Chapter 13
Stepping into the clearing my mother I use for training, I threw my bags to the side and moved towards the middle.
“Are you ready for me to explain how to increase the strength of your Ego?” Rosemary asked as she laid on the ground ahead of me.
“Knock yourself out,” I said with a sigh.
“Alright then!” she exclaimed as she jumped to her feet and walked towards me. “Want me to keep it simple?”
“Sure,” I grumbled, feeling slightly attacked. I’m not smart but I’m not dumb.
“Do this,” she said, holding up her hand and extending a finger.
I mimic her with my right hand, pointing a claw forward.
“Now this,” she said, dragging her finger down sharply.
Upon swiping my finger down a menu appeared in front of me. I took a step back in surprise, but it followed after me.
“What is this?!” I asked, eyes scanning all the words on the menu before me.
“Soul Enhancement works very differently than other Ego’s. It’s a one of a kind,” she said as she walked up and stood next to the menu.
Taking a moment to actually look at the menu revealed it was just stats, all set to one. “Okay, so these are my stats?” I asked, getting a nod from her. “Then why is everything at one? I should be a lot stronger than that.”
“That’s normal,” she assured me, “both Loric and I started out the same way. However, notice the little plus signs with ones and zeros? That’s from your Egonetics. So strengthening your Egonetic’s also increases your Soul Enhancement, and by extension, your whole body and soul. It’s the perfect combo, which is why I chose it. Yet, Loric was stubborn and chose an Ego weapon.”
“Okay,” I said as I read over the stats. “What’s all this mean?”
“Well, this keeps track of everything you do. As you train and perform tasks, you’ll level up, which grants you skill points to increase your attributes,” she said, tapping at the LEVEL area. “Every level grants three points, and every ten levels grants six. Completing a task, or quest as it likes to call them, will grant you bonus skill points. The number varies based on the quest.”
“This sounds too much like one of my mom’s video games,” I say with a frown, getting a smile out of her.
“Pretty much,” she chuckled. “You have a daily training quest, which grants you three skill points upon completion. So you have a steady source of skill points.”
“What kinda quest are we talking about?”
“The daily one is simple, it’s just a list of exercises you need to complete. It’ll change daily, so it won’t get boring. There’s no penalty for missing a daily quest, but you shouldn’t since it’s free skill points. Also, normally training on your own will grant skill points as well, but much much slower.”
“Okay, sounds simple. Do daily quests, train, and repeat.”
“There are also normal quests that your Ego will randomly give you. They vary, and use a ranking system to mark them as either easy or difficult. E rank being easy, and S rank being the hardest.” She then tapped at the words EXCESS EGO, “now, you don’t have a way to absorb Ego from defeated enemies right now, but that’s okay. This stat only increases your Egonetics. To increase your Ego Power, all you have to do is defeat opponents and their Soul will be captured by your Ego. This is not the same as killing someone and taking their Ego, as this involves taking all of the excess Ego as well.
“If you kill them now, you’ll just take their Soul, and nothing else. The only benefit this has over Ego weapons and taking all of their Ego is that you actually absorb their power into yourself. So you can become strong very quickly if you are lucky.”
“What if I don’t want to kill anyone, how do I get stronger?” I asked, causing her to sigh.
“It’s still possible, but will take a lot longer,” she said, tapping the LEVEL stat again. “So, leveling up is quite simple; defeat opponents, complete quests, and by just doing things in general. This doesn’t show you how close you are to leveling up, so it’s always a guessing game.”
“Alright, so far I’m hating it,” I said, shaking my head. “I didn’t know I was going to have to do all this shit…”
“It’s not that bad,” she said, trying to reassure me. “Once you start gaining skill points, you’ll start to really enjoy yourself. Trust me, this is a lot more fun than just normal training and fighting.”
“I guess,” I mumbled.
“Well here, let’s do the first daily quest!” she exclaimed, holding up a hand and doing a sideways swipe.
Rolling my eyes, I mimicked her, swiping away the Stats Menu and bringing up one that was labeled QUEST. I had two waiting for me; Daily quest and one labeled ‘Rank E: To Eris!’.
“Look at you, already have a quest ready for you!” she said excitedly.
“Yay me,” I deadpanned as I tapped the Daily quest, revealing a list of objectives. “Five mile run, fly twelve miles, one hundred push ups, one hundred pull ups, one hundred squats, and one hundred sit ups? That’s all super easy shit.”
“It’s not usually supposed to be hard, just a daily quest that you have to do. I suggest always doing them in the morning, it’s a great start to your day!” She said, her excitement making me sigh. Unlike her, I saw this as dumb and annoying.
Looking at the list, I shrugged. Might as well just do it all, since it was so easy.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Upon finishing the five mile run, which I’d saved for last, I received a notification in front of myself, stating I’d completed the Daily quest and received three skill points.
“So exciting!” Rosemary said happily as she appeared next to me. “Your first skill increase! What are you going to pick?!”
“Uh…” I mumbled, bringing up the Stats Menu, seeing that all the attributes now had little plus signs next to them. “What’s the benefit of each of them?”
She smiled widely as she stood up, pointing at each one, “Strength is simple, it just increases your physical strength. Stamina affects your fatigue rate and natural endurance, it gives a slight bonus to your Defense stat as well. Perception helps you notice things in the world around you, it should be increased along with Reflexes as it goes hand in hand with it. Reflexes itself revolves around how fast you are to react to situations.
“Brain Power mostly just covers your memory and how fast you are able to process new information. I recommend increasing this one at least somewhat, as it’s very useful. Now Defense is simple, as increasing it raises your toughness and resistances to other Ego attacks. It even can increase resistance to other things, but its effectiveness varies. Willpower helps to defend you against mental attacks, and helps combat against Ego’s that posses others. It’s only other use is that it gives a slight bonus to Soul’s you absorb and can increase your Ego Power faster.
“The Ego stat is simple; increasing it increases the overall power of any ability you create with Soul Enhancement, and it even affects Ego Power. This one is very important, but it’s okay to neglect it in the beginning. The last one, Finesse, can help you with accuracy when it comes attacking, both with melee and ranged. This one can have dimension returns, so be careful not to put too many points into it. It also affects Defense slightly. Questions?”
I blinked at her, as I hadn’t expected to get a lecture out of that question. “Eh…”
“It’s a lot to take in,” she admitted. “May I suggest which one to raise first?”
“Nah, I got it,” I said after a moment, reaching up and tapping two points into Perception and one into Reflexes.
“Ah, going down the agile attacker route?” she asked with a wide grin.
“I just want to be faster,” I said with a shrug.
“Well, whatever you think is best,” she said, giving me a little bow. “Anything else?”
Sitting down and pulling out a water bottle, I nodded, “yeah actually.”
“Ask away then,” she said excitedly.
“Is this actually you? Like, is what I’m talking to you, the Rosemary that Loric knew, or are you just like, I don’t know, a replica of her?”
She laughed a bit, sitting down in front of me, “it’s the real me. It’s strange, as my Wandering Ego was created when I got my Ego, so it’s me all the way. And since neither Loric or I have ever added another Wandering Ego to Soul Enhancement, I’ve been able to retain my mind and soul.”
“Isn’t it bad though?” I asked, getting her to raise an eyebrow. “I mean, you’re trapped inside of me. Wouldn’t you rather be free? Or something?”
Rosemary just smiled at me, “in the beginning, I hated it, but being bound to Loric kept me going. Then after he received that fatal injury, I told him I was done. I wanted to die with him, to let me fade away with him. But he convinced me to go to Bronwyn, saying he couldn’t lose me like that. Well, that was the plan till you grabbed my physical Ego form and I felt something inside of you that reminded me of Loric. And now here we are.”
“You’re going to regret bounding with me, trust me,” I chuckled, wiping my face.
“I won’t,” she said with a smile. “Despite everything you are, I’m growing more and more fond of you.”
“So you’re dumb like me,” I asked, causing her to roll her eyes. “I guess we will get along in that case.”
“Can I offer some advice?” she asked, getting a careful nod from me. “In the time I’ve been with you, you’ve made a LOT of mistakes. And most of them could be avoided if you fix how you handle others.”
I scowled at her, “what’s that supposed to mean?”
She held up a hand, “calm down, you’re about to fly off the handle, again. Take your parents for example; they trust you and you’re hiding everything from them.”
“Because they won't understand and will try and stop me,” I grumbled, standing up.
“Are you sure? Your mother, Scamp, sounds like she can be reasonable. If you explain it carefully, she’ll understand.”
“I ain’t risking it,” I said, moving away from her. I wasn’t here to get lectured about my attitude and how I conduct myself.
“This course of action will only hurt you in the future,” she warned, but I just waved her off, flipping my Pit Vipers down and heading for the clearing where all my stuff was.
Welp, there goes my somewhat good mood. Again.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“More,” I muttered as Greg rolled up to my booth, seeing the eight empty plates and the many cans of soda piled up on my table.
“Everything alright, Shay-Shay?” he asked as he took a few of the plates from the table. “You usually only eat like this when you’re upset.”
“Just hungry,” I said as I grabbed a fresh soda and popped it open, chugging it all in one go.
“Want me to get Dude? He’s probably somewhere around here,” he asked, looking around.
“Yeah, if you can find him,” I said, laying my head down on the table. “More food, please.”
“On it, kiddo,” he said, wheeling away from my booth.
“I’m sorry if I… stepped over a line,” Rosemary said from her seat across the table.
I raised my head to look at her. She had a regretful look on her face, causing me to feel bad for how I reacted to her advice earlier. “It’s… alright. You’re probably right to be honest, I might need to… work on my approach to others.”
She smiled at me, “that’s wonderful! The first step to getting better is-”
“Hello, Shayla!” Kal said as he suddenly appeared, sliding into my booth and right through Rosemary, causing her to disappear.
I growled at him, as that was one of the rare moments I felt like opening up to someone. “What do you want?!” I snapped, catching him off guard.
“... I’m sorry, is this a bad time?” he asked, smiling awkwardly.
“Yep,” I said as I opened another soda, glaring at him.
“Ah, I apologize then,” he said as he slid out of the booth. “I’m just here to tell you we are ready to go.”
“Are you?” I asked, frowning. Then a little menu popped up next to him. It read ‘Quest Updated: Prepare to head to Eris!’. Great, thanks Ego. “Fine, when do you want to go?”
A wide smile flashed onto his face, “two hours from now. Meet me at my mansion.”
“‘Kay,” I said with a thumbs up.
He started to leave, but then spun around, “one more thing; you’ll have to leave your Dimensional Key here.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, “why?”
“Because if you take them into this dimension, there’s a chance they’ll be taken from you by the God of this world. Only my method is safe for us,” he said, holding up a strange device.
‘Is that true?’ I thought to Rosemary.
“I wouldn’t trust him,” she said, leaning on the booth next to him. “However, yes, there are a rare few dimensions out there that can only be accessed in special ways. And bringing Dimensional Daggers into them could be disastrous. But I still wouldn’t trust him.”
‘Valid point,’ I thought, glaring at him.
“I’ll bring it anyways,” I said, giving him a sly smirk.
He frowned, but said no more as he gave a bow and left.
“Thank you, for listening to me,” she said, jumping over the booth and returning to her seat.
“Said I’d try to get better,” I said, offering a smile. “Guess I’ll start by listening to you.”
“Good first step,” she said with a wink.
I continued to smile at her as I saw Dude walking towards me, a few plates of food held around him in his magic.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Star Chaser,” Kal said loudly as he stepped into his mansion. It didn’t take long for a boom to be heard and Champion to arrive at his side.
“Sir?” the costumed stallion asked.
“I have a job for you,” Kal said as he moved towards his office.
“Say it and it’s done,” he said confidently.
Kal stopped at the door, turning his head to Champion. “Shayla will try to take her Dimensional Dagger with her to Eris. I need you to snatch it and plant it on one of her friends.”
“Plant it on one of her friends?” Champion asked, frowning. “Why not just keep it?”
“The dagger she has is an Enforcer’s Dimensional Dagger. If someone steals it from the owner, it’ll return to them after three seconds. So we need to leave it with one of her friends, since it’ll recognize them,” Kal said as he pushed open his door. “So, can you do it?”
“I only need a second,” Champion said confidently.
“Good. Wait till we’re about to leave, then take it,” Kal said as he walked into the room. “We have two hours, go make sure she doesn’t do anything… stupid.”
“Yes, sir,” Champion said as he bowed and walked for the front door.
Kal closed his door and smiled. It was all going as he knew it would.