn’t die, Victor; you’ve got some talents I find useful, and my unit is already understaffed. Don’t be so stupid again, alright?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now go to the supply chest and dig out some boots and a shirt.”
“Right, thanks again.” Victor turned and moved to the door, pulling it open. He wanted to steal another glance at Lam’s sitting room or at Lam and all the cool things she had around her, but he forced himself to keep his eyes forward and stepped out, feeling her gaze boring a hole in his shoulder blades. He closed her door and then walked down the short hallway to the supply chest. At least she wasn’t going to make him walk around barefoot as some sort of lesson.
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