Well, that sucks.
I sigh and head back upstairs, holding my towel and rifle in one hand. Cold bath it is. In the kitchen, Lana is hard at work making a meal and I pause long enough to let her know about the recent changes. She stops chopping up her vegetables, staring at me in silence and I have to repeat what I say before she acknowledges it. Guess she was concentrating pretty hard on finishing dinner.
Cold. The water in the rain barrel is cold. I shiver, toweling off quickly and glad that this is my last cold bath. When I get inside, towel wrapped around my waist, Lana calls me over before I can get dressed.
“One second, let me get dressed,” I reply but she snorts and waves me over.
“Food’s ready now. Just sit down. I have something to talk to you about,” Lana gestures to the table and after a moment’s hesitation, I comply. The lady can cook after all. Whatever she has to say, it gets set aside as we delve a bit deeper into what I was up to, Lana asking a few probing questions about Carcross and the fort.
“That’s pretty interesting.” She smiles slightly, turning her glass of plain water in hand as she peers at me over its rim. “It seems they’ve gone down a more community model of development, where everyone is working together.” At my nod, she continues; “Won’t work here though. Too many people.”
I raise an eyebrow and she waves her hand, speaking; “Barter and community systems like that break down over time due to the lack of personal bonds between all participants. It’s fine when the community is small, but in a larger community, there is nothing to stop free riders from derailing the system.”
Seeing my raised eyebrow, Lana explains, “Business major with a minor in Economics. Richard dealt with customers, I dealt with the books. We both took care of the dogs of course.”
“Doesn’t explain why people aren’t doing anything though,” I grumble as I remember the large swaths of people just sitting around the schools.
“They are, you just don’t see it,” Lana explains and then shrugs. “What we have is a lot of manpower, but no resources. Most of what we had before doesn’t work and though some have Skills, they don’t have the tools or resources to actually do anything. The only people with any Credits are the hunters and most of their money is being devoted to upgrading weapons and themselves.”
I grunt, acknowledging her point, “Kind of hard not to, what with death being the alternative if you are one of the hunters.”
“Oh, it’s understandable but it’s not true for all,” she points to the sink and continues. “You just spent what? A few thousand Credits on getting hot water? What if you had used that money to buy a basic toolkit and passed on some of the materials like those Ant carapaces? They’d be able to start training their skills just like Carcross.”
I grimace, wondering what it is with people making me feel like a selfish idiot. I risked my life for the guns, for the Credits. Shouldn’t I deserve something for it? Still, I hadn’t even thought about her point either.
“Nope. Not happening toots,” Ali focuses and begins visible, floating next to me. Lana reacts poorly, screaming and falling off her chair to which Ali giggles a bit over. It takes a few minutes to get her to calm down and to explain who he is before we can return to the conversation.
“It’s all puppy dogs and rainbows, but we’re not giving away shit for free. First rule of living in the System, it’s all about me,” Ali waggles a finger at her.
“Did I say anything about charity? It doesn’t work, not in the long run,” Lana replies bitingly, glaring back at the foot and a half tall brown man.
“So what are you thinking?” Ali says.
“Microloans,” Lana replies promptly.
“Ooooh… I like you. John, keep this one. She’s got great tits and a brain!”
I roll my eyes at that and Lana, after realising that she can’t actually hit the Spirit, starts expounding on her point. I check out at that point, going to get dressed. I did not survive the Apocalypse to listen to economic theory or whatever the heck they are discussing now. I’d rather watch paint dry.
Problem is, staring around my suite I realise I’m at the same point as I was before I left. Not a lot to do these days and I can feel the edges of my emotions, my worries worrying at me. I should really spend some time, think and feel. I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and trying to open the boxes and realise that I don’t really know where to start. I shut the boxes tight, but it’s not as if I have a key, that I can just switch off the blocking and it comes back to me. I prod at it cautiously and realise I’m not sure how to do this, not without tearing the entire thing down and I can’t, won’t, do that. Too much, too fast.
I flex my hands, staring into space and then take a deep breath, exhaling. Alright, find something to do.
Outside in the backyard, I shoo the dogs aside and begin. It’s strange trying to practise a fighting form that doesn’t really require you to hold on to a sword. It’s entirely different from the memories and skills I’ve purchased from the Shop, so much so that the forms that I practise don’t really seem appropriate. Without an enemy to work with, it seems strange to attempt to swing the sword and make it disappear and appear at unseen enemies. Eventually, I settle on splitting my practise in two parts – firstly, on recreating one of the fights of an actual Erethan Honor Guard to mimic as a form and secondly, on practising calling forth the weapon and making it disappear at speed, switching hands as I do so.
When Ali and Lana are done, they come to the backyard and Ali just starts laughing while Lana has the grace to at least attempt to hide her giggles. I know exactly what I look like, a crazed man spinning and swinging around his hands, only occasionally catching and grabbing the weapon that appears out of thin air. Calling a soulbound weapon into being when still is easy. However, calling a weapon requires me to specify the exact location and it can only be within a certain distance from my body so I have to understand not only where my hand is going to be but how long it’ll take for the sword to appear. Add the fact that I can start moving in all 3 directions and things start getting complicated.
Overall, it’s been a frustrating couple of hours so when Ali asks to speak with me alone, I’m more than happy to comply. Rather than elaborate on what he and Lana were cooking up, other than the fact that he’d be using some of my Credits, he instead wants to talk about magic.
“We’re level 10 now. That means I can share my Elemental Affinity with you, if you’d like to learn it,” Ali speaks, hesitant for once.
“More magic? Of course!” I grin, dismissing the sword and looking excitedly at Ali. Nice. I’ve been wanting to get a new spell from the Shop, but this would be even better.
“An elemental affinity,” corrects Ali.
“What’s the difference?” I ask him, eager to learn and a bit annoyed at the pedantry.
“Magic as you currently wield it is just using Mana to have the System create the effect for you. That’s why you had to get Mana Manipulation before you could learn your healing spell. Each spell is like a ready meal and the Mana you put into it is the energy you need to cook it,” Ali says.
“Yeah, still not seeing the difference.”
“If you’d just shut up for a moment,” Ali says and then continues, “Using Mana isn’t the only way to use magic though. Spirits like myself are made of the elements, the forces that dictate the world. It’s like gravity – just because there’s a spell that can affect gravity doesn’t mean there wasn’t gravity before the System came along. An Elemental Affinity means you have a connection, an access point to manipulate that element directly without learning spells. You don’t need to use Mana anymore to do it, though most do.”
I raise an eyebrow at the last and Ali shrugs, “It’s easier. Imposing your will on the elements directly is like shifting a car with your bare hands. You can do it if you’re strong enough, but isn’t it easier to just use a lever? Mana is the lever in this case.”