Chương 70: Chapter 68

Intelligence: 3 (0+3) Such a tiny little number, but the effects were deep-seated. Technically, if he wanted more immediate returns, he might have been better served putting points into more strength, or vitality in order to run further or hit harder. But Wade was also used to planning around late-game builds, and everything in his gut told him intelligence and magic would be exactly that. The amount of shenanigans he could do with just a free-form imagination based magic system was excellent already.

Like the iconic DnD prestidigitation. Except with very little limits, and the possibility to kill him if he overdid it. But regardless - magic was one advantage he'd have over the natives of Azdrial, specifically in his ability to go way beyond his natural limits and just die right after. So even if he didn't have half the skill as the other mages out in the world here, Wade could simply tap into 100% of whatever mana catalyst he had in his stomach, and go way beyond what any sane mage would do.

They might have skill, he had raw firepower and a deathwish. Whatever boons he had, magic would assist in rounding out builds. What if he could convert mana into local energy to restore his stamina bar somehow? Suddenly, his dodge roll boon would be extremely potent. Selena could outright fly with wings, and Eri could lower his personal weight to the point he could make massive leaps. Those kinds of spells would have turned his skyviper archer boon into something real dangerous if he had access.

And still could for the next round if he took it with him. What else could magic do to help future boons if it already assisted this much on two random boons? Understanding how to properly cast magic, and then having the right imagination to help cover the natural limits of what the system sent his way would be the late game. So he was perfectly okay with putting all his points into intelligence. It was in no way also because magic was cool and he wanted to be a wizard. That was childish, of course.

He was doing it for optimal reasoning, not because casting a fireball from his hands or swinging a magic-empowered sword was every man's deepest dream. Intelligence increases had clarified a few more things that he had been questioning about thus far: It absolutely made attunement go faster. He felt more in control of the mana flowing through his body in less overall time. Imagination was subtly assisted.

With his mental picture of fire and the same general amount of mana used up, the flame lasted slightly longer, even with every other possible influence accounted for. Or as best he could with what he had to work with. Jury was out if the increase was the System itself helping out like a hired post-processing ninja editor would, or if he just hadn't noticed his own imagination increasing. Intelligence made him more aware and able to control mana outside his body.

Not just in how long he could hold control over it, but the distance beyond his skin. He had a feeling with an intelligence of 10, he could probably control mana as far as the other side of the room from him. So long as he kept it attuned to him for long enough. He had an odd gut feeling this would be particularly important. Intelligence did not make him personally any smarter in any way that he could tell. Rather, it felt like the System's assistance was always more mechanical.

Whatever Intelligence improved, it had nothing to do with who he was, or how he thought. It was possible to change the color of the fire to a cool blue, and intelligence made that control feel easier. Shape, intensity, and ability to not burn himself with his own mana as well with each increase in the stat… but obviously color was clearly the most important aspect of all this. The end game of any real game was cosmetics and fashion after all.

Also, as a side note to the above note, holding literal fire over the palm of his hand did not get less cool or awesome the longer he did it. This was probably just as, if not more, important than being able to change the fire's color at his whim. Casting a blue flame, shaping it into a small dagger, and then fighting off imaginary things around him was the most fun Wade had had in the past few years now.

Nevermind that the fire dagger was suboptimal, probably didn't even do any real damage, and Illy's daggers would be way more useful in every way and shape. But they didn't glow blue or were made out of fire, so were they really that much better? With his fun settled, it was time to fix what needed to be fixed up. He put the ring to his other eye, and followed through on his training, cycling through magic easily now. On the second cycle, the System pinged a notification. A debuff has been removed: Astigmatism.

And when he checked his actual stats, he saw no red -1 anywhere on his agility anymore. Agility: 8 Just like healthbars being one single global entity, it turned out a single point in agility had affected him far more than just getting eyesight back. He felt more... coordinated. More aware of where his body was in space. More aware of what was around him in space too. Ability to immediately recall what would be behind him was improved enough to be noticable, intuitive even.

He felt more in touch with his inner balance, could almost swear he could feel temperature on his skin with a little more focus. Even feel more in touch with his body, or at least more aware of it. Oddly enough taste was also increased. Saliva felt more... present? It was still how his mouth usually felt, but more like he grew more aware of the slightly metallic tint within. Tactile touch also felt more in-tune. Very strange set of smaller changes for agility.

He hadn't had anything temperature-detection or taste testing on his bingo sheet for what that stat could change, but somehow agility had increased all of those. There would probably be more changes to detect in the future, but that would likely come while walking around or doing something routine where he could compare past Wade's experiences.

He was very much tempted to slam his healing ring on his leg next and continue the process, but he'd already put 41 ticks of mana in both healing his eyes, and goofing off with fire and light shows. Probably more than 41 points, but his body's natural healing had eaten a point or three over the time he'd spent. Next thing to test: His new boon. Wade walked over to his bathroom, plugged the stopper at the bottom, and then started to fill the tub while he stood inside it.

His rent covered utilities such as trash and water at a flat fixed rate, mostly because being able to tell who was using what amounts from all the other residents combined was a logistical nightmare even the corporation owning this entire place couldn't manage. Which meant free water, or as much of it as he damn well pleased. And he'd need some. Because the first rule of breaking rules was figuring out the rules.

Water mastery (Common) - While swimming, running, or standing in water: Gain increased movement speed, waterbreathing, clearsight, enhanced stamina efficiency, and immunity to barotrauma and nitrogen narcosis. It was clearly a boon made for deep sea, all about swimming in murky or pitch black locations given the 'clearsight'. The Barotrauma and nitrogen narcosis immunity basically spelled it out for him if the rest hadn't been enough of a clue. That's deep diving territory.

Most of this boon was probably useless anywhere outside these highly specific extreme zones, but Wade was determined to find ways to abuse it all anyhow. But first - he'd need to figure out how to trigger the damn thing. Standing or running in water was mentioned. The obvious was standing on the shoreline knee deep in water, or walking around a lake, that's the only time someone could 'stand' in water in the first place.

He didn't expect standing on top of a droplet of water to work, given it hadn't triggered off his sweat or anything like that already, so that already meant there was a size component to the water required. Question was how much water? Was just standing on anything connected to something large count? Or was there a height limit where the water needed to at least cover his toes or something? The bathtub filled up, and his feet felt the nice tingling hot water with oddly more sensitivity than he was used to.

That agility point kicking in. But nowhere on his buff list did the boon trigger or appear yet. Water now lapped over his foot, then slowly covered it. And still no boon started. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Uh oh. This already narrowed down a lot of exploits he could do. Maybe he needed to have it also touch the soles of his foot? He sat on the side of the tub, then lifted his feet.

A new buff was applied: Water Mastery I The world sharpened around him once more sight wise. He felt closer to a hawk's vision rather than his normal healed 20/20 vision. That must be the clearsight addition. He didn't feel any other big changes however, although he knew there probably were. The bigger problem was how this boon got triggered. It worked the moment he lifted his feet up into the water. So there had to be literal water under his feet. How far does that go?

Would it be worthless running on the shoreline? But why would the boon description say standing on water as part of the requirements? He would have immediately thought that meant running on the surf. As far as he understood from the System descriptions, they were usually dead obvious on what the System intended for them to be used as, so that default use could be considered the starting case that would always work. This was the first time he couldn't intuit the original use for a boon.

If not running on a shoreline, then... running where? He tested how much of his feet could touch the floor before it no longer counted, and found that part to be a lot more lax. Toes were fine, as was the heel by itself, or the front of his foot. But once he started to flatten his foot completely, then the buff vanished. Interesting. The water started draining out of the tub, and Wade kept a close eye on the level, this time testing for body-of-water theory. With his feet hovering just a half inch from the ground.

It stayed active even as the water drained almost completely past his ankles. And then vanished once more after it hit critical mass, right around the point where his big toenail started to emerge from the water.

"Really making this hard System." He muttered, annoyed at the arbitrary limitations. He just wanted to completely break and cheat the system, a tiny bit. Was that so wrong? He did more testing, and internal reflection, going back and forth from the kitchen, using tools and other stuff he could get his hands on. Eri had taken interest in watching how a human kitchen functions, seeing Wade turn the faucet on and off, then doing it himself while Wade raced off to do more insane testing in the bathroom.

He had to put the gas stovetop off limits, and get the skeleton to not use the microwave. And especially not put anything metal in there. Another hour passed with the bathroom boon trials. Then he heard a thump from the bedroom.

"Eri, what'd you do this time?" Wade called, shaking the water off his feet before getting back on solid land to check his bedroom. He found the skeleton frozen in place, looking like a cat that had just knocked down glass off a shelf. In this case, it was his IKEA bedroom light stand, a thin thing with one bulb at the very top. Good thing it was made of plastic and there was carpet here. And people complained to him that getting plastic was cheap. Of course it was, that's the whole point. Cheap, durable, useful.

It was one of the greatest things invented by mankind as far as Wade was concerned. The window was nearby, and the dim blue light from the outdoors had started to appear. Which meant sunrise was close at hand. The skeleton had bent over to pull the blinds and start watching the weird shit happening to the giant cavern outside the little hovel-home here, and forgot he had an impractically huge sword on his back, and that the room here was rather small. Bad combo.

He was more surprised the lamp hadn't been catapulted somewhere, and instead just lightly knocked over. Wade looked at it. Then back at Eri. And then mentally reorganized his to-do list. The skeleton was probably going to get bored out of his mind here while Wade ran around hyper focused with his own testing. And then he'd see the sunlight outside and start begging to be let out. The stores were probably open by now. If he hurried, he could come back in time to get Eri dressed up and ready to go outside.

"Okay, new plan. I'm going to find you that costume set and you'll come with me for the rest of the day out here. Before you destroy my security deposit." The walls were thin here, and probably not rated for a giant metal sword slicing through.

"For right now, just stay here, explore around if you want, but don't break anything. I'll be back real soon with stuff you can wear." The skeleton turned his skull up, then happily clicked his jaw. Wade rifled through the thrift store racks with methodical precision, the kind of efficiency that came from years of knowing exactly how much he could afford to spend on each item. He grabbed a faded trench coat, not a perfect one, but close enough.

And he'd somehow found a worn fedora that had seen better days but looked the part. With some questionable stains on the inside. No wonder it hadn't been bought by anyone. The cashier barely looked up as she rang him up.

"Costume party?" She asked.

"Oh, just halloween preparation."

"In June?" Now she seemed to wake up slightly.

"Never too early right? Planning a big haunted house." He impulsively lied, leaving a single brain cell to autopilot through the conversation while the rest of him was busy calculating. He had multiple highlights for today, and he couldn't wait to get to them.

"Glad some people are keeping the tradition going." The cashier said, ringing up the full total.

"You know the mall didn't even bother to setup Halloween decorations and went straight for christmas, right on september even."

"Uh, sorry I haven't really gone to any malls in a while now." Malls were expensive, and they didn't want window shoppers like Wade. Hell, they were even chasing teens out now because none of them had money to spend. She nodded.

"It sucks, but Halloween's just not popular enough for corporate. It's supposed to be November first that you tear down halloween before swapping to christmas. I need at least a day to grieve, you know? Guess those days are over. Anyhow, your total is sixty three and eighty seven." Slowly, and with deep reluctance, he offered up his credit card to the sacrificial altar. He'd always kept it perfectly paid off at nearly all times in order to maximize his 2% cash back, and eliminate all interest payment.

As far as Wade was concerned, it was free money. Which meant his current usage would cover just about anything he wanted... including a crossbow. And sports equipment. And pest traps. And pool supplies to float with. … Maybe he should wait for Illy to wire him money directly? No, Wade shook his head, snapping himself back to reality. His credit card would do just fine. Maxing it out was no longer a problem. Life has changed, and the letter in his pocket he'd drafted up this morning was proof of that.

Which would lead to the next hurdle. Standing outside Hobby Froggy's twenty minutes later, Wade felt a strange mix of anticipation and… nostalgia. Despite his last shift being just a day ago, it felt like a lifetime. The familiar green frog logo seemed to mock him from the storefront. Two years of opening shifts, closing shifts, inventory nightmares, panic about truck day, adset, having to train rookies who would just quit in three months, and Bob's constant micromanagement.

Wade patted his pocket, feeling the letter. He'd imagined this moment during countless mind-numbing shifts restocking yarn. The fantasy had kept him going through the worst interactions. Most customers were actually rather nice and chill, with the occasional idiot. But Bob? Bob was a constant. Through the glass, he could see Bob at register three, lecturing some poor teenager about how to use the kiosk. New hire - even Wade didn't know this poor kid's name yet.

But most people only lasted a month or two before they gave up. Wade suspected Bob didn't want anyone with seniority running around here, since then he'd have to pay a raise or benefits. It was easier to churn through people. And throw them at Wade to handle the training. The man quickly stormed back into his office, the doorway closing with one last sight of the man kicking his feet up before the closed door hid him away. Wade slipped into Hobby Froggy's with practiced ease, moving through his old territory.

He grabbed a white fabric mask from the costume section and palmed a bottle of black fabric ink, keeping his head down as he moved toward the checkout. The seasonal employee, Derek, was at register one. The kid had started four months ago and somehow hadn't quit yet, one month more than the average so far. Good kid.

"Wade?" Derek's eyes widened.

"Dude, where were you this morning? Bob's been on a rampage. Truck was a shitshow." This had probably been the first time Derek's ever seen Wade come in late.

"It's always a shitshow." Wade automatically answered.

"Had some things come up this time on my end."

"He's threatening to fire you." Derek whispered, glancing nervously toward the office door.

"You know how it goes." He rang up the items, then applied the employee discount.

"Listen, maybe you were sick? Food poisoning? Everyone believes food poisoning." Wade remembered covering Derek a few times in the past. Seems to have left a good impression.

"Or I could sneak you into the back?" Derek continued, bagging the items.

"Get you your vest. If you punch in now, tell him you got here an hour ago and just messed up your alarm, maybe he'll just dock your pay instead of -" Wade placed a hand on Derek's shoulder, stopping the frantic suggestions.

"It's all good. Really."

".. You sure?"

"More than good. Today was going to be my last day." Wade pulled out the folded resignation letter from his pocket and handed it over.

"I'm just here to use my employee discount one last time before I head off into the sunset." He looked out the window, to the rising sun.

"I mean dawn." Derek unfolded the letter. It was brief, direct, and basically said:'I quit, effective today. Also fuck you.' That last part was mostly implied.

"Shouldn't this be a two week notice?"

"Derek," Wade said, "If Bob wanted to shitcan you, would he give you a two-week notice so you could organize and find a new job in time?" The kid shook his head.

"I think he'd rather eat salad than ever do that. But isn't that the law though?"

"California is an at-will employment. Two weeks' notice is professional courtesy to not burn bridges, but I don't intend to come back to this joint anytime in my future." He paid for his items, and started stuffing them into the plastic bag. Technically he could just no-show and ghost Bob completely. That'd be fine too. But he didn't want the man to show up harassing him in person or call the cops for a wellness check. He needed a clean break, so that this asshole never showed up in his life ever again.

"You actually got a better job elsewhere?" Derek asked, handing over the receipt. Wade thought about the skeleton waiting in his apartment, about Jason, about the magic he'd cast just this morning, and the whole other world he'd been to. And he thought about the Wade Delivery Services - WDS, LLC. The name kept changing, but he'd settle on something with a cool acronym when he figured it all out.

"Yep." He said simply, already walking to the office door that held his old tormentor.

"Something better. Way better." Wade knocked on the door and walked in to face his soon to be ex-boss.