Chương 50: 49 – To Change a Need

There were tears in my eyes. Not because of how much my life changed, or how wrong it felt to be leaving home so abruptly. It wasn't the godawful pepper paste cart I'd been assigned to. It wasn't fear, or worry. It wasn't even apprehension about how my life had completely changed over night. No. I was crying because I didn't get to see my best friend. For some reason I had assumed that Hadra would be there when we all left. Of course she would! Why would she not? The reason for that was obvious.

Rather than risk the General throwing his weight around and demanding the incredibly talented girl join the draft, the Guard Captain had packed his things and left, taking Hadra along with him. While we moved East and South toward the rift, Hadra was moving North on horseback. Uraleka left me a satchel. Within was a tailored white dress that was possibly even more beautiful than the one Hadra had made for the Duchess. With it was a small note. True to her style she'd hand stitched the damn thing onto a bandage.

It was probably easier for her than just writing it. This is for when you and Reid finally figure things out. You best make damn sure you both survive for me to see it! If you're in trouble, send me a letter and I'll find a way to pull you out of the fire like I always do. And if I seem like I'm not in enough trouble, you'll come make some for me, yeah? I love you, Mera! Heavens smile on you.

Your Best Friend, Ilhadira Weaver I stuffed the bandage in my pocket and gave the dress to Mom for safekeeping, but all too soon, we were off. Hadra to Denarla, me to the Rift and who knew what. I was a private in the army now. I wiped tears out of my eyes. I was a soldier. I wasn't supposed to be bawling like a baby and it wouldn't endear me to any of my new colleagues to be seen as one. Dad and I were both privates. He'd never been in the military and didn't count for much among soldiers.

Stories of what he'd done with his scythe had spread, though. Rank reinstatement was a thing so prior veterans did get to join at their old ranks, though there would be a bit of a buffer period before they were trusted with the actual authority their restored rank afforded them. Yes, the random old man who was once an Arc Sergeant might be up to the job, but then again, his skills, mind, or personality, might've atrophied in some way to make them no longer suitable.

So, all of us, prior veterans or first time draftees walked together. As it turned out, Mom had been wrong. The brigade had come up the west road, and therefore there were several people from Potato Gully that I knew and was happy to see. They weren't happy to see me, though. Stories about Dad's scythe weren't the only ones to have spread. Every last one of them knew that I'd been the one to propose giving the army the stinky troll skins and distributing them evenly among the carts.

The petty defiance was now biting me in the ass, and that knowledge spread to the rest of the rank and file with a speed that defied reason. Naturally, they all hated me. Even Reid was a little irritated, but the boy stuck by my side even as we endured the glares from my own people. We were, of course, assigned to the pepper paste wagon. Dad, Oxana, and Teskin all abandoned me in a fit of amusement. Sure, Dad would join the army to protect me, but lend support in aid of a prank that backfired? Hell no.

I stood by my decision. Better to find some way to strike back when an army, even our own army, plundered us for our resources. They should know that there was a price to taking without payment and none of us believed we would be reimbursed for the lost crop. It was only bad luck that I now had to endure the brunt of my own payback. I did stand by the decision. I just wished I'd found the time to invent clothespins because my heavens the carts smelled like ass.

My only solace was that the general was suffering right alongside the rest of us. He had to be, as there was no escaping the stench without leaving the army's fold entirely. He did indeed place the wagons, and most of the rank and file, at the back of the procession though. The sun had descended in the last few hours of the day and the fog and clouds lifted to reveal a crisp evening sky. The entire caravan might stink, but the bright and unusually warm night felt auspicious.

Perhaps I'd made the right choice after all. With that, we took off walking down the road. Walking. I didn't know what I'd expected from the military, but some form of marching came to mind. Not so with the Tacurian Army. We traipsed across whatever segment of the road we could get our feet on. And if there wasn't room on the road we, walked through the woods. The wagon drivers, one and all, had talents that made the ground more traversable than it otherwise would be.

One of them actually somehow seemed to scootch obstacles to the side while they passed, before the land snapped back into place behind him. Another empowered his oxen's hooves to just knock over everything in the way, forcing soldiers to stay well away from the falling trees and crushed rubble. It doubled by making a decent new path to walk on beside the real one.

Still a third crafted a temporary road before him that lingered for a short time, which let other wagons travel behind him, but he had no way of accounting for trees and large obstacles and so he had to weave around them. Travel-related talents were kind of amazing. Still, the cacophony irked me. It felt wrong for the military to act more like a mob than a regimented, orderly thing.

Rather than a troop slowly filing it's way down the road, we were more like a behemoth crashing through the woods in the general direction of the road. Trees fell, and boulders were slung aside. If the setting were more peaceful, we might have just been a road building crew paving the way for a new highway. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

I felt a little bit awkward as I stared around at the group of people who'd been assigned to the same wagon duty as me. If I was going to be in the army, I wanted to make the best of it. I wanted to make new friends and grow my talent, but perhaps I was a bit more handicapped in that department than I'd first believed. I'd spent my entire life meeting people from a position of relative home turf.

I had hardly ever left Pemolar's Hill and I was accustomed to bringing up subjects that would be relevant to out-of-towners, or far flung farmers who rarely saw anyone other than close family like Akkiwa. Thrust into this utterly unfamiliar situation, leaving home, and unsure of what I should really be doing, I felt… out of place. There was a strange pit in my stomach, a wrenching horror at what I'd become, and foreboding dread about how much I might've just fucked up. I could've just…

let the Pretyr thing play out! If I had I wouldn't be here right now. I could die at the rift. The only solace was that, if I did, I probably wouldn't go out the same way April had. If a Troll were to get me, it would likely be much faster. I shuddered and looked around. There was a man with a topknot, but it somehow looked odd with his bright brown hair. He looked nervous and determined at the same time. Good ways to strike up a conversation with him would be to ask him about his family.

His hairstyle certainly wasn't from the lake area, but I'd heard it was much more common across the mountains on the Highroad toward Tacuria. A woman about two years my senior had a scar across her face, and dirty blonde hair. She was scowling like this entire duty was beneath her and it probably was. I knew I could endear myself to her by bringing up the officers and complaining about them. She had a problem with authority and it was probably what had landed her this shit private duty.

Her shoulders bore the insignia of a Lancer, the next rank up from Private. I blinked, and my eyes widened as I realized what I was experiencing. My networking talent was over one hundred, and with that skill, it was now offering conscious information on how best to address people! I didn't think it was supernatural. It was just giving me the same information I might've already gleaned instinctually. With another hundred points though? Two hundred? I grinned.

Sure, they might be mad about the smell now, but they'd thank me when they figured out how useful it was. We were going to destroy the rift monsters, kick Eschal ass, and go home smiling. On the way, I was going to make so many friends, I wouldn't know what to do with them all.

"I'm going to have so much to tell you about, Haddy," I whispered.

"What was that, Mera?" Reid asked absently. He was holding his nose shut, but I knew from experience that the only way to bear it was to get used to it. Your Chemical Resilience has improved!

"Nothing," I murmured, amused at the notification. The skill had just reached thirty points. Seventeen points since Mom and I had started mass producing the pepper paste.

"Just being optimistic." He grinned.

"As always. So, do we have any real plan right now? Anything we should be doing?" I shrugged.

"How should I know? I'm brand new at this."

"Same. This all felt so sudden. Yesterday I was pretty sure I'd have to hunt the local deer down to the last fawn to get us through the winter and now that's just… not our problem."

"Feels… strange." I agreed.

"Yeah."

"You worried?" I asked.

"Always. I'm afraid of the fighting. I'm good with a bow but I don't know shit about using this spear," he said. I shuddered, remembering the Troll grabbing me, and the goblin's sword piercing my shoulder. I still needed to see a healer about that.

"It's not fun. Best to keep them at a distance and shoot them," I told him, as if I was an expert with years of experience. He didn't treat it like a joke. Maybe it wasn't one. We kept walking for a while. The sound of thousands of feet and half as many mouths chatting filled the air as we walked toward the destroyed town.

"Any interesting needs on anybody?" he asked, more to alleviate the boredom than any real desire to know. I glanced around, irritated by the lack. I shook my head.

"I need to at least know their name. I might actually need to meet and speak with them before I can see a need bubble. I need to do some tests to figure out–!" I cut off mid-sentence as I stared at Reid's own need bubble. The supplies had increased. For a brief moment, I was horrified that he was angry at me for forcing him to be drated with me. Possibly angry enough that it had actually damaged our relationship, but then I realized that there was a difference in the supplies. There were new ones. Different ones.

Instead of just steel, leather, and wool, he now needed ether dust, oil, and a magnet. And of course, steel and leather. The wool had gone away, though. Odd. I thought I knew how to make a magnet. Wrap copper wire around something metal and run a charge through it. Easy… ish. Copper wasn't very easy to find but there were lightning mages who could provide the charge. I could probably get a blacksmith to make a coil of the stuff. Still, the way the need had changed was the most important thing.

He needed it to detect goblins.

"Reid! Your need bubble changed!" I exclaimed, excited. He blinked.

"Huh?"

"Your need! You need something different now!" I told him with a grin.

"Something to detect nearby rift monsters. Have you been thinking about the radar I told you about?"

"Oh! Uh, yeah. I mean… you saw Omoali putting up those little barricades all over town with her armor's special ability. Detecting nearby enemies didn't seem nearly as crazy as that, so I didn't see any reason why it couldn't exist. It sounded dead useful. I'd almost forgotten about it though, with everything that's happened lately."

"Well now I can probably make that for you!" I told him, excited.

"The supplies increased though, and I'm not sure where we're going to be able to get you a magnet, but still! I can manipulate what people need!"

"That's great!"

"It's more than great! All I had to do was convince you that something existed and then I could make it!" He blinked.

"Wait. Are you saying the radar is just… made up?" I frowned.

"No. Of course not. It's a real thing. Then again, maybe I can just make stuff up? If I can convince someone something's real, maybe I can make it real even if it isn't!" Reid stared at me for a moment, and I suddenly felt awkward. I'd been getting really excited and people were looking at us. The unfortunate driver of the Pepper Paste cart was straight up glaring at me.

"Mera… you really need to start hiding your talent a little more," he said. I scoffed.

"What do you want me to do? Stop meeting people? Stop crafting?"

"You just told me you could potentially make anything you can imagine. That's… that's honestly terrifying."

"It's not that easy," I said, waving him off.

"Besides, I think the items are more powerful based on how close I am with somebody. Like… I'm a lot closer with Nemmikel than I am with say Travis. So Travis got a fancy axe that doesn't lose its edge while Nemmikel got… uhm. That staff." He snickered, but sobered quickly.

"Sure, you might have a point there, but I feel like we need to start taking at least some precautions." I hadn't directly told Reid that my talent was any stronger than Elite yet, but he and Hadra had both figured it out without me saying anything. Perhaps he had a point.

"What do you suggest?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I have no idea. I don't think anything I say will convince you to stop being you, and so you're going to go right ahead and continue using your talent no matter the risk. I can't think of a way to protect you from your own damn secret." He seemed frustrated for a moment, but then his face lit up with an idea.

"I don't need to though!" he exclaimed. I blinked, as his need abruptly morphed, the requirements and purpose changing entirely.

"What the hell did you do!?" His grin widened.

"It's easy! I just need to protect your secret more than I need anything else. Your talent will figure out the details." He… he just… mentally changed his priorities so hard that my esoteric ass talent noticed it and responded. All to protect me. I could see it right there clear as day. His new need bubble. The supplies were ridiculous and possibly so difficult to obtain that he'd have to change his mind, but the item he needed would allow him to protect Mera's secret. My secret.

"Reid. I'm gonna kiss you again, okay?" We got yelled at, but I didn't care at all.