Chapter 90: Chapter Ninety

It took Jessie about an hour to hatch the third egg and send out the  birds to scout. Once she did, we started working on the list while we  waited. Despite needing to get done we decided to stay close to the base  in case she found something and needed us back to plan an attack or  something. Which in this case meant stepping out the front door (which  was a nice sturdy dark wood now) and combing the nearby area with my  Seek Hidden skill.

Despite not being optimized for long  range searches, Seek Hidden worked fine up close. We were pretty sure  that given how many items were on the list (twenty five incredibly  varied targets) there was a good chance that if I searched for each of  them one after the other there was a decent chance at least one would be  close enough for me to spot. So there I was, outside with Callie.  "Alright. So, first thing we need to look for? Let's start with plants,  given how many of them there are nearby, Fresh water is a great place  for things to grow."

Callie checked over the list. "First  up is a G ranked flower called a Sunseeker Orchid. I figure you can flip  on your skill and we can talk a walk around the perimeter of the  clearing. How many of these can you do? I know you only have twenty four  charges, and we absolutely don't want to burn you out before we hear  from the scouts. Hell, we don't want to burn you out at all. If we get  attacked it would suck to have one of our strongest out of commission.  Don't use up all your juice on the list, we're not really in a rush."

I  smiled at her behind my mask, letting out a low chuckle. "Yeah, I  figured. But it's not an issue. I'm trying something a bit different.  I'm going to try to change my target for Seek Hidden without ending the  skill. I'm not sure if it's a viable option, but I think at the very  least it'll help me get some experience with my DS Mastery Skill. The  higher it gets the less in game stuff seems to matter. I need real world  experience with Doom Sovereign skills to improve. It's a good idea to  stretch my legs so to speak."

She snickered at me. "I  still can't believe you were such a nerd you got a reality warping Skill  from a video game. Not that it isn't super cool. But still. It's  impressive though. I doubt it would be possible to get to even Minor in  that without your ability, and definitely nothing beyond. I have to  admit it's versatile and impressive. I kind of want to Wish for it  myself. Play the game and get some new tricks, but honestly I feel like  it would be kind of a hat on a hat. I already have a damn versatile  power. Too many options would just paralyze me in a fight."

I  nodded. "That's why I haven't tried to get more classes in DS. I  already have three and there are so many abilities to juggle. It's  impossible to make a cohesive fighting style if you keep tossing new  crap into the mix. I have experience with my Fatewalker build, and it's  already almost too versatile, so that's what I'm going to stick with.  Not much use in learning to be barely functional with a hundred  different tools when you can master just a few of them. Any gamer knows  Jack of all Trades is a terrible way to build a character, and I'm  already close."

We lapsed into silence and I officially  activated my Seek Hidden skill for the first time today. I expected some  flash of red or something, but I couldn't see any sign of anything. We  started to walk, and my eyes scanned the ground and even the trees  looking for the first thing on the list. I didn't see any red glow, but I  had plenty of room to keep looking,a nd we slowly did a circuit of the  entire  area, both the edges of the woods and around the shores of the  creek. After a full circuit with nothing to show I turned to Callie.

Talking  with Seek Hidden active was easy enough, so asking her. "Ok, what's the  next one?" Wasn't tough. But once she responded and I tried to make the  switch that ease...vanished. Bloodfire Bristle, that was the name of  the second item on the list. I focused on it, and did my best to try to  shift to a new frame of mind. I froze in place. I had to force myself to  concentrate, to focus, as I did my best to connect the two thoughts. I  couldn't turn off the Seek Hidden skill for the orchid, so I had to keep  it active while I started up another one.

Talking while I  tried to find the Orchid was like trying to have a conversation while I  listened to a story. I could do it, even if I lost concentration a  little it was still there in the background for me to pick up again.  Trying to do two at once was like trying to WRITE a story while  listening to a story, and trying to sing a song at the same time. It was  a whole bunch of brain based tasks being done on top of each other in a  way that strained your mind to try to keep in order. It was possible,  but it was HARD.

Despite that I focused hard on the skill,  keeping an eye out for any glow of red while trying to keep things  moving. I didn't listen to Callie, I couldn't, because every ounce of  concentration I had to bring to bear was funneled into making damn sure  that I wasn't going to drop this skill. I didn't want to waste a charge  if I could help it. I was sure that two was my limit for the moment  though. I couldn't have juggled a third instance if I tried.

We  did the same circuit around the clearing again, though much slower. I  had to measure my steps and take things one at a time, because even  walking was a bit too complicated when I was overclocking my brain like  this. Focus helped, but this wasn't exactly stat related. It wasn't just  brain power at work, it was...me. My sense of self, and something  deeper. This was what it took to advance a skill from scratch. I was  learning control, flexing muscles I'd never even touched before, and it  was hard, but it was working.

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If  I did this long enough I was sure I could get to three, then four, then  further. I needed to do more of this, to learn to stretch the various  skills I had to push DS Mastery higher. I'm not sure how long we walked,  I couldn't keep track of time, it was everything I could do to keep  from tripping over my feet. Eventually though, I spotted something, a   red gleam at the edge of the creek tucked back into the corner of the  clearing and I headed for it. Callie helped steady me the few times I  slipped or stumbled, and once we got close enough I finally let the  skill drop.

My  knees went out from under me like I was a puppet with cut strings.  Callie caught me and lowered me to the ground. "Solomon? Solomon?" She  was shaking me. "Shane!" She whisper yelled the last one so no one would  hear, but it spoke to how concerned she was. "Hey answer me, you've  been silent for like an hour now, this is getting creepy. Are you ok? Do  I need to go get Agria?"

I  shook my head tiredly. "No." She breathed a sigh of relief when I spoke  and I pulled her into a hug. It was a testament to exactly how out of  it I was that I didn't get nervous about that, but I was too exhausted. I  just squeezed her tightly. "Thank you, Callie. I'm fine. I was...that  was weird, and looking back I'm pretty terrified about what might have  happened if you weren't there." I gestured to where I'd seen the red  glow. "That's the stuff we're looking for. Bloodfire Bristle. I found  it."

Callie  had stiffened a bit when I hugged her, but after a second she squeezed  me back, laying her head on my shoulder. It was really nice, until she  pulled back and punched me in the shoulder. "Are you insane? Once you  realized you couldn't speak you should have dropped that stupid  experiment. I was terrified you fried your brain or something. You're  lucky I didn't try to smack you awake."

I  laughed at that. "It wasn't anything like that. I just...it was  complicated and took up all my attention. It's a great exercise though. A  good way to improve my skill. I plan to find other ways to work DS  Mastery and improve it like that. But hopefully next time it'll be  easier to manage with this practice to go on. Anyway, we found the first  of our twenty five items. You going to go and collect it or keep  glaring at me?" I kept my tone light and teasing, knowing she had been  genuinely worried and feeling bad about it.

Luckily  I also knew Callie, and she was almost as focused as I was when on a  mission. She gave me a suspicious glare, clearly aware I was distracting  her, but her small smile made it obvious she didn't really mind. Then  she bolted over to the spot I pointed at. I expected her to just grab  it, but Callie was smarter than me about this stuff. She conjured a box  of shadows to her side and then a trowel, and began to carefully and  slowly dig the thing up. She slowly and surely levered up the ground  with the trowel, careful not to sever the roots more than she had to.

After  a few minutes of careful work she created a pair of tongs to lift the  thing free and set it gently in the box, which she then snapped shut.  She grinned at me. "I bet we're the first ones to find one of the items  on our list! This was so quick!" She calmed down, becoming more serious.  "But we're a bit ahead already. No need to keep rushing. I want you to  take a rest before we try that again ok? I didn't like the way you  collapsed after that, I don't want to push you too far. We have a week  minimum, we're on the right track."

I  smiled at her softly, though she couldn't see behind my mask and she  reached down to help me up. I wasn't really tired so much as my brain  was having trouble remembering what actions made what things happen, but  either way the assist was appreciated, and she walked with me slowly  back to the hatchery, the black box under her arm. When we reached the  building though, I noted with surprise that Cark of all people was  waiting outside for us. He saw us coming and stood up straight, clearly  having something to tell us.

Once  we got within range he couldn't wait anymore apparently and bolted out  to meet us. "Solomon, Nightstrike, Agria just made contact. She found  the guy you were looking for. She found the Heartripper Society." His  face was alive with excitement, and I absolutely wasn't going to blame  him. I was excited too. I needed some time to recover a bit, but I was  absolutely ready to kick some Heartripper ass. That was what we came out  here for after all. With a bit of effort I stood on my own, letting my  body readjust and then nodded to Callie. Then we all headed up to talk  to Jessie. We had an attack to plan.

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