Chapter 27

  A little over two days after the Wes-induced disaster, he found himself going over his status, trying to come up with an answer to his current conundrum. He had come to learn a few key details, several involving the girls and one involving himself.

  As it turned out, not everyone was given an ability at every level. He didn’t question his good fortune before because he just assumed it was so. The one standard answer he learned about the path is that you have to learn about the path for yourself. Wes never sought to question Nia when she told him that he would be getting an ability every level, until level ten. It only came up for him really when he realized a few hours after they left that field that he still had not tried to use his one offensive ability.

  Upon mentioning it to Phony, she shared her had shared her status with him. She shared her status with him, as if only to say “Duh.” She had a ton of skills, and he didn’t have any.

  That was when he also came to find out that by phony punching him into oblivion, she had been penalized twenty-five levels as a warning from her pledge. That led to further inquiry about the nature of pledges. Such as where did they come from, were they always standard, and lastly, why did she pledge knowing that she would be joining him as a supporter?

  Phony waved away his concerns as to her pledge and level penalty. She explained that feeling his face crunch under her fist was worth a hundred levels.

  The other two questions that Wes had for her were easy to answer for her as well. Phony explained that she was not old enough or far enough on the path to hold the answers to knowing the origins of pledges. She confirmed that it was more used as a bargaining chip in the inner realms, and he had been lucky to tie himself to her mother. And in turn, she had been lucky; she had been born with a subpar trait that had nothing to do with her parents. It did not offer any benefits outside of full-scale combat, and it had a qualifier that had to be fulfilled to be useful.

  Wes had pressed for more information on her trait, but he was shut down immediately. Only to be told that she would be happy to share as soon as they were married.

  When it came to her pledge to him, she explained that it would mostly be replaced after marriage. That was really only to tie herself to him like her mother had.

  After redirecting their conversation, Wes had found out that skills were more prevalent than Abilities, by a factor of five to one at least. During your first hundred levels, depending on how hard you worked at doing something, you were given a new skill every tenth level. On the second hundred, the skill came on every twentieth level. And eventually it would come only after every hundredth level. And that sometimes two lesser skills would manifest in place of the more powerful one, with its words split.

  Long story short, she had no idea if Wes would have any skills.

  The more interesting part of their conversation came when she told Wes that they could defer an ability every twenty-fifth level in favor of stats. She had done so a few times.

  That led to Wes wondering if he would get the same option on his 25th level.

  Dozel and Wes, on the other hand, had said so little to each other in the previous two days. It took every interaction they had to be mediated by Phony in some way. She would always walk just far enough ahead of them when she led to be out of sight. Obscured by a tree or hard to see in the shadows of the forest. And with this system's star being a little under three-quarters across the sky, the shadows had begun to stretch.

  It was only after some small talk with Phony that he found out that in the Empire from where she came from. That to see someone outside your family naked meant you had to take responsibility for them. Raising her eyebrows up and down so Wes could fill in the subtext. And that it was either that or be killed.

  Wes couldn’t quite get the reasoning, both what Phony said about Dozel’s home and how Phony was acting. He still thought she was acting strange, but he let it lie, eventually writing it off to the differences in culture.

  When they broke for camp that day. Phony went to scout the surrounding area while Dozel ended up staying with him. Wes used the opportunity to get her talking.

  “Hey, Dozel, you mind helping me answer a few questions about my status?”

  Dozel was in the middle of tying off the sheet they used to block out whatever light that the forest allowed in. She glanced in Wes’s general direction and said, “Of course, Master Wesley.”

  That was the other development over the past few days that popped up. Sighing at her formality, he shouldered on. “I still haven’t tested what I suspect is my one offensive ability. Do you think I should test it?”

  Dozel stopped what she was doing and thought for a moment. “I suggest you don’t waste the Experience. After wasting so much on us, it would be a shame if something happened to you because you ran out of experience.” She punctuated her statement with a bow.

  “Not a waste!”

  “Yes, sorry, Master Wesley, I misspoke.” Dozel bowed again.

  Feeling his frustration about to boil over, he sighed again and walked away. “I’m going to go relieve myself. Tell phony for me.”

  Dozel only offered a bow as he walked away. She stood up as soon as he was out of her field of view.

  Phony walked up beside Dozel, “Don’t you think you are being a little unreasonable?”

  “It was because of his familiarity with us that he felt okay doing what he did,” Dozel replied.

  “You know, I thought about the same thing at first. But then I thought about it. He hasn’t been alone to shit in peace. We have seen just as much of him as he has of us. I’d even argue that we have seen more. Did you ever ask permission to see him? Because I know I didn’t. I just knew I had to protect him, but wouldn’t he see that as an invasion of his privacy? You or I never asked.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Dozel looked at Phony, letting a flash of frustration play across her face.

  Phony, in turn, nudged her with her elbow, “Your turn, you are on shit duty.”

  Dozel trotted off after Wes without another word being said.

  __________

  The next three days went by in a flash for Wes. He had all but given up on repairing his relationship with Dozel. He hadn’t given up on her, just chose to redirect his energy and frustration to trying to influence his next level up reward. He had still only been given the option of wagering a minute, hour, or day. But he suspected that when he had more choices that that would change.

  So over the last three days, he asked the girls to pick up the pace. Wanting to push himself physically, they travelled deeper into the forest. Eventually, they started picking up more and more signs of activity. Not just Clan activity, but human. The girls estimated that they had enough water to last them another week tops, so they all felt the push for water. The girls had all but stopped consuming what little they had for a week already. So with guilt riding high in his mind, he wanted to push. He let his thoughts of water consume him. He wanted to see if his Deviant ability was just a fluke or if he could truly influence his next ability by what motivated him.

  Wes pushed his body further than he had ever been and allowed himself to be consumed with the thoughts of water. They would run into the occasional Clan member, but whoever the girl ahead was would always deal with it before anything happened. Wes guessed that Dozel was better at detecting their sneaky adversaries by they would be dead before Wes even realized they were around. When Phony was the one to lead, they would get close enough for either Wes to hear the conflict or see the conflict.

  With a hundred experience remaining before his level up, he asked the girls if they could stop for the day. They agreed to his request happily, knowing that their bodies would be cleansed thereafter.

  Wes sat next to a tree, thinking about water the whole time. He had abstained over the last day and a half himself to feel the thirst in his throat. The girls watched him, almost giddy at the opportunity to be clean once more.

  Wes thought about water in every way he could. How it smelled in the air on his awakening. How good it felt to run over his skin in his shower. How his mouth would feel after a refreshing jolt of water. He tried to think about how scarce the water was on his home planet and how much they had struggled over it. Thinking to himself, I don’t ever want to be ruled by water ever again, over and over.

  The level-up notification came.

  You have Leveled up.

  Wager life itself. Your reward will forever be proportionate to your risk.

  Wes went over his usual actions, selected the day amount, and pulled the lever.

  Ability Unlocked: H2O

  “What the hell is H2O?” Wes asked aloud.

  “Oh, it’s. . .”

  Wes looked up from his status when Phony stopped talking. Her face was contorted like she was fighting for air. She fell to her knees and hands before she gasped out, “Alright.”

  Wes shot to his feet and ran over to Phony. He helped her back to her feet. “Are you okay?”

  Phony nodded, “Yeah, I am alright. I was stubborn and tried to fight the edict.”

  “Why would you try to do that?” Wes asked.

  “Sometimes, it's just fun to see what you can get away with.”

  Dozel let a laugh out for the first time in a week. Immediately catching herself and subduing her face.

  In turn, Phony and Wes let out a laugh of their own.

  After gathering himself, Wes used Cleanse on himself and the girls. He had become quite good at controlling its use. Wes brought up his status to take a look at his experience.

  Name: Wesley of 29744C

  Race: Human

  Age: 27

  Unique abilities: Imperial over Metric, Back in My Day

  Abilities: Deposit, Eternal Spark, Cleanse, Stopwatch,

  Vigilant, Deviant, Symbiosis, H20

  Skills: N/A

  Achievement(s): Bloody Soul, Pragmatic Savant

  Trait(s): 3

  Current Status: Blessed

  Level 7

  Savings: 2,410,667

  Next Level: 10,160.64

  Level 7 Exp Per Sec: .0168

  Current Exp: .1512

  Not being able to help himself any longer, he activated H20. Which turned out to be a horrible idea. Water burst out from him in all directions. It seemed to shoot off from every bit of his skin.

  So much water raced out of Wes that the unprepared girls were bowled over. All their equipment was either washed away or soaked through. The ground as far as he could see was busy soaking up the excess water he provided.

  Phony looked up from her muddy seat with the offer of death in her eyes. Dozel, however, smiled so broadly that her slightly larger canines could be seen. Checking his Experience expenditure, he recoiled in disgust.

  “Before you hurt me. Just know I am already hurting enough, Phony. That cost me close to three thousand Experience.”

  Phony stood up while trying to wipe away the mud from herself. She held out her hand and helped Dozel up to her feet. “At least that solves our water problems.”

  Walking up to Wes, she put her arm around his shoulders as best as she could. Her height held her back while she pivoted to look at Dozel. “We just have the problem of being dirty again. Isn’t that right, Dozel?”

  “What the, you can't expect me to use cleanse again. I am supposed to be saving.” Wes pushed away from Phony.

  “Should have thought of that before using your new toy so haphazardly.” Phony walked over to Dozel and put her arm over her this time. “Isn’t that right, my future sister-wife?”

  Wes watched as Dozel looked over herself and her surroundings, scanning over all their dirty equipment.

  After Dozel settled her eyes on Wes, with a face of expectation. Wes sighed and activated Cleanse for the second time in less than five minutes. Grumbling, “How the heck am I supposed to save anything with you two using me like this?”

  Phony and Dozel bathed in the blue light of Wes’s ability again. When it finished, Phony said, “Atta boy. I knew you wouldn’t hold out on your beautiful women.”

  Wes didn’t reply to her needling, choosing instead to walk over and collect the things his new ability had washed away.