Dialysis Book: Chapter 9 : A class act

The street was in the middle of town and there were a number of decently sized buildings all around me.  Most looked residential, and a few looked like they might have been apartments or bunk houses.  Spivy pointed to two things.

A brighter than usual street lamp and the guy who repaired brighter than usual street lamps who was further down the street.

“You need an elemental aspect, the only ones I’ve seen in town are light cores,” said Spivy.

“There aren’t any elemental cores at all,” I asked.

“None that we can get at, normally the shard dealer would have a variety of cores and related goods, here everything is locked down,” said Spivy.

“More restrictions to keep the people complacent,” I asked.

“I’d have used the term unarmed, but generally correct,” said Spivy.  “The local duke isn’t a fool, the threat level around here is low so he can effectively restrict everything while maintaining a reasonable degree of safety.  This does leave the people at the mercy of monsters when they do appear, however.”

“Like the King Rat,” I said.

“Yes, when monsters appear the locals would be risking serious injury in trying to kill it so they hire licensed adventures to deal with the problem,” said Spivy.  “Those adventurers that are willing to come here tend to be low skill.”

“And we are different because,” I asked in a very low skill fashion.

“Because I am awesome?” said Shade.

Spivy shrugged, “That and you have me.  Combined, our abilities will be sufficient to save this town.”

“From one big rat,” said Shade.

“Of an unusual size,” I questioned.

“You are going to be a hero,” said Spivy, patting Shade on the head.

“And I’m just here to provide thumbs at need,” I asked.

“No chum, you also do scritches,” said Shade, then he headbutted me to show he was kidding.

“And keep people off our backs," said Spivy.  Shade nodded at that.  “But with a class core you should be able to keep up with Shade, and if you guys synergize well you will be a force to be reckoned with.”

I considered her words, “Thanks, but I don’t quite see why you are helping us so much?”

“Well, I have nothing to do until I get to Arden, and you two are a fun little project,” said Spivy.  “Remember, I didn’t want to stop being a system fairy all the time.  It was fun teaching some adventures how to do their jobs.  You’d be one of the fun ones, at least as long as you listen to my advice.”

“Okay, so what’s the plan?” I asked.

“I’m a helper fairy,” said Spivy.  “Not a ‘do all your planning for you’ fairy.  You are supposed to be the clever one, what do you need to do?”

“Get the core,” I said.  Shade nodded.  

“How?” said Spivy before she crawled back into my hood.

How indeed?

“Shade, can you open one of those lamps,”I asked.

“No thumbs, chums,” replied Shade with a grin.  “Otherwise I would have done it already.”

“Then go distract the light man, I’ll see what I can do to steal the core,” I said.

Shade barked happily and ran off towards the maintenance worker who was about to have a really weird day.  I casually walked over to the extra bright lamp where a large box held the treasure I sought.

“It is locked,” I said.

“Can you pick locks?” asked Spivy, examining the lock critically.

“Not unless you have a skill shard you haven’t told me about,” I said apologetically as I looked around.  I mean, there were always ways of opening things but when you were in public with passersby who might not like the amount of casual vandalism breaking the lamp open required.

“Well, if you can’t pick locks, what are your other options,” said Spivy.

The Key! Who would have the key?

“The maintenance worker, obviously,” I said looking back over to where Shade was distracting him.  Yelling to my dog that we needed to steal the key would be counterproductive.  “I don’t suppose you are going to tell me what to do?”

“Helper,” said Spivy from my hood.  “But… want me to help you learn how to talk through the companion link?”

“That would be useful,” I said, because on the job training while you were committing a crime was the best time to learn quickly.

“Focus your essence like you are talking, and then push it through the companion core,” said Spivy.

“Oh, it's that simple,” I grunted, trying to build up my essence.  That actually didn’t prove very difficult, the problem was trying to push it to Shade.  “Why can’t I do this?”

“He’s really far away for this trick to work.  Sending is like talking in that the further away your receiver is the quieter you sound.  Get closer,” said Spivy.

I casually started walking towards Shade who was barking and hopping next to the maintenance worker.  He was amused, at this point, possibly not for much longer but Shade was a good boy and people like dogs.

“Shade, fetch his keys,” I sent to him, and realized that was a special occasion only trick.  The amount of essence necessary to project that short sentence was more than what I’d used fighting the rats for several minutes.

Shade jerked around so hard he fell over before rolling over then looked around until he spotted me.  Then he winked, really obviously, before turning over to the maintenance worker who was also looking at me.  I quickly turned and cut down the alley in a very suspicious, borderline stupid manner.

Like if you were committing a crime and had a partner, this is how you’d do it level stupid.

Shade walked up to me a few moments later, “He grabbed his keys as soon as I looked back over at him, so I wasn’t able to steal them for you.  I am a bad dog.  I am sorry.”

“No, you are not a bad dog.  That was my fault, we will just have to try something else to get one of those cores,” I said.

“Like this,” asked Shade, producing a brightly glowing core on the tip of his nose.

“How,” I asked.

“I am a ninja.  He protected his keys, he didn’t care about the spent orbs,” said Shade.

“They’re basically garbage,” Spivy said.  “Stealing them would be much easier than breaking into a secured lamp.  Are you sure he’s not the smart one?”

I frowned.  “When you say it like that.”

“I am the good one,” said Shade with a happy bark.

I snorted, “You are a good thief.”

“I am a good ninja,” said Shade.  Spivy sighed happily.

“A poop ninja,” I stated, scratching Shade behind the ears.

“Not you too,” said Spivy.

We both grinned, then vamoosed.  The maintenance worker didn’t really care about the core, so much, but they were still contraband.  You didn’t want to get caught holding them.  Then again, I wasn’t sure how the town really felt about all the restrictions.

The blacksmith certainly didn’t seem to like them very much and the pole turner was making spear shafts in total violation of the spirit of the law.  People didn’t like being helpless as a whole, but if I had one person who agreed with the rules it would be the guy in charge of the cores I didn’t want available.

Still, Shade only stole one, not the whole box.  I suspected if I kept my head down, I’d be alright.  I’d have to be, because I didn’t have any other options.

Spivy directed us back to the adventurer’s guild, and we walked right past Kailee to the backyard of the building.  It was a tiny, fenced area with several targets in various states of repair sitting there ready for use.

“Did you finish,” asked Kailee hopefully.

“No, and I found out that there was another adventurer who went there and died,” I said.

Kailee’s shoulders slumped, “I thought he may have fled.”

“There was a King Rat down there,” I said.

“Oh,” said Kailee.  “Well, he wasn’t very good, anyway.”

“You could have warned me,” I said.

Kailee shrugged, “Then you wouldn’t have taken the quest.”

“Seriously,? I asked.

“I’ve eaten beans for my last ten meals, I’m more than a bit desperate at this point,” said Kailee.

“Is there anything you can do to help me,” I asked.

She looked down, “If I still had anything to help you with, I would have sold it already.”

That was about right, “I’m going to use the training yard here.  See if you can find anything.”

“Okay,” she mumbled and vanished back into the guild hall.  Spivy lifted up the light orb and began running her hand over it.  I was about to ask her what she was doing, but she shushed me and continued rubbing the orb like it was some sort of oversized crystal ball.

Shade snorted and walked back into the yard, finding an unused target and claiming it.

“What’s bothering you,” I asked.

“I do not like the guild master,” said Shade.

“Yeah, she's cute but the whole ‘he’s a dog so it doesn’t count’ line should have keyed me off,” I said.

“We do need the money, I do not want to go on an airship without you,” said Shade.  “Just knowing you are there while I am in my sad box will make it okay.”

“What the hell is he talking about,” asked Spivy.

“Dogs have to ride in kennels on airplanes,” I said.

“Those sound terrible, companions are allowed to freely roam the cabin,” said Spivy.

Shade look at me curiously, “What does she mean?”

“Shade, you get to walk around on the airship with me,” I said.

“I don’t have to stay in my sad box?” said Shade, his tail wagging.  

“Well 'we' are going to ride on an airship,” I said.

Shade nodded, “Well, this is going to be great.  I always wondered what the inside of an airplane smelled like.”

“Prepare for disappointment,” Spivy said.

"What," I asked.  

“Focus on the now,” said Spivy as she finished running her hands over the light core.  It looked delicate, and fragile.  Like a crystal christmas ornament that needed to be carefully stored in a case in a house with no pets.

Spivy struck it once with another core, knocking off a chunk.  The rest of the hard earned light core crumbled into dust.  

“Mind telling me what you did,” I asked.

“We need an aspect, not a full core, so I got you an aspect,” said Spivy, who yawned.

“What aspect did you get,” I asked, flummoxed.  

“Brightness,” said Spivy, as she stood unsteadily for a moment then plopped down.  “It was the strongest aspect, but light cores have a sight aspect and a heat aspect as well.”

Sunlight is bright, lets you see things and is warm.

I thought about that for a second before something else came to mind, “Why are you so tired all the time?”

Spivy raised a tiny eyebrow at me then said, “I’m a fairy?  A fairy is absolutely the most efficient user of essence, putting the damn elves to shame, but it comes with a downside.”

“Using essence makes you tired,” I asked.

“It is exhausting,” said Spivy.  “In a very short spurt, I could out strength someone of your size, however afterward I’d be unconscious for hours.”

“That’s a pretty big drawback,” I said.

“It was why we were selected as system guides,” said Spivy.  “I have more ways of replenishing my essence than a normal human.  Your kind all replenished purely on internal reserves unless you have a full set of cores.  Fairies can draw ambient essence from the world.”

“So when I bonfire you wake up,” I said.

“More or less,” said Spivy.  “I haven’t been taxing myself much lately.  If I rest, I recover quickly enough but if I spend too much essence through battle or shard crafting I need to take a little nap.”

“Thank you for telling me that,” I said, reaching out to take the aspect.

“Just to warn you, this is going to feel strange,” said Spivy.

“I’ll be okay,” I replied.

She dropped the core into my hand.  “You have found a light aspect, would you like to affix that aspect to your Spear core?”

“Yes,” I replied and it connected without issue.  I felt a momentary twinge and realized I had two new skills.  Then I burped.  It was far less than last time, but still a healthy belch.  I was glad that it didn't get worse.  

"That's the least impressive one of those I've heard from a human," said Spivy.

"Chum, are you okay!  It is not beer time, we are preparing for an adventure!" said Shade concern lining his features.  I shook off the effects mostly, and patted him on the head.  Shade relaxed.    

“Anyway, you have gained the light skill, this will allow you to create light anywhere within your essence,” said Spivy.  “That skill is undeveloped.”

“Undeveloped,” I asked, my stomach still feeling odd.  

“You will use the skill, and it will develop,” said Spivy.  “It can also evolve if you develop it fully, or weirdly.”

“Weirdly,” I asked, holding up my hand which was currently glowing brighter than a torch.  I could make the veins in my hand glow, or the skin, or the fingernails.  Pretty much any part of my hand could be made bright, and I realized I could do that everywhere about the same moment I blinded myself.

“Yeah, you don’t have a sight aspect so you aren’t immune to brightness though you are fairly resistant,” said Spivy.

I blinked several times and my eyesight was already restored.  Given that I’d just made my eyes glow brightly, that was impressive.  I glanced up at the sun, and realized that while it was very uncomfortable I didn’t start tearing up from the brightness either.

After several moments Spivy sighed, “You won’t go blind from any light source, but looking at the sun will give you a headache.”

I looked down and realized I was getting a sunbeam headache.  It was like an icecream headache but I didn’t have a trick like putting my tongue at the roof of my mouth to fix it.  I placed the heels of my hands over my eyes and counted to thirty.  By the end I could look around again and see perfectly.

I didn’t even have a bit of purple from my ocular exploits.

“Your next skill is Flash, which is also undeveloped,” said Spivy.  I started feeding essence into that skill and nothing happened… for about five seconds.  One moment I was looking at my mildly glowing finger and being disappointed, then something brighter than the sun exploded in my face.

Shade yiped, I guessed.  I mean, I heard him but being BLIND I couldn’t be sure.  First it was bright light, then all darkness.  I groaned, and laid on the ground clutching my face.

“What did you think flash meant,” asked Spivy as she cast a healing spell on my eyes and my vision rapidly turned from nothingness to actual vision.  I blinked repeatedly while she flew back over to perch on a training dummy.

“I thought brightness didn’t affect me,” I said.

“That’s because it is a combat move designed to be directly towards your enemies, the brightness is generating a blinding effect,” said Spivy happily.  “Normally one doesn’t point combat skills at their own face.”

“Noted,” I said, trying to concentrate the flash to be less bright.  It had one mode, blinding, and that worked no matter what finger I put it on.  “How am I supposed to use this?”

“Here, stand like this,” said Spivy and placed one hand behind the other.  I looked like a power ranger right before the explosion happened.  I generated the flash on the outside of my far hand.  I could see my bones through my skin when the flash effect went off, but at least I wasn’t blinded this time.

“That doesn’t seem as hard as I’d expect,” I said, filling the flash skill with essence several more times and discharging it.  Flash worked differently than my other skills, and felt like an old school camera flash.  I had to pour essence into it until the skill was ready to activate, but when it did the skill just worked.

“That’s because it is core based, your cores make skills work easier,” said Spivy as she floated up.

“There is a pause between when the flash is ready to go and when it activates,” I said, attempting to stretch out that moment.  I could extend the pause by several seconds but eventually the flash fired.

I tried using it on the tip of my spear, and I could make the tip flash, but only if it started very close to my body.

“Normally people just use rocks, " said Spivy.  “In any case, let’s use your spear on this dummy while keeping light active.”

“Oh, that’s how I became a poop ninja,” said Shade.

“Just a ninja,” replied Spivy, glaring at the dog.  “Yes, using your core and the aspect at the same time will cause them to synergize faster so you will gain your class more quickly.  It shouldn't take very long.”

She was right, after about ten minutes of lighting the tip of my spear while thrusting at the targeting dummy, and in one case using flash at the same time I started to feel an odd pressure growing inside me.  It swelled, blossomed and finally erupted filling me with energy.

I burped.  No, I belched.  Nope, what I did could only be called a belch in the most loose sense of the word.  It was the kind of burp you would hear out of an ancient god of the party after a week of debauchery.  The neary buildings quivered from my efforts.

"That's what I was expecting," said Spivy as Shade looked on on horror.

"Stay away from the light," begged my dog as I circled oblivion.  He bit my leg, causing me to remember where I was however briefly and drag myself away from the abyss.  I stared wide eyed at Spivy.  

Spivy smiled, “You have gained the class Dragoon!”

I wobbled, “What’s a dragoon?”

“Good question,” said Spivy, landing on top of my head and examining my skull.  “I still don’t understand why all humans burp when they gain a class.”

I was standing there, kind of drained.  That was the greatest burp of my life, and I think I needed to sit down.  I'd had sex less profound than that burp.  It changed me.  Before I was a boy, and now I was a man.  There was a confusing sensation all over me that I didn’t recognize.

“You are feeling light,” said Spivy.  “You have a light aspect that just synergized with your spear core, so your senses are enhanced.  You will feel it differently than you did before and that will take a bit to adjust to.”

I didn’t have words to express what was going on.  My brain was kind of fried at the moment.  It was almost like I could feel the volume of light around me like it was a physical thing.  I was getting lost in the light.  It was a deep, metaphysical feeling entirely in contrast with my other sense.

I could also feel the volume of spear around me, like it was not a physical thing.  The weight of the history of the spear and the many uses for the tool flooded into me.  I was whole, only when I was with spear.  It completed me.  

“I think I need to thrust,” I grunted.

“That’s what he said,” said Spivy as she continued poking around my skull.

“What skills did he gain,” asked Shade as he put his head in my lap.  I didn’t realize I’d even sat down.  I automatically started scratching behind his ears.

“Thrust was replaced by Light Thrust,” said Spivy.  “Have to look into that one.  Lets see, he gained the radiance passive, that helps you both with essence recovery.”

“Oh, that is useful,” said Shade.

“That compliments your mana recovery effect, if you guys ever find any spells to cast,” said Spivy.  Shade concentrated and turned Shadowy while attempting to bite at the air.  He turned visible again, but only after the bite rather than during.

“That will be super useful,” said Shade.

“Light Shield, which is undeveloped,” said Spivy, poking my head repeatedly, then snapping her finger in my ear.  “Make with the light shield.”

“What,” I bumbled.

“I said, use your light shield skill.  I need to know if it requires you to have a shield, if it does we are going to have to rethink your weapon loadout,” said Spivy.

“My class can make my weapon skills incompatible with my cores,” I groaned, my brain starting to work properly again.

“Not typically, and they make short spears that are supposed to be used with shields, you just don’t have one at the moment,” said Spivy.  She snapped her fingers again and I concentrated, causing a small glowing disk to appear on my wrist.

“That is not big,” said Shade.

“No,” said Spivy, floating over and poking my shield.  It was the size of a saucer.  Spivy frowned, "It doesn't need to be here!"

She gripped it by the edge and tugged, and I felt an odd pressure on my essence.  Then she gave it a huge pull and it came off my arm entirely, and just hovered there.

“Why isn’t it falling,” I asked.

“It's made of light, light doesn’t have any weight,” said Spivy.  She poked the shield a few more times then shrugged, “Shade, attack the shield.”

Shade leapt up and bit down on the dimly glowing shield of light, it shot down under his weight as I felt a wrenching sensation.  I immediately put more essence into the shield and tried to lift it back up, leaving Shade hovering in the air with the glowing disk in his mouth.

“Help,” said the poor puppo.

“Shade, use Bite Attack!” said Spivy.

“He is not a pokemon,” I said as Shade poured essence into his mouth.  He began vigorously shaking the disk, which in turn caused me to jerk around.  He was an 80 pound dog which I could carry with effort, but the light shield felt like I was lifting it with one arm.  One weak arm.

Shade hit the ground on his paws and started pulling the shield, and me, forward.  As he tugged, I lost my mental grip on the shield and he pulled it away, causing the entire shield to unwind in his mouth.

I tried to regenerate the shield, but it wouldn’t reform.

“Victory,” said Shade happily.

“Give it a minute,” said Spivy as Shade snorted.

“I won, I get a treat now,” said Shade.  Spivy shrugged and pulled out something from her inventory and lobbed it to the happy puppy.

“He cheated, I wasn’t expecting that,” I said considering what just happened.  “Wait, how did that just happen?  Like the shield was just hovering there?”

“The shield is part of your essence, so it doesn’t just have to remain close to your person, it is attached to your essence,” said Spivy.  “That’s why when Shade shook it, you shook back.  If he didn’t have a grip on it using his essence the effect wouldn’t have been so pronounced.”

As she talked, I felt something click internally and I resummoned the shield on my wrist.  Carefully I detached it from my arm and let it float around me.  I could get the shield only about arms reach away from my torso, but I could move it around freely.

Something smacked me in the back of my head.  I turned to see Spivy throwing rocks at me.  She wasn’t very strong, and the rocks weren’t very big.  I almost blocked the second rock, and the third.

“It should have a passive mode, stop focusing on it,” said Spivy.

“Let go of my conscious self, and act on instinct,” I offered.

“Yes, exactly,” said Spivy, confused.  “That is way deeper than you usually think.  Maybe you are the clever one.”

I didn’t want to tell her about Obi-wan, so I tried to live by his teachings.  I felt the light around me, trying to gain some understanding of what was going on when Spivy threw the next rock.  I didn’t have the fidelity to search through all that input, but the disk did.

The rock splatted into the light disk, then fell into the ground.

Spivy threw several more rocks, each time the disk snapped into place blocking them.  Each time the rock hit the disk, it slowed and fell.  After she did it the fifth time she stopped and flew over to Shade.

I touched the disk, which was made of dimly glowing light.  It felt like stiff clay more than anything else.  I could press my finger into it and it would slowly give, but the harder you pushed the harder the material got.  I took my spear and thrust into it, and the results brought a whole new series of sensations.

I felt my essence throb when the disk took the blow, but it wasn’t a difficult thing.  The spear didn’t quite clang off of it, but the initial impact was like I hit rock, but afterward I could press the spear through the disk if I kept up steady pressure for several seconds.  Even when I penetrated the shield, the remainder of the shield gripped the spear slowing it though not nearly as much as before.

With a thought I moved the disk away and my spear was exposed.

“This is cool,” I said, turning to Spivy and Shade.  Shade had a crossbow in his mouth pointing at me, with Spivy doing the aiming.

“I’m helping,” said Shade as the bolt flung towards me at incredible speed.  Still the shield snapped into place, blocking the strike.  This time when the bolt hit it plinked off.

“We had to test it,” yelled Spivy as I stared at her wide eyed.

I looked down at the bolt, “Good point, do you have anything else you could try?”

“I had Shade bite the head off of the last bolt,” replied Spivy.

“That’s not a real test, shoot an actual bolt at me,” I said, concentrating on the shield.  It felt slow after the impact.

“Told you,” said Shade.

Spivy shrugged as she started reloading the crossbow.  I waited until she had a second shot lined up before yelling, “Hit me!”

The second bolt slammed into the shield, shattering on impact, but the moment that happened I tried to move the shield and found it was stuck.  It took nearly a quarter second before the shield became mobile again, and since it was attached to my essence when it was stuck so was I.

That was actually really useful to know.

“So it is like a real shield, if I block something strong I’m going to have to commit to it,” I said, moving the shield around freely again.  I glanced through my skill sheet, focusing on the light shield skill.

“Your light shield skill is currently undeveloped, as you use it more the shield will evolve to match your own unique fighting style,” said Spivy.

“How long will that take,” I asked.

“Generally, after one dungeon you will see some development,” said Spivy as she fluttered about.  “That assumes you have an idea about what you want it to do.  This will continue growing as you continue using it, as will all of your skills.”

“And will my class also develop,” I asked.

“Yes, but more slowly,” said Spivy.  “You can get more skills as your class develops, but the more common way is to attach more aspects to it but let's worry about what you have right now.  You don’t want to get too spread out too early.”

That sounded reasonable.  I focused on the light thrust skill and the tip of my spear glowed dimly, like the shield disk.

“According to the system: Dragoons are mobile fighters, they use medium and heavy armor, and can back that up with elemental based attacks.”

“So a skirmisher class, the opposite of a ninja basically,” I said.

“Something like that, and it also depends on how your class evolves.  You are going to evolve more powerfully if you play to the strengths of your class,” lectured Spivy.

“Then when Shadow zigs, I zag, dragging the attention away from him so while I stab them in the front, he gets them from behind,” I said.

“I like that, I do not like getting hurt,” said Shade.

“Okay,” I said looking up to the rapidly darkening sky, “Are we ready to finish the quest?”

“I think so,” replied Spivy.

“Hurray, more rats to eat,” barked Shade.