Chapter 4: Ch.0004 – It Appears

“Alright, before we start, there’s something you’ll need to know. You’ve got a one-in-ten chance.” stated Myr. 

Ash raised an eyebrow. “Chance for what?” 

“The chance that you’ve got some magic in you.” 

“Wait, what? You said that you’d teach me magic.” Ash reminded her. 

“Nah, I said that I’d try. Can’t teach what’s not there.” She retorted calmly That was disheartening to hear. 

Really disheartening, but Ash steeled himself. A fire had been stoked in him and it wouldn’t be quenched easily, whether he liked it or not. He had to believe that there was a reason behind why he’d been brought to this alien world, and that he wouldn’t be left defenceless against the chief source of true strength across the lands. 

He believed that he had magic in him. 

He believed that his childhood dreams could be made true: that he could aspire to be a true hero. 

He believed that fate wouldn’t be so cruel to him ... 

… he hoped. 

“So... how do I find out then?” 

“They got their ways back in The Shield. Them prancy nobles probably have artifacts that do the trick too, but all you got is me an’ all I have is squat. So, we’ll do it the dirty way.” 

“That doesn’t sound good.” he said uneasily, and Myr’s wild smile wasn’t exactly encouraging. Still, he’d committed himself and the lure of wielding magic itself was far too alluring to pass up, despite the risks. “I’m not gonna get seriously hurt from this, right?” he still asked, hoping for some comfort from the woman. 

“Depends on your definition of seriously.” He allowed a scowl to bloom across his lips at her non-answer, much to Myrs’ amusement. 

Maybe a life without magic wouldn’t be too bad either, he considered as he saw her flex her fingers. Risks are a necessity that he acknowledged as an entrepreneur, but there was such a thing as too risky a risk and he fel- 

“No waitin’. Here it comes, bucko. Try not to keel over.” 

The young man scarcely had a moment before Myr touched her open palm against his gut. Ash bent like a tree in a hurricane, the wind knocked from his lungs. He collapsed to his knees, breathless and wheezing. His eyes were wide as he sucked in frantic lungsful of air and tried to struggle back to his feet, to little effect. 

Something was wrong. He grit his teeth as he felt it worming inside of him. She’d put something in his gut. Something alien and foreign and it was expanding, like fire flowing through his veins. Ash groaned and fell onto his sides, his whole body curled into a foetal position as he tried to rally against the torrent of sensations warring within him. 

And chief amongst them all was pain in abundance, and it was growing like steam in a pressure cooker. Ash clenched his fists so tightly that he thought he felt blood flow down his wrists as he shook and writhed on the cold dirt floor. 

What the hell had she done? Was Myr really trying to kill him? He would have thought to look at her but the pain was all-consuming, and soon enough even his mind gave over its all to simply containing the agony roiling in his gut. 

And it kept growing. It was becoming all-too much all-too quickly. He would die, he knew. He would die there on the dirt in an alien land, all because he’d trusted too quickly and too easily. 

He’d die like a fool. 

But he didn’t. 

Just as the pain reached a level that became too much to handle, it subsided, and Ash felt a wall break and something new touch upon his mind. 

A second later, his reality exploded, and Ash finally saw. 

He laid there, awash with sweat and emotion as he stared at it wide-eyed. 

It was beautiful. An image, but not truly. It was more a sense of understanding that his mind superimposed over the mundane world that his eyes perceived, and in it, he saw himself. Not his physical self, but a spiritual silhouette painted in the deepest black he’d ever seen. But not a whole one. It was a cross-section of his figure, he realized, with the upper half torn away to reveal the workings within. And what marvels those workings were. 

Rivers of power given shape and form surged through him like veins of blood, crossing the full extent of his cross-section from his head to his extremities in inter-connected, circuitous channels with no end and no beginning. 

Ash reached for it spiritually, fingers made of thought and the stuff of self beckoning the energy to respond to him. It did so with ease, like a long-lost friend returning to him. Tendrils of power rose from the gushing rivers and snaked their way towards him like a thousand snakes answering his call. Ash laughed as they touched upon his true self and a jolt of electricity coursed through him at the contact. The presence of the power was invigorating beyond anything he’d ever felt, and its touch a thousand times more. 

He felt like he could climb a hundred mountains or conquer any fear so long as he had this power within him. He felt mighty. Untouchable. Invincible. 

And like all highs, it ended all too soon. Ash was dragged bodily back into a suddenly dull and lifeless reality like a rubber-band snapping back. Myr was crouched near him, a smile on her lips as she pressed a leather flask of water to his lips. Ash took it without a word and downed the sweet liquid greedily. 

“Awakening always leaves you thirsty like nothin’ else. No idea why. Probably somethin’ ‘bout seeing the waters of true power for the first time leavin’ you wantin’ some water on your lips or some other theoretical mumbo jumbo.” 

Ash emptied the flash and turned to eye the woman. 

For a moment, he was silent. Accusation and gratitude warred in him with equal strength for a long while before one finally won out. 

“You nearly killed me.” 

“Aye, but it was necessary to awaken you. Ain’t no way you would’ve been able to become a mage otherwise. An’ it worked, didn’t it. What? You gonna tell me that a little pain wasn’t worth what you felt when you first touched your mana?” 

His mana. 

The touch of that liquid power was still fresh on his mind, and so Ash could do little but agree with the woman and nod slowly. It truly had been worth it, but still, his irritation lingered. 

“Never do that again without asking me first.” He thought for a moment before he quickly added. “Please.” 

No point in pissing off the person who was both sheltering him and teaching him magic, but certain ground-rules needed to be laid down nonetheless, and one of his only ones was that he not be put into life-threatening situations without his knowledge. It was a fair one, he thought. 

Myr, thankfully, took his demand in good-faith and nodded. “Fine. I won’t.” 

“Thank you.” he said before a smile crossed his lips and he stared down at his hands. “I’m a mage now.” His excitement was almost palpable, which made it more obvious when Myr shattered his fugue with four simple words. 

“What? No, you ain’t.” she remarked with a chiding look. “Boy, you’ve only taken the first step. Hell, some people don’t even consider awakening a first step. You’re not even’ worth being called a novice yet. You’re just scrapin’ the bottom of the barrel an’ there’s still a long way to climb before you reach a point where’n you can proudly call yourself a mage.” 

“Alright. What next then?” 

“Heh, eager aren’t you? Can’t blame you for that. We all were.” A wistful look crossed the burly woman’s face before she quickly straightened herself up to her full, impressive height. “You can start by summonin’ your shimmer.” 

“My what?” 

She snorted. “Right. Visitor from ‘nother world an’ all that. Fine. Just think about it an’ it’ll come to you.” 

He gave her a strange look but complied nonetheless. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was hoping for to happen but he supposed that whatever forces were at play in a world with real magic would be able to figure that out for themselves. 

And they did. 

___________ 

Ash Flynn 

Tier: Awakened | Level: 0 

MGT: 11 | CON: 12 | REGEN: 2 | PERC: 9 | AGI: 10 | MYST: 0 | CHA: 11 

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Ash gaped. It had been a fairly long while since he’d last been able to call himself a gamer with any level of honesty, but he wasn’t so far gone that he couldn’t recognize a character sheet when one was so blatantly staring him in the face, even if this one was different to what he was used to. 

Now, why was there a character sheet affixed to the air in front of him in the first place? 

He hadn’t a clue, and for once the brunette-haired youth chose to not question it. He was in a world of frickin’ magic after all and he was certainly sure that this wouldn’t be last of its strangeness that he’d encounter in the days to come. 

‘Are those attributes?’ he wondered as he eyed the line of words and numbers. They had to be, he thought, and though he recognized some of them, others remained beyond his understanding. 

“You see it?” Myr asked, snapping him from his musings. 

“I do.” he said before he turned to her. “It’s... weird.” 

The woman laughed heartily. “Never let ‘em priests hear you say that, boy. They’ll string you up by your shorts an’ leave you to the mercies of the crows, an’ that’s among the more pleasant fates in store for a blasphemer.” 

Ash scoffed. It seemed as if religious fanatics were the same even across worlds. Still, he took her words to heart. 

“Tell me what it says next to tier.” she questioned. 

“You can’t see it?” he asked, surprised. 

“Shimmers are private to the one that summons ‘em. I’d need some kinda artifact or the right spell to steal a looksie at yours an’ I got neither.” That was somewhat comforting, he supposed. He didn’t want his information broadcasted to the world whenever he wanted a look. 

“It says awakened.” 

“Aye, that’s the sign that you’re all set to go then.” she said with a smile and a pat on his back that, to his credit, he only slightly flinched away from. The memory of her tap still lingered on his nerves even if he’d sorely chosen to move past it. 

“My level is zero, though.” Ash said as he eyed the big fat numeral next to his level. He found it odd. Most game systems started people off at one as far as he knew. 

“Nothin’ special there. You’ll start levelin’ once you hit the first tier.” 

“And what about my attributes?” 

“Mhm, yeah, list ‘em off to me. I’d like to see what I’m workin’ with.” 

Ash did as told and frowned when he saw the disappointed look cross Myr’s face. Were his stats bad? 

“You got alright numbers, kid. Not the best and not the worst and definitely not what I was expectin’ at all from a rare planes-traveller like yourself.” Ash hid his scowl as she uttered the last bit of her sentence in an obviously mocking tone, her amusement further highlighted by the way she twiddled her fingers at his face. 

“What’re your numbers like?” he prodded back. 

“That’s personal information.” she retorted blithely and without shame despite the obvious hypocrisy in what she’d said. 

“WHAT? I just told you my numbers.” 

“Mhm, an’ that’s necessary information so’s I can train you up real good. You don’t need to know what I got though.” 

He groaned. Myr really was insufferable, and she found far too much enjoyment in working him up for his liking. It reminded him of his younger brother in one of his more mischievous moods in more ways than one. 

“Can you at least tell me where I stand on average?” 

“Eh, above most awakened, I suppose. I think nine to ten is the norm across the board.” That did some work in reinflating his already battered and bruised ego, though there remained much work to be done in restoring it to its former glory. 

“What about REGEN? Or CHA?” he asked as he returned his attention to the shimmer. “Or MYST? And why is it zero?” 

“REGEN means regeneration. It lets you know how fast you heal, how easily you resist disease an’ all that good stuff. MYST is less cut and dry. It stands for mystique, an’ it’ll remain zero until you hit the first tier and can make good use of your mana. CHA is charm. Surprised that a flop like you got such a hefty amount of it. Then again, you did manage to woo me into lendin’ you my home and hearth. Heck, I’m even teachin’ you magic free of cost. You are a real charmer, aren’t you?” 

“There was absolutely no wooing involved at any part of our interactions.” he stated outright. “Well, from my end at least.” he amended after. 

Myr looked affronted by the accusation and gasped overdramatically. “What’s wrong with a girl starin’ a bit, mhm? Not like you’ve got anythin’ to be ashamed about. I’ve seen what you got under there.” 

He shivered as her gaze crawled down the length of his body and a predatory smile crossed her lips. He did not appreciate the topic of conversation at all, even if he knew – or hoped – that Myr was just joking. 

“Moving on now.” he began as he ignored her lecherous gaze. “So, what do I do to climb up to the first tier like you said?” 

Myr snorted with amusement at his clumsy shifting of the topic but deigned to not continue along that line, much to his gratitude. “Need to learn how to control your mana first of all, and then we’ll move on from there.” 

“Control my mana? To do what?” 

“To obey you. Didn’t you feel like it was hard to make it do a damned thing when you felt your channels durin’ your awakenin’? That’s how it usually is. Took me four an’ a half days of struggle before it finally recognized who its owner was.” 

“Uh, I can already do that though.” 

Myr’s expression froze mid-sentence, her words seemingly caught in her tongue as an uncomprehending look slowly crossed her face. “Say that again.” 

“I can already control my mana.” he repeated, a curious look to his eye. Had he done something wrong, Ash wondered. 

“You... you’re tellin’ me the truth.” she stated, her eyes wide. The woman seemed absolutely gobsmacked by the revelation, such that she let loose an appreciative whistle and gave him a complete look-over, as if seeing him again for the very first time. “Now I’ll be damned. I got me a real talent in my grasp, don’t I?” 

“Do you?” 

“’Course I do, kid! It takes most average folk like me a good two days to figure out how ta’ even make a sliver of their mana do a damn thing! Five days is the norm for achievin’ total control! Even the talented’ll take a day still! To achieve all that in less than a half hour since awakenin’? What is that if it ain’t pure talent?” 

Ash blinked. He couldn’t say if it was talent but he really liked where the conversation was headed nonetheless. An unashamed grin crossed his lips as he rose and patted himself on the back, his earlier woes and doubts washed away in the face of his sudden and unexpected good fortune. 

He knew that fate wouldn’t have dumped him in this world without a life-line to clutch on to. 

Ash laughed without restraint as he felt his ego surge back to its full, unflawed form in full force. 

“It's nothing much to someone like me.” he said without a hint of humility. “’Tis merely the perk of being a planes-traveller.” 

“Sure.” she said with a roll of her icy blue eyes. “By Compassion’s heavin’ tits, looks like some people get all the luck.” grumbled the woman before she huffed at the youth’s prideful smirk. 

“So, what do I do now that we can skip that step?” he asked excitably. 

"I suppose that we move onto the forgin’ of your first nexus then.” 

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