Born a Monster

484 System Chat

Ragnal beat me back, driving me around the perimeter of the yard. “Fivefold Strike!” he screamed again.

“How many uses per day do you have on that thing?” I screamed back.

“Uses? Lad, don’t tell me you fall for that. Any ability worth getting... FIVEFOLD STRIKE... is worth getting as an Inherent. All day, every day. FIVEFOLD STRIKE.”

I spat small flecks of blood. “But... stamina limits...”

“Get an Inherent that increases the rate of your stamina recovery. Fivefold....”

A ball of fabric smacked him in the mouth. “That’s enough, Ragnal. New soldier’s under half.”

“Under... what?” Ragnal replied.

Bigni rolled his eyes, and closed them, but did not sigh. “Half health, Ragnal. He’s below half his health total.

“But... no, no. I’ve gotten six experience points off him already. Do you have any clue how long it’s been since I’ve been able to do that? Let me at least make it an even ten.”

.....

Bigni held a finger up before my left eye, then moved it to my right. “How are you feeling?”

“I could use the rest.” I admitted. “And this shield is just about done for. How does he do that with a wooden staff?”

Ragnal held the staff out between Bigni and I. “Ironwood.” he said, proudly. “Strong enough to be used by real warriors. If you’re hiding your levels, now is the time to stop.”

“He’s not hiding levels.” Bigni said. “He’s gotten enough training to fake being an Arminger or a Shielder. No clue how he got that without the points to unlock the class, but...” he shrugged.

To me, Bigni said, “Don’t worry, youngster. Live long enough, you’ll unlock half a dozen warrior classes by the end of this war. Guaranteed.”

I shook my head. “My divisor is ... impressive.”

“How?” Ragnal asked. “Don’t tell me you’re trying for Path of the Polymath. Nice rewards, so I hear, but the route there? Bleh.”

“I actually...” I said.

“BLEH.” Ragnal said, sticking his tongue out of an open mouth. “Just give up, kid. It’s not worth the pain. Besides, you have to learn magic, and religion, and all kinds of other useless crud.”

“Magic is not worthless.” Bigni said. “It just takes time to nurture, and care to use.”

“Yeah.” Ragnal said. “Worthless for the time and effort you put into it. Come, spar me, and see if I can’t hit you in the head before your finish one of those fancy incantations.”

“Don’t listen to him youngster. He’s just jealous about how much faster I can start a campfire.”

“I AM NOT JEALOUS! NOT OF YOU! NEVER!”

A tent flap opened. “Could you please keep the volume down?” asked a ... I hesitate to use the word “pasty” in reference to a hobgoblin. His skin was a lighter tone of red, as though the forge the others had gone through had a cooler corner, which was where he had instead been cooked.

“Come out here with your squad and make me!” Ragnal shouted.

The flap of the command tent opened, an angry Brittani glaring at him. “Sergeant, we lost enough soldiers last night. No fair challenging just one squad, especially if they’re wounded. You there! Get another two squads, at least one of them archers. Then see how eager he is to fight.”

Ragnal didn’t sit down so much as thrust his posterior at a nearby crate. “Taking all my fun away.” he muttered.

She blinked at me. “Sergeant Bigni, my eyes are telling me the new guard is not only alive, but still on his feet.”

“A rare treasure, Captain.” he replied.

“Huh. Well, keep him alive, then. We may have need of him before too long.” She then ducked back inside, letting the tent flap close behind her.

Bigni sighed. “Don’t try to escape.” he said.

I stretched, such as I was able. “Too bruised.” I said. “It hurts just to walk, which is unusual for this level of health.”

“What’s the name of that ability?” he asked Ragnal.

Ragnal muttered something and spat.

“I’ve heard that there were once twelve basic Systems,” Bigni said. “And that they expanded and merged until they began to break down with the legendary heroes that killed the Sanguine Khan.”

I massaged a lump forming on my left cheekbone. “Then it wasn’t a side effect of the Dragon Times?” I asked. “I’ve heard that it was something done by the Dragon of Wands to make sure legendary heroes never rose again.”

Bigni shook his head. “He might very well have done such a curse, but it was started centuries before then. Does your system allow for something called volume transfer?”

“It says it costs thirty development points.”

He tried to smack me upside the head, seemed ... satisfied when my head wasn’t there to be slapped. “Pay it, young soldier. The time you save taking in lifetimes of data is well worth the points.”

“You have thirty development points?” Ragnal asked.

“Not now.” I said.

He snorted. “History. Useless. Crap.”

Bigni waggled his jaw, but did not otherwise reply. “Okay, let me know when that module is installed.”

“Three minutes, forty six seconds.” I said.

“For a second tier module?” Ragnal scoffed. He put his foot up on a nearby keg, rolling the ankle to move it. “No wonder the kid has problems. His System is busted.”

“Might be the System.” Bigni said. “What level is your System, soldier?”

“Level Two.” I said.

“Not bad for your age.” he said, “But also not great. Something for you to work on in your spare time. Trust me, having two week’s warning that your wedding anniversary is coming up and a list of everything your wife has asked for in the last year? Could save your life.”

“Or,” Ragnal tipped the barrel, “just don’t marry a crazy woman.”

“You think they’re all crazy.” Bigni said.

“I stand by my statement.” Ragnal said. “Ask your System about Regimens, kid. That’s how to train yourself harder than the next soldier you’ll have to fight.”

I did so.

[Regimen cultivation methods: Physical Training: 2, Mystic Training: 2, Divine: 2, Psionic: 2, Chi: 0. Multiple Regimens will require two or more weeks to restart.]

Yeah, that’s about where I remember them being. I began reciting the levels...

Bigni waved his hands frantically. “No. No, that’s what I want. Under your Quest System, what does it tell you to do?”

“My WHAT?” I asked.

Ragnal laughed so hard he wobbled on his crate.

Bigni muttered, “Chew it up and spit it out burnt.” Then he put his hands on his hips and cleared his throat. “God’s blood, soldier. And here I thought you weren’t going to take long to break in. You know what a quest is, at least.”

“Yes.” I said. “My System tracks their progress, and lets me know when they’re done.”

For example, I was just a hair over halfway done with killing a hundred enemy soldiers. And NO, I had no problem deciding that was just going to remain between me, my System, and my god.

“And your System help files never told you... you don’t have System Help files, do you?”

I shrugged. “I’ve never unlocked them, no.”

“By the wrinkled red hairs on Loki’s ass!” Ragnal swore. “That’s like, a guidebook on how to help your System to help you! By FAR more useful than anything Bigni’s going to tell you about today.”

“Sadly, I have to agree. Do you have the ten points to unlock it now?”

Ten points? I might easily have that sequestered around my System methods. “Not in development points, no.” I said.

Bigni rubbed his nose. “All right, well unlock Daily Quests first, and then proceed from there. What about your Manufacturing?”

And this went on, him asking about modules I’d never heard of (but which were there when I looked for them), and ones I had, and even ones I’d installed.

“I must concur with Ragnal.” he said. “Your system, young soldier, is in a sorry state. Good for surviving in the wilderness and automating your work routine, and the communication modules are well developed. But... Your System needs a LOT of work.”

“Or you could go through life like I do.” Ragnal said. “Put your points into your abilities, and don’t care about timers and alarms and such. Honestly, if I wanted something blocking my vision to tell me alcohol isn’t healthy for me, I’d have a wife like Bigni’s only cruder and meaner.”

Bigni inhaled, but let it pass. “Now, drop and give me forty.”

“Huh?” I said.

“Forty pushups.” he said. “Sixty situps afterward, and then you’re going to run to get all of us lunch, a plate at a time, and run back with it.” He smiled at me. “You are off your Physical Training Regimen so long that it will take you two weeks to start gathering experience from it again. Best start now.”

“And the others?” I asked.

“That is for your own time, which it sounds like you won’t have much of. Now drop, or I’ll make you drop.”

Damn it, but those were harder exercises to do than I remembered. AND the captain got a plate of food as well. I would have thought command tents had their own food runner, but such was life.

I would later learn that these were a rolled up pair of Bigni’s socks. Oh, and to carry my own spare socks and undergarments.

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