Myst in Worm (Gamer) Part 12 (Patreon)

Lisa pulled her attention away from the door to the Blue Moon cafe as a man in his early twenties or late teens sat down across from her with a grin. "Find a different seat, I'm busy."

"You're rather cranky without your coffee Lisa," Myst replied then took a drink of his hot chocolate, making sure the Blue Moon label was facing her so she couldn't help but notice that he'd gotten into and out of the cafe she was watching without her noticing.

Lisa's eyes narrowed as she glanced between the stranger's face and his drink. "You're a stranger."

Myst grinned. "It helps when you're trying to get the drop on people."

"What's your game?" Lisa asked, wishing she had more information than her power was giving her, mostly because it wasn't giving her much, just that he was having fun teasing her and his grin could have told her that.

"I'm trying to improve the city." He noticed her slight frown. "I'm not naive, I know that removing the gangs won't fix everything but it's a good start."

"Why start with Coil?" Lisa asked, knowing Coil had intentionally undersold his abilities and tried to stay mostly under the radar.

"I captured him because he was going to cause a lot of problems for the city and possibly the world in the next couple of months."

"How would he have caused problems for the world?" Lisa asked, trying to get the stranger to give her more details so that she could figure out what he wanted and if he was a danger to her.

"He made a deal with a group of dangerous parahumans and wasn't going to keep his end of the deal, this would have resulted in Alexandria's death and a lot of problems. Normally, I'd just turn him over to the PRT and wash my hands of things, but he has friends that can make sure he never reaches prison and I captured him in his civilian identity, which means I don't have his costume or anything that links him to his identity as Coil beyond a couple of numbers on his phone and he probably has excuses for most of them."

"If that's the case, how do you know he's Coil and not a body double?" she asked.

"One of my powers lets me sense and identify powers," Myst admitted.

"Great, not only are you a Stranger, you're a walking cape detector. Let me guess, this is where you recruit me? Some version of if I work for you, you won't turn me in?" Lisa asked dryly.

"Fuck that, you're a bullshit level Thinker and you're decently intelligent to start with." Myst shook his head. "Let's ignore the fact that I actually have morals and ethics for a second, bribery generally works better than coercion. I don't have millions to give you, what I have is an opportunity where you use your unique skills to take Coil to the cleaners."

"What do you get out of it?" Lisa asked.

"By helping you make millions, you can help Grue with his sister and Rachel with her dogs which means the Undersiders can afford to be picky and switch from being villains to vigilantes that only rob from other gangs or corrupt rich people that no one gives a shit about."

"What about Regent?" Lisa asked, trying not to react to the fact that the stranger knew more about her team than he should.

"What about him?" Myst asked with a grin. "I doubt he's going to complain as long as he's being paid."

"How do you know we'll stick to the plan?" Lisa asked, willing to admit that he had Regent pegged fairly well.

"I don't, but you can run the numbers, most capes don't last two years. If you take the money and don't help your team, I'll track you down and turn you in because you're not the girl I thought you were. If you help your team and they decide to stay villains, they'll eventually get killed doing something stupid."

"And if we work for you we can avoid that?" Lisa asked dryly.

"Sorry, I'm not a precog." Myst pulled his orb of Iron Will out of his inventory and set it on the table between them. "On the other hand, I can probably help with your headaches, just touch the orb."

"How would that help?" Lisa asked as she pulled her hand back.

"It's basically tinkertech." Myst smiled at her then worked on drinking the rest of his hot chocolate before it got cold. 

Lisa glanced between the orb and the smug stranger, fairly sure that he knew her and yet equally sure she'd never met him before he sat down at her table. Her instincts were screaming at her to ignore the orb but she was already getting a headache and she knew talking to Coil was going to push her power even further. 'Screw it.' She reached out and touched the orb before she could change her mind. "Iron Will?" she muttered as she read the notice informing her that she'd just gained a new skill. "How long does it last?"

"It's permanent," Myst replied with amusement as he returned the orb to inventory and pulled them into an empty ID barrier.

"What do you mean it's permanent…" Lisa trailed off as she realized the background noise had vanished. She felt her heart lurch as she glanced around and realized they were the only people left and the world was lacking in details, as if they were in a VR setup. "What did you do!" she demanded as she jumped out of her chair.

"I pulled us into a pocket dimension so that you could question Coil without people freaking out when he starts screaming."

"Why would he start screaming?" Lisa asked cautiously, because while she hated Coil and would gladly see him dead, she wasn’t sure she had the stomach for torture.

"Considering he's going to wake up tied up with duct tape in an unfamiliar place, why wouldn't he start screaming?" Myst asked with amusement as he headed for the small bookstore.

"You could have warned me," Lisa grumbled, hiding her relief as she followed him into the store.

"If you could pull people into pocket dimensions, would you warn them or would you laugh at the look on their face?" Myst asked as he walked into the shop.

"Some hero," Lisa grumbled with a sigh, knowing she'd do the exact same thing if she had his power.

"I said I'm trying to fix the city, I didn't say I was a saint," Myst replied as he pulled Coil out of his inventory and dropped him on the ground.

"That's Coil?" Lisa asked, looking at the tall skinny middle aged man tied up on the ground.

Myst cast soul recovery on Coil to heal the damage and wake him up. "Thomas Calvert, a.k.a Coil, a.k.a precog dickhead." He glared at Coil. "If you use your power, you'll regret it."

"You obviously have the wrong man," Coil said as he split the timeline, struggling against his bonds in one and staying calm in the other timeline.

Myst frowned slightly as Coil glanced around as if he was looking for someone that had vanished. "And he just activated his power." He walked over and kicked him in the nuts. "Now we just need to wait until he uses his power again." 

Lisa frowned as Coil showed no reaction to getting kicked in the nuts for several seconds then started screaming. "What happened?"

Myst shrugged. "He used his power after I told him not to then he used it again to check something."

"Can we kick him again?" Lisa asked cheerfully. Payback wasn’t torture after all.

Myst scratched his chin. "Only if he uses his power."

"I'm going to kill you," Coil swore after the pain receded enough that he could think straight.

"You're not helping your case. I'll make you a deal Calvert, if you answer the nice lady's questions, you'll walk out of here alive and well or at least alive. If you don't, I'll drop you in the deepest hole I can find and let you rot," Myst explained as he walked over to grab a stack of blank books off the shelf.

"I can pay," Coil offered, looking at Lisa.

"That would require having money in said accounts, they're controlled by your phones, right?" Lisa guessed, rather surprised when he twitched, indicating that his phones would make it easier to access his accounts.

Myst ignored the 'discussion' about finances and Coil's various threats and demands as he sat down and started scribing his Yoink ability, trying to get a better version. He might have paid more attention but seriously, it was hard taking Coil's threats seriously when he wasn't planning on giving him a chance to escape, not to mention he wasn't particularly creative in his threats.

Thirty seven books and a lot of random questions later...

“Critical success: Steal Attribute Book created. Luck increased by 1!” the system’s ethereal voice announced.

Myst stared in disbelief at the book sitting on the table that he'd just finished scribing, shocked that he'd actually gotten something useful, as he’d been about to give up hope. He quickly opened the book, wondering if his new skill would make up for not being able to level. '100 mana per use, requires contact, and the stat must be higher than your current stat. This is going to be awesome, way better than having to grind levels like Jihan.'

He closed the book then grabbed a notebook out of his inventory and started scribing a copy of his favorite new skill. 'If I'm going to make this work, I'm going to need a lot more mana regeneration and better dungeons.' He put the permanent Steal Attribute book in his inventory with the rest of his skill books then opened the temporary book and hit accept.

Myst brought up his new skill and looked over his options, rather amused by the way the display updated when he focused on Lisa and Coil giving him details that he still hadn’t achieved with Observe. 'Lisa has better dexterity, Coil has better physical stats in every category which means I need to work on increasing my stats if I want to actually survive being a cape.'

"Are you done?" Lisa asked, a touch curious why and how he'd just disintegrated a book. 'How many powers does he have?'

"Are you going to kill me now?" Coil demanded, mentally running through the names of PRT employees he could blackmail to get released.

"If I was a better person, probably. Unfortunately, I'm not," Myst replied as he walked over and looked down at Calvert. "I'd go with the old, ‘You have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting,’ but you probably wouldn't get the reference." He kicked Calvert in the temple, dropping him unconscious.

"A Knight's Tale?" Lisa asked, rolling her eyes like the teenager she was.

"It seemed appropriate," Myst replied as he shoved Calvert into his inventory. "Joking aside, you'll never see him again."

"Do I want to know what you're going to do with him?" Lisa asked.

"I'm going to drop him somewhere he can’t find his way back from," Myst replied as he pulled an extra copy of his levitation meditation book out of his inventory and handed it to her. "Consider it a free sample of the types of things you'll get if you work for me."

"A book?" Lisa asked as she raised her eyebrows.

"You say book, I say potential," he said as he floated off the ground several inches. "I'm a trump, probably one of the most versatile on the planet. I might not be as powerful as Eidolon, but open that book and you'll see I'm much more of a team player than he'll ever be."

Lisa opened the book and nearly dropped it as a window appeared asking her if she wanted to learn a Meditation skill that would let her levitate. "How long does this last and how many people can you empower?"

"Permanent and as many as I want," Myst replied smugly.

Lisa glanced at the stack of books on the table. "That's not the only thing you can share is it?" 

"No, my party system works like a training booster and I can hand out low end abilities like candy. Just imagine if all of the police could fly and tank hits as well as a brute."

"I'd rather not," Lisa complained as she hit accept and the book vanished, "that would make escaping them rather difficult."

"So, are you interested in playing ball?" Myst asked with a Cheshire grin as he adjusted his Stranger rating so that he faded out of sight leaving only his grinning teeth floating in the air.

"You are enjoying this way too much," Lisa complained, rather amused despite her mild headache. "I thought you said the orb would fix my headaches?"

"Eventually," Myst replied then cast soul recovery on her. "Better?"

Lisa blinked as her headache vanished. "You should have led with that. Where do I sign up?"

"I'll be around," Myst assured her as he tossed his empty hot chocolate cup into the trash where it would drop into the real trash when he collapsed the ID barrier. "I'm not in a hurry. Talk to the rest of the team, loot Coil's accounts, have some ice cream and relax then make a choice. I can give you the chance to change your stars. Are you willing to take it?"

"I'll see what they say. Grue might be a bit annoyed with you for taking out Coil, as he needs a legitimate source of income and some extra-legal assistance if he wants to get custody of his sister."

"Just explain how much of a piece of shit Coil was and that he never intended to deliver on that promise as it kept him in line and that I'm planning on starting a salvage company and go from there. That reminds me, did Leet and Uber actually beat up a bunch of hookers for their video?" he asked as he adjusted his stranger rating so that only Merchants, recording devices, and shards couldn't see him.

Lisa shook her head. "No, that was just a show, they paid the hookers. It wasn't one of their best ideas considering the flak they took on the boards. Turns out, while people may look down on sex workers… they still consider them people. Humanity occasionally doesn’t live down to my expectations of them."

"In other words, they're worth salvaging?" Myst asked, already planning on ways to get Leet and Uber to make zombie movies.

Lisa shook her head. "Only if you want to get blown up by faulty tinkertech."

"I'll take my chances," Myst replied as he gestured towards the door. "Unless you want to reappear in the middle of the cafe, we should probably head outside."

"What about your books?" Lisa asked as she glanced at the stack of books that probably contained interesting skills and reflexively picked up and opened one, causing it to vanish as she absorbed the skill. “Yoink?” she asked in disbelief, before picking up another and frowning as she saw it was the exact same skill.

"Leave them, they'll vanish when I collapse the pocket dimension," Myst replied as he gestured towards the door.

"Thank you for dealing with Coil," Lisa offered, wondering why he’d written multiple copies of the same skill while she was questioning Coil.

"You're welcome," Myst replied as they left the shop. "Message me after you've talked to your team and considered the offer." He dropped the ID barrier and headed down the street towards Arcadia, being one of the only places he knew of that would have a forge. 

He opened his enchanting menu and hit the jewelry tab on his inventory. "At least I'm going to be replacing everything in a couple of days," he muttered as he dropped the ring into his enchanting menu and enchanted it with 2 points of mana regeneration, dropping his mana pool to almost nothing.

He slipped the ring on his finger after observing it, mostly because he wanted to work on his Observe skill then opened his auction menu and ran a search for pain reducing items. He frowned when he saw the entire page was filled with potions and herbal remedies for reducing pain. 'Dulls pain, relieves pain, causes euphoria... that’s not happening.' He swapped to the second page and scanned over the list then flipped through the next two pages, less than impressed with the prices or effects. 

'199 for a potion that temporarily removes your sense of touch and ability to feel pain for 20 minutes. Screw it, at least it doesn't have any side effects, unlike most of the crap.' he selected the buyout option then ran a search for magical metals as he continued walking towards the school.

"Mithril, Blood Iron, Star Metal, Slaytium?" he muttered as he read the tag on the strange metal he'd never heard of. 

“Supposedly created by an alchemist to be the best metal in the universe, but the fucker lied! While I'll admit that you can sharpen it to a razor’s edge that would make obsidian scalpels jealous, it's so fragile you can break the blade just setting it on the gods’ damned table after it's cooled! Don't even get me started on the fucking color. The bastard that sold me this shit should be dragged out in the street and stabbed to death or fucked up the ass with a spiked dildo, of at least a cubit’s length, made of this crap!”

Myst grinned as he put a bid on the hot pink metal, mostly because it was only listed for 10 dollars a pound and the auction only had another twenty minutes on it. He figured if nothing else it should give him a decent amount of crafting experience and might be useful for single use blades.

He checked the description on the anime-protagonist sized Heliosium sword the seller had tagged as Scrap, Alchemy Product, Cosplay Gear and Oversized Blade. 'A third of the weight of aluminum and shit tier damage because it absorbs part of the impact…' he trailed off as he stared at the description, wondering why the hell they'd turned it into a weapon rather than armor. 'You'd think someone would buy it to melt it down. Then again, they probably don't have Observe so they might not have noticed the defensive properties.'

He dodged out of the way as a tall heavy set guy nearly walked into him. "Hey…" he trailed off as he realized the man was a Merchant and couldn't see or hear him. He closed his auction menu and brought up his new thievery menu. "Yeah, he's a druggie and he's still got better physical stats than I do," he grumbled as he walked over, lightly touched his back, and used his ability to try to steal some of the man's vitality, feeling a good chunk of his remaining mana drain away.

"Partial Success! One Hit Point gained!" the ethereal voice announced. “+1 Luck!”

Myst took a step back as the ex-football player turned around and looked to see who'd touched him. 'Yeah, invisibility for the win.' He briefly considered knocking the idiot out and leaving him for the cops, but it wasn't like he had proof of criminal behavior, which meant the police were unlikely to do much of anything. He turned around and continued walking towards the school, fairly sure his new skill would be extremely useful once he got it skilled up to a decent level.

0o0o0

Myst couldn't help but sympathize with Winslow's students as he walked into his ID Barrier’s version of Arcadia's metal shop and saw the rather impressive collection of expensive tools that he seriously doubted they needed for a high school shop class. 'Right, not only do the hallways look like a prep school on television, the metal shop looks like something a Tinker would love to have.'

He opened his craft menu as he walked over to the anvil and gas powered forge. "This better work," he muttered as he selected the katana pattern and dropped a bar of high quality steel into the crafting box, added a broken screwdriver for the handle, then hit accept. He sighed in relief when a progress bar appeared and started counting down. "At least it worked like I’d hoped and I don’t have to spend the next two hours pounding away on an anvil with my less than massive arms."

Myst grinned as the counter timed out and a somewhat less than stellar katana with a rubber and plastic handle, that looked like it might actually give a decent grip, appeared in his inventory. He glanced at his stamina bar that had dropped like he'd take a jog around the block a couple of times. He ignored the little voice in the back of his head encouraging him to shout 'There can be only one!' as he pulled it out and took a couple of test swings. ‘Not bad,’ he decided, pleased that it was functional if not as perfectly shaped as the original had been, being slightly thicker in parts and curving slightly to one side.

'Please tell me you're having more luck crafting than I am not falling asleep, listening to the teacher praise Romeo and Juliet as a classic and an example of high literature,' Victoria complained over the party chat.

Myst stuck his proto-katana back in his inventory. 'It might be a classic based on the age and author, but it's certainly not what I'd consider high literature,' he replied as he tossed another bar of steel into his crafting menu along with a piece of wood and hit the button.

"It's not,' Amy agreed.

'As for crafting, I'm not going to win awards any time soon, but I've seen worse sold at renaissance fairs for a decent price, if only because most of them were never supposed to go anywhere near combat,' Myst admitted as the counter timed out once more. 

He removed the new blade from his inventory and examined it. It certainly looked more traditional with the wooden handle, but he doubted the grip was half as good as you’d get on a decent screwdriver or a hilt made from one.

'Does that mean you're making me a sword?' Victoria asked hopefully.

'That's the plan,' Myst agreed as he put his new sword back in his inventory and tossed his last bar of steel into the bin, deciding he could salvage and reforge the less than stellar blades rather than run all the way to the store and back. 'If I run out, I'll just grab more from the auction house.'