POV - Tad

This was exciting. I had another awesome reward to open. And I got to have another flutter with fate. Gambling to win of course. At least the odds would be better this time. Last time I had been totally blindsided by a coin which was neither heads nor tails.

Well, huh. I paused to consider that maybe it was heads and tails after all and I simply called it wrong. Maybe Stars was the Tails and I had called Heads. No. That did not jibe. Calling Tails would still have been wrong. The correct call last time was Stars. I was so screwed. Never, in a month of Sundays would I have randomly called Stars. I mean, it could have been anything.

And my intuition was going full on gangbusters.

Hmmm. And that meant that if I thought it was ‘Not Stars’ then I would have to call out the correct term. Which I did not know. Calling ‘Not Stars’ was not acceptable. Arrrgghhh. My intuition was confirming that my musings were correct. This was a totally glitched Title. And getting it wrong would double the downtime. 96 hours. That was getting up there in between drinks. How could I abuse it if there was such a big cooldown time?

So how to play it? Did I just call Stars and hope that it came up correct. It was a 50% chance after all. And if I got it wrong, well, at least I would know what the other side was for the next time. That would be the easy route. And I was not going there just because it was the easy option. That would be a cop-out. No. I was going to give this my best shot of getting this right. Hard shmard. Heh, surfing a dead bloke was harder.

I triggered my Timelord perk. I was going to [Advanced Meditate] on this strenuously. I did not want to squander this chance. In fact I was going to lean on my intuition like never before. My intuition had come through time and time again. It was a facet of my Spirit which was just so important. In fact it was right up there with perception. Heh. They went together like two sides of a coin. How appropriate. My perception of those things that could be seen, both complemented by and complementing my intuition of those things that could not be seen. Both needed each other to be really effective.

And my intuition was thrumming.

And the coin toss was going to be… I felt a chill. It was going to be ‘Not Stars’. Hah. And I knew I was right. It was inevitable. The coin was going to block my 50% chance. Even if I was right, and I knew I was right, I would still get it wrong if I called ‘Not Stars’. Whether this was a deliberate thwarting I did not bother to explore. If it was, well I would flip the System the bird. It didn’t matter, I would beat this. Optimism reigned supreme in my Soul.

I pictured the figurative coin in my mind. It wasn’t even a real coin for System’s sake. I spun it. Stars/Not Stars. Stars/NotStars. And it spun and spun. And I knew this toss would not be Stars. That was half the battle.

Well, actually that was way less than half the battle. I had ruled out one option out of two. But that second option could be anything.

This was a challenge. This was a reward. This was the result of some absurd bad luck. Even the System had acknowledged the unlikelihood of such high level participants descending and targeting me in awarding me the Black Swan Survivor Title. Now I needed some good luck. I froze. I was close. My intuition was pealing at me like the church bells announcing it was time for midnight mass. The reverberations thrilled my Soul.

I knew what I would call.

I opened my reward. There was no point in delay.

Paragon:

You have achieved a level of perfection most only dream about. You are the epitome of excellence.

Hard work. Dedication. Persistence.

You can do this all day.

You are to be commended as a model of exceptional merit for your Species.

You are the 3,741,283,568th participant of your Species to have achieved this milestone.

Title Effects:

Title Effect 1: +10% to every Stat.

Title Effect 2: +1% to every Stat for each subsequent personal Level you increase.

Title Effect 3: +1% to every Stat for each subsequent System Level you ascend.

Aha. These were percentage bonuses too. Fantastic. And it wasn’t just one time only. And ha! Over 3.7 billion other people had already unlocked this achievement! That was fantastic. I was thrilled that we Humans were advancing. I may have been late out of the starting blocks but I was making great progress. I was catching up.

I spun the coin as I accepted the reward.

I called.

“Swans”

And the silhouette of a Black Swan stared up at me.

I collapsed in a rush of victory [Dings]. I had called correctly. This was unbelievable. I loved it. Absolutely fan-ratta-tata-tam-tastic dude.

The kits rushed over to me from where they had been curled up by the fire.

I was okay, I assured them both. It was heartwarming to see their concern. Silly Auntie scared them. I was sheepishly sorry. This scared them some more. Sheep bad. I was sensibly sorry some more. That was okay, Silly Auntie can’t help being silly.

I was still spinning over my absurd success. That was so cool. I had called right. And not just 50/50 either. The cooldown was still 48hours. Oh. It didn’t reset on a correct call. Ah well. I had beat this once. I could beat it again. I had 48 hours to queue up the next award or achievement and then we would go round three.

I opened my [Dings] while they were hot off the press.

Congratulations; you have increased your proficiency in the Skill [Advanced Meditation].

You are now [Journeyman] level.

You have earned 600xp

Congratulations!

You have been endowed with 4 Soul Bonus SPI Stat points.

As your Karma is unlocked you may allocate as you desire.

Congratulations!

You have been endowed with 5 LUC Stat points.

What! Luck? That wasn’t Luck, that was skill, all skill. I had totally owned the System. Made it my whipping boy. There was absolutely no luck involved at all. I… toned down my indignation. While I was a slow learner I was not entirely stupid. Avert. I crossed my fingers. I didn’t need some more bad luck to come my way thank you. I crossed my toes as well. Just in case.

I turned my attention to the kits. They were looking at me with their big blue eyes. I was going to have to be careful or they would have me wrapped around the little fingers in no time. What? You’re hungry again already? You can't possibly be hungry. I was incredulous.

Oh.

~Kills.~ ~XP.~

Oh, I see. And I could see. Killing these poor clams was actually good experience for these Level 0 kits. It probably wasn’t something that came their way that frequently either. Oh, and you’re hungry too.

I [Inspected] the remaining five clams. They were Level 2. Huh, didn't I buy six? I was confused. The System must have delivered an extra one. Like a baker's dozen. Except even better value. I wasn't going to complain.

Hmmm. We would need to eat them pretty quickly anyway. And now I was feeling hungry enough to give them a try. But not raw. No, I wasn't that brave. Not yet anyway. Nor hungry enough. But maybe if I steamed them up? Yeah. I could do that.

Getting out my pan and grill I chocked the grill up over the campfire on a few pieces of rubble. We had about two hours of burn time left, plenty of time to cook these beauties up.

The kiddos were bemused.

In fact they had also been pretty enthralled with the fire itself. The only time they had seen fire in the past was as an attack spell. Having a tame, captive fire was captivating. They had circled it and watched the flickering flames for hours. In fact I doubt I needed to buy the clams to occupy them at all, since they were so fascinated with the fire. But hey, I didn’t begrudge them. They had great fun defeating their foes and feasting on their corpses.

I wasn’t at all sure what I was doing. The number of times I had cooked back home was almost non-existent, unless you counted the toast. Which I didn't. And I didn’t have any seasonings or garlic or butter or anything. I poured a small amount of water in the pan and stuck it over the fire. Dozer brought over the first clam. Righteo. Here goes nothing. I emoted at her. She stared at me. I raised my eyebrows at her and shrugged towards the pan. ~Put it in already~ I thought hard at her. And that got through. Maybe. Anyhow, she popped clam in.

"See, much easier than hammering away at it with a rock isn’t it?" I stuck the lid on and we waited. After three minutes or so I checked. The shell was still closed. Checking again in two minutes was the same. I was thinking maybe I was doing something wrong when Dozer gave a happy burble. Aha. I had an automatic sensor. I opened the lid, and sure enough, the clam was now open. Using Mr Slicey and Mr Stabby I levered the clam out of the pan and onto a nearby rock.

The kids were sniffing at it.

“Careful it's going to be hot.”

Scrabble got a bit close and jumped away rubbing at her nose. ~Bitey~

I gestured at her to put her clam in the pan. Ha, that is better than a fish in the pot.

The kits weren’t keen on eating the steamed clam, despite having already chowed down on them raw. I manned up. Hmmm, somewhat sweet and slightly salty, a nice chewy texture except the base of the foot was too tough. Maybe I had over cooked it? Before I knew it I had polished it off. A little gritty. I think we will need to soak them first when I get a tub big enough.

And Scrabble’s clam was ready.

And she was going to try it. Good stuff. See, bravery is contagious too. And she liked it. Now Dozer was keen so we went with the next two as well.

And Dozer levelled up.

Hey, hey, now we’re cooking with gas. This was excellent. She was Level 1. She had a Status Screen. She had Stats to allocate. She was getting bigger. This was incredible. I could visibly see her growing. She wasn’t a baby zero anymore. She was an adolescent and nearly twice her previous size.

And they both were delirious with excitement. Quick, Scrabble stuck her clam in the pan after I added a touch more water. Dozer vacuumed up her clam. She was ravenous. She burnt her mouth. I gave her a drink to cool her tongue.

Dozer was keen to distribute her Stats. I put my Auntie hat on. I was older, wiser and, I frowned, also the same Level. Wait on, I asked her. I have a feeling. An idea. It was on the tip of my brain. I had a title which talked about Disciples. They needed to be at least my Level. That wasn’t hard since I was still Level 1. And so was Dozer. I could boost her growth. I could teach her my technique. My heart was going like ten thousand beats a minute. Well, slight exaggeration, but I was excited. And Dozer was excited and Scrabble levelled up too.

I whipped her clam out of the pan.

We all danced a victory dance around our campfire. This was wild. I was a kid again. The kits were like teenagers now. They were now both about the size of a golden retriever. Their fuzzy mottling had smoothed out and their stripes were starting to form. I was the proud Auntie.

We still had one clam left. I got in on the action and flipped it into the pan while Scrabble scarfed down her clam. She burnt her tongue too. Silly duffer.

I sat down with the two new teenagers. Wasn’t Mum going to be surprised? I could imagine Ssrah’s face already. This was going to be so good.

I emoted to them my excitement about teaching them my technique. They were chuffed. I was chuffed. We were all chuffed. This was crazy. We were all getting high on endorphins which then produced more endorphins. This was a self sustaining loop of endorphinating excitement.

I took a deep breath. We needed to come down without crashing. I breathed again, entering a semi meditative state. Calming down, I formally offered to teach them how to form their Core. They sensed the seriousness of the offer and focused on me.

Dozer; ~Gratitude.~

Scrabble; ~Extreme happiness.~

Both of them; ~Solemn attentiveness.~

And I had my first disciples. This was so awesome. Now I just had to work out how to teach them. And what it was that I was teaching. Pah, mere details. I would wing it. What could go wrong?

[Ding], [Ding].

Oh. My clam was done.

COMBAT CONCLUDED

Combat Summary

You have dealt 20HP damage.

You have suffered 0HP damage.

You are victorious. 20XP awarded.

You have not taken any damage. XP doubled.

You have defeated a Monster one level higher than you. +1% to XP.

Oho. This was such a cheat.

I was so going to abuse the glitch out of this.

I burnt my tongue.

Now who feels like a silly sausage?

~Silly Auntie Sausage!~