Apocalypse online 2, p.8
APOCALYPSE ONLINE 2, page 8
A theory was better than nothing, and after spending hours tilling soil, he figured he could take a break. Of course, he had to make sure his surroundings were safe first.
Without any signs of additional seeders or wildlife around him, Jake figured he was about as safe as he was going to get without going back to the Gaming Center. Of course, no one had come out to help him either, which was a little disappointing. The seeder’s call must have sounded too distant through all the hammering and power tools for them to notice. The suppressor on his pistol along with the subsonic ammo didn’t do him any favors, either. This had been one rare time during the apocalypse where being noisy would’ve been helpful.
Jake made sure to take the suppressor off and switch his ammo just to be safe. He sat cross-legged beneath a pine tree and cultivated. He began with the most pressing issue.
Health: 57/80
In the past he’d always relied on Brad to heal him, but during his past training with Sam he had channeled his aether into his muscles and tendons. This made them stronger, and helped patch up any damage he took. Now he had bigger wounds to patch up.
Pulling from the chaotic mess of aether in his core, he began to unravel the ball of yarn and send aether into the wounds the seeders had inflicted on him, willing the wounds to shut. To his surprise, it was working. In a painfully slow process, his wounds began to shut and heal—but it wasn’t painless like Brad’s magic. He felt every stitch, every growth of new muscle, skin, and bone in excruciating detail.
This might be a side effect from using this chaotic aether, Hazel suggested. Might I recommend trying this after you’ve sorted out your core?
Probably a good idea, Jake agreed after calming his breathing. He realized one thing during his attempt at healing, however: he needed to pump more aether into his bones. He was always focused on the external damage—skin, muscle, tendons—but if all those were getting stronger while the frame of his skeleton remained weak, sooner or later he would shatter his bones in a fight.
Much like cultivating an actual garden, cultivating his body required a lot of work and attention to detail. He had to keep all things in balance and make sure every part of his body was getting the attention it needed, from his skin and muscles to his bones and organs. It was no wonder to him the other alien races didn’t choose this path.
Putting points into things was a simple process. Pick a class, pick a skill, dump aether into it, profit. Quick, easy, effortless, but it lacked control. People who chose that path were bound to the system’s every whim and thus had no real control over themselves and their future. Everything was determined for them. Cultivation, on the other hand, gave him freedom. It was a lot more effort to get his body to do the things he wanted it to, and to keep up with the rest of the survivors who had chosen a class, but Jake was certain his style of play would fit him like a glove where the others would have to figure out how to work around their class's limitations.
Jake focused on unraveling his chaotic core for the rest of the afternoon, visualizing as each tether within him came free into single strands. He lined them up one after another until his core was fully undone. With a deep lungful of air, Jake began spinning the cords into a ball of yarn. Neat, orderly, and dense. The core took shape slowly but surely deep within him. Every now and then he would test how tightly wound up it was by throwing the threads of yarn at it. When he was certain his core wouldn’t budge, he continued growing it ever larger and denser until his core was finally formed—a perfect ball of yarn pulsing with aetheric energy deep within him. One that slowly grew as ambient aether was added into the mix.
With a deep exhale, he opened his eyes and found the sun was already setting. Well, that took a lot longer than I expected.
It would have gone faster if you had not taken the time to test your core at every opportunity, Hazel said.
Jake chuckled. If you’re going to take the time to do something, you may as well take the time to do it right.
A mighty urge suddenly spread through Jake, and he scrambled to his feet. He really did spend too much time cultivating. Unbuckling his pants, he turned to face the tree and relieved himself. Only the stream was black as the night as it poured out of him, and the smell was nasty.
That’s not normal, Jake said.
No, it isn’t, Hazel added with fascination in her voice.
I’m going to need to go see my doctor about this, he thought, then shook his head. Never mind that. He’s probably dead. I’m on my own with this, huh?
I’m here for you, Jake. No need to worry, Hazel assured him. This must just be part of this purification process all the other cultivation books talk about. Whatever toxins came into your body with the aether, or were there before, are being flushed out. This is a good thing. Probably.
Jake chuckled. You sure know how to fill a guy with confidence, Hazel.
I try.
Jake shook his head and gathered his things. There was a lot more work to be done on both the garden and his body. With the most important part finished—laying down the foundation—he was eager to start building up his body, his own personal little temple.
His skin and muscle were always receiving some sort of damage, so using aether to fix them up stronger than they were was a fairly simple thing. He channeled his aether into the micro-tears, scratches, and nicks, and skin and muscle would be fixed up better than new.
Bones were a challenge, however.
He couldn’t just go around breaking his bones and pulling them back together for giggles. It would hurt far too much, and there was no guarantee he could fix them right the first time. So why risk it? There were too many people counting on him if things went wrong to take himself out of the fight on a gamble. No, he needed something reliable, something he could do on a daily basis like he was doing for his muscles.
While pulling weeds from his budding garden, an idea came to Jake.
If he thought of his bones as a sort of mold, he could think of the aether as a sort of cement he was pouring in to strengthen them. The idea might not make any sense to anyone else, but to him as a contractor, it made perfect sense. Sure, there were some leaps of logic, but it was the best idea he could think of at the time, and his bones needed strengthening before he started breaking them on accident.
Jake finished up his gardening for the day and went to find a shaded spot to sit down. Once again, he cultivated. This time his focus went solely to his bones. Pulling on the aether from within his core, he watched as thick threads slipped free from his center and flowed into his bones. The purple glow of aether spread from within his core to his skeleton. Without any idea as to how long this would take or how much aether he had to pour in for this process to work, Jake continued to cultivate until he felt spent.
With a deep breath, he stood back up and wondered if he had really achieved anything.
Scans indicate your bones have made a five percent increase in strength, Hazel announced with pride in her voice.
Jake thought percentages and numbers were all well and good, but nothing beat throwing things out into the field to see how they actually performed. OK, but how do we test it?
You could try hitting yourself with a thick stick. There are plenty around these parts, Hazel suggested. Do try to be near the Gaming Center just in case something goes wrong, though. I’m no fan of seeing you in pain.
Jake smiled. That’s sweet.
He headed out to one of the nearby trees and started searching for one with a thick branch. Luckily he found one on the side of the road. He hefted it up and gave it a few swings and test flexes. It definitely had some weight to it. It felt sturdy, too. Knowing he had enough strength to break bones from all his fights with seeders, he was confident he could do the kind of damage he needed to in order to test out his new gains.
Jake returned to the garden, making sure he was next to the Gaming Center’s gate. “Ready for this?” He raised the stick in one arm while he held out the other, braced against the gate.
I’m covering my eyes right now! Hazel said.
“Here goes.” Jake swung the stick down with all his might.
A loud crack followed, and a spike of pain shot up his arm. Jake dropped the stick and clutched his arm, gritting his teeth to fight down a cry trying to escape his throat.
Bone fractures confirmed. There are several cracks along your arm, Hazel reported with a sharp wince. The good news is that force was more than enough to break normal human bones. Between your prior gains and today, you have succeeded in making yourself more durable.
Jake nodded as he channeled his aether into the cracks in his bone—anything to repair the damage and stop the pain. It was a slow process. Looking at the stick split in two at his feet, he was pretty sure his bones would have shattered if he hadn’t made the gains Hazel informed him off.
That was good.
But the pain wasn’t going away fast enough for his liking. Nor did he want to look like a lunatic to the others over the stunt he’d just pulled. He had to come up with a way to spin this experiment of his. Actually, he didn’t need to lie at all; he just needed to share his findings. Brad could fix him up in a second. This was all for science, after all, and everything he learned he could use to help others in his situation.
You will still look like a lunatic, though, Hazel broke into his thoughts.
Maybe. But we’re in a whole new, crazy world. We need a little bit of a pioneering.
6
Brad
Brad was going over the rules for a guild with his muse when Jake broke into the arcade clutching his arm. The expression on his face was all too excited for the blood oozing between his fingers.
“Brad, I've got awesome news,” Jake said.
“Does it involve your broken arm?” Brad asked as he raised a hand to heal Jake. The warm, white glow poured from his hand into Jake’s wound, pulling it back together before their eyes. To Brad’s surprise, the wound looked worse than it was. It didn’t take a lot of mana to fix up the damage.
Jake flexed his hand. “Thanks for that. Anyway, I’ve been digging deeper into cultivation.”
“The gardening you’ve been doing, or the Kung Fu Panda stuff you and Sam told me about?” Brad couldn’t help teasing. He was familiar with the concepts of cultivation, but it all seemed shrouded in too much mysticism to be anything else.
Then again, who was he to talk? A few days ago he was just a janitor at a mall. Today he was casting healing magics and some of his fellow survivors were casting spells.
Jake huffed out a quick laugh. “The Kung Fu Panda stuff, smartass. Turns out we’ve got this core inside of us—an aether core, I’m calling it. It sort of looks like a messy ball of yarn in its natural state, but if you take the time to cultivate it properly, you can turn it into a neat, orderly, dense core.”
“So you turned a mess you can’t use into something you can?”
“Exactly. Well, sorta,” Jake said. “Hazel thinks this chaos is also part of what causes the aether poisoning we’ve been dealing with. Having all that energy roiling around isn’t good for living things. Pissing black helped confirm it.”
Brad blinked. “You pissed black?”
“Yeah.”
Brad brought up Jake’s status for any adverse effects, but everything was in the green. “Should we uh…get you to a doctor? Heather’s the closest we’ve got to one.”
Jake laughed. “No need. I’m doing fine. Better than ever, actually. I’ve been making myself stronger little by little, even my bones. That’s actually how I my arm got messed up.”
Brad rubbed at his brow. “You broke your own arm to test this?” That was out of character for Jake. He was always the sane one of their group.
“Yeah, but I knew you were nearby. Heather, too. So there was no real danger in it.”
Brad sighed. “That’s fair and all, but next time let us know you’re planning to break your arm before you do it. You’re kind of important, you know.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got no plans of abandoning you or my little sister any time soon.” Jake smiled.
“Good, because we’ve been getting new arrivals while you’ve been out cultivating. Locals you might know,” Brad said. “I’ve been taking care of their aether poisoning and explaining the system to them before helping them pick classes.”
Jake nodded. “Did any of them decide to go down the cultivation path?”
Brad shook his head. “I explained it to them about as well as you guys explained it to me, and they all decided to go with classes instead.”
Jake wiped at his brow like he’d just dodged a bullet. “Good. I don’t know enough about this stuff yet to be teaching anyone, and the last thing I need are distractions while I’m figuring it all out.”
“Might want to figure it out sooner rather than later. Sam hasn’t found any survivors yet, but when she does, some might want to become cultivators and they’ll need a Mr. Miyagi,” Brad said.
Jake placed his hands on his hips. “I guess if Sam vouches for them, I can teach them a thing or two. So, who’s shown up to our little community while I’ve been off in my own world?”
Brad waved for Jake to follow him to the food court, where a small crowd of new arrivals had gathered and were talking among some of the other survivors.
Heather was with them, tending to a few of their wounded. Thankfully no one had anything worse than deep cuts and aether poisoning—nothing she couldn’t handle.
Teresa and Ceres were entertaining kids with the use of their firebolt spells, juggling the flames between their hands. In between their little magic tricks, Ceres took the time to explain to the kids what they were doing and how they were using their magic. A few of them shot up to their feet, exclaiming how cool it would be to become a mage. Danny, the youngest pill popper in the world who they’d saved at Salmon Arm, was with those kids, but not one of the ones jumping with excitement to become a spellslinger. Out of the two women, Ceres was far more into entertaining and teaching the kids than Teresa, whose forced smile suggested she was looking for any excuse to get away.
“So we’ve got Michelle over there.” He pointed at a short, athletic woman who was hanging out behind the food court helping a bald, older man, with a bushy beard. “And I think that’s Chippy over there doing most of the cooking beside the blonde.”
“That’s Nadine,” Jake informed him. It was no surprise Jake knew some of these new arrivals, this was his home town after all.
Nadine was talking a mile a minute to the poor guy and anyone within range, but they were all smiles.
“Right,” Brad said. “I’ll remember that in the future. Having a muse is pretty handy when it comes to remembering names.”
Jake nodded. “Isn’t that the truth. So do you know any of their classes?”
“Michelle decided to go rogue.”
Jake chuckled as Brad pointed out the new arrivals. He knew a few of them very well. “Michelle is Cory’s better half. And rogue is a good fit for her. She is fun, but when it’s time to get down to business, she’s a little fireball of energy. It’s pretty scary when you see it for the first time.”
Brad could imagine it already. “Sounds like it.”
“What about Chippy? What did he pick for a class?”
Brad smiled. “He picked mage to help him cook even when the power’s out.”
Jake barely contained his outburst of laughter. “Yeah, that’s Chippy alright. Great cook, though.”
They moved on to the next group, where a tall, athletic man sat shuffling a deck of cards in as unnecessary and flashy a way as possible. Compared to the others who looked like they belonged in Scotch Creek, this man looked like a rogue right from the start with his black leather jacket and hoodie. “That’s Willy, another rogue. Know him?”
Jake nodded. “Willy’s always been a bit of a wild card. The kind to break all the rules for the sake of breaking them. Real fun at parties, but I’d still keep an eye on him just in case.”
“Don’t be a buzzkill, Jake. I’m not here to screw anyone over,” Willy said with a Cheshire grin. “Those seeder things and those aliens I hear are coming though? Well, it’s open season on all of them.” Billy flicked out cards to the people across from him.
Angie and Mark, clearly a couple, waved at the pair. Angie was a brunette with a sweet, motherly smile on her face. Mark looked like he belonged in a biker gang with his bald head and goatee, but he greeted them with a quiet nod and returned to the card game.
“Angie, Mark, it’s been ages. How’ve you two been?” Jake asked as he moved to sit beside them.
“Been doing fine, dear,” Angie answered. “Things have been a little hectic since those aliens arrived, but it was nothing Scotch Creek couldn’t handle.”
Mark nodded. “Right. Saw you and your friends move into the Gaming Center and decided to poke around. Met Brad and the rest of your folks. You seem alright.”
“More than alright,” Angie corrected. “You’re all so welcoming and helpful to everyone here. Brad helped us with our aether poisoning, and we even picked classes. Mark is a fighter now, and I’m a healer so I can keep him safe.” She wrapped her arms around her husband in a tight embrace.
“Yeah, the kid’s alright,” Mark added.
“But does he want to play a game?” Willy passed a stream of cards from one hand to the other.
“No time for games.” An Einstein-looking old man came up to them with a woman at his side with greying brown hair. “Your people have all been very great and helpful thus far, but at the end of the day you’re all still outsiders. Except Jake, but only just barely.”
Jake took a deep, calming breath. “It’s been a long time Alan, Nora.”
Nora smiled. “It has been, Jake. And you look so much stronger than the scrawny boy that left Scotch Creek all those years ago.”
“That’s all well and good,” Alan said, “but I need to know what your people’s intentions are for Scotch Creek. You’ve barely been here a few days and already one of our grocery stores has burned down.”
