Myst in Worm (Gamer) (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don't own Worm or the Gamer or anything else you might recognize. 

Myst blinked as he stepped through the front door and found himself in a hallway of a run down looking school. “What the hell…” he trailed off as he glanced down at his hands and realized that he could see through them. “Well... shit.”

“Help!” croaked a girl’s voice hoarsely from inside a locker.

“Yeah, shit,” he deadpanned. He glanced down at his legs and noticed the same see through problem. He blinked as a small blue translucent window appeared in front of him. “New quest: Rescue Taylor Hebert: Increased reputation with Taylor Hebert and Dockworkers association. Failure: Decreased reputation with Skitter. 9:57”

Myst scowled as he realized that the timer was counting down, giving him barely ten minutes to rescue her. “Crap.” He rushed over to the locker and tried to open it then scowled as his hand went through the locker. “Shit!”

He scowled as another popup appeared. “Find your body, before it gets cremated and you’re stuck as a ghost forever.” He scowled as he saw the seventy two hour countdown. ‘Fucking quests.’ He dashed down the hallway then stopped as he saw a mocha skinned girl and a red haired girl blocking the hallway. ‘Great, let’s try the other way.’

He ran the other direction and found a male teen walking down the hallway with a large wooden hall pass. “Hey, you!”

The student blinked then stared at Myst, a little unnerved by the ghostly figure but figured it was a new parahuman or someone from out of town. “Me?”

“Yes! Where is the janitor’s office?”

“That way,” the student pointed further down the hall. “But he’s not here.”

“Great, does he have a crowbar?” Myst asked urgently.

“Yeah,” the student replied, perking up.

“Good, come with me, you get to break school property and get away with it,” Myst said as he headed for the janitor’s closet.

“Awesome!” the student said cheerfully as he jogged after the cape.

Myst was rather amused how quick the student was to grab the crowbar and follow him back to the locker and rip it open after he realized someone was in there.

“What. The. Fuck?!” the helpful student exclaimed in shock as he looked at the nasty bloody crap that had been stuffed into the locker with a girl, who was now unconscious on the floor. He was torn between checking her for injuries and not getting any of that crap on himself. Noticing she was breathing he relaxed a little and moved away, eyes watering a little from the stench.

“Sophia thought it would be funny,” Myst said absently. His eyes tingled and he saw that Taylor had the ability to control invertebrates as Sophia came running around the corner, having heard the screech of metal as the locker door was pried open.

“Who are you?” Sophia demanded as she glanced between the ghostly figure and the angry looking senior with a crowbar.

“Casper the friendly neighborhood ghost. Get out of the way, she needs medical attention,” Myst said, noting Sophia had the ability to partially shift into a dimension that didn’t quite line up with the one they were in.

“She’ll be fine,” Sophia replied snidely then quickly backed up a step as the senior swung the crowbar through where her head had been. “What the fuck?!”

The senior snorted. “I don’t know what your fucking damage is Hess, but if you don’t get out of the way, I’m going to break your knees so you’ll never run again.” He slipped sideways then brought the crowbar down on her arm as she lunged for him, a touch surprised when it went through her arm in a plume of black smoke. “Shit! She’s a parahuman!”

“Shit! She’s Shadow Stalker!” Myst shouted as several people came to investigate the noise.

Sophia glared at Myst then lunged at him, determined to silence the cape that was trying to out her.

“She’s fucking insane! She’s trying to kill me!” Myst shouted as he worked on his dodging, not completely sure if she could hit him or not and not really wanting to find out while he figured out how he’d ended up in a world that should be fictional while wide awake or what was going on with the ghost impression.

Sophia shouted, “Call the PRT!” as a teacher showed up. “He’s a dangerous Master!”

“And the hospital, we need an ambulance!” Myst shouted, figuring the PRT would be almost as good. Either way, he wanted to get Taylor some help and deal with Sophia. He relaxed slightly as Sophia managed to swing her sort of shadowy fist through him to no effect. “You might as well give up Shadow Stalker, you’re going to jail for biological terrorism!”

“You’re insane!” Sophia snarled.

“Anyone with a cellphone, please take a lot of pictures of Sophia’s crimes and send them to your friends before the teachers try to steal your phones!” Myst yelled, wanting to make sure that there was plenty of evidence before it could be covered up and swept under the rug.

He wasn’t all that surprised when the PRT showed up just under five minutes later in full gear and started trying to confiscate phones, but by then the damage was done and there was plenty of clips of Sophia using her powers and the crime scene floating around the internet and appearing on various boards that weren’t as well moderated as PHO and didn’t have rules about not exposing idiots.

Thankfully a pair of heavily armed agents had rushed in and grabbed Taylor, retreating with her as if the building was on fire, before the next two agents entered the scene, providing some cover for them. 

Myst blinked as two of the PRT agents with oversized headphones, playing some type of godawful music that he could hear from several feet away, tried to foam him. “Guys, immaterial here, that’s not going to work.” He scowled slightly as one of them waved a stun baton through his crotch area. “Hey, that’s just mean and still not working.” He sighed as he realized that they couldn’t hear him because of the headphones. 

The two stopped attacking as it obviously wasn’t working and slowly retreated, making the teen with the crowbar snicker, glad they hadn’t tried to do anything to him.

Myst turned and looked at Armsmaster as he marched into the hall a scowl on his face and a tight grip on his famous halberd, the ancient floor tiles cracking under the weight of his power armor.

Armsmaster glared at the ghostly cape, as he listened to the preliminary report from the agents who had just departed and decided on a plan of attack that would give him the most leverage on the cape who had endangered a minor under his command. “You can’t just out people like that. You endangered a minor and her family with your actions.”

“Considering she locked a fellow student in a locker with biological waste, I don’t really care what happens to her. As for her family, by the time anyone figures out who they are, you’ll have already picked them up. They could stand to be relocated anyways, this isn’t the best of places to live.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to reveal people’s identities,” Armsmaster said firmly after a few seconds delay. “There are rules that must be followed in these situations.”

Myst briefly considered being flippant about the first amendment but figured he might have to deal with him later and he was the leader of the Protectorate. “She’s the one that used her abilities and tried to stop us from getting the injured girl medical attention, I didn’t know who she was until she attacked using her powers.”

“She claims you’re a Master,” Armsmaster replied after he waited for his computer system to parse and relay what the strange cape had said into his helmet after verifying there were no commands.

“I’m a ghost, as far as I know I don’t have any mind control powers.” Myst turned to look at the senior that had gotten Taylor out of the locker. “Did I mind control you?”

“Nope, you just said I’d get to break shit and not get in trouble,” the senior replied with amusement, not terribly worried about things as his father was a lawyer.

“So yeah, if we’re done, I’d like to leave so I can track down my body,” Myst said, in what he thought was a reasonable tone, but was a bit too heavy on the sarcasm to qualify. 

“You’re not going anywhere until you give a statement,” Armsmaster ordered.

“I heard a call for help, I went and got help. We got the victim out of the locker then Sophia went crazy and tried to stop us from getting said victim medical attention, at which point we realized who she was and screamed for people to take pictures hoping to scare her off before she injured someone. Then the PRT showed up. So unless you have a legal reason to hold me, I’m leaving.”

“We may need a more in depth statement at a later date,” Armsmaster stated firmly, not wanting the cape to leave until they’d sorted things out.

“On that note, here’s a free hint, the principal is dirty as hell and Sophia’s case worker is helping cover shit up, go raid her files. I’ll check in later but right now, I need to go find my body.”

Armsmaster sighed as he realized this was going to be a PR nightmare. “I’ll look into it.”

“This is worse than losing my car keys,” Myst muttered as he glanced at the timer and tried to figure out where his body could be found. ‘Under the sofa? I always lose things there.’

“You are required to contact the PRT once you have… found your body, so we can finish taking your statement.” Armsmaster scowled as he left the room to talk to the principal and find out how deep the rot had spread, his armored gauntlet unconsciously tightening on his hallbeard.

The senior waited until the Protectorate hero left then grinned. “That was fun. Do you need a lawyer? I have Carol Dallon on speed dial.”

“Nah, I’m good. If he’s not arresting me, no point in causing waves right now. Thanks for the help. Later.” Myst grinned then walked through the wall. ‘If I was a body in danger of being cremated, where would I be? Hospital or the morgue... Might as well check the hospital first, maybe I’ll get lucky. Huh, no clue where the hospital is.’ He ducked back through the wall. “Where’s the hospital?”

The senior laughed then gave directions.  

0o0o0

“Status?” Myst asked in a whisper as he headed toward the hospital on the off chance that his powerset was similar to The Gamer ability. He smiled as he looked at the status page that appeared then stared in surprise as he glanced at the current conditions page. ‘Gamer’s Mind, Undetectable …” he trailed off as he saw the Ghost and Werewolf entries. “I’m a ghost and a werewolf? What the fuck?!” He looked at the werewolf entry. “Huh, yeah, that’s a shitty type of werewolf, great.”

He focused on his skills and frowned slightly as he looked at his collection of skills, respectable writing skill, moderately decent computer operation skill, and a point of computer programming... great, I’m back to ‘Hello World’, maybe, possibly.”

He glanced at his martial arts skill. ‘At least you haven’t deteriorated too much.’ He blinked as he noticed four skills that shouldn’t be there. “Mage sight? Acid, Electricity, Cold resistance? Those shouldn’t be there.”

He frowned slightly as he noticed some people crossing the street to avoid him. ‘Yeah, there is an asshole that runs around with ‘ghosts’ in the Bay. He ignored the people as he continued on his way. “Inventory.”

He grinned as his inventory opened and he saw a page open up with a lot of slots, some of which were already filled with books. ‘Huh, that’s neat. Chunbu martial arts, breathing… Secrets of the Sacred Forge, yeah, someone is messing with me.’ He blinked as he noticed the Orb of Iron Will that gave everyone that used it a mental protection skill. ‘Yeah, I got ROB’ed.’ 

He looked at his stat page. ‘Strength and Vitality 0, yeah, that better be from being a ghost. Dexterity 12 and Magic 50, Huh, that’s more than I was expecting. Luck 10… I’m going to need to work on that.’

He smiled slightly as he walked into the hospital and the nurse on duty stared at him in shock. “Hello, have you had any bodies show up lately, one about six foot tall, dark brown hair, beard, devilishly handsome? I seem to have misplaced it.” 

The nurse blinked then said, “We can certainly check the morgue, there are a couple John Does there. None of them are devilishly handsome though.”

“I’ll take what I can get… actually that sounds horrible. If my power requires me to grab a corpse because I have lost my body I am going to be upset,” Myst joked sounding more cheerful than he felt. Going down to the morgue felt a bit weird, but at least the nurse wasn’t overly chatty, probably because she was trying not to freak out too much which was understandable considering he sort of looked like a ghost.

“Ahhh!” A janitor dove into a side hall.

“Parahuman, not casper,” the nurse called back absently.

“Oh, that’s good,” the man replied from the floor, deciding to just lay there for the moment.

Myst wasn’t sure how to feel when the nurse opened the second drawer and he saw himself… as he was in his late teens, early twenties, sleeping or perhaps dead. He wasn’t sure as the second he touched his body he found himself looking up at the ceiling from inside his body. “Huh, I’m glad that an autopsy hadn’t been done yet and I’m going to need my clothes back.”

“I’ll get your personal effects,” the nurse replied, looking a little less stressed now that he was human.

“Thanks,” Myst replied, happy that he wasn’t dead. He spent the next couple minutes going through the rest of his skills while the nurse rounded up his things. The only other skill out of place was his ID Creation skill which looked like the standard gamer ability to create pocket dungeons. ‘Hopefully that drops loot I can use, otherwise I might have to join the Protectorate and that would suck because I’d have to put up with Armsmaster, who seems to be a bit of a dick, even if he’s better than he was in half the fics I’ve read.’

He quickly got dressed once the nurse came back with his clothes then looked at his driver’s license, which changed from John Doe to Myst, cape identification, ID Secret. He slipped the identification back in his wallet then smiled at the nurse as he flipped through his wallet, surprised to see that all of the cash was still there. “I don’t suppose you know somewhere I can get something to eat?”

“As long as you’re not looking for brains, the cafeteria isn’t horrible,” she offered, deciding that cape bullshit was nothing to stress over.

“Yeah, no. I’m not sure what the freaky tinkertech did, but I’m not a zombie... probably.” He checked to make sure he still had a pulse and was pleased to find it ticking away.

“We should probably have Panacea check you out,” the nurse suggested, not sure how many forms she was going to have to fill out for this, but expecting the number to be more than she’d like, which would be zero.

“Sure, that might be for the best,” Myst agreed, not sure what she’d find, but figuring it wouldn’t be the worst way to meet Amy. “Lead the way.”

The nurse led the way back up to the hospital then stuck Myst in an exam room while they tried to figure out what was going on.

Myst waited until the nurse left then pulled out the Yunhon Soul Recovery book and eagerly opened it. He was a touch disappointed but not surprised when the book dissolved and a popup appeared, telling him that he’d acquired the new healing skill. He blinked when he noticed the book had reappeared in his inventory. ‘Huh, that’s new.’ 

He pulled it out on inventory and looked at the book, trying to see if there was anything weird about it, as he was reasonably sure most gamer abilities ate the books you used. He frowned as he saw a note in one of the slots. He reached in and grabbed the note, sliding the book back into his inventory. “Sorry, Future Me about you not remembering anything about the selection process, but I needed the points. Love, Past Me.”

“Past Me is an asshole,” Myst cursed, shaking his head. “If I didn’t figure out I had the Gamer Ability I could have been stuck running this on Nightmare mode… shit! If I bought enough abilities that I needed to wipe my mind then I’ve probably got some enemies running around… and not just a few.”

The door opened and a tired looking young woman with brown hair dressed in a white robe with a large red cross on it came in, followed by a statuesque blonde of the same age who seemed to glide as she walked.

“Hello, I’m Panacea,” the dark haired girl introduced herself, “I’ve been told you are a new trigger?”

Myst blinked as he saw she had biomanipulation and the blonde with her had aura projection. “Yeah, I woke up a mile away from my body,” he replied. “I’m just glad it turned out to be in the first place I looked.”

“How do you lose your body?” Glory Girl asked.

Myst shrugged. “I’m guessing someone picked it up. I found it down in the morgue.”

“Permission to check your health?” Panacea asked, looking at him curiously.

“Sure,” Myst replied, pulling the inventory book out of his inventory. “Go for it.”

“Where’d the book come from?” Glory Girl asked, looking him up and down.

“My power,” Myst replied as he handed Glory Girl the book. “Check it out.”

She opened up the book and it dissolved into sparks. “I… can heal myself!”

“What?!” Panacea had paused to let her sister do her thing and was now staring.

“What? Shit, I gave you the wrong book, sorry. I meant to give you the inventory book.” Myst replied as he grabbed the right book. “Sorry about that.”

“Sorry about giving me the ability to heal myself?” Glory Girl asked, before frowning. “Damn, I wish you had given that to my sis, she could have really used it too.”

Myst pulled out the healing book and gave it to Panacea. “Here, it goes back to my inventory once you’ve used it.”

Panacea looked at the book and then at him making no move to open it. “You can heal yourself?” she asked doubtfully, wondering if this was some trick being played on her. She grabbed Myst’s wrist. “What does this book do?”

“The same as the one that I gave your sister, it gives you the ability to heal yourself and others, not that you need the second part,” Myst replied.

“And you’re just giving us new abilities without asking for anything?” Panacea asked warily.

“I wouldn’t mind a tuneup, but just think of it as payment in advance for whatever you think it’s worth.”

“Is it permanent?” Glory Girl asked hopefully, glancing at Panacea to see if he was telling the truth since she was reading his biology with her power.

“As far as I know,” Myst replied, not all that sure how his new powers worked or even how he’d gotten to a world that should be fictional.

Panacea shook her head. “Other than a couple of allergies you seem to be in perfect health, sort of weird for someone that was in the morgue recently.” She frowned slightly as she tried to deal with his allergies and found they kept coming back which meant they had to be power induced. “You have some minor regeneration and a few allergies that I can’t touch.”

“Do you have any other powers you can just hand out?” Glory Girl asked, her aura intensifying.

Myst’s eyes glazed over and he pulled out the orb to offer it to Glory Girl then blinked as he picked up a sizeable chunk of Iron Will skill. 

“Aura, Vicky!” Panacea snapped out as she shook her head slightly dazed herself.

“Oops, sorry, it kinda gets away from me when I get excited,” Glory Girl apologized.

“Don’t worry about it, this should help with resisting Master effects,” Myst explained as he handed her the orb.

Vicky blinked as she suddenly felt stronger, more in control and forced her aura to shut down completely, much to her surprise. “Whoa!”

“Whoa?” Panacea asked in concern, reaching out to touch her sister. “Your brain is… working as well as it usually does, I can’t sense anything externally affecting it.”

“It helps block mental influence by reinforcing your own will,” Myst explained as he pulled out his inventory book and handed it to Glory Girl. “You might like this.”

Glory Girl opened the book then blinked as a translucent page, complete with tabs, dozens of compartments and a character portrait that was wearing her costume appeared in front of her. “What does it do?”

“Vicky!” Amy scolded. “You’re not supposed to play with strange books without at least asking what they do first.”

“What does it do?” Glory Girl asked excitedly as she spun the figure of herself around.

“It’s extradimensional or folded space, it’s basically an inventory like a video game,” Myst explained. “You should be able to put stuff in it and take stuff out of it. So if you want to carry a first aid kit you can, or a fire extinguisher or all of the other things that are inconvenient to carry around.”

“Like school books,” Glory Girl agreed, rather excited about her new ability. “What’s the deal with the clothes mannequin?”

“Huh, you might be able to quick swap your clothes?” Myst asked, not sure as he hadn’t actually used the inventory book.

Glory Girl reached out and moved the watch on her doll’s wrist to one of the inventory slots and grinned as it vanished off her wrist. “Awesome.”

Amy shook her head. “Can I try that book?”

“Sure,” Myst replied helpfully as he handed Amy the inventory book.

Amy cautiously opened the book and blinked as an inventory screen appeared and it vanished. “Your powers are weird.” Deciding that he seemed to be on the up and up she read the healing book and smiled slightly as she gained the ability before taking a moment to try it out, some of the stress lines fading from her face and causing her to smile slightly for a moment.

“I hear grab bags are like that…” Myst trailed off as Glory Girl poked Amy with the Iron Will Orb. 

“Vicky!” Amy snapped. “What did I tell you about using strange tinkertech on people?”

“Don’t?” Vicky asked unrepentantly. “I used it on myself first,” she pointed out.

“That doesn’t make it better,” Amy replied in exasperation.

“Sure it does,” Glory Girl explained, “I saw him use it on himself to resist my aura, then I used it to verify its effects, and then I used it on you. The chance to gain more powers is almost unheard of, we’d be as stupid as the villains think I am to pass it up.”

“Huh, okay, point,” Amy admitted.

“Any other cool new things you can give us?” Glory Girl asked. “Amy can give you a couple more inches…”

“Vicky!” Amy blushed.

“What? It’s true and something few men would turn down.”

“Hmm, I have a couple physical boosting skill books, but you’d have to train to get any significant boosts out of them. I believe I have an extra-dimensional training area with made to order targets to train with, but I haven’t used it yet. I’m guessing on some of this, but my power seems to be pretty intuitive for me, or maybe it has a thinker component on how it works.” 

“I could get stronger?” Glory Girl asked doubtfully.

“Maybe not stronger considering your power but faster on your feet and more accurate,” Myst offered.

Victoria looked at Amy. “You could stand to be a little faster.”

“A bit more accuracy, a little less collateral damage would be good,” Amy teased.

“You have a point,” Glory Girl admitted, much to Amy’s surprise since that had always been a sore point with her.

“I should finish my rounds but after that, I’m free,” Amy said deciding she would be foolish not to take the chance.

“I need to get something to eat and check on the girl I helped rescue, so where do you want to meet up for training?” Myst blinked as he realized he knew where his shop was located. ‘Why the fuck did I buy a shop?’

“In the cafeteria in an hour?” Glory Girl asked as she handed the orb of iron will back to Myst, excited about the idea of getting some training that would actually help with her control.

Amy wasn’t sure how useful the training would be, but he’d already given her a healing ability she could use on herself and possibly help her step dad if she was understanding the ability correctly. It would require some testing, but considering she’d noticed an improvement in her own mood after she’d healed herself, she was willing to cut him a lot more slack than she usually would someone she’d just met. “I should be done in an hour.”

“Good, see you then,” Myst offered as he stuck the orb back in his inventory. “Does that mean I have a clean bill of health?”

“Yes, I’ll fill out the paperwork, you’re free to go.”

“Sweet, have fun on your rounds,” Myst said as he walked out of the door and headed for the lobby to see if he could figure out how to visit with Taylor. He opened his ability page and poked the undetectable power and grinned when he faded from sight between one step and the next. ‘Yeah, I’m going to enjoy this way too much.’

He glanced at the wall behind the nurses station. ‘ICU, third floor.’ He walked over to the elevator and glanced around the room. He didn’t see any obvious cameras pointed at the elevator so he pushed the button, figuring no one would notice the button lighting up even if someone decided to check. He walked into the elevator and pushed the button for the third floor, trying to figure out what he was going to say to Taylor or her father.

Myst wasn’t terribly surprised to see a rather frustrated tall man with thinning hair pacing back and forth outside of the ICU as he walked out of the elevator. He frowned slightly as he glanced around at the various cameras, a couple of which were pointed down the hallway which would show the door opening. ‘I could just walk in or I could practice with my ID creation ability. I’d rather not have to try to explain everything to Danny right now. Not to mention it would give him false hope if my idea doesn’t work. Yeah, that seems more reasonable. Besides, I need the practice.’

Myst focused on his ID Create ability and created an empty version of the hospital. He smirked as the people vanished or rather he slipped into an alternate world. ‘So far so good.’ He walked through the doorway into what he was hoping was Taylor’s room then walked to the corner he was fairly sure no one would be standing in then broke the barrier. He glanced around the mostly empty room and then focused on the girl sprawled on the bed. She looked like an emotional wreck, her face heavily lined with worry and stress, as she twisted and turned in her sleep. ‘Okay, let’s try not to completely freak her out.’

He walked over and grabbed the extra clipboard someone had left then walked over to the door. He focused on his detection power and allowed Taylor to see him while staying undetectable to everyone else. “Ms. Hebert?” he asked softly but loud enough that she could hear him.

Taylor twitched then turned to look at the tall man in his early twenties standing by the door, holding a clipboard. “Yes? Who are you?” she asked warily trying not to scream as a confused mess of sensations bombarded her from all directions.

“My name is Myst, I’m here to help with the things you’ve been sensing.” He figured she deserved some help after the shit she’d been through and there was no guarantee that things would work out if he did nothing. Hell, if he was the ROB he would have picked a version that was doomed without the interference which meant that he had to work hard to stack the deck in their favor which meant giving the heroes a boost and dealing with as many of the problems as he could.

Taylor stared at him, trying to figure out if he was just humoring her. “How?”

“First we use a tinkertech device on you then by using my power to allow you to adapt faster your recovery should speed up dramatically.”

“You’re a parahuman?” Taylor asked hoping he could help and that she wasn’t imagining it.

“I’m a hero,” Myst assured her as he pulled the Iron Will orb out of his inventory. “This should help with mental defenses.”

“I’ll take it,” Taylor said, figuring anything was better than the constant confusion and strange sounds she was hearing that no one else could hear.

“Excellent, just touch the orb. It should help you think clearly, after that we’ll work on training.” Myst held the orb out so that she could touch it.

Taylor quickly touched the orb then blinked as a great deal of the sensations she was feeling seemed to fade into the background and the feeling of hundreds of thousands of inputs got less intense. She relaxed slightly as things were easier to deal with and no longer as overwhelming. “Thanks, that’s much better.”

Myst put the orb back in his inventory. “That’s my job, fixing things one step at a time. I can also tell you that you’re not in fact insane or at least no more insane than the rest of us.”

“What do you mean?” Taylor asked confused.

“You’re a parahuman, your power is invertebrate control. You’re basically hearing, tasting, and smelling what the bugs in your range are experiencing, it should get better with practice.”

”Yeah? When?” Taylor asked anxiously.

“No idea, without my help, a couple weeks, with my help, a day at most, probably a lot less,” Myst replied. “It depends on how much you practice.”

“Let’s try,” Taylor said, wanting everything to make sense again.

“Party invite Taylor Hebert,” Myst commanded. “Just hit accept.”

Taylor blinked as a popup appeared in her vision asking her if she wanted to join a party. “You have a built in consent form?” she asked in amused disbelief.

“Yeah, my power is a bit odd,” Myst replied good naturedly, suddenly glad that he didn’t have a defective gamer ability that lacked the party function as it would have been a touch embarrassing.

Taylor carefully tapped the accept icon then blinked as she got a notice about joining the party and promptly got another notice about her Invertebrate Control skill increasing in level. “I just got a point of Invertebrate control skill.”

“I’m not surprised, the first couple levels are always the easiest. See if you can get some of the bugs to move or maybe stop moving and we should see some interesting skill gains.”

Taylor tried to focus on the bugs that she was supposed to be controlling to see if she could do anything with them. She smiled slightly as her skill jumped another two points quickly as she started sorting things out. “Holy shit!”

“Keep working on it,” Myst encouraged Taylor, rather happy with her progress. ‘Maybe this won’t take forever.’ He glanced over his list of powers and abilities while Taylor worked on increasing her control. ‘Abyss Auction?’ He activated the ability and grinned as it pulled up an auction menu. ‘That’s useful. I can even sell shit.’ He looked through the various overly expensive spell books that he could buy with excitement. ‘Good, I don’t have to farm everything or try to create skills myself.’ He frowned slightly as he noticed his account balance was zero. ‘Yeah, I might need to work on that.’

He turned his attention toward Taylor, who seemed a lot more relaxed than when he’d first seen her. “The party system should still work while I’m wandering around, feel free to concentrate on moving the bugs around and seeing through their senses.”

“Thanks, I’ll work on it,” Taylor assured him, noticing how much easier it was to deal with the additional inputs after just a few seconds of following his advice.

Myst pulled the healing book out of his inventory and handed it to her. “Here, this should give you the ability to heal yourself and others, just in case you accidentally poison someone or they’re allergic to bugs.”

Taylor opened the book then blinked as it vanished, leaving her with the knowledge of how to use a healing ability. “You’re a trump.”

“Pretty much. There’s an energy cost for the ability but the more you use the ability the more you’ll get out of it and the more often you’ll be able to use the ability. Your energy pool should slowly regenerate. It also helps with fatigue so if you want to use it on yourself, go for it.”

Taylor quickly used her new ability on herself, suddenly feeling a hundred percent better as the fatigue toxins were removed from her body and her stress dropped to almost nothing. “That’s fantastic!”

“Pretty much. Keep working on your bug control, I’ll check in later,” Myst said as he focused on his ID Create ability and recreated the empty ID barrier so he could leave without opening the door. He walked out of the door then headed for the stairs. ‘I should probably head across the street and grab something to eat then meet up with Amy and Vicky. Hopefully I can figure out which gang wants to kill me if it isn’t all of them.’