Nero Walker, Book 2 Ch.40 (72) (Patreon)

Rose felt like she was walking a tightrope. It was imperative that she make a good impression, but she didn’t know how to act. At first she thought that playing the innocent school girl would be enough to diffuse any suspicion, but that had backfired. For some reason, both men thought that her attitude was indicative of some kind of past trauma. She had no idea how they came to that conclusion.

The halls at their barracks were practically emptied by the expulsion of the noble spies. As she was walking to the showers in her towel and flip-flops, she realized that she was the only spy left. Somehow, she had managed to stay in position, even after Lord Walker had found out her purpose. With a furrowed brow, she tried to figure out the little lord’s game. Did he really think he had converted her to his side? Or was he keeping her around in order to feed false information to the general?

The older lord, Nick Salvatore-Verena, was easy to figure out. Fighting him was very informative. The man was only here so he could watch over Lord Walker, and complete his trials. He was easily deceived, and lacked the motivation to excel in the game. Steering his attention wasn’t going to be an issue.

Even the bodyguard didn’t appear to be a problem. Cathleen Averett was a simple warrior. She may think she is clever, and in a way, she is. However, her area of expertise is combat. Deception and intrigue are outside of her understanding. Rose knew that as long she trained hard, Cathleen wouldn’t be a problem.

Reaching the communal bathroom, Rose schooled her features. Putting on a vapid smile, she opened the doors and went inside. After hanging her towel on a peg, she walked into the steamy shower. Cathleen and Nick were already there. Both of them were talking about how their training was going while sharing a shower pillar. Each pillar had four shower-heads, and Rose walked over to join them.

“Are you two as tired as I am?” Rose asked, trying to foster some companionship.

Nick was collecting some shampoo from a dispenser on the pillar. Turning his head to Rose he said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired. It’s hard to believe that this is a standard elite training schedule. Did you know that they train like this year round? The only time they’re not training is when they are out in the field.”

With a huff of derision, Cathleen said, “It wasn’t that bad. You’ll get used to it. Just focus on your training. Every drop of blood you shed while training is an increase in your life expectancy. The wilds are not for the weak.”

Cathleen had undone her combat braid, and was massaging shampoo into her scalp. Rose couldn’t help but admire her form. The woman was solid muscle, it was like she was carved from black marble. Lithe like a panther, even at rest she looked ready for combat.

Nick blew a raspberry at her, then said, “You’re enjoying this too much. We’re only here to help out Nero. There is no reason to worry, we’ll have an entire squad of elites with us when we face the wilds. We’ll be perfectly safe.”

Rose stood under the hot water, rubbing down her sore muscles with the liquid soap from the pillar. She had thought Nick was soft, but looking at him naked proved it. His skinny limbs contrasted with his slight pouch of a belly.

Rose said, “I think this is an opportunity for us all to get better. Like Lord Walker said, we need to remember why we are here. The danger in the wilds will only grow with time, and what we are doing is important.”

Nick scoffed and said, “There are going to be 100,000 troops clearing the wilds. Not to mention all the hunters and aspiring adventurers. I’m not saying what we are doing is pointless, but Dorchester’s future doesn’t exactly rely on our success or failure.”

Just then, they heard a squeak from the entryway. Everyone turned to see a red faced Nero looking like he was frozen in terror. Rose couldn’t help but chuckle. Quickly coughing into her hand to cover her slip-up, she returned to her shower.

She could feel Nero walking over to the fourth shower head. When he finally joined them at the pillar, Rose got a chance to see the little man without his clothes. As she thought, he was wiry and taught like a spring. His frame didn’t have a lot of power, but it did have resilience. She remember the beating he gave her well.

Rose said, “We were just discussing the intensity of the training. Lord Salvatore-Verena doesn’t seem to think it’s necessary to push ourselves this hard.” Probing for information was what she had been brought here for, and she wouldn’t forget it. Even if these two nobles thought they had scared her off.

Nero was staring forward at the pillar. He was obviously uncomfortable, and Rose couldn’t help but find that adorable. The contrast between how dangerous he looked on the training field, and how weak he looked right now was startling. While in combat he was a little man, but here he was a little boy. He might be the most dangerous freshly awakened young man in the city, but he could be defeated by a public shower. General Branson will want to hear about this.

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Nero couldn’t get the images of Cathleen and Rose out of his head. His communal shower experience was just as bad as he thought it would be. Nero was both enticed and disgusted in equal measure. While Rose looked like a thick-thighed Instagram model, and Cathleen looked like a professional fitness competitor, Nero found Nick’s dad-bod was more than enough to counteract any physical reaction. ‘OK. Along with silverware, staples, and paperwork… teenage hormones are multi-dimensional,’ Nero thought to himself with a grimace.

After finally retreating to his room, Nero closed the door and sighed in relief. He wouldn’t have to deal with that again until tomorrow. Nero knew that he had to push all his teenage confusion to the back of his head, and focus on getting his first pillar. It was time to make the push to level 10.

Turning off the lights in his room, Nero tossed his wet towel over his chair so it could dry. Hopping onto his bed, Nero sat cross-legged and tried to imitate the yoga nerds from the internet. Leveling required reflection, and Nero planned to go all-in. While taking deep breaths, he opened his identity along with his stats.

Name Nero Walker Level 9   Race Human Growth 100%   Tier 1 Condition 92%   Age 14 Center 49%   Body 2 Mind 4   Soul 2 Confluence 10   Stars 0 Pillars 0/0

Body 2

Base Operative Level Stress   Presence 11 15.4 1.2   Durability 8 11.2 8.6   Recovery 21 29.4 12.3   Speed 13 18.2 6.1   Adaptability 32 44.8 9.1   Power 8 11.2 12.4

Mind 4

Base Operative Level Stress   Weight 26 46.8 4.2   Control 29 52.2 8.3   Field 23 41.4 11.3   Precision 39 70.2 14.6   Endurance 46 82.8 13.2   Focus 48 86.4 9.1

Soul 2

Base Operative Level Stress   Size 29 40.6 0.3   Density 101 141.4 0.3   Intensity 76 106.4 0.2   Pressure 27 37.8 0.2   Harmony 24 33.6 4.6   Adaptability 270 378 0.1

Nero knew that he was ready to level, his soul felt like it was bursting. Turning his senses inward, he could almost see the experience floating away. Wasted growth was evaporating into the atmosphere every second he delayed.

While taking calm, deep breaths, Nero thought back to when he had last leveled. He had waited too long to address this. In the future, he’d have to start paying closer attention. Maybe he could be a little more reflective throughout the day. He’d leveled without meditating before, there was no reason he couldn’t do it again.

Forcing his thoughts back on track, Nero went through his experiences and the lessons he’d learned. He imagined that each was a stone on a path that spread out before him. Mentally moving forward, he felt them etch their memory into his soul. ‘Meditation is so much easier now that I’m a psychic,’ he thought.

Ignoring the stray thought, he concentrated on the path in front of him. The essence in his room pushed on his essence shield, and Nero released it with a sigh. All of the surrounding essence shook and his center gave the world a metaphorical hug.

Instead of coming out of his meditation, Nero felt stuck. Deciding to call his imagined path his mindscape, Nero took a moment to look around. He felt as though he were inside his soul, with images of his life floating around in a fog surrounding him. The stone path under his feet felt more real the longer he stood there.

Right in front of his eyes, he saw many paths forward fade into existence. Nero realized this must be how he would choose his pillar. Rather than choosing a path, it felt like more like he needed to confirm his destination. Where was he going, and why?

There weren’t sign-posts, but Nero knew what each path meant. He could feel it.

Starting from the left, Nero could choose the pillar of ‘air’. When he looked at the path in front of him he felt wind and storms. There were hints of pressure, temperature, and lightning. But there were also hints of flight, dodging, speed, and even cutting. Nero felt awed at the complexity. Thinking back to what Nick had said about pillars, Nero realized that he didn’t really grasp that ‘concepts’ covered a lot of ground.

Pulling his attention away from the ‘air’ pillar’s path, he examined each one in turn.

There was Fire, Water, Earth, Ice, Evasion, Avoidance, Insight, Defense, Equivalence, Adaptation, Observation, Recovery, Deception, and Intuition.

Each path felt like it lead to infinite possibilities, colored by the concepts they represented. Some had more direct applications, like the elemental pillars, while others were more esoteric, like equivalence and adaptation. The paths were so broad, Nero was having trouble deciding what to do.

For example, with the ‘ice’ pillar, he could follow the path and eventually ‘freeze’ anything. Nero could make shields brittle, or hold people in place. The path led to endless applications. If Nero took the ‘ice’ pillar, one day he could use it to stop people teleporting by freezing the space around them.

With interest, Nero examined the path that followed the ‘equivalence’ pillar. It was all about converting things. He saw that all matter was essence, and all essence was energy, and all energy eventually met at a singularity. If Nero followed that path, he would one day be able to reshape reality at will. The possibility was intoxicating, and Nero started to feel light-headed.

But Nero couldn’t stop thinking about the path that followed the ‘adaptation’ pillar. The concept was so vague, the options so varied, Nero couldn’t dismiss the feeling that it was perfect for him. He realized that his leveling was so fast because he was adaptable. His soul had traveled the upper realms and carried his mind along for the ride. The experience had made him… malleable.

This new world was completely foreign to him. Everyone was odd, and the rules seemed to always be changing. While the mental comparisons to his old world were becoming more infrequent, Nero felt that he was still making assumptions. He knew he was never going to fully embrace the changes, but he could at least look at them with fresh eyes. Nero would be his own man, make his own way. Someone important once said, ‘Adapt and Overcome’. It was good advice that Nero would take.

It wasn’t really a choice, Nero stepped onto the path associated with the ‘adaptation’ pillar and felt like he was accepting an aspect of himself. Nero felt like he was back in college, when he finally realized that he wasn’t as cool as he thought he was. The feeling of accepting an aspect of his identity was like affirming a pillar of his existence.

With that realization, Nero instantly became annoyed. The ‘literal’ pillar was now in place, and Nero felt like the target of a cosmic joke. He could almost hear the world around him giggling while saying, “It’s a ‘pillar’… get it? YOUR pillar… lol”

After mentally cursing out the ‘hippy-reality’ he had found himself in, Nero opened his eyes and checked his identity.

Name Nero Walker Level 10   Race Human Growth 13%   Tier 1 Condition 100%   Age 14 Center 57%   Body 2 Mind 4   Soul 2 Confluence 10   Stars 0 Pillars 1 / 1

Absently noting his 13% growth, Nero noticed that his star was already spent. Confused, he took a closer look at his new ‘Pillars’ panel:

Pillars

Adaptation

Stars Assigned: 1

Increased ability to handle level stress * 1

Surprised that he had somehow made a choice about where to assign his star, Nero tried to examine the ability he gained.

Increased ability to handle level stress – You’ve always been more adaptable to change than those around you. Your body, mind, and soul benefit from the stress the world puts them under. You now can adapt to that stress better than before. You will adapt, and overcome the challenges on your path.

While he didn’t completely understand what the ability was, Nero didn’t feel cheated. The ability to adapt to circumstances was an essential part of life. He didn’t know what was coming, but being able to handle it would require him to ‘adapt and overcome’.

Opening his eyes, Nero felt at peace. This time, he didn’t feel any negative repercussions from his level-up. If that’s all the pillar ever did for him, Nero would count it as a solid investment. After all, magic could do everything he needed.

Sitting cross-legged, naked on his bed, Nero smiled as he told himself, “Abilities are for chumps. Magic is where it’s at.”