47. Let's Eat (Patreon)

Just-another day-hunt tummy-full. There was a smugness to the uekiesheile’s qi.

Well, we were both pleased with ourselves. The raid went much better  than expected, and I felt giddy all the way back to the cave. All the  hard work, the training, and the adapting to this world had paid off.  Almost too well. A part of me wondered if there was another shoe waiting  to drop.

No, I worked hard for this victory, and I was going to dang well  enjoy it. I was careful, sure. There were chishiaxpe, chliapp lions, and  kahlichi bears still out there. But my mood was bright, and I intended  for it to stay that way.

And so nothing happened on the way back to the cave. The trip was  blessedly peaceful. I arrived just as the sky was starting to brighten.

Billisha stood guard at the entrance, while Aluali tended to the  fire. The ingredients for the day’s porridge lay next to him. Neither  looked like they’d gotten much sleep. We went through the whole, “Hey,  I’m human, not a horrible plant creature pretending to be one,” routine.

Once that was done, though, Billisha spun me around to check for injuries. “No hurt? No friend? No fight?”

Aluali found a streak of dried blood on my face. “Here hurt.”

“I run tree,” I said.

“You run tree?” Billisha sounded incredulous.

“Yes. Night dark. I run tree.”

She patted me on the arm. “You safe. Big important. Hunt bishkawi later.”

Ah, she was under the impression that I’d run away from the bishkawi.  “No, no. I hunt. I--” I didn’t know the word for win, so I raised my  arms in triumph.

“You win?” The incredulity didn’t leave Billisha’s voice.

So I opened the pouch with the bishkawi cores, and both their jaws  dropped. Alauli’s eyes grew as big as quarters, while Billisha was so  shocked, she fell back on her butt. Their reactions were priceless, and I  felt as smug as the uekisheile hiding inside my dantian.

“Come see,” I said, squatting down to open the pouch for them.

Seven of the cores were the size and shape of wasabi-covered peas.  The eighth core--the alpha’s--was the size and shape of a kumquat. If  anything, the kids were even more amazed. They whispered to each other  in awe.

Billisha asked, “You hunt? You poison?”

I nodded and showed her the bottle. There were only a few drops left.

She shook her head, like she couldn’t believe it. “Where friend? Friend hurt?”

“Friend safe,” I said. “Friend stay there. We go tomorrow.”

Aluali asked Billisha a question, and they conferred for a time. I  heard the words for silverlight, level, and some of the numbers, but the  rest was beyond my limited vocabulary.

I let them talk. It’d been a long night, and I was happy to sit back  and rest for a time. I also had some decisions to make. I had a total of  476 silverlight gathered after hunting the chiashiaxpe and the  bishkawi, and there was a chance I’d reach Level 3 at 500. That’d only  be true if levels came at increments of 250, which I didn’t expect, but  it was a possibility I had to plan for. I needed to decide on where to  put my free attribute.

In the end, I decided to apply the point to Constitution. The choice  was in keeping with my foundation-building approach. And while I wasn’t  injured last night, there’d been enough other times for it to be a  concern. Building my Constitution naturally over time would be too slow  given how often I found myself in danger.

The children’s conversation stopped when I picked up the smallest of the cores.

“I have question,” Billisha said. She grabbed a handful of rocks and  stacked them on top of each other. As the tower grew, she pretended to  get stronger and stronger. “Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level--”

I interrupted. “Yes, I understand.”

“Oh, you understand Level. Good. You Level?”

Now, wasn’t that an interesting question. It’d been ages since I last looked at my Status (Visible). What did it say?

The Status (Visible) had changed and now seemed to reflect the gains  I’d made after arriving in this world. It also showed my Skills capping  at 5. Maybe because it was more realistic? Still, it looked pretty  impressive for an eight-year old, especially those Talents. Both  Billisha and Aluali were older than me, and they only had one Talent  apiece.

“I Level 2,” I said.

Both kids exclaimed. A number of emotions passed across their faces: surprise, disbelief, respect, and at the end relief.

“You waiise” Billisha said. “Good, good.You axxil tuaa.”

“Not understand waiise,” I said. “Not understand axxil tuaa.”

“I understand you.” Billisha retrieved some water from the next room  and used a stick to draw on the stone floor. She drew two people, one  large and one small. The big one was waiise. The small one was daake. In  other words, they were adult and child.

For axxil tuaa, she drew a mass of people, and then one person  separated from them. They held a staff and wore a headdress or crown, I  couldn’t tell which. The others did what this person told them to do.  They were the leader.

“I question--I Level 2, I adult?”

Both kids nodded their heads. Billisha was especially enthusiastic  about it. She was technically the oldest among us and seemed relieved to  not have to be responsible for our little group.

“We Level 0,” Billisha said. “We child.”

“Good, good,” Aluali said, pointing to the cores. “You eat silverlight. You good strong.”

“Yes, yes,” Billisha said. “Eat, eat.”

They looked at me so expectantly, I couldn’t disappoint them. I started crushing cores.

11 silverlight gathered. 10 absorbed.       

13 silverlight gathered. 12 absorbed. 

9 silverlight gathered. 8 absorbed.    

After three cores, I’d gathered 506 silverlight, but there were no notifications.

12 silverlight gathered. 11 absorbed.

15 silverlight gathered. 13 absorbed.

10 silverlight gathered. 9 absorbed.

17 silverlight gathered. 15 absorbed.    

I had a total of 554 silverlight after crushing the small cores. All that was left was the big one.

232 silverlight gathered. 209 absorbed. 

A feeling rushed through me: of authority, of a relentless determination to dominate all creatures great and small, of seeking those that were powerful in order to tear their power from their bodies. My fingers trembled from the intensity of it.

Congratulations. You have collected enough silverlight to grow in power.       

Congratulations. You have reached a Constitution milestone. 

You know the drill. Read me first.    

I grinned. The magic number for Level 3 was 750; 500 additional  silverlight on top of the 250 required for Level 2. So if I were to  imagine the level chart so far:

Hmm… the rationale for the amounts wasn’t immediately obvious,  especially the difference in jumps from Levels 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. If I  had to make an educated guess though, I’d expect to reach Level 4 at  1,750 total silverlight. That was the amount required for Level 3  multiplied by two and added back to the total.

Or if it was the total silverlight for the previous level multiplied  by the new level, then it’d be 3,000 to reach Level 4. Ugh… that was a  lot of bishkawi. Three hundred to be exact. Somebody go get Zack Snyder. I have a movie idea for him.

My grin spread, then wavered. That jump from 1 to 2 worried me. It  didn’t fit either pattern, which meant I’d have to wait for the next  data point. Shazbot, it’d really help with planning if I knew when I’d  level up next.

“What? What?” Billisha asked.

I cleared my throat. “Level 3.”

The kids screamed, and all the numbers flew out of my head. Billisha and Aluali jumped up to dance. They began to sing, the words a celebration. I even recognized the ones having to do with paths and levels. They clapped in rhythm to the words.

Then Billisha pulled me to standing, and the two of them did a kind of skipping step around me in a circle. The song changed and became more of a story. The tones alternated between highs and lows--the children’s voices didn’t seem to do the lower ones justice--but their enthusiasm made up for the lack of range. This lasted a good ten minutes before the dance ended with a tired laugh from both children.

“We must ikhamtocahe,” Aluali said, breathing hard. He went to the fire to gather all our food and prepare a feast.

“I help,” Billisha said.

Oh gods, it was good to sit again. I was glad the kids were excited for me, but the night had been long. I made a note to ask about the song later, though. The story behind it was sure to be interesting.

For now, I was anxious to look at my notifications. “I think,” I said, pointing to my head.

“You think,” Billisha said. “We prepare feast.”

I clicked on the notification from System-Eight first, and a series of celebratory tones rang in my ear. Di-ring! Di-ring! Di-ring!

Woot! Level 3, and it’s barely been a month. We are on FIRE!

The bishkawi never knew what hit them.    

Hi, S-Eight. It’s good to see you again.

It’s good to be seen.

Like before, we don’t have a lot of time, so I’m just going to dump answers to your questions.         

1. I still don’t know, but it looks like Level 5 is special. There’s a  good chance Paths can change or evolve then. That’s probably true at all  the multiples of 5: 10, 15, 20, etc.
2. I don’t know. Yet.
3. Yes, I’m certain you’re not eating people’s souls. It’s just strong  memories and emotions carrying over into the silverlight. Like the smell  of pee after asparagus.
4. I agree that it was a toss up between Constitution and Spirit.  Either would’ve been fine. You got lucky, though, and have a nice Talent  waiting for you in the other notification.
5. You’re welcome. :-)
6. The uekisheile is weird. On the other hand, the way you seem to be  turning into a symbiote is awesome. I don’t understand what’s happening  at the body, qi, mana, and silverlight levels, so I don’t have any  advice other to keep things friendly. Besides, they’re so dang cute.
7. You’re right. The Status (Visible) is adapting to you, just like the Status (Hidden).
8. My guess is that Billisha and Aluali (nice kids, BTW) sense their  Status, as opposed to reading it on a screen. Like how you know your  arms are attached to your body. The word you’re looking for is  proprioception.
9. It’s too early to tell, but if I had to guess… I’d split the difference and say 2,375 silverlight for Level 4.
10. What? You’re upset that I’m picking an arbitrary number? Suck it.  Ooh, I got away with that one. Sick it, sack it, souk it! Dim it! Let me  have a curse word. Just one. It’s not even that bad.

Ding it. And now we’re out of time.

Stay safe and say hi to Ikfael for me.    

Thanks for looking out for me, S-Eight. I appreciate it.

Of course! Without you, there’s no me. 

Later gator.    

I sighed, happy for the chance to visit, even if it was fleeting. What next?

You have reached a Constitution milestone. Checking for new Talents.  *Ding.* This is your first Attribute to reach Rank 10, and you have  automatically triggered a Nascent Talent. The base benefits of  Constitution 10 are also now active: increased stamina, a more robust  physique, and resistance to negative physical Conditions.    

Wait, what? I had several Attributes well above 10. Ah, but  Constitution was the first to grow into ten. In other words, this was a  freebie Talent for children when they reached this stage of their  development.

Their first Attribute to hit 10 was likely their strongest, so they were almost guaranteed a Talent that matched them. This is a nice quality of life feature, System. Thank you!

I took a quick look at the new Talent.

Enduring

Your will is strong and drives you to work and train harder than you  otherwise might. Push past your limits and walk the path to perfection.  Provides bonuses to stamina and mental focus, as well as a small bonus  to resisting fatal injuries.    

Yowza! This is really good, right? Well, all my Talents came  in handy, but the “resisting fatal injuries” really caught my eye. It  was exactly what I was looking for in Constitution 10.

The part about the “path to perfection” was weird though and didn’t  sound like me or S-Eight. The System was supposed to be integrating with  me, so it was probably natural for the text to read differently  sometimes.

One more notification to go.

Congratulations. You’re now Level 3. You receive a free Attribute  point. Checking for new Talents. Sorry, no new Talents were triggered.

Attribute and Skill gains have been finalized. Thank you for your hard work.  

• Constitution 9 -> 10
• Nature Magic 2 -> 3
• Archery 7 -> 8
• Knife Arts -> 0 -> 2
• Spear Arts 2 -> 3
• Strategy 4 -> 5
• Stealth 3 -> 4
• Survival, Forest 6 -> 7
• Survival, Caves -> 0 -> 3

  The base benefits for Level 3 Young Forester are now active:  

• Attribute foci:
  • Agility, primary
  • Wisdom, secondary
  • Spirit, tertiary
• Skill foci:
  • Archery
  • Spear Arts
  • Survival, all
  • Nature Magic
  • Stealth

Your capacity for silverlight has grown. Secondary attributes increase by 20%.   

Oh, that’s a nice haul. I saw increases in several key  skills and picked up two new ones: Survival Caves and Knife Arts. Both  started at zero and then immediately ranked up to three and two  respectively.

For Survival Caves, the extra ranks were the result of complementary  skills in Survival Forest. No surprise there. The unusual one was Knife  Arts. When I checked, the memories under the Skill were of me in the  kitchen and in the backyard. There I was butterflying chickens,  quartering deer, butchering pigs, and any and everything else that  involved carving into an animal. Those were some good times.

All right, Ollie. That’s enough nostalgia. The kids are almost  done cooking. Let’s take a quick look at the full Status and then eat.

Woohoo! That was a healthy amount of Qi flowing through my meridians,  and there was potentially a lot more I could access through the  uekisheile. A couple of times now, they’ve shared their qi with me when I  really needed it. It’s not something I wanted to do often--taking food  from other people’s plates was a big no-no in my house--but the option  was there for emergencies.

With twenty points of Mana, I could cast five consecutive spells.  That wasn’t enough, not by a long shot. It’d taken three casts of  Healing Water after Kaad stabbed me. No, it was just too easy to burn  through my mana during or after a fight.

I needed to cultivate my mana similarly to how I cultivated my qi.  The problem was that I wasn’t as sensitive to it, which made it  challenging to manipulate and experiment with the energy. No solutions  immediately came to mind, so I threw the problem to the back of my head  for my unconscious to work on it.

In the meantime, Aluali had finished making a stack of corn cakes,  upon which he poured stewed blueberries. Billisha finished grilling some  lion skewers and added the crispy meat to a mash of corn, roasted  onions, and salt. The smell was amazing.

“Let’s eat!”