What Will Be | Chapter 23

Author Note: A huge welcome to my first batch of Patrons! Words cannot convey how much your support means to me. I will be giving these chapters another once-over before publishing to RR but no major changes will be made. It'll be for a 'final' sweep for typos, the odd bit rephrasing, and occasionally cutting some fat.

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“Everyone remembers their first Advancement. For those who feel trapped, it is cathartic. Finally, they have some agency - they have a choice. For others, it is a confirmation as their paths begin to actualize. Some groups treat the occasion as a person’s first steps into adulthood, regardless of their age. I personally think it is an unwise tradition, but to each their own.”

~Unknown

A sense of awareness returned to me. It was an awareness of self, but not of form. Around me, there was darkness. Nothing… Something had gone horribly wrong! I couldn’t endure that, not again. If I died then-

Wait… no… I’m not certain.

I still remembered my time in The Nothing, that liminal space in between that both was and was not. The experience was branded into my soul, such that the mere prospect of returning almost rendered me spiritually catatonic. It was the unnatural certainty of my situation at the time - the knowing that my life had ended, that tortured me the most. Right now, that feeling was absent.

This is not The Nothing.

The realization was like the shattering of glass. A soft blue glow began to emanate from everywhere and nowhere. As it washed over me, my body returned. Or, perhaps, merely my awareness of it did. I felt my feet alight on solid ground, though the space I was in still lacked form or substance. Standing on nothing felt like a petty, personal victory. The light began to swirl and converge to a single location. It cast no shadows, for it wasn’t light in the literal sense. It was power, and that power began to coalesce in front of me. It was warm. It was familiar.

My sense of self expanded, like opening eyes I didn’t know I had. I knew where I was. This was my core, my inner world, the seat of my budding power. The light, now solid and faceted like luminous aquamarine and floating before my eyes, was Perseverance. Except… it wasn’t a gemstone. The space around me resonated with the thought, prompting me towards a new answer. I saw my chosen Skill Augmentations pulsing within Perseverance, each a slightly different shade of blue. This was my Core Skill, my raw potential, that from which my Advancement would… would grow. Perseverance wasn’t a gemstone.

It’s a seed.

Perseverance pulsed, the energy within suddenly wild and overflowing. It slammed into the solid foundation of emptiness I stood upon, burying itself into my core in a way it never had before. Pain exploded in my conjured body, echoing the suffering of the real one. It started from the center of my being and quickly began to spread. Perseverance pulsed again, this time lending me the strength I needed to endure the process and watch it unfold.

An intricate system of crystalline roots began to extend beneath Perseverance, burrowing their way into the bedrock of my spiritual core. All was fire and heat and misery as I felt the root system carving intricate networks into my body. It was like nothing I had ever felt before, transcending the realms of pain I believed to be possible. I’d suffered marathon migraines in my first life that promised relief if I took a power drill to my eye socket. This was worse. It was so much worse.

Every pulse of bluish energy rippled through the expanding tangle of growth, sending shudders through my body as they carried with them a fresh wave of hell. My expression was locked in a silent scream but I couldn’t bring myself to turn away from Perseverance. Time lost all meaning as my body was ravaged by tendrils of power, and soon they were not the only thing growing.

It was like watching a timelapse of miraculous growth. Before my eyes, the gem-like seed began to sprout into a crystalline tree. It carried the essence of Perseverance, growing it into something more. Small leaves began to unfurl from tiny offshoots, reminding me of the foliage you’d see on an oak. They danced in nonexistent wind and bore the sheen of polished sapphires. Collectively, I knew they represented my Skill Augmentations, a supporting structure for the greater whole.

As the sprout became a seedling in truth, and the roots reached as deep as they currently dare, the pulses of energy began to slow. Like blessed rain in a desert, I finally felt relief as the pain started to fade, leaving me with a dull heat roiling within my stomach. The power of Advancement had almost depleted, but it still maintained one final purpose. A System screen made itself known, the first I had seen since losing consciousness in the kennel.

Advancement successful.

Please choose two additional Skills to finalize Advancement. Threshold proficiency must have been demonstrated for a Skill to be an eligible choice.

There it was, an opportunity to incorporate two additional Skills into my core so that they may be strengthened by The System. This was the part of the process Tina had prepared me for. I had been under the impression this was all Advancement entailed. Evidently, I had been grossly misinformed. As to why…

One problem at a time.

A second screen opened, this one listing several dozen randomly selected Skills that I was eligible for. The gentle thrum of latent energy in Perseverance helped me focus on the choice at hand and compartmentalize the lingering agony left by a magical tree growing inside of me.

Yeah… didn’t think I’d ever have to string that sequence of words together.

I let myself sink into the relative quiet of my core space and studied the list arrayed before me. Crawling was on the list, which made me chuckle; Acting [Childlike] made me feel guilty; seeing Babysitting felt vindicating and I almost regretted that Riding [Dog] would not be a practical choice in the long term. There were others, of course, some more esoteric than others. Truly, it was an eclectic collection, but none of them drew my eye for more than a passing glance.

Fortunately, much like on that night when I was barely beyond my infancy, I could make requests. As an added bonus, unlike that night, I wasn’t under a strict time limit to do so…

Okay, that’s not entirely true. If I spend too long deliberating then my actual body might starve to death. At the very least, I have longer than 10 minutes.

I found myself once again baffled by the seemingly arbitrary time limit imposed on me during my Core Skill selection. Perseverance flared, snapping my attention back to the matter at hand.

“System, show me any magical Skills I qualify for.” I learned that words were secondary to intent when interacting with the System. If one were to get pedantic - and I almost did when Tina was sharing examples of Skill categories to ask about during the selection - they could argue that all Skills, when bolstered by The System, were ‘magical’. I wasn’t asking for that, though. I wanted to see magical Skills as I knew of them from story, myth, and whatever Tina’s display of power was. The System was quick to oblige.

Mana Sense

Mana Sense [Tactile]

Taming

Taming [Dog]

Mana. It was nice to have a System-approved name for the energy I subconsciously gathered in my core. Either that or it was another case of The System translating the closest approximation for me.

“Not important, Will. Focus,” I chided. Normally, I didn’t talk aloud to myself, but it wasn’t technically aloud so I allowed myself the novelty. Mana Sense was unexpected, doubly so for the tactile specialization. I reflected on the weight I felt when Tina and Vigil came to rescue me. It was raw, unpracticed, and brought about by danger and a bucket’s worth of adrenaline but some part of my mind was able to pick up on their mana usage and earn me the Skill.

Tina suspected that years of developing a connection with Vigil, himself a bonded creature, might have been sufficient to qualify for the Skill on its own. Coupled with all the time I spent helping Tina in the kennel, she seemed certain I’d have access to the Skill, if I wanted it.

“But, you did not actually ever teach me anything about Taming,” I complained at the time. Tina’s response was to gently poke at my chest and say that qualifying for the Skill was not something that could be explicitly taught. Her opinion was that you were either someone with an aptitude for Taming, or you weren’t. According to her, I had the knack.

It was not a Skill without risks, a point Tina didn’t have to argue hard to make me understand. I’d seen the possible side effects first hand. Even so, I found myself drawn to the Skill. As it turns out, an encounter with fire-wreathed fueha can do a lot to change a man’s priorities. If Vigil hadn’t intervened when he did, I would have died. Full stop. End of story. Presumably, eventually, I’d need to strike out into this monster-filled world on my own. The thought of having a companion with me - a protector - made that prospect marginally less terrifying.

I spent a long time staring at that System screen, mulling over the decision.

“Being a Tamer is to link your strength to another, you see?” I heard Tina’s advice on the subject echo in my mind. She was passionate about her Core Skill and regularly punctuated points on the matter with dramatic hand gestures. She encouraged me to select Taming during my first Advancement if I planned to take it at all, but I wasn’t blind to her bias. Ultimately, it came down to what I wanted. I steeled my resolve and made the choice.

You have chosen Taming [Dog] as one of your Advancement Skills.

Please choose one additional Skill to finalize Advancement. Threshold proficiency must have been demonstrated for a Skill to be an eligible choice.

Specialized Skills were more potent than their general counterparts. I’d have Tina as a mentor and a kennel full of dogs to practice with until I found the right one to Bond with. Logically, I knew Taming [Dog] was the wise decision. A part of me, the part that still daydreamed about dragons well into my thirties, lamented not taking the general Skill. I drowned that part out. Exciting possibilities like that were fun, but I wasn’t picking the Skill for fun. I picked it because I didn’t want to end up like the little boy who had his arm and leg chewed off by monsters, and because I loved dogs. I knew dogs.

I still miss my dog… Yeah, this was the right choice for me.

The gentle thrum of energy permeating my core space increased in tempo, emboldened by the first choice and incorporating notes of the slowly forming Skill. I dismissed the System window containing magical options. Every subsequent Advancement would depend on my surviving long enough to reach it. Mana Sense wouldn’t help me do that. I needed Skills that would, and I had the perfect one in mind.