The Last Dainv-Chapter 76

The Last Dainv-Chapter 76

Gale threw his backpack onto the foldable dining table and laid facedown on the bed. The car really just crumpled from his hand. The sensation of bending metal and flying metal bits not even hurting all looked so surreal. But everything was real. Now the fantasy books he'd read before no longer seemed so… magical. It's only been a couple of months to him too.
He turned his head and looked at the clock above the desk, 7PM. It was the usual time he would run to the warehouse. There were lots of ghosts in his books. Having those books come true, then it could only mean one thing.
Scared? He's not scared. Definitely not. He's been alone in the warehouse for a couple of weeks now. It was easy peasy being alone. Would they appear if he had done his original plan to build a house out in the woods all alone by himself? No. They wouldn't. Ghosts weren't real back then.
A long long sigh escaped his mouth into the comforter of the bed. No point in worrying about ghosts when the stupid Path probably has them all locked up in a cabin somewhere anyway.
"Guide, is the apartment ok enough to do this reconfiguration thing?"
[Affirmative. Threat Level: None.]
Gale bounced up to his feet. "List me the available pathway reconfigurations I can use."
[Accessing historical records... Two relevant configurations detected for current core class.]
[First record: 86 Families Era. Dainv named Seren developed parallel pathway configuration. Method increased essence flow efficiency by creating redundant channels.]
[Second record: Early Collapse Era. Survivor Renna developed circular pathway system while under pursuit. Configuration enabled continuous essence cycling, allowing increased recovery rate. Allowed recycling of wasted essence. Implementation required precise control.]
"Tell me more about Seren's method."
[Seren Pathways focused on basic essence flow optimization. Serial pathways are split into parallel pathways at strategic intervals. Similar to electrical circuit principles. Increases overall system efficiency. Simplicity: easy.]
The circuitry experiment from class was the one that gave him the idea to reconfigure his pathways in the first place. Its concept was similar but different at the same time. Circuits were inanimate. He was a living being. There was no way it could be exactly the same. However, anything would do right now. His current configuration was still set at default.
"And Renna's method?"
[Renna configuration developed under duress. Continuous combat necessitated improved essence recovery. Circular system created closed loop for essence recycling.]
"Which one would work better for combat?"
[Analysis... Renna's configuration provides superior combat advantages. Continuous essence recycling enables sustained ability usage. However, risk of cycle overflow requires precise control.]
"And Seren's?"
[Seren configuration offers stable performance increase. Lower risk of catastrophic failure. Recommended for users prioritizing reliability over sustained peak performance.]
Gale walked over to the dusty window, watching the intersection. People walked by all wearing hoodies or jackets. A dog tugged at its owner's leash and plopped down, refusing to walk any further. The owner tried to pull, but the dog wouldn't move. Eventually, the owner gave up and carried the dog even though it was almost the size of her.
Smiling at the random event, he continued. "Guide, compare the two configurations against my current abilities."
[Analyzing host parameters... Phase Touch requires consistent essence flow. Alter and Distort benefit from rapid essence recovery. Current pathway configuration operates at base efficiency.]
[Renna configuration would enhance ability sustainability. Risk: skill usage could be destabilized due to cycle overflow. Higher core class mitigates the issue.]
[Seren configuration would improve overall stability. Multiple parallel pathways reduce strain during simultaneous ability usage.]
In the rift, there were many moments when he almost had ran out of essence. During the first fight with the knight and then the fight at the castle. Most of the fights he had with the Eclipsed were all at risk of running out of essence. The encampment was never prepared and they couldn't stop.
"What about combining them?"
[Negative. Current core class insufficient for hybrid configurations. Advanced pathway manipulation requires higher core density.]
The autumn wind picked up outside, rattling the window. Gale pulled at the strings of his hoodie. "Which configuration has higher success rate?"
[Statistical analysis... Seren configuration: 92% successful implementation rate. Renna configuration: 64% successful implementation rate.]
"And the consequences of failure?"
[Risk of failure temporarily disrupts pathway. Essence cannot be used. Recovery period: 3-5 days. Possibility of slight damage to core will extend recovery by {undefined} amount of time.]
Gale pressed his forehead against the rattling glass. Normal people passed by. A woman smiled at the man beside her, holding his arms.
"Guide, what's your recommendation based on my combat style?"
[Host favours mobility and precision strikes. Recommend Seren configuration for stability during continuous operations. Parallel pathways reduce risk of ability stutters and failure during critical keys.]
That made sense. He couldn't afford skills suddenly failing mid-fight. The burden on him during the translation from spear to sword would ease with the configuration.
Walking over to the front of the bed, he sat crossed legged, back straight. "Guide, begin the reconfiguration."
[Initiating Seren Configuration. Warning: Process cannot be terminated once started. Proceed?]
"Proceed."
[Commencing.]
Gale's eyes closed shut. As soon as he opened them again, he found himself floating in front of a giant 3D diagram of his own body as an outline. Everywhere he looked was just darkness except for the outline. Inside his body, billions of glowing blue green lines flowed out from his spine like circuitry. Each line represented a single pathway. Some flowed in a series like rivers. Others branched into parallel roots. However, the pattern had no cohesion. Everything was in 'default' state.
Guide showed him a yellow outline of where the pathway should go. He floated to near where the spine met the skull and began to work. First was to move a pathway. Easy enough.
The moment he tried to move the blue green line to where the yellow was, a burning white-hot sensation stung at where the pathway was located.
Great. Shouldn't have jinxed myself.
One by one, he located the linear channels. The pain of splitting them was different from moving the pathway. Instead of a burn, splitting them apart felt more like thousands of needles being stabbed at where the pathway was. If he even flinched once, he would interrupt the process, causing a failure in reconfiguration and damaging his core.
Sweat beaded down his temples and forehead. The floorboards beneath him pooled with sweat. His physical fingers dug at his own thighs each time another pathway split or moved. The biological rewiring continued, moving each pathway through the flesh.
Time lost meaning. Minutes or hours could have passed as he guided the pathways one by one into position.
The third phase began without warning. Essence rushed into the newly formed channels like water through dry riverbeds. The sensation burned worse than the separations had. Every pathway lit up at once. It was the same feeling he had when his Origin Core was reconstructed. However, at that time, he didn't have any essence. Now, his full essence carved at the raw and sensitive newly born pathways.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, the violation.
His hands clenched into fists. He almost spasmed from the pain but kept steady. He kept his eyes closed, focused on the pattern that showed him the way forward. The essence flow had to be perfect.
Fine-tuning came next. Each pathway needed microscopic adjustments to align perfectly with the highlighted template. A single misalignment could create a bottleneck or, worse, a blockage.
The solidification phase stretched on the longest. There were minor distractions during this time. Footsteps creaked across floorboards in the hallway. A door slammed down somewhere above. A toddler cried about some stupid ice cream. He never got ice cream when he was that age. Why cry at something so trivial?
All he could do was maintain a steady circulation through thousands of new channels which drained his reserves. His muscles quivered. Rivers of sweat ran down his neck. His pants felt soiled. It was just sweat though.
Finally, the last phase arrived. Spent essence had built up in the pathways, waiting to be purged. Gale gathered it all, compressed it into a single mass, then pushed outward.
The release sent a ripple through the apartment. Papers scattered. Books tumbled from shelves. A coffee mug dropped from the flimsy desk and shattered on the floor. Neighbours stirred and called 911 about the sudden shockwave that didn't feel like an earthquake. Breath of the Void stubbornly still fed him annoying information.
Gale's eyes snapped open. The room spun briefly before settling. His phone showed 3:47 AM. What had felt like moments had eaten up most of the night. His limbs felt heavy as if he had just done the biggest workout of his life. Though, he'd never been to a gym before. Would be nice if he could try once.
New pathways allowed his essence to flow smoother through his body in efficient parallel streams. The difference was clear, like how night was dark and day was bright. Most of all, it was more responsive. It felt like the single timing key before was split into 4 or 5 keys.
He pushed himself up to his feet, bones popping from sitting so long. The broken mug and scattered papers needed to be cleaned before he went to bed. But first, he needed to test these new pathways.
His hand rose, Phase Touch activated at the edges of his palm. It activated much faster and cleaner. Only about half of the normal essence was used on activation.
Neat.
[Configuration successful. Pathway efficiency increased. Current essence flow optimization at peak parameters for core class.]
"Status screen," Gale said.
...
Name: Gale Hathie
Race: Dainv
Core Class: Awakened
Core Density: 11/12
Core Attributes: [
Max Load: 100
Efficiency: 100
Essence: 7/200
]
Skills:
[Phase Touch Lv.3][Alter Lv.2][Distort Lv.3]
Passives:
[Breath of the Void Lv.2][Dainv Spear Arts Lv.1][Essence Control Lv.1][Dainv Sword Arts Lv.2]
…
From the last time he looked at it, his total essence capacity increased by 50. His max load increased by 50. And his efficiency had the highest increase.
His stats finally progressed after a while. He hadn't been able to extract any origin from anything ever since he came back to Earth. Now with stats, Gale was itching to use them against something.
If only there was something to use it against. There was nothing in modern Earth he could hit, slash, hack, or kill.
Dammit. He worked so hard for the past couple of weeks, gaining so much progress on his swordsmanship and stats. That was
all
without fighting too. Yet it was all pointless.
He cleaned up the mess the small shockwave made. Stacked the notebooks and paper back on his desk. Mopped up the sweaty pool he made on the floor.
Loud knocking came from the floor below. He could clearly hear the man in the unit below telling him to stop making so much noise.
Screw you, butthole. I'm trying to clean up.
A bright ray of light stung directly at Gale's closed eyelids. He rolled over, stretching his arms. Muscles still sore from the reconfiguration.
Sunday. Perfect day to test the new configuration on nothing.
His hand picked up the phone beside him. The screen lit up: Monday, 3:12 PM.
Gale jumped up from bed. Did he sleep that much that he time travelled forwards? Monday would mean that he had English class at 6PM. The TTC trip would take around two hours with the rush hour traffic.
He caught a reflection of himself in the window. Dark circles, hair all over the place. His clothes also had goopy inky dark stuff that smelled something between vomit and number 2. The worst kind of smell.
Stripping off his clothes, he jumped into the shower, turning the knob all the way to hot. The cold water hit him, making him flinch. Slowly, it turned hot and steam filled the bathroom.
He scrubbed the black inky stuff all over him using the 5 in 1 everything in a bottle wash. The heat from the water suddenly turned lukewarm and sputtered.
Typical. I need to move out of here as soon as I can.
Gale quickly rinsed off the rest of the lather, no longer enjoying the shower. He dried off and put on new clothes. Dark hoodie from the donation box with a white undershirt and slightly torn jeans.
Good enough.
His backpack laid on top of the foldable dining table from last night. Homework was due today that he didn't do. A on something about the Tell-Tale Heart by some Poe guy. He hasn't even started.
Grabbing his laptop, he shoved it into the bag along with the book he was supposed to read. Maybe he could finish the assignment on the bus. The story wasn't too hard to understand. He knew enough about hiding deep dark evil secrets, or insane secrets for that matter.
He took the protein bar from the counter. Quick and easy, just like his shampoo plus conditioner plus deodorant plus some other stuff he forgot. Convenient too. The Path stipend barely covered rent, but he didn't need much anyway.
Keys. Wallet. Phone. Bus pass. Check. He patted his pockets, checking each item twice.
It was only barely after 3PM and traffic had already gridlocked on Eglinton Street. The bus would be caught in the same mess. The bus lanes wouldn't make any difference.
Gale jogged to the bus stop, dodging oncoming pedestrians. All of them were on their phones, not watching where they were going. Pulling out his phone, the time marked 3:45. Just in time for the 3:45 TTC bus that would most likely be late by about 20 minutes.
However, expectations today were shockingly broken. The TTC bus just came at 3:50. Only 5 minutes late. Very early for the service.
He squeezed on board, finding a spot to sit near the back, however, all the seats were already taken. The bus crawled through traffic, stopping every block.
His stomach growled, and immediately he pulled out the protein bar in his pocket. Might as well eat it now while doing nothing for the bus to get to the transfer point.
On first bite, Gale regretted saying this
thing
was convenient. It was like eating cardboard. No water in hand too. Even the beasts in the dark forest tasted better than this. He forced the first bite down and then put the rest back into his pocket. One more bite would probably bring up something and spill on the person sitting in the seat below him.
The bus finally reached his first transfer point. He shouldered his way through the crowd and sprinted to catch the connecting route. The second bus was just as packed, just as slow.
His phone showed 4:45 PM when he made the final transfer. The community college was still twenty minutes away, assuming no delays. Rush hour traffic showed no signs of letting up, instead the opposite.
Gale found a seat this time, pulled out his laptop, and opened the homework file. Half a finished introduction paragraph could barely be called started.
The story's narrator claimed he wasn't mad, but his actions proved otherwise. Like someone else Gale knew. He wrote thinking about the knight who was supposedly sane even as corruption ate away at his mind. The state he was in when he let Breath of the Void in was similar. He could think clearly. Feel himself sane. However, everything around him didn't make sense. Maybe that was insanity.
Paranoia, obsession, the difference between sanity and madness. He knew these themes as he saw it first hand himself. Ironic enough that the fiction was the book and reality was his own.
The bus slowed to a stop. A mother with a stroller struggled to board. More delays. Gale kept typing. The noise and the hum of the bus muffled into silence as he focused on finishing the homework. And it turns out, homework was tougher than any forest beast he'd ever fought. Each word was like squeezing a grape through a thin straw.
His essay took shape between stops and starts. The narrator's heightened senses reminded him of
Breath of the Void
. The old man's "evil eye" could have been corruption spreading through his body.
The laptop battery dropped to twenty percent. He'd forgotten to charge it last night. If essence were like circuits, there must be a way to charge electronics with it… one way or another.
5:30 PM. The familiar sight of the Yorkdale Adult Learning Centre finally came into view. Gale packed up his laptop and moved to the front of the bus. Other students clustered near the doors, probably heading for evening classes too.
The bus doors opened with a hiss. Gale hopped off and power-walked toward the building.
He went straight for the stairs, taking two or three steps at a time. Regular human speed. Not the Aurian speed that would make too much noise. Just because he could leap entire flights didn't mean he should. Be normal, Gale.
Blend in.
The classroom door was already open. A few students had arrived early, including Mia in her usual front row seat. She gave him a quick nod before returning her eyes to her phone.
Jacob sat near the back, head down on his desk. Probably napping before class. He worked night shifts at some warehouse job.
Gale slid into a middle seat, neither hiding nor drawing attention. Perfect positioning to watch both exits while maintaining cover as a normal human. Blending in perfectly.
5:55PM. Made it. Mission success.
Ms. Jackson walked in, carrying a stack of handouts. "Good evening, everyone. Please pass these reading guides forward while I set up tonight's presentation."
Gale opened his notebook, clicking his pen. Night class proceeded as usual.
The projector clicked as it displayed a powerpoint onto the screen, "Gothic Literature and the Unreliable Narrator."
Mia turned around, eyebrows raised. "You ok there? You look, dead
. Literally.
"
Gale whispered back, "Long night."
Literally.

Chapter 76