Level Up!

by RisuUmbra

Ch 47: Different Paths

Chapter 47: Different Paths

Adept Curse: Bind the Soul. Hold the Mind. Brand A Promise. Keep their Lives

Skill Level 5: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

I am Afraid…

There’s no excusing it… I am so afraid. I thought I was over this… I can feel my sixth sense constantly buzzing in the back of my head. My fear is making the skill go crazy, it’s making it think that everything is a threat. Why is she here, how is she here! Wait, calm down… I already know how she’s here. The same way a known criminal like Aaron is here, speaking of him. I turned back to the floating black mirror and started reading the words floating within them, the floating silver symbols were not written in any real language and yet I could still read them. I ignored the pained heaving coming from the newly cursed Aaron and continued reading, as much as I hated to admit this but… Sparkle was right to stop me from killing Aaron. If I killed him then I would never find out about Flux Alteration Rates.

Aaron / Sterling Flare:

Flux Alteration Rate: 89% -> 5%

Affliction: Megalomania (Major -> Minor)

Sanity: Stable (Forced)

Emotional State: Daunted

Magical Status: Cursed

Curses: Curse of Geas, Curse of Anguish

Flux Acquisition Rate: 8% -> 2%

Flux Purification Rate: 3% -> 6%

Affinity: Wood

Flux is what made Aaron go completely nuts so quickly, I mean… he still would have done those horrible things but I assume he would have been smarter about it all and less… homicidal. Oddly enough, cursing and threatening Aaron after draining his flux into one of my flasks actually helped calm me down. I’m going to need to drain the flux from my friends as well, thankfully I think I can modify the open soul ritual to be painless. I let my magical hold on the mirror relax as I thought about what this discovery meant. I don’t completely know what makes us gain so much Flux and at the same time I’m pretty sure I know the cause. The only thing that all players have in common… the system.

I can only guess how many skills he has bought and if they actually apply to his affinity, I know he had that one odd skill he used to launch dirt at me and turn it to molten glass. Judging from that skill he probably has a wide variety of offensive and social skills. Maybe something that deviates too far from their Affinity generates more Flux. The sound of hooves approaching behind me pulled me from my speculations and back into the present. I slipped the black mirror and the Flux flask into my bag before turning around, my sixth sense lowered into a dull buzz into the background as thankfully David and Morgana pulled up to my sides. I let out a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding and gave the two a tired smile, I raised a hoof to massage the sore muscles around my horn. Casting a curse on Aaron taxed me in ways I’ve never felt before, flexing ‘muscles’ that I had only recently gained by becoming a witch. The connection I now have with Aaron isn’t a bond… It's a noose that I'm waiting for him to hang himself on. I have effectively trapped him in his role, he’s going to have to keep playing the supportive and charismatic leader or else…

I pushed myself out of that dark place and turned to Morgana, who I just now realized is giving the hardest death stare I have ever seen from her to someone behind me. She followed us… I-I need to… my rising fear froze in place. For one odd moment I had a moment of clarity, I didn't need to do anything. She can’t do anything to me, especially now that I have magic. Calcifer sent a pulse of fortifying warmth through our bond and I caught sight of him perched high up on the edge of one of the pillars at the edge of the room. I turned around and first saw Falling Star stumbling towards us. I waited for him to join me by my side before turning my attention to her.

“That was quite the performance my beloved, it brings ever so much joy to see that you have thrived just as much as I have in this new world” The pleased hum she gave made my skin crawl. She was flanked by two of her thestral guards, the silver chains on her wings seem to glimmer even more in the low light of the atrium. She stopped her approach a few feet away from all of us and I had to clamp down on my Intent to not teleport us again.

“What are you doing here Faith” The very moment I said her name I regretted it, I watched in real time as the small fake smile turned real. She was so pleased that I remembered her name. With a near silent giggle Faith three slow ‘tuts’ before gesturing to one of her guards.

“You know the rules my Beloved, you must refer to me by my new name. Hmm, what do you think? I very much enjoy the sound of Lunar Hope… “ A sudden crunch echoed throughout the silent chamber as Morgana turned the tiles beneath her to gravel with just a flinch of her hoof. I saw amusement flash in Faith’s eyes for just a second before she schooled her expression. She always enjoyed getting a rise out of others, I let my blank expression drop into a slight glare just to make it clear. Her smile grew slightly the moment she made eye contact with me.

“Goodness! I know when the time for joking has passed, I suppose it’s about time I get to the main reason as to why we are here” The moment her last word was spoken every drop of humor dropped from her face. Completely serious and professional, Faith took a step closer before dropping into a full bow soon followed by her two guards.

“Arcane Hope, The Enkindled Liberator. As the next in line to Lunar Dukedom, I beseech thee, nay… plead with thee. Please save my people from eradication”

---

The silence in the room was heavy, the three of us didn’t know how to start. I had sent Falling Star back to his room with my lion so we could have some time to talk. I didn’t know how to feel about what we had just heard. I felt… angry that Faith thought she could just walk up and ask for my help after everything she’s done, I also felt just as guilty. Do I have the right to condemn a whole people just because I don’t like the person who asked for my help? Then there’s the other issue… I took a glance at Morgana and the hard determined look she was wearing. My mind flashed back to what happened after Faith decided to let us think about her plea and left.

I wasn’t in any state to be speaking, my intent was buzzing around more akin to fire than magic. I was furious… there wasn’t any other way of putting it. I was in the middle of calming myself down on the walk back to our temporary house when we were approached by the injured Unicorn and her ghostly friend. Now that they were closer and I looking closely, the apparition wasn’t an actual pony… but a summon like Calcifer or my lion. I was still too angry at the time to really think about what that meant but with hindsight I could see that he used to be a player. I’m not sure if that’ll actually be him or her memory of him just pretending.

The unicorn player introduced herself to us as Victoria or Tori for short and her little brother Marco. She told us that she had been directed to speak to us as we were apparently the most outwardly powerful players around and she needed our help. Seeing how I wasn’t in any state to show sympathy or be cordial Morgana took over the conversation for me. When she asked what was wrong she was expecting the tale that Tori would lay out. It was Arthur, after he abandoned Morgana he had taken over the remaining bandits and started his own reign of terror around the edge of Equestria. The way Tori described Arthur was more akin to a horror story, she described him having his followers pull carts of disembodied limbs. Body parts that he would rip off his victims then attach to himself or to his followers, At some point Arthur and his bandits caught the scent of another group of players and hunted them down for their parts… more specifically their horns. “He almost got Marco, but I stopped him. I made him regret trying but he still needs to pay for hurting him. Noone hurts my little brother and I need your help to hunt him down!”

A heavy sigh from David broke me from my flashback, I watched him get up from the couch and trot over to the kitchen for some water. When he got back I waited for him to speak, he took his time gathering his words before turning and pointing to me.

“Okay, I think I see where this is going. Marcus that chick you don’t like asked for your help and I can see you beating yourself up for thinking about not accepting” I flinched at his words, I felt shame creep up my back at the accuracy of his words. I thought I was better now, but instead I just feel sick.

“ Morgana, that unicorn player wants your help to kill your brother and… I'm not sure if you do as well… ?” Morgana’s expression was inscrutable, I'm not sure if she knows either. I was starting to realize what David is implying,

“ And we still need to lead all the other players back to Southtown and transport Aaron back to the guild. Not to mention tell everyone about the shards of the Mane Six that are out there somewhere and to start the search… so'' I felt myself droop at David’s leading tone. I know what we need to do but I really don’t like it. I took a fortifying breath and pulled myself together to speak.

“We need to split up… Morgana will go with Victoria to find her brother and stop him from hunting down other players, I’ll go with… Faith to help her people and David will lead everyone back to Southtown and help coordinate the search for the shards.” Silence reigned again after I finished speaking as it dawned on the three of us that today might be the last time we see each other for quite a while. I was genuinely sad about separating from David and Morgana, I had gotten really close to them and considered them friends. I saw Morgana’s eyes soften as she looked at us and I knew she felt the same. I stood from the couch and pulled everyone's attention once again.

“If this is our last few days together then I need to tell you two what happened between me and Faith, there isn’t any better way to put it then to say that she’s my ex-girlfriend… and that she is abusive” The anger was back, David lost whatever humor was left on his face and Morgana turned as still as stone. I had their undivided attention and I was extremely thankful for that as I don’t want to repeat any of this. “ In order for you two to really understand then I'll need to explain a few things. You two could already tell that I'm a bit… different mentally. I always had a hard time understanding other people, I never got a chance to get it diagnosed but I knew it was there. I either tried too hard to be normal and people avoided me or got fixated on something and was labeled the weird kid. Despite that I still was about to make a few friends, they were nice but they didn’t really get it” No questions, just an understanding silence. I was obviously slightly afraid to talk about my past but I want to tell them.

“ I… didn’t meet Faith until highschool, now I didn't go to a normal highschool. It was an academy that focused on college prep and nothing else, the teachers didn’t really care about the students and if you were enrolled there then your parents didn’t really care either. So when I told an adult that I was being stalked they just laughed at me. None of them took the weird kid seriously, so I asked one of my friends what to do. They laughed and said that I should ask her out. I was much worse back then so I saw nothing wrong with that… so I asked my stalker on a date. The first year or so was fine, I didn’t know anything about romance or relationships so I did whatever she told me to. She was happy so I assumed I was happy, dates at diners. Sneaking out at night to hang out at the park, holding hands. In the next year things started to change, whenever I wanted to do something that she didn’t suddenly ‘I didn’t love her’. When my few friends were around she didn’t trust them and didn’t want me around them. Things like that slowly ramping up over time, soon she had cut off the few friends I had and when I tried to ask my parents for advice on what was happening she almost ruined what little of a relationship I had with them.” I paused to breathe, talking about this after so long was like picking at a scab that never healed properly.

“I was completely alone with only Faith to speak to. She controlled almost everything in my life, she tried to have a say in what I ate, what I wore, who I spoke to, and she would use every manipulation, every threat, every tearful promise to get what she wanted. We were together for five years, until my first year of college. I took a psychology course because it seemed interesting and gave four credits, at this point me and faith were all but married. She was already talking about moving in with me in my apartment nearby. It was my professor that helped me realize how abusive Faith is, we were going through a chapter about abuse and… it scared me seeing how much of it applied to me. I asked the professor if I could talk to them after class then layed my feelings out. I was even more afraid of how seriously he took my situation. He asked me if he could have a meeting with me and my family during his office hours to talk about this more thoroughly. I said yes and went home, it was difficult to convince my parents to come visit but I managed but when I told Faith… she freaked out. She yelled, screamed, made every accusation and threat under the sun, when I calmed her down she said… that she was pregnant”

“What!?” The sudden yell from three ponies made me jump, the two were bug eyed. Staring at me with jaws open, peeking past them I could see an equally shocked Falling Star leaning through the doorway. The moment I locked eyes with him he gave a quiet ‘eep’ then disappeared back into his room. I cleared my throat and continued talking.

“I would like to point out that we had never had sex, she tried to make me in the past but… I was never comfortable with it and that was where I drew the line. She wasn’t actually pregnant, she just wanted to say something that would get me to do what she wanted. I left and didn’t see her again until after the meeting with my professor. After that things happened really fast, the professor helped me get in contact with a lawyer for a restraining order and was actually able to have the police look into her. Turns out that I wasn’t the only person she had stalked, just the one that stuck. While we were together she stalked and threatened everyone around me, my old friends even testified in court about the threats and everything. She was sentenced to two years in county prison for the stalking and death threats, she argued that the statute of limitations meant that she couldn’t be punished but she was just short of the three years limit. I got better in those two years, I went to therapy, got a bit closer to my parents, but I still had issues making new friends. Now she’s back and she’s taking me away from my friends again… “ I felt the shame burrow deeper, I felt nauseous as I vocalized my fear. There was a spark of dark humor, I had fought a giant eldritch abomination that literally weaponized fear and this is what shook me?!

“Stop that” I looked up to see Morgana and David mere inches away before hugging me. My first thought was ponies are soft, my second was Are they crying? They definitely were, the sound of soft sobbing was coming from my two friends as they wrapped their hooves (and wings) around me.

“You shouldn't feel shame for being hurt, it isn’t your fault that she’s a horrible person. Faith can’t do anything to drive us away, nothing she says or does can change the fact that we’re friends.” Morgana’s voice was slightly muffled by my shoulder but I heard it loud and clear, I ignored how hot my eyes were and how blurry my vision was.

“And don’t forget, if you get fed up with her then you can just leave. She needs you, not the other way around. One wrong word and you and Calcifer can fly right out of there” I could feel the smile on David’s face as he said that. I heard the pounding of small hooves before I felt Falling Star join the group hug, he didn’t say anything but I felt him squeeze with everything he had.

“... I love you guys”

Author's Note:

(This chapter fought me every step of the way and I want it done)

Comments

[The reaper of war]

This is such a great story

[Shady Nail]

Do you have a standard set of rules for this system?
I wanna make character sheets like what you have.

[Alyarin9000]

Knew I had to beeline to this fic the moment I saw an update. Great chapter, as ALWAYS!
So that's their past... I had a feeling she wouldn't be violent, but yikes, that's gonna be insidious. Still a risk that she will try to trap him with her/claim him in some way, we'll see. I have a feeling their interactions will be fun, either way!

It's a shame to see the main cast split up, but also a good tactic, no doubt...

And to any silent lurkers: Don't lurk. Comments are writer fuel. Always, always try to comment something on new chapters of a fic. The writers will love it, trust me

[RisuUmbra]

11674214
I don’t really have a standard system, I measure their levels not by exp but by feats. The more extraordinary things they do then the higher their level to match their accumulated legacy. Which is why the main cast has a higher level than most, they’ve been going from massive boss fight to massive boss fight. Always punching above the belt so to speak. Think of it like Dragon Ball Z, the harder the fight the better the rewards. The opposite is true as well, simply fighting groups of wolves over and over again won’t gain you anything.

Skill on the other hand are a bit different, I use a small algorithm to measure how much xp they get while practicing the skill. So 1 hour of training the skill would be worth 20 xp but if there is another passive skill helping then that’s a 1.5x multiplier combined with their cutie mark bonus if applicable which is 2x. 1H=(20*1.5)2
1H=60xp
Of course I will say that rule of cool and plot also play a part sometimes

Sorry if this made no sense

[Shady Nail]

11674782
Cool, I wasn't asking if experience though. Feats are fine.
I meant like standard list of abilities you could copy and paste onto character sheets.
Sorry for confusing.

[RisuUmbra]

11674804
I write the abilities from scratch but if you want a template then here:

Skill Name: This is where the main discription of the skill or ability goes. It can be as long as you want

Stamina/Mana Cost: None, Negligible, Medium, Heavy

Skill Level 0: 00.00%

Cost: 0 SP

The whole thing is put in the center and bolded then put into a quote box to make it look nice.

There isn’t a set pool of abilities I pull from other than the standard elements in nature. Martial bailies stem from actual skills someone could get better in. That’s the reason I won’t be making a breathing or blinking skill.
I hope this answers your question