ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 93 The Request

Chapter 93

The Request

Saturday

Slowly one by one, the four students all began to awaken from their class awakening processes. Each had taken the most advanced class available to them, meaning that each person had to wait longer and longer to awaken.

So, it was no surprise that Luke, the person who had the Mythic class was also the one who awoke last.

“Hmm,” Luke made an odd sound as he slowly began to stir on the couch.

“Oh, he’s finally awake.” Gina said.

“Yeah, it was so bad, I almost thought I would have to do a Prince Phillip.” Julie said.

“What?” Luke asked, his mind still groggy as he heard his girlfriend make that comment, “isn’t that where you pierce your lower member?” Luke asked as he shook his head and sounded more than a little disgusted by the topic of conversation.

“What? No. Prince Phillip was the prince from Sleeping Beauty, you know, the one who awoke the princess with a kiss?” Julie said, her face contorted into a sneer as she thought about what she had been accused of.

“Oh, well you could have done that.” Luke said, still as he began looking around the room. Gina and Julie both just shook their heads at the sudden change of topic.

Silence.

“Now that everyone is awake, we should all take a moment to talk about the classes you got.” Alexa said, changing the topic.

“Oh, I’ll go first. I’ve got this great class. Predictive Oracle, epic rarity, effectively I can see patterns in things and behavior and find variables that will state what the likelihood of certain events will be.”

“Okay, that sounds cool, but what can you do with it?” Julie asked.

“Well, all types of things. Right now, I can tell that you are super excited about your class. No real shock as it was likely very good. I can also tell that Luke now has a fifty-three percent chance of covertly checking you out.”

There was a slight pause, as everyone turned their gaze to Luke. With everyone’s heightened senses they all caught the moment when Luke’s eyes inadvertently flicked up and down Julie’s body.

“Oh, sorry a one hundred percent chance. Now it says he has a forty-two percent chance of checking me out as well in what is called a comparison check, but that chance goes up if I mention the variable we are looking for.” Gina said, then sure enough, everyone paused to look at Luke who true to form turned to Gina tried desperately to lock eyes with her. Only to fail and scan her body, at which point Luke realizing what he did looked away embarrassed.

“Oh now it says he is looking to you for comfort, but also has an eighty-four percent chance to re-check you out to confirm you are better endowed than me.” Gina said.

At that Luke’s eyes seemed to move on their own as he felt his body flush with embarrassment, as his eyes seemed to have a mind on their own, as they once again scanned Julie’s body.

“Now here is where the fun part of this class comes in, I can now manipulate certain events to happen. Take for instance the fact that I can tell that you won the little comparison between us.” Gina mentioned. “But, I can also state a comment that would cause him to perform the same comparison with Alexa. Oh, look.” Gina said, pointing to Luke who turned to look and find Alexa out of the corner of his eye.

Of course, Luke managed to turn away before he could do anything other than see Alexa’s slime covered boots.

“See he is trying not to, but I can make him check out his sister by saying that his sister is easily twice as endowed as you are Julie.”

“Wait, that is not, true!” Luke said, vehemently denying the accusation, then even going so far as to turn to Alexa to further protest his claim, when his eyes did a quick involuntary scan of Alexa. At which point Luke who had been about to argue shook his head and turned away, purposefully closing his eyes.

More silence.

“You are evil.” Luke said, gesturing towards Gina, with his eyes still closed.

“I have to say, that class in your hands is a little dangerous.” Julie added.

“It’s just predictive analysis to an extreme degree.” Gina said, a bit defensively. Then seeing the looks on their faces and the probabilities that she was likely toeing the line, she turned to Alexa. “What do you think?”

Alexa just paused, “for the class, I think it was a perfect choice for you. Not only will you be able to grow with it, but it really suits your fast paced decision making. I approve of the class, and look forward to seeing what you can do with it. Actually, I know of a few things we can do right now with the class to help us and our team.” Alexa said, nodding her head as she seemed to come up with more and more possible future applications of the new class and its powers.

On the surface, such an analytical class might not appear to be that powerful, but Alexa was clearly thinking multiple steps ahead in how she could have Gina help out in the future.

“For now, I want you to level your class, while also trying to observe Mr. Mackie as much as possible. I need you to help us formulate a way we can get him over to our side. That or…” Alexa trailed off at that comment.

“Or?” Luke asked.

With that question, Alexa turned her focus to Luke. “You aren’t an oracle anymore, are you?”

“What? How did you know?” Luke asked, but then answered. “Yes, I got a great class it is…”

Before he could answer Alexa held up her hand. “One second, I need to think about this.” Alexa said, as she clearly let her mind grow and puzzle over the different variables that were before her. “All right, not to cut you off, but let’s continue in order of awakening. I have a feeling that your class will be very important.”

“What makes you say that?” Luke asked.

“Only the fact that you were out for nearly twice as long as the rest of us. Honestly, I was close to doing the Prince Albert on you, to get you to awaken.” Gina said.

“Prince Albert, that’s what it was…” Luke said, as he suddenly remembered the cause of his original confusion. Then a look of horror slowly flooded his face as he realized what Gina had just suggested. “Wait, you were thinking about…”

“No, clearly not.” Julie said.

“Oh, phew.” Luke said, playing into what he clearly hoped was a joke.

“Good, now he only gives what we said a thirty-three percent chance of being accurate.” Gina replied. Then as soon as she said that a smile grew on her lips as Luke’s face darkened. “Up to forty-three percent.”

“You are evil with that class.” Julie scolded a slight smile on her face as she fought to keep back the laughter that was clearly close to breaking out on her face.

“All right, I showed you mine. And Luke saw all of ours, so you might as well spill.” Gina said.

“Wait, what?” Luke said, as he turned and let his eyes dance over everyone in an involuntary fashion. Only to then close his eyes and cover said eyes with his arm. “Ah…”

HAHAHA.

“It is an involuntary reaction, but I am just drawing your attention to it, which is making you both focused on it. This is the similar to saying, think of anything other than the number seven. But rather than being able to hide your thoughts, even though I know you are thinking seven every three numbers right now. I can’t prove it.” Gina said, “basically I am just doing predictive analysis of your actions and drawing attention to it, and directing a course of events by making suggestions. Honestly, it is kind of fun.”

“You are evil. When the apocalypse comes, I want you to realize it likely all started because you got this class.” Luke admonished, while just staring down at the ground or turning his body away from Gina and Alexa, and towards Julie.

There was a brief lull, before Alexa turned her attention to Julie. “So Julie, what class did you get?”

“I thought I had the better class, until I saw the way you can get Luke to blush so easily. Gods, that is like the ultimate superpower, the power to cow and make your boyfriend submit easily. I wish I had something like that. Unfortunately, I think I just have the combat version of that class.”

“What class?” Gina asked, a note of curiosity in her voice.

“Predictive Combatant, also Epic, it says I can predict the most likely means of attack people will take.”

“Really?” Alexa asked, as she shifted her weight into a combat stance.

Julie was about to reply in the affirmative, but then taking one look at Alexa caused her head to hurt as she was filled with a sudden deluge of numbers and probabilities.

“Stop.” Julie said, as she closed her eyes and turned away.

Panting.

Julie was physically panting. “Okay, I will likely need more practice with this class, as that was way too much. Were you really going to do a Wind magic, assisted spin kick?”

Alexa paused as she looked at Julie. “It was a possibility and one that did cross my mind for a second. Wow, that is an impressive Class as well.”

There was a slight pause, as Alexa looked at Julie like she was some sort of scientific theorem to be investigated.

“Maybe Luke could try.” Gina offered with a sinister smile.

“What?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, come on just grappling maneuvers.” Julie added, “no punches or kicks.”

Luke hesitated, as he knew this was clearly a trap.

“Oh come on, you two squared off all the time in our combative training this week.” Gina said.

Realizing that was the case, Luke nodded. “I guess it only makes sense to see how much you have grown.”

There was a slight moment of hesitation before Luke and Julie went to the living room section over the carpet.

“Go.” Gina called out, a note of excitement in her voice.

Luke paused for only a second, before ultimately charging forward. Of course, his efforts were in vain, as Julie proceeded to read him like a book. Despite having a larger frame and longer reach, Julie quickly sidestepped his approach, ducked under an arm, then once behind Luke, she kicked out quickly to the back of the knee and proceeded to follow through with the kick all the way to the ground. Then once on the ground, Luke who was now pinned on his stomach got straddled and felt two knees come down locking his arms in place.

“Enough.” Alexa said, ending the match and Luke’s humiliation with that one word.

“Sorry. I might have gotten a little too excited. Also, you kind of deserve it for holding back.” Julie said, ruffling Luke’s hair with her hand.

“Well sorry for not wanting to hurt you.” Luke said, as he got up to his feet.

“She doesn’t mean that.” Gina began. “When you hold back in a fight, or in this case a brawl, you effectively state not only are you stronger but you are not going to take the match seriously.”

Hearing that, Luke could only nod in agreement. “Okay, in that case, I do apologize. Not that it would make much of a difference, as you are clearly stronger and faster than me now. Especially with your combat class, but I knowing that should have taken into account how it might appear if I held back.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find a way you can make it up to me.” Julie said, helping Luke up and all but purring into his ear at the end.

Hearing that, Luke’s face flushed a bright red for a moment.

“Oh, and a ninety-two percent chance that you just left him speechless.” Gina said.

There was a brief moment as Luke turned to glare at Gina. “Why do you hate me?”

“It’s not that I hate you. It’s just that I think of you as my surrogate brother…” Gina said.

“Ah.” Luke said, feeling momentarily touched by the comment, before she finished her statement.

“In-law.”

“Oh.” At that Luke as the moment of joy he had been feeling got taken away.

“So now, what is your class, Luke?” Alexa asked.

With that question Luke preened a bit, as he realized this was his moment to fire back at Gina.

“I am a Dungeon Architect, Mythic rarity.” Luke who had been staring at Gina, waiting for her response failed to see the look of shock that flooded Alexa’s face, if only for a moment.

“What can your class do?” Alexa asked, suddenly drawing everyone’s attention away from the minor power struggle that was occurring between Gina and Luke, and back towards her.

“It is some type of dungeon repairer. I can go into any dungeon with just myself or a team. I can even go into dungeons that have been previously blocked off. Like this one, I can sort of create a pocket entry point that I could get us all to go into. I figured I could at the very least make it so we always had a cool hang out.” Luke said.

Alexa’s mind seemed to race at this revelation.

Under the intense scrutiny of Alexa’s gaze, he continued. “I can also reset the timers on dungeons, making it so an overflowing dungeon will be reset, and while I am in my maintainer role I will not be forced to the limitations of most dungeons.”

At that Gina tried to clarify, “you mean you can go into a tier seven dungeon, even though you just unlocked your class?”

“Yeah, effectively I can go in as a maintainer to reset the balance of the exceptionally tough dungeon to a more sedate level.” Luke said.

“Can you link one dungeon to another?” Alexa asked.

At that question, Luke paused and stared. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, can you connect this dungeon to say any other dungeon. Like the one on campus?” Alexa asked.

Luke paused, as he began probing around with his new class features. “I don’t believe…Oh wait, yeah I can apparently. There it is, 0N14235.”

There was a slight pause, before Luke continued. “I don’t quite know how I know that designation is the dungeon at our school, but I just do.”

At that Alexa nodded, then seemed to come to a conclusion. “Can you create a link to 3V87419?”

Luke paused, as he looked to his interface. “I can, but there is something odd about that dungeon. I don’t know what it is…”

“That’s because it has been corrupted from its original purpose.” Alexa said, with a dismissive wave.

Luke who was too caught up in his own analysis completely missed the gesture as he replied, “that makes sense. It seems that there is something just underneath that is correct, but I can’t quite get to it, as it looks like the programming language was cut out, then dissected, then stuffed back with safety pins. Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin to fix this one.” Luke said, still staring off into space.

“Don’t.” Alexa said, a note of conviction in her voice.

“Don’t what?” Luke said, as he finally broke his gaze away from the interface and stared directly at Alexa.

“Don’t change it. At least not yet.”

“Okay?”

At that Alexa nodded, then proceeded to ask another question. “Could you make it so I can go there, to actually partake in the dungeon itself?”

“One second, I think we all should. Nope, well, hmm. That’s odd. It looks like for whatever reason you are the only one of us that can go there.” Luke said.

At that Alexa just nodded. “That’s because that is the tenth floor of the Trials of Ascension, as you all already have classes you will be exempt from having to go there. You all would likely also have to take the first trial to be allowed to go there. But this is huge. As that is the final floor of the Trials.” Alexa said, as her own mind began running through the different scenarios.

“Wait, does that mean what I think it means?” Julie asked.

“That if she goes there, she can skip the other four trial stages? I believe so.” Luke said, apparently seeing everything. Then he continued. “Wow, this is amazing. With my interface, I can see all of your statistics Alexa. You have completed five stages of the Trials of Ascension, and five other trials called the Dragon Trials?”

“Yes, that is a long story. But this is great, as it means that I can likely use you to bypass those other floors of the trials. Floors that seem to take days or weeks to complete.” Alexa said.

“You don’t mean you will do this right now, do you?” Luke asked.

Alexa paused, as she looked perplexed why Luke would deny her the right to go.

“Why not wait two weeks until Thanksgiving?” Julie offered.

“Yeah, that way you can train us up to complete the Unarmed Combat dungeon.” Gina said.

At that comment Alexa stared at Gina for a moment.

“What?” Gina asked.

“Well, she does have a point. Generally, you are the one that hates the combat training classes.” Luke offered.

“Well, if it’s a matter of getting thrown around, or having to say goodbye to Alexa right now, I would obviously choose getting thrown around. Even if I happen to hate it.” Gina said, her voice trailing off at the end.

“I think Thanksgiving makes a lot of sense. That will be four and a half days of time that I can spend on the trial.” Alexa said, nodding to herself.

“Also, I think I can find more dungeons that we might be able to link up to and pass before you go.” Luke offered.

Hearing that, Alexa cocked her head to the side.

“What?” Luke asked, seeing the odd look on Alexa’s face. Then finally he shrugged and answered the question that was clearly on her mind. “I can see what you have gone through, what you have had to do on each of these stages of the Trials. Honestly it scares me a little what you have already done. I mean, you didn’t even tell us about the Tower of Ascension.” Luke pressed.

“I did, I said I completed stage two.” Alexa commented.

At that Luke just shook his head. “That is not what I meant, and you know it. You killed over a thousand orcs and elves during your ten dungeon span.”

Hearing that, Alexa’s eyes grew wide, as she realized something. “I totally forgot that.”

“Forgot what?”

“I forgot we could stay.” Alexa said, making sure to state the last word in the Precursor language. As she spoke, there was a wave of energy that erupted out of the room.

“What did you just do?” Julie asked.

Luke who was observing everything in his mental interface with the dungeon just let out a long sigh. “She made it so we will have to go through the entire process again, if we want to leave.”

“You know, I should have seen that coming.” Gina said.

“You and me both. You and me both.” Luke said, as he let out a sigh and realized he would have to go through the pain of having to absorb a second greater skill crystal.

“On the bright side, we now know what we need to do.” Julie offered, as she held up her notes for the floor.

“Don’t encourage her.”

“Come on, we only have this weekend to do this.” Alexa said.

“You know I can bring us back here at any time, right?” Luke offered a somewhat exasperated tone to his voice.

“I do, but how many times can we legitimately all do a dungeon together.” Alexa said. “Come on. This takes less than fifteen minutes…” At that everyone started to reluctantly follow her towards the exit, before she finished her statement with, “each.”