Mistrunner 4 - Chapter 19 - The Ruins of Contentment (Patreon)

I think Mira always wanted to go back. She has so many regrets that she just can’t leave behind.

Patrick Ward

The wilderness surrounding Mobile was both familiar and not. It felt like I was looking at a landscape that I should have known like the back of my hand, but none of the details were right. The terrain was populated by the same wildlife and thick vegetation that had overcome the signs of long-gone civilization, but I didn’t recognize any of the landmarks.

Of course, it had been years since I’d been back to Mobile, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that the wilderness had begun to reclaim the region. Still, it almost felt as if I was walking through a parallel world as I made my way to the closest road. When I reached that destination, I saw yet more changes. The road which had once been so meticulously maintained by the Amigos and their crews was so overgrown that the path was only vaguely recognizable.

As I summoned the Cutter and mounted the hoverbike, I was beset by a wave of regret and nostalgia. The first, because I was reminded of how my time in Mobile had ended. I wasn’t so self-centered that I still believed I could have done anything to stop it. Not anymore. And yet, some degree of guilt persisted, as if my emotions simply refused to take logic into account.

The nostalgia was more justifiable, though. I’d experienced a lot of firsts in Mobile, and I looked back on those memories with fondness. Even the worst parts of my training regimen had taken on a rose-colored sheen, though that was probably as much to do with my obsession with progression as it was because of some misguided reminiscence.

In any case, I mounted the hoverbike and took off along the overgrown road, dodging trees and bushes along the way. As I did, I kept one half of my mind on the road while the other remained trained on the results of Observation. I’d been attacked – and without warning – often enough that I knew that just because I was moving, it didn’t mean I could avoid predators. Fortunately, though, nothing assaulted me as I made my way, and after only an hour, I reached the outskirts of Mobile.

Unsurprisingly, it was entirely abandoned. The city’s location had never been ideal, and once it had been destroyed, there was no reason for anyone to rebuild or reoccupy. Still, I couldn’t help but lament the loss as I passed the abandoned ruins of the old city. Along the way, I saw a few wildlings and other local fauna, but none of them took notice of me. I counted myself lucky in that respect. I had no compunctions about killing, but I didn’t want to waste my time fighting battles that offered so little to gain.

Eventually, I arrived at the new city, and I was once again beset by a wave of regret as I looked upon the destroyed remnants of the buildings that had once housed the city’s population. Most of the wall was still intact, though many of the old cargo containers had succumbed to the elements and fallen from their perch. Without the Mist shield, there was no protection against the harsh storms that ascended from the warm Gulf waters to the south.

As I passed through a large gap in the wall – which was how the Enforcers had breached the city’s defenses – that feeling of near-familiarity returned, taunting me with the subtle differences. A destroyed building here, an overgrown square there – it was all just left of my memory, and it left me feeling incredibly disconcerted.

And that feeling came crashing home when I saw the remains of the Dewdrop Inn. It had never been a particularly noteworthy building. In fact, in the context of the city, it had been the epitome of normality. However, to me, it represented something I’d never really experienced. It was home in a way the penthouse back in Nova had never been.

And now it was gone.

Just like everything else that had made Mobile mean anything to me.

“Why am I here?” I muttered to myself as I stared at the building where some of my most treasured memories had taken place.

I was self-aware enough to at least recognize that the reasons I’d given Patrick were, at best, excuses. At worst, they were blatant lies. I could have gone anywhere to train. There were powerful Dead Zones throughout the world, and some in more hospitable locations. No – I had chosen Mobile because, in the back of my mind, I knew that my odds of survival past the onset of the Integration were slim.

Sure, I made a habit of defying the odds. Plenty of my accomplishments had far exceeded what anyone could expect. And yet, I had some notion of what kind of enemies were in my future, and I recognized that the chances I’d win through were fairly short. I still intended to survive. I wanted to defeat the aliens and ensure Earth’s freedom from the oppression they would bring with them. However, I’d also come to accept the limits of my own mortality.

That was why I had insisted on coming back to Mobile. I just wanted to bask in a few good memories while I prepared for the difficult path ahead. That realization made me feel more human than I’d felt in a long, long time, and not in a completely good way.

After coming to that conclusion, I set out through the city so I could ensure that it wasn’t populated – by humans, aliens, or wildlife – and I found that, aside from a few overgrown rodents, it was entirely abandoned. I also discovered that the old training building where I’d spent so much time had survived intact. It was just as overgrown with vines as anywhere else in the city, but the interior was mostly clear. With only a few days of work, I could return it to its former glory.

The same couldn’t be said for anywhere else in the city. A few buildings remained standing, but for the most part, what hadn’t succumbed to the Enforcers’ bombardment had been taken down by a combination of time, the local flora, and weather. Fortunately, I did find a mostly empty lot next to the training facility that I thought would make for a perfect dock for the Leviathan.

So, I used Secure Connection to contact Patrick, telling him what I’d found. He seemed a little distracted, likely due to keeping busy with his work, but he took the news well and vowed to join me as soon as he finished his current task.

That left me to start the cleanup alone. So, I summoned my nano-bladed sword and got to work on the exterior of the building. Certainly, the Interdiction Blade was much more advanced, but for cutting down a few vines, the nano-blade was more than sufficient. Besides, it felt a little wrong to use my brand-new weapon for such a mundane task.

Over the next few hours, I gradually circled the building and acted the part of a groundskeeper. It wasn’t exciting work, but it certainly gave me a sense of satisfaction when I looked back on the product of my labor. In any case, it needed to be done, so as I always did, I put my head down and did the work.

Patrick arrived a few hours into my task, though instead of joining me, he turned his attention on the lot where he’d landed the Leviathan. Though it was flat and unobstructed by any buildings – crumbling or otherwise – it was just as overgrown as the rest of the ruins. So, it required quite a lot of attention before it would meet our standards.

The next week was occupied by much of the same, but by the end of it, we had a nice, little training ground that could function as our semi-permanent residence while we prepared for the difficulties to come.

And that’s when I got down to the serious business of training.

For my physical regimen, I donned the suppressive bands I’d used during previous training sessions. Without them, everything was just too easy, but cranking them up to their maximum power restricted my attributes enough to render me mostly normal. I was still superhuman in terms of strength and agility, but not so far above normal human potential that I couldn’t properly structure a training program.

Thus restricted, I spent most of each morning lifting weights, running sprints, or utilizing the obstacle course that had somehow survived years of abandonment. After the first week, I added a few extra levels to that course, and the second week saw me expanding it even further. By the end of that month, it was more than a quarter mile long and wrapped around the inside of the building’s outer wall.

Still, I found it too easy for my taste – at least until Alistaris showed up and gave me a new pair of suppression bands.

“How did you find me?” I asked.

“It’s my job to know where you are,” he said cryptically.

“There’s still a tracker in the Leviathan, isn’t there?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he initiated a data transfer, which I accepted. When I opened the file, I saw that it described a training program. In a lot of ways, it wasn’t much different from the one in which I was currently engaged. However, it differed in enough ways that I could easily see how it would improve my results.

So, after scanning the ship once again – and discovering that Alistaris’s trackers gave off a subtle Mist signature that made finding them incredibly easy – I continued my training.

Each afternoon was devoted to weapons practice, though with the way I did it, it probably looked little different from my normal physical training. I rarely stood still, instead opting to use obstacle course runs to increase the difficulty. And it worked, too. I noticed a marked increase in the rate of my progression. It was small, but even a tiny difference would be noticeable over time. I just had to keep at it.

For Patrick’s part, he trained as well, though he spent most of his time tinkering with his armor or cybernetics. And just like me, he progressed too, though not nearly as quickly.

As I trained, I used Split Mind to practice with Manipulate Aura. Barely a moment passed when I wasn’t trying to suppress or expand the cloud of Mist that followed me everywhere.

Days passed into weeks, and weeks became months as we single-mindedly pursued our progression. And soon enough, we both saw marked improvements. However, I knew that simple training wasn’t enough. I needed to put everything into practice. So, after three months of constant training, I set off for the Dead Zone.

That’s when I discovered the true power of my new arsenal. The Stinger hit almost as hard as my old Pulsar had, though with a much higher rate of fire. Meanwhile, the HIRC was even more powerful than the Dragon, and never was that more apparent than when I used it to rip a wildling alpha to shreds.

The ADS was a bit less damaging, but that wasn’t its purpose. The shotgun-like weapon was meant to be supplementary, and the draining effect it created was more than a little useful.

But the real star of the show was the Emperor. If I had to compare it to the Pulsar, I would say that its first shot was about twice as powerful as its predecessor, and it only grew more deadly with each subsequent shot. However, it was a real Mist-hog – though I did discover that, with Mist Control, I could siphon some of the ambient Mist into the weapon, lessening the load.

That made it a little less punishing, and it gave me the opportunity to practice my ability.

The lone time I used all seven shots in the Emperor’s magazine, it looked like a miniature version of the explosion I’d caused on the moon. I’d fired from a mile away, and even then, I felt the shockwave of that final shot. And when I went to inspect the damage, I saw only a hundred-foot-wide crater where the target had once been.

Of the enormous hog I’d shot, there was nothing left.

“Damn,” said Patrick, standing beside me at the edge of the crater. “I was kind of hoping we could have pork for dinner.”

“I didn’t expect it to…just vaporize it,” I muttered. Indeed, the creature had been the size of a hovercar, with giant metal tusks, and it had taken the first six shots fairly well. But that last one? It was like I’d strapped a series of bombs to it.

“What now? More training?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. We’re down to a little more than six months,” I said. “I’ve made progress, but…”

“But you’re afraid it isn’t enough,” he finished for me.

I nodded, saying, “We get closer every day, and even with all these toys, I don’t know that it’ll be enough.”

“Then we train harder,” he said. “We go longer. We get stronger. That’s all we can do, right?”

I let out a sigh, but I didn’t answer. Inside, though, I knew that there was only one viable response. My commitment to the fight hadn’t wavered, and yet, I wasn’t certain how I was going to do the things I needed to do.

“Did you figure out that new ability?”

“No. There’s nothing out there about it,” I answered. “Besides, it’s not like I’m any closer to progressing that branch. Right now, it looks like I’ll never gain access to Planetary Defense.”

“That branch is called Command, right? Maybe you have to lead people into battle or something,” Patrick suggested. “That would make sense.”

He wasn’t wrong, but there was one glaring problem. I had no one to lead. Even if that was how the Command branch of [Warfare] was meant to progress, I simply didn’t have the means to facilitate it.

By comparison, [Aura Manipulation] had already gained two tiers. It didn’t move quite as quickly as something like [Acrobatics], but with the way I was training, it was flying through the ranks. At that pace, it wouldn’t be long before I merged it with Mist Control and started in on the second phase of my skill strategy.

After that brief excursion, we headed back to our training grounds and continued as we had. However, I added a few extra hours of swimming to my daily regimen. Within a week after our return, I was spending close to sixteen hours of each day working towards progression. Sometimes, I exceeded that for a fair bit.

And it had a multitude of effects on me.

First, my attributes skyrocketed under such intense training. Barely a day went by when I didn’t gain at least a point to each category. Sometimes, I managed to raise the total by quite a bit more than that. This, I attributed to my intense and well-optimized regimen, but it was also due to the application of [Mist-Infused Body] – or rather, the regeneration associated with it.

At first, it only allowed me to fully regenerate my body every seventy-one hours. That was powerful enough on its own, but as my Mist attribute rose, so too did the cooldown shrink until, after three months, it was down to once per day. And I knew it was only the beginning. Once I reached my potential, I hoped it would be usable with even more frequency.

Regardless, each time I used the ability, it refreshed and regenerated my body, obviating the need for rest. That, in turn, made my training that much more effective.

“That ability feels like cheating,” Patrick said after I’d regenerated one time.

I gave him a smile and responded, “Wouldn’t you rather I be the one cheating instead of our enemies?”

“You have a point there,” he said.

It was in the fifth month that I finally reached Tier-5 with [Aura Manipulation], and true to Ana’s prediction, that’s when I got a new notification:

Synergy Detected! Merging skill [Aura Manipulation] with ability Mist Control.

I was only barely able to read it before I was beset by agonizing pain that ripped through both of my minds. For the first time in a long time, I couldn’t think. I could scarcely even breathe, the pain was so intense. I collapsed to my knees, clutching my head in my hands as I desperately tried to acclimate to the pain. Fortunately, it only lasted for a few seconds before it disappeared altogether. Following that was another notification:

Skill [Aura Manipulation] successfully merged with Mist Control. Skill lost. Mist Control has evolved into Mist Authority. Progress reset at F.

“Whoa,” I breathed as my {Mist Warden} senses went wild. Suddenly, the auras I’d begun to take for granted became vastly more detailed. In addition, the subtle undercurrent of Mist that suffused everything in the world became more noticeable. However, it wasn’t nearly as distracting as that might suggest, largely because I shunted the sensory input into my second mind.

Not for the first time, I found myself sending a silent thank you to Ana for suggesting [Multi-Mind] to me. Without it, there’s no way I’d ever get the most out of abilities like Mist Control.

Or Mist Authority, as it had become after the evolution.

That, as much as any other advancement since I’d begun my training prodded me ahead. With that success under my belt, I was even more committed to the regimen than I’d ever been before.

So, with that in mind, I pushed myself to my feet and resumed my routine.