Walking Disasters and Me-Adjusting Realities, Discovered – Ch 7
By now I have been running for at least half an hour while I laugh like a maniac at my newfound running speed. I dart between trees, over fallen trunks, and kick off the still standing ones for added funsies. Anywhere that I'm not actively focused on whips by my vision in a blur, and the crisp afternoon spring air fills my lungs and shakes through my hair. I must be clocking at least 30 miles an hour, maybe closer to 40!
Another hundred points to Dexterity and I bet I would be street legal on the highway! Once more, a crazed laugh escapes my lips as I use a downed tree as a springboard to kick up into the air, just to see how high I can get. I hear a loud
crack
as I push off the foliage and look back down to see the dead trunk has almost completely been turned into sawdust from the force of my launch which only further fuels my mania. I can't get over how powerful I feel right now! Like I can do anything! Which is about the time that reality comes crashing back down to me in the form of Ios.
'You know, it's hard to concentrate on fixing Luck when you're cackling like a madwoman and vaulting 50 feet into the air randomly. Did you forget about the landing part of getting airborne Amelia?' Ios annoyed yet still concerned tone rings through my mind. She does make a good point...
"Uhm... Maybe?" I try to choke out at the peak of my jump, before gravity is so kind as to re-assert itself on my fragile human body. I begin the plummet back down to the ground with a small scream leaving my throat, my blood red hair whipping behind me in the wind. I also find that I'm heading back to the ground much faster than when I was leaving it, before instinct takes over. I lean as much as I can, trying to get my bent legs to make contact first before preemptively covering the sides of my face with my forearms and the back of my head and neck with my hands.
As soon as I see the ground reach my feet and I feel the impact beginning to travel up my legs, I bend my knees and tuck them to my chest as I throw myself horizontally to the ground with all my strength. Hopefully this bleeds off the momentum enough that I don't shatter any bones. As I tumble bodily across the ground, kicking up huge bits of grass and dirt as I roll, I see a number of damage displays appear in the corner of my vision. Damnit, Ios was right, this was a stupid idea!
156 damage taken! Luck activated! Damage reduced to 1!
110 damage taken!
123 damage taken!
84 damage taken!
....
After a final roll in the dirt, I end up impacting sideways against a still standing tree's base with a dull thud, the wind firmly knocked out of my chest and my mind filled with nothing but white-hot pain. I cough up what tastes and feels like a bit of blood, shakily wiping the trail of crimson from the corner of my mouth with the back of a hand before carefully testing that all of my lower digits can still move. Good news! I'm not paralyzed! Bad news, that fucking sucked! I cautiously take a look over to my health pool and the instant pang of fear that comes from it further grounds my previous giddy attitude to a halt.
Health Pool: 1723 / 2145
"Ios... Ow. Please tell me there's something in the Shop for pain relief or HP recovery. I'm sorry for acting like a lunatic, I... I don't know what came over me." I choke out between a few more wet coughs with blood and the sting of tears forming from pain and frustration. Hopefully I'm not bleeding into my lungs...
'Of course there is honey, here.'
You have purchased [Blood Replacement Pill (Mid Earth Rank)] x 5 for 15 Points!
You have purchased [Body Healing Pill (Mid Earth Rank)] x5 for 25 Points!
Available Shop Points: 895
'Take the Body Healing pill first, and then the Blood Replacement one after a minute or two. Store the rest of them in your pouch, I think I saw that it had different pockets so make sure to split them up and keep track of them. If you need to be healed in an emergency, you'll need to pick the right one!~
Also, I think I know what happened. And this isn't me telling you how you're feeling Aims, this is an observation that I made based on your hormones and brain chemicals. I think, with all the trauma, info, and revelations that we had to push through starting out back in the clearing, that once you saw a chance to cut loose you took it. Coupled with the fact that you are, without a doubt, stronger and faster than any human alive back on Earth, I think you went on a classic power trip.
Honestly, I should have warned you to take it easy. This is as much my fault as it is yours, so don't beat yourself up too much. You're in a new world, with unfathomable and still growing powers and abilities. It's entirely natural that your first chance to take yourself for a test drive, you'd go buck wild. It's a good thing it ended like this though; I think it will be a good lesson to both of us going forward to be careful about testing unknown abilities and boundaries.' She finishes her explanation, and I have to agree with her assessment.
That was wildly out of pocket for me, I've never been the type that just... takes life by the horns. I wonder if it's like she said, me wanting to take this bad ass new body for a test drive, on top of my emotions being messed with by all these skills and titles. I'm going to have to do some deep, introspective thinking when we get to safety it seems. I take the pills like Ios said to and feel almost completely back to normal after a few minutes. Checking my health again leads me to confirm the theory, its topped back up to 2145. Take that lame ass pharmaceutical companies back home, these drugs work!
A small upside to this rude awakening is that with all of my jumping and dashing against the trees and this disastrous landing, a new skill popped up.
You have gained the Passive Skill [Parkour!]: You are an unorthodox, but sometimes effective master of jumps, vaults, and somersaults! Your balance, grip, and impact reduction are greatly increased when you are performing any kind of non-standard dexterity-based activities. Does not overlap with any crafting skills. Has a chance to fail if stamina gets too low.
Well, that would have been handy 5 minutes ago! Sighing to myself, I stand up and inspect the parts of my body that aren't covered by the uber-not-supposed-to-have battle dress. It looks like the pills have already done their work, because while there are some dried blood spots on my legs and forearms, no visible wounds remain anywhere. Speaking of the dress, it's become painfully apparent that while it would block attacks and things like that from impacting me, the physics behind those impacts will still transfer. Doesn't matter if I can survive getting smacked on the ribs with a club or something if it sends me flying into a wall and turns me into paste. I shed a tear for my fleeting dream of invulnerability.
I stretch a few times to release quite a number of loud, satisfying pops from my joints before taking stock around me. Thankfully, nothing living has been drawn to my fast and hard reacquaintance with the ground it seems. I hop between a few trunks of still standing trees, trying to get as close to the tops of the leafless branches as I can safely to re orient myself. As soon as I crest the canopy on a shaky branch that seems only just sturdy enough to hold me, I turn my head left to right until I find the big fuck off mountains that I'm heading toward.
"Ios, how could we even see these mountains from back in the clearing? You said they were 100 miles away at that time right? Wouldn't they be blocked by the curvature of the planet?"
'Oh right, we haven't really gone over the basics of this world too much yet. This world is flat, because it was designed that way by its Immortal creators, so while yes the mountains were far away, they were still large enough to see provided you had a clear line of sight.' She responds back like she is discussing an interesting news article. What the hell Ios?!
"Care to elaborate on that a bit more? That
really
raises more questions than answers hun." I fire back with a touch of annoyance this time. I also notice that ever since I helped her through her freak out, I've been more comfortable using pet names like she does for me. I guess she's rubbing off on me.
I can hear her sigh in my head before speaking up, 'Aims, honey, I'm sorry but honestly, I am out of my depth trying to get Luck to play ball with us. We both agree that we'd rather have the base effect of Luck be kept while fixing the activation clause, but I'm not Ilya. I'm trying my best, but its taking
alot
of my attention to try and back end this. I know I said I would help if you called out, and I will of course, but for now I need to focus on Luck. Again, I'm not dismissing you, but this needs to be done. Or at least attempted... Just keep heading to the mountains, you're about a third of the way there!~'
Only slightly feeling like a child that just got told to go play in my room, I huff with a pout before jumping down from the naked tree's canopy with a direction in mind. I quickly pick the pace back up, my euphoria this time firmly checked by reality. Now that I've calmed down, I remember one of the things I was wanting to do on my journey out of the clearing. I use inspect on every god damn thing I can see as I zip by it! It starts out pretty simple, but quickly over the next hour of my journey it raises to MAX level and provides much more information.
[Tree. Made of wood]
[Rock. Made of stone.]
[Fallen Tree. Dead.]
...
[Bark Shorn Conifer. A once beautiful Conifer tree that has had its bark shorn and leaves stripped from some outside force. Reliable source of wood for construction.]
[Sedimentary Rock. Holds trace compounds of various, compacted minerals. Suitable for general construction tasks when refined.]
[Fallen Tree. It's dead.]
Well they cant all be winners it seems. About this time Ios chimes back in, with a voice filled with elation.
'Aims! Ameilia! I did it! I fucking did it! Hehehe~! Use Inspect on Luck now! Do it, do it!' Her overjoyed, somewhat childish voice at the moment is like music to my ears! I quickly use Inspect on Luck and read out its description aloud.
Luck - 500: The higher this Ability Score, the more likely favorable outcomes will occur for the user.
In addition, for every action taken, or every action put upon the user, there is a 10% chance of the Score's value to trigger Luck (i.e. 50% chance). When Luck is triggered, the action that was being performed will have its base value (ability score, skill, damage, etc) multiplied by the value of the Luck Score. If it was an action put upon the user, the negative effects of the action will be reduced by the value of the luck score as a percentage (i.e. 500%).
This function can be toggled on or off at the user's discretion. Toggle active effect? Yes / No.
"Hell yeah Ios! Great job, I knew you could do it! If you had a body, I would give you such a big hug right now sweetie!" I exclaim as I jump for joy. I keep them to normal, human sized jumps, however. I've learned my lesson now.
'Hehehe~! Oh man, that was such a pain! Ilya went
crazy
with some of the interlocking fundamentals of the baselines on that one. Like! I had to-...' Ios proceeds to go on a small, 5-minute rant about her trials and tribulations regarding modding the system. Most of the words fly over my head sadly. As studious as I was, I never went too deep into computer programming. Or quantum physics, which is probably closer to what she had to do to fix Luck. Still, I don't want to kill her buzz, so I nod along happily and chime in with various versions of "Oh man!", "Wow!", "Nuh Uh!"s through her rant.
'Phew, thanks sweetie~ I needed to get that off my incorporeal chest. Sorry if I talked over you there for a bit hun.' She says as she finishes her rant. As I'm about to comfort her, I hear a noise from up ahead and slow down my run to a halt. Quickly, I hide behind the thickest tree I can find and poke my head around the side of the trunk toward the disturbance.
Two massive, brown furred bears are rummaging through the destroyed brush, poking their noses down to the earth and using their massive shovel like paws to dig up what appear to be roots of some kind. I use Inspect on the 25 ft tall behemoths, and shudder at the results.
[Cerulean Brown Bear, Male (Mid Earth Rank Beast)]
Health: 2500
Stamina: 4500
STR: 200
DEX: 75
CON: 125
INT: 50
WIS: 25
CHA: 10
LCK: 0
[Cerulean Brown Bear, Female (Mid Earth Rank Beast)]
Health: 2500
Stamina: 4500
STR: 200
DEX: 75
CON: 125
INT: 50
WIS: 25
CHA: 10
LCK: 0
I do my best not to curse under my breath so that I don't alert these two fuck off huge ursine predators and notice something behind them. They're digging for roots in another clearing, a bit smaller than my previous one, but it angles upward toward the base of the mountains that I had just almost finished running to. An animal path looks to be worn from where they were walking that leads up a little way beyond my current view. Maybe they are hiding out in a cave and that path leads back to it? It would explain why they didn't get vaporized like everything else seemed to when I showed up. After all, these two are the first signs of life I've seen after an hour and a half of travel.
Their Dexterity is lower than mine. Maybe I can try and out run them and find a different cave or shelter? I look up to the sky and see that the sun is about halfway from its zenith to the ground, the light coming off of the rings apparently hitting just right to make it look like the whole thing is outlined by a rainbow.
"Whoa..." I mutter quietly purely due to fascination, forgetting the situation I'm in. I stiffen and try to listen for the sound of digging and a drop of panic hits my stomach as I find it is deathly quiet. On instinct I tuck and role forward, deeper into the forest and away from the clearing where the bears were as a massive paw pulverizes the trunk of the tree I was hiding behind.
"Fuck!!" I shout before getting my feet under me again and taking off as fast as I can away from the danger. I hear the heavy foot falls of the titanic beasts behind me, which to my horror are keeping up with me despite our difference in stats. I risk a peak behind me just in time to see the jaws of the female bear about to close in around my head. I duck down yet again underneath the beast and roll to a stop, the bear that was about to make a meal out of me being carried forward by its own momentum.
As I stand to make a break for it, the male bear that I had forgotten about swipes his paw at my stomach with an insane amount of force. I can feel blood yet again spill from my mouth as the impact sends me flying into, and through, a few trees before I finally come to a stop.
756 damage taken! Luck activated! Reduced to 1!
307 damage taken! Luck activated! Reduced to 1!
208 damage taken!
175 damage taken!
You have gained the Active Effect [Panic (Overwhelming)]. Use Resolute Mind to suppress effects?
I quickly confirm Yes! If I panic here, it is game over. Speaking of which, fuck I love Luck. Alright, it's time to stop playing around, I don't want to keep fighting and sacrificing stamina to other status effects while these two bitches are alive and trying to nom me. While the bears are trying to get to my position, and they are managing to do so quite quickly, I shout to Ios.
"Ios!! I need a weapon! Anything simple, like a spear or a mace! Actually, just give me a spear! I don't give a fuck about the point cost!" I shout as I Parkour! up a tree and begin to try and maneuver around the angry ursines through the canopy. It does help in keeping me away from their gigantic mittens of death, but I go slower which means that they both are able to keep pace rather easily. They are also keen on destroying the trees I land in once they reach me, which only adds to the chaos of trying to jump safely from branch to branch.
'Hold out your hand!' Ios shouts to me mentally.
As I land on a further away branch than normal to give the item time to appear, I hold out my hand ready for whatever Ios has picked out for this impromptu hunting session. A notification soon answers part of that question for me:
You have purchased [Dual Winged Spear of the Reaper (Peak Earth Rank)] for 75 Points!
Available Shop Points: 820
A beautiful spear shaft about 6 feet long and made of dark, black wood lands in my right hand. One of the tips of the spear is outfitted with a gleaming, silver like metal in the shape of a wide crescent, with a large, elongated diamond shaped spear head stabbing through the middle of it. The other end has a long, curved sickle made of the same glittery, silver metal. I don't know much about medieval weaponry, but even I can tell this... dual spear is weighted wonderfully in my hands.
As I take the scant few seconds to admire the new weapon, I feel the tree I'm hiding in explode at the base and I look down. One of the bears has continued its crusade against tree kind by powdering the trunk of the tree, making me start to lose my balance while the other waits behind it ready to pounce once I land. Which is just as well, I'm tired of running from these overgrown carpets.
While I still have some leverage, I brace against the branch under me and kick off it like an arrow toward the bear that just attacked the tree with a yell, the diamond point of the spear leading the way. It looks up just as the spear head pierces between its eyes and mouth, and then the grossest thing yet happens.
Damage dealt 895! Luck activates! Damage dealt increased to 447,500!
You have defeated [Cerulean Brown Bear, Female (Mid Earth Rank Beast)]! You have gained 1500 experience before multipliers!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
...
The bear that I had stabbed literally
explodes
in a shower of blood and gore. The front of my body is painted red, and the acrid smell of copper fills my nose. I can taste bits of flesh against my lips, and foreign blood that entered my mouth as I was yelling. All around me is the sound of wet meat hitting the forest floor, as a red mist coats everything around me. Before the horror can truly settle into me, the second bear seems to become enraged at the loss of its mate and charges towards me.
I swing the spear around to it in an unwieldy panic, luckily still making connection to the shoulder of the creature with part of the crescent blades of the spear before
it happens again.
Damage dealt 523! Luck activates! Damage dealt increased to 261,500!
You have defeated [Cerulean Brown Bear, Male (Mid Earth Rank Beast)]! You have gained 1500 experience before multipliers!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
...
At this point, every part of my body is covered in blood and guts. Reality catches up to me as blood rain literally is falling all around me. I start to freak the fuck out, "Ewww! Oh my God, oh my God gross! Gross! I'm going to-" My own ranting is cut out by my stomach emptying its nonexistent contents onto the forest floor. Once. Twice. And another time for good measure, just in case the memory wasn't going to become a permanent nightmare. By the third time, I'm kneeling against a surviving tree for support, my head leaned over with my hands trying to keep my hair out of my own bile.
After a few deep breaths, I call out for Ios. "Ios... Water please. That was... that was
not
how I pictured that going. They fucking vaporized! Oh god, I need to shut up or I'm going to be sick again."
'Sure Aims, here you go. And you did a fantastic job for what its worth, those two bears would have needed a team of low-level cultivators to take out, but even without Luck activating, you did solid damage and reacted well. Catch your breath sweetheart.' Ios replies to my sorry state in a soothing, gentle tone.
Purchased [Survival Rations (Low Earth Rank)] x 10 for 10 points!
Purchased [Talisman of Cleaning (Peak Earth Rank)] for 25 points!
Available Shop Points: 1535
"Thanks..." I mutter as two boxes appear before me. I open the one with the symbol of a granola bar and water skin on the top and inside are 10 small individually wrapped bars as well as 10 metal flasks holding about 16 oz of water each by my guess. I stuff the bars into my tote bag and begin to use 6 of the 10 flasks to wash my face and swig water in my mouth until the taste of bear blood is only a haunting memory. I look at the second, smaller box and open it up to reveal a small paper tag, about the size of my hand from finger to wrist. On it is a fascinating collection of symbols, lines, and circles, and as I focus on it the bottom becomes alight in a blue flame.
With a small squeak of surprise, I let go of the talisman only to find it flinging to my dress. Once it makes contact, all of the gore is collected off of my garment and myself and burned up in the same color flame as the talisman. Its task apparently complete, the talisman also joins the blood and guts and burns brightly inside the azure fire until nothing of it remains.
"That feels a lot better, I really appreciate it Ios. Thank you. Let's go follow their tracks and see if they were hiding in a cave like I'm thinking. Maybe then we can call it a day, I want to sleep forever right now. Also, judging by how many Shop Points I have now, I assume I get some every time I gain a level?"
'Hehe~ Maybe not forever, but definitely a good night's sleep is more than earned for you cutie! And don't mention it, we're a team. It's the least I could do. That's exactly right hun! You get 10 Ability Points, 2 Skill Points, and 50 Shop Points every time you level. It's a nice allowance essentially, but when you start getting higher level it kind of plateaus due to the amount of exp required. But! With all of your multipliers that flat line will be a lot longer down your path than normal.
The best way to get all those Points is to complete quests or milestones. Speaking of! One was generated as soon as you left that clearing where we landed, but you were a bit coo-coo for coco puffs at that time so you didn't notice it.'
[Quest Started! Safe Haven. Find a safe, secure place to begin your cultivation journey and start the process of healing your sister's soul.
Reward: 100 Ability Points, 10 Skill Points, and 1000 Shop Points]
Always good to have a goal to work towards. I pick up my bag, stuffing the last 4 flasks inside it, and lean my spear against my shoulder as I walk with it in hand toward the animal trail the bears were using. After about 15 minutes of travel, my prediction does turn out to be correct. A large cave entrance, roughly 15 feet wide and 20 feet tall greets me as I peak inside trying to find any signs of life. Thankfully, the smell of the cave isn't too extreme meaning that either the bears had just moved in here or that this cave wasn't even visited by the bears and its previous occupant has long since left.
Venturing inside with my spear at the ready just in case, I walk in to find it spacious and relativity flat. There is a faint feeling of moisture, and I see a small pool of water being fed by dripping rocks from above toward the back of the room. I go ahead and buy an area cleaning talisman that Ios finds in the shop for another 25 Points, bringing me down to 1515 to get rid of the lingering smell of whatever lived here before.
"What a day... Let's just get a sleeping bag and a mat to lay it on so I'm off the ground and then I can rest. I'll eat one of those ration bars before I sleep, but I cant hardly function right now." I say with a weary voice, the action of the previous fight coupled with the stress from the past few hours itself having caught up to me.
'You got it honey, here'
You have purchased [Outdoor Sleeping Essentials Kit (Low Earth Rank)] for 15 points!
Luck has activated! This purchase has been upgraded to [Wilderness Master's Bedding (Peak Heaven Rank)] for no additional charge! Congratulations!
Ios and I both exclaim blankly at the same time, "Fuck, we forgot to toggle Luck"
I literally cannot be bothered anymore. With the utmost of apathy, I open the package, not a box this time, that drops to my feet. Inside is an olive green sleeping bag that looks like it could fit 2 people, with various layers of fabric and thickness. The inner layer is soft and down and is almost enough to make me just curl up with it then and there and not bother with the rest. I power through, however. The second layer is a thicker, comforter layer that seems to be used to keep in heat while still also being extremely comfy to touch and put my head against. The last layer is a thick, firm material that seems to resist deformity from the outside, and the "bottom" of it is hardened and cushioned so that you aren't sleeping on the ground with it.
Further exploration can wait. This day needs to be over now; sleepy Amelia has decided it. I put all the layers together, take off my battle dress and find that
[Budding Nudist]
becomes active even with my sportswear still on. Shrugging to myself I stay partially clothed since the sports bra and spanks are beyond comfortable, I fold the dress into a pillow and bring the tote bag into the bag with me as I snuggle down into the extremely comfy first layer.
"Alright Ios, I'm clocking out. Thank you for everything today, even the bad parts. And... Thank you for putting up with my dumb ass through all of this. I *yawn* know it probably wasn't easy on you. I really appreciate you." I add before starting to nod off to dream land.
'Sweet dreams Aims, get some rest. Youve earned it, mwah~.' Ios replies softly, expecting me to pass out at any moment.
I awake to an odd sensation and pressure on my waist, with my hands being unable to move or investigate. I almost think I'm having a sleep paralysis episode, but I can breathe just fine. In a slight panic, Ios pops into my head.
'Amelia, don't freak out but you have a visitor. She is powerful, I didn't notice she was there until she was already straddling you. Just try to stay calm and see what she wants. She's been waiting for you to wake up for at least 3 hours now.'
A gorgeous, soft matronly voice rings out inside the cave. I open my eyes in shock and take in the sight of a woman beyond the word beautiful. Her waist long, snow white hair falls in rivers behind her with a motherly face holding two amethyst purple, fox slitted eyes, small button nose, and thick ruby red lips. On top of her head are two large white vulpine ears, the furs of the inside tipped azure blue. Behind her, 4 thick and beyond fuzzy tails wave lazily in the air also with white fur marked by light blue tips on the ends while two more weigh my arms down to my sides. Her curvaceous body is more sensual than my own, truly having the perfect description of a bombshell hourglass figure. Her words finally register to me:
"Looks like you're finally awake. Done conversing with that ghost in your head? Good, I have some questions for you, you fascinating little mortal."
.
!
Adjusting Realities, Discovered – Ch 7
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