Quantum shift, p.4
Quantum Shift, page 4
part #1 of Phase Shift Series
He hefted his weapons and slammed the tailgate shut, absently pressing the fob to lock the vehicle before remembering that the battery was dead, and swore silently at himself. He’d been so focused on unloading, he’d accidentally brought the charger up to the cabin. It was only one more trip, but it was a clear sign that he wasn’t in a good frame of mind. Usually, he was very attentive to details – in his mind, big things were just a collection of small things – and he wondered what else he’d missed in his mindless unloading. It didn’t matter, in the grand scheme of things, since he didn’t have anywhere to go right now anyways, but it showed him that he needed to stop and process whatever was happening sooner rather than later, before he missed something more significant.
He sighed and hefted the glaive to his right shoulder, gripping the two swords loosely in his left hand. He definitely needed to get his head clear before his training session; these weapons were sharp and didn’t tolerate mistakes. He preferred to train with realistic replicas when possible, since the weight and heft of them made them clumsier and harder to use. Compared to them, the practice weapons were light as a feather. He walked back to the path and forced himself to look around, taking in the small, twisted bodies around him. Something killed them all, he realized. Or, at least, most of them. I wonder if 2.3% of them survived…
His forced scan of the woods around him probably saved his life, as he saw a flash of tawny fur in the corner of his vision and whirled, instinctively dropping his swords and jerking the solid pole of the glaive in front of him. He caught a quick glimpse of matted, blood-stained fur before a heavy weight crashed into him, knocking him backwards as sharp pain sliced through his upper thighs and side. As he fell backward, his body reacted without thought: his left leg snapped up into his attacker’s midsection, and as he rolled onto his back, he kicked with his foot and yanked on the haft of the glaive in a classic tomoe nage, or circle throw. The creature’s body launched over him, its teeth cracking as its body weight tore its jaws free from the oaken pole.
Troias continued his roll, landing on his feet and whirling around, expecting to see his adversary on their back. Instead, the creature – a large mountain lion from the look of it, gaunt and with a blood-stained face and muzzle – had twisted in the air and, in the nature of all cats, had landed squarely on its feet. It leaped again, but Troias was prepared, now, and he thrust with the pointed blade of the glaive, taking the lion in its chest and scoring a bright line of blood as the weapon skittered along its ribs.
The cat yowled and leapt backward, favoring its right front leg and eyeing Troias cautiously. The big man stood quietly, his glaive at the ready and his weight balanced on the center of his feet. He watched the creature’s eyes carefully – almost any untrained combatant gave away their movements with their eyes – and was rewarded with a tightening at the edges that telegraphed the cat’s next leap. This time, the beast tried to leap to his left, obviously intending to quickly reverse direction and take him in his more open side, but he slid to his right and slashed down with the glaive, the heavy blade chopping into the animal’s side and catching in its ribs. The beast tried to twist away, but Troias slid forward, his feet never crossing as he pressed down with the point of the blade. His greater weight shoved the cat off its feet, and the crescent blade at the back of the weapon pierced its side, preventing it from writhing free.
Troias’ mind was blank as he held the cat pinned against the ground, leaning his weight into the weapon without losing his balance. He watched emotionlessly as the creature thrashed and hissed, trying to free itself from the blade, its struggles growing steadily weaker. The cat finally shuddered and lay still, its eyes unblinking and glazed, and Troias pulled the glaive loose with hands that had suddenly started to shake.
As the danger passed, the effects of the adrenaline in his system hit him like a sledgehammer. His heart was racing out of control; his muscles were so filled with energy that his hands and fingers shook. Troias took no real notice of it – it wasn’t his first time experiencing an adrenaline overload, after all, and the sensations were more or less routine to him by this point – and focused instead on the fact that the mountain lion in front of him had tried to kill him.
He’d bow-hunted enough to know that there was no real reason for the cougar to have attacked him. There was plenty of food scattered around the ground; like all cats, cougars were opportunistic hunters, and if nothing else, it would have happily dragged off the big buck deer carcass and eaten that over the course of a few days. He wasn’t threatening it, and there was no way it would have built a den close to the cabin; the whole place had to smell way too much like people for it to be comfortable.
Even when it did attack, the moment he wounded it, by all rights, it should have run. Predators didn’t fight to the death unless they were protecting their young; if it was hungry, it would have fled once it realized he wasn’t an easy meal. It was like the cat had gone mad and was driven to attack for some reason. He hadn’t wanted to kill it – he’d hoped that wounding it would make it run – but he hadn’t really had any choice. He’d have to dress the body to preserve it so he could show it to the rangers: cougars were very rare in the UP, and he’d probably have to file a report on why he’d killed one, since the Park Service was trying to repopulate them.
He hefted the body and carried it back to the cabin, depositing it in the back near the lake. He’d dress it later; the creature had sliced him up, and while he wasn’t feeling any pain from the wounds right now, he knew that if he didn’t clean and treat them soon, they’d probably get infected. He might even have to drive up to the nearby town of Munising to hit a clinic if the wounds were bad, since he hadn’t come prepared to stitch himself up.
He grabbed the water pail he’d left by the front door and headed down to the pump, filling the bucket with cool water. He snagged a rag from just inside the door – the cabin didn’t have a bathroom, so he’d be bathing with sponge baths or in the lake for the next week – and stripped out of his now-ragged shorts and shirt.
He stopped, staring in shock as he saw that while his clothing had been shredded, his skin was perfectly unblemished. He’d felt the sharp pain of the creature’s claws; could it have been a glancing hit, tearing his clothes and nothing else? That seemed ridiculously far-fetched. He couldn’t imagine the creature ripping completely through the cloth of his shirt and shorts and not even grazing his skin, and certainly its claws were sharp enough to have drawn blood even at the lightest touch.
“What the hell is going on?” he whispered, collapsing to a seat on the steps of the wraparound porch and staring at his bare, unmarked skin.
Troias jumped to his feet and looked wildly around, but no one was in sight. The lake was just as placid and calm as before, and nothing moved in the trees surrounding the small, sandy beach. He ran to the front of the cabin, looking at the trail that led to it, but again, nothing moved. Either someone was very good at hiding, or he was going crazy.
“Who’s there?” he demanded at the empty forest, his eyes searching wildly. “Show yourself!”
Troias’ mind cast wildly about, but the only thing he could think of was…
“The kirin?” he asked incredulously. “But…wait, that was a dream!”
“Notifications?” Troias repeated stupidly, wincing as he did so. He knew he wasn’t very bright – he hadn’t really received much of an education, since everyone had assumed he’d make his living fighting in the MMA leagues and eventually teaching martial arts to others – but he didn’t believe he was actually dumb, and he hated sounding like he was. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”
Troias squinted his eyes dubiously, but he silently thought, Enable notifications. Instantly, a wall of text appeared in his vision, and he fell back on his ass with a startled oath. “Dismiss notifications!” he shouted, panicking, and the wall of text vanished.
Troias forced himself to focus on his breathing, ignoring his scattered thoughts and racing heart. He made himself breathe slowly and evenly, concentrating on the rhythm of it, allowing his heart rate to settle and his thoughts to still. It was all too much for him to take in at once, he realized. He needed to focus on the moment. He couldn’t think about the voice that spoke to him last night, or that his crazy dream might not have been a dream, or that he might be going insane and hallucinating all of this. He needed to take one step at a time, and that first step was to decide to either trust or ignore the kirin’s voice.
As he saw it, there really wasn’t much of a decision to make, there. There were only two possible scenarios: all this was real, or he was going insane. If he was going insane, then he figured he was well on his way there if he was hallucinating animal corpses, imagining being attacked by a cougar, and hearing strange voices. If he was that far gone, he couldn’t see the harm in indulging the voice, since it wasn’t asking him to burn things or anything. Plus, if it were real, ignoring the voice might prove deadly. With a sigh, he silently re-enabled his notifications and started reading.
Chapter 4
The Path You Take
Congratulations, Earthling!
Not only have you survived the Phase Shift, you have chosen a Totem animal and unlocked your Facets. You have chosen the Totem:
Kirin
A legendary creature of myth, the kirin is the guardian of Heaven and renowned for its power and wisdom. While not as physically strong as a dragon, the kirin has stronger ties to the world of spirits and is far more versatile, gifted in all spheres of magic.
Kirin Bonuses:
+25% to all ability scores except Spirit
+50% to Spirit score
All Facets are unlocked.
+0.5 Magnitude to all Facets.
+10% to Facet growth
Grow your bond with your Totem to gain greater bonuses or even learn unique abilities!
Ability Scores
All creatures have eight ability scores that track their strengths and weaknesses. The normal human range for these abilities is 2.5 – 3.5, although some individuals may be higher or lower than this. The eight abilities are:
Aura, Ego, Endurance, Intellect, Power, Reflexes, Spirit, and Will
Simply think of any of these to see a description of the ability score and associated Facet.
Ability scores can be improved through training, special actions, or by leveling your Path.
Your current scores are:
Power
Intellect
Will
Endurance
Reflexes
Aura
Ego
Spirit
4.2
2.8
3.9
4.4
4.1
4.6
2.9
5.7
Troias stopped and looked over the different ability scores. Most seemed fairly self-explanatory – Power would be how strong he was, while Intellect was certainly how smart he was, and he wasn’t surprised to see it was toward the low end of the normal range – but some of them weren’t that obvious. He pulled up the info on Aura, Ego, and Spirit, reading through each carefully.
Aura
Aura is a measure how you interact with others. It
constitutes your presence, diplomatic skills, and
leadership qualities. Aura is vital for both the
Life and Death facets.
Ego
Ego is your sense of self-worth and self-importance.
It is your confidence, belief in yourself, and selfishness.
Ego is vital for the Mind Facet.
Spirit
Spirit is your tie to the universe and the deeper
mysteries of the world. It represents your intuition
and spiritual power. Spirit is, of course, vital for
the Spirit Facet.
Troias nodded at reading this: Ego was his second-lowest score, which made sense, since his confidence had suffered since his injury, and he’d never been all that self-absorbed. His Aura, though, seemed ridiculously high if it was a replacement for Charisma: he wasn’t that attractive, after all, and it wasn’t like people flocked to him like he was a celebrity.
“Okay, that makes more sense,” he murmured. “And Spirit is, what, your connection to the universe? Some sort of mystical stuff?”
the kirin pointed out with a laugh.
“Okay, what Adept abilities?” he asked, feeling a bit frustrated. There was simply so much to take in, and so little information…
Troias took a deep breath and nodded. One thing at a time. He could do that. He just needed to focus on the moment and not let his mind run away with him. He continued reading the scrolling text, which had paused as he spoke to the kirin.
Facets Unlocked!
The nine Facets represent the different energies that make up the universe. There are four elemental Facets: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.
There are three life-based Facets – Life, Death, and Mind – plus Spirit, the only spiritual Facet.
When you unlock a Facet, you have a magnitude in it that is proportional to that Facet’s associated ability score. The average human has a magnitude of 1 in any unlocked Facet. Increasing a Facet by a magnitude of 1 increases
the available power for that Facet by a factor of 10. Magnitude can be increased by training a Facet, by increasing the associated ability score, or through
leveling your Path.
Your current unlocked Facets and magnitudes are:
Force
Air
Earth
Fire
Water
Mind
Life
Death
Spirit
2.98
0.5
3.24
0.71
2.85
0.5
0.8
3.5
5.0
Math wasn’t his strong subject in school – he’d struggled to get C’s, and he’d been proud of them – but the multiplication was simple enough for most of the magnitudes. If a magnitude of 1 was the human norm, a magnitude of 2 was ten times more powerful than that, and a magnitude of 3 was 100 times more powerful. That made his Spirit magnitude of 5…1,000…10.000 times more powerful than an average human’s! The magnitudes below 1 were beyond his ability to figure; he guessed that a 0.5 would be about half as powerful as a regular human, though.
“Thanks,” Troias murmured gratefully. “But what does all that mean?”
Troias blinked. “And magnitude 5?”
“Sounds kind of like casting spells with mana points in a game,” Troias translated. “What happens if you run out of energy?”
