Chapter 7 The Fix

Chapter 7

The Fix

Few words can adequately express the feelings Alexa manages to unlock during her moments of clarity that are caused by absorbing augmentation crystals. They should be painful; they should be so much that it would cause her to balk at the sheer thought of getting one. That her attributes were so high, that absorbing more would cause near paralysis.

To be fair, when Alexa did absorb her crystals, she did feel something close to paralysis, but it was due to her truly feeling alive. When she absorbed a crystal now, she felt her entire mind and body tingle. She felt emotions bubble forth. Emotions that she could only read about in her numerous books.

From her double run that she managed to get with John, she earned a total of twelve crystals. Ten augmentation crystals, then not one, but two purple crystals. In all her years, of running dungeons, she never got two purple crystals in the same day. She also never got them in back-to-back runs.

Her only real purple crystal thus far had been a psychic variant called Mind Shield. That was it, one crystal in a little over a few hundred runs.

The first purple crystal belonged to a class of powers that were classified as Psychic. In the world Psychic were seen as something of a pre-awakened, or lesser awakened. Just like Alexa, she could get, use, and equip psychic attuned crystals with ease.

The only problem, well the only problem for most, was that attuning psychic crystals was the equivalent of having fire ants stinging your brain incessantly for an hour straight. In Alexa’s case, she remembered it as the happiest hour of her life. During that hour, she relieved memories, felt accomplishments, and failures all at once. It was as if the flood gates had been destroyed, and she was left to feel the tsunami of emotions her mind had blocked off from her. In a word, it was amazing.

That was why she made sure to hide the second purple crystal. Granted she got both from beating the death trap rooms of both runs, but she couldn’t help but think the only variable between these two runs and the others was that boy.

The only problem was that her plans to scare away the boy seemed to have gone a little too well. He had liked her, perhaps too much. No, correction, now that she was under the influence of emotions, she realized it was too much.

No, she wasn’t taking one of her two purple psychic power crystals, not in front of her brother. She wanted it to be thought that as far as anyone was concerned, she had no powers. Let alone psychic powers.

Again, she would still be classified as a pre-awakened at that point, but her she would have designations made to her academic and sports records that might hinder her progress towards earning more augmentation crystals. As it was, she was already close. If her school or most programs had a practical assessment on the number of attributes increase a person could have and still be considered unawakened, she was certain she would have broken those boundaries too.

Just with these ten augmentation crystals alone, it was a given that they were all going to be focused on increasing one of her three mental attributes: Perception, Intelligence, or Willpower.

Psychic powers, from what Alexa had managed to find, and based on her own power, were all based from those three attributes. Mind Shield was based solely on Willpower. The higher her Willpower, the easier the passive and active effects of shrugging off mental manipulation-based powers were. In this, Alexa was blessed, for no one would outright complain that their manipulation powers didn’t work on Alexa. So even if they did suspect her of being able to be classified as a semi-awakened, her status as an unawakend was safe.

Still, her hand shook as she imagined both the power and length of time such a crystal would offer her. She could exchange the crystals. The going rate for augmentation to psychic crystals was rather high. And if Alexa had nothing other than the power to gain from taking them, she would have gladly swapped them out. The ten to twenty attribute crystals she could exchange her power crystal for, would help her both keep her unawakened scholastic status, and make earning more crystals that much easier.

The only problem, the augmentation crystals, even twenty would only mean about twenty minutes of truly feeling alive. While the power crystal would allow her an hour of uninterrupted time to feel alive. To feel normal.

That was why she hid them, even from her brother.

The same brother, that she looked to now with a twinge of anger and resentment coursing through her. Now that she could feel, the sting of betrayal caused by her brother suddenly felt real. It felt like before what had happened was just a dream, and now that she was herself. Now that she was able to feel, only now did it feel like it happened. Just looking at him, as he drove her home made her angry.

“Everything alright?” Luke asked.

Taking a breath, Alexa closed her mind. She still had eleven crystals to go through, and felt that if she did so with her brother nearby, she might be forced to say or deal with things that would only cause problems for her in the future. From his point of view, they had already settled the subject of his betrayal, and he would be right. Alexa got it so she would gain two augmentation crystals regardless of what she did.

“I’m fine.” Alexa managed, then turned her head towards the window.

Her fix was ending. She could already feel the increase from her Willpower crystal wearing away. Soon she would be back to her old self. A part of her wished she could cry right then and there, for she hated that part of her. Fortunately for her, she could only truly hate her normal self, when she was on a heightened plane of consciousness like she was currently.

“Can you stop the vehicle?” Alexa found herself asking when the last of her emotional high had worn off.

“Uh, sure.” Luke said, as he put on his blinker and then began pulling over to the side of the road. “Did you get stung by anything? Or breath in some harsh chemicals?” Luke asked.

Luke of course was likely referencing the time when Alexa was new to trap dungeons and ended up inhaling lungsful of toxins into her system.

Seeing the out for what it was, Alexa lied. “Yes. I think I just need to run for a bit to get the toxins out of my system.”

“Okay.” Luke said, “I’ll tell mom and dad that you decided to go on a run after your double dungeon run.”

Alexa nodded. She had told him about the double run, that was the only thing that seemed to explain the scared look on John’s face. While she had gone relatively slow and steady on the yellow trial. She ended up having to drag John through many of the rooms so he wouldn’t suffer the very chemical attacks that her brother thought she now suffered from. Even the death trap room had a chemical component to it, but that was easily broken by throwing the chest into a pool of water. This of course caused a freezing effect to happen to the pool, which Alexa used to skate out to the chest, to retrieve her prize of a second psychic crystal.

She made a mental note to check in on John. From the way he was stalking her, or admitting to stalking her, it was clear that he attended her school. It was also clear that he didn’t want to go on another run. Especially with the way his legs were shaking towards the end.

In the end, despite losing two crystals from the re-run, he still walked away with six augmentation crystals. One left over from that first run, and five from the second run.

There was also the look he gave her as he saw her loot the first death trap chest. Yes, thinking back to that look, she was almost certain that he had recognized the fact that she gained a purple crystal. But was he aware what the purple crystal meant, that was the true question.

No, she would see if he saw the purple crystal. Then she would see if he wanted to go on another run with her again. Again, she was not one for superstition, but so far, he was a perfect two for two, when it came to producing valuable crystals on runs.

Also, his rate of crystal drops was exceptionally high. Normally there would not be so many augmentation crystals from side channels. But in their two runs alone they had received a total of seven from the side passageways.

Alexa made her way to a grove deep within the woods. Her high perception allowing her to see in near perfect clarity, despite how late it was getting. At this point, she was certain she was close to the visual perception of a nighttime predator.

Finally, once she was alone in the woods that surrounded their small city. She sat down on the damn ground, pulled out her first brightly glowing purple crystal and stared at it for a moment.

Nothing.

She felt nothing. Someone could come and take it away from her right now, and while she would be able to react. She still couldn’t feel anything.

Then, she focused her will on the crystal. She felt how its power began to melt apart. She felt the stone go into a ball of gelatinous goop. A ball of goop that she then cupped in both hands.

Slowly as the energy of the ball entered her body, she felt a slow tingling sensation work its way down her arms, to her chest, to her spine, then up to her brain. Suddenly it felt like she had caffeine for the first time. It felt like she finally got to taste sugar when she had been starved at fat camp for months. It felt like so many things and sensations, and nothing all at the same time.

It felt like nothing because she had nothing else to compare the sensation too. One second, she couldn’t feel, then the next she was alive. Her heart pounded in her chest. She could feel her blood rushing in her ears.

Her eyes registered a message from the system.

Psychic Power Unlocked: Telekinesis (R).

Telekinesis: Uses the combined attributes of Intelligence and Perception to move objects. Intelligence affects the amount of weight you can wield, while Perception helps with the precision movements of the items you are lifting. Number of items can be increased, but maximum weight cannot exceed Ten pounds per point of Intelligence.

That was a huge power, one that meant even average people could lift over a hundred pounds without having had a single augmentation crystal. For Alexa, she could lift far more then that. Her exceptionally high Perception attribute also made it so she could likely move objects with fluidity and grace, so long as she practiced. But that was for a future time. For the moment, she basked under the rays of moonlight that filtered through the canopy of trees.

With the rays of moonlight shining on her, she focused on herself and meditated. She let her mind and emotions flow, as tears came to her eyes. Tears of joy from being able to feel, and not feel like she was being judged for doing so. Tears from the rage she felt at her brother, it was a minor betrayal, but a betrayal all the same. Then there were tears that she knew this feeling would end.

Finally, it ended, and she didn’t even move from her spot. The only real sign of time passing was that the moon had shifted ever so slightly in the sky, causing its light to slide to her left.

With a pause, she pulled out the other crystals.

She focused on absorbing all her augmentation crystals. The effects of absorbing her nine remaining augmentation crystals lasted a little over nine minutes. Nothing much, but each one gave her insight into how she should treat the last crystal.

In the end she absorbed a total of 2 Perception, 5 Willpower, and 3 Intelligence augmentation crystals. Normally that would be an exceptional haul for anyone, but to Alexa it felt minor. Especially with her last and final prize awaiting her.

Once the last waves of euphoria and feeling abated and she was left with her slow steady heartbeat, she pulled out the final purple crystal and stared at it. Judging by the light, it was clear that this one came from the red trap dungeon’s death trap room. This crystal was easily half again as large as the previous one and twice as bright.

She looked at it and tried to feel excited. But instead, all she felt was nothing.

Nothing.

Rustle.

She was holding a large glowing stone in the middle of the night in a dark forest. She was taking chances with people seeing her, and potentially revoking her unawakened status. While that wouldn’t do much, other than ensure she couldn’t gain more augmentation crystals, at least not without being considered a cheat. She didn’t want the idea of being denied her crystals.

Despite the sound of something moving in the woods around her. Even though she had been here in the same spot for over an hour and a half, and despite the fact that it was continuing to get later. She focused her will on the crystal and then absorbed the full energy of the crystal.

Psychic Power Unlocked: Magic Dampening (L).

Magic Dampening: Uses your Willpower in direct opposition to magic being cast against you. Your Willpower dampens or stops the effects of any spell cast against you directly.

That was a very good power. The ‘L’ next to it meant it was a Legendary power at that, which was at least one tear higher than the ‘R’ or rare power that comprised both her Mind Shield and Telekinesis powers.

RUSTLE!

This time the rustling of underbrush was louder.

“Grrr!” A monster began.

Hearing the sound, primal instincts within Alexa arose as he heart began to beat faster. Had she been her normal self, she wouldn’t have felt such a sudden surge and jolt of endorphins going through her brain. That or maybe she would, but they wouldn’t matter as they would have no direct impact on her. Still, with the effect of her last crystal going on inside her body, she cold feel the wild primitive fear that anyone would have when they locked eyes with the golden eyed predator that was stalking forward.

Seeing the creature and its supernaturally large size and silver-white fur, only one word came to mind to describe the beast. It was a word that Alexa found herself reflexively saying.

“Werewolf.”