Chapter 52: On the Job (Patreon)

***Surrak***

2 weeks after retreat from Mujenan.

Brendan Moore scratched the scabbed over scalp wound on the side of his head, looking over his damage reports with a scowl.

I need to find someone else to take responsibility for this.

Unfortunately he was the highest officer left after the disappearance of the general and the princess, and dead people were tricky to assign blame to.

Seems like Grant’s the only shot I’ve got. There’s been no sign of recovering his body, nor have the Gadverans paraded it around the city walls.

The general’s body was most likely caught in a burning building and rendered unrecognizable, but this presented an opportunity to change the narrative.

General, Grant…Defected…during the…incursion…

Brendan’s tongue popped out the side of his mouth as he colorfully placed the blame for the campaign’s miserable outcome squarely at the feet of its highest ranked officer, who wasn’t around to contest the charges.

Killed…Princess…Nadia…

Brendan paused a moment and scratched out ‘killed’, replacing it with ‘subdued’. More difficult to accuse him of lying if she showed up alive one day. The gods knew those Royals were hard to perish.

There was a rapping at the door to the governor’s office.

“Sir, a report!”

“Come in,” Brendan intoned, sliding another paper over his draft. Some people could read faster than he’d like.

“The first shipment to Malkenrovia has left the port, carrying three thousand units. By your order, we’ve withheld every citizen successfully granted a Support Skill. By our count, there were six hundred and twelve reserved, or a sixth of the original amount processed. We estimate another fifteen thousand civilians remain in the city, including the ones that may be hiding. And so we can expect approximately two thousand more support units.

Brendan grunted acknowledgement. ‘Support Unit’ was a fancy name for a person raped during a Break until they got a Skill for it, or sometimes having their Bent forcibly drawn out of them until they similarly got a Skill that made it even easier.

Sometimes both.

The System gave them those skills to protect their minds and bodies from the damage, but those Skills changed them permanently. Made them docile. Easy to control.

Support Units kept the Ilethan army running smoothly.

“Sir, do we actually have to pay Malkenrovia? The princess is gone, and –.”

Brendan glanced up at the lieutenant.

“Did you see the wurm big enough to collapse a city wall?”

“No sir.”

“Did you see the bladed monsters with skin stronger than steel that tore men in half with their limbs?”

“No sir.”

“Of course you didn’t, because if you had, you wouldn’t consider uttering those words, now get the fuck out of here.”

“One more thing,” the young man said, fishing through his pockets to draw out a scrap of paper.

“Scouts report the Gadveran army has sent a company to fortify Lunder Pass to serve as a foothold in retaking Surrak.”

“That’s nice, what kind of fortifications, wood stakes, ditches and palisades?”

“Yes, and…a stone fortress?”

Brendan blinked, coming to his feet. “A what!?”

“The scout reported the unmistakable foundation of a fortress has been laid down amid the temporary fortifications, and is currently being filled by a troop of several hundred Knick-Knacks working at a, and I’m quoting here, ‘prodigious rate’.

“Knick-Knacks!” Brendan growled. No one had ever seen more than a dozen or so in one place before, and they purported to be neutral. “Send someone to catch some in town. I want answers. In the meantime, how many men do we have available?”

“We could spare maybe two thousand. Any more would leave us weak.”

“Organize a group of fifty Veteran scouts to blind their eyes and ears, then follow them up with five thousand men.”

“But –“

“We’ll take over the fortifications for ourselves. Their foothold will become ours. You don’t win a war by waiting for the enemy to finish whatever they’re doing.”

“Sir,” The lieutenant said, saluting and turning away.

“And send in a support unit,” Brendan added as an afterthought. “I’m feeling tired.”

A minute later a dark Genosian girl stood in front of him, shivering, and Bredan set aside his work for a minute or two.

****Calvin****

Talking to girls has reached level 9!

Acting has reached level 9!

Meditation has reached level 13!

Calvinian Summoning has reached level 13! Shadow boxing will have no more effect until Meditation reaches a higher level.

Chained Spirit had reached Level 6!

….

Chained Spirit had reached Level 10!

+1 Will

Please choose…

I choose Continuity.

…..

Chained Spirit had reached Level 13! Shadow boxing will have no more effect until Meditation reaches a higher level.

Sense Grafting has reached level 10!

+1 Intuition

Please choose an ability or Mutation.

Offensive Grafting: Sense grafting can now be used on targets other than the caster. Unwilling targets will resist. Success and duration is determined by Intuition.

Omniscient Grafting: The User can now graft senses without losing their own, as well as create and process multiple inputs simultaneously.

Synesthesia: Bundle two or more senses together. Taste colors, see smells, etc. Extremely debilitating condition, but allows the user to process a particular input using more areas of the brain, allowing a more comprehensive understanding of the medium.

^For example, seeing and hearing music, allowing you to make music that looks and sounds good, with a depth that normal people will be amazed by.

A mile in their shoes: User copies any number of senses from a target onto themselves, allowing them to experience what the target is experiencing.

^Really, really good for sex, kid. I highly recommend.

Desensitize: reduce chosen sense from mild weakening to complete deprivation.

^Also good for sex, if you know how to use it, amiright?

Mutations:

Gaze into the Abyss: See from the perspective of any creature observing the User. May cause headaches without Omniscient Grafting

^unlocked by Third Eye and Feel Intent

Compensation: Sacrifice a sense at will to boost another drastically. Reversable.

7th,8th,9th Sense: 1 Bent: User may consume a creature and either improve an existing sense or add one that the user previously did not have, dependent on the creature's senses. One slot per five levels of Sense-Grafting

^Unlocked by Consume and Gift of Tongues

That’s a lot more than last time I looked at it, Calvin thought as he reviewed the choices, old and new. They were interesting, to be sure, but Offensive Grafting and Omnescient grafting were necessary to round out the skill as a whole. He could worry about getting special stuff afterward.

Hold on a minute. Elliot interjected

This isn’t about the sex one is it?

You wound me, sir. Elliot said. Nah, I was eyeballing that last one.

What about it?

There are tons of animals out there with better senses than ours. And tons more that have senses we simply don’t. I can name a couple off the top of my head. Sharks have an electricity sense so acute they can feel living things with their skin. Got that one off Shark Week. I wonder why that’s still a thing. The Ogre-Faced spider can see really fuckin’ good in the dark. What do you think about putting the normal spell progression on hold and eat say…an owl and a bat? You can forget about people sneaking up on you then.

You mean a Turka? Calvin asked

The hell’s a Turka?

Cal considered it. Level twenty wasn’t terribly far away as long as he could get his meditation skill up to match. That pushed the development back by a few levels, but Meditation would eventually reach that point. In the meantime, it would help his defense if he could literally see things coming.

…I choose 7th,8th,9th Sense:

User will be rendered Unconscious while Mutation is taking place.

Calvin body tingled for a moment before he passed out on his cot, waking up half an hour later.

Remind me to go hunting. Calvin thought as he folded his arms back over his chest and got back to work with Shadow Boxing.

You got it boss.

….

Sense Grafting has reached level 13! Shadow boxing will have no more effect until Meditation reaches a higher level.

Sense Grafting level 13: Sight, hearing, touch, pain, smell, Taste, Balance. Self-only, 169ft range, 65 minutes.

Well, on to something else, I guess.

….

Kala and Calvin were walking down the street in the dark of the night. Colorful lanterns were strung up all over the street, bathing the beautiful girl on his arm in soft green light. She leaned her shoulder against his as they walked to their date: A night out on the town at the festival, just the two of them.

Time to make my move.

“Oh, crap,” Calvin said, grabbing his pocket. “I don’t have any cash. Think we could stop by my place first?”

“Sure,” Kala said, with a princess-like aloof shrug.

“Wait a minute,” she said, her gaze landing on his. She narrowed her eyes. “You were trying to take me to an undisclosed second location weren’t you?”

You’re blown.

“No, I just –“

“You’re practicing your princess kidnapping Skill right now aren’t you!?” She said, accusingly, poking him in the ribs.

“I should have never told you about that.” Calvin said, shoulders slumping.

“Wait a minute It’s not festival season, is it?” she said, glancing up at the lanterns. Under her scrutiny, the festival lanterns faded out of existance, causing her eyes to widen.

“Holy Elani, we’re in your Shadow Boxing Ability right now. None of this is real!”

She looked down at herself.

“I’m not real either…” Kala was thoughtful for a moment, but quickly recovered, looking back up at him with mischief blooming on her face.

“But, I can’t just let you kidnap me,” she said, tapping her lips in thought, a slow smile building.

Here we go again.

“You know what the first thought I had when I heard about that shadowboxing skill?” Kala asked, peering over at him like a hungry cat.

“Enlighten me.”

Kala grabbed his vest and pulled him into a dark alley, pushing him up against a wall.

She leaned forward, her cheek brushing against his as she whispered, “No consequences.” Calvin bit down a yelp as Kala’s fingers invaded his pants.

“You realize you’re not going to remember any of this, but I will? That’s a consequence.” he said, keeping his voice steady as possible.

“Shut up and let me enjoy myself,” Kala said, peering down with a grin as she unlaced his breeches. “And then after that, we can get drunk and tip over vendor stalls.”

Calvin shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to take one for the team.”

…

…..

Your Princess is in another castle has reached level 4! 

Level 4: 20% Correction.

Calvin opened his eyes with a gasp.

Does it bother you that your crush is obviously deeply repressed?

“Hell no, did that seem uncomfortable to you?”

Fair enough.

The tent flap flew open and Grant poked his head in.

“Wakey wakey, Captain, we’re in need of some of your brilliant leadership skills.” He glanced down at the tent in Calvin’s covers.

“Might wanna tuck that in before you come out, though.”

“This is one hundred percent Princess Kala’s fault.”

“Sure it is.” The big soldier said with a smirk.

“Fuck off, I’m getting dressed.” Cal started crawling to his dresser when he ran up against a warm body, stopping him in his tracks and forcing him to clear his bleary eyes. Ella’s face was inches away from his, turned toward him and drooling into the pillow beside his.

When did she get there?

Calvin crawled over Ella’s prone form to get to his clothes cabinet. Captains couldn’t just toss their clothes on the ground like a normal person, apparently.

“You a need little extra time? Ten minutes or so?”

“I will make you shovel shit.” Calvin threatened.

“Daylight.” Grant said.

“Huh?” Calvin glanced over at the general as the man pried the tent flap open just a bit more, blinding Calvin with the glare of the morning sun.

“Son of a bitch!”

Ella groaned and turned away from the source of light, eyes still closed. Calvin blinked the spots out of his eyes and slid on his pants, followed by his uniform, taking pains to make sure it was as straight as he could manage by himself.

“Alright, what did you interrupt my morning meditation for?” Calvin demanded as he left the tent, joining Grant in the muddy path that had been stomped into the earth between the tents.

“A matter of utmost importance, Captain. This way.”

Calvin followed Grant through the busy camp, which had quickly become the center of a rash of earth works stretching all the way to the mountain. Hastily constructed palisades at the top of shallow ditches covered either the north and the south, warding against an attack from the front and the back.

Tree stumps were still being pulled out, but enough trees had been cut down that Calvin had a perfectly clear view of the distant mountain they were meant to connect to. The bald patch of forest was about a quarter mile long, and a hundred yards wide. 

Even now, Calvin could see young men pulling stumps out of the ground in the morning light. They looked up and waved as they saw his bright uniform walking through the tents. They weren’t even supposed to get to work yet.

Brown-nosers…feels good.

Grant stopped in front of Vukya, who was addressing two young men. He motioned to the knot of people and withdrew.

“Something wrong?”

“Captain!” Vukya said, jumping a little as he noticed Calvin approach. “How did you…nevermind. These two have a dispute over oil.”

“Oil.” Calvin said.

“Keba stole my oil! He took it and just slathers it everywhere like a numbnuts. He’s wasting it, and we’re going to be out in a week.”

“You’re a lying sack of shit, Carl, You know you need to make a smooth even coat to resist the weather!”

That’s it? Calvin was sorely tempted to let Vukya handle it, but he’d already stepped in it. Calvin cast a glance over for Grant, but the Ilethan man had long since disappeared. Damn. Calvin thought on his feet.

The problem was gear-maintenance related, something Calvin had little experience with. It stood to reason the solution would be gear-maintenance related.

“Get Sergeant Fleck to test these men on their gear maintenance, whosoever fails is Fleck’s bitch for the week.”

Sergeant Fleck was the dour quartermaster. Working for him was reported to be unpleasant. From the barely restrained fury the old man had when he regarded Calvin, he could tell the man resented a captain so much younger than him, and possibly let that out on people of similar age.

Hopefully giving the old man extra work wouldn’t set him off.

The man on the left – Carl – paled, and Calvin could tell he was going to fail that test.

All in a day’s work.

Calvin excused himself and went to visit Bulad. The green-sashed Engineer was walking among the stacked lumber, making notes as he went.

“How goes it?” Calvin asked.

“Not great, sir, most of the wood, especially the trees of sizeable heft, have…” He picked up a stick and poked it into a hole in the wood Calvin hadn’t noticed before. He pulled it out with a trail of slime following it.

“That’s problematic.”

“Yessir. We’re still going at a speed that boggles the mind, but we’re going to feel the loss of nearly…” he consulted his notes. “Sixty seven percent of the large lumber.”

“We’ll just have to eat that loss in time,” Calvin said. “Make sure the rotten wood is separated and burned, and…see if our scouts can find a place with better wood. Could be we’re just in a particularly bad spot.”

“Sir.”

Bulad gave him a serious salute that was at odds with the man’s protruding teeth. Ah well, we don’t get to choose our faces.

Calvin conferred with Bulad on what he wanted accomplished with the day’s work for a couple hours before summoning the Knick-Knacks and setting them to task.

Eventually, Calvin saw shadows disappear as the sun crept directly above them.

Ah, my favorite part of being a captain… Forcing people to obey my weird rules.

More than anything else, to make his plans come to fruition as fast as possible, Calvin needed plenty of time to meditate. That was hard to come by, sneaking in a little before bed or in the morning before Grant woke him up, so Calvin had come up with a solution.

An hour of exercise at noon, then lunch, then an hour-long nap. For everyone.

People, especially the veterans, thought it was weird at first, but it had come straight from the captain. Surprisingly, it hadn’t significantly impacted their performance, as the extra energy somewhat offset the loss of time.

And it gave Calvin an hour a day to practice Meditation.

Calvin went to the mess, joining a stream of hungry men heading that direction. They parted for him as he stepped up on the rough-hewn stage built for talent shows, announcements, floggings, and in this case, leading exercises.

“All right, y’all know the rules. Form up, give yourselves plenty of room. You wanna eat, you gotta earn it with me.”

Calvin dropped down and started doing pushups, noting the shift in the air as every single person in the field dropped to the ground with him, following Karen’s exercises regimen.

I could get used to this, Calvin thought as he huffed through the workout.

Extensive training has increased Kinesthetics.

+1 Kinesthetics

Extensive training has increased Endurance.

+1 Endurance

Extensive training has increased Strength.

+1 Strength.

Once everyone was done, Calvin sat down in the comfiest chair in the camp and closed his eyes, picturing the muddy river outside Deinos.

….

Fishing has reached Level 5!

+1 Stability

Fishing level 5: line strength and Bait effectiveness. 25%

Please choose and ability or Mutation.

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Pond: Spend one Bent while casting to connect one body of water to any other body of water while fishing. Maximum size fish restricted by the opening of the original body of water. 

^MAXIMUM SIZE IMPOSED: USE AT SEA DISABLED AFTER THE SUMMONING OF LAVASH THE WORLD DRINKER.

Sea of Calm: Meditate while fishing. While fishing, the levels of Meditation and Fishing stack, applying to both their effects and abilities. for example, if fishing is 5 and Meditation is 15, while fishing, both skills will be treated as 20. User can Shadowbox between catches.
 

^Can't be cheesed by fishing in Shabowboxing, you Munchkin, it's already good enough.
 

Calvinian Fishing: Creatures may be summoned with a hook and intangible line attached to them, allowing the user to mentally reel in fish.

^Fish with magic!

Master-Baiter: Any bait you place shares the fishing skill's correction to it's attractiveness. This works with any kind of bait, not just fishing lures.

^this bonus applies to anything the user considers bait, against any creature potentially baited by it. Shiny coins to bait beggars, a bar of soap in the middle of the jungle to lure a princess...use your imagination.

Mutations:

Polarized Eyes: Apply the Fishing correction to see clearly through the glare of water.

^Sometimes works on light-based illusions.

 

Sonar: Allows the user to use high frequency noises to map out areas and detect creatures under the water. May cause Were-dolphin-ism

^eek eek!

 

Expert Sturgeon: Eating fish applies the Fishing Skill's correction to the body's natural immunity/healing. Lasts 8 hours, requiring three meals with fish a day for full effect.

That’s interesting.. Calvin thought as he reviewed the choices for Fishing. Some of them were damn good.

If he took Sea of Calm, he could practice Bent skills as long as his line was in the water, up to level eighteen. The ocean was at the bottom of a huge cliff currently, so that was a little inconvenient. Inconvenient but powerful…

Wait, if I took Bigger Pond, couldn’t I…

With Bigger Pond, the text of the ability said any body of water. So, if he took Bigger Pond and Sea of Calm, he could get some hair and a shiny lure, dip it into a cup full of water, and he’d be fishing, no matter where on Marconen he was, stacking the levels of Fishing and Meditation on top of each other.

Interesting….

It also synergized well with Medi-tate and Expert Sturgeon.

One other thing… Calvin reviewed Master-Baiter.

Applies to any bait for any purpose? That was undeniably powerful, and Calvin wanted it. It would be excellent for distractions and ambushes. If the bait could work on humans like Elliot was suggesting, it was impossible to pass up.

Let’s see. 5th level, Master-Baiter. 10th level, Bigger Pond. 15th level, Sea of Calm?

Calvin wasn’t one hundred percent sure that he would be able to get to level fifteen quickly. The skill didn’t level as quickly as spells, because it’s very nature was slow and patient. The only reason he was going so fast with the spells was because he could cast them with no spent effort in Shadow Boxing. Fishing was much, much slower.

…in all probability, Meditation would level up high enough to support his needs for now, and getting Bigger Pond at level ten would help him level Fishing faster. Even if he missed out on raising his spells through the roof with Shadow Boxing augmented by Sea of Calm, Sea of calm was still useful, allowing the Medi-tate Ability that he would get at Meditation level 15 to operate at an outrageous speed.

I choose Master-Baiter.

Elliot snickered in the back of his head.

Eat a dick.

We should get back to practicing kidnapping Kala. That and Beli Ma. You need as many options as you can get when you go up against One again.

I swear, this time I’m not gonna let her go crazy. Just a quick kidnapping. Over and done.

Keep telling yourself that.