Tom retreated to the real world, and he immediately ran the new spells over himself. The clean, drained forty mana by itself. He was that filthy.
Everlyn leant forward and kissed him lightly, but it was a little more than a peck. Her breath was mint and fresh. “So nice to have clean teeth.”
“You guys back,” Sven asked.
“Yes,”
“Well, I’m off to sleep.”
As Sven walked away, Tom hit him with the clean spell and the rest of his mana vanished.
“What the,” Sven jerked in surprise and spun to face him. “Did you do that?” He was looking down at his clothes, that were no longer as dirty as they had been.
“You can thank me tomorrow.” Tom answered.
Tom’s words trailed off as a patch of existence in front of Everlyn distorted. A reward portal coming into reality. It was noticeable in the blackness as a lighter shade of dark that made it seem more psychic projection than a visible shift in light.
It was sort of both. You didn’t register a portal’s presence till you laid eyes on them. That was the light bit, but once you had seen them they got into your head and made you hyper aware of them. That was the psychic part of them.
They were not something that was difficult to miss and impossible to forget once you noticed to the point of being distracting if you were still in combat. The GODs did not hide the rewards they bestowed; they wanted you to know.
Sven was no longer walking away. His eyes instead were focused on the loot portal. “You bought something?”
“Two.” Tom answered even as a second portal opened right in front of him. His one was noticeably smaller than Evelyn’s.
Everlyn rubbed her hands in glee. They knew what the portals contained, but there was something about plunging an arm into one, that released endorphin hits into his brain. There was an expectation of excitement.
“Together,” Everlyn half offered, half asked.
Tom nodded.
“Sickening,” Sven said, but his eyes were riveted on their actions. Tom shoved his hand forward into the distortion. His hand vanished and then part of his arm. It was like reaching through the ceiling of a room. There was nothing there, and then his fingers touched a rough edge. He folded his hands completely around the weightless object and then squeezed ever so slightly and then it had weight once more. The stone was no larger than a golf ball and he pulled his hand out and the portal faded from existence as he did so.
“Light,” Michael whispered, and it was like a light bulb went off over their heads. It would attract wasps, but Tom didn’t mind in the slightest.
He examined the stone with interest. It was tier 4, so fancier than all the ones he had seen previously. The quality was apparent. Orange crystal with fine silver lines rotating around within its depths. On earth you would have assumed that it was a fancy art installation. A plastic shell pumped full of clear liquid with some form of metal cage complete with a clever hidden motor to make it rotate.
It was beautiful.
“Is that a trait stone?” Sven asked in hushed excitement.
Tom ignored the comment, after all, it was self explanatory - and pushed a single point of mana into the fancy rock in his hands. Laughing internally at the memory of the fifteen minutes of experimentation it had taken him to awaken the first one he had received so many years ago.
The crystal responded immediately as his magic stirred something within it. The metallic bits spun faster and the crystal lit with phosphorescence, a red-orange glow. Energy flowed into him, changing him. His skin tingled, then his muscles and then his bones, and within his hands the stone crumbled to dust.
It took less than ten seconds, but felt longer.
“What was the tier?” Sven asked.
Tom shrugged, seeing no need to mention it, and he was still angry about the blasphemy and what happened afterwards. The man wanted to act like a man child then as far as Tom was concerned that was how he would be treated.
He turned to look at Everlyn. She had pulled out a helm whose outside was dull, uninspired leather. Which made sense, as it was for a ranger class so shiny metal would be inappropriate.
“The stone from the colour was at least Tier 3.” Michael told Sven. “Not sure about the type.”
Tom ignored them and watched as Everlyn repeated what he had done and sunk mana into the helm. The whole thing glowed yellow and then it disappeared and appeared on her head.
She tested the range of movements and looked completely unhindered. “It’s good and the skill’s boost is active providing I don’t have an alternative helm equipped.” She smiled happily. “But as great as this night has been we should get some rest. There’s lots of drudgery waiting for you in the morning.”
“I swear it was worse than when I got drafted into doing bricklaying.”
She patted him sympathetically on the shoulder. “We all appreciated it.” She then lay with the helmet on.
“Are you really going to sleep wearing it?” Tom asked sceptically.
“It’s a dangerous world out there.”
“But it can’t be comfortable.”
“Amazingly, it is.” She twisted, repositioned, put her head on the ground, clearly testing the comfort level. “It’s fine.”
“It’s doesn’t look it. With those pointy things coming out and only half the mouth visible. Very restrictive.”
“I’m sleeping. I’m not eating.”
“Well, I just thought.”
“Hmm,” she said that in a very knowing way and then sat up. “And it has an extra feature of…” She leant forward to kiss him. The hard leather banged into his face. She pulled back with an apologetic grin. “Stopping unwanted advances.”
“Well… I.”
She stuck out her tongue. “I know what you are thinking and if I angle my head just right.”
Her face edged forward. He could see the spikes coming down over her cheeks. There wasn’t sufficient room they were to close together. He began to pull back, but at the last moment the helmet vanished and her soft lips touched his own.
He froze, hardly knowing what to do. This had been a proper kiss, while the one earlier had been little more than a butterfly touch.
She pulled back slightly to check his expression.
Nope, he wasn’t accepting that he moved forward, and this time opened his mouth slightly, intending to deepen the kiss and turn it into a proper one.
“Gross.”
Everlyn pulled away and glared at Sven. “Shoo you. That was barely a kiss.” Then she turned back to Tom with a rueful smile on her face. “The other point I was going to make is that it’s soul bound, so its presence is hardly a problem.” The helmet reappeared. “Sleep well.”
“You too.” he whispered.
She lay down. “Hug please.”
Tom did as requested. There was no question about progressing further neither of them was comfortable with public displays of affection and right now they had almost no privacy. The guards who were pacing around the camp would see everything that they did. Not to mention anyone who stirred and left the shelters. Still, he hugged her and closed his eyes, imagining a time when they were not so much in the public eyes even as the occasional wasp whipped forward to attack him.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Tom woke while it was still dark. It was clear from the weight across his chest he could not move for a while. He could feel her rhythmic breathing. He did not want to disturb her, so he spent the next hour ducking into and out of his system room, studying what was available to purchase and trying to work out if there was anything specific he wanted to either buy or save up for.
Refine the skill list, he thought to himself and went to retreat to the system room.
Everlyn Louis Campbell has invited you to her personal system room.
Do you wish to accept the invitation?
The message almost made him jump in surprise.
Deliberately Tom did not accept.
This was too good an opportunity to waste, and he returned to the real world.
Everlyn was draped across him and even in the dark he could sense that her body did not contain its usual vitality. His arm was cramping and his neck sore from the awkward position. He shifted, rolling his shoulders and turning his head slightly. Everlyn, being only a doll at his point did not respond, and he was happy to finally relieve the discomfort without waking her. He paused for a fraction longer to ensure she had not shifted in a way which would pass his neck crink to her and then retreated into the system room.
Everlyn Louis Campbell has invited you to her personal system room.
Do you wish to accept the invitation?
“Yes.”
He appeared in the same room as yesterday the only change being a lack of wind outside when compared to the previous time he had been here.
“Hey you,” Everlyn said with excitement, turning away from where she was looking through items from the special auction house. “I wasn’t sure how long it would be till you noticed.”
“I try to limit visits in here to under a minute if I don’t have specific guards,” Tom admitted ruefully. “I don’t like feeling defenceless.”
“There is that.”
“Why did you invite me?”
“Not being able to touch you is damn annoying, but speaking to you without people overhearing is awesome. Plus, I wanted to do this.”
She spun and for barely a second she was dressed in white lingerie. The view was only from behind, and then she was back in her jeans and jumper.
“Hey,” Tom protested.
“Just a sneak preview. If my hero gets me to civilization, then….”
Then Tom realised her cheeks were blushing. “Are you embarrassed?”
She shook her head. Then her hands covered her face. “It was too much.” She squawked.
Abruptly, his perspective changed, and he was alone in his own system room. The dull, boring metal walls surrounded him.
She had booted him.
He chuckled to himself, remembering that brief glimpse.
There were no mixed signals happening, just circumstances and the fact they were as awkward as teenagers. In fact, he hadn’t felt this off kilter since Jessica in grade six, and they had progressed to one stilted dance at the disco, where he had only lasted half the song.
She had looked… then she had got embarrassed… It was.
He returned to the real world.
Everlyn shifted slightly so they could make eye contact. Then buried her head in his chest. “Maybe a little, mortified.”
Tom chuckled; he could not help himself. The guards probably thought they were crazy, but he did not care. He leant closer to her ear. “You looked amazing.”
The helmet vanished.
“I don’t know why you got embarrassed. You planned it all.”
“I know, but it went different in my head.”
“I’m torn about whether to encourage you further or tell you to stop.”
“Why would you want me to stop?” There was genuine confusion.
“Because my body is twenty again and these clothes are less than optimal.”
She chuckled. “I’ll keep it for special occasions, then.” They were silent for a moment. “Or to surprise you. Can’t have you getting too comfortable.”
“That’s mean.”
“I know.” She kissed him. “But I’m doing it, anyway.”
“You’ve already cleaned your teeth?” He observed.
“It’s only civilised.”
Tom cast the spell on himself and it washed over him and made his teeth tingle. He considered the open spaces to his right and left. The thin bedroll on top of the dirt. The fact that their dinner would be some version of wasp.
“Civilized?” He asked in disbelief
“Yes,” she answered dead panned completely oblivious to the irony.
He burst out laughing.
“Shh,” one guard hissed at him.
That made him laugh harder, and he knew nothing about what had been said was funny, but he couldn’t hold it in.
It was not like there were any monsters that he could accidentally alert. The only things near him were the wasps and if they got within forty metres of him, they were already changing course to come and attack him. He could probably scream at the top of his lungs and apart from waking up humans have absolutely no other effect on the surrounding wildlife.
Tom had long ago got used to them coming into attack him. Ninety percent of the time the creatures were dead before they hit him and all he would feel was the lightest of touches as the husk struck him. Even the few that stung were hardly memorable now that his immunity isolated the venom that caused pain instantly. There would be the smallest of pin pricks and then nothing, and after suffering tens of thousands of such stings he no longer consciously registered it.
His elemental skin was currently infused with a lesser air elemental and it tore the wasps to shreds as they zoomed in. If he moved his legs, he could feel the build-up of tiny bodies surrounding them.
“Quiet.” Everlyn hissed at him. “You’ll wake everyone up. And also don’t laugh at me. No, that wasn’t a reason to laugh harder.” She protested.
“Sorry,” he gasped as he calmed himself down and looked at the woman next to him. “I think it’s time to go to work.”
Her new helmet appeared on her face and she rolled out of bed. She was, of course already fully dressed in her anti-wasp setup. That was the sort of person she was. No complaints, no trying to avoid doing something hard. If it had to be done, she was up for it.
The guards, unsurprisingly reacted with annoyance when Tom got up and prepared to leave the camp. He saw them take the cloth wraps and start wrapping them around their face followed by heavy leather gloves that looked like they were intended for a blacksmith. Making sure they didn’t see, Tom smiled. Of course, they needed to gear up now that he was leaving, as he would no longer be the target of any wasp that got close to the shelter.
He wondered why so many people seemed to dislike him. Hand in hand with Everlyn they slowly walked toward their fighting point. There was a commotion back at the camp as the rest of the support team got together.
“Why don’t people like me?” Tom asked.
“That’s a heavy conversation for five AM.”
“I’m doing everything to save them and half the people won’t meet my gaze and another quarter look like they want to spit on me.”
“I don’t know,” Everlyn answered. “It isn’t that bad. Most people are on your side. It’s just the competitive ones. They fought to be powerful pumped their strength up and they get to Existentia and because of the wasps they need to be saved by the weakest person here. They resent that.”
“But I survived longer than all of them.”
She shrugged. “I know you ended up with more contribution points than anyone else.” There was a heart-warming certainty in her voice like no one could have possibly matched his ferocity and dedication. “They don’t accept that fact. Theoretically, they get you were number one, but they saw how weak you are. They assume you cruised during the DEUS trial. Took no risks like the rest of them.”
“I put my life on the line all the time.”
“I know and they consciously understand that, but that’s different from knowing it.”
“It sucks.”
“You also sort of look down on them.”
“I do not.”
She barked in laughter. “Yes, you do. Your face displays your emotions better than toddlers. Everyone knows your view regarding those who bumped up their statistics.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
She grabbed his arm. “It’s okay. The fact you spend fourteen hours a day fighting is the fundamental problem, as you don’t get to spend time with them.”
“Well, I can’t change that.”
She nodded sadly. “Nope.”
Tom went straight up to the mound and the hammer landed with a solid thud. Three hours later, he paused for breakfast and then returned to his lonely fight.
The hive in front of him crumpled, and the notes played to signify success that confirmed the death of the queen.
Tom sighed.
Clearing these hives was a slog. He studied how the large fragments of resin had fallen.
Definitely climbable.
He tested the largest piece, and it was rock solid, so he stepped up to use the elevation to get a better view of the surroundings.
He glanced backward toward where the shelter, appreciating the straight line of devastation that his advance had wrought. It stretched for over ten kilometres. The construction a kilometre behind him was a single large tent, with only a scattering of guards circling around it. Closer to him was the council’s wasp destroying group. The community’s solution was to let them feel they were not a hundred percent dependent upon Tom.
They were as competent as you would expect everyone who had got in the top million in the DEUS trial to be. They had worked themselves up to within metres of the hive they were targeting, which meant they would pull it down shortly. They were all dressed in heavy material to protect them against the smaller worker wasps and had established a simple strategy. Basic stuff designed to lure out the dangerous soldier wasps. They would fight them individually to ensure they didn’t land the sting. Then once the current wave was cleared they would inch forward and bait more out.
Overall, they utilised a conservative approach or in other words slow. There was a healer for every two fighters and they predominantly attacked from a distance. The earth mage who had been the second person to arrive was the lynchpin. He would stand well back, gather up earth, convert it into rock and then throw it at the hive with magic increasing the speed. Each collision would crumble the resin, and the wasps would feel the attack and spew out to defend.
The mound they were targeting was listing perilously, and very few wasps were emerging.
The entire team took another step closer. When they were confident that no more soldiers were going to emerge, they would jump in with the heavy hammers and maces to complete the job they had done.
Tom absently counted his own progress as he waited for them to finish.
He grinned.
They were still slow, despite approaching with a so-called dream team of fifteen fighters. Tom had destroyed seven hives while they had dealt with their one.
Efficiency, of course, was not their purpose. They were there to provide everyone else with agency and hope.
Politics.
A single soldier wasp emerged and collectively the entire group retreated about six steps. Their coordination, if nothing more was impressive. But with the amount of battle practice that everyone of them had experienced what else did he expect?
The soldier got burnt down by a spear and swordsman working in tandem to burn it down. So they should - they were weak.
Another stone was thrown at the hive and bored he stretched on his makeshift hill. He looked out in the direction they still had to go. They were halfway to getting out of this crap hole and being able to fight something more interesting.
He glanced left.
And froze.
He skipped a breath. All of his attention focused on the distortion he had spotted initially out of the corner of his eye.
It was off to the left of where they were heading and a pale yellow grassy colour that blended in with surroundings that had made his eyes skip it initially.
But now he had seen it he couldn’t unsee it.
A perfect sphere.
It was unmistakable. He had seen so many of them over the forty years.
A smile broke out on his face.
It was a GOD’s trial.