Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

I fight too. Second of all, why am I here? You need to come into your own. You consider yourself an outcast, well welcome to the club, buddy! Most people do. So let’s put on our big girl panties and get to work. Sound good?”

Gus decidedly did not like the tough love approach, because it reminded him a bit too much of his father. He remembered what the previous Nick had said about the persona giving him what he needed, he opted to hold judgment—and his tongue. At least for now.

Gus headed back to the manor; he needed to shower and clean off the splattered remains of the battle. Checking his stats, he was surprised at how the format had changed.

Gus Vannett

Level 10

Agility: 25

Constitution: 26 (25+1)

Charisma: 18

Strength: 25

Perception: 26

Intelligence: 26

Luck: 27

Fractal core: Level 1

Skills unlocked with Fractal Level 1:

Master of Tasks (Level 1)

Enhanced ability to mimic and adopt physical skills by observation.

T-Wrecks (Level 1)

Summon a dinosaur familiar with (100 x summoner level) HP

MP: 100 MP

Cooldown: 8 hours

Wrecks and Parks

Deals (100 x skill level) HP worth of damage on a target up to 20 feet away, then freezes the target in place for (20 x skill level) seconds

Gus was stunned at the massive increase in his stats as well as impressive new skills that would really make a difference in future conflicts. Finally, he had some options for ranged attacks! Wreck-luse was ranged now too, but six feet wasn’t much.

“B-T-dubbs, you probably want to evolve those Nth sometime soon. Just so you don’t die and all,” Nick said, interrupting Gus’ train of thought.

He opened the interface and saw a number of options and skills that evolved Nth could provide. Reluctantly, Gus skipped over numerous incredible options until he ended up on Energy Absorption. He made the selection, expecting a jolt of pain or some dramatic change. He opened his eyes that he had inadvertently closed in anticipation of some punishment. “Well, that was anticlimactic.”

Gus waited another minute for the bomb to fall, but nothing happened. “Nick, did it work?”

“Yeah, boss, Nth are upgrading right now as planned. You’re golden.” Gus was wiped for the day. Whatever happened with the dimensional folding or whatever had wrung him out of the usual buzz he normally felt after leveling.

Glancing up to his display, he saw that he had seven days and eighteen minutes remaining. It ticked off a couple more seconds, then winked out. Gus’ knees became loose, and he sunk to one knee, relieved of the psychological weight. I’m going to live! He smiled inwardly to be free of the burden of the oppressive timer.

Then it winked back into existence.

“Nick…” Gus drawled. “What is that doing here again?”

“The countdown timer has been recalibrated for the imminent volcanic eruption, of course.”

A litany of curses flew out of Gus’ mouth in response.

“Tsk, tsk, Gus, that’s not very PG-13. What would your mother say?” Nick said in a saccharine tone. Gus glared upward, pinching his mouth shut. His nostrils flared as he tried to calm himself down. When he trusted himself not to go off the handle again, he changed the subject.

“Nick, what happened out there with the watch? What did you do? Why didn’t you tell me about the dimensional folding that triggered when I hit level ten? You have got to stop keeping things from me!” Gus managed to say, punctuating each word of his last sentence in a staccato rhythm.

“That had nothing to do with Nth, buddy. I was surprised as you because that dimensional folding stuff is some far out sh—”

“Let’s keep it PG-13, alright?” he quipped, taking advantage of his turn to be smarmy.

“Oh, I see, you prefer my comic-book persona versus my movie persona? I wouldn’t have guessed. Fine. Remember that talk you had with the old me about fractals? Yeah, I don’t either. I think it was edited out. BOOOring! I’m not going to go into all of that, but the TL;DR version is that high, I mean HIGH-level supers can gain the ability to fold dimensions in relation to themselves.

“They can change their appearance and smuggle weapons past all kinds of security checks. Very handy. Pocket dimensions are great, but they don’t work with biological matter very well, as they are entropy-filled vacuums. It takes someone with mad skillz manipulating ether and folding it around to hide mass, especially organic mass that is part of a living being.

“That’s why they use fractals, because they maintain potentially infinite surface area but don’t close off the fold into a pocket dimension completely. A closed pocket dimension usually results in a pretty quick death of any living tissue. Try it on some fruit. You’ll find it tastes off, kind of like when you freeze something then thaw it and try to eat it. Something changes when life is cut off from a connection to our universe. Anyway, bro, you’re more than meets the eye.” Nick finished the last sentence in a robotic autotune-voice.

“So the watch and all the dimensional folding had nothing to do with you?”

“No, but I need one of those watches. At least when I become corporeal. The old gent didn’t talk about that, did he?”

“You can get a body?”

“Well, not until you have leveled enough. Since your Nth evolved—options are open now. I’ll need your help though. I’m sure the manor provides the materials for your Nth to synthesize polymorphic dupes. Not many places can synthesize Nth, but I know this one can! Make enough, and I can get out of your head! Well, I’ll still be in your head, but it’ll be good. I’ll even assist in fights. You can be like my Robin!”

Gus shook his head trying to take in all that had happened. The levels, the transformation, the new Nick, it was too much all at once… fortunately it was all good stuff for a change. His mother’s warning to always keep his watch with him was more than just a sentimental wish. What did that mean?

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Float On

Day 7 1:54 PM

3:09:16 remaining

Gus