Ch58: [Master of Physics] - Darling of Fate - [Stubbing in 4 days!] (2024)

Thoughts filtered in one at a time. The first thing that came through was the pain wracking my chest. No, not my chest—inside my chest. My cores, I realized. Something was transforming within my soul, altering the flavor and consistency of the energy inside me. Creating something new, something…powerful.

The next thought that materialized was the realization that cold metal encircled my wrists. Without looking, I realized they were manacles. Instinctively, I reduced the friction between my wrists and the metal, but nothing happened. Resisting the urge to pull at the cuffs, I forced in a calming breath and ordered my thoughts.

What had just happened? What did I remember last?

Suddenly, it hit me and I opened my eyes.

Staring back at me were a series of notifications that rocked me.

A new Class with a Divine rarity!? I recalled selecting the Boon without a second thought, then collapsing. For a moment, I struggled to understand why I had picked it so quickly, but then my mind started firing and I remembered the specifics of the Boon:

It was that System Note that had sold me. In my mind, the connection between this Aspect, the System Note, and the message smuggled to me through Frank were all connected. Some Higher Power was directly in opposition to Fate and was feeding me information to guide me towards this Boon. And after what Hiko and Lex had told me about Fate, along with my own personal experiences, I was convinced that anyone opposing Fate was a better option.

Plus, this Boon seemed disgustingly overpowered.

My control over Friction had already unlocked so many interesting applications, and my mind was already imagining ways to utilize this new class in similar ways. With fine enough control over my mass, I could make myself light as a feather or as heavy as an elephant. Climbing would be just as easy—if not more so—and I could replicate my frictionless skiing method from earlier by alternating my mass. I could even fly! The possibilities made me giddy. I wanted to explore the new power residing in my soul right now!

But my excitement was tempered as movement crossed my vision. Dismissing the notifications in front of me, my eyes locked onto Astrid, her two eyes boring into me while her third eye remained closed.

“Welcome back, little one.” Her eyes were wide, her lips slightly parted, giving me the impression of a psych patient off their meds. “We were worried you wouldn’t recover. Your energy is fluctuating dangerously.”

A panicked thought occurred to me and I feared she might be able to see my cores—especially, my Fate core. But she had mentioned energy, not cores. I forced my expression neutral, glancing down at the manacles pinning my arms to the chair I was in. She noticed my glance and gave me a deranged smile.

“A simple precaution, fret not, my bird.”

I nodded along, shaking the manacles gently.

“Well, all good now. Would you mind?”

She ignored me, turning around to pace the room. Her posture was hunched forward, her eyes manically searching the ground like she was looking for something desperately. While she paced, I looked around.

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The room was small, windowless, made of stacked stone bricks that wept with condensation. It reminded me of the underground tunnels that led to the Kaori, except obviously repurposed as a dungeon. Other than the chair bolted to the floor, there was another set of chains embedded in the far wall. To my right, a wooden table stood with a series of tools laying exposed. Chisels, hammers, saws, and various other instruments of dubious craftsman value.

Something told me they weren’t used to build furniture—the blood stains, maybe?

As much as I’d love to tick off a little light torture from my bucket list, I wasn’t really feeling the whole BDSM dungeon vibe. Reaching into the new energy swirling in my core, I examined it, trying to get a feel for it like I had done with my Friction and Fate energy. It hadn’t been that long ago that I’d first discovered my two cores and experienced what my Friction energy felt like. So I remembered clearly that sensation as I examined it. It had brought to mind forces colliding, control, and the struggle of two surfaces coming together.

My Mass energy, in contrast, was nearly static. But more than that, the actual sense I got from the energy was one of density. Whereas the Friction energy was constantly moving, colliding with itself inside my soul, this new energy was nearly motionless—almost stagnant. When I concentrated on pushing it into motion, expressing it outside of my soul, there was an inherent resistance, an inertia that I had to overcome with force of will. I instinctively realized it wasn’t simply the nature of the energy, but rather my lack of control—the Affinity was at the Low Tier, while my Friction Affinity was at the Peak.

The energy was swirling in my soul now and I prepared to push it out into my body, increase my mass enough to rip away my chains and crush Astrid all in one motion. But as soon as the energy left my soul, blinding red light erupted from my manacles, the outlines of complicated runes visibly chiseled into the metal. The energy I had been trying to utilize was absorbed into the runes, stolen from my mental grip.

Astrid looked over, an evil smile forming on her twisted face.

“It’s not often one is able to express their Affinity on the First Floor. But I had a suspicion about you, little one. Our species is very rarely the first to the Hold.” She ambled over, her fingernail trailing the glowing runes on the manacles. “Hunger runes crafted from Starsteel. Even I could not overcome the energy threshold of these chains.”

Oh, f*ck…was I about to be tortured? For what?

“What do you want with me?” I asked, my mind racing to think of a way out. Would I have to pop a redo after all I’d been through? Could I even trigger my Fate ability with the manacles on!? The only thing I had left was my Inventory. As Astrid spoke, I started sifting through it.

She leaned in, her face inches from mine, her wild eyes trailing over my mouth, my body, my hair—never sticking to one place.

“Want? Why, for you to join us, of course. You may possess the Trait of the Champions, but you arrived at the Hold with equal Order and Chaos. Conscripting you would prove a potent first blow against those Order zealots!”

A new presence awoke in my mind suddenly—Red waking from some deep sleep imposed by the backlash of my Class Upgrade. The sentient cape panicked when it realized our situation, but I sent it calming vibes and implored it to start brainstorming escape plans.

“Conscription? Sounds less than voluntary. Is that anyway to recruit people?”

Her eyes tracked above my head, casting about like she was looking for something behind me. God, she was f*cking batsh*t, wasn’t she? That didn’t bode well for my chances of avoiding a torture session. But she was close now—within reach. Red sent me a questioning probe.

Not yet, I sent back.

“I’ve been doing this for centuries, little one. Experience has taught me that compliance is increased under certain—” She cast a glance over at the not-carpentry tools. “—conditions.”

“Careful, I might enjoy myself.”

Her face was frozen expressionless, unsure how to respond.

Now!

Red reached up and wrapped around her head in an instant. Within the blink of an eye, the cape was cinched tight around her head and her neck, squeezing like a boa constrictor. She screeched and reeled back, tugging against the cloth with all her strength.

And apparently, all her strength was a f*ckload.

The bolts anchoring the chair ripped up, the force transferring through the manacles. Sharp pain flared in my wrists, but I ignored it, focusing on the only weapon I had at my disposal.

Lifting the metal chair up from behind my back and over my head, I brought it down on Astrid’s head. She cried out, her hands clawing at Red as I whacked her again.

And again.

The chair was a crumpled piece of metal by the time Astrid went limp. I hit her a half dozen more times to be doubly sure. When Red pulled away, her face was smashed in and her eyes—all three of them—were blue and purple and swollen shut. But right away, I could tell she was still breathing. Bending down, I went to pull a knife from my Inventory, but a notification appeared instead.

sh*t! My eyes locked on the torture devices laying on the table across the room. I ran over and grabbed the saw. Gritting my teeth, I ran the saw across her neck, her carotid squirting black blood across the room. She convulsed once, then went still.

My heart rate was through the roof and I kept glancing at the single door leading into the room, expecting to hear shouts of alarm and running feet. But I kept my cool and lifted Astrid’s hand to saw off her index finger. As soon as it was severed, I tried to drop it in my Inventory. Too late, I realized I still couldn’t access it, so I ran over to the table and grabbed a hammer. If me bashing in Astrid’s brains with a metal chair hadn’t alerted the place, then hammering my manacles would most definitely indicate something was wrong. But there was nothing else to be done—Astrid’s Inventory would have the door key. If it didn’t then I was screwed anyway.

As I raised the hammer to start on the manacles, Red interjected itself on top of the manacles. I paused, my brow furrowing in confusion. But then I realized it was to soften the sounds of the hammer and I patted the cape.

“You’re so smart, Red.”

In reply, the cape sent me an image of Astrid’s buddies bursting through the door—its way of saying hurry the f*ck up, I guessed.

The hammer rang down with a clang. The cloth did a lot to deaden the metallic ringing, but it wasn’t perfect. I smashed that hammer down with everything in me, over and over and over again. It was taking too long! I was sure some goons would pop through the door any second. After nearly a full minute of hammering, the Starsteel cracked enough for me to pull out my wrist. I tested if one free hand was enough to access my Inventory and Abilities, but I received that same warning message as before. Frantically, I hammered the other manacle, sweat drenching my clothes and dripping from my forehead.

When both hands were free, I immediately accessed Astrid’s Inventory and scanned it for a key. Within moments I knew I was f*cked. Her Inventory was pages and pages long, no rhyme or reason that I could discern. And with no way to sort, I’d be combing through this hoarder’s stash for the next three hours.

Time for Plan B.

Before upgrading my class, activating my Friction Abilities had been natural and instinctive. With a flex of my mind, I had been able to reduce or increase friction all across my body and Red.

But now, I could feel the specific flavor of energy coursing through my limbs. If I wanted to alter friction right now, it felt much the same as before, activating on command. When I tried to do the same for my new Mass Ability, I felt that the connection wasn’t there.

Instinctively, I realized that I needed to mobilize the Mass energy in my core before I could utilize my new Ability, [Mass Control].

The door in front of me was made of thick oak, metal bands running its length. I wracked my brain for a moment to think of creative ways to open it with my Friction Abilities, but no flash of inspiration hit me.

There was nothing for it but to try and access my Mass energy.

I reached inside and pulled on that new core, drawing the energy into my body using the technique Mother Hiko had shown me in our shared vision. My control was dismal, and the energy resisted my intent at first. But the harder I pushed, the easier it got, until I was able to alter the mass of my hand. Suddenly, it became unusually heavy, pulling me almost to the ground. I practiced for another minute, testing the limits of how high I could jack up the mass of my hand.

When I was confident enough to give it a try, I stepped to the door. It was a thick oak door with metal bands running its length—not something I’d ever be able to break through with my base stats in a million years. Maybe not even with jacked up Strength.

I stood across from the door for a minute, pulling as much of my Mass energy from my core as I could, swirling it through my limbs. It resisted my control at first, moving at a sluggish pace. But once it accelerated throughout my body, it had a certain inertia, and I found that it took less effort to keep it moving than to get it started.

Focusing my intent, I kept the energy inert as I ran at the door. With a leap, I released the energy with that intent, willing my body to grow in mass as much as possible.

I smashed through the door like it was made of Japanese rice paper, the thick metal bands screeching as they were ripped apart, the heavy oak splintering under my enhanced weight. Crashing on top of the shredded door, I released the energy, letting my mass revert to its natural state. The adrenaline of the maneuver coursed throughout my body and I forced myself to examine my limbs for any wounds or breaks. As far as I could tell, I’d approached the weight of a car for a moment there, and the likelihood of snapped bones or torn ligaments seemed high.

But after a moment, it became clear that I was none the worse for wear. The [Structural Integrity] passive Ability did everything it described and more. But that note was troublesome. If I reduced my mass to make myself more agile, I’d be reducing my defenses and the strength of my bones, muscles, and such. That would be something to keep in mind and was a bit of a bummer considering my Friction Abilities had no real downsides of note.

Sure now that I was unharmed, I pushed myself to my feet and examined the hallway I had crashed into. It was obviously part of the sewer system that connected to the Kaori’s now-raided village. Perhaps we were underneath the Beast’s base or something?

Standing in that underground hallway with the debris of the dungeon door under my feet and Astrid’s corpse behind me, I couldn’t help but feel vulnerable. I hadn’t had the time to cast [Analysis] on Astrid, but it was obvious she was powerful—probably too powerful for me to take on in a fair fight. Was she the strongest or were there others like her nearby?

Combing through my Inventory, I pulled out the handgun Jerome had given me when I’d left them on the bluffs. My rifle skill level was higher, but the confines of the hallway were too tight and a bolt-action rifle was less than ideal if there were multiple bad guys waiting above.

A glance at my map showed that the fog of war didn’t uncover while I had been unconscious, but I could see that major plaza with all the Boon statues about a mile to the North-East. The hallway I was in ran to the East and West, so I picked the Eastern direction and started down the hall.

I didn’t go far before I came to another heavy oak door on my left. Tiptoeing down the hall, I went to move past it when I caught sight of the room inside through a barred window in the door.

Sitting in the middle of the room, chained to a chair much like the one I’d just beaten Astrid with, was a familiar face.

With a sigh, I looked down the hall, then back through the window.

Could nothing just be simple…