PftA Book 2 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13 – News

I spent a couple of hours playing with Amie as she rotated through the pile of new toys she’d gotten for Christmas. I was tempted to sneak off and squeeze in a delve while she napped, but I suppressed the urge. Besides, unless I wanted to return to the Tier Two rift in Antarctica, I’d have to wait to delve anyway.

Since reaching Tier Two a few weeks earlier, Robert and I had been much more limited in how much we could delve. Well, that wasn’t totally true. We were free to challenge all the Tier One rifts we wanted. It was just the Tier Two rifts that were limited. There were only a dozen or so Tier Two rifts currently on Earth, and all of them had queues of at least ten days. All except the one near where Stella had abandoned me. For some reason, that one was left alone.

I sighed as I fiddled with my new phone. I’d only had limited exposure to the setup, so it would take some getting used to. It wasn’t nearly as bad as switching from an Apple to an Android, though, since the manatech could sense intention.

Or maybe that was just Lisa tapping into the device and helping me navigate it.

After running a few hands-off tests, I realized it was most likely Lisa. I didn’t even have to touch the hand-sized device for it to do what I wanted. It was like Technokinesis, which made me momentarily giddy when I realized what was happening.

“Hey there, Emie,” my grandpa said as he sat heavily on his favorite recliner. “You excited about your mom and dad moving down to be near y’all?”

“Yeah,” I said, looking away from my new device. “It’s a little sad they’re selling the house, but Justin and I plan on staying in Florida for a while, so…”

Grandpa huffed. “I heard that. Your brother said he plans to stay put since those Atlas guys are offering to hire him on when his contract is up.”

I bobbed my head. It had been mentioned in passing, but I hadn’t discussed it in depth with Justin. He’d done the same thing during the last timeline – officially leaving the military when his initial enlistment contract expired and working directly for Atlas.

“I guess they treat y’all pretty well, especially if you went to work for them,” Grandpa added. He knew just how overprotective my older brother could be of me.

“Yeah. I doubt Justin would have supported me working for a bad company,” I agreed before shifting to face him more directly. “Have you or Grandma tried Atlas Online yet?”

“Naw,” he said dismissively, picking up the remote to turn on the television. “We’re too old for that stuff. Why would we want to go playing wizards and adventurers? Maybe if they had a gunslinger Western game. Now, that might be worth trying.”

“I use magic guns in the game,” I countered before spending the next half hour telling him what Atlas Online was about. I even used my tablet to pull up some of the game feed I’d added to the game guide I’d set up.

While there were other sites, some with admittedly more information available, my goal was to record the important things about how the interface and magic worked and ensure it was available after the apocalypse. Most of what I’d been able to access, especially after the power started failing, had been limited to what the Atlantis Alliance had released on their website in the early days of the reintegration.

Since only their servers continued working after mana rendered most mundane technology inoperable, I planned to ensure the data was transferred over before the interfaces came online.

There was still a little over two years before that happened, and Lisa had taken over most of the data sharing at this point. I did cursory reviews, but that was about it. With the added processing power she got from connecting to my tablet – and now my new phone – she could scour other sites and compile the information she deemed valuable during the transition. That was in addition to all her work creating magic guides from the huge amount of data I collected while researching and attending classes.

I could tell my grandpa wasn’t interested in the game – or rather, he was, but he didn’t think it would be something he’d be able to do, given his age. I didn’t push the topic. I’d try to get him to try it the next time I visited. He was only in his late sixties. He still had plenty of life left to live.

He just didn’t realize it.

= = =

Two weeks later, I spent part of my Saturday lesson with Mage Stella practicing Recall, an adaptation I’d made to Recall Item that allowed me to target a signal and teleport the targeted item to me. Unlike Recall Item, I didn’t need to possess the item first, nor did I need to add a pseudo-Anchor to the item – or person – to pull them to my location. I only needed something to target.

I’d initially tried adapting Teleport but quickly realized there was no reason to since I already had a similar spell. I hadn’t even needed Stella to point it out this time.

I noticed that my mentor looked more distracted than normal and asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Hmmm?” Her unfocused eyes regained clarity as she shifted her gaze in my direction. “Oh, I’m fine. I was just reading a new notification. It seems you aren’t the only naturally awakened native anymore.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked, uncertain about her subdued demeanor.

“Not at all. It just means changes are coming. I hoped to have a few more months to prepare for more awakened natives, but…” she trailed off as she stared at something on her display. “We should probably call it a day. I know we haven’t been here long, but you seem to have met your goal. You can now safely pull your niece to you if anything happens. Good job.”

I gaped at the well-dressed woman. She had never ended our lessons early. If anything, she tended to go over the five hours allotted for our weekly lessons.

“Thanks?” I said uncertainly. “I guess I’ll see you next weekend?”

The violet-haired woman hummed lightly. “Probably before that. We might have to shift some of our priorities to prepare for the awakenings that will undoubtedly start trickling in. Rhona will probably want to talk to –” She abruptly halted. “Yep. She’ll likely reach out to you soon. I’m being summoned.”

Stella glanced at me with considering eyes before disappearing in a shimmer of purple mana.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about the news. On the one hand, I was glad that I was no longer the sole naturally awakened Earthborn. It meant that others would start breaking through, which should keep me from being too much of an outlier if I was identified.

On the other hand, more awakened natives meant I was much more likely to be identified. I wasn’t overly worried, but it was something to keep in mind, especially after the conversations I’d had with Rhona. I didn’t want anyone to see me as a threat and potentially cause issues. While I wasn’t too worried about being targeted, my family was unawakened. I had absolutely zero confidence that they wouldn’t be targeted if someone thought they could gain some advantage that way.

An hour later, I received my own summons to meet with Rhona in her Junction office. I had a couple of hours left before I was supposed to meet Robert for our trip to the Arctic, but I messaged him anyway to let him know there was a chance I might be late meeting up with him.

The meeting was fairly quick. Rhona just wanted to make sure I was aware that it was likely more natives would break through, especially those who were parts of Alpha or Beta groups since they were exposed to much more mana over a longer period. We discussed my options, and she agreed it would be a good idea to separate my civilian identity from my traveling Atlas persona.

I’d already been wearing a disguise amulet when I trained and worked with Stella, so it wouldn’t be much of an adjustment. My disguised persona would reflect my true level, but my Time affinity would be hidden. Conversely, Lisa would ensure my civilian persona reflected a level two Time Mage.

Though I wondered if my efforts were a bit excessive, the fact that Rhona supported the subterfuge reinforced the need for me to protect my personal identity.

Since we were delving locally, Robert and I met outside the warded room that housed the rift in the basement of the headquarters a short while later. Once we were inside, I updated Robert on the new development.

Instead of surprise, he simply nodded. “Yeah, we expected it to happen anytime. It’s been over two years since the first beta testers started. That’s pretty close to the estimates we had.” He looked at me with a smirk. “You’re just a weirdo. Nobody was prepared for you to awaken early.”

I rolled my eyes. “I guess that’s why I got all this special treatment.”

“Probably,” he agreed. “These new guys won’t be alone – at least, not for long. Now that the first expectedone awakened, more will start trickling in. If too many start awakening, I’m sure the bosses will make whatever adjustments they need to. Having too many break through would cause too many problems.”

“What is too many? A hundred? A thousand?” I asked curiously.

Robert shrugged. “I have no idea. I have nothing to do with any of that.”

Letting the topic go, I focused back on the rift. Tier Two rifts were much more difficult than their Tier One counterparts, and the increase in power I got from crossing that threshold wasn’t quite enough to compensate for the increase in difficulty.

After the next set of mobs, we took a short break, and I pulled up my status.

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Name: Emie Mercer

Level: 12 (2699/13500)

Profession: Enchanter

Affinities: Time, Space

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Health: 170 (3.4/min)

Stamina: 310 (12.4/min)

Mana: 213/300 (11/min)

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Attributes

Strength – 14

Agility – 18

Vitality – 17

Intelligence – 30

Wisdom – 22

Perception – 20

Unallocated: 0

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Spells*

Skills*

͠ ͠ ͠

My attributes looked much better than the anemic ones I started with. I’d gained a point in Strength shortly after moving to Florida and earned another point in each of my physical attributes from the training I did with Shawn. As soon as I’d hit Tier Two, he’d shifted our training to include a full-immersion pod that looked like a vertical tanning booth. I was a little skeptical at first, but the results were undeniable.

Similarly, I’d gained two points in each of my mental attributes by following the guidance I got in my Mage Academy courses. That was a phenomenal growth rate for less than six months of training. Even Robert had agreed.

The bonus attribute point per level now that I was Tier Two was also nice, and I’d invested a few points into each of my physical attributes to keep them from lagging too far behind. Min-maxing only worked in games. Focusing solely on a few attributes would be even more detrimental with a hybrid build.

Since they were ridiculously full, I didn’t bother opening my spells or skills sections. With my added mental stats, I’d been able to learn increasingly difficult spellforms with Lisa’s help, giving me a wide variety of utility spells to call upon if I found myself in need.

I’d even learned a passive form of Sense Intent – the evolution of Detect Lie. Interestingly, the former was a simpler spellform than the latter. It was a spell I was sure would get a lot of training in the coming months and years.

“You ready?” Robert asked as he stood from the wooden bench he’d created for us.

I closed my status. “Good to go. Do you want to head to Antarctica after this?” I asked, referencing the lone Tier Two rift to which we had carte-blanche access.

“Yes!” he nearly yelled. “I was hoping you’d want to double up today. I’m really close to having enough to pay for the upgrade,” he added with a grin.

I returned his smile. “Well, we’ll have to celebrate once you get it. Unless you’d rather celebrate with your friends…”

Robert sighed lightly. “No. None of my friends have the upgrade yet, and it would be awkward to celebrate getting it with them. They don’t get to delve nearly as often as I do.”

“Because of the limited rifts?” I asked.

He nodded. “That and politics. We get priority because of you,” he reminded me. “Most of my friends are here as auxiliary support, so they are pretty far down the list for access to Tier Two rifts. A few of them have been delving Tier One rifts to earn some experience, but the experience penalty is pretty stiff when you delve down tiers.”

That was rough, but at the same time, I understood the purpose behind it. With limited resources, everyone couldn’t have access, or nobody would benefit. Still, it was probably little consolation to those who missed out.

“It’s not all bad,” Robert insisted as he watched my expression shift. “Doing this mission, we’ll all gain access to resources from contribution points that we’d never have been able to get before. Besides, Tier Two rifts are plentiful back home. The delay is a small price for the benefits we’ll receive in the long run.”

Accepting his statement, I cast Time Barriers on both of us, and we headed deeper into the rift.