I am flummoxed as we crest the final hills leading back into the outskirts of town. It’s shortly before dusk, so I expect only a few dim signs of civilization as we arrive. But instead, I see bright lights of human construction shining out from buildings and upon the roads leading further into the city center. Endless lights as far out as the horizon dotted the landscape. High against the horizon is the massive Tower Gauntlet, now shining in white fluorescence, dominating the rest of the downtown skyline.
“Well, I’ll be,” Nicholas said. “They actually got the power grid back up and running!”
I smile as well. I– I really look forward to a warm bath and a clean bed to sleep in for a change, but my excitement is short-lived. As the group makes their way back toward the base, I stand still, unsure of what I can do. I'm still beholden to service with this group for a time. Maybe I can be granted leave, but I don't want to force things. Not when things are already so tenuous.
“Is there something wrong?” Lindsey asks. “You sounded so eager to have a bath just a bit ago, and now–”
"It's... I suppose I'm just a little worried that coming back to town so soon will cause complications. It's not like we're in good graces with the law right now." I can't say I care all that much about the law in and of itself, but I don't want to overly antagonize these people, nor bring an even bigger hammer down about Chloe and me.
Lindsey grabs my hand and drags me along, her higher [Strength] and greater musculature helping her overpower my [Vitality]. “Let ‘em try. If you have any trouble while I’m around, let me know and I’ll give them the business!”
“Besides.” Lindsey cuts me off. “Chances are, none of us would be here if not for you and Chloe and the help you both gave us over the past week. As far as I’m concerned, you two have earned a reprieve from your service, and I’m sure all of us will back you up on this.”
“Except Jackie,” I mutter.
“She just needs some more time. Please, Sera.”
I take a long and deep breath. “We need to be working together, not fighting among ourselves.”
“That’s not something you can control about anyone but yourself.” Lindsey pauses again. “By the way, I wanted to ask in more detail. I didn’t mention this outright before because you deserve your privacy, but when you had passed out and I used [Identify] on you, I saw you were suffering from something the System called ‘Acute [Ether] Poisoning’. This is probably only partially related, and I promise I won’t tell the others, but is it true that you’re really only level 14?”
Though we didn’t have any encounters on the same level as the gorilla tribe in the days since, we did fight enough monsters between level fifteen and eighteen for me to reach level 16 shortly before arriving back at the city limits. I flip through my stats once more to verify.
[Level: 16; Experience: 15,880; To Next: 3,995]
[Current Stats: [Health]: 1,168 / 1,168 ; [Ether]: 670 / 670]
[Current Stats: [Strength]: 20; [Speed]: 20; [Vitality]: 42; [Mind]: 50]
“Level 16. I gained two more levels since the fight with the gorillas. Chloe and I aren’t yet so high level that the Experience scaling dragged our growth down on the rest of the excursion.”
“Wait… That seems too high. I remember how much we fought when I was level 12, and… No, I just don’t see it. With how much we fought and how Experience scaling worked in my case, there’s no way whatsoever. Maybe if you were right at the cusp of Level 13 when we started, you could have had enough to reach Level 15. But not 16.”
“I’m telling the truth, whether you find it believable or not. Remember Alexey’s words about assuming too much. Especially when it comes to the System. Its workings are far grander and more mysterious than anyone knows. And I don’t believe it is nearly as benevolent as it wants us to believe.”
“You never did answer my question,” Lindsey says. She follows it up with a playful poke to the shoulder. I’m not quite so sure we have enough familiarity with each other for such things, but I let it slide for the sake of the cohesion of the group. It does seem she’s taken a bit of a liking to me recently. I am not sure if her intentions are purely friendly or if she has some ulterior motive.
“No, I’m not at Level 14 anymore. I’m surprised your [Identify] skill can’t tell.”
“Something about you is very mysterious.” Lindsey glares at me, but I remain unfazed under her stare. “That’s fine, though. We’re all entitled to our secrets, and when you feel comfortable sharing them, I’ll be here ready to listen. Now c’mon! There’s a hot bath waiting for us, and we both need it!”
There’s something less than flattering about her words, both that she’s saying I stink, and that her wording implies that she wants to take a bath with me. Wait, she doesn’t like me in that respect, does she? I’m sorry, Lindsey, but I’m simply too young for you. Not to mention, I don’t even know if I like women in that way. Or if I can take the time for romance right now. Not when I have so many things I need to do and so much I need to learn and experiment with and try to get better at.
I close my eyes as I’m dragged inside. I need to figure out who I am, why I’m here, and what I want to do with my life first. Once I have a better sense of myself, then… Maybe in a few years.
I close my eyes as I sink into the tub. The water doesn’t quite scald my reddening skin, but it's far hotter than I’m used to and takes more than a few minutes of slowly acclimating to the steaming pool. But as I do, my muscles loosen and I can feel my pores loosening. My skin softens, then glistens slightly as I rub my washcloth over it. With each passing second, I feel more and more clean.
Especially my hair. It has grown tangled and full of dirt and grime and my own natural oils in the week that we’ve been traveling. I’m sure more than a few critters have tried nesting within it, especially each night as I sleep.
I hate the idea of cutting it. It’s one of my best features, one of the few things that’s mine that I can be proud of, my golden locks that stretch down to the small of my back. But in the midst of battle, it’s a potential liability. Jackie was quite insistent in showing me as much. In ways that I know were skirting the edge of maliciousness.
I don’t know why she’s so insistent that I build weapons for the military. It defies all common sense but– No, that’s not right. It defies logical sense, but she is grieving, and probably thinking that if she had had a weapon like what I can produce, that her partner would still be alive. I can even understand it, as I think back to my own mother. But… not enough to be the one who puts more instruments of death into the hands of people trained and equipped to be lethal soldiers.
I dare not get too relaxed. Not even here, in a makeshift army base, in what is likely one of the most secure facilities in the city. The echoes of my past life coupled with Alexey’s warnings both inspire me to remain vigilant even when I feel I’m safe. No, especially when I feel I’m safe. Even with my eyes closed and as the stress of a week in the wilds starts to dissolve into the water, I still keep an ear open, ready to jump into action at a moment’s notice.
But nothing comes. Even when I hear a distant rumble that briefly stirs me to action, I’m able to sit back down when I hear an all-clear sound immediately following. And after a solid hour of soaking, including flushing the tub and refilling it to get all the gunk out, I finally stretch and rouse myself back to my room.
Chloe’s already inside, looking at me with a mischievous smile as I flop onto the further away of the two full-size beds.
The room itself is little different from a hotel room. Two beds, a small desk, a TV that Chloe’s already turned on and is idly flipping through. Doesn’t seem that most of the channels are working at this time. Makes sense— restoring electricity is of vital importance to global infrastructure, while cable is a luxury by comparison. Goodness, I’m still surprised that they all managed to patch up that much infrastructure in just nine days.
Did the System itself intervene? I have to feel it did. That’s the only way all these technicians would be able to install tens of thousands of miles of wire across the country without working equipment or communication relays. But I don’t for a moment think it’s out of benevolence. But if not that, then why? It wants us to fight, but not to disrupt our civilization too much otherwise. It… wants us to fight, but live. To get stronger.
Are we like cattle or pigs, being fattened up before the slaughter? The System feeds on us? No? Then.
“Hey, Sera! You okay over there?” Chloe asks.
“Yeah. Feeling a lot better. I never realized how much I missed the smell and feeling of being clean until I had to do without it for a week.”
Chloe laughs. “You and me both! Anyway, anything you want to do tomorrow?”
I pause for a moment and think on it. “There are a few things I’d like to do. First, I want to go back to the dungeon near your house. It’s lower leveled than the Tower Gauntlet, and I think it’s going to be the best balance of safety and challenge in terms of the potential to get some better equipment.”
“Ugh! So soon? I know you’re a woman on a mission with all the…” She pauses as I give her a look. “The stuff you’ve got going on in your head, but do you really not want to take a day or two to relax?”
“I do, don’t get me wrong.” I reach into my bag and pull out the construct arm from back in the Tower Gauntlet. “I also want to spend some time working on this tonight. I’m sure there’s got to be more than a few new glyphs that I’ve not gotten the chance to study in detail. Besides all that, I still–”
“Absolutely not, Sera!”
“You need to take a break! I do not care about anything else right now but making sure my best friend does not work herself into an early grave!” She rushes over to my bed and pins me down in her embrace.
“I– I hardly get to see my father, and my mother is so busy these days that I don’t even know when I’ll get to see her again. I don’t want to lose you as well.”
“Not just losing you to dying. I don’t want you to work yourself half to death, Sera. You’re young and we still have full lives ahead of us. I don’t want you to decide right now that you have to do this all by yourself.”
“No. Not by myself. This is bigger than you or me or any of us. I had another vision of my past life earlier today.”
“I kinda figured, given this is the third time I’ve seen something like that happen now. What did you learn?”
I speak in a whisper, worried the walls have ears. “The researchers who created me were strong enough and skilled enough to do so. I have no doubt that they possessed technology and levels far, far beyond any of us. And yet, they were worried about something that they couldn’t hope to stand up against.”
“What do you think it could be?”
“I don’t know. But they also said that my fate was tied to that of ‘all universes’. Which is why–”
“You need to take breaks and pace yourself, Sera. There’s nothing to gain from rushing forward and getting yourself hurt in your haste. Or worse. If what you’re saying is true, then you need your rest. Because it sounds like your creators knew as well as I do that you aren’t supposed to do it all alone.”
“Good. Now, let’s get to sleep early tonight. I’m tired and–” Chloe yawns. “–we all need our sleep.”
I shut off the single lamp still on in our room. “Good night, Chloe.”