Chương 39: 1.2.17 - Spidey Sense

By the time I reached the orphanage, it was already completely dark out. The moon was out tonight so there was enough light that I could walk without tripping myself. I looked upstairs and there weren't any lights coming from either of the boys' or girls' rooms. This meant that everyone was still in the kitchen, probably having dinner. My stomach growled at the thought of food as I had skipped lunch today. As I stepped through the main door and closed the door behind me, I could hear Marta calling from the kitchen.

"Ash, is that you?" Marta called out before coming out of the kitchen herself to greet me. Before I could say anything, she looked me over and immediately rushed over and held my shoulders to inspect me in more detail.

"What happened to you Ash? Why are your clothes like that?" I was probably in worse condition when I fought the Weepwrym but I did not tussle on the ground. It was probably worse than it looked.

"Lights above! You're bleeding!" Marta pulled her hand back and looked at the sticky and nearly dried blood. She was checking me over when her hand went to the back of my head. I did not realize there was that much blood stuck in my hair. The bleeding had probably already stopped and the blood was probably from the initial hit, otherwise I would have felt the blood dripping down my neck. A few heads popped up near the kitchen door — some of the kids, including Thal, came to look when Marta raised her voice.

I shook my head.

"Not here" I replied in a quiet voice. Marta probably took notice of the change in demeanor from my usual self where I cracked jokes to defuse her anger.

"Thal dear, could you finish up with the rest? I'll take Ash upstairs to treat him""Of course. Come everyone, let's finish dinner and help me wash up" Thal quickly replied. Marta brought me upstairs to her room and pointed at the chair.

"Sit here and wait for me" She came back after a few minutes with a wooden basin filled with water and a small towel.

"Turn around, let me clean it first before I patch you up" I quietly obeyed.

"Now tell me what happened while I clean you up, from the beginning" I started with the very first time I went to the bandit camp. How I was looking for material for my side project, and found a hint at the camp. The preparation and hunt for the Storm Runner. How the bones from the Storm Runner also helped me escape the Royal Inspector evaluation. The second visit because I needed to sell some materials to pay Garrick back. I went through the ambush, the fight.

The other options I considered and why they didn't make sense. How I dragged the two of them into the middle of the woods.

"I killed them Marta" Her hands stilled for a beat, then continued cleaning like usual. I paused, waiting for her to scream at me like I'm a monster disguised as a child.

"Go on, what happens next?" I continued talking about going back to the scene, trying to cover up the trails, and eventually coming back to the orphanage. I felt a warm sensation at the back of my head after I was done. Marta had probably cleaned the wound and cast her healing spell to close the wound.

"I didn't feel anything Marta. There was no guilt. What's wrong with me?! Aren't you afraid of me?!? Aren't you...." She turned me around and gently held my hands.

"Ash. You know what I was afraid of when you were telling me what happened?" Marta said. I shook my head.

"That you would be too kind and let the two men go" Marta explained. I was flabbergasted. It had probably shown on my face as Marta smiled and continued.

"If you had let them go, then I would be afraid. Afraid that they might come back. Afraid that they might hurt you. Afraid that they might hurt the other kids. Afraid of what they might do to other people."

"I know you're smarter than most kids, Ash" Marta said. I internally scoffed — that was the understatement of the century.

"But let me tell you a truth about the world we live in." she paused, trying to find the right words.

"The world we live in is not a kind one. I know good men who have done worse things and lose no sleep over it. And I know bad men who have killed for less. These two men came after your life. They would have hurt you and the rest if they thought there was coin to be had""I would have been happy to put them down myself if I had the abilities to do so. It should be the job of king's men but you had done them a favor. I have also seen how you treat the other kids. As aloof as you act, I know you care for them."

"So no, I'm not afraid of you. And there's nothing wrong with you." she squeezed my hands for a bit.

"Only thing I'm saddened by is that you're losing your innocence so early" I felt the weight of the world drop off my shoulder. It was then that I realized that what I was most afraid of wasn't PTSD, but Marta judging me. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. I pulled Marta in for a hug — for the first time since coming to Caelora, it was me initiating the hug instead of someone else. She had no idea how much I needed to hear that.

I could feel a tear rolling down my cheek. If anyone ever saw that, I would claim that a shadow mage had hidden themselves and was cutting onions nearby.

"Silly boy." Marta gently patted my head.

"Let's go get you some dinner. I'm sure Thal left you some food" Later that night, I reflected on Marta's words. I had been too complacent. The relatively safe environment of the orphanage and the distance from the war on the Eastern front had lulled me into a false sense of safety. The reality was Caelora was a ruthless world. This was akin to medieval times back on Earth where laws were only upheld based on the whims of the nobles. A person also needed to survive whatever crime happened to them just to report it.

It might have been safer within the walls of a town but beyond that, it was closer to the wild west. I needed to progress my spells and combat capability alongside my railgun research, as I had no doubt I would cross paths with people of all kinds when I pursued better materials to work with. I pulled on the Weave to open my status.

Status Core: Lightning Affinity (Perfect) Core Stage: Yellow Stage Level: 2 Mana Core Capacity (MCC) Progress to Next Level: 1, 139/2, 500 Core Mutations: - Lightning Brain - Lightning Adaptation Spells: - Electro Perception (Tier 1) - Level 10 - Lightning Bolt (Tier 2) - Level 5 - Lightning Infusion (Tier 1) - Level 6 Soul Mutations: - Adaptive Soul - Nature's Constitution - Myelin Insulation I had come a long way since I first came to this world.

And though I had acquired the Myelin Insulation mutation recently, it just made me more resistant to my own lightning or that of another lightning mage rather than increase my overall combat strength. I recalled the framework I had used to evaluate my spell list last year. Attack, Defense, Mobility, Detection / Sensing, Recovery, and Utility. Normal convention said that a single affinity could not cover all six aspects, but I was never one to be bound by normal convention. I had Attack covered with Lightning Bolt.

I had combined mobility and defense through the use of Lightning Infusion together with my Lightning Brain mutation. Detection was covered by Electro Perception. Recovery was also covered using Lightning Infusion and Lightning Brain to create the defibrillator setup — and partially bolstered by my Nature's Constitution soul mutation that made me sturdier than usual. Lastly, there was Utility, which I did not have anything for at the moment but that did not increase my combat strength and I could park it for now.

I could augment it using various enchantments in the future, like creating an Electric Vehicle powered by my own lightning. If I were honest with my own assessment for the situation today, I had no issue during head-on combat. Damage was more than sufficient, especially with the nature of lightning mana. There was no issue with Defense and Mobility directly. My Recovery setup had also woken me up when I had blacked out. The issue came down to my passive detection.

My active Detection with Electro Perception when I was looking for living creatures was decent. But I had no way to detect if I was ambushed from the back, just like today. I had initially thought I had this category covered but it seemed like I was wrong. I looked at my Electro Perception that was stuck at Level 10 for some time now. I needed a framework to elevate the spell — something that could give me a Spidey Sense to alert me to potential threat. I needed to make sure I was comprehensive this time.

Even if I could extend my Electro Perception backwards through my skull, it only worked if someone came within range and approached slow enough that I could react. If the duo today had been more ruthless and fired a crossbow bolt at me from the back, I would have died immediately if it had penetrated my head. I looked through my mutations list again, specifically Lightning Brain and opened the sub-menu.

Lightning Brain Instruction List: 1 - Lightning Enhanced Movement - summarised list of muscles to be activated using Lightning Infusion to accelerate movement. Series of mental commands pre-programmed to activate specific muscle combinations to propel the user in the indicated direction using Lightning Infusion 2 - Lightning Defibrillator - activated when user's heart stops for more than 10 seconds or when user's brain falls unconscious.

Use of Lightning Infusion with varying intensity on different internal organs depending on the condition specified by the user Maybe if I could somehow trigger the Lightning Enhanced Movement in my instruction list based on an external factor rather than a series of commands, I could automatically dodge an incoming threat. Like if I could somehow detect an incoming projectile from the back, I could give it a command to dodge to the side. Of course such a system was not without its flaws.

If an enemy knew how I preprogrammed my movement, they could still sequence a series of attacks which would cause me to jump into them. Or if a projectile was too fast or my detection range was too narrow, I could detect the incoming threat but still fail to avoid it in time. If I could increase the accuracy of my detection, perhaps in the future I could prime a mutation to automatically cast Lightning Bolt to eliminate those threats. It would be like a Tesla coil zapping down targets within range.

Though the problem with that was that I needed to set the parameters carefully so that it wouldn't just zap anyone that approached. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally zap Kes when she tries to sneak up on me and give me a hug from behind. The spell that I needed was something that enabled me to detect speed of incoming objects or people, within a certain radius. I did not need it to have a similar range to my regular Electro Perception, being able to see more than a hundred meters away.

I just needed a radius of 20, maybe even just 10 meters with approximate speed detection. Content that I had finally found a direction to develop my Electro Perception, I let sleep finally claim me, not realizing how exhausted I was by today's ordeal. A/N: I only post on Royal Road and Patreon. Might consider SpaceBattle in the future. If you're reading this anywhere else it means that the work was stolen from Royal Road.