To Crystal’s credit, she ducked. Else I would’ve socked her one straight between the eyes.
“Would you knock that stupid human shit off?” Ironic thing to ask, as the human was stupid enough to get himself goaded into a reaction. But the day had been full enough of bullshit to finally knock me off my nut, so dealing with this pissant’s insults was more than I could take.
I have a temper. It’s not a bad temper, or an explosive one, but a temper nonetheless. I get angry on things that don’t go my way, or on people who don’t listen to sound advice. Years ago, when my son was born, I worked on improving that but never got it fully under control until after his death.
So, after years of mainly raging at machinery, I found myself shocked that I’d taken a swing at the gnark. For her side, Crystal laughed so hard that she toppled.
“Human so slow. So clumsy. Human would be eaten by tree fathers without Crystal and Tusk.”
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to breathe until I calmed down enough not to take a second swing.
“Are you done?” I asked, already regretting the trade.
“No, but will teach first. Laugh later, when stupid human fail.”
“Eternity,” I grumbled.
“Yes?” the dragon answered from atop my head, somehow sounding pleased with itself.
“You’re no longer the most annoying thing I’ve found on Oresstria. She’s got you beat by leagues.”
“How fortunate for me. Do not harm our host, please. It’s considered rude in many parts of Oresstria.” Again, I got the feeling of more to Eternity than it let on. That had been sarcasm, clear as the warts on Crystal’s nose.
The gnark added a few things to the boiling pot and the room filled with delicious scents. Spices. She added a small piece of dried meat—looked like some bird—and a couple of the pickles from the jar. That was followed by some mushrooms—my stomach lurched—and a bunch of dried leaves and herbs.
By the time she placed a lid over the boiling pot, the concoction in there had the making of an interesting stew and a smell that made my mouth water.
“Human, what magic do you know?” Crystal asked as she sat on the floor with her back to the fire and legs tucked under her. “Sit. Crystal teach. Then laugh. Yes?”
“I know Adrenaline Surge, Iron Flesh, and Energy Detection,” I said, sounding them off my head. It occurred to me a moment too late that maybe I shouldn’t give away my abilities so easily, but it was already done. Can’t take back words.
One would think I knew that lesson better than this.
“Good. You know to sense energy then. That is all you need.” Crystal cackled. “Stupid human trade for nothing. Crystal no need teach.”
I sat on the cold floor and held up my hand. “I know Energy Detection, but I have no idea how to use it. Do you?”
“Very easy. Simple. Gnark child could use. Human just stupid.”
My temper flared again, but I wrestled it down. “Human has come to this world four days ago. I’m still learning. Where I come from, a gnark princess would be considered a rodent.” That was a lie, but she didn’t need to know that.
That, somehow, got a reaction from Crystal that wasn’t scorn. Her dark eyes widened and her nostrils flared. “Human is from Areestra?”
I shook my head but didn’t elaborate. She wouldn’t know Earth, and I wasn’t going to give her anything more without getting my questions answered first.
“Human no know how to separate magic?”
Again, I shook my head. “I didn’t even know magic existed until I came here. My world didn’t have magic. Or interfaces.”
“Shit world,” Crystal stated. She sucked on her lower lip. “How to teach less than child?” She tapped a long, dirty finger nail against her front teeth. “How to teach stupid human?”
I knew she was doing this just to annoy me, so I tried not to react this time.
It was galling, though. Mainly because I was annoyed at myself for getting annoyed at her. Would I ever had swung at someone else back on Earth? I never had and probably never would. So this was me reacting to Crystal because she was smaller and severely annoying. But that didn’t give me the right to lash out, much less start thinking myself better.
I’d made the mistake in Carmill Hill, where I even thought I understood the culture. Why was I acting superior to Crystal only because she looked as she did and lived as she did? She’d come back to help me in the forest, then kept her word and traded honestly, if aggressively. I felt like a donkey’s ass.
“I can use the two other skills well enough,” I said, picking my words. “But I have trouble with the energy one. I don’t know how to use it safely.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Human see all when try, yes?”
I nodded.
“Human no understand the strands of magic. Human must open mind.”
I’d refused Eklil’s offer to Yoda me, and now I was sitting cross-legged in front of a much uglier kind of green tutor. I nodded. “How do I do that?” I asked, eager to learn something new.
“Human must practice.”
I almost lunged for Crystal’s throat. What stopped me dead was Eternity laughing atop my head. It… fucking laughed. Only for a moment, before it let out a small cough and a puff of smoke. But those two chuckles had been so sudden that I simply stared up, mouth agape, my anger forgotten.
“You’re enjoying this,” I grumbled.
“I did suggest the very same thing.” I saw another puff of indignant smoke curling above my head. “I would not give you false information.”
“My problem wasn’t with—”
Actually, I dropped the complaint and, instead, dragged in a deep breath. Held it a few moments. Then breathed out. “How do I practice without overloading myself?” I asked. “Last time I tried, it ended messily.” I didn’t add that I didn’t trust Crystal to care for me like Eklil had.
“Aaah, that is problem. You can’t distinguish magic lines. You only see world as a whole, not as pieces. You no see the foundation of world.”
“I don’t… think so? I don’t know. I have no idea how many types of magic there are.”
Crystal chuckled again, but her attitude was changing. She stopped berating me and, instead, watched me intently.
“Human is new. Very new. No wear. No tear. No damage. New soul in new body. Young. Like child.” Her eyes flashed green for a moment, then were back to their dark selves. “Much to learn, human. Much to see.” But then she followed it all with that infuriating gap-toothed grin. “Easy to learn.”
She thumbed over her shoulder, to the fire beneath the boiling pot. “Fire is heat. Fire is life. Fire is death. Fire is many things, but fire is also just fire. We focus on one. Focus on heat.” She raised a finger and swirled it through the air. “Feel fire heat, yes? Sense it? You sense?”
I nodded, unsure of where this was going.
Crystal drew a symbol in the air, her finger dragging a line of light behind it. When it was done, the symbol puffed away and I saw lines of heat washing away from the fire. No, not lines. Sheets of heat, like waves that spread away and began dimming as they got farther from the flame.
“You see now heat. Crystal show you heat. Now, you see with Crystal’s magic. Next, you see with your magic.”
“How?” I asked, rubbing my eyes with the heel of my palm. Everything in the room was giving off some kind of wave of bright colours, painful purples and bright reds and yellows.
“You focus.” The gnark princess tapped her forehead with a finger. “Focus and imagine. Ask to see heat. Only heat. Only what is given. Learn one. Many follow.”
It was not a graceful first attempt. I spent about ten minutes just preparing myself for the task, imagining how I would see heat. Crystal’s effect vanished after the first few minutes, then the gnark just stared at me expectantly.
“Don’t rush me,” I demanded.
She hadn’t said anything. Tusk had gone over to the fire, plopped down, and was snoring peacefully.
Okay. See heat. See only heat. Thermal imagining. How hard can it be?
I activated [ENERGY DETECTION] while straining my will so the skill would only show me the heat of the fire.
Well, it was a good first try. I fainted after about five seconds had passed. But in those seconds I did see the fire, the heat coming off it, a funnel of air going into it, and all its many emissions going out. Apparently, I hadn’t been specific enough.
I woke with a start looked wildly about, hand grasping thin air, trying to find my sword. It hadn’t moved from my side, and neither had Crystal from her sitting spot. She was still grinning. My MP bar blinked red until a single line of blue refilled.
“Fuck,” I groaned.
“Human did well,” Crystal cooed. “Good human. Follow good. Next better.”
“How was that good?” My head pounded. The smell of the stew got my innards singing. “I fainted.”
“After magic worked. Need more practice. You understand?”
“Try, try again, I understand.”
We waited for my MP to regenerate, then I tried again. This time the image of heat washing off the flames was much clearer as I focused more on just the feeling of heat, the sensation of warmth, and the danger of the flame. I fainted again when my mind wandered, but immediately startled awake.
“One more time,” I said before Crystal could. “One more time. I think I’m getting it .”
I got it on the next try. It wasn’t to do with understanding the energy. Because, seriously, a million points dumped into intelligence would not build me a brain big enough to understand all of a single natural phenomenon. But I didn’t need to! When I activated the skill a third time, I only saw the heat coming off the flames, coming off Crystal’s face—her nose was hotter than the rest of her—and even off some of the furniture. Some of those jars were also hot it seemed. I ended up with something like infrared vision, though it was hard to maintain focus for long enough for it to be useful.
I had focused on the dependencies, not on the effect itself. Heat is heat and the body understands what it is and what it does. So I used those feelings as reference rather than an innate understanding of the concept.
Felt like a workman solution to the challenge, but on the third and fourth attempt I didn’t face plant into the dirt again. It was a success no matter how much I grumbled about my headache.
“Does it work with all kinds of… magic?” I asked as we stood and waited for my bar to regenerate again. “Just picture the concept and it works? How did you react to me when I used my surge?”
Crystal tapped the side of her nose as if conspiratorially. “Saw your speed. Move too fast and observer see where you go. Easy to copy.”
That took too much straining of the imagination to parse, but I filed it away for later. By now the stew smelled amazing and I had almost forgotten Eklil’s warning about not eating anything from Crystal. Still, the smell…
“Crystal trade food for human help,” she said as she rose and went over to the pot, lifting the lid.
The warren filled with steam and my stomach roared. I don’t remember ever feeling this hungry, not even after gaining my class.
“What help?” I asked, dubiously, one hand rubbing my stomach.
She spooned a great big helping of the stew into an earthen bowl and held it out for my inspection. “Food good. Food healthy. Made with gnark love.”
Hairs, snails, and puppy dog tails more likely, given the unnamed things that floated on the surface. But the verdant heart had given it all such an amazing aroma that my stomach protested not being fed.
“Crystal need help trading in village. Crystal need guard. Human help. Crystal feed human.”
I wanted to point out that I wasn’t a pet to be fed. But… yeah, I was starving.
“I don’t think you need a guard for Carmill Hill,” I hedged. “And I’m not heading that way.”
“Not going to stinky rabbit village,” the gnark said, grinning. “Going to Harriet’s Heap. Deep in the forest. Strong people there. Nice people there. They trade with Crystal.”
“Is there a dungeon there?” I asked, not really believing the sudden turn of my luck.
“Yes. Big dungeon. Bad place. Very bad place. But human can come if human help.”
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