What Will Be | Book 2 | Chapter 33

Author's Note: Thank you for your continued support. It means the world to me. I have started the process of getting a proper cover done up for Book 1 in preparation for its eventual Ebook/Audio release. I'll definitely share some teasers and whatnot here as I get them!

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Pain did not accompany my transition into the deep, meditative state that accompanied Advancement. That experience was reserved for a person’s first time, when their mana channels were carved with a knife wrought from hellfire. In exchange, they would become something more. 

Bereft of pain, I tried to note the experience, to truly experience the shift of awareness. It was not unconsciousness, as I had once believed. There was a lucidity to Advancement that could not exist otherwise, even among those who claimed to shape their dreams. The System pulled me into the trance and I knew it would not release me until my Advancement was complete, the walls it erected in place so that I might more intimately interact with the magics at the core of my being. 

According to the recounts Blanca shared with me during one of her lessons, there were those who could enter a similar state without System assistance. It was an intriguing possibility – for those same stories spoke of the insights such deep introspection could cultivate – just not one I had devoted much time to. Not yet, at least.

I found myself in an interior world, a space that was not space but neither was it nothing. At its centre, the crystalline sapling that was my Skill Tree thrummed with mana. To call it a sapling was bordering on inaccurate, for the tree had grown since I last visited. Recovery’s emerald leaves grew larger than all the rest, reaching for nonexistent sunlight just because they could. The leaves touched by Taming [Fudge] had gained an opalescent sheen, seemingly all colors at once while also being none at all. 

Perseverance was the core of the tree, its roots, trunk and branches, crystal clear and illuminated by the blue glow of mana that pulsed through its cycle like blood through a heart. Through it, I could feel the tree’s steadfast desire to grow despite any obstacles that might stand in its way. 

Curled up beneath the canopy, almost too large to fit beneath it, was Fudge. He’d been sleeping when I arrived, but woke with a silent yawn in response to my presence. Where my Skills were represented by the tree growing in our shared core space, Fudge’s manifested as changes to his body, and evidently the ephemeral representation of those changes simply napped when it was not needed. 

Probably. For all that my education had definitely broadened, The System was riddled with exceptions and esoterica such that I could only speculate on more topics than I would have liked. It wasn’t just my Skill Tree that had grown, the changes to Fudge’s anatomy had become more pronounced, less restrained in a realm free from many of reality’s constraints. 

Fudge’s body was indistinct, composed of countless overlapping images, each slightly different than the last. Simultaneously, each of those images carried an impossible solidity, determined to withstand the whims of infinity. It was as if Quantum Manipulation and Durability were fighting for dominance, and Fudge’s body was the battleground.   

It was… difficult to behold him. If not for the Tamer Bond – which let me know with absolute conviction that Fudge was – then I didn’t know what I would think. A human mind was not meant to perceive such a contradiction made manifest. I wondered if my survival instincts might have warned me it was aberrant, anathema, or something else entirely.  

“Good to see you, bud.” As it was, the Tamer Bond did exist and I’d be damned if I was going to think poorly of my favourite goofball. Fudge wagged his tail and carefully crawled forward before standing, so as to not bump his head on the lowest branches. After trotting over for a quick scratch behind the ears, he busied himself by exploring the boundaries of our space, occasionally pausing to sniff at the ineffable. 

It warmed my heart. I was preparing to make life-altering decisions and Fudge was treating the affair like a walk around the manor grounds. The silliness of it all eased the nerves I hadn’t noticed settle in my stomach, momentarily weighed down by the gravity of the situation. 

It was enough to make me smile. 

Trust yourself. There was a time I worried that choosing Taming had been a mistake; Fudge reminded me that doubting myself like that would be foolish. I wouldn’t trade him for anything. Instead of lingering on the hypotheticals trying to intrude into my mind, I breathed deeply, letting my attention drift to the newest System notification that awaited my summons. 

Advancement pending.

Please choose two additional Skills to finalize Advancement. Threshold proficiency must have been demonstrated for a Skill to be an eligible choice.

During my first Advancement, the carving of my mana pathways occurred before I could choose my new Skills. The change was one I had been told to expect. Once I finished reading the text, a second window immediately took its place, listing a random assortment of the Skills I’d qualified for over the years.

See, now that is familiar, I noted. My eyes scanned over the list on the off chance there were any repeats. Not that I planned on taking any, even though the thought of telling Lionel I chose a Skill like Crawling or Babysitting during my Second Advancement was an amusing one. 

I wonder how he’s doing… It had been a while since I received any correspondence from the Slayer Lieutenant I’d come to consider my uncle, but I also knew that his free time was becoming scarce given the increasing uptick in Beast-related incidents. I shook my head. Not the time, Will. 

For all that Perseverance had helped me grow out of most of my procrastination habits, I'd come to accept that the occasional bout of distracted thought was too much a part of who I was to be totally eliminated. What mattered was that I didn’t let those thoughts take over my days. 

“I choose Mana Sense as my first Skill.” I knew without looking that I’d also have had the opportunity to choose a specialized tactile or olfactory variation of the Skill – due to my innate talent and practice with Fudge respectively – but I decided against them. Ultimately, it was a combination of all of my senses that allowed me to experience the world and years of mana-based frustration left me reluctant to risk any gaps in my perception. 

You have chosen Mana Sense as one of your Advancement Skills. 

Please choose an eligible Skill for Mana Sense to grow from. 

For years, I’d had a plan. I was determined to stick to that plan, but everyone I spoke to about the matter offered a new insight or angle of consideration. Surprisingly, it was a letter from Tina that helped me make a choice I hadn’t expected. 

“Attach Mana Sense to Recovery.” 

You have chosen to attach Mana Sense to Recovery.

Please choose one additional Skill to finalize Advancement. Threshold proficiency must have been demonstrated for a Skill to be an eligible choice. 

Once I explained my plans to delve into the possibilities of Skill sharing with Fudge, Tina recommended I prune my Taming Skill. Granted, it took a few months of reassurances and promises to be careful before we got to that point, but I took the advice seriously all the same. The way she put it, trying to chain any of my Skills attached to Taming with Fudge’s Skills would result in a mess; Skills would be plagued by poor synergy half the time, since the benefits would only apply while I was actively drawing on the related Skill from Fudge and-

That would have been a clusterfuck. In hindsight, it was obvious. Tina had told me countless times that Taming, at its core, was all about the Tamer Bond itself. It synergized best with Skills that worked to that end. Better to just use Fudge’s Skills wholesale and mix them with Perseverance, which would, at the very least, likely never leave me with a clash. 

Conversely, attaching Mana Sense to Recovery would hopefully, among other benefits, make it easier to identify, locate, and ultimately deal with the side effects caused by taking in Fudge’s mana. Both choices offered potential benefits for this Advancement, but Recovery took the future into account more. I was just frustrated I didn’t figure it out myself while simultaneously grateful I had people in my life to help me spot the details I missed, even the obvious ones. 

“Show me Movement and related Skills.” As nice as it was to muse, I still had a second choice to make. After the list was populated, I mentally trimmed it back down. There weren’t any unexpected options, and there were really only two I was interested in. 

Movement

Movement [Self]

Over the years, the specialized variant entered and left my considerations like a yoyo on a string. Movement [Body] had also been an option, but that didn’t quite fit the same niche as Movement [Self] given the reason it had remained a contender. If I wanted to draw on the Skill to help get me back to my first life one day, a specialized variant would be better suited to the task. Presuming I somehow defied time and space to do so, it wouldn’t be my body that made the journey, it would be me in a more ephemeral sense. 

The Skill would have the added benefit of also helping me move my body, my mana, and all things related to ‘me’ in the meantime. There was no denying it would be a solid choice. The problem was that the unspecialized variant had even more potential. The Skills I chose during my first two Advancements would ultimately become central to my Build. Assuming I Advanced twice, or even once more then even Movement and Mana Sense would be able to tease the conceptual the same way Perseverance had been.

When viewed through that lens, Movement became extremely versatile, but there were two possibilities that stood out to me more than most. In theory, I could also use Movement to enhance my perception of it. I’d learned first hand how a lapse in awareness during a life or death situation could be fatal. I’d once told myself that getting home depended on my survival. I still believed that. It was a comparatively minor consideration, though.  

I knew that one could move the hearts and minds of others through words or action. Back when I chose my Core Skill, I pondered the potency of a, for lack of a better word, ‘offensive’ social Skill. It was only when I talked to Cruz about the possibility of using Movement as such that I found out why I’d only ever heard of people having defensive social Skills, like Bella’s.

They were illegal in Bosquelia. At the time, I felt another flush of frustration that I hadn’t been warned as such by Tina before I went through my first Advancement. She was struggling with the Beast High at the time, but still… There was nothing to be gained by dwelling on it, but I made sure to note my discoveries in a letter to pass on to Marco, playing the part of ‘concerned big brother’ which, honestly, was barely an act. 

That led me to thoughts of Lionel, who I knew had a music-related Skill, and music was one of the biggest sources of influence out there. When I said as much, Cruz clarified that, as with all things, there were exceptions. As a Slayer, certain allowances had been made for Lionel, with the understanding that he would be subject to scrutiny. 

After checking with Engel, I learned that I’d be granted the same exception, should I choose. It just meant that, alongside an annual appointment, any reports of me gaining suspicious social influence would see me dragged before someone with Skills akin to Bella’s to confirm I hadn’t been using my Skill outside of approved usages. It raised plenty of questions about the other layers of security and checks and balances surrounding the issue, but I wasn’t to be privy to them, merely ensured that they existed.

I knew there might be a day I needed to seek aid from others to accomplish my goals. Having a Skill to help was tempting – dangerously so. There was an expression about people with hammers seeing a lot of nails that I couldn't quite recall, but I remembered the sentiment. It was hard not to use a tool at one’s disposal. Would it be ethical to use that ability at all? 

I’d lost sleep pondering the issue. It was only then, staring at the System window, that I realized that taking so long to consider the issue at all was, itself, telling. I could not dismiss it out of hand. I’d long since resolved to take a person’s life if I had to; being supernaturally charming in a pinch was comparatively tame, and I’d rather have the option than not. 

“I choose Movement as my second Skill.” I felt a sense of relief at having made the choice. There was only one left. 

You have chosen Movement as one of your Advancement Skills. 

Please choose an eligible Skill for Movement to grow from. 

“Attach Movement to Recovery.” 

You have chosen to attach Movement to Recovery.

The screen flickered out almost immediately after appearing. The pent up energy for the Advancement was finally free to act. Mana poured out of my Skill tree, a seemingly endless amount of it, flooding the space until it was thick with power. There was a pregnant pause and, just as suddenly, the mana rushed back into the tree. It sank through the ground and started at the roots. As it travelled, the tree grew. The root system grew more robust. The trunk thickened until it was girthier than my torso and grew taller until the start of the canopy easily stood above the height of my head. 

The lowest, most abundant branches were equally occupied by Taming and Recovery, but the former did not contribute much at all to the new height. Rather, it was the part of the tree supporting Recovery that spread towards the newest heights, supporting the growth of two new Skills. Movement’s silver leaves were small and many, fluttering in a nonexistent breeze that made its branches wave and ripple in constant motion. Mana Sense grew massive leaves, few in number but bigger than all others, looking like palm leaves covered in intricate sapphire patterns. 

“Time to go back, Fudge,” I called out in English, deciding to make a tradition of it. The words felt clumsy coming out of my mouth, but I spoke them all the same. A smile crossed my lips as Fudge returned to his spot under the tree, feelings of pride and contentment coming my way through the Tamer Bond. My legs started to fade beneath me, and I gave myself over to the sensation. I was one step closer.