They exited through the crystal at the farm. It was late evening, and the sound of crickets around the farm seemed as loud as an acoustic band. The moon rising above the trees was a sliver, but the night was cloudless.
After the steady temperature at the caves and in the Astral Hall, the night air was crisp and cool. Devin’s affinity ability spotted various nocturnal creatures in the woods nearby, including an owl in a nearby tree watching them. Just to see what would happen, he reached out and poked it with his mind. Its head swung around to look right at him, then it spread its wings and took flight.
He looked around and saw Asha glaring at him. He looked away.
“Am I right that it’s Autumn?” Devin said.
“Late Autumn,” Milo said.
“We need a calendar,” Devin said.
“Is that really our first priority?” Asha said.
“If we want to do any sort of long-term planning, then yes,” Devin said. “They must have some calendars on Senarci, right? Milo, find one we can use.”
Violet light flickered around Milo’s ears. “The Temple of Udon keeps track of the passing of seasons. It has six seasons broken into a variable number of days, but given how intellectually lazy you are, I doubt you’ll want to go through the effort of understanding it.”
Devin sighed. “I would prefer something more like I’m used to.”
Light played over Milo’s body as he listed and rejected a few more calendars. Then his tone shifted.
“I am attempting to integrate a number of calendars into a single calendar that will be within my party leader’s ... capabilities,” he said. “This will be a difficult task.”
“Hey!” Devin said.
“It will require a Herculean effort by a talented logician to achieve this,” Milo said. “Fortunately, I am a once-in-a-generation talent, and I am capable of much more than most Guides.”
Milo spoke like this for several more seconds before the light died away. An ‘A’ appeared above his head.
Achievement Unlocked! Dated– Milo burned through his whole mana pool trying to provide a calendar for his arrogant party leader. I sure hope he doesn’t need that mana pool anytime soon!
Reward: Milo’s Boost ‘Add On – Game Clock’ has upgraded to ‘Add On – All-in-One Game Calendar.’ This add-on package contains a game clock, a unique game calendar, and a game timer. You should keep thinking this is a game, Devin. I’m sure nothing bad will happen.
Reward: 10 Universal Knowledge shards
Reward: +1 to Milo’s Logic and Concentration
Devin blinked. “Grats. I don’t know whether to be happy or offended.”
“Why would you be offended?” Casey said.
“I’m not sure,” Devin said. “I guess I don’t like the implication that I’m wasting Milo’s mana points.”
“Are you?” Casey said.
“Of course not! That was a useful …” His eyes narrowed. “Are you messing with me?”
“Me?” Casey said. “I’d never do anything like that.”
“If I may,” Milo said. “Please open your calendars and familiarize yourself with the interface.”
The calendar reminded Devin of the one on his smartphone. It was Thursday, October 24. The year was listed as 0 ADM.
“What does that stand for?” Devin said.
“The ‘D’ doesn’t stand for Devin, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Milo said. “However, the ‘M’ may or may not stand for Milo.”
Devin shook his head and smiled as he flipped through dates. The calendar began on the morning of Monday, October 21, marked as ‘Devin arrives.’ It was hard for Devin to believe he’d only been in Teth for a few days.
“Five days in a week – Monday through Friday. Ugh. No more weekends?”
“I did that on purpose,” Milo said. “You already have too much trouble staying on task.”
Devin frowned and kept reading. “Six weeks in every month. Twelve months of 30 days each.”
“Nice and logical,” Milo said. “An excellent calendar.”
“No leap years?” Devin said.
“They are not required,” Milo said.
“Senarci has the same moon and sun as Earth, the same weather, similar stars, but with days and years that are standard lengths,” Devin said. “Is this some sort of alternate-dimension earth created in a lab?"
“Have you considered the possibility that it’s a coincidence? After all, in an infinite universe, one could expect an infinite number of worlds. For that matter, how do you know you’re in the same universe you were?”
“That’s ….” Devin trailed off when he noticed that Asha was no longer with them.
He looked around and spotted her outline about ten meters away, on the other side of the pile of rubble from the outbuilding. His face darkened and he stalked over to her.
She was studying the trunk of the corrupted tree.
“What are you doing?” Devin said.
She looked up and Devin blinked. She seemed ten years younger, and much more attractive than she had. Apparently, the moonlight agreed with her.
“Have you seen this thing?” she said. “It was corrupted.”
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“I know,” Devin said. “I killed it. I asked what you’re doing?”
Asha stood and brushed off her pants. “I noticed something different about the trunk, and I thought I’d check …”
Devin stepped forward until his face was centimeters from hers. “General Landon told me you’d obey orders. You said you’d obey orders. And the first thing you do is run off without asking or even telling me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I was literally right here.”
“I don’t care. Next time you want to go look at something, you ask first. Got it?”
“I’ve got it, sir,” she said. Her eyes smoldered. “Is it acceptable to you if I scout around the area, sir?”
He glared at her for a minute then shook his head.
“We’re heading out straight away. I need you scouting ahead of us, not around here. We’re going to be moving as fast as we can, so keep an eye out for the refugees’ trail. Do you think you can spot their tracks at night?”
“Do I think I can spot the tracks of a hundred villagers with wagons and livestock across open ground?” Asha said. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. You’re at a lower level than the rest of us, so you might have trouble keeping up. Don’t hesitate to let us know if you need to rest.”
Asha touched two fingers to her eyebrow and gave a mock salute. Then she raced off to the northwest.
“It won’t work, you know,” Milo said.
“What?” Devin said.
“Your whole hardass thing,” Milo said. “It’s going to backfire. Horribly.”
“Why?” Devin said.
“Let’s say her temperament isn’t suited for coloring inside the lines,” Milo said.
“She’s hiding something,” Devin said.
“Of course she is,” Milo said. “Wouldn’t you be?”
“Not if I was joining someone’s else’s party,” Devin said. “She has to prove herself to us, not the other way around.”
“Oh, really,” Milo said. “What if she doesn’t see it that way?”
“I don’t care how she sees it,” Devin said. “I’m the one who is …”
Casey put her hand on Devin’s arm. “I’ll keep an eye on her,” she said.
“Thanks,” Devin said. He gave Milo a dirty look, then they set off at a jog.
Casey invited Asha to a Private Chat.
Asha accepted.
Asha – Yes, Priestess?
Casey – Are you going to tell him?
Asha – Excuse me?
Casey – Are you going to tell Devin that you’re one of the Forest Born?
Asha – How did you know? Never mind. Stupid question.
Casey – Well?
Asha – I don’t see why I should. It’s not his business.
Casey – You should tell him because he’s not stupid, and he’s going to figure it out. When he does, he’s not going to agree that it wasn’t his business. He already knows you’re hiding something.
Asha – With respect, Priestess, I was ordered to assist you, not confide my deepest secrets to you. Are you going to tell him?
Casey – That depends. Do the rebels know?
Asha – General Landon and Cindy do. They’ve kept my secret for years. I arrived at the caves as a refugee, like everyone else. My people don’t even know I’m alive. If they find out I’m here, it’s going to become a whole thing I don’t want to deal with. My people aren’t popular here, you know.
Casey – I’ll keep your secret for now if it doesn’t endanger the party. But you should consider telling Devin. He’s one of the good guys.
Asha – He’s not acting like a good guy. He’s acting like a tyrant.
Casey – He doesn’t trust you yet.
Asha – And you think if I tell him something important, he’ll stop being an ass?
Casey – That’s hard to say, but it wouldn’t hurt.
Asha – Fine. I’ll think about it, Priestess.
The Private Chat ended.
Achievement Unlocked! Den Mother – It looks like Casey is on her way to becoming the group’s therapist. Just remember to practice self-care. You can’t help others if you’re not healthy!
Reward: Casey has gained the ability ‘Psychoanalysis’ (Social, Creativity, and Intuition +3) – This ability is an upgrade from Counsel (Social and Creativity). It allows the healer to better understand a patient’s state of mind through discussions of past experiences and memories. An additional +5 is added when ministering to members of the party.
Congratulations! This is a Rare Ability!
Reward: +2 Social.
Reward: 5 Life shards.
Devin – Grats. How did that happen?
Casey – I can’t say. I guess it was time.
Devin looked away from Casey. He knew how perceptive she was, and he didn’t want her to know he was disappointed at her new ability. He was glad she had another way to raise her Intuition, but he’d have much preferred a useful Skill. Especially since she’d already had ‘Counsel.’ What were they going to do, set up a traveling psychiatric service?
They ran across country in a short column, with Asha in the lead and the other four behind her. As a brand-new Copper level, she was the slowest of them, so Devin let her set the party’s speed.
She was getting advancements at a ridiculous pace. Devin got an alert every few minutes that she’d gained either Speed, Endurance or Might. It was irritating. He jogged over to run beside Milo.
“Why is she getting so many increases?” he said. “Isn’t that strange?”
“Not at all,” Milo said. “Copper enhancement by itself doesn’t provide any Attribute increases, but it comes with a massive amount of Potential. Do you know what Potential is? I don’t mean the standard definition. It has a very specific meaning in the context of Attributes.”
Devin remembered something. “I think it was mentioned in one of my Boosts.”
“Yes,” Milo said. “It’s part of Skill Hound.”
Devin pulled up the description of the Boost.
Boost ‘Skill Hound’ – This Boost doubles your Primary Attribute gains from abilities. It only applies to Attributes that are less than 50% of their Potential.
“OK, from the context clues, I’m guessing Potential is the difference between an Attribute and its maximum,” Devin said.
“Correct,” Milo said. “It’s important to remember that Potential is connected to your Base attribute, not your modified Attributes. That means bonuses don’t come into play.”
“Got it. How does that work?”
“The higher an Attribute’s remaining Potential, the more likely it is to advance. You can think of it in terms of a gravitational field. The bigger the Potential is, the stronger the pull. It’s always strongest when you reach a new enhancement level. For a newly enhanced Copper like Asha, swinging a sword around a few times is enough to raise an Attribute.”
Devin read the description again. “So, I only get doubled points until my Primary Attributes reach … 75, right?”
“Yes. That’s what we call a bottleneck. They occur at 50%, 75% and 90% of Potential. The 50% bottleneck is where your Boost stops working, but it’s also where non-ability actions stop increasing Attributes.”
“Such as …?” Devin said.
“You asked me earlier about a digging ability. You don’t have one, but you’ll still get occasional Attribute increases from digging. That’ll stop when you hit the 50% bottleneck.”
“Wow. That sucks. I’m guessing it gets worse from there?”
“At the 75 percent bottleneck, advancement on that Attribute through abilities will stop until all your others reach 50 percent of Potential.”
“That’s … wait, does all Attributes include both Primary and Secondary?”
“Yes.”
Devin did some quick math to figure out his highest Potential. His Endurance, Logic and Speed were all at 35 out of 105. That meant he needed 18 points in each of those three Attributes alone. That didn’t sound too bad, until one considered that so far, he’d gotten 12 of them in all three put together.
“All that work on other attributes will be wasted?” he said.
“If there’s another Attribute associated with the ability, you might get that one instead, but if you hit the bottleneck with all associated Attributes, that ability won’t raise anything,” Milo said. “That’s why it’s good to have as many varied abilities as you can, and to keep your Attributes somewhat balanced.”
“Easier said than done,” Devin said.
“It’s a challenge every enhanced faces,” Milo said. “However, the most significant bottleneck comes at 90 percent. That’s when abilities stop advancing associated Attributes altogether.”
Devin almost missed a step. “Are you serious?”
“I am.”
“How the hell do you get to 100 percent, then?”
“Achievements, critical successes, death-defying efforts in battle, actions with world-shattering consequences – that sort of thing. The gap from 90 percent to 100 percent can take as long as everything that came before.”
Devin’s irritation grew as he scanned his Attributes. He wasn’t close to 75 percent in anything yet, but based on his current rate of advancement, he was going to run into problems when he did.
“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
Milo sighed. “How many times are we going to rehash this, Devin? I prioritize what is critical, and this is a long-term issue. I did tell you that it was important to keep your Attributes balanced, and I also told you that you need to ask questions if you want answers.”
Devin growled. “Well, thank you so much for that cryptic advice. I know how much you enjoy keeping me blind so you can spring this stuff on me.”
He sprinted ahead before Milo could respond. He felt a little better for a few seconds until Milo raced past him like he was standing still.