Chapter 99: Episode 26: Elma Returns Part 1

 

After-Mission Report: The Cindeen Mission

Hero: Elma

Merit Earned (Completion): 50

Unexpected Enemy Bonus: 50

Rest Days Earned: 5 days

Hero Hub

Hero Multiplier: 1x

E-Rank Mission Reward: 50

Bonus: 0

Total: 50

***

Elma walked out of the <Portal> and the moment she did, she spun on her heels and took a step toward the <Portal> again... But then I grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back.

"Oh, no, no, no, Miss Elma, none of that--"

"Fainn?!" she yelped. She turned around to face me. "There are still some Missions I could do."

I pulled her closer and hugged her. She relaxed a little in my embrace, and I felt her hands on my back.

I stroked the back of her head. "Hey, take a break for a second," I said. "I know that last one fatigued you."

That little bit of info came from Narlivs, who was able to get a sense of Elma's state. I also checked with Dorth, who saw Elma's Mission. Elma definitely took a big hit. The <Portal> cleaned up Elma's wounds, restoring her to the Hero Hub's 'saved state,' but the fatigue was still there, along with phantom wounds. According to Narlivs, phantom wounds were just aches and pain that corresponded to wounds that were no longer there. They would fade, but they could still be emotionally and mentally distressing. The hope was that a high enough Portal Level would one day be able to deal with the fatigue.

Incidentally, if one of our Heroes died in a world, they would come back here in their <Portal>-recorded body, but they could very well suffer from a very painful phantom wound.

In summation, there was more than enough reason for Elma to take a break.

Elma separated from me and pleaded. "But, Fainn.., Kanae--and my own improvement--"

I opened a menu and scrolled through, rendering Elma silent.

"You got us 100 points so far... We're 105 points away from helping Kanae."

"Then--"

I raised a finger at her. "You also got us enough to make a new structure..." I smiled at her. "You wanted somewhere to train, right?"

"I..."

"Come take a break with me, Elma," I said, holding out my hand.

***

The <Training Grounds>--a Rare Structure. I decided to place it near the Mess Hall. It manifested as a circular field marked by rickety old fence posts. Interestingly, it also came with its own field of grass, but the grass was only within the confines marked by the fence post.

There was a terminal at the entrance. By playing with the terminal, you could conjure up a ton of wooden dummies, standing targets, and moving floating targets. You could also have a terminal follow you so that you could access its functions from anywhere on the grounds.

This <Training Ground> was focused on improving very specific skills-- Martial ones like Dagger Proficiency. And that wasn't an assumption based on the nature of the targets. It was a fact based on one of the Range's special functions.

A Hero could pay some Hero Merit to forcefully increase one of their martial proficiencies by 1% point. They could do this for anything in the C Grade and lower. The more you boosted the same proficiency, the greater the cost would be.

I already had some strategies in mind for efficient use. I didn't think there was any reason to focus on powering up weaker proficiencies. The value was powering up the ones at the C Grade.

The value of this function was that it didn't modify its cost according to the Grade. Costs scaled based on the number of uses. It would be much better to forcefully upgrade the C Grade proficiencies because it could be much harder to progress that Grade naturally. And, of course, increasing C Grade proficiencies was better than increasing anything lower. I was just thinking about the way people improved in real life. The better you were, the more likely you were to plateau. It also felt like this could help Heroes break natural limits since it would forcefully improve the percentile.

Well, that was the dream. Honestly, given the way the stats system worked, it was cool that we could forcefully make Elma go from being stronger than, for example, 5% of a population to 8%.

Anyway, the <Training Ground> would take four hours to be built. Since we had to wait, I talked Elma into going to the Watermelon Jungle with me. We hung out there, chatted about her Mission and the Hero she met--oh, and the strange enemy that kind of confused her, and then she fell asleep on my shoulder. All went according to plan.

This girl thought she could just push through, but when she relaxed, all that fatigue came a-knocking.

"You need to take better care of yourself," I had whispered to her when she fell asleep.

Once the grounds were erected, I woke her up, and we went over.

***

At the <Training Grounds>

Elma had taken to carrying six common daggers on a holster she got from one of the worlds. Now, she was throwing those daggers at straw dummies and scoring hits on the targets painted onto them.

I whistled. "You're pretty good at throwing stuff. How did a slave get so good at that?"

"The woman that took pity on me liked throwing knives at me and other slaves. I watched her form often, and she let me try a few times with dull blades..." she replied as she activated the Range's 'clean-up' function.

"Uhh..." I said, my mind stuck on the idea of Elma getting hit by flying knives.

Her daggers appeared in her holster again, and she returned to throwing them after adjusting the targets' distance.

"She thought it would make me more valuable--a puppy that could do tricks... Yeah." She threw a dagger, and it struck a dummy in the head. "I was treated worse than their dogs, but at least I learned tricks for dinner parties." Elma shook her head and threw a dagger at one of the targets zooming across overhead. It hit and shattered the target, which released many celebratory lights. "The better I was, the more parties I attended. The change of scenery... it was... it was like an oasis."

I walked up to her. "Can I try?"

She giggled. "Sure. Can I give you pointers?"

"I would love that."

I would also love any opportunity to steer the conversation away from the horror show that was her past.

Elma got closer to me and showed me how to hold the dagger. There were a lot of giggles shared as she adjusted me. I may have also been a little difficult.

"Oh come on," she said with a giggle. "Hold it like this."

"Oh, you mean like this?"

"No, that's the opposite--stop doing that with your pinky."

"But it's fancy to hold your pink out."

"Says who?" she replied, laughing.

She fiddled with the terminal after I had my fun and brought a straw dummy up closer to me.

I tried throwing the dagger and completely whiffed the throw.

"Your wrist wasn't firm," Elma said. "Your swing also didn't look very smooth. It has to be a smooth swing. Don't overthink it."

"Gotcha."

I tried again and nicked the head. Wasn't feeling great about that--I was pretty sure I got lucky.

Elma had the daggers returned to her through the terminal and let me take a few more shots again while she demonstrated.

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"Man, what a natural. No wonder your proficiency is so high."

She smiled while keeping her eyes on the target. "I'm honestly excited to get better at it. I wonder what A-Grade proficiency looks like."

"I've got thoughts. Do you have good accuracy while throwing daggers around in the heat of combat?"

"Heat of combat..." Elma shuddered. "I don't have too much experience throwing daggers while stressed."

"That might be where the improvement lies. Imagine being surrounded by hundreds of enemies and you're dodging them like crazy, and scoring direct hits while sprinting? That'd be so epic!"

"You think I can manage that?"

"Are you kidding? Definitely. You're gonna have one of the best facilities in the world behind you too. It's just a matter of time."

"Hmm..." Elma turned to face me and then threw a dagger without looking. It flew and struck one of the moving targets. I looked at her with a look that said, "Really? Did you have to show off?"

She nodded, the widest smile on her face. The daggers were returned, and we went back to tossing them. I say 'we', but it was more like I was tossing one for every of Elma's five.

"Yo, Elma, I need to talk with you, by the way."

"What about?"

"We got a new facility along with this one. It's something called the <Material Analyzer>. It's Ultra-Rare, and it's pretty much a facility that examines objects."

"Oh... interesting... I'll work on getting points."

"Yeah, feel free to do that. Dorth is also out now working on a mission, though, so we might have the points before you get to do anything."

Her dagger missed the target. "Huh? Dorth is out? I should have gone with her--"

"Take your break, woman," I replied, smiling at her. "You did some work. Let Dorth do some work now."

Elma sighed. "Fine." She threw a dagger a little harder than she needed to.

"Come on, don't pout, Elma. You need to pace yourself."

"All I do is pace myself," she spat. "Can't even eat watermelons right..." Four floating targets lined up, and her dagger flew through all four.

"Elma, you're spending the night with me today."

She jumped. "Huh?"

I chuckled to myself. I had successfully disarmed her.

I seized the opportunity and winked at her. "Come on, we're only ten days into the Hero Hub. Take it easy on yourself. Please? It hurts my heart to see you beating yourself up."

She sighed. "Okay... Sorry."

"We have so much time to figure stuff out. Pacing yourself isn't bad."

"I know what you're saying has merit."

"But hey, are you gonna let me tell you about this one thing? It's actually a task that I want to give you."

Elma jumped, and her eyes lit up. "A task? Yes! What do you need?"

"Stuff. Lots of stuff."

She furrowed her brows. "Okay... Like what, exactly?"

"Anything. I think we unlocked the Material Analyzer because you brought back that strange stone or something."

I hoped that it was legal for me to say that. I didn't mention anything about ICS, so it should have been fine.

"Oh... I see..."

"So, I'm thinking--let's be reasonable about this. I want books, I want stones, I want coins. Jewels, weapons--anything... I'm half-tempted to ask for dirt itself."

"And food?"

"Yeah, totally. Bring the food. Bring the drink. Bring medicine. Anything you can. We might be able to unlock something else."

"Hmm... Very well... I may need to buy a bigger backpack from somewhere."

"Actually, about that. There's another structure I have my eye on. It's the Super Rare <Inventory Shrine>. It'll give our Heroes access to Inventories. If it's what I know from Earth, you'll be able to store items in a special space. It's pretty much the most useful magic you'll ever find."

"And I'll be able to use it?"

"Yup. Same way you can access the Status Menu, you'll be able to access the Inventory."

"Interesting... Another goal." Elma happily tossed a dagger and broke the farthest target.

I stretched and groaned as I walked a few paces in front of Elma.

"Fainn?" she asked, confused.

"We've got a pretty good space..." I grinned at her. "Let's spar, Elma. It's sad that I don't really get to help you more directly."

"But what if I hurt you?"

I laughed and snapped my fingers. +Nightmares ARE Fiction's+ dome spread around us.

"You haven't really gotten to see my power, right? Let's fix that."

"This is the power that makes fears come to life..."

"Yeah, but it also has some useful quirks. Damage that is incurred within this dome is nullified. I've never used it for this, but you and I can spar here safely." I held out my arm and called upon a nightmare's echo. I parsed Dorthaunzee's fear and made the teeth-lined blade tear out from my left palm.

Elma looked on at me, shocked. "That is..."

"A piece of Dorthaunzee's fear... One sec..." I recalled her nightmare more and grew the mouthed wings from my back. "Anyway, this is my power... We just have to make sure you don't physically touch me; otherwise, things will get scary for you." I grimaced, remembering the time I turned into a vampire and terrorized Dream Elma.

"Is it okay for my mana to touch you?"

I cocked my head to the side and thought about it. "No idea... Blast me!"

"You're sure?"

"Yup. It won't stick."

"Okay..." She fired a smoky beam of her withering mana at my chest. It hit me, and I felt ill, but I sensed no fear response.

I raised my hand, and she stopped. "We're all good. Alright, wanna do this? I'll apply crazy pressure."

Elma got eager and smiled back. "Yeah! I've got a new trick I want to try out!"

"Oh?" I said, a smile on and brow raised.

Elma raised her right hand and detached a single finger. It floated up an inch or two from her hand. "I observed something during my previous Mission."

"Color me excited, Babe," I replied.

 

 

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