Soulweaver 51: Stats and Reavers (Patreon)

I awoke the next morning to the sound of chirping birds and a slowly brightening sky. For once, I was happy to have slept at a normal hour. Which meant that, for once, Aerion was still around. 

“Morning…” I said, yawning as I got out of bed. “Strange to see your bed hair. Never figured that’s what you really looked like.”

Aerion’s platinum blonde hair that was normally so well-combed resembled a cross between a bird’s nest and a punk rocker’s hairdo, making her look younger than she really was.

She narrowed her eyes and poked a tongue out. “You’re one to talk.”

I felt my hair and shrugged. “Doesn’t especially bother me, though.”

“So? What’s your plan? You have your session with Rogar later today, do you not?”

“I do… But what do you say we get some practice in before I head over? I’ve got a few things I need to test out.”

Aerion thought for a moment, and nodded. “Breakfast first?”

“Breakfast,” I said, nodding back.

— — 

Breakfast was quick since we’d beaten the crowds, and soon we were heading for a field on the outskirts of town. It was enormous—about the size of two football fields placed side-by-side, and often used by the City Guard for drills, but right now, it was almost empty. Perfect for what I had in mind.

“So? Mind telling me what we’re doing out here?”

“I need to get to the bottom of the stat mystery,” I said, patting my armor. “Luckily, I have a rather unique way of stripping and regaining stats in an instant.”

“Wisdom and Order?” Aerion asked. “You wish to understand exactly what they do.”

I nodded. “And Cunning. I have a pretty good idea from our forest excursion, but I need to isolate the stats and feel the individual effects on my body. Nothing like experiencing the sensation firsthand to drive it home. Besides, Wisdom is still a bit of a mystery. So is Passion, but I don’t think I have enough points in that to where I’ll be able to notice a difference.”

“And? What should I do?” Aerion asked.

“Never a bad idea to practice punching and jumping around, right? You still have headroom in those stats, I think.”

“I do,” Aerion said. “Alright. But is that it?”

I grinned. “Oh, no. When I’m done with this, I want you to activate [Reave]. We need to test out what it does when there are no enemies around. And some other special cases I have in mind.

Aerion paled.

“I’ll, erm… start with the exercises.”

— — 

I started with Order. Unfortunately, the [Fine-Wove Fabric Hose] that gave me 9 points of Order also gave me 9 points of Wisdom. Not ideal, but I figured Wisdom had such a different impact on my body that this test would work regardless. After removing that and my cuirass, which gave me 1 point of Order and 2 of Grace, I was down 5 points in Order.

That was alright. I had a way to fix that. I closed my eyes and fell into my Taiji meditation. With the crisp morning air and the sound of Aerion diligently working on her form, I quickly lost track of time, immersing myself in the art.

When I finally opened my eyes, I realized Aerion had fallen in beside me at some point.

“You really enjoy this, don’t you?” I said with a grin.

Aerion smiled. “You first.”

“Me first what?”

“Tell me how much you gained!”

I glanced at my notifications. “Two points to Order and three to Wisdom, putting me at 10 and 19 respectively. Why?”

Aerion gave me the most smug grin she ever had. “Oh, nothing. Three is nice. I gained five to Wisdom. I’m at 10 now.”

My eyes widened. “I thought you—you spent points into Wisdom. Didn’t you?”

Her grin widened, which said it all.

“Alright, fess up. How many?”

“Just five,” she said, her smugness slipping just a bit. “I’m at ten.”

“The gains sure come quick early on,” I said. “And with how fast you accrue stat points, it wouldn’t matter even if Wisdom was completely useless. Which, it might very well not be.”

Aerion nodded. “I’ll get back to my training.”

“And I’ll see what Order does.”

With two extra points, removing my gear dropped my Order stat by 7—more manageable. 

Something definitely felt off, though I still couldn’t say what.

So I put my hose and my armor back on. It was the strangest sensation, gaining and losing stats. I had to wonder what changes were taking place within my body to make this happen, but I thought better of it. There had to be magic involved, and I doubted it conformed to the laws of physics. 

Still, it had me wondering—when my stats got up into the hundreds, or the thousands—would I visibly become bigger? Would my muscles change in real time?

That sounded awesome.

It took another three cycles of putting my clothes on and taking them off before I’d zeroed in on what Order did.

My idea about ‘centeredness’ had been bang on. With my gear, I heard my heartbeat more easily. I felt the pulsing of my blood through my body just a bit more clearly. Like I was more in-tune with the internal goings-on of my body.

With only a handful of point differences to work with, the sensations were incredibly slight, and they’d no doubt improve over time.

The only question was—how did this help me? With most of the other stats, the benefit was obvious. Dominion boosted my strength, and Vigor my stamina. Cunning enhanced my awareness of my surroundings, and Grace made me more dextrous.

As an experiment, I tried balancing on one foot—with and without the boost—but found no difference I could notice. Which likely meant balancing fell under Grace, not Order. That was interesting.

What did sensing my body’s internal mechanisms do for me, then? At high levels, would I be able to take control of those? And what benefit would that have? If anything, that sounded dangerous.

While I still had more to explore, I at least had a better understanding of what Order did now, as well as the means to train it.

Next up was Wisdom.

This one was a bit trickier. My ceiling was 22 and I was currently at 19. Which meant removing my [Fine-Woven Fabric Hose] would only drop my Wisdom by 6 points. Considering I understood its effect less than Order, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to even detect such a tiny loss.

We’d already been out here an hour, though, and I didn’t have that much time left before my session with Rogar. It would have to do.

I picked up my poleax and fired off Skunky, paying close attention to the range and size of the inky cloud it fired.

I waited for the cooldown to expire—all of my active abilities had a period immediately after using them where they couldn’t be reactivated. The duration varied by ability, and this was one of the areas I suspected Wisdom might have an effect.

To test it, I fired again, timing the cooldown. About thirty counts.

There was no one withing a hundred yards of us, so after making Aerion turn around, I took off my pants, stripped the Hose from my legs, and put my pants back on Then I fired the ability again.

I fired it several times to be sure.

Same distance. Same density. Same cooldown.

“The hell?”

“What’s the matter?” Aerion asked from nearby, wiping a bead of sweat off her brow.

“Well, it looks like Wisdom has nothing to do with magic. At least, nothing I can see.”

Frowning, Aerion fired off her own [Shock] spell.

“Any difference?” I asked.

“None that I saw,” she replied, frowning.

She fired off her spell again—unlike me, her powers didn’t seem to have a cooldown. Rather, they just consumed more of her Essence pool until she ran dry. When that happened, it took her hours to fill back up. 

“Wait,” she said after her fourth invocation. “I thought I felt something.”

“Something?” I asked.

“Well, it felt like the shock went a bit further that time.”

“Okay… That’s weird. You sure it wasn’t your imagination?”

She cast it once again, which was about her limit.

“I’m sure. The difference is very slight. But it definitely extended a bit further past my fist. I’d been wishing its reach was a bit longer, so I wouldn’t have to come into physical contact with whatever I was trying to hit.”

My eyes narrowed, and a suspicion began to form at the back of my mind. “Wait. When did you have that thought? Was it before you activated the ability? Or during?”

“Both, I suppose? I started thinking about it before I activated [Shock]. And I suppose I was thinking about it while using the ability, too.”

“Alright, one sec. Can you turn away again?”

Aerion rolled her eyes and obliged.

With my Hose leggings back on, I activated [Skunky], but this time, I actively willed the ability to go farther, just like Aerion had.

To no one’s surprise, it didn’t.

Or, if it did, it was by such an imperceptible amount that I couldn’t tell.

“No luck?” Aerion asked.

“Nope,” I replied, wondering if Aerion had just imagined it. Maybe it was something else… Or maybe the effect really was just too small to be noticeable? After all, my stink jet did extend for a few feet past the end of my polearm, which itself was a long weapon. It was hard to judge distance.

So I put the poleax on the ground and drew equally spaced marks into the dirt of the field with my finger.

“Okay, let’s try this again. When I fire, tell me how far it goes.”

“Got it,” Aerion said, staring at the marks I’d made.

I fired [Skunky] without any additional intent.

“Just a little past the third marking!” Aerion said.

“Okay, good! I’ll repeat this a few more times to be sure.”

The ability was nothing if not consistent. Each time, it hit the same exact distance.

On the fourth try, I willed the magic to go farther.

I waited for Aerion to call it.

“Almost to the fourth mark!” she said at last.

That was a few inches more.

“We need to try this again,” I said, speaking so fast I almost stumbled over the words.

We did, and every time I imbued the weapon with my will, it got close to the fourth mark. When I didn’t, it barely made it past the third.

“That’s… incredible,” I muttered.

This opened up a world of possibilities. I tried out a bunch of different experiments in quick succession.

Could I shorten it? Could I change its direction?

It turned out the answer was yes to both. As before, the difference was incredibly slight—far too little to be noticeable without a controlled experiment like this, let alone useful in battle.

But when leveled… When this stat grew into the hundreds?

“Holy shit…”

“This is… incredible,” Aerion breathed. “Boons and Blessings grow with experience, yes, but to alter them? I’ve only ever heard of Blessed at the highest ranks possessing powers like these.” 

“Interesting.” So there was a precedent for this sort of power, just that it was rare. Or was it that it only became combat-useful for most people at the higher ranks? “This changes the game, honestly.”

Every power I gained could be adjusted. Questions arose—could I change every ability in the same way? Or were the customization parameters unique for each one? What was the eventual limit?

The answers would take time, but I couldn’t wait to find out.

Unfortunately, time was something we were short on today.

The sun was rising in the sky, leaving us little time for our last experiment.

“Alright,” I said, facing Aerion. “You ready for this?”

Aerion paled, her smile fading into a grimace. “I’m unsure if this is a good idea, Greg. What if I hurt you? What if I run amok?”

“You want to know what I think will happen?” I said, giving her a pointed look.

Aerion’s eyes darted from the ground to me. “Yes?”

I shrugged. “Nothing.” 

Aerion blinked several times, shaking her head. “Come again?” 

“Absolutely nothing. [Reave] homes in on the nearest enemy and makes you assault them until they’re either dead or your Essence is gone.” I swept my arms around the empty field. “Do you see any enemies?”

“No… I suppose not,” Aerion replied, frowning.

“Neither do I. So go ahead. Turn it on. You’re unarmed. Your weapons are in my inventory. I’m wearing all of my clothing and armor. I’ll Skunk you if I have to. Let’s see your Dominion go against that!”

Aerion’s mask of seriousness broke. “Fine!” she said, letting out a small laugh. “But don’t blame me if I hurt you.”

I smirked. “Don’t blame me when I say ‘I told you so.’”

Aerion took a deep breath, faced off against me… and gave me a rather strained expression.

“Um, if you need to go…” I said, forcing a smile.

“Shut up!” she said, her eyes bulging. “It’s… not activating!”

“Oh, really?” I asked. “Are you sure you haven’t forgotten how to use it?”

“Very funny, Greg. No matter what I do, it fails to engage! It’s…”

I crossed my arms. I gave her the most serious look I could muster.

“What?” she asked in panic. “What is it?”

I cleared my throat.

“I told you so.”

Aerion’s reaction was not what I expected.

She walked up to me. Closer, and closer, with an expression so blank, I thought she’d activated [Reave].

“Uh, Aerion?” I asked, taking a step back. “Everything okay? You look—!?”

I never had to complete the sentence. I went down in pain.

On my HUD, my left bicep had changed color from green to light yellow.

— — 

After taking a moment to recover from my totally grievous and mortal wound, we faced off again.

This time, even though I wasn’t wielding my poleax, the stakes were higher.

“I’m going to come at you as if we’re sparring, alright? A few moves in, activate [Reave].”

“Understood,” Aerion said. 

I closed the distance, throwing a punch, which Aerion dodged. She followed with a fist to my armor—and belatedly realized that a punch against stainless steel was a great way to break the attacker’s bones.

She hopped back, wringing the pain in her hands.

She came at me again, and through the fear in her eyes, I knew she’d activated [Reave]. Or—she’d tried to. The ability failed to manifest.

I put a hand up, calling a stop to our bout.

“It must know that I have no intention of actually harming you,” I said.

“Seems that way,” she replied, shoulders sagging in relief. And what a relief it must have been.

“See? There’s no need to worry. It’s not nearly as volatile as you thought.”

“Indeed,” Aerion said, her eyes lighting up. “This is wonderful, Greg! Thank you so much. If you hadn’t forced me out here…”

“Hey, what are friends for?” I put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “What’s important is that now you know. And maybe now, you can let loose with that ability instead of constantly living in fear.”

“Yes. Yes, this changes quite a bit,” she said. “I’ll have to think on how to better incorporate it into my fighting style.”

“Good plan,” I said. “As for me, I’ve got a date with an overbearing blacksmith.”

We bid each other goodbye and headed our separate ways.

I was happy that Aerion had broken down this wall. It was important for her.

There was, however, another wall she’d have to test. One that I didn’t have the nerve to suggest.

She needed to see what would happen when an enemy no longer wished to harm her. Would [Reave] recognize their act of surrender? Or would it force Aerion to kill them regardless?

For her sake, I could only hope it was the former.