Experiment

For the second time ever in his life, Cal entered the Pearly Flagon through the front door. As he pushed the door open, he noted that none of the delvers inside gave him a second glance. Unlike last time, he wore decent armor and bloodied clothes, the usual for a delver who had just finished a run. In fact, most of them looked similar to him, dirtied and bloody.

He looked around but couldn’t find Alia anywhere. Striding up to the bar, he took a seat and smiled at Neera.

“Hey runt,” Neera greeted. “Had a good run?”

“Very good actually. I leveled up.” He couldn’t help but puff his chest in pride. As Kevin had mentioned, leveling up on the first day was uncommon and there was no way he wasn’t going to boast about it.

To his disappointment, Neera did nothing but raise an eyebrow.

“Well well, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Though he was a bit put off by the lack of a big reaction, he didn’t show it. “Your dagger really helped. I have no idea how I’d have killed the rats otherwise.”

She gave him a small smile. “Good to know. Make sure you take care of it. It’s only useful as long as it stays sharp.”

Cal nodded. “Where’s Alia?”

“She’s out back sorting some supplies. Want anything to eat in the meantime?”

At the mention of dinner, Cal’s face broke out into a grin. He fished out all the coin he had and dropped it on the table. “How about a basic room for two nights?”

Neera looked between him and the coins in surprise. “Got your hands on some cores did you?”

“Yeah. Kevin gave me the full price.”

“He’s a good man.” She counted fifteen coins and gave the rest back to him. “Keep that. I’ll give you a discount for the next five days too.”

Cal immediately protested. “Neera, I can’t take this. You’ve given me too much already.”

She simply shook her head in response. “Five coppers isn’t a big difference to me. Besides, you’ll need that to fix up your pants.”

Cal reluctantly pocketed the money. Although he wanted to protest, Neera had a point. As the owner of one of the finer establishments in town, she wasn’t really strapped for cash while he needed every copper he could get.

As she went to get him his food, Cal pulled up his screen and started going through the options. He wanted understand more about his unique power. Although Alia was able to help him understand most of the system’s working, she couldn’t help him with this.

He recalled what he had done when he healed his leg. He had concentrated on his perk and a text box had appeared over his injured leg. His power wasn’t limited to himself though, so he concentrated on a glass on the shelf.

As before, a text box appeared on top of the glass. He wasn’t really interested on object though. What he was really interested in was the other aspect of his power. He turned around and swept his eyes across the room. He picked a person he had seen in the market before, the same buffoon who had been causing a ruckus the day before.

Once again, a box appeared. Cal paused, thinking about his perk’s description. It had mentioned that he would be able to edit people. Edit in what way though? Could he make physical changes? The rapid healing of his leg told him that yes, physical changes were possible. The part about disposition also hinted that mental changes were also possible.

After a bit of contemplation, he decided to experiment. The lack of reaction from the guy meant that he couldn’t feel Cal’s power on him. After a bit of mental effort, the box split into two to his delight. Alia was right, the system was highly customizable.

The box on the left was labeled ‘Physical’ and the box on the right was labeled ‘Mental’. He decided to start off with something simple. This time, instead of verbally reciting his command, he pushed his thoughts into the box.

[You like the color blue]

Confirm?

He mentally confirmed and surprisingly, a warning flashed in front of him. This box was colored red.

Target has negative disposition towards you. Target is too high leveled. Command will cause target to recognize external mental command. 15 AP required to negate.

He immediately dismissed the warning. His commands could be recognized? He cursed under his breath. So this is what the system meant by AP cost in his perk. It wasn’t all bad though. It seemed like he could overcome those challenges with sufficient AP. Problem was, he didn’t have enough AP at the moment. Looks like actual testing would have to wait.

The warning did give him an idea though. He turned towards Neera who was coming back with his food.

[You don’t like charity]

Confirm?

Knowing that he’ll be given a warning, he confirmed.

Command cannot be confirmed. Command goes against target’s core values.

That was comforting to know. There wasn’t even an option to negate the obstacle using AP. He couldn’t suddenly make people evil psychopaths. With some brief experimenting, he managed to modify the command box.

Commands that cannot be fulfilled were now colored red. Commands that need high AP to be overcome were colored yellow commands with standard AP cost were colored green. The same ‘color blue’ command he tried on Neera showed him 25 AP and was colored yellow.

Expanding the warning showed that Neera’s command cost higher because of higher level rather that negative disposition. This told him a few things. The higher the level difference between him and the target, the more AP it cost. If the target wasn’t on friendly terms with him, it cost higher still.

Also, he couldn’t make a change that went against a person’s entire sense of self. Neera was well known throughout the town as the most charitable person they had. Alia wasn’t the first person she had pulled off the streets and neither would she be the last. The dagger he had strapped to his hip and the five coppers in his pocket were further proof.

Thanking her profusely once again, he dove into the food. He was used to scrounging for scraps and aside from the occasional free meals given by Alia, good food like this was rare for him. He did not actually have a comparison for Neera’s food but it was the tastiest he ever had.

Just as he finished, Alia appeared, dusting off her hands. Her face immediately lit up and rushed to him.

“Looks like you made it out in one piece,” she said lightly.

“All thanks to you.”

“Well come on then.” She took his hand and started dragging him upstairs. “I want to hear all about it.”

Cal stumbled twice trying to keep up with her. Her excitement was not surprising, although a bit sad. He could only imagine her reaction if she unlocked her own class. God he hoped she did.

He was soon seated on the chair in her room with her sitting on the bed. She was sitting with her legs crossed and as usual, she had leaned forward enough to give him a teasing view down her blouse.

Cal glared at her in response and she simply smirked. “Well? What happened down there?”

He had grown used to her trying to rile him up that he now found an easier time meeting her eyes. He explained everything in detail to her. She became very intrigued when she mentioned that he healed himself using his perk.

“So your injury just vanished,” she asked.

“Not instantly,” he explained. “I tried that. It cost too much AP so I tried accelerating the healing process. It took about ten minutes.”

“Did it consume any mana?”

“I… don’t think so. I didn’t check.”

Alia looked thoughtful. “Interesting. Let’s try that out then. Can you try using your perk to do something else?”

Cal shrugged and pulled up his screen, contemplating. What could he use it on? There was a number of stuff around the room. Ah, the ripped pants. The rat had chewed through his pants and it was now ripped. That would be the perfect experiment.

Just as he was about to voice it to Alia though, he paused. What he was attempting to do downstairs sprung up in his mind. His attempts at changing people failed for a number of reasons.

Alia though, neither had a higher level than him nor was she unfriendly. Her being classless meant he had a higher level, plus they were best friends. She was the safest and perfect person he could try it on. What could he do though? Downstairs, he had tried implementing simple commands. Here, the sight of Alia’s beautiful face and the tantalizing view down her blouse pushed his mind to the perverted side.

He felt a bit bad about doing this but he needed to know. Plus, it was her fault for teasing him, he reasoned. He quickly checked his AP and saw that it was at 8 now.

When he focused on her, the two boxes labeled ‘Physical’ and ‘Mental’ popped up. To her, it would simply appear as if he was looking at his status screen.

Selecting ‘Mental’, he thought of a command that he could play off as a prank if it backfired.

[You don’t mind me being naked in front of you.]

Cost: 3 AP

Confirm?

Thankfully, the cost was very less. Bracing himself for any kind of reaction, he selected yes.

[Codex updated: Change log added]

He didn’t have time to open it and read it though, so he swiped it away. As the box disappeared, he observed Alia’s face and slowly relaxed when she showed no signs of recognizing his command.

“Well? Are you going to use it or not?”

Her question startled him and he smiled sheepishly at her.

“Oh uh… give me a second.”

Looking down, he focused on the ripped pants and activated his perk. This time, he voiced his command aloud to give the illusion that he had to do so for his perk to work.

[Repair]

Cost: 5 AP

Confirm?

He confirmed and both of them watched in fascination as the fabric stitched itself up magically in a few seconds. Aside from the dirt and blood, the pants now showed no signs of damage.

“Amazing,” Alia whispered, she got up and crouched near him. “It looks brand new.”

Mindless of the dirt, she took the cloth between her fingers and rubbed them. “Not a string out of place.”

Cal himself was still amazed at his powers but compared to watching skin and muscle mending before his eyes, this was nothing.

“Did it cost any MP?”

Cal checked and saw that his MP was still topped out. When he told her that, her smile grew wider.

“We have got to experiment more with this. Let’s try something else.”

Unfortunately, he was all out of AP and he told her as much. Her face fell but she nodded in understanding.

“Oh well. We can try later then. But let’s talk abou-”

“Sorry,” he interrupted. “Before we continue, can I take a bath? The armor is practically sticking to my skin.”

As if that reminded her of his state, she wrinkled her nose. “You smell worse than a pig too.”

She shooed him into her bathroom where he gratefully stripped off and got in the shower. He took his time scrubbing himself clean. Although he wanted to get back to Alia as soon as possible, luxuries like this were rare to him. His prospects were looking up now that he had a class but at the moment, he just enjoyed the warm water against his skin.

It took a good twenty minutes before he was done. Grabbing a nearby towel, he wiped himself clean. Rather than wrapping it around his waist, he draped it around his shoulders.

‘I could just tell her I have no spare clothes,’ he convinced himself. Besides, she had seen his naked butt in the morning, even though it was just a prank on her part.

He could hear Alia outside, softly humming a tune. Casting a glance at his dirtied clothes in the basket, he took a deep breath and stepped out, stark naked.