PftA Book 2 - Chapter 32

Chapter 32 – System Origins

“Are you sure you’re okay to delve?” Robert asked several hours later as we stood outside the Tier Two rift in Antarctica. I’d taken a short nap after my bout of inspiration, but it hadn’t done much to alleviate my mental strain. I still hadn’t fully processed the first augment. The second was still in my ring, waiting for me to absorb it.

“I’m fine,” I said with a tired smile. “Master Kairos had me spar with one of his servants to practice fighting under mental fatigue, so I’m mostly just dealing with the augment assimilation. Healing doesn’t really do anything for it.”

I understood why Stella had me absorb the crystal two days early. Had I tried to access the information right away, I wouldn’t have been much use. Thankfully, I didn’t attempt to absorb the second augment right away. I probably needed to add more points to my mind attributes before using it.

“If you’re sure,” Robert replied uncertainly. “We can always come back another time.”

I wanted to dismiss his worry, but I stopped. The rift we delved had somehow increased stages since we last visited, which was a surprise. Instead of being an MT2 rift, it was now an HT2 rift. I could feel the increased energy since it now technically out-leveled me. While a couple of levels within the same tier wasn’t normally significant, especially for me and Robert, I was not operating at my best.

I let out a tired sigh. “Are you free in the morning? Eight hours of sleep should be enough to get me past the worst of it,” I said, acquiescing. I hoped eight hours would be enough. It was my first experience with absorbing an interface augment.

After using the extra time to rest, we met back up beside the teleportation beacon just after three in the morning.

“Even given the time, you look much better now,” Robert said approvingly when I walked through the door to the spacious room.

“Thanks,” I replied before yawning. “I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until you pointed it out.”

The Nature Mage waved a hand. “No worries. I’d rather wait and delve safely than push ahead and have one of us get seriously injured. Even with your healing spells, it’s still not worth the risk. You can’t heal dead, after all.”

I nodded. It was true – mostly. If I got to someone within a couple of seconds, I could usually reverse the damage, and everything would be fine, but it wasn’t guaranteed. More than once, I’d tried to Restore injuries just moments after death and failed to return them to life.

I wasn’t sure why massive spells like Rewind could functionally restore life while focused spells like Restore could not. I’d asked Master Kairos during one of our lessons, but he’d just shrugged and claimed the spells targeted two different things. Where Restore targeted a specific person or thing, Rewind targeted Time itself.

It kinda made sense, but not totally. When I shared my confusion with my mentor, he chuckled and told me to Meditate on it. Of course, I promptly forgot due to my schedule. Now that I remembered, I instructed Lisa to remind me of my question the next time I sat down to Meditate for more than a quick mana boost.

“What’s with the change in attire?” Robert asked a few seconds later. “When I saw your robes last night, I figured you were just tired and forgot to change. But since you’re still wearing them now…” he trailed off with a raised brow.

I glanced down at my pristine white sect clothing and embellished outer robe. For anyone unaware of the enchantments built into the garments, it would seem crazy to enter a rift wearing only cloth, regardless of how well it was made. But I knew better.

So did Robert.

“I figured I might as well get used to delving in them since I’m giving Rhona her armor back. She picked up a new protégé, so she’ll likely want to pass it along. Besides,” I turned to face the rift portal. “I’m pretty sure my robes are stronger than the Tier Three armor she loaned me. I should have probably started wearing them months ago when I received them.”

With a slight nod, I cast Barrier and stepped into the rift, batons in hand. The rift had only increased by a stage, so I didn’t anticipate any significant changes, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. Once we reached the entry area and verified it was clear, I swapped the batons for scepters, opting for ranged firepower over melee.

“Who’s the new recruit?” Robert asked after we defeated the first set of mobs. It took me a moment to connect his question with my earlier statement, but my increased mental stats helped bridge the gap.

“She’s a tri-affinity who just awakened,” I replied as I stored one of the mob bodies. I heard the sharp intake of breath at my comment and turned to my delving partner. “What?” I asked when I saw his expression of shock.

“That’s…” Robert was visibly struggling to find words. “That’s insane! I’ve never met someone with three natural affinities! I’ve only ever heard of one person naturally awakening that many in modern times, and he ascended centuries ago.”

I couldn’t help but stare as my stoic quasi-guardian suddenly turned into a massive fanboy. “Really?” I asked skeptically. “I know it’s rare, but… that seems a bit—”

“Rare?” he nearly yelled, cutting me off as he stepped forward. His eyes held a strange fervor I’d never seen him express before. “Tri-affinities are things of myths and legends. Even if none of the affinities are particularly powerful, having three affinities gives the wielder a huge advantage. A few people have forced a third affinity after centuries of effort, and they’ve always been highly celebrated. But that’s nothing compared to someone who naturally awakened three affinities. It’s just…”

Robert shook his head in wonder, and I rolled my eyes. It really didn’t seem like that big of a deal, especially if people could slowly train a third affinity. It had to be some weird cultural thing that I’d failed to pick up on before.

When I continued collecting mobs instead of commenting, Robert tentatively asked, “Are you going to meet her?”

“I already have,” I answered, glancing back to gauge his reaction. “I’m supposed to be her delving guardian. Well, her and a couple of others,” I added. “Bell awakened a couple of days ago. I plan to have them delve together, along with a native healer.”

Vines exploded from the ground, pulling all the remaining bodies toward Robert, where they swiftly disappeared into his ring. “Please, let me join you. Just once,” he nearly begged, causing me to recoil slightly.

“Uh, fine,” I agreed, hoping he would drop the topic since he was acting like a K-Pop fan who had just been told their idol would be coming to visit. “You can come with us the first time for added safety.”

Before he could get too excited, I added, “I’m not sure when it will be. She’s got some issue with her sister. We’ll probably have to do night delves.”

After impressing Sumi enough to gain her agreement, we’d briefly covered scheduling, and I’d found out that she was the primary caregiver for her twelve-year-old sister. Apparently, she’d made an agreement with her dad to take care of her sister in exchange for being allowed to remain living at home. According to Sumi, they’d had a nanny before, but her dad let them go after Sumi agreed to handle everything involving her sister.

It was weird.

It was probably a rich-people thing.

Anyway, with it being summer, her sister was out of school, so Sumi couldn’t just take off during the day.

Even though her sister was technically too young to play Atlas Online, she still had her own DIVE gear and regularly played. She didn’t have affinities and was much more limited in how much she could play, but she could still enjoy the worlds, including the Junction.

“I don’t mind doing night delves!” Robert quickly responded, making me roll my eyes, though I couldn’t suppress the smile. “What?” he asked, seeing my reaction. “You have no clue how big of a deal this is, do you?”

“Nope.”

Hearing that, Robert happily educated me.

The rest of the delve was spent listening to stories about tri-affinity heroes. Most seemed like fairy tales or gross exaggerations, but I was starting to understand why he’d reacted the way he had. From their legends, the system's creator had been an ascending tri-affinity Mage who’d used their affinities to make it easier for those he loved to join him in the higher realms.

A couple of other famous tri-affinitied people had become heroes during the tens of thousands of years since the system was created, making people with three affinities an even bigger deal. Given their apparent rarity, I could see why Robert would be excited to meet one.

= = =

Rhona wasn’t in her office when I stopped by after selling our excess loot from the delve. There wasn’t anything new, even with the stage increase.

I wasn’t surprised to find her office empty. Though she worked a lot, Rhona always took Sundays off whenever there wasn’t something major going on. I got the feeling that Sunday had no particular meaning to her – it wasn’t like there was a religious reason for the choice. Instead, it was a matter of convenience.

I messaged the Administrator to let her know I was dropping off the armor for Sumi, but she responded before I departed and told me to just hand it off to the newly awakened girl when I took her on our first delve. It was an obvious solution, and I felt a bit slow, having overlooked it.

The rest of my day off was nice. Like normal, I avoided logging into the game and spent most of my time hanging out with Amie and Justin until we headed to my parents’ house. They’d bought property north of Eglin Air Force Base, but it wasn’t nearly as much as they had in Missouri.

The house was also smaller.

Instead of a two-story, four-bedroom home with a separate game/craft room, my parents now had a three-bedroom house with a detached garage/workshop combination that housed a DIY forge the previous owners had built. Given his interest in Smithing within the game, I suspected the forge was a major factor in my dad’s choice to buy the home, even though I was sure he could have easily set up his own.

Much to my joy, he’d even taken a real blacksmithing class after moving in. I was ecstatic that Dad had taken a real interest in learning a skill that would be incredibly valuable soon.

Though I didn’t live with them, I still took advantage of the small bit of land they’d purchased. I’d even had Robert secretly help me create an underground bunker of sorts. Nature Mages could create some truly amazing things out of plants.

Access to the bunker was limited since I didn’t want it discovered, but it wasn’t like I needed a door to get inside. I was slowly expanding and decorating the space, but I wasn’t in much of a hurry. There was more than a year and a half before it would be needed. That was plenty of time to finish setting everything up.

“What are you thinking about?” Mom asked as I contemplated the changes I’d come up with since absorbing the augment. I’d been mulling over some of the enchantments I’d planned to add, and I was contemplating the feasibility of making an access portal instead of a physical door.

“Nothing much. My mind was just wandering,” I replied, refocusing on my surroundings. Bell hadn’t come to dinner, though she’d spent part of the afternoon with Justin and Amie. Justin and Dad were discussing sports, a topic I found mind-numbingly boring, so I focused on Mom.

“How’s the new job?” I asked.

“It’s still good,” she replied as she wiped Amie’s face for the umpteenth time. “The ER is a lot busier, but the people are great. It’s a lot different being on an Air Force base instead of an Army base.”

I nodded and listened as she described some of the stranger things she’d seen during the week. It had become something of a tradition during our weekly meals, and I was curious if other emergency personnel did the same.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, your grandma Mercer and Aunt Betty are visiting for the Fourth of July,” Mom suddenly said.

“Yeah? Aunt Betty is coming too?” I asked. Aunt Betty was my mom’s aunt and my grandma’s sister. She was one of those weird cat ladies who never left her hometown and never got married, treating her cats like children. She’d lived next to Grandma for as long as I could remember.

It was a good thing since I doubted Grandma Mercer would have lived very long after Grandpa died had her sister not been there to support her.

Mom nodded. “Yes. I expect you to spend time with them while they’re here. I know you’re busy with your job and your new assignment, but you need to make time for family, too.”

She was right, of course. Family was important. I didn’t have a close relationship with most of my extended family since we moved around a lot while I was growing up. At most, I saw them once a year. I had no idea what happened to them after the apocalypse the last time since I didn’t have any way of contacting them once the power went out.

But this time, I hoped things would be different.