Chương 20: She's not human

Grim swallowed, trying to get more air, "I told you already." She was fully restrained now and it was painfully tight around her wrist, Phil wasn't even looking at her as he drove through the city. She tried to reach for her emergency shank but there was no hope of her reaching it.

"You said she was an illusion, now she can copy boons? Not to mention I've seen her die twice so far and I don't believe for a second you've got access to a healer that good," Phil spit out the open window.

"I couldn't track her with Lifelines boon, you know what that means?"

"No."

"She's not human, so that leaves three options, she's an Arcotech, a boon or she's a gate creature that's latched onto you," Phil said.

"I'm not a Witch anymore, but two of those three options means you die, right here, right now." Grim fought against the restraints, impossibly tight around her body, "Fuck you, Phil." Phil threw up his hands, "Girl, do not test me. Last chance." She reached for [Cede] and to the connection the vines had to Phil's Boon, [Omniscient Forest]. It was weak but it was the only chance she had. She was back in the control room. The lights were dim, and the names on the console's screen were barely visible.

She could feel the energy left in [CEDE] was low, but if she did this right, it would be enough. The screen flickered, the names changing. Phil was weaker than Lifeline, which made this easier than before, but she didn't have the energy left to fight him if it came to that. Her hand reared back, and the authority she held helped her pinpoint the timing of his boon. A cycle passed, and she shot her arm forward. A hand on her forearm wrenched her back.

"Are you stupid?" Hazel asked, holding her arm in her grip. Her voice was the same, but she was more shadow than person.

"Hazel?" Grim asked. She felt Hazel frown, "The one person who's tried to help us and you're gonna fight him? You know you have no chance, right? Stop trying to get us killed please. Thanks."

"But he's..."" Stop," Hazel said, her body disappeared and Grim could feel the last of the energy leave [FRIENDLY SHADOW]. Grim closed her eyes and exhaled, trying to calm herself down, "Fine." When she opened them, she was back in the car.

"You've completely lost it, haven't you?" Phil asked.

"Instead of getting an E rank boon like I thought I was, I got an S rank called [FRIENDLY SHADOW]. Her name is Hazel, and she is a complete copy of me and all of my Boons. She died in that tree and is currently recovering back in my shadow. She should be back in a couple of days," Grim, monotone and matter of fact, laid it out all at once. She felt the vines loosen, "You have a S?" Phil asked, his mouth slightly agape.

"Yeah, so what?" Phil abruptly pulled into a Burger N Go, "Tell me everything."

Grim spent the next hour telling Phil everything she knew about her boon, Arcadia, what she fought on her selection day and getting kidnapped by Cede's gang. He'd stop and ask clarifying questions while they ate the greasy food in the parking lot of the restaurant. After almost an hour, Grim had eaten her fill and Phil had exhausted his line of questioning. He was silent after that, deep in his thoughts as he drove her home.

He made her promise to contact him if Volk or the rest of the gang came around again and he let her know that he'd be in touch in the next couple of days after he did some research. She edged the door to her house open and snuck in, careful to close it slowly behind her. It was almost noon and both Jin and Louis should be at work by now but she didn't feel like taking any chances. Not when she felt barely human, a long bath would go a long way towards recovering.

Halfway to the stairs she heard the fridge in the kitchen close and she jumped just enough to bump a table.

"Hello? Jin?" Louis called from the kitchen. Grim hurried up the stairs, "No, it's me."

"Oh, didn't hear you come in. Out with friends last night?" She heard Louis walk towards her but she ducked into the upstairs hallway before he could see her. Her towel was already in the bathroom so she got in and locked the door behind her as Louis climbed up the stairs. She quickly combed through her appearance in the mirror, the jeans and sweater she had been wearing were a complete right off at this point, too much blood and damage to be worth the effort cleaning.

Taking them off was a slow and delicate process, most of her body was sore and she'd gotten an interesting assortment of bruises. She wouldn't complain about that, the alternative was a having a couple new holes to breathe out of and she was breathing just fine as it was, thank you very much. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

She washed her face as best as she could and picked off small pieces of dried blood from her hair, it stung a bit as she pulled but it had to be done. The orange highlights in her hair were more of a red now and she hoped it wouldn't stain. Did blood stain hair? She wasn't sure. There was a small knock at the door and Grim turned, speaking through the door, "What's up?"

"Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You go out with friends last night?"

"What do you care?" Grim asked, a bit more bite to it then she meant. There was silence on the other end for a moment, "You know it's not like that, we love you."

"Let the new kid you get know how long that love is going to last, thank you," Grim said as she turned on the shower, drowning out his reply. She shucked off the rest of her clothes and got in as soon as the water got hot. Washing the dirt from her skin felt almost heavenly and the slow droning of the water helped soothe her mind. She was safe here, for now, and that low buzz in the back of her mind that was urging her to scan for threats, to prepare to run or hide, stilled.

It was only when she went to check on Hazel that she noticed something else had taken its place NOTIFICATION(1) [UPGRADE AVAILABLE] When did she get this? She scanned her memory but she couldn't remember. Hazel did mention she leveled up but was that at the same time? She didn't think so but she couldn't be sure, still whatever the reason she'd need to see what this meant. Upgrades weren't an unheard of thing but they weren't common, mainly do to the requirements being completely unknown in most cases.

What worked for one person was a complete waste of time for the next, sometimes they were random and other times all you had to do was use the skill enough. The system seemed to like being vague if not downright malicious and she didn't blame it either. If someone tried to rewire how she worked she'd be pretty upset too. Grim opened up the interface and clicked on the upgrade. YOU HAVE LEVELED [FRIENDLY SHADOW] TO LEVEL TWO. PLEASE SELECT AN UPGRADE.

[MALEVOLENT SHADOW] [TWIN SHADOW] (Your shadow splits) [HEALING GLOOM]"Okay, those are all properly ominous, but what do they do?" Grim asked out loud as she tried to find a description or something. YOU HAVE CHOSEN [MALEVOLENT SHADOW] CONFIRM Y/N She declined, "No! I want to know what the hell it means." Grim tried the other options but it kept giving her the same prompt to choose which she was not going to do without thinking it through.

She wanted to ask Hazel but the Boon was completely worn out, earlier she hadn't even had enough energy to fully manifest in the console room. She stepped out of the shower to grab her phone from her bag and then hurried back into the hot water, eager to escape the cold air. The internet was sparse on discussion on how Boons worked, all legal internet servers were rented out by the government so they could control what was and wasn't hosted.

They wanted to control the knowledge themselves so anyone would have to go through them to get knowledge or assistance. It was their pipeline to getting new recruits with powerful abilities to join excursion teams or the Boonwitch program. They could refuse of course but then they'd be on a database if or when a draft would happen. Either that or if they were especially interesting they'd get stopped for any minor crime they'd commit until they either joined or got sent to the crater.

Luckily for her she knew the one place she could get find what she wanted. It was on EsoTube, a video hosting website of user generated content. A pop star from another mega city across the world had released a song with an incredibly popular dance move. Most of her middle school days were spent suffering from it. When the "music" started automatically playing she muted her phone and scrolled down to the comments.

Somehow in the years after, it had become a bit of an open secret that people were posting information that would normally get censored in the comments of this EsoTube video. Half the information was just plain wrong or made up but their was occasionally some gems hidden in the rough, she scrolled past an obviously fake comment on how to get a guaranteed S rank boon and found something that was promising. GanjiGrecko Anyone else have [LOST DOG]? Just upgraded it but one of my options won't tell me anything.

Pinnacle_93 same lmao, my brother said it means no ones picked it yet. be a hero dude im sure [LOSE DOG] is great. She wasn't sure how trustworthy a random comment was but it was the best she had for now and it did make sense. S rank boons were incredibly rare and upgrading them on top of that was even rarer. It was frustrating, it was like being given a christmas present early but gambling for if it was something you actually wanted. Hazel might be able to help in a few days but she wanted to know now.

There was a bundle of restless energy that had been growing inside her, contrasting the bone deep fatigue she felt. The night had felt like a total loss and if she could get at least one win, she might be able to sleep tonight. It would be tough, but she thought she might have a way of forcing the system to tell her, like when she used [CEDE] on Hazel. Somehow that skill lent her more authority with the system and she was willing to crack the whole thing open if she had to.

Grim activated [CEDE] and dug into her system notifications.