Chapter 39: 35. Is That Boss Music?

They took a short break to grab early evening food.

His mom wasn’t home yet, and a quick purview of his phone messages with her revealed she was still hanging out with one of her side guys. She was safe and knew Jay was home even though she was less inclined to worry than most parents. She trusted him a lot. That trust made Jay feel warm and fuzzy inside since it wasn’t a common thing between child and parent.

She also left him griot and pikliz in the fridge. So, that added to the warm and fuzzy feeling a lot. All that death-defying, dimension-saving action gave Jay some perspective as he got food ready in the kitchen. It was nice having a comfy home to return to. There was a small dining table in the corner, but it was more for piling useless mail. The house only fitted two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a living room separated from the kitchen.

But it had a huge yard for some reason. The biggest in the neighborhood. A separate house could’ve been built behind his mom’s house. Instead, it was a grass field with small dimples in the ground that could be sinkholes forming. A scary thought, so Jay avoided those dimples. He stayed on the back patio under the awning, where a metal round table and some chairs offered a comfortable spot to watch the day wane into night.

Jay and his [Faerie] feasted even though Kleo didn’t need to eat. She was curious about food, and watching her take her first bite of pork shoulder with Haitian-style condiment was hella delightful. She didn’t mind the heat, either, having an instant taste for spicy things like her master. Now that Jay thought about it, it was highly fortunate her tastes were similar to his since she could’ve had an allergic reaction.

She was honestly an alien. Someone from another universe within an artificial pocket dimension. Her ability to relate to the crawlers made Jay think the dungeon got info on his world when it connected somehow, but she’d never got to live the things she knew as only context.

“Delicious!” Kleo cheered. “More! More! More!”

“Fine, fine, you glutton,” Jay said with a laugh. He ripped off another piece of well-seasoned pork and passed it to her grubby hands. She tore into it like a cute little animal.

“I am Kleo, the Devourer of Delicious Foods! Nom!”

***

“I’m looking over these new Skills, Kleo, and my idea of going to the junkyard stands firm,” Jay said, breaking the silence that had extended peacefully after their meal.

They were watching the sky turn orange and purple. The golden eye, the sun, slowly dipped away into the horizon.

“I was never going to question it,” Kleo said, sprawled comfortably on her master’s forearm. She kicked her foot idly, brushing the hairs on his arm, which tickled a little. She looked very comfortable, and Jay was happy to see her getting to relax away from the danger and strife.

“I know,” Jay said with a lazy smile. “It just felt like a whim. Now it’s a necessity. We got some complex magic, and it makes me wish I could get Mike out of jail.”

A message from Mike earlier confirmed his fate. For the rest of this weekend and the next, he was homebound. Mrs. Zhou might entertain Jay visiting next weekend, but not this one.

Jay couldn’t help but laugh.

“Childhood friend turns out to be a teenage goddess. Makes you into a super soldier with gamer levels and magic. Go into murderous dungeon. Fight, survive, conquer. Save the city. Come back and get grounded by mad mom. Never mind magic powers and being a badass. Missed curfew is more important. No escaping punishment.”

“Heh,” Kleo chuckled. “From one cage to the next, too.”

Jay howled into his other hand. “All on a freaking Saturday. Can it get any more gonzo crazy?”

A gravity wave of metaphorical meaning rippled out from around Jay. He shuddered until the strange magic of significant premonition faded.

Kleo sat up. “Uh, oh.”

“Oh, no. Please don’t tell me I did something.”

“Whether you did or not doesn’t matter,” Kleo said. “That ripple felt like a really strong response to you. It’s something major. Something of Chance. Could it be a hidden story element that hadn’t shown itself yet? Or have you goofed somewhere, Master?”

Jay sighed. “Look. It can’t be anything major at this point. Maybe some assassin comes by and, well, we’ll deal with them. But we’ve beaten a dungeon, Kleo. And I still have +58 Free Attribute Points I can apply right now to widen the gap between the next chump and me.”

Another metaphorical gravity wave of warning rippled out. Jay shook so hard Kleo fell off his arm. The familiar and the master shared a look of wide-eyed apprehension.

“Master, apply those points now,” Kleo said.

“I’m telling you, Kleo. We’ve done it all,” Jay said with less certainty. “On God, wait, no. On YoAnna, what else could there be?”

Jay still took Kleo’s advice and applied all his free points. The massive dump was one of the most pleasurable experiences he’d ever felt. Like expanding parts of himself that he didn’t know could snowball, reaching new limits beyond human capabilities. It felt like he could be his force of reckoning. Or the star of the stage where all the lights gathered on him to honor his performance.

Yeah, he had an ego.

But hell, it was fun to put himself out there.

Jay slumped forward, his face resting on the table. He watched Kleo stagger around drunkenly before she fell into his face. She rested against his forehead and pawed at the bridge of his nose.

“Do it again, do it again,” Kleo moaned.

“I can’t. I’m all spent out,” Jay said.

“But I want more, Master. I want more of that.”

“Next time I do awesome cheese, I’ll rack up enough for another burst like this. If it’s safe to do so,” Jay said.

“Yay!”

Jay lifted his head and called forth a specific portion of his profile.

 

Attributes: You are reading story The Gravity Freak of Dungeons and Monsters: System Portal Fantasy at novel35.com [240 Applied AP]; 15 Resilience, 15 Poise, 15 Strength, 35 Agility, 75 Perception, 15 Intellect, 35 Conviction, 35 Discovery; [0 Free AP].

 

Kleo got up shakily. At her full height, she found renewed strength. She stood boldly with her fists on her hips as she examined the profile with her master.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s you. And because I’m a part of you, it’s me, too. I can hear the furthest grass bend to the wind in your yard.”

“I can hear Old Man Goodman griping about the Marlins losing another game in the next house,” Jay said, terrified by all the new things he could hear pounding at his head. The smell of fresh verdant grass and water vapors falling toward the earth as the day cooled was powerful. Wherever he looked, the details of the world around him bloomed in ridiculous high-definition texture and saturated color. Then Kleo brushed her hand over his finger, and his new points in Conviction came in handy by helping him hold still instead of jerking away from the overloaded sensational feedback.

“Withdraw your senses,” Kleo said so quietly that a normal human would not hear it. “You are in control of your System. You do not need to exert maximum power for everything. Pull back and focus on my voice, Master Jay.”

Jay did as told. He focused on Kleo and pulled back from everything. He kept pulling and pulling, shrinking his expanded awareness. He reached a point that halved his extraordinary Perception, feeling dull for putting a cap on his Attribute rather than fully expanding it all the time.

“When you want to utilize a sense fully,” Kleo explained, “release the limit on that specific sense. Maybe later, we’ll be able to have all our senses at max and be okay with it. But I think that’s too much when your Intellect is low.”

“Shit,” Jay grunted. “So, min-maxing isn’t a good idea?”

“I think there are advantages and disadvantages for everything,” Kleo instructed wisely. “Okay, maybe more Intellect would’ve helped. But where would that come from? You could’ve pulled back on Perception, but that Attribute scales with some of our Skills a lot. It’s very powerful for us. Should we take from Conviction or Discovery? That’s laughable. You and I weigh Chance, and you have a Super Skill for it. So should we take from Agility?”

“That’s a no, too,” Jay said. “Is the imbalance okay?”

“Were we ever balanced people in the first place?” Kleo asked with a lopsided grin.

“Kek.” Jay shook his head. “Well, whatever. The whole point is to put a heap of power in us that’ll close out this Saturday for good. I don’t think we got much to worry about.”

A third and finally gravitational wave appeared and went.

A metaphorical weight dropped on Jay’s back and held itself there.

“Why am I doing that?” Jay asked in startled wonder. “Why am I tempting Chance?”

He tried to shake off the weight, but it was firmly placed. He was pinned by something great and awful. Like having a big plot-centric bullseye on his back. And someone in the universe was lining up their shot to take him out.

Kleo tilted her head. “We’re in someone’s story. The System responds to their Chance and influences us to fall into a role.”

“No, Kleo, say it ain’t so,” Jay groaned.

“We’re caught in the maelstrom of providence and calamity,” Kleo said. “We’re actors on a stage given lines like puppets given strings.”

“Kleo?” Jay called worriedly. “Come back to me, lil mama.”

She gaped at him with unhinged eyes.

“We need a knife to cut ourselves free, but it has been taken purposefully!” she shouted ravingly. “Prepare yourself, Master! We are at a cosmic disadvantage on this Saturn’s Day!”

Jay gripped the armrests, his grip not quite strong enough to bend metal, but it certainly applied close to peak human pressure. He searched around him, releasing the self-imposed limitations on his Perception Attribute.

An intense radio crackle caught Jay’s attention for some reason. He honed his hearing on the source. It was coming from the home of an elderly neighbor. Nice lady. Had a thing for classical music on the radio. She was playing something orchestral that was super dark, intense, and dramatic.

Sometimes the music was erratic. Sometimes it was sinister. It didn’t stop being a dreadfully thematic piece given an extra perk of substance from the coarse crackle of the radio. It was like hearing a meme come to life.

Boss music.

Jay felt a cold fear like no other.

“Bruh, no freaking way.” He shot to his feet and stomped out to the yard’s edge. “What else is there? Who can make this day more bonkers than it already is?”

Displaced air rushed past him from behind.

He turned and faced what might’ve arrived to ruin his fine Saturday evening.

“Hello, Jay,” YoAnna said.

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