Oath of the Survivor

“You know, it’s polite to offer a guest food and drink when they come to your home.”  Jarberry said, false consternation clear in his voice.

“It’s also polite to tell your hosts when you’re planning on arriving.  Or if you’re planning on arriving.  While we’re at it, I also think there are conventions around inviting oneself in, snooping, using concealment skills…”

“Fine,” Jarberry said, putting his hands up in mock surrender.  “I’ll just go help myself while you get up and moving.”  The imp vanished a moment later, and Kyle rose and stretched before confirming that everything was still in order with C.H.A.D.D. 

“Everything alright?”

[QUITE, DR. MAYHEW.  NOTHING UNUSUAL WHATSOEVER UNTIL JARBERRY’S APPEARANCE.  THOUGH I SUPPOSE AT THIS POINT HIS APPEARANCES HARDLY QUALIFY AS UNUSUAL.]

Kyle tried, and failed, to hold back a chuckle.  “We’ve certainly made some odd acquaintances.  Thank you for keeping a watch on things, I appreciate it.”

[I AM HAPPY TO BE OF SERVICE, DR. MAYHEW.]

Kyle cleaned up quickly, and by the time he stepped out into his living room, he saw Jarberry lounging in one of his chairs, stuffing his face with rice out of one of Kyle’s bowls.  “Took you long enough,” the imp said between bites.  “Grab a seat, we’ve got lots to talk about.”

Kyle considered questioning his visitor about his habit of eating Kyle’s food, but decided against it.  Some battles weren’t worth fighting. 

[MR. BANDERSNATCH, DO YOU HAVE THE PYROCORE SPHERE?  I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO CONTINUE EXAMINING IT.]

Without a word, Jarberry made a gesture with his left hand, seeming to pull the basketball-sized orb out of thin air.  “It belongs to the two of you – I’m happy to leave it here if you want to study it more.”  These words were spoken with a wide grin, and Kyle knew a trap when he saw one.

“Not yet.  We appreciate you holding onto it for us.”

“I’ll give you credit where it’s due, you have the brains to understand when some things are best left unchanged.  Are you thinking about incorporating it into your path?”  Jarberry asked, seeming genuinely interested.

Kyle shook his head.  “No, it doesn’t offer much for either of us at this point.  The principles at work with the inscriptions are the most important pieces, and we want to learn everything from it we can before we look to sell.”

“Not a bad idea, though I think you’re going to hit some dead ends on it soon.  The inscription work isn’t going to do much without a treasure at the same level as the volcanic glass supporting it.  You found something really special in that last part of your Practicum.  Even other high-quality materials will hit their limits, after all.”  Jarberry said.

“That’s alright, it’s still an investment in the future,” Kyle replied.  “Besides, who knows what other items we might stumble across?  I’d rather learn everything we can while we have an opportunity.”

“Well just remember, my storage fees are far more reasonable than the Collective’s.  Now, I think you and I have more important items to cover.”

With that, Jarberry gestured again, and several heavy tomes materialized between Kyle and the imp.  With a sigh, Kyle placed his right hand on the cover of the closest one, and felt a familiar connection as the book drained a bit of his mana.  Jarberry brought these books each time they’d met over the last few months, and Kyle could safely say they were the part of his training he looked forward to the least.

Jarberry watched with expectant eyes as Kyle flipped to the first page, where large blobs of ink seemed to be flowing around with no rhyme or reason.  Knowing the drill, Kyle used his faint connection with the item to try and stabilize the ink on the page, allowing him to read the message that was on it.  The problem was that he had to focus his attention on keeping each individual letter stable, which grew exponentially more difficult as the message lengthened.  The moment one of the letters destabilized, Kyle would lose his connection to the tome and would have to start over again. 

The idea, per Jarberry, was for Kyle to continue to develop in the areas of mana control without level progression.  Kyle understood the logic, even if he found the training to be a bit tedious.  Ultimately, the more he practiced, the better use he’d be able to make of his rising attributes.  Hopefully, that would result in more varied uses of his skills, not to mention better options as he moved toward C Grade.

Just over an hour later, Kyle finally lost focus.  The ink began to swirl across the pages once again as Kyle leaned back in his chair, exhausted. 

“Not bad,” Jarberry said.  “147 pages total this time.”

“And how many do you want me to get?”  Kyle asked, keeping his eyes closed as he fought off a fatigue headache.

“500 before C Grade would be a good number to target.”

Kyle nodded, biting back his disappointment before closing the first tome and moving to open the next.  Instead of pushing his focus and mana control, this tome immediately started to put strain on Kyle’s muscles, as if it was pushing each individual fiber to lock up.  The more pages he turned, the higher the intensity.  As soon as he could no longer turn the pages, the book snapped shut, relief washing over his aching muscles. 

While he could have pushed further through the use of Adaptive Regeneration, Jarberry advised against it.  The idea of the tomes was to train and develop his foundations.  Leveraging skills to get a better score undermined the whole principle.  The process was more important than the result, and Kyle didn’t have much choice other than to trust the imp.

Kyle looked up to see Jarberry’s expectant gaze, and placed his hand on the last of the three tomes.  This was far and away his least favorite; a simple test of pain tolerance.  Kyle knew that there would be no physical harm.  He instinctively understood that there was no danger from the book.  Yet, despite that truth, the white-hot pain lancing through his body grew to a point that he simply couldn’t handle. 

As the last book closed, Jarberry clapped slowly.  “147, 133, and 159.  Solid improvement from where you started, but you’ve still got some work to do.”

Kyle groaned.  “And you want me to get to page 500 on each before C Grade?”

“If you can,” the imp said, shrugging.  “I’m not here to tell you what you have to do, but if you can push to that point, you’ll have built a strong foundation for whatever comes next.  I can’t think of a single situation where improved mana control or focus would be a bad thing.  And if you’re going to have to learn these lessons one way or another, this ain’t a bad way to do it.”

All things considered, Jarberry was right.  He’d experienced the hard way on Earth, after all.  “I appreciate it.  No guarantees I get to 500 on each, but I’ll keep working toward it.”  Kyle said, placing the books back in a neat stack.  “Did you bring the class information?”

“You know, most people would describe a catalog of rare, variant E Grade classes with a little more reverence.”  Jarberry said, mock admonishment in his tone as he put the stack of tomes in his spatial storage.

A few months ago, Kyle would have harbored worries that the imp was offended, but those doubts were a distant memory.  “You and I both know that you had no reverence when you found the information, and I’m just learning from my teacher.”  Kyle responded.

“Let’s not get too comfortable with the whole ‘teacher’ label.” Jarberry protested, activating his nav bracelet.  “Take a look, and learn what you can.  Remember, there’s no guarantees when it comes to a second class.”

Kyle nodded as he looked through the list.  There were 5 widely accepted E Grade archetype classes that existed for most awakened, with the true customization coming as individuals allocated Free Attributes and selected skills.  These were Fighter, Ranger, Mage, Healer, and Crafter.  Within each, minor variations existed. 

For example, a Fire Mage and a Wind Mage were both Mages, simply differentiated based on their elemental affinities.  Similarly, a Swordsman and Spearman were both variants of Fighter, each offering the same number of attribute points despite the different names. 

True variants, like the one DeRosa had, were something entirely different.  First, they came with significantly higher attribute points with each level.  An E Grade at the cusp of a D Grade evolution with a good variant class had the potential to hold their own against opponents in the early stages of D Grade.  People with good variants also had a leg up in terms of class evolutions, typically offering more powerful options relative to their more normal peers. 

Thus, it went without saying that most who were serious about progressing to C Grade wanted their second class to be such a variant.  Per Jarberry, however, this could be a double-edged sword.  The key to C Grade progression was unifying 2 separate paths, and if the second class was of a much higher quality than the first, harmony would be impossible.  Often, it would stop before the second class even had a chance to reach D Grade. 

Fortunately, the solution was simple, if incredibly difficult.  The first class would simply need to turn into a variant that could stack up qualitatively.  The challenge, at least for Kyle, was that he had no idea how his Survivalist class stacked up.  He had no doubt that it was powerful, far outstripping some of the more standard evolutions he’d studied from the base Healer class.  At the same time, the lack of a variant class as a foundation meant he was missing out on attributes and skills that could have propelled him further.

That left Kyle with 2 problems to solve; develop enough for a great variant of the Survivalist class, and build an idea for how his second class would fit into the picture.  He would solve the first issue by the simple virtue of continuing down his path, and shoring up his foundations like he was doing now.  A clear solution, even though it was easier said than done.

Perusing the list Jarberry provided, the sheer number of different E Grade variants was a little overwhelming.  From what he could glean, most variants at this early stage were largely tied to either environmental factors or sheer natural talent.  Standard E grade classes, like Kyle’s Healer, offered 5 fixed attributes and 1 free attribute per level.  Some of these variants offered 3 or 4 times that number. 

As far as which archetype to choose, he and Jarberry had gone the rounds over it.  While he could see the concept of survival expressed in each, some didn’t fit with the core of who he was.  Fighter would likely offer some balance, and his ever-growing experience with close combat would probably benefit him.  However, he didn’t feel like it was a direction that he wanted to harmonize.  Ideally, he’d find himself fighting in close quarters less and less as his life moved on.

Ranger would similarly synergize well, and make him an even more effective Courier.  This was the direction Jarberry had encouraged as well, with well-documented variants tied to scouting and espionage that could blend in well with the survival concept.  While Kyle could see the allure, he just didn’t feel as drawn to it.  Though Kyle enjoyed his work as a Courier, it wasn’t something he wanted to align his entire path around.

As if reading his thoughts, Jarberry spoke up.  “Still not considering the Ranger, huh?”

Kyle shook his head.  “It just doesn’t feel like me.”

Jarberry’s expression got serious for a moment as he met Kyle’s eyes.  “It’s your choice at the end, but I really think you should consider it.  As things stand today, I see Ranger being a better fit for your class than Healer or Crafter, with Mage being a bit of a toss-up.  I think you’ve got the potential to go far, and I don’t want to see you get stuck at an early bottleneck because of a bad choice.”

“I appreciate that, Jarberry.  Good news, there’s still plenty of time ahead.  Anything you’d recommend that I focus on while I’m on my next assignment?”

Jarberry snorted.  “How about you focus on the assignment?”

[I BELIEVE THE VERDANT REPUBLIC WOULD APPRECIATE THAT AS WELL, DR. MAYHEW.]

“Sure, take his side, C.H.A.D.D.” Kyle snapped back, though he failed to suppress the grin on his face.

“For real, kid, take it seriously.  Even I don’t have all the details of your assignment, and they requested you personally.  It’s a good opportunity, if nothing else.”  Jarberry paused for a moment, before making a sign with his hands, pulling the stack of tomes back out of his spatial storage.  “If you can promise you’ll keep them safe, I’ll also lend you these.  I don’t use them anymore, but it’ll give you something to practice with while you’re off-world.”

Kyle nodded, putting them in the pack carefully.  “Thank you, I will.”

“Good,” Jarberry replied.  “Because I’ll expect you to replace them if they get damaged, and they’re expensive.”

“I’ll do my best.” Kyle replied.  “Should we move on to the next lesson?” 

Jarberry nodded while pulling out reams of paper.  The two spent the following hours reviewing increasingly complex runic formations.  Jarberry held a firm belief that a strong understanding of different types of inscriptions would be a major benefit to Kyle as he approached C Grade.  Whether he was helping C.H.A.D.D. with an upgrade or trying to decipher the purpose of unknown artifacts, it would prove helpful.

This batch was focused on various types of elemental inscription, and the different principles behind each.  Kyle was beginning to get a grasp on identifying 2 of the elements, but the others were still quite a struggle.  Flame inscriptions tended to grow exponentially out of a focal point; wind had a tendency to be linear and direct.  The problem was that linear force was common through a variety of other affinities, and mistaking one for another could be dangerous if he was examining a formation.

The principle Kyle found the most interesting was how the runic inscriptions related to the way different affinities of mana moved.  The writings Jarberry brought indicated that one could disrupt a skill as it was forming if the structure of the mana could be impacted, and Kyle felt like he could take that concept to an even higher level using Parasitic Resonance.

Finally, as the day was almost done, Kyle set down the document he was studying and met Jarberry’s eyes.  “Say, what do you know about my next job?”

Jarberry grinned as he went back to the refrigerator for another snack.  “I’ve got no clue.  All I’ve been told is that you’ve been specifically requested by the Verdant Republic.  Do you have any more of those little sandwiches?”

“Nothing at all?”  Kyle asked incredulously, ignoring the comment on his empty fridge.  “I find it hard to believe that you haven’t at least tried to stick your nose in.”

“Believe it or not, Kyle, I have a few other things going on.  I can’t keep up with all of the random work that you do.”  Jarberry paused for a moment, a piece of fruit in his hand.  “And from our interactions, I don’t think you’d want me to.”

“Any advice?” Kyle pushed.

“Don’t be late.  Be professional.  Don’t die.”

[DO NOT LOSE YOUR PACK WITH ME INSIDE IT.]

“Oh, and don’t damage my books.” Jarberry tossed in, mouth already full of fruit.