Luna would miss George and Not Luna. She wished them the best on their goal to make a tribe together, they were certainly well on their way.
Luna wiped away at her now metaphysical tears and began again the painstaking work of shoving all the hurt back down where it belonged.
She sat with the feelings, appreciating them for an unknown about of time before hardening herself once more. In her incorporeal form there was really nothing else to be done besides build it all back up again. That building up started with metaprogression…
Luna checked her Nothing Points, seeing that she did have one available for reaching Summoner Level 10. The last one she had gained was for hitting the milestone Summoner Level 5.
Nothing Points: 1/2
Telepathy
She decided to keep on the path of gaining skills that would help her function a bit better as a Nothing. She would very likely continue to spend much of her time in this state.
She ran again through her options, mentally scrolling longer than she had the first time. She eventually came upon an ability that held her interest.
Nothing Vision — gain the ability to see as a Nothing would if it were to have the functional eyes of a humanoid. See the physical and shallow incorporeal world around you in order to better live as a humanoid Nothing.
Over many many hours of practice, she had basically created an almost decent version of blindsight with her mental swords. That said, her mind poking left much to be desired. She wanted real sight that would let her see further than a few feet away from herself as well as let her experience colors and fine details.
Luna selected Nothing Vision and was washed over by a flash of a bright sunny day, which then faded into the green and blue of the rolling hills of Kansas.
It wasn’t Kansas… probably.
She took the beautiful day in, so glad to finally have a new baseline of life that included sight.
She turned her vision inward and took in her new “body.”
She could see a ball of magic hovering a couple feet above the grassy ground. She didn’t necessarily “look” like anything, but she could finally perceived the Level 1 magic creature that she was.
Luna tested out her movement by first willing her form to drift what she designated as “forward.” Her form and vision worked in tandem. It felt exactly like she was playing a world builder game in free cam, just gliding along from the perspective of the player. Finally, no more flailing around to find which direction was up. No more having to physically/magically whack the world around her.
No, now was the age of Level 1 sight.
So excited to explore the world around her, Luna made off to crest the hill that she had spawned on.
Not one more incorporeal step was made though, as Luna was suddenly covered by some kind of heavy mesh that forced her magical body hard to the ground. She found herself pinned and suppressed. All she could do was turn her vision around to the source of the projectile. There she spotted a crew of what looked like the fantasy equivalent of lumberjack gator hunters who clearly did not have health insurance through their employer.
…
The Nothing harvesters couldn’t believe their luck. They had not even barely stepped off of their cargo wagon before one of the damn things just showed up out of nowhere.
The large harvester who had netted the creature tossed the net gun to his assistant.
“Reload that for me, would you, Baker?”
“Sure thing, Boss,” the young boy nodded at the one armed, goggled man as he caught the heavy weapon.
The big man lumbered over to the prize, thick boots smashing grass and wild flowers flat.
The man that stooped over the trapped Nothing sported scars up the side of his neck that continued from the stump of a left shoulder poking out of his ragged work shirt. The man seemed to be at least fifty, or maybe a hard forty. He looked beaten and tired, but he did carry a gleam in his eyes that sparkled behind the surely magical goggles.
…
Luna’s Nothing Vision registered a pronounced glow coming off of the man’s shimmering goggles. A magic item, presumably, that let him see her.
The man that had shot a net at her began fidgeting with the edges of the shimmering mesh. Seemingly satisfied with the configuration of all the lines and catches, he jerked a central line causing the entire contraption to cinch up like a fancy little jewelry bag. Luna then realized that she wasn’t so much pinned to the ground as she was stuck to the net like a spider web. The magical weight of the net just held her down while simultaneously adhering her to the space the net engulfed.
Magic is weird…
Either way, she was ripped upward and firmly bundled up in the now securely tightened net.
Thankfully, her vision wasn’t too poorly obscured by the netting, so she could continue to watch the party. Thankfully again, Luna didn’t have the same claustrophobia feeling that she was sure she would have if she were flesh and blood. She didn’t feel any tightness in her chest or a primal urge to break free and stretch her limbs, as she neither had lungs nor limbs… yet.
Even if she didn’t have a primal urge to break free, she sure had a Luna urge.
“Hey, you fucking…!!!” Luna attempted to struggle her body side to side, kicking her will against the net, trying to phase through the strands like she did with trees, all to no avail.
Next option: magic sword or something to kill this guy with!
Mana: 0/10.
“Oh what the hell…”
Luna turned her attention more fully to the net she was confined in.
[Soul Net]
Confining — resists intangible movement.
Mana Drain — drains mana of the target to maintain a mana level of 0.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Target: Nothing (bound).
“Of course…”
In the time it had taken Luna to realize that she was well and truly trapped, the big man had made his way to a cargo wagon of some sort. The wagon was pretty much just a horse drawn flatbed on wooden wheels with short wooden walls to make sure the cargo didn’t fly off while underway. The four man operation looked to be on a tight budget.
The man gingerly placed Luna on the cart bed before turning back to the young man to retrieve his now reloaded net gun and presumably get back out on the hunt.
“Whatever, nerds,” Luna thought. “You’re going to come back and I’m going to be outta here.”
…
The sun had set, and Luna was now surrounded by net fulls of Nothings that registered, to her new eyes, as looking identical to her magical self. The four man group had changed location in the vast prairie many times throughout the day, amassing more and more of her kind in the cart. As they traveled, the pile of magical creature filled nets bumped along, jostling into the crates of now packed away net guns, coils of extra glimmering mesh, and other miscellaneous equipment like rations that the group had partaken in for a cute picnic around midday.
Luna still plotted and schemed, not yet giving up as she had always been taught not to let strangers take her to a second location… Okay, she had long left her original location on the long journey, but at least she had not yet arrived at a real second location.
In the front of the wagon, the mood seemed much lighter.
…
“What a splendiferous day,” the boy said as he rode on the bench with his three coworkers… dad and uncles.
“Where you learn that fancy word, Baker?” the large man, Baker’s dad Bucker, asked while shaking his head.
“Mom said I should learn school from the Braxtown boys, so they been teachin’ me,” the boy explained.
“Well, keep it up,” Bucker said, nudging his boy with his shoulder. “You should always keep learning.”
“Yeah,” Backer, Baker’s younger uncle, agreed. “Or you’ll end up like us.”
The quattro chuckled in self familial deprecation, thinking of the profitable haul they had today.
…
Finally, the carriage stopped outside of a warehouse looking building. Giant wooden beams skeletoned what looked like a stone construction. Luna saw that the whole building was magical in nature, if only in the construction process. Shaped stone around a wooden frame? The little whips of magical smokey light played in her vision like mostly spent smoke bombs..
“If I only would’ve had like ten to forty more hours, I would’ve been outta here for sure,” Luna assured herself, as she had made no headway whatsoever on getting out of the net.
The four men were quickly met by a tall, well dressed woman who greeted them with a quick wave before inspecting the group’s haul.
The woman circled the wagon bed while leaning close to the many net fulls of Nothings. The woman wasn’t wearing any magical goggles like the big man was, but Luna still felt the purposeful gaze on her form.
Luna’s vision stuttered as a weird cold stabbing sensation washed over her. She tried to resist but had no chance at all.
You have been forcibly Identified with a specialized skill.
She caught some feedback from what the woman had gleaned from her.
Target: Nothing
Race: Nothing
Class: —
Sapience: Insufficient for Personhood.
Use Category: Tool-grade Essence.
Luna bristled as she felt like she had been caught naked in the middle of a grocery store.
“I will sue you,” she thought. “Nasty freak lady.”
The woman nodded to herself, apparently happy with the information that she had stolen.
The woman continued onto the other creatures before circling around to the small group of men.
The two groups seemed to go back and forth a bit before the woman offered over a handful of coins. All parties seemingly satisfied, the woman motioned to some warehouse workers, who then promptly began unloading the wagon.
The workers unloaded Luna and her compatriots into a large funneled container by plunging them, net and all, through a magical matrix of runes like breaking through the surface of water. Their “bodies” were then released from the netting where they floated in space as the netting, now inert, just passed through the incorporeal creatures to surely be reused on other unsuspecting creatures. Once all of the Nothings were loaded and the nets were cleared, mechanical whirring rumbled around Luna as the warehouse factory came to life. The funnel that Luna then realized was a hopper feeding into some kind of extruder began shrinking ever so slightly as one Nothing at a time was forced out of the bottom of the machine.
The tip of the funnel was separated by moving doors that isolated then extruded one Nothing at a time into who knows where.
The other Nothings didn’t pay Luna any mind. Even with her use of telepathy, mental prodding, and even physically running her body into them, they showed no reaction.
Finally, Luna was the last Nothing in the funnel that had pretty much no room left in it. The rune surface was now pressing against her top, forcing her into the separated funnel tip. She truly had nowhere to go…
She found herself forced into a very magical metal spherical contraption that she suddenly recognized from her time with the young couple a pair of resets ago.
She had found her way into a concentrator…
Again, an intrusive feeling burned through her body.
*Class change forcibly initiated.
Once more, Luna couldn’t resist the great amount of magical pressure.
*Class assignment enforced.
Assigned Class: Concentrator.
Her menus reflowed, text sliding and slotting into new places whether she liked it or not.
Luna Caine
Race: Nothing
Class: Concentrator Lv. 1
Health: n/a
Mana: 0/10
Mana Regen: 0.1/s
Abilities:
Draw (Passive) — draw mana from a source into yourself.
Output (Passive) — use mana to produce concentrated mana coins.
You cannot move while linked.
You cannot cast spells while linked.
You cannot attack while linked.
Meta Progression:
Nothing Points: 0/2 spent
Telepathy
Nothing Vision
“Ahhhh shit,” Luna thought, the reality of her confinement now setting in. She had been pretty well screwed the moment that net wrapped around her. “Congrats on your new class, Luna… mana coin printer magic object that thinks nothing and feels nothing and does nothing!!”
Since being forced into the container, her vision was completely limited to her solid metal coffin. At least it was decently spacious for her small form?
In the dark, a faint glow traced along carved channels in complex pathways, reminding Luna of CPU designs.
Luna couldn’t interpret the pathways, but she could read the properties of the device she was now tethered to.
Concentrator
Level: Iron
Produces iron mana coins.
Cost: 100 mana per 1 iron mana coin. (1 iron = 10 mana)
(10% efficiency)
“New plan,” Luna thought. “Make so many mana coins that the whole container explodes and I’m free and I kill everyone that got me into this situation.”
Maybe that was a bit harsh for the guys just doing an honest day’s work, but Luna didn’t make the rules.
(She did.)
Luna got to work, carefully paying attention to every tiny shift of mana flow, every flicker of rune, every tick of the machine.
If they were going to force her into being a Concentrator, she was going to become the best, most terrifyingly overqualified concentrator this world had ever accidentally created.
