60. Smoke

60 – Smoke

When Andy climbed into his trailer, he immediately spotted a cloth-wrapped package on the floor by the couch. At first, he thought someone had left it there for him, but when he unwrapped the cloth, he couldn’t help thinking the material was odd. Rubbing it between his fingers, he thought it felt almost like silk, but it was…strange.

He couldn’t put his finger on why it was strange until he held it up to the sun shining through his open door and realized the dark, grayish-black material was marked with all sorts of odd little runic symbols that reminded him of the Codex entries he’d won as quest rewards. The fabric was about two feet square and, as far as he could tell, hadn’t been meant as anything more than a wrapping for the item it had concealed—a knife.

Andy set the cloth aside and picked up the black leather sheath. It held a knife with a blade that looked to be about eight or ten inches long. He grasped the smooth, bone-colored handle. “Shit,” he whispered. “Is it actually bone? Ivory, maybe?” He tugged, drawing the blade from the sheath. It was a proper killing weapon—double-edged, razor-sharp steel. “Damn,” he breathed, gingerly drawing his thumb over the blade so the individual lines of his fingerprint tugged at the invisibly fine edge. “Sharp.”

He pushed the blade back in the sheath, stuffed it into his back pocket, then picked up the silky cloth. Folding it into a smaller square, he set it on the counter. Andy contemplated trying to get an hour or two of sleep, but shook his head, pushing his way back to the bedroom, where he looked for something clean to wear. He found another pair of jeans in much better shape than the ones he had on, and then, in the bottom drawer of his infrequently used dresser, he discovered a clean T-shirt advertising an energy drink.

He still had four days' worth of clean underwear, so he went ahead and put on a clean pair. Feeling much better, he added his acid-ruined clothes to one of the garbage bags he’d gathered earlier. Clothes sorted, he looked at the three spears he’d leaned against the door. His original was about done for. When he poked the charred wood near the spearhead with his new knife, the blade sank in nearly to the center of the shaft. Either he’d need to have James shorten the spear, removing the charred part, or he’d need to start using his new one.

Looking at the new spear, Andy felt optimistic about it lasting a lot longer, even if he kept using his Kindlebrand spell. The spearhead was entirely steel, and the top foot of the wooden spear-haft was encased in metal—a repurposed pipe. Shrugging, he wiped away the rune from his old spear and then redrew it on the new one, adding a Rune of Extension to make it semi-permanent.

As the flickering, fiery runes faded down to a glow, he leaned the spear against the door, then he hooked his new knife to his belt, picked up the javelin and his old spear, and stepped outside. He’d make a quick trip over to see James.

He was surprised to find the older man outside, digging in a patch of soil that had formerly been covered in decorative rock. “What’s up, James?”

“Gonna build me a forge, young feller.”

Andy looked at the hole, tilting his head to the side. “Yeah?”

“Yep. Ain’t much now, but I’ll line it with stone and clay and rig up a bellows from some old junk. By the time I’m done, I’ll be melting scrap and forging the stuff I need to push my crafting skills forward.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Andy held up the two weapons. “I have these for you. Figure someone might need a weapon still, or maybe you can just use ’em for parts.”

“Ain’t that your spear?”

“Yeah, but I burned up the top. You could shorten it for someone smaller than me, though. Oh, and I found another spear off one of those Construction City people. It’ll do for now.”

James nodded, leaning on his shovel. His dark skin was beaded with sweat, and he wiped his forehead on a sleeve. “Thanks. Just set ’em there. You still thinking about that list I gave you?”

“For the spear? Yeah, sure. I just don’t know where to find some of the stuff on there. I mean, I can try to hunt down some of the creatures with Lucy, but we’re gonna have to deal with the war first.”

James sniffed, shifting his shovel as he contemplated his words. After a moment, he looked up at Andy and asked, “You think we’re gonna be all right tonight? Rumors are going around about a big attack.”

Andy groaned, running a hand through his hair. “Shit. Seriously? I thought I’d at least get a chance to have a meeting before the word started spreading.”

“Yeah, but don’t blame folks. People are gonna talk when they’re worried. Probably someone heard the news and spoke to someone they thought would keep quiet, and, you know, that person had someone they thought would keep quiet and—”

“And so on,” Andy laughed. “I get it.”’

James pointed toward his belt. “Where’d you get that knife?”

“From a quest reward, I think. It was in my trailer when I got back. I think it materialized while I was sleeping, and I didn’t notice it when I stumbled out this morning.” Andy drew the dagger and flipped it, catching the blade between his forefinger and thumb. “Shit,” he laughed. “I wouldn’t have tried that pre-System, I don’t think.” He offered the hilt to James, who took it, smiling.

“I guess you’ve raised your speed a bit? I suppose that ought to affect your nimbleness, right?”

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“That’s an excellent question, James. I guess it makes sense. I’ll ask Ed what he thinks.”

“Good idea.” James was studying the knife, and he whistled softly. “That’s a fine blade, Andy. Better than most knives I’ve ever seen.” He handed it back to him, and Andy sheathed it.

“Doesn’t mean I don’t still need your talents.”

James laughed, shaking his head. “Don’t worry. My goal is to make nicer stuff than that. Building this forge is gonna level me up, for sure.”

“Anything I can help—”

“Not a chance. I need the experience, and besides, you need to get ready to face the crowd. Meeting’s soon, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. I don’t really need to do—”

“Go rest your eyes, then! Damn, kid! You’re burning the wick on both ends!”

Andy laughed. “Fine, fine. I’m going.” He turned to leave, and when he got to the corner of the lane, James called out to him.

“Thanks for the supplies!”

Andy waved over his shoulder, then hurried up to his trailer. He did have things to do, but it didn’t involve napping; he wanted to spend his three improvement points. “But I need to be smart about it.”

As he sat on the couch, his waterskin in one hand, he pulled up his status display and looked at his notable abilities, mentally filtering out the ones that weren’t directly related to one of his classes:

Burnscribe: 1

Embertouch: 1

Rune of Extension: 1

Fire Tolerance: 1

Reaper’s Senses – Bound: 3

Shadow Lance – Bound: 1

Twilight Steps – Bound: 2

Veil of the Stalker – Bound: 3

Shadow Cloud – Bound: 1

*Kindlebrand – Bound: 3

*Scorchmark Glyph – Bound: 2

*Kindled Bonds – Bound: 1

Andy was trying to see a connection among his Umbral Reaper and Pyroglyph Invoker abilities, primarily because of the clue the System had given him after his fight with the reptilian man. “What had it said?” he mused aloud, trying to remember the exact words. “Something about my use of the spear with my class abilities was ‘pulling them toward an uncommon merger,’ and that I should continue to explore those connections…” He trailed off, staring at the list.

Was the fact that he continued to fight with a spear, regardless of his class, the key? Both classes had an ability that he’d been using on his spear: Shadow Lance and Kindlebrand. He’d also used Kindled Bonds to set up a perfect spear attack. “And my Veil of the Stalker helps me set up attacks when I’m in my Umbral Reaper class…” In other words, his two classes could both complement his spear-fighting style in more than one way.

He'd already improved Kindlebrand to rank three, but his Shadow Lance was only rank one. Andy had an idea, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to risk his improvement points on a hunch. He planned to be very intentional while putting a point or two into Shadow Lance. He figured that, if he focused on how the skill synergized with his spear and Kindlebrand ability, the System might recognize what he wanted. In a worst-case scenario, he’d just improve an ability that he wanted to use more often anyway.

Before getting started, he looked at the description for the spell:

Shadow Lance – bound

“All right, here goes…” Andy focused on how Shadow Lance, combined with Kindlebrand, made his spear a far deadlier weapon, and then put a point into the skill. As it registered, he felt tingles in his skull and a warm flush in his chest, and then the System sent a bright yellow message floating before his eyes:

***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve seen a connection between your use of fire and shadow to enhance your spear-fighting techniques. You are drawing your classes toward an uncommon merger. As a reward, you may permanently fuse the five improvement points invested in Shadow Lance and Kindlebrand to forge a rare hybrid ability at rank 1. This will remove the original abilities. Do you wish to proceed?***

Andy hesitated. The System made it sound like a good thing, but he was giving up five improvement points for a new skill, and, at the same time, he’d be losing two other skills. Knowing it was futile, he asked, “Is the new spell a lot better?” Just as he’d figured, he got no response. If the new ability was “rare,” though, and if it was costing him so many points, then it stood to reason that it might be worthwhile, didn’t it? Besides, maybe this step was necessary to push his classes closer to a merger. Again, he wasn’t sure why he wanted the merger, other than the fact that the System kept referring to it as “uncommon.”

Tentatively, he said, “Yes?”

***Congratulations! Your Kindlebrand and Shadow Lance spells have merged into a new spell: Smoke Lance. In order to cast your new spell, you’ve gained an additional innate ability: Smokescribe.

Smokescribe – innate: You can channel mana to combine the elements of fire and shadow into hybrid glyphs. Using your finger or an implement, you can inscribe smoke glyphs onto most surfaces.

Smoke Lance – bound: By carving a volatile hybrid glyph of fire and shadow onto a weapon, you shroud its form in a corrosive haze of black shadow flames. The weapon burns without fire, striking with unnerving silence. Each wound inflicted by the weapon is plagued by shadow flames that will spread deeper with each heartbeat, eating away at armor and weakening its integrity as surely as it sears flesh.

Additional effect: When Smoke Lance is active, you may trigger ignition on any recently inflicted wound. This will detonate the shadow flames embedded in the target, causing severe damage and creating a small area-of-effect blast. The detonation will disperse the glyph, requiring it to be reapplied. Mana Cost: 30.***

Andy carefully read the description, trying to measure it against the two abilities he’d traded. It didn’t seem like he’d lost much—maybe some initial armor penetration. Still, the tradeoff seemed good. He’d have most of the effects of Shadow Lance and a better version of Kindlebrand. One significant improvement was that it didn’t mention harming his weapon. On top of that, it was cheaper on mana than having both of the old spells active.

Overall, it seemed like the rank-one “rare” ability was as good as his two other spells, totaling five ranks. He just wished he had a better way of knowing those elusive tiers. Were all his current spells, other than the new one, basic, or were some of them rare or uncommon? Was uncommon different from rare? Were they just arbitrary terms that his instance of the System sometimes used?

Groaning, Andy refocused on his abilities, then, when he found the new entry for Smoke Lance, he put another improvement point into it. He looked at the updated spell description and frowned. It looked the same. “So, maybe it doesn’t upgrade linearly, or maybe none of the effects changed. It just does them better now.”

He looked at his last point, debating adding another to Smoke Lance, doubling down to see if he’d get an updated description. He didn’t, though. In his last fight, his Kindled Bonds had saved his life, and he wanted to see how it would improve. He was just about to put the point in when someone pounded on his door, and then he heard Bella’s voice. Discover more novels at ɴ

“Andy? Can we talk for a minute? I was hoping to catch you before the meeting.”