Mistrunner 4 - Chapter 15 - Skills and Evolutions (Patreon)

Once it was harnessed by the system, the Mist should have been a gift to the universe. With it, miraculous things are possible. I know the science behind how it works. I’ve ready all the research. And still, it often looks like magic to me. Even so, there are times when I wish we’d never tamed it.

Alistaris Kargat

Borack’s little village of insect people had grown in the years since I’d last visited. With its stone huts, oddly colored trees, and alien animals, it looked like the strangest interpretation of a medieval village imaginable. Borack himself was clearly from another world, though, and he could best be described as a curious amalgam of man and insect.

He also didn’t seem very happy to see me. Standing in front of his door, he scowled in my direction as he growled, “Thought we agreed you wouldn’t visit. It’s not safe, and you know it. If the wrong people see you here…”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It couldn’t be helped. If we tried to send everything via Rapid Transference, it would’ve cost an arm and a leg.”

That certainly got his attention, and he perked up. A little. He still looked grumpy, but his greed had taken the edge off. “So, you got a good haul, then? You said as much earlier. What do you have for me?” he asked.

“Patrick?” I said, gesturing in his direction. I tried to see past the Mist that made up his illusory form, but it wasn’t easy. Thankfully, Borack was physically present, which made looking at him a lot easier.

Still, I couldn’t help but notice when Patrick’s cloud of nanites flashed, then extended a tendril to the insectile man. Borack’s own, much more subdued cloud, flickered as he accepted the connection. I already knew what was happening, so it wasn’t difficult to make sense of the exchange. Still, seeing a communications request being accepted was an odd experience.

As he perused the document Patrick had sent, Borack said, “Ah. Oh. Uh…this is a lot.”

“I know,” Patrick stated. “Can you handle that many Rift shards?”

Borack puffed up and crossed his arms. “Of course I can. Who do you think I am? Some two-bit shard-hustler like Treyachian? I can buy this and more. Much, much more!”

“Good. If you have such enviable buying power, you won’t have to try to convince me that you can’t afford to pay what this is worth,” Patrick stated. “I was thinking three billion credits.”

“Three billion?! Preposterous!”

Patrick shrugged. “You know prices are going to go up after the Integration,” he said. “What with the quarantine being lifted and all, nobody’s really going to need you. They’ll just ship the shards home themselves. No need to go through a broker, right?”

I wasn’t really sure how it all worked, but according to everything I’d heard from my allies like Alistaris and Gala, the price of Rift shards tended to rise once a newly-Integrated planet’s quarantine lifted. So, even if Borack overpaid a little for our current stash, he still stood to make quite a profit once Earth progressed past the Initialization.

And Patrick was perfectly willing to use that to our advantage. With that hanging over the proceedings, the negotiation began. I watched as the cloud of nanites that constituted Patrick’s illusory form ebbed and flowed, flashed and flickered throughout the process. I knew he had some abilities associated with negotiation, though seeing them in action was definitely an eye-opener.

In the end, they settled for a bit less than the three-billion Patrick had initially sought, but I knew from our previous conversations that we’d still gotten quite a bit more than either of us had expected. Such was the power of Patrick’s negotiation tactics. Or perhaps it was the fear that we would take our business elsewhere. After all, Borack wasn’t the only merchant in the Bazaar who traded in Rift shards, and he’d never developed a personal relationship with either of us. So, given that our dealings were only about business, that was all he could lean on.

Even though the negotiations went well, by the time they were finished, I was more than eager to move on. So, it was with some anticipation that we headed to the first item on my list.

Ana and her premises were much the same as they always were. That meant that she was tiny and green, with huge black eyes. She also wore a silvery jumpsuit and was festooned with, in my opinion at least, way too much jewelry. However, she had always been kind to me, and I had come to consider her a friend. She greeted us with quite a lot of enthusiasm, hugging us both – we had to bend down so she could reach – before ushering us inside her shop.

Inside, the walls were covered in posters of various boy bands, though there were also a few shelves bearing memorabilia like tiny, plastic statues of cute young men. I just shook my head at her obsession.

After I told her that I was looking for three new skills, she pressed a button on the wall. The posters disappeared a second later, revealing dozens of racks of skill crystals. There were far more than I’d seen during my last visit. When I said as much, Ana responded, “I’m preparing for the Integration. When the quarantine drops, we should see a marked increase in business up here. No more exorbitant access fees. We can just run shuttles back and forth instead of relying on the projections. It won’t be a huge demand at first – no, it’ll have to build over years – but I like to be prepared. Besides, it’s good practice, making skills. Simulations are nice, and they provide steady growth, but nothing works like the real thing. I’m sure you know that better than most, given how much you’ve grown.”

I narrowed my eyes. “And how would you know how much I’ve grown?” I asked.

“Relax,” she said, holding up her hands in surrender. “I have an investigative skill.”

“Must be a good one,” I said. I had one of those, too. But from what I’d seen, the version of True Sight I had gotten was next to useless. I’d yet to find anyone it actually worked on, and, after a month of trying, I’d all but forgotten the worthless ability. It was strange, too, because Gunther Gunderson had possessed an ability by the same name, and he’d gotten quite a lot of information out of it. Perhaps there was more to abilities like that than I knew.

“It is,” she said. “It helps me assess the needs of my customers.”

“Oh? And what would you suggest for somebody like me?” I asked.

She reached up and tapped her delicate chin as she gave it some thought. A few seconds later, she said, “{Mist Warden}. A unique class, I think. Oh – Mist Control. Does that do what I think it does?”

“Probably,” I said, not willing to give away more information than necessary. I trusted Ana; she was a friend. But I still didn’t want to reveal all of my secrets.

“Interesting. Tell me – do you see the Mist, then? It is an exceedingly rare capability. Rarer still to be able to control it. Unheard of in most circles. In fact, I’ve only known of three people in history to have possessed such an ability.”

“I’m not saying I do have that kind of capability,” I said, hedging my best. “But if I did, what would you suggest?”

“Three skills. One slot,” she muttered. “Yes…it should work. And if it doesn’t…no, it should.”

“What?”

“You have merged skills before, haven’t you?” she asked. “Before, it was the result of class evolutions. But now that you have reached your current level, you are at the end of that road.”

“I won’t evolve again?”

“Not due to level,” she said. “But perhaps if you managed to meet certain criteria. What those are, I have no idea. But it’s possible. Yes, for you, it is the only way you can progress further on your current track.”

I asked what she meant, and she went on to explain that, while I could certainly continue to gain levels and increased my attributes, as well as progress my skills, I would never experience another automatic class evolution. However, it was still possible to advance to another more powerful class, though not without meeting certain stringent requirements.

“That is not what I’m suggesting, though. At your level, skills can evolve independently of your class, and there are ways to promote specific evolutions. Chiefly, if you choose secondary skills related to the one you intend to evolve, you will have to chance to merge the two together and evolve the base skill. So, in your case, you would absorb a skill that compliments your Mist Control ability. If it works properly, you will have the chance to merge the new skill with the aforementioned ability and create something much more powerful than either.”

“Okay…”

It was all a little much for me, but I’d chosen to trust Ana’s judgement. She knew what she was doing.

“And then we’d do it again. And again after that,” she said. “Three times. Three skills absorbed into a twice evolved ability. It will become a top-grade skill the likes of which this world can scarcely comprehend, much less defend against.”

“Wait…what?”

“You absorb one skill, level it to the fifth tier,” she said. “Then it will hopefully absorb into the base ability, evolving Mist Control into something better. When that happens, we do it again. And again after that.”

“Uh…what are the downsides to that, and why doesn’t everyone do it?”

“There are only a few skills and abilities with that kind of synergy, but this strategy is nothing new in the wider universe. It’s how most people evolve skills and abilities.”

“Why don’t they just level?”

“How many kills did it take you to reach level seventy-five?”

“Good point,” I said, catching her drift. I’d had to kill millions to get to level seventy-five, and I knew that most people would have neither the ability nor the stomach for that kind of thing.

“As to the downsides, there’s every chance that it won’t work. The new skills will still be useful, but if it wasn’t for the potential for evolution, I would not suggest any of the three. And due to the nature of evolutions, you will only be able to use one at a time. So, you’re looking at a good deal of focused training if you want to follow this path. Otherwise, I have other options available.”

I sighed and shook my head. It was a high-risk, high-reward sort of situation. If I chose to take her advice, I stood a chance to gain an ultra-powerful, world-breaking sort of ability. However, if it didn’t work, I’d be stuck with something that, according to Ana’s judgement, would be sub-optimal.

It was probably smarter to play it safe. I knew that. However, with what the world was facing, I also knew that safe wasn’t going to save anyone. I needed to be special. I needed to be better than the aliens. And Ana had just offered me that opportunity. I would have to have been a fool to refuse.

“What are the skills?”

“The first is called [Aura Manipulation],” she said. “It’s typically used by stealthy types to hide from Mist-enhanced senses and surveillance systems meant to combat concealment skills.”

“Sounds useful,” I said. If I’d had something like what she had described, then the final leg of the Rift would have been much easier. Perhaps my Stealth wouldn’t have been cancelled in the chamber with the crystal wyvern.

“Once it’s been raised a tier or two,” she admitted. “But it only gives one active ability and no modifiers. As such, it takes training to get anything out of it.”

“What would be the next one?”

“It’s called [Shielding],” Ana answered. “Another one with only a single ability. It functions as a low-quality Mist shield whose viability is based on your Mist attribute. For you, it would likely be quite powerful – at least until you ran out of Mist, which would happen in seconds.”

That sounded a lot like the shield I’d almost bought from Dex before I’d purchased my subdermal armor. Back then, I’d chosen the other route simply because I thought the sheath would be useful in a wider variety of situations. And I had never seen a reason to regret my choice. However, the skill Ana had described seemed like it would let me have the best of both worlds.

“And the last?”

“It’s called [Recovery],” she stated. “This one also gives you a single ability called Rejuvenate. It puts you into a meditative state that will let you rapidly recover your Mist. If your stores of Mist are full, then it will use the excess to regenerate your body.”

I narrowed my eyes. That wasn’t so different from what I’d done back in the Rift. If the [Recovery] skill would allow me to do that more efficiently, it wouldn’t just be useful. It would change everything. After all, I’d been injured often enough that I’d been forced to spend quite some time in recovery.

“Those all sound kind of amazing to me. Why can’t I just take those three and rank them all up at the same time?”

“Because it would affect the end result. If you did that, you would almost assuredly gain an evolved ability. However, it would be weaker than if you ranked them up one at a time.”

“Why?”

“I have no idea. That’s just the way it is.”

I didn’t like that explanation one bit, but I didn’t think Ana was holding anything back. If she said she didn’t know, I was prepared to believe her.

“Okay. So, what do you think, Pick?”

“I think that I’m not touching this with a ten-foot pole. This is your decision, Mira. I’m not going to be the person to tell you how to handle your own progression.”

I rolled my eyes and muttered a couple of choice words that he pretended not to hear. But I understood his reasoning. He didn’t want to stick his nose into my development because, if he turned out to be wrong, I would have a hard time not blaming him at least a little.

“Fine.”

“But I will say this – go with your instincts. They’re usually right.”

“Aww,” said Ana, clasping her hands in front of her chest. “That’s so cute!”

I sighed. “And moving right along – what else do you have for me? I need two other skills.”

“You said you wanted some sort of piloting skill, right?” said Patrick.

“Yeah. I hate being bad at flying the Leviathan. Plus, not being able to pilot a ship almost got me killed a few months back,” I said, remembering my difficulty flying the ship out of the moon base. Then, I’d had issues when I escaped Olympus.

“I have [Navigation],” Ana said. “It has a Pilot ability built in, but it’s mostly there for…well…navigating the galaxy. There are some spatial awareness modifiers, too. Assuming you get the most out of it, which I think is safe to expect.”

That sounded good, so I agreed to buy that one. As Ana went to the wall and collected the crystal, I asked her what else she suggested.

“Two choices. One meant for combat, and the other is a little more utilitarian in nature. Though it could help in combat.”

“What are they?” I asked, already expecting choose the combat option. We weren’t quite at war yet, but it wasn’t far off.

“The combat option is called [Enhancement],” she stated. “It has two abilities. The first is Reinforcement, and it uses a trickle of Mist to provide a slight increase to your Constitution.”

“How slight?”

“Five percent,” she said.

“With my attributes, that isn’t really that slight,” I said. And given that I expected to go into intense training for the next few months – once my potential rose to previous levels – it would only get more impressive. “But what’s the second ability?”

“Called Overcharge. It allows you to increase your attributes by almost sixty percent, though at a steep cost, both in terms of Mist as well as the condition of your body. Using something like that for more than a few seconds will result in torn ligaments, broken bones, and possible death.”

“Steep cost indeed,” I muttered, though I could certainly see how such a skill could help me. The near-passive increase to my attributes would be a godsend, and the Overcharge ability represented the ability to flip a battle on its head. “What’s the other one?”

“[Multi-Mind],” she said. “It provides only one ability, but it’s one that can completely change everything about how you fight and train.”

“What does it do?”

“At F-Grade, it allows you to split your mind in two,” she said. “Your collective cognitive ability won’t increase. That is tied to your Mind attribute as well as the limitations of your brain. However, it will give you the ability to focus on multiple things at once. Each successive grade will double the number of minds at your disposal, and when it reaches S-Grade, you would have one-hundred-and-twenty-eight interconnected minds at your beck and call. Most people would never use so many, but with your high Mind attribute, there’s a chance that you could leverage those Minds into something truly special.”

“Damn,” I said, impressed. [Multi-Mind] sounded amazing, but was it better than being able to increase my Constitution? Perhaps. What if it would allow me to break down Mistwalls even more quickly? I could also build Ghosts more efficiently. And that wasn’t even considering what it would do for my training. Focusing on multiple things at once would almost have to raise my attributes as well as the tiers of my skills that much more quickly.

It didn’t take much more thought for me to realize that I’d already made my choice. “[Multi-Mind],” I said.

“Are you certain?” Ana asked.

I nodded. “It’s the best fit,” I stated with confidence. “Nobody ever complained about too much brainpower, right? So, I need [Multi-Mind], [Navigation], [Aura Manipulation], [Recovery], and [Shielding]. I’ll let Patrick figure out the cost, though. He’s a lot better at that kind of thing than I am.”