Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 4 - Status Report (Patreon)

I didn’t intend for anything to happen with Cy. But after Mira and I went our separate ways, she was the only person I could turn to. She welcomed me with open arms.

Patrick Ward

With some anticipation, I navigated through the menus of my interface, settling on the one dedicated to my overall status. Once it flashed before my eyes, I couldn’t help but look upon it with a mixture of satisfaction and regret. On the one hand, it was nice to see a verifiable measure of my progression. Watching those numbers go up was satisfying in a way few things could match, and I knew I’d long since become addicted to seeing the steady uptick of my quantifiable progress.

But on the other hand, I knew I hadn’t pushed myself to my limits. In a lot of ways, I’d squandered my potential when I’d chosen not to seek out new Rifts. But while that was objectively true, it also wasn’t the whole story. As much as I didn’t want to acknowledge it, I was also painfully aware that if I’d kept going the way I was going, I’d have died in the first year after Nova’s fall. It was almost a good thing that Patrick and I had come so close to death, if only because it had served as a reminder that I wasn’t even close to invincible.

Sure, I’d come close to dying before, and more than once. But in that Rift, I was confronted with a level of danger I could scarcely comprehend, let alone defeat. We had barely escaped with our lives, and even then, we’d been forced to spend more than a month in recovery. I still bore the scars, both on my body and my psyche. So, as much as I wished I would have pushed myself a little harder, I was self-aware enough to recognize that doing so would have been a recipe for disaster. And given that it wasn’t just my life on the line, I couldn’t in good conscience take that sort of risk.

Not again.

Not unless I had no other choice.

Shaking my head, I studied my status:

There was definitely a lot to take in. One of the major reasons I hadn’t inspected my status in quite a while was because it took a significant amount of time for anything to progress anymore. Once my various skills had reached Tier-5, their progression had slowed to an absolute crawl. If I had to guess, it would probably end up taking just as long to reach the end of Tier-5 as it had to reach my current level of progress. That meant that it would take years to see the end of that journey.

But then what? If [Demolition] and [Acrobatics] had taught me anything, it was that there was nothing after Tier-5. Both of those Grade-1 skills had been stuck at ninety-nine percent progress for more than eighteen months, and I suspected that something drastic would have to happen if that was going to change. I’d thought about seeking that information out in the Bazaar, but at the end of the day, I’d grown even more paranoid as the years went on. I’d angered a lot of people by facilitating Nova City’s fall, not to mention the fact that I’d made a habit of hunting aliens and stealing their Rift shards. No – going up to the Bazaar and asking a bunch of questions would just paint an even bigger target on my back.

One thing that did please me was the fact that I’d finally crossed the two-hundred threshold in all of my attributes. Sure, it hadn’t come with the significant increase that crossing the one-hundred point mark had, but it was still nice to see. If things kept going the way they were going, I would reach my potential in a few more months, even if I managed to gain a couple of levels along the way.

Once again, I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do then. Go out and actively seek levels? Maybe. I knew of a few sizable herds of powerful beasts I could hunt. Perhaps that was the answer. One thing I knew for certain was that I couldn’t stop training. I’d be lost without the constant drive to improve.

“Maybe I could pick up a hobby,” I muttered to myself.

But I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Nothing could compare to the visceral cycle of training and quantifiable improvement.

I moved on to look at my abilities, and I couldn’t help but blanch at the sheer number of possibilities. Some of them, like Mark Target, Barrage, Pummel, and Bluff often went completely unused. Over the last couple of years, I’d made a point to train them as often as I could, but I almost never used them in actual battle. As advanced as my Mind attribute was, I tended to fall into patterns of thinking. I knew I wasn’t getting the most out of my skills, but I also knew I couldn’t really change that. Perhaps I just needed to try a little harder.

Thankfully, the use of the various abilities was usually clear. For instance, Explosive Shot was an ability much like Empowered Shot in that it added an augmenting effect to my shots. However, the key difference was that it could be used on an entire magazine, which meant that it was very useful for enhancing the power of my assault rifle. That ability alone was one of the reasons I hadn’t bothered upgrading the weapon.

The other reason was nostalgia. The R-14 had been with me for a while, and just the thought of getting rid of it twisted my stomach into knots.

Multi-shot, by comparison, was clearly intended for weapons with slower rates of fire. It had a long charge – five seconds – but it had the distinction of giving me the ability to shoot multiple targets at once. My record was four, but I felt that if I could upgrade the ability to the next rank, I could move that needle a bit further. Of course, each shot was about ten percent weaker than the last, but with my modifiers as well as my powerful weapons, that wasn’t such a problem.

Shatter Shotwas like the heavy weapon version of Empowered shot in that it simply improved the damage of a single shot from my BMAP. And given the already devastating power of that weapon, the ability was almost scary to use. Not that that stopped me. When I’d first gotten the ability, I’d gleefully used it to turn an entire alien encampment into a crater, which was more than a little satisfying. Terribly wasteful, though. By the time I was done, there was nothing left to steal.

Instant Reloadwas exactly what it sounded like; it allowed me to use Mist to instantly reload my BMAP – or any heavy weapon, I expected. However, it had the downside of being almost as Mist hungry as Balance, which meant that I had to use it fairly sparingly. It had definitely come in handy a couple of times, though, and I knew its usefulness would only increase as I continued along my path.

The melee abilities, Riposte and Execute, were both very situational. Riposte simply allowed me to parry and return an enemy attack with one of my own. It wasn’t a flashy ability, but it had its uses. Execute was simple as well, even if it was wildly different. So long as I was undetected, it gave me the capability to increase the damage of a single strike by five-hundred percent. Most of the time, that was more than sufficient to kill just about anything I’d seen. However, it was only available in melee, which limited its usefulness. Still, I couldn’t really complain, especially with my ability to go undetected.

Finally, the movement abilities were just as self-explanatory. Double Jumpallowed me to leap into the air, then, at the apex of my jump, spring off a platform of Mist to propel me much higher. Not complicated, but useful all the same.

Teleport was a bit more complex. On the surface, it seemed simple. Using the ability, I could just move myself from one place to another. But in practice, it was extremely situational. For one, the range was only about ten yards, which meant it was useless for travel. For another, it was extremely disorienting, even after spending hours on uncomfortable practice. Still, I was determined to make it work in combat, though I hadn’t quite cracked the code yet.

All in all, I was satisfied with most of my [Combat]abilities, even if I knew I had a long way to go before I’d integrated all of them into my fighting style.

[Infiltration], by contrast, hadn’t seen quite as much growth, and it still hadn’t ticked over into Tier-5 yet. None of its branches had, either, so its ability list wasn’t quite as long. In addition to the holdovers from before I’d become a {Mistrunner}, I’d gained Charisma, Distraction, Bluff, and Sense Deception.

Charisma, when used on someone, made them more apt to trust me. However, it didn’t work so well with people who already knew me. And besides, it made me feel a bit gross to manipulate people’s minds. So, I rarely used it, save in the interest of training. Distraction was better in that it created, well, a distraction. Sometimes, it was a noise. Other times, it was a flash of light. Whatever form it took, it would briefly draw the attention of my victim. That, combined with my already impressive Stealth and Camouflage, meant that I had an even easier time infiltrating behind enemy lines.

Bluff fell into the same category as Charisma, but instead of increasing a target’s perception of my trustworthiness, it made me far more intimidating. I used it a lot more often than Charismabecause it was meant for my enemies. I had fewer qualms about messing with their minds.

Finally, there was Sense Deception, which was a passive ability that gave me some insight into whether or not someone was concealing something. The only problem was that I had no indication as to whether or not someone had beaten the ability or was simply being honest. Still, it was a nice ability to have on my side.

My third – and probably my favorite – skill was [Mistrunning], which gave me a few newer abilities as well. Surge gave me the capability to enhance the power of a single Ghost by a significant amount. I’d tested it a few times, and as far as I could tell, the augmentation clocked in at about two-hundred percent. That meant that my Ghosts could be incredibly powerful. The only limiter was that it was my most Mist hungry ability, and using it tended to drain me dry.

Rewind gave me the ability to reverse a failed infiltration, letting me escape any resulting backlash. I could only use it once a day – I’d tested it, and it reset twenty-four hours after the last usage – but I’d already put it to good use on more than one occasion. By contrast, Backlash allowed me to counter any attempted infiltration of my system with a vicious attack.

But as useful as those abilities were, for [Mistrunning], the real gems were in the fifth tier.

First up was Plague, which functioned a lot like Time Bomb (Mk. IV) in that it could infect large groups with a debilitating Ghost. However, unlike Time Bomb (Mk. IV), its gestation period was counted in moments, rather than hours, and it was even more deadly. The only limiter was that it cost a ton of Mist, and it was only usable once per week. Still, it was a great card to play in an emergency.

Skeleton Keywas similar to Rewind in that its use was also limited. In its case, its cooldown period was a week. It was incredibly useful, though, because it could effortlessly bypass anything with less than B-Grade defenses. I rarely had occasion to use it, mostly because I relished any opportunity I had to test myself against a powerful Mistwall, but it was nice to have in my back pocket in case I ran up against something I either couldn’t or didn’t have time to overcome.

The last ability on the [Mistrunning] list was Assassinate. True to its name, it was a simple ability that allowed me to kill anyone whose system I could infiltrate. I hadn’t encountered anyone who could resist it, either. I only had to Misthackthem, then, once their system was laid bare, I had the option to kill them. Once I used it, they just dropped dead. No long death scene. No gasping for air. Just death.

But as useful as the skill was – and it was incredibly powerful – there were three limiters associated with its use. First, it took every last ounce of Mist in my stores. It didn’t matter how much or how little I had available. It just drained everything, leaving me incredibly vulnerable to retaliation. Second, it had a month-long cooldown associated with it. That limitation was only helped by the fact that, as far as I could tell, the number of times I could use the ability seemed to roll over month-to-month. So, if I went an entire month without using it, then when the next month rolled around, I would have two uses available. At present, I could use the ability six times, so long as I had the Mist to support it.

But the final limiter was the fact that the ability scared me a little. Sure, I had no issues with killing people, but there was a marked difference between shooting someone and just seeing them drop dead for seemingly no reason. Those reservations wouldn’t stop me from using the ability, but they definitely made me think twice.

Shaking my head, I moved on to [Fieldcraft], looking over my newest abilities. Stabilizeallowed me to help someone in critical condition by keeping their wounds – or sickness – from getting any worse. It only lasted about twenty-four hours, but for me, it was invaluable. In a day, my other abilities could carry me away from the brink of death, so long as I didn’t die before they had a chance to work their magic. If I used it on other people, it might just give me the opportunity to get them to a proper doctor.

Mend was a bit more active in that it could seal wounds. It wasn’t quite as good as a foam bandage – or even crude stitches – but it was still nice to have in case I didn’t have any supplies available.

In the Survival branch, the first ability I’d gotten was Bastion, which had seen copious use because it allowed me to specify a location and protect it with a powerful Mist defenses. I usually only activated it at night when Patrick and I were asleep, but I’d used it a couple of times in battle as well. And while the shield wouldn’t last under concentrated fire from a powerful enemy, it was enough that it gave me plenty of options.

By comparison, the Tier-5 ability in the branch was one I’d rarely used at all. On paper, Tinkeringsounded great in that it allowed me to improvise various weapons and explosives from mundane materials. However, it was limited in that the results were less powerful than what I could easily buy. Still, I expected it would be valuable if I ever found myself without my equipment.

In the Communication branch of the [Fieldcraft]tree, I’d gained various map-related abilities that made navigation much easier. For instance, setting a Waypoint on my map would give me some guidance in the form of a wisp of Mist that directed me along the appropriate path. Combat Map highlighted enemy positions and orientation, even going so far as to help me detect concealed foes.

But the real jewel of the tree was Secure Connection, which gave me a completely untraceable and incredibly difficult to hijack connection that I could extend to up to five people. Usually, I only used it on Patrick, but even that gave me peace of mind that few other abilities could have rivaled.

The last branch, Utility, gave me the ability to Ignore Injury, which was pretty self-explanatory. Using it allowed me to not only ignore the pain, but also to function normally until the ability ran out. It typically only lasted about an hour – less if the injury was severe – but that was usually enough.

Focused Willwas probably my favorite ability in the branch, though. True to its categorization as a Utility ability, it allowed me to, through intense focus, rapidly regenerate my entire pool of Mist. I could only use it once every few days, but even that was invaluable, given the Mist-hungry nature of many of my abilities.

For [Demolition] and [Acrobatics], not much had changed, save for the fact that they’d both grown more powerful. One day, I hoped to have the opportunity to improve them in some way, as I had with my other skills.

But that was a worry for another day.

For now, I needed some sleep. So, after rising from my seated position, I headed to one of the ship’s bathrooms, where I took a shower before heading to the quarters I shared with Patrick. I climbed under the covers next to his sleeping form. He mumbled something in his sleep, and I couldn’t help but smile.

As rocky as our start had been, things had definitely improved. Against all odds, life was pretty good. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I really couldn’t complain.

Still, in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but wonder how long it would last. Our world was one of conflict, and whether it was this latest job or when the aliens came in force, I knew we wouldn’t be able to steer clear of the fray for much longer.