Myst in Worm (Gamer) Part 2 (Patreon)

He took a bite of his sub, glad he’d decided to skip the hospital cafeteria, having had enough experience with hospital food to last a couple lifetimes and knowing most of them were just as bad as the jokes usually alleged. ‘What’s the best way to level up my ID Barrier skills in the least amount of time?’ he thought to himself as he slowly made his way through his sub, recalling the feeling of using the ability and how it started with him focusing on himself and then the world around him. ‘What if I focus it elsewhere?’ he considered before looking around for something he could use it on that no one would notice.

Spotting the packet of salt under his napkins he pulled it out and blocked the restaurant’s view of it with his hand. He focused on how it felt to create a barrier but instead of feeling it expanding from the center of his being he tried to project it around the salt.

The packet vanished instantly, though he could feel the barrier around it, a tiny world the size of a grapefruit.

Myst grinned slightly as he broke the ID barrier around the packet of salt then recreated the barrier around the salt packet. ‘Huh, I’m getting more experience by ‘trapping’ the salt in a barrier and dispelling it than I did jumping into an empty ID barrier, that’s nuts.’ He frowned slightly as he glanced around the Sub-Shop, making sure that no one was paying all that much attention to him as he worked on eating his sub and playing with trapping the salt packet. ‘I wonder if I’d get more experience if it was moving.’

He slid the salt package across the table then ‘trapped’ it in a barrier then stared as his ID barrier skill’s experience bar jumped by a significant amount. ‘Neat!’ he thought as he dispelled the ID barrier. He absently reached over and grabbed the packet of salt and sent it across the table again so that he could trap it. ‘Yeah, this is boring as hell,’ he thought as he finished his sandwich while working on leveling his ID creation skill.

He absently continued working on leveling his ID skill as opened his options menu and looked through the options, wanting to make sure he wasn’t missing anything. ‘Rats, I don’t have an option for background music.’ He ignored the options for adjusting the transparency of the popups and looked over the options for the party system. ‘Huh, apparently I can manage five separate groups at a time. That should make things easier.’

He smiled as he palmed the salt packet then headed for the door, flashing the attractive clerk a smile on his way out. He lazily glanced around then he started jogging down the street, wanting to get some exercise but not wanting to freak anyone out by running down the sidewalk. “Invite Glory Girl, Party 2.”

Victoria twitched and nearly dropped her phone as another popup appeared in front of her asking if she wanted to join a party. She glanced over at Amy who was currently fixing a gunshot wound then over at the nurse then as discreetly as she could, reached out and hit accept causing it to vanish. 

‘Must be that new cape’s weird power,’ she decided. ‘Now, how do I get in contact with him? He can’t be that far away if he’s pulling this.’ A keypad appeared in front of her with a blank message screen that started typing as she thought. ‘How the… I’m typing with my mind? How do I-’

‘Send it? Not sure, I’m still trying to figure it out,’ Myst replied mentally as he picked up his pace, trying to push his endurance a bit without looking like a crazy person while he shared a chat window with Glory Girl. He was just glad that he could see through the party lists easily enough and they tended to fade out unless he concentrated on them which was nice.

‘Where are you?’ Victoria mentally typed. ‘At least I have to be focused on writing the message and it doesn’t just toss out everything I’m thinking. Man, the number of Dick Pics I’d get if everyone had a chat program like this would be immense. I wonder why they don’t have a similar term for girls who send out pics of their boobs. Mammary Mementos maybe?’

‘I’m working on my endurance while I wait for Amy to finish up, you?’ Myst asked as he dodged a pedestrian.

‘Playing a game on my phone. How was your friend?’

‘Doing better, thanks.’

‘So, have you figured out a cape name?’ Victoria asked, more than a little curious about the new cape.

Myst scowled slightly as he thought about the camera on Armsmaster’s helmet. ‘Not yet, I doubt it will take the PRT all that long- shit!’ He sent the message as he dove to the ground as a dirty street bum that had been sitting at the mouth of an alley pulled a gun out of his coat pocket and opened fire on him. He activated his stranger ability as he rolled to his feet then took a couple steps so that he wasn’t standing where he vanished in case the lunatic wanted to try to shoot him again. ‘What the fuck was that?!’

‘I heard gunshots, what happened?’ Victoria asked, slightly worried about Myst’s abrupt swearing and the gunshots from outside the hospital.

‘A street bum just tried to kill me with a gun,’ Myst replied as he walked over as quietly as he could to where the man was looking around wildly. ‘Fucker.’ He punched the bum in the solar plexus as hard as he could then lashed out and hit him in the temple, dropping him unconscious.

The nurse twitched. “That sounded close.”

“Yeah,” Victoria admitted. ‘Do you need help?’ she sent as she headed for the door.

‘Give me a second,’ Myst replied mentally as he looked at the opposite side of the street to make sure the asshole hadn’t hit anyone with his unprovoked attack. Thankfully there weren’t any injured bystanders and none of the windows of the brick building were broken which meant the lunatic probably hadn’t killed anyone. ‘No, he didn’t hit anyone.’

“Vicky?” Amy asked warily, not wanting to have to put someone back together after Vicky got a little enthusiastic.

“Sorry, habit,” Victoria admitted, returning to her side. “I’m sure someone else already has it in hand.”

Myst reached down and picked up the badly cared for gun then opened his abyss auction interface and dropped the gun into the sell box. “Hopefully this works,” he muttered as he hit accept. He smiled as the gun vanished and his account went up by 100 dollars. ‘Seems a bit low for a gun but at least it’s off the streets and I get cash.’ He stepped over and carefully opened the man’s cooler, unsurprised to see a number of small bags of drugs as well as dozens of needles that looked less than clean. “Yeah, you’re a fucking Merchant and you just tried to kill me so all your bases belong to me now.”

Myst dropped the cooler into the sell bin then hit accept, mildly surprised that his account jumped by 438 dollars. ‘I could get used to this.’ He looked at the unconscious thug that had been insane or high enough to open fire at him in the middle of the day. ‘Yeah, I’m either unlucky as hell or I have an enemies flaw. This would be easier if I actually had the standard gamer name tag on people.’

“By all rights I should toss you into the bin and see if I can sell you for pocket change,” Myst muttered as he opened his skill list and selected Yunhon Soul Recovery. He stepped back as a nasty looking cloud of crud boiled out of the man’s mouth as the healing energy washed over the drug dealer. “Yeah, that’s nasty.”

‘Did you catch him?’ Victoria asked over party chat.

‘Working on it,’ Myst replied as he adjusted his stealth ability so the thug could see him but not anyone else as the man coughed then vomited a bunch of shit out of his stomach. “Hey shithead, wake up. I have a couple of questions for you.”

“Skidmark is going to kill you!” the thug snarled as he tried to get to his feet, looking a lot more coherent and dangerous.

“Why?” Myst asked, curious if this was a mistake or a flaw coming into play as he’d never actually ran into Skidmark as far as he knew.

“You torched our supply house!” the man snarled as he got to his feet and reached for his pocket knife.

“Yeah, that wasn’t me,” Myst tried to argue then stepped back as the man swung at him. “Tell your boss that I didn’t torch your stash house, it was Coil’s mercenaries trying to frame me.”

“Bullshit!” the man shouted as he took another swing.

Myst faded from the man’s view as he blocked the wild swing then stepped forward and shoved the thug against the wall. He focused on letting his voice be heard, “Run monkey boy, run.” He took a step back as the thug started throwing punches everywhere while screaming about killing him, his family and his dog. ‘Yeah, that’s a flaw.’

He lashed out and punched the man in the temple, dropping him to the ground as his brain stopped working again. Myst reached down and grabbed the man’s flailing left foot and caught it then pulled at the laces and ripped the shoe off as he said, “Yoink!” He dropped the shoe in his inventory then grabbed the man’s other leg and ripped his right shoe off the same way. “Yoink!”

“Yoink!” Myst felt like laughing as he stole the thug’s knockoff rolex off his wrist and got a popup informing him that he’d just gotten a new skill. He took a step back and looked at his new skill. ‘Yoink: Steal an equipped piece of gear and stash it in your inventory. Skill level : Low, hopefully the odds get better when I level it up.’ He used his new skill on the dazed thug until he’d reduced the idiot to his underwear. He would have felt bad about it, but the drugged up asshole had tried to gun him down on the sidewalk less than two blocks from the hospital.

Myst tossed the man’s wallet into his inventory then swapped his undetectable power so that no one could see him. He did his best to hogtie the man with his clothes then dragged him into the street for the cops to find. He grinned slightly as the cops rushed over to grab the dealer that they obviously recognized. He sent Victoria a mental message as he headed toward the hospital, ‘I left the guy hogtied for the cops.’

‘What condition is he in?’ Victoria asked.

‘I healed him of his addiction first, so better than he started out. Provided he doesn’t piss the police off any more than he already has anyway.’

‘Might happen,’ Victoria replied with amusement as Amy walked over. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, I’m done, do you think our mysterious cape friend is waiting?” Amy asked, looking forward to blowing off some steam.

‘Amy is done, are you ready?’ Victoria asked as she acted like she was typing something on her phone. “I’ll ask.”

“Good,” Amy replied as she walked out of the room, looking forward to seeing what other tricks their new friend could share.

‘Yeah, I’m heading that way, meet you out front?’ Myst asked as he started running down the sidewalk toward the hospital as fast as he could, trying to increase his vitality or at least increase his running skill.

Victoria grinned as she followed Amy out of the room. “He said he’d meet us out front.”

“Any idea what we’re going to work on first?” Amy asked softly as they headed for the elevator.

“Not a clue Ames,” Victoria replied, not terribly worried about it as she hadn’t had any plans for the day other than making sure her sister didn’t spend all night at the hospital. ‘We’ll be coming out the side doors so that Amy doesn’t get mobbed.’

‘No worries,’ Myst replied as he dodged a group of seniors walking the other way. He relaxed his undetectable ability enough that humans could see him but shouldn’t pay all that much attention to him then worked on pushing himself as hard as he could. He scowled slightly as he noticed the rate his stamina bar was draining increase drastically. ‘I don’t feel tired or out of breath though I’ll probably fall over once I hit zero. I’m going to have to test that once I’m somewhere safe.’ He ignored the urge to laugh as he stepped into an ID barrier as he saw the walk symbol on the other side of the street turn into a blinking red hand. 

He grinned as he jumped up onto the hood of a stopped car, ignoring the dents as he jumped onto the roof of the car then onto the trunk before jumping to the next car. He repeated the process several times with random cars before he ran out of cars and jumped off the last car.

Jumping Skill increased by 1

Running Skill increased by 1

‘It can’t be that easy,’ Myst thought as he started jumping as he headed toward the hospital. He pulled up his skill page and looked at his jumping skill, a touch annoyed that he wasn’t getting more than a possible fraction of a sliver for his jumping skill from just running down the street jumping like a lunatic. He turned and jumped up onto a parked muscle car, ignoring the dent he left in the trunk as he jumped to the roof of the car. He sprinted forward then jumped, aiming for the trunk of the next car. He had one perfect moment of soaring through the air, no care in the world then his foot slipped as he landed on the trunk of the next car and he painfully face planted into the back windshield. “Fuck!”

Physical Endurance Skill increased by 1

Jumping Skill increased by 1

He lay sprawled on the back of the car for a couple seconds as he waited for the pain to fade. “Yeah, I’m leaving that out of the story.”

‘Is there a reason you just lost a chunk of your health?’ Vicky asked as she followed Amy out the side door.

Myst sighed as he realized Victoria had been watching the party health bars. ‘I was running like a lunatic and tripped.’ He used his healing spell on himself then rolled off the car. He broke the ID barrier and started walking toward where he could see Amy and Victoria.

“That explains it,” Victoria replied as she flashed Myst a smile.

“Explains what?” Amy asked as she glanced between her sister and Myst.

“Ah, right, welcome to the party,” Myst teased. “Invite Amy, Party Two.”

Amy blinked as a popup appeared asking her if she wanted to join Party Two. “A party?”

“Yep, it should drastically increase the effectiveness of our training.”

‘It also comes with a party chat feature,‘ Victoria added once Amy’s health and mana bars appeared under Myst’s icon.

Amy twitched slightly as she looked at the almost video game like health and mana bars for her sister and Myst. “You’re a complete geek aren’t you?”

“Just a bit, not sure if that’s what caused my power to manifest this way, but it is what it is,” Myst said with a shrug as he pulled them into an ID barrier without people. “Let’s start training.”

Amy twitched as everything went quiet and all of the people vanished other than her sister and Myst. “What did you do?”

“I pulled us into a training area where we can have some fun without worrying about collateral damage.”

“You mean I can break things without getting in trouble?” Victoria asked hopefully.

“Exactly, you get to have fun tossing cars…” Myst trailed off as Victoria flew at a car in an almost blur, slammed into it then tossed it into a building, completely taking out the small shoe store. “Huh, I was expecting to have to break something then drop the ID barrier to show it didn’t actually cause any damage before she’d cut loose.”

Amy snorted, not the least surprised by her sister’s enthusiasm. “How do you want to start practicing?”

Myst glanced at the cars on the street that Victoria was doing a good job destroying in her rampage. “That depends, do you want to have some fun or just get down to training?”

“Between school and the hospital, I wouldn’t mind having a bit of fun,” Amy admitted.

“In that case, let me see what I can find for training gear.” Myst opened the Abyss Auction menu and ran a search for non lethal weapons. He grinned as he saw the entry for a magical paintball gun. ‘Simply feed a tiny amount of mana into the gun to create any color paintballs you want, the paint will fade in three hours or at dawn making cleanup easy. Yeah, that’s worth 500 just to grief the Merchants.’ He quickly bought the paintball gun then pulled it out of the box.

Amy raised an eyebrow as Myst pulled a paintball gun out of his inventory. “We’re going paintballing?”

Myst focused on Neon green paintballs as he fed mana into the gun. He grinned as the hopper on top filled with neon green paintballs while his mana dropped by 5 points. “Yep, paintball. Do you want to shoot your sister?”

Amy looked at the paintball gun then at her sister who was playing kick the can with a car down the street. “She’d freak about her clothes.”

“That’s not a no,” Myst teased as he handed her the paintball gun.

Amy laughed. “You’re a bad influence.”

“I prefer the term wicked influence rather than bad,” Myst replied smugly. “Tell you what, I’ll spring for lunch if you can make the shot.”

“Right,” Amy aimed at her sister’s back and fired once, trusting her sister’s force field to keep her clothes clean.

Victoria jumped as something splattered against her force field. “What the hell?!” She turned and saw Amy holding a paintball gun. ‘This means war!’

‘Huh, neat, I owe Amy lunch, I didn’t think she could make that shot,’ Myst replied on the party chat, rather amused with the entire situation.

“You better run!” Victoria shouted playfully as she started stomping toward them gleefully shattering the sidewalk with every step.

Myst snickered as he watched Victoria march toward them. “You should probably try to shoot her a couple more times while she’s charging, then we can work on running. I got decent jumping experience jumping on the cars while running.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Amy replied as she continued taking pop shots at her sister.

‘Why are you shooting at me?’ Victoria asked after the third shot, knowing there was no way paintballs would penetrate her force field.

‘Officially, to improve your situational awareness and my marksmanship,’ Amy replied as she got another point of marksmanship. ‘Unofficially? It’s fun!’

‘This stuff better not stain,’ Victoria complained.

Myst snickered. ‘Don’t worry, it should vanish at dawn on the off chance that you actually got any paint on you.’

“Where are we going next?” Victoria asked as she flew over.

“Do you know where a decent used bookstore is?” Myst asked, wanting to see if he could pick up any interesting skills and make them into books for everyone.

“There’s one a few blocks down the way, though it’s mostly college texts,” Victoria offered.

Amy snickered as she shot her sister with a three shot burst. “Perfect, you can work on dodging!” she explained as she started running down the street in the direction of the bookstore.

“Cheater!” Victoria called as she looked down at the paint that was somehow clinging to her forcefield.

“You should try doing a bunch of cartwheels to see if you can increase your acrobatics skill while you’re at it,” Myst suggested.

“You do realize I’m wearing shorts under my costume, right?” Vicky teased.

“I’m aware. Besides, if I wanted a look, I’d suggest playing strip poker to see if we can grind our luck stats.”

“We can do that?” Victoria asked hopefully.

“Yeah, it works better if there is actual risk, which is why we’d have to be betting something and money is less valuable than embarrassment.” Myst turned to look at Amy. “That’s probably enough of a head start.” 

“Probably,” Victoria agreed as she took a couple steps then started doing cartwheels.

Myst grinned as he watched the hero cartwheel down the street. ‘Hopefully we actually get some acrobatics from this.’ He took a couple of running steps then launched himself into a cartwheel, ecstatic that he didn’t have to favor his right leg anymore. He scowled as he dove, tucked his head and rolled. He winced at the impact then rolled to his feet and kept running for several steps before doing another cartwheel. ‘Forgot how painful this was to do on pavement.’