Chapter 14: The Welcome Party

The next thing Trint knew, he was keeled over, hands on his knees, feeling the need to throw up his last meal. Since he hadn’t eaten in a while, nothing was coming up, and the dry heaves were not helping ease his nausea.

The feeling was distracting but quickly passed as he looked around. The sounds and smells became focused as his vision lifted toward the crowds around him. He was standing outside of a larger version of a Pool of Ascension. It was a slowly spinning whirlpool. There was no pillar. Trint was just at the outside edge of the pool of light. He looked around and saw there were a lot of people. People were sitting on tables enjoying drinks and food. As soon as his stomach stopped flipping, it started to growl for sustenance. Hoping to grab some new i10 meals, Trint stepped towards a vendor within his view selling some meat on a skewer.

Before he could make more than a few wobbly steps toward the stand, he saw a few people approach from different directions. Not just towards him but others who arrived like him from the ascension pool.

“Hey friend, you look sick; I can help you out. You just need some time and a little food.” The man said, slightly grabbing Trint’s arm and redirecting Trint to a table to the left of the food stand. “You don’t want to eat any of that food. The meat is from low-level creatures. It won’t help you out. It will probably just make you sicker. Here try some of this.”

Trint may have felt weak and been a little wobbly on his feet, but he quickly gained control of his body and had zero intentions of eating anything this guy offered.It could be poisoned, or he wasn’t ready to trust a stranger on day one here.

“No, thank you, I need to meet some friends,” Trint lied to get away politely. “They are expecting me any minute. They might be here already.”

“Oh, maybe I know them. What group are they with? Do they have an emblem? See mine?” The man asked, pointing to a patch on the shoulder of his jacket. “Where is your’s at, by the way. What group did you say you are with?”

“I didn’t say, and I’m going to leave now. Thanks for the hand.” At this time, Trint pulled his arm firmly from the man’s hand. The man released him but still followed Trint.

“Don’t go so soon. If you need a group, you can join us. Have you heard of the Crimsons? We are a strong force in the higher iterations. I’m not allowed to share the details till you join. We could get you signed up and avoid having to fight on your own. Why not follow me, and I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“No, seriously, I’m not interested.” Trint declined, this time more firmly, already turned and walking away.

“Don’t make the mistake of offending the Crimsons! You can’t afford to anger the powerful groups if you are alone. You can’t make it in i10 on your own!” The man had stopped following Trint but had made a gesture to another man further in the crowd while Trint was turned away.

Trint made his way quickly through the crowds. His arrival from the ascension pool dropped him near the outside of the [City Center]. That put him in the center of the city. Trint didn’t have to go through the entire massive collection of buildings where most recruiters were, but he had already seen more than enough. Looking behind himself, the farther he got from the center, he could tell it was massive, and he still couldn’t see much around it as it seemed to be over a mile wide. He wasn’t sure where to go, but Pneuma had said to head to the wildness outside the city and hit the instances.

‘Trint, you need to assign your stat points soon. I can do it for you.’ Pneuma said.

‘Why would I need to do that?’ Trint asked

‘Well, now that you are in i10, we want you to get to hit i9. It won’t take long after killing the men last night. But assign the stats from the levels you gained from our hunt last night. You probably were too busy and didn’t notice, but you are now level 14. Oh, I can help with the men following us if you want.’ Pneuma said in a nonchalant tone.

‘Pneuma, how long have they been behind me?’ Trint asked, frustrated just now to be hearing this development. ‘How many are there? What level are they?’

‘There are enough, and most are between level 12 or 16, but I don’t want you to have to fight them. Together we could eat them alive, but we can’t risk our Spirit form in the city. Too many witnesses, and right now, your Spirit is still recovering from ascension.’

‘You want to eat them alive? Do you do that?’ Trint was distracted by the phrase Pneuma used.

‘Focus, Trint. Do I have permission to assign your stats? I will keep them evenly spread for now. I agree with building a base, and you are still low enough that there is no reason to specialize. When we get to using Spirit, then we will specialize. I will assist your mind and body when the stat dump hits you.’

‘Okay, assign away.’ Trint allowed. ‘Will I be too clumsy right after I get the bump? I assume that I will need to adjust to the bump in stats?

‘If I assign them all, you might struggle for a while. It would help if you didn’t have to fight your pursuers. I don’t know what they want; otherwise, I’d just tell you to try to lose them in the crowd and hide. Adding the stats is just a precaution. Now start to jog after the crowd opens up in 100 feet. I’ll tell you right before I assign the stats. You will adjust fine; it’s only a few levels. Wait till you jump hundreds of stats in one go. Pneuma added as an afterthought.

‘What? Trint’s shock made his steps falter. ‘Is that possible? Hundreds of levels at once? How do you generate that much EXP?

‘You ever win a war? Never mind, time to focus. Keep going and get ready to run. You can look at the stats later, but I am adding them now, so be ready.’

Pneuma made the update, and Trint was mentally aware of the changes, but then his focus was suddenly thrown off by the new power as his Body and mind increased.

Level 14: 86%

Stat Pools

Health: HP - 1400/1400 (Regen 140/min)

Stamina: SP- 1400/1400 (Regen 420/min)

Mana: MP- 1400/1400 (Regen 140/min)

Body

-Strength: 2.4

-Agility: 2.4

-Vitality: 2.4

Mind

-Memory: 2.4

-Wisdom: 2.4

-Adaptability: 2.4

The crowd thinned out as Trint took off at a quick jog. His pursuers saw him increase his pace and quickly exited the crowd and dropped their act of subtlety as they started to shove through the crowd.

For Trint, the changes were like a rush of hot water hitting him. Each stat jumping from 1.75 to 2.4 was such a powerful change. Starting from his chest and spreading out to his extremities, there was an internal pulse, and if he had to guess, it was close to the pain of a pre-system heart attack.

No one else experienced the ripple of power that pulsed out from him. But Trint had the sensation of a sledgehammer slamming into his chest. But this hammer injected or transferred power to his whole body and mind. He also knew instinctively that his Spirit was refilled.

‘There you go.’ Pneuma said. ‘Now, keep your pace, don’t look back. I am helping with the adjustments. Just run.

After the initial adjustment, Trint was enjoying himself.

‘Alright, you seem to be getting it faster than I projected—next task then. Try to sense around yourself but don’t use your eyes.

‘That doesn’t make sense.’ Trint complained. Want me to listen or smell the area?’ Trint was half-joking.

‘No, funny man,’ Pneuma chastised. ‘Try to use your spirit. First, I will do it for you. Then you need to grasp that feeling and flex your spiritual senses.

Trint 'knew something’ extend outwards from him. It was fuzzy like the wind had blown across his skin, but somehow it was linked to the distance surrounding Trint. He knew everything that was happening in a small sphere around him. Then all of a sudden, the sensation went from 5 feet around him to 10, and there was a lot more stimulus coming at him from people he passed, buildings he ran by, animals on the street, a bird in the air, bugs…bugs? Then the 10 feet became 100, and he grew nauseous. Not stopping but wanting to throw up for the third time that day, Trint picked up the pace.

‘Ok, that was good. You even avoided throwing up.’ Pneuma encouraged as the field of awareness shrunk to just beyond his skin.

‘That didn’t seem good or even a good time to practice that.’ Trint grunted to Pneuma. ‘I didn’t like that. It was like my skin was crawling, and I knew everything that was around me.’

’It won’t always feel like that; that is just an initial response.’ Pneuma encouraged. ‘It helps to allow you to remember the feeling. Soon you won’t notice how it feels and will only focus on what it does and what you sense in the field.’ Pneuma was pleased. ‘I was ready to assist you once your Spirit was full again more directly. Also, your Spiritual senses were not supposed to reach that far in your current state. Have you done or experienced anything like that before?’

‘No, no, I have not. Everything has been crazy since I woke up in the system. Even so, I never imagined having new senses and feeling bugs 100 feet away from me like they were crawling on my skin. Then multiplying that for everything in a sphere around me. No, Pneuma. That was a first for me and not a pleasant one.’ Trint was losing patience after another bout of nausea and a run for his life. His rational side took over shortly, though, and he provided a more helpful answer.

‘The first couple distances were fine, but when you pushed it out further, it was too much stimulus.’ Trint confirmed.

‘Well, I agree, that would be a lot for you normally.’ Pneuma agreed. ‘The only issue is that I didn’t push the field of perception that far. That was you. And I don’t know why or how you did it. You shouldn’t have been able to do that. Your sense should have been cut out at around 10 feet in all directions. I think you somehow utilized my abilities without my understanding or control.’

‘Well, that’s something to figure out later. Alright, the men following you are falling behind, turn right at the next intersection and go full speed for a few miles, then zig-zag through the streets. I’ll help keep an eye out for problems. Also, it would be best if you practiced extending your Spirit senses. I want you to get comfortable at 20 feet before we get to the next instances.’

‘No promises.’ Trint stated his low expectations of himself. ‘But I will give it a try. There was something mixed with nausea that I sensed during that whole experience. It was like opening my eyes after being blind. I know I about fell over, and I thought I might die from a heart attack when the increased stats hit. But it felt great. Like I was breathing clearly after taking off a mask.’ Trint confessed.

‘That’s another mystery. I honestly can’t understand why the stat increase caused that pulse of Spirit energy to ripple out from your core.’ Pneuma stated. ‘You shouldn’t be able to utilize your core; if you could, it should be too weak. Too many unknowns at this point. Just focus on improving your senses and keep running.’