66 Teaching the Master (1/2)
Stillness crawled back across the town, like a looming shadow. The landscape froze in place once more. I sighed, relief pouring over me. I shook my head, making the worry slide off my shoulders. Living in Springfield was like living beside a volcano. You could never tell when it was going to erupt.
I needed to be ready for that eruption, so I grit my teeth and readied myself. I headed back towards Torix for a few tips. He may already know several of the skills I needed anyways. As I ran over towards his place, I took full advantage of my new skill Phaser. Hopping across cars, wall walking, and diving through windows was fun as fuck anyways.
Once I reached his house of horrors, I jumped and leapt over several burrows lining the house. Torix colonized some beetles for some reason, probably for foot soldiers who actually worked, unlike the steel legion. After jumping over the burrows, I rolled inside and back onto my feet. I kept running, reaching the basement where Torix hunched over a desk.
He read a tome with a blot of white mana as light floating above him. I jumped down the basement stairs before rolling as I landed. I rolled back up to a standing position as he glanced at me with an eyebrow raised,
“Ahem…why did you roll inside?”
I shrugged, “I just gained a unique skill, and I’m using the fuck out of it. Mainly because it’s a blast.”
He grinned, the dry skin crinkling, “Ah, I can understand that. Mind sharing what it is?”
I turned a palm to him, “It’s a movement skill called Phaser. Helps with getting to places. It could be a useful part of the steel legion’s training, if they don’t get the skill already.”
Torix turned back to the book, “I suppose it depends on the kind of soldier being used. Scouts may have that unique skill as a part of their training.”
I nodded, “I was actually wondering if there were any easy unique skills I could unlock. You’ve been around for a while. You know a ton of unique skills I’m sure. I was going to show you my list of skills and see if we can’t condense a few of my skills.”
He pursed his dry lips, glancing back at me, “Hmmm, I could, but sharing skills is highly personal. Perks and builds can be inferred in a moment’s notice. The sharp eyes of someone specced in perception and intelligence, the pounding steps and broad shoulders of a strength and constitution build, those things are obvious. Skills are what truly sets you apart.”
I shrugged, “Eh, you’ve seen me develop like 90% of my skills. It really isn’t telling you much more shit than you already know.”
He nodded before setting the book down. He stepped beside me as I opened my screen, willing the system to let him see my screen. Torix cupped his chin, nodding and mumbling to himself some. After a while, he nodded,
“I saw three I can point out immediately. You have quite an assortment of skills for how little time you’ve had to develop them. Color me impressed.”
I grinned, “Eh, I think it’s part getting my ass kicked over and over. That and I always try new stuff.”
“Indeed. I’m sure you’ve gained an arsenal of stuff by now with your approach.”
Torix raised a hand, and his obelisk opened. Surrounded by the icy mountain top and scenic view of a mountain, he opened a status screen in front of me. Within it, three boxes with five words underneath each were open. I read them out loud,
“Words of Power, Knowledge Maker, and Strategic Commander...You're telling me I can already make them?”
Torix shook his head, “No. You couldn’t make any of them. You need one skill for Knowledge Maker and Strategic Commander. You need two for Words of Power. Learning the skills shouldn’t take more than a few hours…”
He turned to me with a sly grin, “With a bit of help from your master of course.”
I gripped a fist, “Hell yeah. Where do we start?”
“Knowledge Maker would be the simplest. All you need is reasoning. For that, a few problems would be enough.”
He opened a hand, raising a black blot of mana. He closed his hand. A second passed before a rippling sound ebbed from in front of me. The familiar black mana reached out from the center of the sound before coalescing into a bundle of black metal pieces.
I reached out and grabbed it as Torix crossed his arms,
“Solve this by removing the center piece. By the time you have, you should gain the reasoning skill.”
I glanced at the pieces of charred metal. It felt like charcoal in my hand, thought it reflected light like metal. I frowned before glancing at the corners of it. The each rotated in different directions, kind of like a rubix cube but less tightly configured. After jiggling it for a moment, I found a red sphere at the center. I tapped it, and it banged against my hand like metal. Surrounded by multiple complex pieces, getting the red sphere out looked hard as hell.
I scraped my claw against the red sphere. It didn’t leave an indentation. On the other hand, I scratched the black pieces and they crumbled easily. Without needing anymore thought, I lifted my fist and slammed it into the puzzle box.
The black pieces broke, but I kept the force low enough to keep the red sphere from shattering. After another two hammer fists, I jiggled the red sphere out. After using a bit of telekinesis, I cleaned off the black dust.
Skill unlocked! Reasoning (lvl 1) – While others hunt for a solution, you hunt for the best solution. +1% to application of knowledge.
Walking back up to Torix’s reading spot, I handed him the red sphere. He frowned at me,
“Excellent work. Where is the rest of the puzzle?”
I shrugged, “I broke the pieces. The stuff was softer than the prize, making it easy to just break. It’s kind of like putting gold into a wooden chest. You can just swing a hammer at the wood then take what’s inside.”
He glanced at the red sphere, inspecting for damage. Torix shook his head before putting the red sphere in a robe. He glanced up at me,
“I…I suppose it’s a creative solution. Did you get the skill?”
I gave him a thumbs up before he stood up,
“Superb. Then let’s move on to getting the skill.”
We walked deeper into the basement. Torix expanded the building, using the beetles as workers. They dug out many rooms, using some type of yellow adhesive for reinforcing the corridors. We walked down a hallway of smooth earth before pacing into a library. It wasn’t large, just four bookshelf’s lining a small room.
Torix cupped his chin, tapping his jaw before raising a hand,
“I want you to research something you find interesting. I’ll give you three hours to do so. When I come back, we’ll discuss whatever it is that you found interesting.”
I nodded, trusting his judgment. No point in having him explain the obvious because it would become evident with time.
Trying to learn what he was talking about, I walked around the room. Glancing at the spines of books, I looked for an interesting read. My eyes set on a book titled Fringe Monsters: A Categorical Account. The book dealt with all kinds of eldritch monsters. Some of them I’d seen. The clear majority of them I hadn’t.
It was like looking at a book of horrors. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The old, yellowed pages of the book wafted the scent of an ancient paper. Not a bad smell, just a calming one. As I read the book, I sat down on telekinetic pads with my armor holding me up. Might as well train as I read, right?
Hours passed, and I gained a smidgen of the books information, glossing over most of it. In depth descriptions were almost entirely theoretical. I wasn’t going to waste my time pouring over them. I figured focusing on the concrete facts would work best. By the time Torix walked in, I already covered about two hundred pages of the material.
“Did you find something interesting?”
“Yeah, a book about the eldritch. There’s so many though that I don’t think it’s too useful. I’ll probably never face any these horrors.”
He nodded with a grin on his face, walking out of the room, “Good. Now follow me.”
We walked out of the personal study before reaching a much larger room. Full of jars, beakers, and vats of chemicals, the room stung the nose with a smell so sterile and clean, it could burn your nose hair. It took a few minutes to adjust to the acrid stench. By then we reached a series of floating tubes. In each, a different monster floated in suspension fluid.
The pods were similar to the pods used to hold Michael and Kelsey when they were infected. At the thought of it, I glanced down. I couldn’t help but feel a burning shame in my chest. The feeling only grew with time, like I understood just how badly I messed up.
As if reading my mind, Torix walked up to a tube, “Remembering your friend’s demise? I wouldn’t feel too bad about it. The pods they used didn’t have a signature system. Any mana from anyone could open them. It’s an outdated practice, and they shouldn’t have left them like that. These pods will only open to my balance of mana. One dominated by dominion magic.”
Torix placed a hand on a tube, feeling the glass, “Your ascendant mana will have no effect.” He turned to me, “You can still break them, however. Do be careful.”
Cheering me up a bit, I turned my gaze towards the monster he was beside.
“Can you tell me what monster this may be? Without using Schema’s notification of course.”
It looked like a catfish, except the whiskers were spears and its tail stretched out many feet past the main body. It could probably dish out a mean whipping attack with the end of it, stunning other fish. Its eyes stretched outwards off its face, like a hammerhead’s face. Combine that with a throat full of sharp teeth, and you had a scary creature.